Frommer's Review
This 125,000-square-foot complex is the largest repository of Jewish history, art, and literature in the Diaspora. It unites five of America's leading institutions of Jewish scholarship: the American Jewish Historical Society (www.ajhs.org), the national archives of the Jewish people in the Americas; the Leo Baeck Institute (www.lbi.org), documenting the robust history of German-speaking Jewry from the 17th century until annihilation under the Nazis; the Yeshiva University Museum (www.yumuseum.org), with general-interest exhibits, plus a renowned collection of Judaica objects confiscated by the Nazis; the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (www.yivoinstitute.org), focusing on exhibits exploring the diversity of the Jewish experience; and the American Sephardi Federation (www.asfonline.org), representing the spiritual, cultural, and social traditions of the American Sephardic communities (Jews from southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East). Together, this union represents about 100 million archival documents, 500,000 books, and thousands of objects of art and ephemera, ranging from Thomas Jefferson's letter denouncing anti-Semitism to memorabilia of famous Jewish athletes.
The main gallery space is the Yeshiva Museum, which comprises four galleries, an outdoor sculpture garden, and a children's workshop; a range of exhibits also showcase various holdings belonging to the other institutions as well. A central feature is the Reading Room, home to open stacks accessible by serious researchers and lay historians alike, as well as the Center Genealogy Institute, which offers assistance in family-history research. Another huge component of the center is its 250-seat state-of-the-art auditorium, home to a packed schedule of lectures, music, and film presentations. If you get hungry, a kosher cafe is on-site.
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