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By JHC Staff

Introduction

The Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center (JHC) at American Ancestors is a research and educational center dedicated to preserving New England Jewish history, exploring Jewish heritage, and educating wide audiences about the American Jewish experience. Through its archives, educational programming, support of scholarship, and community outreach, the JHC engages historians, genealogists, students, and the general public in the study and understanding of Jewish history and heritage.  

The JHC began as part of the American Jewish Historical Society and was formerly known as the American Jewish Historical Society–New England Archives (AJHS–NEA). In 2010, AJHS–NEA began a collaboration with American Ancestors (then called the New England Historic Genealogical Society), which was formalized in 2015 with the creation of the Jewish Heritage Center and a strengthened mission to enhance Jewish historical and genealogical research and to be a premier site for collection and preservation of Jewish history.

The JHC's archival collections specialize in Boston, Massachusetts, and New England Jewish history and contain more than four million items. These include institutional records of synagogues, social service organizations, businesses, and schools; the papers of community leaders and multigenerational families; newspapers; databases; subject guides; and much more. More than 750,000 documents from the collections have been digitized and are fully searchable online in the JHC's Digital Archive.  

Learn more at JewishHeritageCenter.org.

Resources at the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center

Archival Collections

The JHC holds the records of synagogues, Jewish businesses, organizations, families and individuals in and/or from the Greater Boston and New England region. The collections contain photographs, genealogies, artifacts, correspondence, ledgers, diaries and other records of intrinsic historic value that highlight the rich history of New England Jewish communities.  

Our collections are cataloged as “institutional” or “personal.” Institutional records (denoted by an “I”- or "JHCI"-number) are from congregations, community service organizations, trade associations, Zionist organizations, burial societies, and academic and cultural organizations. Personal papers (denoted by a “P”- or "JHCP"- number) are from individuals or families, and in many cases, correspond to some of our institutional collections.  

Subject files hold secondary source material, materials that lack background information but may be of historical significance; or the provenance—or origin—of the material is unclear. Examples include: unpublished family histories, copies of news articles written by the collection donor, and “orphaned” brochures, photographs or ephemera.

Unprocessed Collections: A list of collections that do not yet have finding aids can be found here. If you are interested in making an appointment to look at materials in an unprocessed collection, get in touch with us at jhcreference@jewishheritagecenter.org.

Learn more about the Wyner Family Heritage Center’s Archival Collections and explore frequently asked questions.

Genealogical Resources

In addition to the databases offered through AmericanAncestors.org, The Jewish Advocate database (in-house only); and The Boston Jewish Times, the JHC has the following helpful genealogical resources:

Databases

Databases that may be of interest to those researching Jewish genealogy and history are:

Additional Resources of Interest 

Accessing Resources from Home

Finding Aids

The JHC’s finding aids (guides to each collection) are online and fully searchable. A list of our collections can be found on our website. 

Finding aids can also be accessed via the JHC’s ArchivesSpace repository. This page also includes helpful search tips for using JHC finding aids.

JHC Subject Guides

The JHC has created subject-specific guides to help researchers easily find and use our collections on subjects frequently found in our archives. The subject guides provide links to finding aids (and, if applicable, to digitized collections on our Digital Library & Archives), as well as to JHC webinars, articles, and exhibits on the subject, and helpful external resources.  

Digital Library and Archives

To access the Digital Library & Archives, create a free account by filling out this form and selecting the "JHC Digital Archives" box at the bottom of the form. Once you have created an account, return to the Digital Library & Archives and log in with your email address and password.  

Photocopy and Digital Imaging Requests

Researchers can request photocopies or digital images of archival materials, which may amount to a small fee. Please contact the JHC reference desk with your request, and we will be in touch with information specific to your request. 

Visiting the JHC

We require that researchers make an advance appointment, so that we can ensure we have what you need onsite, since many of our collections are stored in an external facility and require retrieval time. Please note that the JHC also has different hours from the American Ancestors library. 

Hours

Reading Room open by appointment only
Wednesday through Friday, 10am to 5pm.

For information about visiting our building, please check here. 

Contact

Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at American Ancestors 
97 Newbury Street 
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 
617-226-1245
jhcreference@jewishheritagecenter.org
www.jewishheritagecenter.org