The Bronfman Jewish Canadiana Collection is an extensive collection of ephemera from the 1910s – 1990s. It spans 150 linear feet and is comprised of over 1,100 archival boxes. It depicts Jews and Judaism in Canada through press clippings, pamplets, articles, small monographs, and chapbooks. Materials are arranged by topic, such as education, institutions, performing arts, community personalia, and businesses.

The collection was initiated in 1953 under the directorship of David Rome and funded by Samuel Bronfman. It was overseen by Reference Librarian Ron Finegold, and was compiled by JPL librarians and technicians between 1950-2000.

The Rare Book Collection contains about 1800 volumes dating from 1481 - 1899. Commentaries, rabbinics, early grammars, canonical works (Talmud, Mishnah, Zohar), philosophy, and history feature prominantly.

Its provenance is twofold; 300 were carefully collected by JPL co-founder Yehuda Kaufman Even-Shmuel, (1886-1976). The remaining 1500 volumes were entrusted to the JPL in 1952-1953 by the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction (JCR) Inc. It was part of a repatriation project wherein orphaned Nazi-looted books and Judaica were distributed to Jewish communities worldwide from the Offenbach Archival Depot in the American Zone of Germany.

The Ephemera Collection is an extensive collection of clippings, pamphlets, small monographs, chapbooks and other material on Jews and Judaism in the diaspora and Israel. A lage proportion is in Yiddish and not easily discoverable online. It contains fragile monographs that predate the 20th Century. The collection was developed in the 1940s by JPL librarians and was augmented by deposits from community members.

The Yiddish Periodicals Collection contains bound physical volumes and digitized microfilms. Beside YIVO, this collection of Yiddish journals is one of the most extensive in North America. Publication countries of origin include Canada, Germany, USA, France, Poland, Palestine, Austria, Sweden, Lithuania, Argentina, Russia, Spain, UK, Romania, Israel, South Africa, Uruguay, USSR, Belgium, Cuba. Dates span from 1849 - 1990s.

Lilly Toth (z"l) was an avid collector, and Holocaust survivor based in Montreal. Her miniature book collection (~1,120 volumes) was acquired in 2021. It includes examples of fine literature, children’s literature, artists’ books, bilingual dictionaries, musical scores, mass-market minis, and even ‘macrominiatures’ -- books that are technically larger than the miniature designation (less than 3” or 76 mm). Combined with the Daisy Gross Miniature Book Collection, the JPL is one of the most substantial North American miniature book repositories.

Daisy Gross is a Montreal Jewish community member, Holocaust survivor, and the generous donor in 2023 of a miniature book collection comprised of about 1500 volumes in various languages and multiple genres. Its processing is ongoing. Combined with the Lily Toth Miniature Book Collection, the JPL is one of the most substantial North American miniature book repositories.

The Closed Stacks represents a collection of volumes that can be retrieved by staff from the climate-controlled stacks for in-house reference. It includes 450-500 titles published before 1900, 200 imprints from Montreal, various rare books, and more. Volumes may be stored here for any number of reasons: rarity, fragile condition or size, cost, pedagogical purposes, and protection against vandalism or damage.

The Yizkor Book Collection documents Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust. 'Yizkor' means 'memorial' and represents a substantial number of first-hand accounts and self-published memoirs. The collection is mostly in Yiddish and Hebrew with a number of titles increasingly translated into English.

The William Ostreger Audio Collection features original recordings of Jewish authors, intellectuals, and artists gathered for talks and interviews in English, French, Hebrew, and Yiddish at the Jewish Public Library (1950s – 1980s). Zachary Baker of Stanford University Libraries explains that “The roster of personalities whose voices were captured on tape reads like a who’s-who of Yiddish culture in North America and Israel from the 1950s to the 1990s: poets H. Leivick, Kadia Molodowsky, Melech Ravitch, Abraham Sutzkever, and Rachel Korn; novelists Chaim Grade, Chava Rosenfarb, and Isaac Bashevis Singer; actors and recital artists Hertz Grosbard and Chayele Grober; historian Jacob Shatzky; literary scholar Dov Sadan, to give just a few examples. The tape collection also includes recordings of English-language programs featuring the notable Canadian writers (and Montrealers) Irving Layton and Mordecai Richler, and the preeminent Jewish historian Salo Wittmayer Baron.

William Ostreger, JPL board member, started recording JPL programs in 1951. He recorded about 500 events over the next two decades. Additional JPL staff continued recording thereafter. Thanks to a digitization collaboration, a selection of the recordings are available online through the Yiddish Book Centre.

The Henry Rabin Yiddish Talking Books Collection is a unique audio series initiated by the JPL in the 1980s. Native Yiddish speakers from Montreal – including JPL board members, volunteers, and staff members – were recruited to read and record classics of Yiddish literature for the benefit of the sight-impaired. The program was sparked by Shmuel Rosenberg, a library supporter whose wife Rose had lost her eyesight. Henry Rabin made the recordings in a studio in the lower level of the JPL. Thanks to a digitization collaboration, they are available online through the Yiddish Book Centre.