Contact Donate
Menu

Volunteers Make Our World Go ‘Round!

DJHS is a small agency with only three staff members. So much of what we accomplish and share with our community is driven by the creativity, motivation, and skills of our volunteers.

Volunteer form

Volunteer Form
Areas of interest
Average availability (day)
Average availability (time)

Get Involved

Opportunities:

Volunteers are at the heart of everything we do at DJHS. Whether you're passionate about history, storytelling, research, or hands-on preservation work, there's a place for you here. Explore our current opportunities below, or reach out to learn more about how you can help preserve the history of the Dallas Jewish community.

Oral History Project

A flagship initiative of DJHS, the Oral History Project began in 1971, capturing oral history interviews of individuals who had been in Dallas as early as 1900. Today, we continue gathering stories to add to our ever-expanding permanent collection.

Oral History Interviewers: Following a comprehensive training session and opportunities to shadow and observe oral history interviews, interviewers will guide conversations with our oral history donors to capture their stories. Interviewers may suggest and contact potential donors, or interviews may be assigned.

Video editing: All oral history interviews are lightly edited to add identifying information and credits. Assistance with adding slides with relevant information and entering metadata will enhance our productivity.

Oral History Transcription: Each interview is transcribed and summarized, with key subjects identified to aid researchers and improve public access. This component is vital in documenting and preserving the history of Jewish Dallas.

What’s in the Archive?

The DJHS Archive is bursting with documents and cultural artifacts that illustrate the rich history of the Dallas Jewish Community. Come help us research and describe these cultural treasures as we work toward building a robust digital repository!

A digital repository and catalog will allow our patrons to access the amazing letters, oral history recordings, and artifacts we house here in our archive. You can help us build our digital repository in a number of ways.  We are looking for volunteers with a love of history and an interest in archival and preservation work.  We have multiple positions based on your experience and interests. Contact us to make an appointment and discuss!

Internship Program

Internships at the DJHS are built around each applicant’s background, education, skill set, and desired field. You will have the opportunity to work directly with the Archivist while processing, describing, and arranging items in the collection. We will support interns receiving class credit if projects are approved by your educational institution.

Archives Intern Responsibilities:

  • Archival arrangement and description
  • Preventive Conservation of textual, photographic, audio and visual recordings
  • Metadata creation and maintenance of the digital database
  • Digital preservation, curation, and migration
  • Researching and writing

Qualifications: 

Some graduate level education in Library Science, Archival Studies, Museum Studies/Science, Jewish Studies, and/or History preferred.