Spotlight on invaluable resources for studying Jewish women such as:

• short biographies of Jewish women from many walks of life
• primary sources that illuminate the lives of historic Jewish women
• detailed information on Jewish women's archival collections across North America
• information on hundreds of women and organizations that can be searched by subject, occupation, and location

Centerpiece of JWA's effort to create access to the rich history of Jewish women, the Virtual Archive is housed on the JWA website. Available to users with different needs, it is instantly searchable, allowing users to extract information inaccessible through conventional archival catalogues or collections. Users can enter the name of a woman, an occupation, an organization, or a location and receive immediate information about their subject in the privacy of their own workspace.

The Virtual Archive stores biographical material and information of more than 500 Jewish women and over 90 organizations, cross-indexed by era, occupation, location, and subject. The Archive also offers descriptions of more than 700 archival collections found in almost 200 physical archives across North America. Links are included for many of these repositories. Collections are catalogued by subject, occupation, location, and type of materials. Also in the Virtual Archive are over 1,800 digitized archival images-letters, personal papers, photographs, and other historical artifacts-related to JWA's Woman of Valor exhibits.

The Virtual Archive is an invaluable tool for students of all ages, researchers, scholars, educators, and casual browsers. Its goal is to reference all major archival holdings on Jewish women in North America. Continually expanding as new materials are surveyed and become available, it will remain a work in progress.