Joan Meyers Jampel

Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage

Your Primary Source for Michigan Jewish History

The Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage is a collaborative effort to promote Michigan’s Jewish heritage through the preservation of archival collections and joint outreach. It strives to connect the past with the present and celebrate the contributions of Michigan’s Jewry to the state and beyond.

Friends of the Joan Meyers Jampel Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage

Friends of the Joan Meyers Jampel Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage help support the activities, conservation projects and outreach of the Jampel Center. Member benefits include exclusive tours, pop-up opportunities and program discounts.

We invite you to join the Friends of the Jampel Center at one of five membership levels.Bec

Partner Organizations

Rabbi Leo M. Franklin Archives of Temple Beth El

The Franklin Archives collects, maintains, and makes available records pertaining to Michigan Jewish history with a vast majority related to Temple Beth El and its functions. As the first Jewish congregation in the state, Temple Beth El’s Franklin Archives incorporates materials from early Jewish Detroit, its prominent members, and the organizations they helped to build. Materials include photographs, correspondence, congregational records, oral histories, and video and audio records. FA also houses the Jewish War Veterans of Michigan’s archival collection.      

Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit

The Simons Archives collect, preserve and make available for research the records of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, United Jewish Foundation, member agencies, local Jewish communal organizations and the papers of Detroit’s Jewry. Its vast repository includes more than seventy collections of documents, photographs, and audio/visual media. It also holds the Irwin I. Cohn Michigan Jewish Cemetery Index, a free database with more than 70,000 recorded burials.

Community Digitization Station

Do you have your own family archives you would like to digitize, but don’t have the equipment to do so? The Jampel Center provides a space for community users to utilize its equipment to transfer their old media to digital formats. And it’s free of charge! Please read the guidelines regarding the use of the Community Digitization Station. Available by appointment only.

Check Out Our Videos!

Visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you will find oral history interviews, historical film footage, and original content, including Out of the Box: A Bisel of History.

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