Project Witness Launches Groundbreaking Digital Archive to Preserve Jewish History and Holocaust-Era Testimony

Project Witness is proud to announce the launch of the Project Witness Digital Archive, a historic initiative to preserve, digitize, and make publicly accessible one of the most significant private collections documenting Orthodox Jewish life, leadership, and resilience from the early 20th century through the Holocaust and its aftermath.

With the generous support of federal funding through the National Institute of Archival Collections (NIAC)—facilitated by Senator Charles Schumer—this ambitious project is not only preserving thousands of fragile artifacts and documents, but also transforming how educators, scholars, and future generations engage with this rich historical legacy.

“We are building more than an archive,” said Project Director Israel B. Bitton. “We are building a living testimony—one that bridges memory and discovery, resilience and education.”

Preserving Over 30,000 Historical Items

Originally funded to digitize and make accessible 10,000 archival items, the Project Witness team has far exceeded expectations. As of Spring 2025, the archive has identified and is actively processing over 30,000 items/documents/pages spanning 1905–1955.

The archive includes:

Letters, telegrams, and personal correspondence between rabbinic leaders across Europe, the U.S., and British Mandate Palestine.
Full issues of periodicals, newspapers, and bulletins once circulated among Jewish communities.
Official documentation from communal organizations, educational networks, and rabbinic unions.
Over 10,000 images of rabbis and Orthodox Jewish communal life, capturing a vibrant world that was largely destroyed during the Shoah.
Rare physical artifacts, including prayer books, school certificates, handwritten sermons, wartime ration cards, and even Yiddish signage from synagogues and yeshivot.

In a particularly poignant development, Project Witness recently received a significant trove of early 20th-century Jewish documents from a Polish man in his 90s, who had safeguarded these historical materials in his home for decades. This story—and others like it—highlight the urgency of this work, as precious remnants of Jewish life continue to be recovered from basements, attics, and forgotten storage.

Educational Integration, Public Programming, and More

The Project Witness Digital Archive is not just a tool for preservation—it is a platform for education, engagement, and public outreach.

Already, beta versions of curriculum-integrated lessons are being piloted in Jewish schools and yeshivot, featuring primary source documents from the archive. Future plans include:

Interactive online exhibits
Public lectures and institutional workshops
Scholar-driven publications using the archive’s resources

To support these efforts, Project Witness is actively building strategic partnerships with a range of national and international institutions.

Collaborating Across Borders: A Network of Institutional Partners

To ensure the archive’s historical integrity and amplify its reach, Project Witness is cultivating formal relationships with leading organizations, including:

Yad Vashem
Jewish Public Library Archives (Montreal)
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Yeshiva University Libraries
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
USC Shoah Foundation
Agudath Israel of America
The Orthodox Union

These partnerships will support not only cross-archival collaboration and content sharing, but also scholarly research, translation support, and long-term preservation planning.

Looking Ahead: From Memory to Momentum

As the Project Witness Digital Archive enters its next phase—scaling up digitization, finalizing the AI assistant, and onboarding educators and institutions—the team is guided by a singular mission: to preserve and pass on the lived realities of a people who dared to remember, record, and rebuild.

This initiative would not have been possible without the extraordinary support of Senator Charles Schumer, whose vision and advocacy secured the NIAC grant and recognized the national importance of Jewish archival preservation.

“This archive is more than a digital repository,” said Executive Director Dr. Ruth Lichtenstein. “It is a sacred responsibility to history. And it is a gift to the future.”

Visit the Project Witness Digital Archive portal when it launches in late 2025 to explore the collection and discover the untold stories that continue to shape our world.