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Valery Bazarov immigrated to the United States in 1988. He holds two graduate degrees from Odessa State University (1969) and Hunter College of the City University of New York (1994). Since joining the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1988 and over the next decade he assisted the arrival of more than 200,000 Jewish refugees who came to the United States under HIAS auspices. Since 1999 Valery is in charge of the HIAS Location and Family History Service, helping immigrants of different generations to find family members and friends – often in other countries – whom they lost contact with over the years, sometimes, decades. He is especially committed to finding and honoring the heroes who rescued European Jews during the Holocaust. Valery also researches HIAS history and presents his findings in lectures and publications.
Jane Rosen Berenbeim has worked for more than 20 years as a Development Officer for New York City non-profit organizations, including Columbia University, Mount Sinai Medical Center, and at present, the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services. In earlier incarnations, she taught History and managed a financial planning service. She holds an undergraduate degree from Vassar College and graduate degrees from Harvard and Brandeis Universities. She has been researching her family history for the past eight years and served as Fundraising Chair of the 2006 IAJGS Conference.
Adam Bronstein is a professional Market Research Analyst who has been researching his family history in his spare time during the past nine years. He is also the designer of the JGS, NY web page, the Brooklyn Naturalization Index, the Russian Jewish Soldier Memorial Database Index, and has acted as consultant to the JGS on various computer and database issues. This is Adam's ninth year on the Executive Council.
Linda Cantor, President, a retired teacher for the New York City Board of Education, has been researching her family history for over twenty-five years and has done considerable research on her Lithuanian, Galician and Volhynian roots. She is a former president of JGS of Long Island, a former Board member of IAJGS, and coordinator of several Lithuanian town SIGs. Linda was the registration chair of the 19th Annual Conference on Jewish Genealogy, co-chair of the 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, secretary of JGS, and has been a member of JGS for over twenty-five years
Stewart Driller, Treasurer, is an electrical engineer who retired from Con Edison ten years ago, when an interest in New York City history and the Lower East Side raised questions about his family's origins. Since then he has been researching his family in the Lublin area of Poland and northern Galicia. Stew is also a volunteer at the Genealogy Institute and Conservation Lab at the Center for Jewish History.
Edith Ewenstein was General Director/CEO of a not-for-profit association focusing on public health issues until retiring several years ago. She describes her research for her family roots in Volhynia and Galicia as work in progress. Edith was a member of the JGS conference committees in 1999 and in 2006, as Banquet Co-chair for the first and producing the Banquet Journal for the second. Most recently she co-chaired the JGS 30th Anniversary Brunch and Program. Her volunteer efforts for other genealogy projects include the digitizing of Bronx County naturalization records. Edith also has given presentations on genealogy at the Jewish Community Center (Manhattan) and to Hadassah groups.
Gloria Berkenstat Freund was the executive director of a non-profit organization before deciding to devote full time to memorializing her ancestral towns in Poland and their people. She began studying Yiddish in 1996 and has been translating Yizkor Books for Polish and Lithuanian shtetlekh for the past few years. She is JRI-PL Shtetl CO-OP leader for several towns and the coordinator for one of the Polish State Archive indexing projects. Gloria was the Membership VP of JGSLI and the Vice President - Programs for JGS. She was the Program Committee Chair for the 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.
Avrum Geller has been engaged in genealogical research on a professional basis for four years, after researching his own family for two decades. He has conducted family history workshops in assisted-living facilities and with Jewish service organizations. He performed volunteer work to help build online databases of New York City records. He is a volunteer with DOROT, an agency providing volunteer social services primarily for homebound elders. He has been a member of the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus, performing music set to Yiddish text. He was previously Vice President – Marketing Services of Block Drug Company, a manufacturer of healthcare and household products, and was recognized as a specialist in advertising and marketing to older adults. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa.
Eden Joachim grew up in an extended 4 generation family and has been researching her family history for 15 years. As Archive Coordinator for the JRI-Poland Indexing Project (Rzeszow and Sanok, Poland branches), Coordinator of the Vilna District Research Group of LitvakSIG, Acting Co-Coordinator of the Gesher Galicia SIG and volunteer for the Italian Genealogy Group’s vital records indexing projects, she keeps very busy. Eden was the VP of the JGS – Bergen County, NJ from 2003-2006, was the Banquet Chair of the 26th IAJGS Conference in New York and enjoys reading and crossword puzzles in her spare time. She works in the finance field for restaurant and hospitality corporations.
Michael Levine,Vice President Membership, is a Systems Analyst in the telephone industry. He started researching his family when he was in high school. He resumed his search when he found that he could combine his interest in genealogy with his interest in computers. Michael led an effort to transliterate revision lists from the Borisov District of Belarus, whence his family originates.
Roni Seibel Liebowitz began researching her family history in January 1997 and soon after became involved with Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and JewishGen. A board member of JRI-Poland, she is the Archive Coordinator of Lodz, and Town Leader and Shtetl CO-OP Coordinator for Belchatow. She serves as webmaster (with technical help from Jerry Liebowitz) and coordinator of JewishGen’s ShtetLinks for Belchatow, Lodz, and the Lodz Area Research Group (LARG) websites, and is also Project Coordinator for the Belchatow and Piotrkow Yizkor Book sites. As consultant and participant in the documentary Angel of Ahlem, a true story about a World War II soldier and the men he liberated, she traveled to Israel, Poland, and the U.S. interviewing survivors and participating in special events related to the documentary. She was the Registration and Exhibit Chairperson of the 26th IAJGS Conference in New York in 2006. A former full-time speech and language pathologist (retired in June 2004), she wonders how she ever fit in the time to work.
Hadassah Lipsius is a Quality Engineering Manager for a major defense contractor. She was co-chair of the 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. She is the Transliteration Coordinator and a board member of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and the Database Manager for the Warszawa Research Group. Das takes pride that her family were city dwellers (i.e. Warszawa and St. Petersburg) for over 200 years.
Michael Pertain, Secretary, an ordained rabbi, is a retired Guidance Counselor, with the New York City School System. He is now teaching English Writing at Brooklyn College. Separated from his family at an early age, a serendipitous event brought him back in contact with one cousin only a few years ago. He got very involved in finding out about his long lost cousins to the point that he is now the family historian who helps keep others connected! He is involved in interfaith activities, Jewish education, theater, gardening, walking-hiking & learning to decipher the computer, his biggest challenge. Michael taught the Jewish Genealogy workshop at the Fall 2005 Family History Fair at CUNY Graduate Center and is a Genealogy mentor with the Samberg Family History Program for the third summer in 2006. He volunteered at the 2003 JGSNY Beyond the Basics Seminar and chaired the 2005 Basics and Beyond Seminar. He has taught classes in genealogy at his local synagogue and is co-chairing the resource room at the 2006 IAJGS Convention. He has been photographing and translating gravestones and collecting cemetery lists for the Worldwide Jewish Cemetery Project, most recently at Hebrew Cemetery, the oldest Jewish cemetery in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he procured the entire burial list & photographed some of the stones.
Steven W. Siegel, Vice President Programming, is library director and archivist at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA in Manhattan. He has chaired the annual Family History Fair (1990-2005) during New York Archives Week. He is a past president of the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York and the 2004 recipient of the Round Table's Award for Archival Achievement. He is president of the Jewish Historical Society of New York, serves on the Jewish Book Council Board of Directors, and is a member of the Cornell University Hillel Board of Trustees and the Cornell University Council. Steve was a founding member of the JGS and president (1985-1989), and he has served as managing editor and acting editor of Dorot. His research and lectures focus on Jewish genealogy, Jewish archival sources and New York City local history. Steve was co-founder and co-editor of Toledot: The Journal of Jewish Genealogy (1977-1982) and compiled the Archival Resources volume of Jewish Immigrants of the Nazi Period in the USA (1978).
Paul Silverstone is the author of several books on naval vessels and is now completing a five-volume series covering all US warships from 1775 to 2007. He is an expert on clandestine immigration to Palestine during the1938-48 period (Aliyah Bet) and has published a monograph "Our Only Refuge -Open the Gates!" He does genealogical research on his family with particular emphasis on families from Winnipeg, Makow Mazowiecki & Shumskoye. Paul has been a member of the Executive Council since December 1996 and was Treasurer of the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc. from 2000 to 2007. He is a director of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.
Susan Stone, a professional forensic genealogist, has been researching her personal ancestral history for more than twenty years. She is a member of the Jewish Records Indexing – Poland Board and the Archives Coordinator for the Polish State Archives in Siedlce, Poland. Susan was a founding member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Long Island. She has authored four family books and has written a genealogy curriculum for children