The Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at American Ancestors

The Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center (JHC) at American Ancestors is a research and educational center dedicated to preserving New England Jewish history, exploring Jewish heritage, and educating wide audiences about the American Jewish experience. Its archival collections specialize in Boston, Massachusetts, and New England Jewish history and contain more than four million documents, including institutional records of synagogues, social service organizations, businesses, and schools, as well as the papers of community leaders and multigenerational families.

The JHC began as part of the American Jewish Historical Society, formerly known as the American Jewish Historical Society-New England Archives (AJHS-NEA). In 2010 it began a collaboration with the New England Historic Genealogical Society (now American Ancestors), and in 2015 the two entities formalized their partnership, creating a strengthened mission to enhance Jewish historical and genealogical research. The center was renamed in honor of longtime supporters Justin Lawrence “Jerry” Wyner and Genevieve Geller Wyner.

Through its extensive archives, educational programs, exhibits, and digital resources, the JHC engages researchers, students, and the public in exploring Jewish family and community history. Its reading room in Boston is open to the public by appointment, and more than 700,000 documents from its collections have been digitized and made fully searchable online through its Digital Archive.