Algeria
Original material
A collection of files, ranging from the beginning
of the French colonization to Algerian independence (1830-1962), relating to
the communities of Algiers (1850-1958),
Constantine (1860-1938), Oran
(1848-1929) and Tlemcen (1840-1940); private collection of Jacques
Lazarus, World Jewish Congress official, concerning the repatriation of
Algerian Jews to France
(1944-1962).
Microfilms
Isolated files from the Alliance
Israélite Universelle head office in Paris, relating to Alliance
schools in Algeria and the general situation of the Jews there (1882-1931);
material from the records of the British Foreign Office, held at the Public
Record Office in London; files of the Algerian Consistoire, held at
the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
Inventories
Lists and descriptions of material, held at the Archives
d'Outre-Mer in Aix en Provence,
relating to Jews, (17th-20th centuries).
Argentina
Original material
Community, school, organizational and personal
files from Avellaneda (1938-1973), Buenos Aires (1894-2008), Resistencia (1912-1964), Rivera (1928-1949), Rosario (1909-1988) and others; the
archives of the “Y. L. Peretz”
school in Buenos Aires; Soprotimis - Sociedad de
Protección a los Immigrantes Israelitas (1922-1951); Ezras
Noschim - Sociedad Israelita de Proteccion a Niños y
Mujeres - correspondence, minutes and personal files (1913-1970); The Jewish
Colonization Association (JCA), head office in Paris –
files relating to Argentina (1893-1970); JCA Argentinian office (1891-1976).
Microfilms
Avellaneda, minutes of
the Asociación Israelita de Socorros Mutuos- Ezrah (1912-1977);
minutes of WIZO (1936-1942); files and minutes of the Asociación
Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) (1894-1957), of the Congregación
Israelita de la
Republica Argentina (1944-1953), of the Consejo
Central de Educacion Israelita de la Republica Argentina
(1935-1981), of the Asociación Comunidad Israelita Sefardí,
(1914-1966) and Sociedad Hebraica Argentina (1923-1947) in Buenos
Aires; minutes of the credit association in Corrientes
(1939-1949); minutes of the Jewish school in Posadas
(1948-1963).
Inventories
Lists from various Jewish archives, such as the
Museo Judio and community archives in Buenos Aires, Concordia, and Cordova (19th-20th
centuries).
A related site: http://www.colonizacionjudia.com.ar
Austria
Original material
Vienna, Jewish
community archives (1626-1970), the largest single record group at
the CAHJP, relating to all aspects of communal activity, such as community
leadership, contacts with other communities and the authorities, legal
status, financial affairs, taxes, ritual matters, civil registry, education
and culture, philanthropy and social organizations, as well as emigration;
files on the V. Internationales Komitee für jüdische
Flüchtlinge und KZler (1947-1951); files from other Austrian
communities, e.g. Baden (1849-1939), Linz (1870-1938), Mistelbach
(1895-1939), Neulengbach (1854-1938).
Microfilms and
photocopies
The archives of the Jewish communities and schools
in Burgenland (18th-20th centuries); files of
the Israelitische theologische Lehranstalt Wien (1891-1938) and the Union
österreichischer Juden (1903-1938); material from the Haus-, Hof-
und Staatsarchiv, Wien, relating to Jews in Austria, and in other parts
of the Holy Roman Empire.
Inventories
Lists of material relating to Jews
from Austrian state and municipal archives, as well as of Jewish collections
at the Center for the Preservation of Historical Documentary Collections in Moscow (Osoby
archives).
Private collections
Letters by various members of the
renowned Wolf family in Eisenstadt.
Belarus
(See Russia)
Bolivia
Original material
Files of the Ashkenazi community in Cochabamba
(1939-1949).
Brazil
Original material
Files from the Jewish Colonization Association
(JCA), head office (Paris, later London), relating to Brazil (1900-1914);
community material from Belém, Centro Israelito do
Pará (1890-1974); correspondence of the Rabbinical Association in
Porto Allegre (20th century); files of the Sephardi and Syrian
communities (1928-1942) and correspondence of Enric
Fortuna (1946-1964) in São Paulo; statutes of the Syrian
community in Rio de Janeiro (1928, 1953).
Inventories
List of JCA files held at the Arquivo
Historico Judaico Brasileiro (1901-1968).
Bulgaria
Original material
A collection of documents, files, books and video
tapes relating to Jews in Bulgaria
and to Bulgarian Jews in Israel,
currently being assembled by an organization of Bulgarian Jews in Israel.
Microfilms and
photocopies
Files of the Bulgarian Central Jewish Consistory
(1944-1956) and the communities of Burgas (1919-1944), Dupnitsa
(1918-1944), Kiustendil (1942-1983), Pazardjik (1902-1957), Pleven
(1922-1960), Plovdiv (1929-1957), Russe (1875-1948), Samokov
(1942-1944), Sofia (1903-2000) and Varna (1902-1956);
photocopies of volumes registering Jewish families from Jambol, Kiustendil,
Pazardjik and Plovdiv, compiled in the 1930’s and
1940’s and containing information dating back to the late 19th
century; files from the collection of Haim Keschales, containing
copies of documents on Bulgarian Jewry (1939-1954); letters from Bulgarian
communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in Turkey (20th
century); files from the German Foreign Office on Bulgarian Jewry
(1879-1916).
Burma
Original material
A birth
register and a death register from Rangoon
(1893-1970).
Chile
Original material
Minutes, statutes and correspondence of the central
committee of Chilean Jews (1909-1978); Community and organizational files from
Concepción (1931-1970);
community files from La Serena (1936-1966);
Sephardi, Ashkenazi and "B'ne Jisroel" (German origin) communities
as well as organizational files from Santiago
de Chile (1898-1975); community and organizational files from
Temuco (1916-1960); community files from
Valdivia (1938-1961); community and
organizational files from Valparaiso
(1916-1969).
CHINA
Original material
Files from the archives of the Jewish community in Tientsin
(1920-1957); documents and photographs relating to the activity of Rabbi
Aaron Moshe Kiseleff (1938-1950), the last rabbi of Harbin, all
deposited at the CAHJP by Igud
Yotzei Sin in Israel; additional documents and
photographs of Jewish institutions and prominent community members in
Tientsin (predominantly in Russian, with some Yiddish and Hebrew); the
collection of the Far Eastern Jewish Central Information Bureau for
Emigrants (Daljewcib), covering the organization’s activity,
first in Harbin and then in Shanghai (1918-1947), (in English,
German and Yiddish); family trees of some Chinese families of Jewish origin,
as well as interviews with some of the family members.
Colombia
Original material
Community and Jewish school files from
Baranquilla (1960-1970); Ashkenazi community, WIZO and Hashomer
Hatzair in Bogota
(1950-1969).
Costa
Rica
Original material
The Jewish school minute book (1954-1956).
Cuba
Microfilms
Community minute books from Havana
(1906-1975); letters from Cuba
to the Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in Turkey (1911-1912).
Czechoslovakia
The Czechoslovakian collection at
the Central Archives contains material from all of the areas which comprised
the Czechoslovakian republic between the two World Wars, i.e. Bohemia, Moravia, part
of Silesia, Slovakia
and the area known as Carpatho-Rus, today a part of the Ukraine.
Original material
The majority of files relate to Bohemia and Moravia
and relatively few pertain to communities in Slovakia and Carpatho-Rus
(17th-20th centuries). Of special interest are pinkassim
from communities and societies, among them Boskovice, Břeclav,
Konice, Prostējov, and Vrbové. Several files
relate to the period following World War II and to the efforts of Czech
Jewish Holocaust survivors to reestablish their community.
Microfilms and
photocopies
Files and documents held by the Jewish Museum in
Prague, among the communities are Kroměříž
(1629-1936), Lostice (1793-1868), Mikulov (1369, 1609-1938), Mlada
Boleslav (1595-1938), Praha (1302-1943), Prostējov
(1784-1942), and Velke Mezirici (1691-1794); material of the Bohemian Landesjudenschaft
(1637-1844); remnants of the Bratislava community archives (18th-19th
centuries), 19 circumcision registers from Bratislava and the environs
(1748-1883); two financial
registers from the community of Jemnice (1787-1845), filmed at the
library of the University of Manchester; a small number of films of
non-Jewish provenance from Czech archives, such as a register relating to the
affairs of a Jewish merchant in the 15th century, from the
district archives at Olomouc and a number of files relating to Jews in Slavkov
(Austerlitz) (1725-1881) and Rousinov (Neu Raussnitz) (1701-1930)
from the district archives at Brno; A microfilmed version of the card
catalogue prepared by the late Professor Ruth Kestenberg-Gladstein from the
1724 census of Bohemian
countryside Jews.
Inventories
Detailed lists of the archival
material held by the Jewish
Museum in Prague, as well as a list of files from the
Jewish community in Prague, which are held by the Jewish Historical
Institute in Warsaw; partial surveys from the state archives at Bratislava,
the district archives at Berehovo, the municipal archives at Munkacs, the
district archives at Nitra and the state and municipal archives at Prague; a
number of general guides to archives in Czechoslovakia, some of which contain
references to Jews.
Private
collections
Papers of Franz Komjati, containing documentation on the
Jews of Slovakia (18th-20th centuries); papers of Egon Zweig and family members in Olomouc, Vienna and
Jerusalem; papers of Rabbi Gustav Sicher,
Chief Rabbi of Prague until 1939, who spent World War II in Jerusalem,
corresponded with survivors in Czechoslovakia and returned to Prague in 1946
at their request to serve once again as Chief Rabbi.
DANZIG
Original material
Files
of five communities, Altschottland (1720-1883),
Langfuhr (1765-1883), Mattenbuden (1727-1883), Weinberg
(1843-1883), Danzig in der Breitgasse (1839-1883), which were united
into the community of Danzig (1883-1939); files from the community of Tiegenhof
(1858-1936), which was absorbed
by the community of Danzig in 1935.
Microfilms
Community
files filmed at the Centrum
Judaicum in Berlin
(1869-1938); files and documents relating to Jews, filmed at the state
archives in Gdańsk (Danzig)
(1567-1920).
Inventories
Regesta
and lists of documents and files from 26 record groups at the state archives
in Gdańsk
(17th-20th centuries).
Ecuador
Original material
Community files from Guayaquil
(1945-1972); minutes, correspondence, accounts from the Jewish community and
Jewish organizations in Quito
(1935-1970).
Egypt
Original material
Documents dealing with education and community matters
in Egypt in general and Cairo and Alexandria in particular (19th-20th
centuries), including two registers from the rabbinical court in Alexandria
(1864-1866); reports on the Alliance Israélite Universelle
schools; a survey on the state of Egyptian Jewry in 1957, files of the Society
for Historical Investigation of Egyptian Jewry (1920's-1930's); letters
from the Chief Rabbinate in Cairo to the rabbinate of Alexandria, marriage
lists from Cairo (including Karaites) and posters of the Ashkenazi community
in Cairo.
Microfilms and
photocopies
The Ben Zeev collection (10th-20th
centuries), relating to the Jewish
community of Cairo, its institutions and dignitaries, and its
relations with the authorities; among the material, documents on Rabbi David,
the grandson of Maimonides, on the Cairo ghetto, on various synagogues and on
land endowment (Hekdesh) for the poor; letters from Egyptian
communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in Turkey (19th-20th
centuries); files from the German Foreign Office on Egyptian Jewry
(1898-1919).
Inventories
A list of material from the Cairo Jewish community, held at the Yeshiva University
Archives in New York
(1886-1961).
A related site: http://www.nebidaniel.org
El
Salvador
Original material
Documents of the Jewish Community and
Zionist Organization (1935-1975).
Estonia
Original material
Assorted letters and statistical data from censuses
taken in the USSR in 1941, 1943 and 1949/50 on schools, universities,
nationalities and religions; statistical data from a census taken in
Estonia in 1959 about marriage and divorce among Jews; a list of students at
the University of Tartu between 1918 and 1944.
Microfilms
Material from archives in St. Petersburg and
Moscow, including records from the years 1558-1561, regarding rented property
in the city of Narva, as well as documents from the Russian Ministry
of Internal Affairs about communal registration in Estonia (1868), and
reports of attendance at
Jewish schools in the Derpt district; statistical
data on synagogues and rabbinical matters in Estonia from the early 20th
century, as well as documents concerning Jews, from the Russian Army
headquarters during World War I; files from the German Foreign Office on
Baltic Jewry (1879-1884).
FINLAND
Microfilms and
photocopies
Microfilms and photocopies of registers and
documents from the communities of Helsinki
(1865-1944), Sveaborg (19th century) and Turku
(1889-1989), from Finnish and Russian archives.
France
Original material
Material of the Consistoire Central and
local consistories of Algeria, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Moselle,
Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, Paris and Vesoul, concerning relations with the
authorities, elections and censuses, finances, ritual matters, cemeteries,
education and charitable organizations; assorted documents concerning the
reorganization of the Jewish community structure under Napoleon (1806),
documents and newspapers concerning the Damascus and Dreyfus Affairs;
community collections from Avignon, Bayonne, Biesheim, Bordeaux,
Carpentras, Cavaillon, Metz, Nancy, Paris and Strasbourg, as well
as individual documents from other communities; the Bureau de Spoliations
Mobilières (BSM) archives, containing personal files regarding
compensation claims for movable property stolen by the Germans in France
during World War II.
Microfilms
Consistory material; Rabbi Zadoc
Kahn’s correspondence with the French authorities regarding North African
Jews, as well as material on the Algerian Consistoire; documents
concerning Jews in Alsace (1376); documents on Joseph of Rosheim and
the status of the Jews in North Alsace (15th-16th
centuries); documents on the legal status of Jews in Avignon (16th-18th
centuries); Inquisition documents (1489) and community minutes from Bordeaux
(1710-1787); material from La Chatelainerie on Jewish property and
debts (1348-1351); documents on the Jews of Lorraine concerning forced
conversions, as well as royal and parliamentary edicts (1376-18th
century); pinkassim from Metz (16th-18th
centuries); material from Paris (18th-19th
centuries); charters and documents on private affairs from Perpignan (1320-1495);
papers of Cerf Berr from Strasbourg (1768-1788), held in the Monaco
state archives; material on the revolutionary period and the Napoleonic
regime, kept in the Archives Nationales and other archives; material
on relations with the French authorities (1830-1871); documents concerning
religious life (19th-20th centuries); material on
Jewish organizations and initiatives during World War II, as well as on
efforts to rebuild communities after the war; correspondence files of the Alliance
Israélite Universelle (AIU) head office in Paris relating
to Alliance activities in France, as well as to Alliance schools and the
general situation of the Jews in Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Iran, Italy, Lebanon,
Libya, Romania, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey and Yemen.
Private
collections
Papers of Werner Epstein (1941-1944), including
material about the Union Générale des Juifs de France (UGIF);
letters of Rabbi Eli Bloch, Poitiers
(1933-1942); correspondence and press clippings from the Committee for
the Defence of Shalom Schwartzbard
(1926-1927).
Inventories
Lists of material of Jewish provenance, held in French government archives
and in libraries in the United
States, as well as lists of material
relating to Jewish matters in French government archives (12th-20th
centuries).
Germany
Original material
The largest record group at the CAHJP, containing
archival material from over 1000 communities, societies and institutions. For
some, only several files remained, for others, many more. However, the size
of some of these collections at the Central Archives does not necessarily
correspond to the size and prominence of those communities before World War
II. Some of the German material dates from the 16th and 17th centuries,
however, the majority of the files date from the 18th to the 20th
centuries. They relate to all aspects of communal activities, such as
community leadership, relations with other communities and with the
authorities, legal status, financial affairs, taxes, ritual matters, civil
registry, education, culture and philanthropy. Until the first half of the 19th
century most of the documents are in Yiddish or Hebrew and sometimes in
German with Hebrew characters. By 1850 most records were conducted in German.
The material arrived at the Central Archives from a variety of sources, among
them files relating to 400 communities from the Gesamtarchiv der deutschen
Juden. In the mid 1980’s the CAHJP initiated a major project to
recatalogue the German communal material according to a uniform scheme, in
order to unite all the material from each community in one single collection
and facilitate thematic searches. Over 250
communal archives have been recatalogued to date. New inventories are
available for the communities of Upper and Lower Franconia in Bavaria as well as other parts of Bavaria,
Württemberg, Saxony, Hesse, Westphalia and Prussia .
Microfilms and
photocopies
A large collection of microfilms, copied in Jewish,
state and municipal archives and in archives of aristocratic families, such
as Centrum Judaicum
Berlin, Landesverband München, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny
[ŻIH] Warsaw, Deutsches Zentralarchiv Merseburg, German
Foreign Office, German Ministry of the Interior, state archives Hamburg, on Breslau
(today Wroclaw), Emden, Frankfurt/M., Halberstadt, Hannover,
Karlsruhe, Koblenz, Königsberg/Prussia (today Kaliningrad),
Mainz, Marburg, Munich, Stettin (today Szczecin, Worms, Würzburg etc.
Recently the entire collection of the Centralverein
deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (CV) was microfilmed at the Center for the Preservation of Historical
Documentary Collections in Moscow
(Osoby archives).
Private
Collections
A third of the private collections in the CAHJP are
in German. Among them are the papers of Yitzhak F. Baer, Theodore Harburger, Louis Lamm, Josef Meisl (first
director of the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People) and Moritz Stern. The latter contains valuable sources on
German-Jewish history in the Middle Ages.
Inventories
600 lists from 160 state, district and municipal
archives, as well as from archives of aristocratic families (11th-20th
centuries).
1Click to open list of German communities
Great
Britain
Original material
Pinkassim and documents from communities
and organizations (18th-20th centuries).
Microfilms
Files from the Public Record Office, several pinkassim
from the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in London,
genealogical registers from the Ashkenazi community in London
and the Sephardi community in Manchester
(19th-20th centuries).
Private
Collections
Josua Podro collection of newspaper clippings
(1930-1970's); the Cecil Roth collection of copied documents (12th-19th
centuries).
Inventories
Lists of Jewish collections at the London
Metropolitan Archives (18th-20th centuries); a guide to
the collections of the Hartley Library at the University of Southhampton, as
well as other assorted inventories.
GREECE
Original material
Files from the community archives of Athens
(1916-1941), Cavalla (1897-1938), Comotini (1914-1941), Thessalonika
(1700, 1908-1943), Volos (1910-1958), Xante (1913-1958) and Yanina
(1814-1944), together with a number of files from other collections referring
to the Jews of Rhodes (19th-20th centuries). The
largest of the above collections is from Thessalonika.
Microfilms
Correspondence files of the Alliance
Israélite Universelle head office in Paris relating to Alliance
schools in Greece and the general situation of the Jews there (1863-1940);
letters from Greek communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in
Turkey (19th-20th centuries); isolated microfilms from
the records of the British Foreign Office, held at the Public Record Office
in London; files from the German Foreign Office (1914-1919) and the Russian
State Archives in Moscow (19th century).
Hungary
Original material
Files containing general
information on Hungarian Jewry and on various communities, such as Budapest,
Hajdúnánás, Sopron and Szeged (19th-20th
centuries), containing decrees and instructions for Hungarian Jews,
announcements, printed material etc. (in Ger-man, Hungarian and
Yiddish-Deutsch).
Microfilms and
photocopies
Records from the State Archives in
Budapest on a variety of subjects, such as conscription lists of Jews;
documents from the Jewish department of the Hungarian Statthalterei
(18th-19th century); documents concerning Jews from the
Ministries of the Interior, Religion and Education (mid 19th
century), from the Hungarian Chancellery in Vienna (1770-1848), the municipal
archives of Budapest etc.; a marriage register from Miskolc (1895-1924).
Inventories
A list of documents from the
archives of the Jewish community of Budapest
(18th-19th centuries); registers of documents
concerning Jews from the Municipal Archives of Budapest.
INDIA
Original material
and photocopies
Registers, documents and photographs from communities, synagogues and
schools in Alibag (1907-1960), Bombay (1884-1975), Cochin
(18th-20th centuries), Nangon (1920-1946), Panvel
(1920-1971), Parur, Poinad (1930-1965), Poona
(1923-1927), Revdanda (1873-1937) and Thana (1884-1975), mostly
in English, Malaiali and Maharati.
IRAN
Original material
Files of the Alliance Israélite
Universelle schools in Hamadan (1900-1968),
including material on Broujed, Garous, Kermanshah, Neharand, Seneh,
Touserkan (1938-1946); Isfahan
(1903-1960); Teheran (1900-1958) and Yazd
(1920-1960); assorted documents, mostly ketubot, from Yazd.
Microfilms
Correspondence files of the Alliance
Israélite Universelle head office in Paris relating to Alliance
schools in Iran and the general situation of the Jews there (1888-1940); a
file on Ozar Hatora activities in Teheran (1943-1962); letters
from Persian communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in Turkey
(19th-20th centuries); files from the German Foreign
Office on Iranian Jewry (1911-1917).
IRAQ
Original material
Assorted personal documents, such as ketubot.
Microfilms
Correspondence files of the Alliance
Israélite Universelle head office in Paris relating to Alliance
schools in Iraq and the general situation of the Jews there (1864-1939); letters
from Iraqi communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in Turkey
(19th-20th centuries), including letters from Rabbi
Yosef Chaim (Ben Ish Chai).
Ireland
Original material
A
minute book of the Jewish community of Dublin
(1880-1940); 16 minute books from the Jewish community of Londonderry
(1900-1948).
ISRAEL
Original material
Files from Akko, Hebron, Jaffa,
Jerusalem, Safed (largest collection) and Tiberias (17th-20th
centuries), among them, pinkassim of rabbinical courts and kollels,
correspondence, statutes and private documents (predominantly Hebrew,
with some documents in Ladino and in Yiddish); files of the Alliance
Israélite Universelle office in Jerusalem, relating to Alliance
schools in Jerusalem and the general situation of the Jews in
Palestine (1882-1948); files of the Alliance Israélite Universelle
school for the deaf in Jerusalem (1960-1975) and files of the Alliance
school in Haifa; files of the head office in Paris of the Jewish
Colonization Association (JCA) relating to colonies in Palestine, among them Ekron,
Gedera, Hedera, Hartuv, Kfar Saba, Kfar Tavor, Mishmar Hayarden, Motza, Nes Tsiona,
Petach Tikva, Rehovot, Rosh Pinah and Yavne’el (1897-1919); files
of the Israel Historical Society (1924-1969).
Microfilms
Correspondence of the Alliance Israélite
Universelle in Paris with the Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden
regarding the Jews of Palestine (1895-1932); pinkassim of the Maghreb
Jewish community in Jerusalem (19th-20th centuries);
letters from Palestinian communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief
Rabbi] in Turkey, including letters from Rabbi Ben Zion Meir Chai Ouziel (19th-20th
centuries); files from government archives in Germany, Great Britain, Italy,
Poland, Russia, Switzerland and the Ukraine relating to the Jews in Palestine
(16th-20th centuries); files from the German Foreign
Office on Jews in Palestine (1880-1918).
Italy
Original material, microfilms,
photocopies, lists and regesta concerning the history of Jews and Jewish
communities, from the 13th to the 20th centuries, in
many Italian regions and cities, such as Ancona, Ferrara, Firenze, Fiume
(Rijeka), Gorizia, Mantova, Milano, Modena, Padova, Parma, Roma, San
Nicandro, Siena, Trieste, Venezia; surveys from archives ranging from
Venice in the North to Palermo in the South. In the archives of Northern and Central Italy special attention was given to vast
series of local governments and public notaries in the late medieval period,
concerning the activities of Jewish bankers who formed the nuclei of the
Jewish settlements.
Inventories, regesta and
microfilms of archival material from many state archives, libraries, notarial
archives, ecclesiastical archives, e.g. state archives in Firenze, Gorizia,
Modena, Perugia, Pisa, Siena, Trieste, Udine, Verona, Biblioteca Ariostea
(Ferrara), Biblioteca Marciana (Venezia); microfilms of selected files in
Jewish community archives, e.g. Ancona, Ferrara, Firenze,
Livorno, Mantova, Modena, Padova, Pisa, Roma
and Siena; documents (original or microfilmed) of Italian Jewish
organizations, e.g. the Unione delle Comunità Israelitiche Italiane, the Alliance Israélite
Universelle of Northern Italy, the Comitato Italiano di Assistenza
agli Emigranti Ebrei; the archives of Irgun Olei Italia in Israel;
private and family papers of Italian Jews, mainly relating to the 19th
and 20th centuries, e.g. Artom,
Carpi, Grassini-Morpurgo
and Viterbi families, as well as
papers of Gualtiero Cividalli, Angelo Fano, Alfonso Pacifici, David Prato, Isacco
Pardo and others.
Latvia
Original and copied files concerning Jews in the
Courland and Livland regions of the former Russian Empire, in independent Latvia and in the Soviet Latvian
Republic (in Russian,
Latvian, Yiddish, English, German and French).
Original material
Letters of the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC) and Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), of
the historian, Simon Dubnow, as well as announcements, leaflets and statutes
of Latvian Jewish parties and public organizations; files referring to the
Jewish community of Riga (1867-1959), containing documents on ritual
matters, philanthropic activities, social and political organizations, educational
institutions, community activities etc., notably the illuminated pinkas
of the Chevrat Talmud Torah (1867-1959).
Microfilms
Files from historical archives in St. Petersburg
and Moscow, Kiev and Odessa, concerning the legal status of the Jews, migration
to agricultural colonies, taxes and debts, education and philanthropy,
military service, the situation of Jews and refugees during World War I,
Jewish workers and political movements (end of the 18th century up
to the period of Latvian independence); files from the German Foreign Office
on Baltic Jewry (1879-1884).
Lebanon
Original material
Various documents and registers (19th-20th
centuries); letters from Lebanese communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief
Rabbi] in Turkey (19th-20th centuries).
LIbYa
Microfilms,
photocopies and inventories
Lists and photocopies of material concerning the
Jews in Libya under Italian colonial rule, kept at the central state archives
in Rome; material from the archives of the Unione delle Comunità Israelitiche Italiane in Rome; letters from Libyan
communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in Turkey (19th-20th
centuries); microfilms from the German Foreign Office on Libyan Jewry
(1915-1917).
Lithuania
Original material
Files and documents from various communities (16th-20th
centuries), among them the pinkas of the Wylkowiszki
community (1673-1833), containing the only known example of a Polish charter
to a Jewish community in Hebrew letters.
Microfilms and photocopies
Microfilms from archives in
Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Germany, relating to Jewish
communities, such as Olita, Balbierzyski, Druja, Gelvonaj, Godlevo,
Jurbork, Jelenievo, Kejdany, Kibarty, Kovno, Marjampol, Merekh,
Novoaleksandrovsk, Paneviezhis, Pompiany, Rossiemy, Shavli, Skuodas, Telsai,
Utena, Vilkaviškis, Vilkomir, (Vilnius – see Poland) (16th-20th
centuries), of the society to assist Jewish victims of World War I, on Jewish
agricultural activities, community life, education (Tarbut), Duma elections
and Zionist political activities; files from the German Foreign Office on
Baltic Jewry (1879-1884).
Inventories
Lists of material of Jewish and non-Jewish provenance,
held in several government archives in Vilnius
(18th-20th centuries).
Mexico
Files of various
youth groups (1940-1971); minute books of the “Neie Yiddishe
Shul” in Mexico City
(1949-1985).
Microfilms and photocopies
Copies of
Inquisition trials (1589-1699); minutes of the Comité Central
Israelita de Mexico (1947-1951).
Inventories
A
list of sources on the Inquisition in the Mexican national archives.
Morocco
Original material
Two separate series of files: communal material
arranged by names of towns, and private material organized by family names;
the communal material includes pinkassim of rabbinical courts,
community account books, deeds about real estate owned by Jews, documents on
education, welfare and charity, as well as halachic and rabbinical
material; among the communities, Casablanca, Debdou, Fes, Ksar Es-Souk,
Marrakech, Meknes, Mogador, Rabat and Sefrou (18th-20th
centuries); the private material contains private and family documents of
various Jewish families.
Microfilms
Correspondence files of the Alliance
Israélite Universelle head office in Paris relating to Alliance
schools in Morocco and the general situation of the Jews there (1860-1940);
copies of pinkassim in private hands; letters from Moroccan
communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in Turkey (19th-20th
centuries); files from the German Foreign Office on Moroccan Jewry
(1905-1917).
Private collections
Among others, Raphael Abbo,
representative of Ozar
Hatora (1855-1963); Jacob
M. Toledano, Israeli Minister of Religious Affairs, including
material from Tiberias (1820-1960); Nelly Ben-Attar, JDC representative
in North Africa (1940-1947).
Inventories
Lists of files and documents
relating to Moroccan Jews in the Archives Diplomatiques at Nantes (19th-20th
centuries).
Netherlands
Original material
Material from Amsterdam and other Jewish
communities (17th-20th centuries).
Microfilms
The archives of the Portuguese and Ashkenazi
communities in Amsterdam (1614-1870);
archives of the Dutch Jewish Consistory (1809-1860); pinkassim and documents
from Leeuwarden
and other communities.
Inventories
Lists of material of Jewish and non-Jewish
provenance held in various Dutch government archives (18th-20th
centuries).
Panama
Original material
Files of the Albert Einstein Jewish school (1960-1973).
Peru
Original material
Files of the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities in Lima (1882-1970);
files of the Leon Pinello Jewish school.
Poland
The Polish collection relates to Poland
in its borders between the two World Wars. The material is in Polish, German,
Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish, and covers the period between the 15th
and the 20th centuries.
Original material
Pinkassim from Będzin,
Czempiń, Grodzisk near Poznań, Swarzędz, Poznań,
Raków near Minsk, Wieleń and Warszawa, and
documents, such as charters, regulations, decrees, population lists,
community records, letters etc. from Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Dziewieniszki, Grodzisk,
Jarocin, Katowice, Koźmin, Kraków, Krotoszyn, Leszno, Lublin,
Lwów, Lwowek, Mysłowice, Oborniki, Ostrów Wielkopolski,
Pleszew, Poznań, Rawicz, Sarnowa, Swarzedz, Środa, Toruń,
Warszawa Wronki and others.
Microfilms and photocopies
The majority of the Polish
material is on microfilms, relating to over 1500 localities in Poland, the most representative being Będzin, Boćki Lwów, Lublin, Łódź,
Kraków, Radom, Tomaszów Mazowiecki and Warszawa. Some of the films contain material produced by Jewish
communities, e.g. Berezno, Chrzanów, Derażne, Klewań,
Korzec, Kraków, Łódź, Lublin, Łuck, Lwów, Osowa,
Równe, (and) Stepań, and Wilno.. However, most of the
material is of non-Jewish provenance, from government archives and from the
collections of Polish aristocratic families, many of which are now
incorporated in government archives, including contracts of arendas
and trading activities, correspondence, complaints and supplications made by
Jews; the records also contain legal documents concerning both community and
individual Jew, i.e. charters, decrees and tax records (16th-18th
centuries); a vast collection of records from the period after the 18th
century Partitions between Russia, Prussia and Austria, such as decrees and
instructions, correspondence between communities and authorities, as well as
reports by and about the communities, communal statutes, finances,
statistical data, membership, elections for community councils, appointments
of rabbis, education, voluntary societies (charity, culture, sports,
politics, women), internal disputes etc.; birth, marriage and death registers
from communities in the area of Krzemieniec, birth marriage and death
registers held at the government archives in Lwów (today Lviv) from
communities in Eastern Galicia;
records on the Jewish schools in Brody and Lemberg;
records on Jewish refugees who fled to Galicia from the Russian Empire after
the 1881 pogroms, including statistical data and documents on violence
against Jews in Western Galicia in 1898; a rich collection of files from the
period between the two World Wars, most of them from the archives in
Lwów and Stanisławów (today Ivano-Frankivsk), containing
information on the communities in Kołomyja, Ottynia,
Stanisławów, Tarnopol, Tłumacz, Zabłotów
etc.; files from the German Foreign Office on Polish Jewry (1892-1931).
Additional information on the Polish material can
be found in the guide: Sources on Polish Jewry at the Central Archives for
the History of the Jewish People, 2004 (for details see CAHJP web site).
Inventories
Lists of files concerning Jews
from archives in Poland and the Ukraine, such as the government archives in
Bialystok, Kielce, Kraków, Lublin, Lwów, Łuck,
Poznań, Radom (for details on a published guide see CAHJP web site),
Równe, Rzeszów, Suwałki, Stanisławów (today
Ivano-Frankivsk), Tarnopol, Warszawa, and the Czartoryski Library in
Kraków.
|
More on Galicia:
Grandeur and Glory Hod Vehadar, Remnants of Jewish art In Galicia,
Vol. I: Eastern Galicia, A-O
Meir
Wunder, Benjamin Lukin,
Boris Khaimovich
Institute for Commemoration of Galician Jewry,
Jerusalem Center
for Documentation of Diaspora Heritage,
Jerusalem 2005
Orders: Benjamin Lukin, P. O. Box 39077, Jerusalem 91390
|
Portugal
Microfilms
Archives of the Jewish community of Lisbon (1874-1974),
containing statutes, minute books, correspondence etc.; archives of the
Jewish communities in Braganca, Faro and Oporto
(1915-1948) which were established by conversos who returned to
Judaism; letters from Portuguese communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief
Rabbi] in Turkey (19th-20th centuries); material of
non-Jewish provenance relating to Jews from the Arquivo Nacional do Torre
do Tombo in Lisbon, from the Royal chancery (13th-16th
centuries) and of Inquisition trial files from Lisbon, Evora and Coimbra (16th-18th
centuries).
Inventories
List of materials relating to Jews in the Arquivo
Nacional do Torre do Tombo in Lisbon and
in the Historical Archives in Porto (13th-17th
centuries).
Rhodesia
Original material
Files of the Central African Board of Deputies and
of the Jewish communities in Bulawayo
and Salisbury
(1895-1977).
Romania
The holdings regarding Romanian
Jewry comprise material from all of the regions which belonged to Greater
Romania between the two World Wars, i.e. the areas of the Old Kingdom (Moldavia and Muntenia) and those
reincorporated into Romania
after World War I: Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia.
Original material
Most of the files relate to communities from the
Old Kingdom and Transylvania, and a few to communities from Bukovina and Bessarabia. They relate to various aspects of community life, such as
religious practice, education, finances, civil registration, social welfare
and Jewish organizations, as well as relations with other communities and
with the authorities. The earlier documents are in Hebrew or in the old
Slavonic language, in later periods Romanian, German, Hungarian and Russian
prevail. Files and documents from many communities, among them Alba Iulia,
Bucureşti, Iasi, Piatra-Neamţ (18th-20th
centuries); material relating to the period of World War II and its
aftermath, to the anti-Semitic laws and deportations, as well as to the
efforts of Holocaust survivors to rebuild their lives and the life of
the Jewish community after 1945 (of particular interest are the files
describing the first decade of the communist period, when the Jewish
community was confronted with two approaches to survival: Communist-type
assimilation or emigration); files from the papers of the head office in
Paris of the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) relating to
Moldavia and Muntenia (19th and early 20th centuries)
which provide important information about the Jewish schools and community
life of communities for some of which little other information has survived.
Microfilms and photocopies
Files from the Romanian Jewish Federation in
Bucharest relating to individual Jewish communities and to the national
organizations of Romanian Jewry (19th-20th centuries);
files from the Alliance Israélite Universelle head office in
Paris, relating to Alliance schools in Romania and the general situation of
the Jews there (1861-1938); material of non-Jewish provenance from state and
municipal archives in Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Austria, etc. such as files
from the Foreign Ministries of Austria, Germany and Italy concerning the
“Jewish problem”, containing information about Jews throughout
Romania, about internal community life, as well as about anti-Semitic
legislation in the Old Kingdom and later in Greater Romania (19th-20th
centuries). Systematic reports about the Romanian legislation on Jews, sent
to these European countries beginning with the 1860’s until World War
I, explain the ideological and political background of inter-ethnical tensions in Romania.
Inventories
Lists of material of Jewish and
non-Jewish provenance held in government archives in Cluj and Arad (18th-20th
centuries).
Russia – Belarus
– Ukraine - Uzbekistan
The Russian collection relates to
the USSR in its borders
between the two World Wars, including Russia,
Belarus, the Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Original material
Individual files and documents
from various parts of Russia (19th-20th centuries);
files from the papers of the head office in Paris of the Jewish Colonization
Association (JCA), relating to Russia (19th and early 20th
centuries) which provide important information about the Jewish schools and
community life of communities for some of which little other information has
survived; private collections such as Simon Dubnow, Solomon Mikhoels, David
Movshovich, Leo Motzkin, Aaron Steinberg
and Vladimir Karasik, consisting of a very large collection of Jewish
periodicals from the Soviet Union and China, from before the Russian
Revolution until after the Perestroika.
Microfilms and photocopies
Material of
Jewish and non-Jewish provenance relating to Jews in over 950 communities
from over 40 archives in the former Soviet States, including (approximately)
over 3,000,000 microfilm frames and photocopies of documents (16th-20th
centuries); material of Jewish provenance, such as two pinkassim from Uman
(1774-1837), files from the Jewish communities of Odessa ,St.
Petersburg, and Irkutsk, Siberia; letters to Baron David
Guenzburg from rabbis, public figures and private individuals, among them
Simon Dubnow and material on such Russian-Jewish organizations as the
Society for Promotion of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia (OPE)
and its secretary, S Kamenecki, the Alliance for Attainment of Full Rights
for Russian Jews, the Jewish Literary Association, the Society for the Study
of Jewry, the Society for History and Ethnography in St. Petersburg, the
Central Jewish Committee for the Relief of Pogrom Victims; the All-Russian
Jewish Congress, Hechalutz, the Society for the Resettlements of Jews
in the USSR (OZET), ORT, Tarbut, the Jewish Section of the Association
of Former Political Prisoners and Exiles; Jewish political parties, such as
the All-Russian Jewish Workers Union (BUND), the Jewish Socialist
Workers’ Party (SERP), Poalei Zion, Zeirei Zion,
the Talmud Torah in Odessa, the Rabbinical Seminary in Zhitomir,
the Jewish community of Mohilev (Ukraine), the Jewish Historical-Archeographical
Commission in Kiev, as well as private papers of such individuals as
Arkadii Gornfeld, David and Horace Guenzburg, Pesach Marek, and a few members
of the Duma, papers of Pauline Wengeroff (author of “Memoiren einer
Grossmutter”) and members of her family; material of non-Jewish
provenance from the archives of the Czar’s “Secret Police”
(1825-1855), the Russian Interior, Finance, Military, Commerce and Education
Ministries, high and local courts, magistrates in the territory of Belarus
and the Ukraine, as well as private archives of Polish noble families, such
as Landskorunskij, Lubomirskij, Potockij, Radziwil, Sapeha, Tarlo, Treter,
Zamojskij; files from central government organs (14th-20th
centuries), central and local military administrations, such as the Office of
the Military Ministry and the Supreme Commander’s Staff of the Russian
Army; from regional and city administrations, from private papers of higher
Tsarist officials, as well as from Soviet government institutions; files from
the German Foreign Office on Russian Jewry (1879-1920).
Inventories
Lists of Jewish
record groups and of
files and documents relating to Jews from over 70 archives in Russia, the Ukraine,
Belarus and Uzbekistan
(16th-20th centuries).
SOUTH AFRICA
Original material
Monthly immigration reports of the South African Jewish
Board of Deputies (1924-1929) and stencilled minutes of meetings; excerpts
relating to Jews from minutes of the South African Parliament (1945-1969);
minute books of the Rakishker Sick-Benefit and Loan Society in
Johannesburg (1912-1950).
Microfilms
Minutes, press clippings and statements of various
components of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (1892-1991);
minutes and correspondence files of the Jewish community in Johannesburg
(1891-1968); files of the Arcadia Jewish orphanage in Johannesburg
(1921-1950); minutes and correspondence files of the Witwatersrand
congregation (1890-1915); papers of Morris Alexander, Capetown,
(1899-1942).
Spain
Original material
A
list of Jewish property in Talavera de la Reina
(1475).
Microfilms and inventories
Documents concerning Jews in government, municipal
and ecclesiastical archives in Barcelona (Archivo de la Corona de Aragon, Archivo
Capitular, Archivo de Protocolos, etc.), Madrid (Archivo
Historico Nacional), Simancas (Archivo General) and
Tarragona; regesta of documents from Avila, Barcelona, Burgos,
Burriana, Cordoba, Girona, Jaen, Madrid,
Morella, Palencia, Pamplona, Simancas, Tarragona, Teruel,
Tortosa, Valencia, Vilafranca, Zamora and Zaragoza
(11th-15th centuries); a selection of regesta
appear in the series Sources for the History of the Jews in Spain (for
details see CAHJP web site).
Syria
Original material
Private documents (19th-20th
centuries).
Microfilms
Correspondence files from the Alliance
Israélite Universelle (AIU) head office in Paris, relating
to Alliance schools and the general situation of the Jews there (1863-1940);
letters from Syrian communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in
Turkey (19th-20th centuries); files from the German
Foreign Office on Syrian Jewry (1914-1919).
Tunisia
Original material
Archives of the Alliance Israélite
Universelle schools in Tunis
(1870-1952) and Sfax; files from the community of Tunis, among them the pinkas
of the Portuguese community (1710-1936); files from the communities of Djerba
and Nabeul.
Microfilms
Correspondence files of the Alliance
Israélite Universelle head office in Paris, relating to Alliance
schools in Tunisia and the general situation of the Jews there (1865-1940);
letters from Tunisian communities to the Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi]
in Turkey (19th-20th centuries).
Inventories
Lists of files relating to
Tunisian Jews from the Archives Diplomatiques at Nantes (19th-20th
centuries).
Private collections
The papers of Rabbi Khalfon Cohen from Djerba (1902-1959),
containing files on his communal and rabbinical activities, as well as
responsa.
Turkey
Original material
Archives of the Jewish community of Izmir
(1760-1970); material on the Jews of Izmir in the papers of the Levy family
(1804-1950); material on the Jews of Istanbul in the papers of the
historian, Abraham Galante (1895-1961); files and references to the
communities of Edirne, Manisa, Ourla, Tekirdag, Tire (19th-20th
centuries); files from the papers of the head office in Paris of the Jewish
Colonization Association (JCA) relating to the Messila Chadasha
and Or Yehuda colonies in Turkey (1899-1904).
Microfilms
Pinkassim from the community and rabbinical
court of Istanbul (1835-1971); incoming letters to the office of the
Chacham Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in Istanbul, from all over the Jewish world,
as well as from Turkey (1837-1919); correspondence files of the Alliance
Israélite Universelle head office in Paris, relating to Alliance
schools in Turkey and the general situation of the Jews there (1860-1940);
files from the German Foreign Office on Turkish Jewry (1880-1920).
Ukraine
(See Russia)
United States of America
Original
material
Assorted files from various American institutions, organizations, and
communities chiefly those which assisted immigrants to the USA and Jews in Eastern
Europe (mainly 20th century).
Files of the Kehillah in New York in the
Judah L. Magnes papers, as well as files relating to the Reform rabbinate,
the Zionist movement and Jewish relief activities (1908-1922); Files from the
American office of the Women’s League for Israel (1927-1972);
papers of S. Broches on the Jews of New England; papers of Rebecca Affachiner on Jewish welfare
(1907-1934); diaries of Reuven Brainin
(1909-1930); papers of Alexander M. Dushkin
on Jewish education (1923-1949); papers of the Yiddish journalists: Herman Frank (1918-1952),
Ezekiel Lifschutz (20th cent.) and Abraham Sachs (1903-1931);
papers of Abba Gordin, anarchist and journalist (1925-1958); some papers of Bernard Richards, journalist and community
leader (1914-1955); papers of Rabbi Nachum Seidman on Orthodox institutions
and Jewish education in New York (mid 20th cent.).
Microfilms
Letters from several American communities to the Chacham
Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in Turkey
(19th-20th centuries); papers of Fanny E. Holtzmann
(1920-1980), held at the American Jewish Archives; assorted files from YIVO,
New York and from government archives in Germany, Russia and the United
States.
Inventories
Lists of collections held at the American Jewish Historical
Society, the American Jewish Archives, the Hebrew Union
College, the Jewish
Theological Seminary, the Leo Baeck Institute, the Yeshiva University
Archives, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Agudat Israel
archives.
Uruguay
Original material and photocopies
Files of the Comité Central Israelita del
Uruguay (1941-1975), the Organización Sionista del Uruguay
(OSU) (1954-1975), Campaña Unida pro Israel del Uruguay
(1948-1964), WIZO (1938-1959) and the Congreso Judío Mundial
en Uruguay (1941-1970)and other territorial organizations in Uruguay;
files of the various Jewish communities (1920-1972), of the Vaad Hajinuj
del Uruguay and various Jewish schools (1941-1975), and youth, social and
other organizations (1920-1972) in Montevideo as well as many
periodicals and publications (1937-1972).
Uzbekistan
(see Russia)
Yemen
Original material
Several private documents (19th-20th
centuries).
Microfilms
Letters from Yemenite communities to the Chacham
Bashi [Chief Rabbi] in Turkey
(19th-20th centuries).
Yugoslavia
(The Eventov Archives)
Open to the public every Tuesday morning; E-Mail:
Zvi_Loker@hotmail.com
This collection of documents and
data about Jews and Jewish life in the territories which constituted the
state of Yugoslavia (from
December 1918 to 1991) was initiated by Ethel and Jakir Eventov in Haifa. It contains
material from all the areas in which Jews lived, i.e. Macedonia, Serbia,
Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia
and Slovenia,
in 120 registered communities. It forms part of the Hitachdut Oley
Yugoslavia (Association of Jewish immigrants from Yugoslavia). After the deaths of
the Eventovs, the archives were moved to Jerusalem and have been in
association with the CAHJP since April 1986.
The Archives consist of 115 indexed archival boxes,
a library and a collection of photographs. They also hold a set of
pre-Holocaust Jewish periodicals published in Yugoslavia. The holdings are
roughly divided into the following three main categories: 1) Communal and
Zionist entities, 2) papers and notes on subjects of Jewish concern, 3)
personal files (including ketubot, diplomas and genealogical data).
They include some original material, correspondence, photocopies of official
and internal sources, mostly concerning pre-Holocaust events, some of them
pertaining to the 19th century. There are files which contain
evidence on personalities, rabbis, economic and social activities and
information regarding Jewish participation in patriotic wars, and,
particularly, in the anti-Fascist partisan movement during World War II. They
also hold records and notes on archeological sites of the ancient period (1st-3rd
centuries) as well as catalogues and publications on the medieval site of
Čelarevo, near Bačka Palanka.
Present and prospective activities
The archives are currently collaborating in two
research projects initiated in Dalmatia, Croatia – one regarding
Dubrovnik and the other Opatija/Rijeka's Jewry, respectively; a project on
Jewish artists is under preparation; a study based on testimonies of the
survivors of the Holocaust is contemplated.
Microfilms and photocopies
The CAHJP hold microfilms of the
archives of the Jewish community in Belgrade (20th century)
and pinkassim from various communities in Dubrovnik (Ragusa), Križewci,
Maribor, Varaždin, Vinkovci, Karlovac, Bijeljina,
Djakovo etc.; microfilms from the German Foreign Office on Yugoslavian
Jewry (1879-1919) and of the British Foreign Office, held at the Public
Record Office in London; records from the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv
Wien.
Inventories
A list of files in the community
archives of Novi Sad
and Vovodina.
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