Preserving the Past, Supporting the Staff: Preservation and Access at the Center for Jewish History

FAIN: ZPA-283492-22

Center for Jewish History (New York, NY 10011-6301)
Rachel Miller (Project Director: May 2021 to November 2023)

The retention of fourteen core staff jobs and the hiring of an intern to engage in preserving physical collections, increasing access to collections by providing digitization on demand,  and preparing an onsite exhibit among other activities at the nation’s largest repository of archival materials on Jewish American history and culture. 

At the Center for Jewish History, an NEH ARP grant will fund preservation activities adversely affected by the pandemic, expand access to collections in response to the current moment, and help secure 15 humanities jobs. The Center is the collaborative home of five in-house partner organizations whose holdings form the largest collection for Jewish history and culture in the world outside Israel. Partners rely on Center staff for the reading room, online catalog, and archival preservation services. With NEH ARP funding, Center staff will address preservation needs largely put on hold during the pandemic: preserving physical collections, reinvigorating the digital preservation program, and preserving at-risk audiovisual items. The Center will also increase access to collections in response to the moment by preparing an exhibit on Jewish emancipation, digitizing materials on Black-Jewish race relations that have seen recent research interest, and providing digitization on demand.