New York · Nonprofit
AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY
AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY (New York) receives grants from 100 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,629,436 to it, the largest being THE SLOVIN FOUNDATION ($606,500). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.8M
- Funders on record
- 100
- Grants received
- $3.6M
- Net assets
- $8.5M
What American Jewish Historical Society does
Mission
See schedule o - the American Jewish Historical Society (the "society") is the oldest ethnic, cultural archive in the united states. The society provides access to more than 30 million documents and 50,000 books, photographs, art and artifacts that reflect the history of the jewish presence in the united states from 1654 to the present. At our home on west 16 th street in downtown manhattan, the society illuminates american jewish history through our many archival treasures, scholarship, exhibitions and public programs. Among the treasures of this heritage are the handwritten originals of emma lazarus' the new colossus, which graces the statue of liberty records of the nation's leading jewish communal organizations and important collections in the fields of education, philanthropy, science, sports, business and the arts. The society is the future of the american jewish past.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Library and archive- see schedule o - the society welcomes all audiences, including scholars, who wish to conduct research on american jewish life from first arrival in the americas to the present day. The library consists of approximately 50,000 volumes, including both books and serials (journals and periodicals). The society houses over 3,000 archival collections and has developed finding aids for its personal and institutional holdings; these finding aids are all publicly accessible on ajhs's website. On-site and virtual usage of ajhs's holdings remains very robust and continues to increase, with patrons from across the country and worldwide accessing the archival materials. Since establishing its own-house digitization lab in 2022, the society has continued expanding its digital holdings and digitization program, in alignment with its mandate to provide access to historic materials. In the last quarter of 2024, statistics on digital use showcased that the top three finding aids accessed were: the hebrew immigrant aid society (accessed 2459 times); the records of the american jewish congress (accessed 2283 times); and the hebrew orphan asylum collection (accessed 1898 times).…
$833,752 spent56% of program spendingEducational programs- see schedule o -in 2024, the society hosted 22 in-person, online, and hybrid book talks, film screenings, and panel discussions reaching audiences both locally and nationally through this public history initiative. The society partnered with institutions across new york city and nationally to increase program viewership and expand its network. Online, the society continued its popular "at lunch" series with julie salamon, welcoming guests from the fields of history, entertainment, journalism, and more. The society offered in-person classes to local elementary school ps 41 for jewish american heritage month, teaching over 500 pre-k to 5th grade students.the society has continued its relationship with the gilder lehrman institute of american history to train k-12 teachers and administrators about how to best use archival materials related to jewish american history and culture in their classrooms. The program trained 35 educators and reached roughly 3,000 students nationwide. Additionally, the society hosted its biennial scholars conference on-site in nyc, a multi-day event offering an opportunity for scholars to present work and gain feedback from colleagues…
$578,136 spent39% of program spendingDigital media - see schedule o -in 2024, the society significantly expanded its digital offerings, publishing weekly blogs featuring collection materials and special guest authors, and adding new video content to its youtube channel. In may 2024, ajhs launched its largest new digital initiative: a narrative podcast titled "the wreckage." the series chronicles the stories of jewish americans from the ajhs collections, covering the aftermath of world war ii and through the end of the cold war. The series is hosted by acclaimed actress and singer rebecca naomi jones and features historian interviews and experts in the field. The eight episode season culminated with a live taping of a panel of historians discussing how the holocaust and post-war refugee crisis shaped jewish american identity, memory, and culture. The season, titled year zero, was nominated for a webby award.
$83,653 spent6% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,495,541.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $7.3M to $5.9M (−18%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2019 10% · 2020 11% · 2021 18% · 2023 17% · 2024 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Gemma Birnbaum
Executive director
Board chair
Charles Knapp
Chair - on 12/31/23
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020, and between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 22 funders to 31 funders, grant income rose $249k → $330k.
11 of 100 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $15k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Center for Jewish History Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY raised.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 100 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
34% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 51% · 2019 45% · 2020 36% · 2021 47% · 2022 28% · 2023 21% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
30% of AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
80% of AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $912k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
60%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Center for Jewish History · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY (New York) receives grants from 100 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,629,436 to it, the largest being THE SLOVIN FOUNDATION ($606,500). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 100 organizations giving $3,629,436 in grants to AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- THE SLOVIN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $606,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds American Jewish Historical Society →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 100 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing