Employment Opportunities

The Center for Jewish History is home to five partners—American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The partner collections total more than five miles of archival material and span nearly a thousand years of history. When the Center opened its doors as the new "Library of Congress of the Jewish people" 16 years ago, it made a commitment to preserve the treasures that live within its walls and make them accessible to scholars, students, and diverse audiences. The Center relies on philanthropic support to do this work.

The Center is currently looking to fill the following position/s:

• Chief Development Officer

  The Center for Jewish History is seeking an enterprising, passionate, engaged, and committed development professional to expand the development profile of the Center. The Chief Development Officer will lead the Center’s Development Department, will report directly to the President and Chief Executive Officer, and be a member of the senior leadership team.

  Essential Functions

  • Build, manage and lead a Development Department for CJH, retaining a highly effective development team as well as encourage an environment of collaboration and sharing of best practices
  • Responsible for soliciting and stewarding a portfolio of major and principal prospects and cultivating senior-level relationships with a variety of donors, including individuals, foundations, corporations, government leaders and agencies and other partners
  • Play a key role in formulating a strategic development plan involving annual giving, grant-writing, planned giving, and a multi-year endowment campaign.
  • Responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive campaign infrastructure, strategy and plan to achieve CJH’s fundraising goals and objectives at the start of its 20th year and going forward
  • Coordinate Center development efforts with the member Partners.
  • Develop proposals and reports for foundation and corporate fundraising.
  • Build professional relationships of respect and trust across the CJH board, executive leadership, staff, donors and community members.
  • Supervise the management of a donor mailing list and database.
  • Oversee the planning and management of special donor-related in-person and virtual events to help expand the donor base for CJH.
  • Forge collaborative relationships with the CEO, the Board, as well as with the operational, financial, mission-based and technological leadership of the organization.
  • Work with and staff the Development Committee of the Board.
  • Represent CJH at meetings and professional conferences, in addition to coordinating site visits and other funder events.

  Attributes & Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree and 10+ years experience (including managerial experience) with proven track record in fundraising required.
  • Exceptional writing and editorial skills required; clear verbal communications skills required.
  • Passion for the work of humanities-oriented and cultural institutions (with a particular interest in Jewish studies welcome).
  • Highly motivated, detail-oriented, ability to work independently and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
  • Ability to work collaboratively and effectively with others to enhance the department and organization.
  • Ability to identify problems, generate possible solutions, and make recommendations to resolve matters.
  • Exhibit high levels of integrity, discretion and professionalism.
  • Strong computer skills: knowledge of Word, Excel, Raiser’s Edge (or similar) and Internet research required.
  • Ability to work evenings and weekends for major campaigns and special events.

  The Center for Jewish History is committed to diversity and inclusion. Qualified individuals who bring diverse perspectives to the workplace are especially encouraged to apply.

  Review of applications will begin immediately. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Please send your cover letter and resume to jobs@cjh.org.

  No phone calls, please.

• Digital Access and Preservation Librarian

  From 2018-2020, the Center implemented a new digital asset management and preservation system, Ex Libris’ Rosetta, to replace the Center’s previous system. As part of the implementation, over 50 terabytes of digital assets were migrated to Rosetta. The Center seeks a systems-focused librarian tasked with the maintenance of the shared system and the ongoing improvement of the digital assets found within the system.

  The Librarian will report to the Senior Manager for Metadata and Discovery. The successful candidate will work closely with department members in Metadata and Discovery Services, the Center’s Information Technology Department, vendors, and stakeholders in the Center and Partner community to ensure that assets and their corresponding description will be preserved in perpetuity. The position is full-time and exempt.

  Main Duties

  • Oversee a robust, proprietary digital asset management and preservation system to ensure the Center and Partner institutions can continue to build a diverse array of digital holdings that is free to the public and available online across the globe.
  • Together with colleagues in Metadata and Discovery Services, expand functionality and facilitate interoperability between our digital asset management system, the Center’s other shared library systems, and external data-sharing exchanges.
  • Serve as primary contact with Ex Libris and external contacts related to the maintenance of the digital asset management and preservation system.
  • Work collaboratively with Center and Partner staff to analyze, remediate, and troubleshoot new and migrated digital assets.
  • Maintain an in-house developed processor tool, written in Python, that assists Center and Partner staff to create and submit deposits into the system as part of an automated and mediated workflow.
  • Collaborate with Center and Partner colleagues on expanding existing digital preservation policy and planning, especially as policies are facilitated or enforced via our digital asset management system.
  • Participate in the Rosetta user community and larger digital preservation community, including monitoring the developments and professional best practices in digital asset management, digital preservation, and related topics.

  Education and experience

  • ALA-accredited graduate degree or accredited graduate degree in another appropriate discipline, such as computer science, digital preservation and curation, or archival science with a specialization in digital archives.
  • Comfort and proficiency in performing work within and outside of a digital asset or content management system to improve, audit, and optimize assets for public and staff use.
  • Experience working and thinking in Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) and programming languages like Python to assist with maintenance of in-house developed processor.
  • Proven capacity to foster and facilitate the work of others in using library systems or platform.
  • Familiarity with current standards used in libraries, archives, and museums for description and preservation, including Dublin Core, MAchine-Readable Cataloging (MARC), Resource Description and Access (RDA), and Encoded Archival Description (EAD).

  Essential Skills

  • Ability to devise own objectives, meet independent goals and deadlines, and see a variety of projects through to completion.
  • Commitment to working in and fostering a collaborative environment with diverse stakeholders of varying levels of expertise in the preservation and description of digital assets.
  • Effective communication skills with the capability to translate from technical to ordinary language; where necessary, maintain, expand, or create workflow documentation to train others and reflect best practices.
  • Knowledge of and aptitude for articulating best practices in using library/content/asset systems and preserving digital assets in a library, archival, or museum setting.

  Preferred Skills

  • Ease using and administering digital asset management systems, preservation systems, integrated library systems and/or database management systems, especially Ex Libris products like Aleph or Rosetta.
  • Understanding of library systems structure and environments, including interoperability between systems and how systems communicate via protocols, particularly OAI-PMH.
  • Experience working with databases and utilities such as Oracle and SQL*Plus, or database management systems like MySQL.

  The Center for Jewish History is committed to diversity and inclusion. Qualified individuals who bring diverse perspectives to the workplace are especially encouraged to apply.

  Review of applications will begin immediately. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Send cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references to Eric Fritzler, Senior Manager for Metadata and Discovery, at eafritzler@cjh.org.

  No phone calls, please.