The Center for Jewish History

In 2025, 25 years after it first opened, BBB unveiled a refreshed public face for the Center with a redesigned entry lobby, the opening of Ruth’s Bookstore, and new interior and exterior graphic elements. This open and welcoming public arrival experience sets a new design vision for the Center as it looks ahead to its next quarter-century.

Located at the eastern end of the lobby, Ruth’s Bookstore, a gift of Ruth and Sid Lapidus, supports the Center’s mission through a curated collection of books for public perusal and purchase. Ash wood shelving and display tables create a light and welcoming retail space, while integrated signage designed by LVCK—A Beyer Blinder Belle Studio contributes to the Center’s new graphic identity.

The David Berg Rare Book Room is a state-of-the-art exhibition and shared central holdings space for rare books, first editions, illuminated manuscripts, and letters dating back hundreds of years. Two perimeter walls combine archival exhibition vitrines with glass “viewing” walls that enable the public to see into the room; inside, custom archival bookcases with glass-front doors provide secure book display, while smaller millwork pieces in the center include storage drawers for larger folios and flat files.

In 1995, BBB was commissioned to create a permanent home for the Center near Union Square by unifying five contiguous lots that spanned 16th and 17th Streets around a new, four-story structure at the heart of the block, which now centers on the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Great Hall and, above it, the Lillian Goldman Reading Room. Taller buildings along 17th Street house classrooms, offices, archives for the Center’s five partner institutions, and the Leo and Julia Forchheimer Auditorium.