The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (PBC) is a general archive of Jewish history that resides on the Hebrew University campus in Givat Ram in Jerusalem (in the complex that once served as Dorms "Shiconaie Haelf").
The archive aims to create a central database of all existing archival material for Jewish history.
The idea of establishing the archive was raised in the 1920s by members of the Israeli Society for History and Ethnography, led by Prof. Benzion Dinor (then Dinburg) and Prof. Isaac Barak. Dr. Joseph Meisel founded the Archives in 1938.
In 1944, the Archives joined the Israeli Society for History and Ethnography (later the Israeli Historical Society) and in 1969 became an independent society, following a government decision.
The goals of the archive are the preservation of the historical heritage of the Jewish people, as well as the rescue, restoration and preservation of the historical documentation of the Jewish people regarding Jewish History and diaspora from the Middle Ages to the New Age, untill today.
Over the years, archive workers have gathered the archives of hundreds of Jewish communities, Jewish local and international organizations, and personal archives of Jewish families and personalities from 64 countries. To complete the often fragmented materials, the archive also carries out systematic survey work in non-Jewish archives around the world, with the aim of discovering and citing sources relating to Jews. These surveys have so far revealed millions of documents, ranging from the 12th century to present day.
Today, nearly 60,000,000 pages of original material are archived from the 14th to the 20th centurie. Lists of these sources are available to the public at the Archives in Jerusalem. Untill today, the archive has been able to conduct surveys in over 500 different archives in 43 different countries. A selection of the material revealed in the surveys is filmed in microfilm and is available to researchers at the Jerusalem Archives. Untill today, close to 12,000,000 microfilm cells have been photographed.
Tha merger between the National Library and the Central Archives[עריכת קוד מקור | עריכה]
At the end of January 2013, members of the Archives Board and National Library staff signed an agreement to merge the archive into the library.
