NEW YORK, NY.- The Center for Jewish History in New York City, one of the world’s foremost centers for the intellectual and cultural exploration of the modern Jewish experience, announced it will upload a work of art to Google’s gigapixel program on Google Art Project. With super high resolution, Google’s program offers viewers the unique opportunity to zoom in and explore each brushstroke.

The image chosen by the Center is Marcel Janco’s Arab Café In Ramallah, an oil painting from 1956. Janco, a Romanian and Israeli artist, architect, and art theorist, was a founder of Dadaism and championed Constructivism in Eastern Europe. The work was owned by Kathryn Yochelson, a noted collector of Israeli art who has written that the painting “represents an early scene in Ramallah where the streets were shaded with festoons and where Arabs and Jews congregated and were friendly.” The painting is in the collection of YU Museum, a partner of the Center.

The Center is continuing to expand the organization’s library of images on Google Art Project and Google Cultural Institute, allowing internet viewers to instantly explore artworks housed at the Center. The next group of images from the Center to be uploaded are 50 watercolors depicting Jewish life in sub-Saharan Africa and dating from 2005–2008 by artist and architectural historian Jay A. Waronker. He was awarded a Fulbright to study and paint synagogues in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005, and seeks to preserve Jewish history, especially in areas where local Jewish culture is disappearing.

Located in New York City, the Center is home to five partner institutions – American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Spanning more than 700 years of history, the partners’ collections comprise the largest repository of modern Judaica in the world. They include books, documents, photographs, ritual objects, artwork, film, recordings, and textiles.

RAPHAEL LEMKIN WORK NOW ON GOOGLE’S CULTURAL INSTITUTE
The Center for Jewish History will also make available to Google’s Cultural Institute the work of Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term “genocide” and was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. After escaping Nazi-occupied Poland in 1940, Lemkin was instrumental in passing the United Nations Genocide Convention in 1948. Lemkin’s work will be featured in an online exhibition on Google, including photographs and handwritten notes leading up to his accomplishments on the Genocide Convention. The Lemkin collection includes thousands of letters and documents which have been digitized and are available on search.cjh.org, from the American Jewish Historical Society, a partner of the Center.

STREET VIEW OF THE CENTER
In addition, a specially designed Street View “trolley” took 360 degree images of the interior of the Center for Jewish History, which were then stitched together, enabling viewers around the world to "visit" the Center and have a virtual tour, providing a full walk through of the public space within the Center.

“We are thrilled to continue our work with Google to provide extraordinary opportunities for people around the world to experience the depth and breadth of the diverse collections housed at the Center,” stated Michael S. Glickman, Chief Operating Officer, Center for Jewish History. “Access to these works of art, historical treasures and a virtual tour of our remarkable facility will help to illuminate Jewish history for local and global communities and enhance the experience of thousands of scholars, students, and members of the general public who do not live in New York City and wish to access the offerings of the Center for Jewish History.”