Please note: We are able to accommodate in-person appointments on a limited basis. Write to collections@mjhnyc.org for more information or to begin the donation process.

Treasured and irreplaceable family photographs; heirloom Sabbath candlesticks; a wedding present of wooden clogs; a tin Hanukkah menorah with 17 candleholders so that two families could share it for the holiday—these are some of the many Museum objects that illustrate Jewish life, reveal Jewish self-reliance in the face of exclusion, and suggest the pain of extreme loss in the Shoah.

These objects are ambassadors from a world that flesh-and-blood people created, inhabited, and fought to preserve. The items that belonged to families and individuals represent personal experiences of global significance.

Nazi rhetoric and propaganda are also represented in the collections—including the 1927 volume of Hitler’s Mein Kampf (My Struggle) which belonged to Heinrich Himmler and bears his extensive notes.

Some of the more than 30,000 items in the Museum’s collection are featured in Ordinary Treasures: Highlights from the Museum of Jewish Heritage Collection, Rendering Witness: Holocaust-Era Art as Testimony, and other special exhibitions.

Visitors to the Museum can explore documents, textiles, Judaica, toys, musical instruments, diaries and memoirs, posters, and other visual materials.

The Museum collections also include approximately 3,800 audio and video testimonies by Holocaust survivors, liberators, rescuers, Jews who served in the Allied Armies during World War II, and many others.

For information about the collections or to make an appointment to view materials, please review the pages linked from the left navigation.