MyHeritage headquarters in Or Yehuda, Israel. Photo: MyHeritage via Wikicommons.

The Israeli genealogy website MyHeritage announced on Tuesday that it added 5.8 million Jewish records to its platform.

The move comes as part of a new partnership with the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City and its genealogy affiliate, JewishGen.

The records, which are sorted into 28 collections, are the first installment being released by JewishGen under a licensing agreement that will ultimately make almost all of its records accessible on MyHeritage.

“The agreement between JewishGen and MyHeritage furthers our goal to expand the availability of JewishGen’s valuable collection of historical records to genealogy researchers around the world,” said Jack Kliger, CEO and president of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. “We are pleased that this agreement will also contribute to the expanding interest in Jewish genealogy.”

JewishGen features more than 30 million records relating to Jewish communities in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and North America. Records are available to search and view on its website in English only.

The first set of records added to MyHeritage span from the 18th to 21st century, and cover geographical regions including Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, and Germany. MyHeritage’s translation technology will allow individuals to review the records in other languages besides English, such as Hebrew, Russian, or Greek.

MyHeritage’s database holds 16.4 billion historical records.

“We are delighted that a significant percentage of our historical records will now also be available via MyHeritage,” said JewishGen executive director Avraham Groll. “The collaboration with MyHeritage will help millions of people across the world learn more about their Jewish roots.”