>> It's home to one of the largest Jewish archives in the world.

>> I think one of the things that distinguishes the Center for Jewish History is coverage.

>> It's a broad geographical variety of archival sources on Jewish history.

>> Dedicated to preserving treasures of the past for the future.

>> History is just inherently interesting, understanding from whence you came.

>> There's something amazing about the tangible nature of handling artifacts and old things.

>> To hold these objects in my hands gives me a sense of pride that I can do this for somebody.

>> It's available to all through scholarship and learning.

>> Removing these barriers to access to collections that provide the stories of people is really critical.

>> We have to ensure that these remembrances are passed on to the future generations.

>> It's where community gathers for compelling discourse.

>> We want people here, we want them engaging, we want them to be in conversation with each other.

>> They are stories of people, places, cultures, and they're the stories that we need to share generation to generation.

>> Welcome to the Center for Jewish History, a treasure of New York.

Funding for Treasures of New York, Center for Jewish History is made possible by the Sylvia A. and Simon B. Poyta Programming Endowment to Fight Antisemitism.

In the heart of Manhattan's Union Square neighborhood, just off Fifth Avenue, is the most prestigious destination.

It's a bounteous well of knowledge.

And on any given day, you might be drawn here for a multitude of reasons.

Some have come to the Center for Jewish History to participate in a compelling symposium on antisemitism.

While down a flight of stairs, others will witness skilled archivists and preservationists tending to a trove of irreplaceable material.

On another floor, a family's engrossing history is being unlocked and explored.

And coming up, you will get to join these visitors for a stirring, one-of-a-kind exhibition on Anne Frank, whose diary, written while in hiding during the Holocaust, still resonates today.

>> It's really kind of a choose your adventure, that people have the opportunity to connect with Jewish history and culture.

And there's so much that they can explore.

>> We are a major, indeed one of the few majorist organizations where Jewish history can be pursued in the world.

The visitor will come for one purpose.

And then when they arrive, they're surprised by the vast offerings of all partners collectively.

There's really an offering here that is unsurpassed.

>> The center is founded upon a remarkable repository of Jewish historical documents and books, photographs, films, textiles, ritual objects, and even artwork.

Together, they kindle and fuel the flames of knowledge, illuminating fresh perspectives of the past.

>> Being a public place that's open, free of charge, and is a place where you can do the highest level research and expose yourself to the riches of history, that's one of the things, I think, that distinguishes the Center for Jewish History.

>> We want you to come in and see these things.

We want you to feel connected to your history and to ask questions.

I mean, that's such an important part of Jewish identity is asking questions and being curious.

>> The origins of the center begin with its founder, Bruce Slovin, who envisioned a place that could offer unparalleled resources for scholars and the public alike.

Slovin's beginnings were with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, headquartered on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

And while elegant, the location wasn't ideal for its precious collection.

>> I watched our beautiful building on 86th Street and Fifth Avenue, housing our incredible treasures, but really not safeguarding them because we had no air conditioning, the humidity was eroding or corroding the documents.

And I knew something had to be done.

>> I was working in the real estate business right out of college.

And I came to see their mansion that had gotten into kind of disrepair.

How can you preserve documentary parchment and history if it's done in this manner?

We had to create an environment, a place where this could exist in perpetuity.

>> For the sake of preserving history, a move had to be made.

>> And I talked to the board members and I argued for the sale of the building and hoped that we could buy another facility, which is just what we did.

>> Location, location, location.

I think that was really key for Bruce Slovin.

He was a real estate expert, and he was the genius that discovered this location.

>> Located on West 16th Street, the new property was significantly larger.

And Slovin saw this as an opportunity to accommodate other Jewish organizations within.

>> His vision was to provide a safe space where organizations could gather together and realize economies of scale.

They would share a catalog, a reading room, event spaces, galleries, and a network of laboratories that would provide archival services to all of these five partners.

>> The partner organizations would ultimately include the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Beck Institute, and the Yeshiva University Museum.

>> It's a classic case of the whole being bigger than the sum of its parts.

Each one of these organizations is a wonderful organization by themselves, and they existed on their own for a long time.

But coming together made them much more.

>> With combined resources, they aspired to be a Smithsonian, a Library of Congress, a center for Jewish history.

>> Our founder knew that there were all these organizations that touched on the Jewish experience.

And bringing them together under one roof would create an environment and a destination where all that material would be available.

>> Zahor is a Hebrew word for remembrance or memory.

And the center being one of the largest repositories of Jewish memory is kind of a physical embodiment of that concept.

>> In 1995, the architecture firm Bayer Blinder Bell was commissioned to design a contemporary institution unlike any other.

>> We will be the largest repository of recorded history, of Jewish cultural history outside of Israel, an important institution.

Something that we will have prepared for these many years and present to our children and our children's children so they may understand where they have come from and how we have gotten here.

[MUSIC] >> In 2000, the Center for Jewish History officially opened its doors.

>> We have gathered together the history of our people in the modern era, and we must preserve it, enrich it, and teach it to our future generations.

So they may know of our glorious history.

>> Well, the opening of an institution such as Center for Jewish History means that Jewish history is something that is worth pursuing, is important.

Jews are a small minority within American society, but this shows that they are a group that is worth studying and help yourself to whatever knowledge would intrigue you.

The Center for Jewish History's mission is, of course, twofold.

One, to preserve Jewish history, so it is a repository of source material that people can access in perpetuity.

Second of all, we want to activate or mobilize that historical source material so that people have a better ability to understand the pressing issues of the day, both from a Jewish and non-Jewish perspective.

[MUSIC] >> We make Jewish history come to life.

This isn't just a source of information on the Holocaust and all of the dark pages of Jewish history, but we also celebrate Klezmer, and we celebrate Yiddish theater, and we celebrate Jewish comedians, and Jewish authors, and poets.

I think it's a great model and a great system.

>> The combined collections of the five partners help form the largest and most comprehensive archive of the Jewish experience in the diaspora.

>> We do have really some of the widest and deepest collections on Jewish life and the Jewish experience.

So we have history across Europe, Asia, Africa, both the Americas.

We really have it all here.

>> The Center is a means of connecting with the Jewish past in the sense that we are a wealth of archival material.

So anybody who's interested in Jewish history will find this a cornucopia.

>> Indeed, the aggregate of each partner's contribution has resulted in an enriching, multifaceted fund of knowledge.

>> The brilliance of the Center is that it brings together organizations who are alike but very different.

And it allows them to focus on their uniqueness, but leverage each other's expertise at the same time.

>> Whether they date back to the Middle Ages or whether they get into more of the 19th or 20th century, such as the famous original draft of Emma Lazarus's poem for the New Colossus, which graces the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, the Center for Jewish History truly is a treasure house of source material.

>> The collections demonstrate the extraordinary in what may initially seem ordinary.

>> Part one, chapter one.

In order to tell the story of my life, I probably should first of all talk about my father.

>> By sharing and cherishing the stories of everyday people.

>> This is a book of memoirs of my great-grandmother, Nadezhda Joffe.

She was a daughter of an early Soviet Jewish Bolshevik, Adolf Joffe, and she was persecuted by Joseph Stalin.

As a child, I remember seeing a manuscript, but I never realized that they were translated and published in English, until I started working at the Center and found this book in the YIVO catalog.

This is my great-grandmother as a little girl with her mom.

This is her in Siberian exile.

This is my great-grandmother with her three daughters.

This is my grandma and her two sisters.

These are primary source materials on key moments in our civilization, and it's incredibly important to make them available so that we can make informed decisions about the present and the future.

>> The access point for these source materials is the Lillian Goldman Reading Room, where over 500,000 volumes of books and 100 million archival documents are at your disposal.

I think the Reading Room is so important to the Center because it is the place where people are coming in contact with the collections, and I get to facilitate those interactions with the materials.

I mean, that's part of why you become a librarian, is to be that connecting piece for someone who's trying to put it all together, and anyone who's studying Jewish life can find something relevant to their research.

And it's exciting every day to work with people who are curious about Jewish life and all have different questions that they're researching and trying to find answers for.

>> Alternatively, this monumental archive is always accessible online.

>> You can go to our databases and our search engines and find access to digitized materials that are treasures that couldn't be accessed anywhere else.

By making the raw materials of knowledge available to everyone, we can create a more historically literal world.

>> The general catalog of material, the ease with which you can explore our materials, is really owing to our association with the Center.

It is a benefit to the general public, and by benefiting the general public, we are benefited.

>> That is the way any library, any archive should be.

I mean, the whole point is to make it available to anyone who's interested.

And in some sense, I think, since one could say that the success of an archive or a library is precisely when it begins to draw as wide and broad a public as possible.

>> Some research may still require expert guidance, such as deciphering a family history.

Next door to the reading room is the Ackman and Ziff Family Genealogy Institute, which was established in 2007.

>> You can look up all the databases you want, but a really good librarian can really move the needle for you when you're writing a paper, your thesis in college.

In the same way, having experts that have helped families learn more about themselves, who take advantage of what's here, I would say this is a good place to come.

>> The Genealogy Institute offers a wealth of resources for those eager to build intimate links to their past.

>> Genealogy is something that I've always been interested in, and something my father in particular was kind of passionate about.

I stand here on the shoulders of many people who suffered and succeeded.

So I want to honor them by knowing something about them.

>> Hi, I'm Jenny Rappaport.

I'm a genealogist at the Center for Jewish History.

And this is your mother's family history.

She and her family, her name was Belle, arrived in November 1st, 1909 aboard the SS Lapland.

And we were lucky enough to find an illustration of the boat, which is huge compared to the sailing ships.

Which I think is particularly pertinent because your mother was only six when she immigrated.

There's so much you can learn from the past.

I feel like people take a lot of lessons from the examples of their ancestors.

Whether they're inspired by their ancestors' bravery or resilience, they have a greater appreciation for the struggles that their ancestors endured.

>> So Philip, the youngest of your grandfather's siblings, actually was enlisted during World War I.

This is his draft card.

And then he officially enlisted on May 29th, 1918.

Every man who was of a certain age had to fill out a draft card.

Even if they were never going to go fight, the government wanted to know who you were so they could keep tabs on you, basically.

>> To further enrich genealogical connections, the institute partnered with Ancestry, creating the Ancestry Research and Reflection Room, where even more records are on hand for visitors.

>> The Center for Jewish History, and particularly this Ancestry Research space, is really an opportunity for people to just immerse themselves in what's available here.

>> So this could be my great-grandmother's record.

>> This is her.

I'm almost certain.

Look, there she is.

There's Eva.

There's Samuel.

That's them.

>> Amazing.

>> Genealogy research is not a simple, straightforward process.

It takes time.

You'll hit some roadblocks along the way.

>> So here's your grandfather.

He's 14 years old.

He's claiming Polish citizenship, even though he's a US citizen.

Look, they've written over it, claims US.

His nearest relative in the country they just left is a brother named Malkus.

>> Yes, Uncle Max.

>> Okay.

>> I think it's worthwhile.

You might find something that you never expected about your family.

>> So the person they're coming to in the new country is Elias, and he's living in Newark.

They have $5, she has $5 on her.

>> My God.

>> That's it.

>> $5.

>> It's the center's ongoing preservation efforts that continue to make researching the past so meaningful.

>> For that, we can really thank the Center for Jewish History and the concept of the Center for Jewish History.

Keeping these materials preserved, safe for the future, because you never know what's important.

>> They are stories of people, places, institutions, cultures.

And in those stories lie lives, lie stories of joy, of tribulations, triumphs, failure, successes.

They're the stories of people over generations.

They're the stories that we need to preserve and share generation to generation to generation.

>> These stories are entrusted to the collection management and conservation wing, where they are cataloged, arranged, and repaired.

>> The past intertwines with the future in this wing in a way that materials pertaining to Jewish history, documenting Jewish history, that were languishing in attics and basements, are now made accessible.

And if you don't have the raw materials of history preserved at your disposal, you're really gonna be adrift in a very, very turbulent and confusing world.

And so in a way, having a historical institute such as this one as an anchor in troubling times.

[MUSIC] >> Accomplished conservation and archival teams work across three laboratories.

The archival processing lab, which handles collections management.

>> Almost every box of unprocessed documents contains something new for us.

It's just incredibly exciting work.

>> The preservation lab, where fragile paper-based collections are stabilized.

>> It brings things back to life.

It allows owners of those items to get a glimpse of what their past was.

We make sure that you can actually handle it, see it.

We'll make sure it's there for the future.

[MUSIC] >> And the digital lab, which captures and converts many items into modern electronic form.

>> When objects and items and pieces of history are digitized, it really just expands the accessibility of these items to people who probably would not be able to access these things, also just because of their fragile nature.

History becomes tangible, and I think that's what's so amazing about it.

[MUSIC] >> History is also made palpable through the preservation of visual and audio recordings.

>> It's important to preserve the movements and sounds of Jewish life, because you get to see and hear people come alive.

And many of the recordings that we digitize now are the only existing recordings of these people.

>> For the history of the Jewish people is not just preserved here, but awakened and activated.

The collections are the catalyst for thought-provoking lectures, symposia.

>> What made you want to make this film?

>> Film screenings and performances.

>> We're mobilizing Jewish history and taking a look at what is relevant for today, what will impact audiences, what will bring new perspectives and new people into this building.

>> We never lose sight of the fact that we are an archive, and that we are the sort of repository of some form of truth.

But we're also a way of getting people to think about the bigger problems that are illuminated by the material that we have here.

>> This material is the very bedrock of conversation.

And it's enlivened by a team of docents who lead weekly tours of the building.

So I'm gonna give you a tour of a couple of the exhibits that we currently have on on the center, but first I'll just give you an introduction.

>> The tour is an entry point.

They're free to attend.

>> It's just a lot of little pieces of paper that are put together to form this map.

>> It's an opportunity for people to see the center in action, see what we have on view.

>> This is called Luminous Manuscript.

It's supposed to represent a page of the Talmud, which is a book of Jewish learning and Jewish morals and lessons, if you will.

>> But they'll also get a sense of the center, who we are and what we do here.

>> Being a docent enables me to serve the mission of the center, which is to preserve and perpetuate the history of the Jewish people, and also to introduce this to the public at large.

>> There's a great desire to educate people about the values of Judaism, the contributions that Jews have made throughout the ages.

>> Exhibits at the center have a distinct and tangible way of evoking the Jewish experience.

One extraordinary example is Anne Frank the Exhibition.

The center was selected to mount a first of its kind, a full-scale recreation of the annex where Anne and her family hid during the Holocaust.

>> New York was a kind of a no-brainer for us as a city that we wanted to present this.

This institution was actually on our radar from the very beginning, because it represents the past, the present, and the future of the Jewish people.

And of course, the exhibition is a key element in that history.

We've all been a 12, 13-year-old child and read the diary.

It's poignant, it's moving, and we feel empathy with Anne.

It's been a privilege to work with the Anne Frank House and bring that story to a New York audience.

>> Encompassing over 7,500 square feet of gallery space, this blockbuster exhibition affords visitors, both young and old, an opportunity to experience firsthand the context that shaped Anne's life, death, and posthumous fame.

>> We know that Anne Frank oftentimes is being considered as the face of the Holocaust, the symbol of the Holocaust, mainly perceived as a victim, right?

But she was so much more than that.

>> The exhibition manages, I think, quite remarkably to take Anne Frank as a kind of lead into something bigger.

In that sense, this is also an exhibition not just about Anne Frank.

It's a person, of course, but about the faith that she and so many others met just because they were Jewish.

>> And we're hoping, of course, that for the hundreds of thousands of visitors that come to the Center for Jewish History, they will take away some powerful lessons about what Anne Frank's legacy means for today.

>> The exhibition is a crowning point in the Center's pursual of the preservation and mobilization of Jewish history.

In that pursuit, the Center has enhanced its presence by renovating its lobby and creating Ruth's Bookstore.

>> This new bookstore basically is our front porch.

It has curb appeal.

It draws and will draw the general public into the building because what you see from outside, and of course, especially inside, is just a wealth of things that have been curated and selected.

This is a way for us to introduce our own mission to the public.

>> It really feels like a place where Jewish history is living.

People will be able to experience really a center for Jewish history, and that's what we are.

>> Because of founder Bruce Slovin's determination, it's what the Center will continue to be for generations to come.

>> There's so many instances where we were up against a brick wall and somehow we managed to batter it down and go on to the next stage.

And we promise you that we will deserve your good wishes to us.

We will make you proud, we promise.

>> The Center is an evolving, growing, breathing place.

It's where people have come together to protect their history.

And together, it is resilient against tribulations in a way that the Jewish people have been resilient for thousands of years.

[MUSIC] >> Funding for Treasures of New York, Center for Jewish History is made possible by the Sylvia A. and Simon B. Poyta Programming Endowment to Fight Antisemitism.

[MUSIC]