Jewish Studies: Primary Sources for Jewish Studies

Columbia has about 1700 Hebrew and Judaic manuscripts from the 10th to the 20th centuries. Topics include philosophy, kabbalah (including some early works and many manuscripts from the Lurianic school), liturgy (prayerbooks and mahzorim), Jewish law, Rabbinic texts and related commentaries, poetry, Bible and its exegesis, responsa, letters from individuals and communities, historical documents, Ketubot (marriage contracts), documents from the Cairo Genizah and other general literature.

The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People hold the archives of hundreds of Jewish communities, as well as of local, national and international Jewish organizations and the private collections of many outstanding Jewish personalities. The Archives now hold the most extensive collection of documents, pinkassim (registers) and other records of Jewish history from the Middle Ages to the present day.

The KTIV catalog contains records for nearly all Hebrew manuscripts in existence today. Filters allow searching by digitized manuscripts, illuminated manuscripts, or ketubbot.

This database, produced by the National Library of Israel, contains records for nearly all Hebrew books from the invention of print through 1960.

Note: Database is only searchable in Hebrew.
To enter the database, click "Enter the catalog Bibliography of the Hebrew Book"

This brand new database seeks to trace the movement of Hebrew books throught time and place, using owners' marks, booklists, and other primary sources

Comprehensive list of digitized Jewish newspapers (with Latin characters and Hebrew characters in separate tabs) and links to the sites that provide access to them.

This site contains a collection of Jewish newspapers published in various countries, languages, and time periods. The site displays digital versions of each newspaper, making it possible to view the papers in their original layout. Full-text search is also available for all content published over the course of each newspaper’s publication. More content is continuously being added.

Languages included are: Hebrew, Yiddish, French, Hungarian, English

"The portal Compact Memory comprises the 172 most important Jewish newspapers and journals of the German speaking area of the years 1768–1938. These periodicals represent the complete religious, political, social, literary and academic spectrum of the Jewish community and the 'Science of Judaism', thus constituting a major source for the research on Judaism in the Modern Age."

Founded in 1917, the JTA has been the primary source for specifically Jewish news until the present day. Their archives have been digitized and are completely searchable online.

Thanks to the Library of the Leo Baeck Institute, the German-Jewish newspaper is now available in completely digital format online, though the Internet Archive