The Pinkasim Project and Collection aims to locate, catalogue, and digitize surviving pinkasim, that is, records of European Jewish communities and regional councils from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries created in specially designated handwritten books. These volumes include detailed descriptions of the administrative functioning of the Jewish bodies that created them, documenting the ways in which Jewish society organized its social, economic, religious, cultural, and family life, as well as aspects of its relations with non-Jewish governments and bodies. The communal pinkasim, until now scattered across archives around the globe, are being progressively collected, digitized, and made accessible on the website of the National Library of Israel. The Pinkasim Collection includes an annotated bibliography of pinkasim, an introduction to the use of pinkasim as historical sources, and digital copies of published pinkasim where copyright allows

(Description adapted from information on project website)