Library Guides: Jewish Studies Library Guide: Find Digital Primary Sources

Intro

Tulane University Libraries (TUL) provides access to a variety of primary source databases and digital collections relating to Jewish and Israeli Studies. Others, like Library of Congress and museum collections, are available open access. Below you'll find a listing of key digital primary source resources by format and/or topic.

TRIAL - 11/20/25-12/20/25

Antisemitic Historical Literature from the American Jewish Historical Society
Spanning 1869 to 1993, this primary source collection captures more than a century of antisemitic expression and public discourse across the United States and abroad. Researchers will find materials from organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, and the Aryan League of America, alongside the publications that carried their messages: The Dearborn Independent, The Crusader, The White American, and others. Equally significant are the responses: letters, clippings, pamphlets, and press releases that document how Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, journalists, and scholars pushed back against bigotry and hate. Sourced from the archives of the American Jewish Historical Society.

Historical Newspapers

Below are links to individual and aggregate databases that allow you to do full-text searches of Jewish and Israeli newspapers. For an extensive guide to all the historical newspaper databases Tulane has access to, see the News & Newspapers Library Guide.

American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922)
The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger was a weekly Jewish magazine published in New York City. This database offers full page and article images with searchable full text of every available issue from 1857 to 1922.
American Israelite (1854-1874)
The American Israelite is an English-language Jewish newspaper published weekly in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1854 as The Israelite and assuming its present name in 1874, it is the longest-running English-language Jewish newspaper still published in the United States. This database offers full page and article images with searchable full text of every available issue from 1854 to 1874.

Chronicling America - Jewish American Newspapers
Chronicling America, an open-access newspaper digitization project from the Library of Congress, includes 15 Jewish American newspapers from Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and Virginia spanning the late 19th to late 20th century.

Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection (1799 - 1971)
Ethnic American Newspapers features more than 130 fully searchable newspapers in 10 languages from 25 states U.S states. It includes English-language Jewish publications (Jewish Journal, Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Messenger) and Yiddish or Yiddish bi- and tri-lingual papers (Arbeiter Zeitung Fur Worker, Morgenstern, Idisher Zhurnal), with strengths in the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th century.
Historical Jewish Press
Historical Jewish Press provides access to Jewish newspapers published around the world from the eighteenth century onwards. It includes Jewish newspapers in Arabic, Croatian, English, French, German, Hebrew, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, and Yiddish.
Jewish Exponent (1887-1990)
The Jewish Exponent is a weekly newspaper of the Jewish community of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the second-oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the United States. This database offers full page and article images with searchable full text of every available issue from 1887 to 1990.
Jerusalem Post (1932-2008)
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine as The Palestine Post. This database offers full page and article images with searchable full text of every available issue from the newspaper's founding in 1932 through 2008.
Jewish Advocate (1905-1990)
The Jewish Advocate was a weekly Jewish newspaper serving Greater Boston and the New England area. This database provides full page and article images with searchable full text of every available issue from 1905 to 1990.
ProQuest News & Newspapers
Advanced search page to access all ProQuest News & Newspaper databases available through Tulane University Libraries. Includes four Jewish-American and one British Mandate of Palestine/Israeli newspaper: The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922); The American Israelite‎ (1854-2000); The Jewish Advocate‎ (1905-1990); The Jewish Exponent‎ (1887-1990); and The Jerusalem Post (1932-2008).

Tulane provides access to:
- The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922)
- The American Israelite (1854-1874)
- The Atlanta Constitution (1868-1942)
- Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010)
- The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-2010)
- Baltimore Sun (1837-1998)
- The Boston Globe (1872-1993)
- Chicago Defender (1909-2010)
- Chicago Tribune (1849-1998, 2008-present)
- Civil War Era Newspapers & Pamphlets
- The Christian Science Monitor (1908-present)
- Cleveland Call and Post (1932-2010)
- Detroit Free Press (1831-1999)
- The Guardian and The Observer (1791-2003)
- The Irish Times and The Weekly Irish Times (1859-2022)
- The Jerusalem Post (1932-2008)
- The Jewish Advocate (1905-1990)
- The Jewish Exponent (1887-1990)
- Latin American Newsstream
- Le Monde (1944-2000)
- Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2010)
- Los Angeles Times (2008-present)
- New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010)
- The New York Times (1851-present)
- New York Tribune (1841-1922)
- Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2010)
- Philadelphia Tribune (1841-1922)
- Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010)
- The Scotsman (1817-1950)
- The Times of India (1838-2012)
- The Wall Street Journal (1889-2013)
- The Washington Post (1877-current)
- U.S. Hispanic Newsstream

American Jewish History Collections

American Jewish Congress Records: Administrative and Executive Committee, Governing Council, National Conventions, and Executive Director Files
The American Jewish Congress (AJC) is one of the most prominent organizations dedicated to advocating for the interests of Jews in the U.S. and abroad. AJC Records spans 1915-2009, documenting the organization's activities relating to civil rights, the fight against discrimination and antisemitism, support for the State of Israel, and more. This module provides digital access to the first seven series of the AJC collection housed at the American Jewish Historical Society: I) History; II) Administrative Committee; III) Joint Administrative and Executive Committee; IV) Executive Committee; V) Governing Council; VI) National Biennial Conventions; and VII) Executive Directors. AJC Records are part of ProQuest's History Vault's "Workers, Labor Unions, Progressives, and Radicals" Collection.
Berman Archive
Digitized reports, pamphlets, journals, and books that document the lives and research of American Jewish organizations and people from 1900 to the present. Formerly the Berman Jewish Policy Archive.

Jewish Diaspora Collection (JDoC)
The Jewish Diaspora Collection (JDoC) is a collaborative and cooperative digital library of materials from the University of Florida Libraries, designed to preserve and provide wide access to Jewish heritage materials from Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954
Jewish Life in America provides a window onto Jewish communities in America from their first arrival in New York in 1654 to today. It allows you to search and explore six major organizational collections and twenty-four collections of personal papers from the American Jewish Historical Society in New York.
Race Relations in America
Sourced from Amistad Research Center, this primary source collections features content from the Race Relations Department, based at Fisk University from 1943-1970, that investigated problem areas in race relations and developed methods for educating communities and preventing conflict. Documenting three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights, this resource showcases the speeches, reports, surveys and analyses produced by the Department’s staff and Institute participants, including Charles S. Johnson, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.

Nazi Holocaust & WWII

Fortunoff Archive
Holds more than 4,400 testimonies of first-hand experiences of the Nazi Holocaust, comprising over 12,000 recorded hours of videotape. Testimonies were produced in cooperation with thirty-six affiliated projects across North America, South America, Europe, and Israel, and were recorded in the preferred language of the speaker. Tulane University affiliates have been graciously offered access to this resource. Please log in by creating an account using your Tulane email.

If you are not a Tulane affiliate, please contact Scholarly Engagement Librarian Rachel Stein at rstein7@tulane.edu. Also note, users will need to send a request to the administrator for permission for some collections and videos.
Holocaust and the Concentration Camp Trials: Prosecution of Nazi War Crimes (Archives Unbound)
This collection provides unique documents on the investigation and prosecution of war crimes committed by Nazi concentration camp commandants and camp personnel. Documents include: correspondence; trial records and transcripts; investigatory material, such as interrogation reports and trial exhibits; clemency petitions and reviews; photographs of atrocities; newspaper clippings; and pamphlets. Many concentration (and later extermination) camps and sub-camps are represented in this collection, including Mauthausen, Dachau, Belsen-Bergen, Buchenwald, Treblinka, Sobibor, sub-camp Gros-Raming, sub-camp Gusen I, sub-camp Ebensee, and others.
Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees: The West’s Response to Jewish Emigration (Archives Unbound)
The Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR) was organized in London in August 1938 as a result of the Evian Conference of July 1938, which had been called by President Roosevelt to consider the problem of racial, religious, and political refugees from central Europe.
Post-War Europe: Refugees, Exile and Resettlement, 1945-1950 (Archives Unbound)
Primary sources for the study and understanding of the challenges facing the European peoples in the aftermath of World War II. Covers the politics and administration of the post war refugee crisis in Europe well as the day-to-day survival of the refugees themselves.
Testaments to the Holocaust. Documents and Rare Printed Materials from the Wiener Library, London (Archives Unbound)
Contains documentary evidence collected in several different programs: the eyewitness accounts which were collected before, during and after the Second World War, from people fleeing the Nazi oppression, a large collection of photographs of pre-war Jewish life, the activities of the Nazis, and the ghettoes and camps, a collection of postcards of synagogues in Germany and eastern Europe, most since destroyed, a unique collection of Nazi propaganda publications including a large collection of ‘educational’ children’s’ books, and the card index of biographical details of prominent figures in Nazi Germany, many with portrait photographs. Pamphlets, bulletins and journals published by the Wiener Library to record and disseminate the research of the Institute are also included. 75% of the content is written in German.
U.S. Relations with the Vatican and the Holocaust, 1940-1950 (Archives Unbound)
This publication provides a wealth of unique correspondence, reports and analyses, memos of conversations, and personal interviews exploring such themes U.S.-Vatican relations, Vatican’s role in World War II, Jewish refugees, Italian anti-Jewish laws during the papacy of Pius XII, and the pope’s personal knowledge of the treatment of European Jews.

Israel/Palestine

American Colony in Jerusalem, 1870-2006
The papers of the American Colony in Jerusalem, a non-denominational utopian Christian community, consist of approximately 16,600 items spanning the years 1786-2007, three-fourths of which have been digitized and made available by the Library of Congress.

Border and Migration Studies Online
Border and Migration Studies Online is a collection of text, video, and images organized around fundamental themes associated with border and migration issues. It includes primary and secondary source materials for more than thirty key worldwide border areas, including Israel.

Columbia University Center for Palestine Studies
The Columbia University Center for Palestine Studies has multiple research and preservation projects: Al Quds Archive, Edward Said Archive, Dreams of a Nation (film), Palestinian Village Histories, Families Interrupted (photography), The Nakba Files, Palestinians and the City, Oral History Project, Jerusalem Maps, The Steven Wachlin Postcard Collection, and Liberation Graphics Collection. Some of these projects include open access to digital primary sources.

Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969
British government Confidential Print files, issued by the Foreign and Colonial Offices, cover the Middle East from Egypt to Afghanistan for the period from 1839-1969.
Documents on British Policy Overseas
Contains contemporary accounts and follow the detailed exchanges that shaped British foreign policy from the origins of the First World War and beyond.

Israel State Archives
The Israel State Archives have made available digitized documents across multiple collection types, such as naturalization files, marriage certificates, government and military documents, immigration records, and censuses.
Israel at War: Primary Sources
This collection, curated by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, includes transcripts of speeches and first-hand accounts of Israel's wars from 1948 to 2012.

Middle East Online: Arab-Israeli Relations, 1917-1970 (Archives Unbound)
Offers original source material from the British Foreign Office, Colonial Office, War Office and Cabinet Papers, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration through the Black September war of 1970-1971.

National Library of Israel - Archives
The archives at the National Library of Israel date back to 1927, with the arrival of the rich personal archive of Ahad Ha'Am. Today, the Library's Archives Department houses over one thousand personal archives, the majority of which bear testimony to the activities of Jewish personalities from a wide variety of spheres: writers and poets, humanists, rabbis, Zionist leaders, scientists, journalists, critics and others. The Historical Jewish Press, Bibliography of the Hebrew Book, Visual Memory photo collection, and more have been digitized.
Palestinian Museum Digital Archive
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive was launched to collect various documents including identification papers, official records, letters, diaries, manuscripts, maps, photographs, films, and audio recordings that were under threat of loss, damage, or confiscation. Such items were digitized and made widely available on a website open for users inside Palestine and abroad in Arabic and English, to shed light on the different aspects of Palestinian life, history, and legacy.
Palestinian Oral History Archive
Based at the American University of Beirut, the Palestinian Oral History Archive is a project to digitize, index, catalog, preserve, and provide access to an archival collection of around 1,000 hours of testimonies with first generation Palestinians and other Palestinian communities in Lebanon. The Archive's main focus is personal accounts surrounding the Nakba, but it also contains life narratives of pre-1948 Palestine, folktales and songs, as well as stories of the women in Ein el-Helwe camp after its destruction in 1982.
Wilson Center Digital Archive - Israel
The Wilson Center Digital Archive is a resource where students, researchers and specialists can access once-secret documents from governments and organizations all over the world. Constructed and maintained by the Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program (Washington, D.C.), the Digital Archive contains declassified historical materials from archives around the world, including diplomatic cables, high level correspondence, meeting minutes, intelligence estimates, and more.
UNRWA Photo and Film Archive for Palestine Refugees
Ever since it was established, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has recorded all aspects of the life and history of Palestine refugees through film and photography. This has led to a rich audiovisual archive, containing more than 430,000 negatives, 10,000 prints, 85,000 slides, 75 films and 730 videocassettes.