Global, Mishegas

AJCommittee Archives Now Online

Yay for awesome, useful Internet resources!
Kol hakavod to The American Jewish Committee for a bang-up job on their new website, AJC Archives, which hosts a plethora of audio, video and textual content from one of American Jewry’s oldest and most influential institutions. The site covers the full 100 years of the organization’s history, providing access to a wealth of web candy in a user-friendly, timeline-based interface. The site also features the full archive of the American Jewish Yearbook online in PDF format, as well as the complete recordings of the AJC’s radio program, which aired from 1939-1955.

“Since our founding in 1906, AJC has been a pioneering advocacy agency making an impact on issues of utmost concern to the Jewish people and democratic societies,” said AJC Executive Director David A. Harris. “Our story is not just about AJC. It is the evolution of the American Jewish community, how AJC has positively contributed to shaping American society, as well as international affairs. That story is now instantly accessible.”
Harnessing the latest technologies to tell the AJC story online, more than 75,000 pages of material, as well as 40 films and 16 historical radio broadcasts, have been digitized, and presented in a user-friendly, colorful format that is fully searchable. More items will be added in the months ahead by AJC’s archives staff.
Visitors to the website can journey decade by decade through AJC’s first 100 years by clicking on interactive timelines that will lead to full details about AJC’s unique role in landmark events in U.S. and world history. Ground-breaking research reports, historic correspondence, memorabilia, and other documents that until now have been stored in protective rooms, and rarely made available to researchers and scholars, now can be seen by anyone, anywhere.

You can view the full press release here.
In related news, many of the sessions of the AJCommittee’s centennial gathering are now also available online in audio and video formats. Click here for the full listing.
This is totally, totally awesome. I’m seriously very impressed. The AJCommittee’s web projects should serve as an example to other Jewish organizations on how to do “the web thing” right.

2 thoughts on “AJCommittee Archives Now Online

  1. This is great! The site is beautifully done & easily navigable. You can do a text search in most of the online collections & download 300+ page volumes of the American Jewish Year Book, one of American Jewry’s most fascinating historical resources, which goes back to 1899. I teach & do research in American Jewish history, so for that I think it’s great. But, for anyone so much of this material is interesting and well worth reading. For a timely read — just take a look at turn-of-the-20th-century American Jewish leaders on immigration…

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