I’m Jaime Taylor, the Center for Jewish History’s systems librarian. My
job has two components: I administer the catalog software, and I also do
strange things with the catalog records themselves. As such, by chance I see records
for all sorts of interesting items that I might not otherwise realize the
Center holds.
Some months ago I read a title,…
By Elizabeth Hyman,
former
Assistant Processing Archivist, HIAS Archives Project; current Photo &
Reference Archivist, American Jewish Historical Society
Over the course of three years, in a project funded by
HIAS in partnership with the American Jewish Historical Society, archivists at
AJHS will organize, describe and make available to the public more than a
thousand boxes of historical…
By David Myers, President/CEO of the Center for Jewish History
The final song of the smash Broadway hit Hamilton asks with great poignancy: “Who will tell
your story?” The line is a telling
reminder that those who lack power or fail to live long enough, such as
Alexander Hamilton, often don’t get to leave…
By Moriah Amit, Senior
Reference Services Librarian, Genealogy Coordinator
Although the notion that our immigrant ancestors’ names were changed by clerks at Ellis Island has been debunked time and again by noted scholars in Jewish genealogy (see References below), this myth remains pervasive in the stories that American Jews tell about their family history. The truth, that most of our immigrant ancestors chose…