Judaica Projects

Offenbach, Germany, Some of the six hundred Torah scrolls that were brought to the OAD from all over the American-administered area, 1946.; In a cellar in Frankfurt, Germany, Chaplain Samuel Blinder examines Saphor Torahs stolen from across Europe. Photo: National Archives; Left, Torah breast plates and right chanukiah confiscated by Nazis. USHMM courtesy of S. J. Pomrenze; In a cellar in Frankfurt, Germany, Chaplain Samuel Blinder examines Saphor Torahs stolen from across Europe. Photo: National Archives; Left, Torah breast plates and right chanukiah confiscated by Nazis. USHMM courtesy of S. J. Pomrenze
Offenbach, Germany, Some of the six hundred Torah scrolls that were brought to the OAD from all over the American-administered area, 1946.; In a cellar in Frankfurt, Germany, Chaplain Samuel Blinder examines Saphor Torahs stolen from across Europe. Photo: National Archives; Left, Torah breast plates and right chanukiah confiscated by Nazis. USHMM courtesy of S. J. Pomrenze

The Claims Conference has also supported projects such as:

  • The publication of “Neglected Witnesses. The Fate of Jewish Ceremonial Objects During the Second World War and After,” edited by Julie-Marthe Cohen, Jewish Historical Museum of Amsterdam and Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Jewish Museum of Vienna. London:  Institute of Art and Law, 2011.
  • Digitization of the Terezin collection as well as provenance research on previous owners of books held by the library of the Jewish Museum in Prague so as to facilitate restitution attempts.
  • Digitization of the holdings of the Center for Jewish Art in Jerusalem.
  • YIVO – The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project is a 7-year international project to preserve, digitize, and virtually reunite YIVO’s prewar library and archival collections located in New York City and Vilnius, Lithuania, through a dedicated web portal. The project will also digitally reconstruct the historic, private Strashun Library of Vilna, one of the great prewar libraries of Europe.