JEWISH HERITAGE SOCIETY
          "JEWISH ARCHIVE" PROGRAM



The main goal of the "Jewish Archive" program is to locate, describe, make available to scholars and to preserve for future generations the great amount of source material for Jewish history from state repositories of the CIS and the Baltic states and neglected collections in vanishing Jewish communities and synagogues. Started by the Society several years ago, this work is based on the contributions of enthusiasts of Jewish history and culture. The "Jewish Archive" program brings together various professionals and amateurs: historians and philologists, archivists and librarians, students of regional history and public figures.

The Society's work on uncovering and describing Jewish holdings in archives of the CIS and the Baltic states has passed through the following steps: collecting basic information about Jewish documentary holdings, compiling a list of archives containing documents in Jewish history and lists of Jewish files and files with sizable Jewish contents in them; preparing lists of the above files for every archive where Jewish documents were found; preparing a detailed description of each of the files.

Presently, the JHS archival data base contains a comprehensive list of about 1000 Jewish files in 90 (out of 150) archives of the CIS and the Baltic republics and detailed description of Jewish files in 12 archives of Moscow, Kiev, St. Petersburg, Lvov, Zhitomir, Riga, Vilnius. The assembled material has formed the basis of the JHS "Jewish Archive" series with nine issues already published.

The "Jewish Archive" series provides to scholars all collected information resources - finding aids, directories, surveys, and inventories of documentary sources of Jewish history in repositories of the CIS and the Baltic states. Those resources are available for users both in the form of published surveys and on-line on the JHS home page.

The participants contributing to the program - amateur and professional scholars, librarians and archivists - have formed the editorial board of the "Jewish Archive"" series. The editorial board invites new participants to join its efforts by contributing surveys, source studies, copies of archival records and inventories to share with Judaic scholars around the world.

 

All comments, suggestions, inquiries and orders should be sent to the Jewish Heritage Society at mail@jewish-heritage.org

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