The Adolf Leschnitzer Collection documents the life and professional activities of Adolf Leschnitzer, researcher, historian, and teacher. The collection includes brochures, booklets, clippings, correspondence, financial, vital, and immigration documents, minutes, notes, photographs, printed materials, and writings, by Adolf Leschnitzer as well as other authors. Additionally, there are materials dealing with other members of the Leschnitzer family, namely his wife, Maria Leschnitzer, née Bratz, her mother, Elly Bratz, née Michael, Adolf and Maria Leschnitzers' son, Michael Lesch, also known as Michael Leschnitzer, and Adolf and Albertt Frank.

The Alfred and Elisabeth Mayer Family largely centers on the emigration from Germany of the extended members of this family as well as documentation of Alfred and Elisabeth Mayer and information on the family's genealogy and individual experiences. The collection includes a large quantity of family correspondence; family trees; articles; official, military, and educational documents; some financial and legal documentation and correspondence; and photographs.

The American Federation of Jews from Central Europe Collection consists of the Federation’s office files. This includes professional correspondence, by-laws, materials related to meetings and lectures, newspaper clippings, photographs, meeting minutes, reports, speeches, drafts, financial records, legal documents and forms, materials related to immigration and naturalization, newsletters and circulars, membership records, personnel files, restitution materials, oral history transcripts, and items of various related organizations and synagogues. There are also some personal documents sent to the AFJCE by members of the public.

The Ernst Heumann Family Collection documents three generations of this family, including members of the Messer, van Gelder, Oppenheim, Haas, and related families. Much of the collection centers on how the businessman Ernst Heumann and his wife Hedi née Messer established themselves in the United States and built their family, although documentation on their early lives in Germany and their emigration is also present. Although the bulk of the collection consists of the family's extensive personal correspondence, official and personal documents are also a central part of the collection. The collection contains correspondence; official documents; educational documents; family writing including poems, essays and short stories; travel memorabilia; some immigration papers; legal documents; Ernst Heumann's business correspondence and papers; family trees; and other documentation.

The Guido Kisch Collection documents the life and professional activities of Guido Kisch, teacher, researcher, and scholar in the field of Legal History. It also documents personal and to a lesser degree professional lives of some of the other members of the Kisch family, most notably his brother, Bruno Kisch, a cardiologist, and their father, Alex Kisch, who was a rabbi and a writer. The collection includes brochures, booklets, clippings, correspondence, financial documents, minutes, notes, off prints, photographs, printed materials, and writings.

This collection contains the papers of Hans Froehlich, a lawyer and later social worker. A dominant topic throughout the collection is the experience of persecution and the death of loved ones, and, connected with that, the lifelong struggle for restitution and compensation. At the same time, his professional life as a social worker as well as his personal interests and hobbies are reflected in the correspondence, printed material and personal writing found in the collection.

The Hans Heller Collection contains papers of the businessman and author John (Hans) Heller, originally from Vienna. The collection focuses on his creative writing, such as novels, poems, plays, essays, and his memoirs, as well as on files related to the Heller Candy companies in Austria, England, and in the United States, including the original company’s finances and property in Austria. The collection also includes personal documents, personal correspondence, some papers of his wife, artist Helen Heller, family photographs, and other materials.

The Helmuth Nathan Collection documents professional activities of Helmuth Nathan, physician, artists, teacher, and a historian of medicine. The collection includes brochures, booklets, clippings, correspondence, financial documents, minutes, notes, off prints, photographs, drawings, and writings.

Jacques Judah Lyons, hazzan, rabbi and community leader, was born in Surinam and emigrated to Philadelphia in the early 1800s. Minister of the New York Congregation Shearith Israel for 38 years, he gathered extensive materials on early Jewish history in the United States, Canada and the West Indies. His papers include manuscripts, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, notebooks, photographs, and a Sansom ship's log book. Contains material relating to Jews in North and South America generally and more specifically to Congregation Shearith Israel and the Jews in New York, the Touro Synagogue and cemetery and the Jews in Newport, Rhode Island, Philadelphia and the West Indies. Also contains material relating to Jews in the wars of the United States, correspondence of the Jews with George Washington and items relating to Haym Salomon. Collection consists of manuscript material and five notebooks and three scrapbooks of Lyons. Contains material not listed in calendar consisting of sermons by Lyons, a manuscript prayer book used in Surinam and a guide for religious ceremonies at Congregation Shearith Israel, as well as letters written during the Civil War period and correspondence relating to the personal life and career of Lyons.

The Lila and Leo Marx Collection contains the papers of this couple, with documentation about their early lives in Germany and the effects on their lives by Nazi persecution, their subsequent emigration, and the fates of their family members. Much of the collection focuses on their restitution claims and financial situation. The collection consists of a large amount of restitution correspondence; family correspondence; official, educational, and employment documents; a chronology and narrative of the lives of Lila and Leo Marx and their families; and a few photographic postcards.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Abbo Ostrowsky, including correspondence with many important figures from the art world, several of whom had been students of Ostrowsky at the Educational Alliance Art School. There is also information about Ostrowsky’s career as an artist, including some original artwork, exhibition catalogues, and photographs. These materials show Ostrowsky’s significant influence on modern Jewish art and on the success of the Educational Alliance as an institution.

This collection contains correspondence between Chaim Zhitlowsky and many important political figures and organizations, as well as manuscripts and other writings, some written by Zhitlowsky and some written by others. There are also notes and other materials from speeches and lectures that Zhitlowsky gave, financial documents, articles written about Zhitlowsky, newspaper clippings of articles by Zhitlowsky, materials from celebrations held in Zhitlowsky’s honor, photographs, excerpts from his works, and various other assorted items. These materials serve to illustrate both Zhitlowsky’s importance in the Yiddish and Russian literary field and his deep involvement in the American and Russian-Jewish Socialist, Territorialist and Diaspora Nationalism movements.

This collection contains correspondence between Horace M. Kallen and many important individuals and organizations, as well as manuscripts, notes and other materials for speeches, financial documents, research materials, academic records, and various other assorted items. These materials serve to illustrate Kallen’s important role in philosophy, education, religion, and politics and his deep involvement with consumer rights, environmental controls, Jewish issues, and civil liberties.

This collection contains documents relating to Isaac A. Hourwich’s role as an economist, publicist, statistician, lawyer, author, and authority on immigration, as well as his involvement with the labor movement and the formation of the American Jewish Congress. There are reports, minutes of meetings, memoranda, clippings and correspondence, and manuscripts and articles about Jewish labor, Socialism, Russia, Marxism, immigration, and other subjects. These materials demonstrate Hourwich’s important role in American labor, immigration theory, and political and economic theory.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of rabbi, Hebrew scholar, author, and editor Israel Elfenbein. These materials include correspondence with and relating to congregations, Hebrew periodicals, organizations, Elfenbein’s writings, personal correspondence, sermons, clippings, and manuscripts by Elfenbein and by other writers.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Victor D. Sanua, including published and unpublished articles, materials used in researching these articles, correspondence, and documentation of the various organizations with which Professor Sanua was involved. These materials reflect his work as a psychologist and his active involvement with the history of Jews from Egypt. In addition, there are various materials relating to various Sephardic communities, Israel and the Middle East and cultural factors in mental illness, particularly among Arabs and Jews.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of William Edlin, editor of The Day and a prominent Socialist. It includes correspondence with individuals and with organizations, newspaper clippings, manuscripts of works by Edlin and by others as well as translations done by Edlin, and some of Edlin’s personal documents. These materials relate to Edlin’s involvement with The Day, with the Socialist Party, the Workmen’s Circle, various labor and Zionist organizations, literary clubs and activities, and with music, art and drama.

Collection of photographs, correspondence and clippings documenting Peter Bloch’s engagement in Hispanic culture and civil rights from the 1940s-1960s. Also included are autographed photographs from actors and others; two U.S. passports; various other documents pertaining to Peter Bloch; as well as his death certificate.

This collection contains the administrative records of the Hebrew Actors’ Union (HAU), the professional union of Yiddish theater performers, which was based in New York City. Materials include correspondence, membership materials, financial records and members’ dues information, meeting minutes, and a great deal of sheet music and play scripts of performances from the Yiddish theater. A majority of these performances were in New York City, but there are also materials from Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, and Montreal, as well as various locations in Israel and South America.

The records chronicle the ideology behind the Reconstructionist movement, the founding and activities of the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, and its growth and transformation from an ideology and movement into an established American Jewish denomination, Reconstructionist Judaism. The records also document two seminal figures in Reconstructionist Judaism, Mordecai Menahem Kaplan and Ira Eisenstein. Included in the collection are the administrative records of the Foundation (minutes, financial records, bylaws), publications produced by the Foundation including manuscript submissions for the influential publication The Reconstructionist, correspondence, sermons, prayer books produced by the Foundation, syllabi, sheet music, photographs, and speeches, among other material. In the correspondence are letters from Martin Buber, J. Edgar Hoover, and Albert Schweitzer.

This collection contains the institutional records of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, a fraternal organization founded in New York in 1921 to serve and unify the American Sephardic Jewish community. These records primarily pertain to issues of membership, including mortuary and sick benefits, scholarships and access to charitable funds, as well as information about community receptions and various other cultural activities.

This collection contains records of the Zukunft monthly journal, which was devoted to publishing political, scientific and literary articles in Yiddish. It contains newspaper clippings, correspondence, meeting minutes, materials relating to conferences and anniversary issues, financial reports, programs, mailings, subscription materials, and typed and handwritten manuscripts submitted for publication.