The ephemera reproduced in this volume consist mainly of broadsides, posters, and leaflets produced in the United States from the late nineteenth century on. They deal with Jewish immigration to America and attitudes toward lands of origin; early efforts to organize American Jewish life through a variety of social structures; anti-Semitism; American Jewish religious affairs; the response of American Jewry to World Wars I and II; the participation of American Jewry in the Zionist movement; the adjustment to American economic and political life; and the flourishing of Yiddish theater.

This volume contains the proceedings of an international conference held at the Harvard Library on May 10-12, 1993 to focus attention on the documentation of Jewish life and culture in the State of Israel, the needs of scholars doing research on Israel, the role of the research library in making the needed documentation available to researchers, and the contribution of the Harvard Library to that effort.

Harvard's Judaica Collection is one of the world's great Judaica collections, and is the largest collection of Israeli and Israel-related publications outside of Israel. This book traces the history of the collection from Harvard's founding, with special emphasis on the accelerated growth in the past four decades.