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Affidavit signed by Rabbi Eliezer Silver, 1942.

MANUSCRIPT MATERIALS
In This SectionManuscript MaterialsPhotographsMicrofilmAudio/Visual MaterialsNearprintThe archival and manuscript holdings of the American Jewish Archives include nearly 800 major manuscript collections and over 16,000 smaller collections. A brief description of the major manuscript collections as well as a selection of full-text inventories (finding aids) is available on this website.

Brief descriptions of major manuscript collections are arranged into the following categories:

All major manuscript collections are catalogued in the AJA online catalog

PHOTOGRAPHS
The AJA photograph collection consists of well over 13,000 images. It is heavily used by scholars, film makers, and videographers, among others, to illustrate books, articles, films, and television programs. The complete photograph collection is catalogued in the AJA online catalog

MICROFILM
The AJA's microfilm collection consists of over 3,000 reels, including copies of the papers of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, and the records of the Socialist Labor Party of America. The American Jewish Archives has also established microfilm branches located on the campuses of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem. These branches contain nearly half the microfilm holdings of the main American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati. Thus, researchers are often spared the need for frequent and costly travel to Cincinnati or of reliance on correspondence with the Archives. For further information contact:

NEW YORK
Klau Library Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
1 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10012
212.674.5300

LOS ANGELES
Frances-Henry Library
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
3077 University Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90007 213.749.3424

JERUSALEM
Abromov Library
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
12 King David Street
Jerusalem 94101, Israel
02.620.3333

AUDIO/VISUAL MATERIALS
The AJA holds nearly 3,000 audio and video recordings consisting of oral histories, lectures, religious services, and music.

NEARPRINT
The archival-manuscript holdings of the American Jewish Archives are complemented by a large collection of ephemeral or fugitive materials---newspaper and magazine clippings, leaflets, brochures, pamphlets, and organizational news releases which are divided into three catagories:

  • Biography
  • Special topics and institutions
  • Geography

The Nearprint collections reflect the day-to-day development of Jewish life in mid and late twentieth-century America. Scholars invariably find in this collection data that does not appear in manuscript or non-ephemeral published sources.

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