Over the years, the Archives have taken care to complete its collections by microfilming material where the original is preserved in other archival institutions in Israel and worldwide.
The nature of the material on the microfilms reflects the Zionist activity of organizations and institutions, and of Zionist personalities in Israel and worldwide. The material photocopied on microfilm is from the following countries: Ukraine, Russia, USA, Austria, Britain, Holland, Hungary, Israel, the Czech Republic, France, and Canada.
Approximately 750 microfilms are currently preserved at the Zionist Archives. The large amount of material copied from the “Osovy Archives” (the Special” Archives) in Moscow contains documentation of Zionist and Jewish organizations in Berlin, Vienna, and Paris from the 1910s until the 1940s.
Similarly, the microfilms collection includes various protocol books, for instance the protocol books of Hadassah and Young Hadassah from the years 1914-1973 (from the USA Hadassah Archives) and protocols of the sessions of Habonim in North America (from the YIVO Archives), many personal papers, such as the papers of Steven Wise (from the American Jewish Historical Society; Waltham) and selected documents from the British Foreign Office files regarding the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel from the end of the 19th century, files of the British War Office from the First World War (from the National British Archives).
Language of registration: The language of the descriptions of the microfilms is in accordance with the original language of the documents preserved on the microfilm.
The structure of the microfilm collections
The microfilm collections are divided into 2 types and are coded accordingly.
CM – microfilms of archival materials originally preserved in other archival institutions in Israel and worldwide.
AM – microfilms that constitute a backup of archival materials originally preserved in the Zionist Archives.
Each film belonging to one of the two groups is coded accordingly.
For example:
CM\20 – Austria. The Paul Friedman plan for Jewish settlement in Meidan, 1891-1892
CM\367 – protocols of various bodies of Hadassah and Young Hadassah, 1914-1973.
AM\1014\1-4 – Jewish National Fund, property of missing persons, 1945-1949