The Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry [ICJ] began collecting oral histories for the purposes of historical research in 1959, with the assistance of pioneering scholars such as Yehuda Bauer, Dov Levin and Haim Avni. These early interviews, covering a wide range of subjects and conducted according to highly professional standards, granted the ICJ the distinction of being the most import
ant academic collection of oral documentation in Israel. Our collection of more than 10,000 interviews in 20 languages constitutes a unique treasure of Jewish memories whose importance cannot be underestimated. The collection includes testimonies on the Holocaust that were conducted in the early 1960s, when the reservoir of survivors (especially those who were adults during the war) was much larger and their memories less affected by the passage of time. Interviews were also conducted with key individuals involved in the Zionist movement, and other organizations such as the United Jewish Appeal, as well as with men and women who grew up under the British mandate in Palestine, under Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, or in various Jewish communities throughout the world. The Oral History Division, thus, contains the memories of individuals from various sectors of Israeli and Jewish society throughout its modern history, providing generations of future researchers with an invaluable social history of the Yishuv, the State of Israel and Diaspora relations and Jewish communities in the Diaspora. Researchers are welcome to visit the Division to read the transcription and listen to the recordings. It is hoped that the digitized interviews will be available on the web in the not too distant future.