Research Guides @ Fordham: Jewish Studies: Finding Primary Sources

Collections Located in New York City

This section contains digital primary source collections from institutions located in New York City. Their holdings may cover New York City or other geographical areas of Jewish significance.

For in-person access to collections, check the latest access policies at each institution.

Center for Jewish History Digital Collections
This portal searches across 5 collections housed at the CJH: the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. As you search, select the limiter under the heading Availability on the right panel for "Available Online."

NYPL Digital Collections from the Dorot Jewish Division
Digitized items from the the Dorot Jewish Division of the New York Public Library.

Image credit: "A shnirele perl" via Dorot Jewish Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

The Collection at the Jewish Museum
Search interface from the Jewish Museum offering options to search by artist, time period, medium, geographical location, and more.

American Jewish Committee Archives
The American Jewish Committee Archives based in NYC houses an vast range of 20th & 21st century American Jewish history including more than a million documents, films, and radio shows.

JDC Archives
Digitized organizational records of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the overseas rescue, relief, and rehabilitation arm of the American Jewish community.

Yeshiva University Libraries Digital Collections
Offers a range of materials including university history, student protest posters, personal papers, Cantorial manuscripts, a collection of New York Synagogue Bulletins, and more.

Need Help?

Not finding the primary sources you need? Schedule a research consultation with a library liaison for Jewish Studies or use the box below to chat live with a librarian.

Books as Primary Sources

The library catalog holds books that contain primary source content ranging from memoirs, historical document collections, images & artwork, essays, speeches, and more.

Search the library catalog for options in book format. If you have questions, feel free to ask a librarian for help.

Open Access Collections

Digital Library of the National Library of Israel
Landing page to begin searching and browsing the vast digital collections of the National Library of Israel.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Provides a single search interface for discovering millions of digital materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country.

Europeana
Provides access to millions of books, music, artworks and more from thousands of European archives, libraries and museums.

HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
A partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. Full text access only for public domain works indicated by "Full View." Downloading or printing depends on each title's copyright status. Click into each title to see entitlements on the left sidebar.

Image credit: Jewish Communal Directory 1912 via HathiTrust Digital Library.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Provides access to digitized photographs, manuscripts, maps, films, audio recordings, newspapers, and more.

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Collections
Search over 250,000 records in this collection. Use the search options and the bottom of the page to limit your search to digitized items.

Yad Vashem Digital Collections
Digitized primary sources from the World Holocaust Remembrance Center including databases, documents, photographs, oral histories, films, and more.

Yiddish Book Center Digital Library & Collections
Offers 11,000 digitized books in the Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library, oral histories, audio lectures, children's literature and Yizkor books.

Newspapers

See the Newspapers tab to use newspapers as primary sources.

Library Databases

JSTOR & ARTSTOR (WITH AI RESEARCH TOOL - BETA) This link opens in a new window
Offers an archive of academic journals as well as primary source content. Use the search limiters within the database to limit your search to primary source items.
NOTE: Basic and advanced searching defaults to "read and download" content we subscribe to. Browsing defaults to "all content." Look for the Access Level limiter on the lower left side to change settings. Access excludes ebooks, Thematic Collections and Global Plants (part of Primary Sources).Fordham does not subscribe to the Constellate text/data analytics service. Users can download full datasets with up to 25,000 items. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION.
JSTOR Subscribed Collections with Access:
Arts & Sciences I through XV, Ireland, Life Sciences, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, World Heritage Sites: Africa, Business IV, Hebrew Journals, Lives of Literature, Public Health, Security Studies, Sustainability, Global Plants,19th Century British Pamphlets.
ARTSTOR notes:
To go directly to Collections, use the Browse function dropdown (upper right corner) or filtering on the left side after doing a search.

Group portrait of women in a shop (circa 1910) with food collected for striking tailors. Signs on wall in English and Yiddish reading "We are Collecting Provision Striking Tailors. Please do as much as you can. Thank you!" Image credit: New York Call Photographs, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Martin P. Catherwood Library at Cornell University via JSTOR.

Early English Books Online, 1473-1700 This link opens in a new window
From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this collection contains more than 125,000 books and pamphlets printed in English.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Full text of 180,000 books published from 1700 to 1799. Transitioning to a new platform. Not all Browse functions working.

Gale Primary Sources Platform Search (Not Included in GRC) This link opens in a new window
Gale's primary sources platform for cross-searching: American Historical Periodicals (Series 1-5), British Library 19th Century Newspapers, Eighteenth Century Collections, The Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative, & Int'l (1600-1926), LGBTQ History & Culture since 1940 (Part I), The Making of Modern Law: Foreign Primary Sources, The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises (1800-1926), and U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs (1832-1978).

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (scholar's edition) This link opens in a new window
Thousands of documents, images, bibliographies and teaching aids.

Manuscripts

Ktiv: International Collection Of Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts
A partnership between the National Library of Israel and the Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society (FJMS) to make Jewish manuscripts widely available. Includes links to manuscript collections at institutions around the world.

Jewish Studies: Finding Primary Sources

Finding Digital Primary Sources