JTS Receives Grant from National Endowment for the Humanities
May 16, 2025
JTS is proud to have received a prestigious grant for $350,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a project called, “Cataloging, Preserving and Digitizing At-Risk Broadsides, Ephemera and Prints: Depicting Three Centuries of the Jewish Experience from Persecution and Migration to Settlement in the United States.” In total, the NEH announced $9.55 million for 68 different humanities projects across the country.
With this generous award, the JTS Library will be able to digitize 7,000 fragile documents, prints, and ephemera documenting the migration of Jewish people to the United States, as well as Jewish American history and culture. Many of the items relate to understanding antisemitism and its impact. The JTS Library has had a recent uptick in requests from researchers for material pertaining to the history of antisemitism.
Leaving the Shtetl Eastern Europe, etching, early 20th c
Items in the collection include an 1872 lithograph of the consecration of New York’s Central Synagogue, an early 20th century poster in Yiddish from the War Savings Club of New England, a collection of antisemitic British caricature prints from 1730-1830 that are quite rare, and a large collection of unidentified Holocaust images.
Consecration of Central Synagogue, New York, 1872 (hand colored lithograph)
and War Savings Club of New England, 1918
This project will make it easier for researchers and educators to discover fascinating original material on their own and will greatly expand the collection that is available digitally. There is a worldwide demand for the material held at JTS: humanities scholars and academics with wide ranging interests use broadsides, prints and ephemeral items in their books, articles, and conference papers. JTS also makes numerous loans to museums around the world for their exhibits. Educators often use our collection of primary-source material in their high school and university curricula.
Material will be digitized across four themes:
- American Jewish Experience: Materials created in Jewish communities in America from the late 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, telling the stories of their lives and experience.
- Antisemitism: documents that illustrate the history of antisemitism in the U.S. and in Europe during the 17th-19th centuries.
- Unique social, historical, and communal documents, calendars and genealogical charts spanning 300 years that illustrate the everyday lives of individuals and Jewish communities.
- Extant Jewish Communities: documents from Jewish communities that were wiped out in the first half of the 20th century due to antisemitism in Europe and Arab lands.
“The National Endowment for the Humanities is proud to support the institutions and individuals who deepen our understanding of the past through rigorous scholarly research, enrich public knowledge through educational programs, exhibitions, and documentaries, and safeguard our nation’s cultural heritage for future generations,” said NEH Acting Chairman Michael McDonald. “The grants awarded today reflect the breadth and vitality of scholarship, preservation, and public programs across the humanities.”
“We are grateful for the NEH’s generosity,” said JTS Librarian Dr. David Kraemer. “By preserving, cataloging, and digitizing these at-risk materials, we are protecting vital pieces of our history and making them accessible for public exploration and understanding.”
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