September 19, 2010, 2:00 p.m. - JGSNY Meeting - "Memories of Ancestral Homes"
Members of panel: Professors Mihai Grunfeld, Mimi Schwartz, Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer. Moderator: Renee Steinig
The presenters will discuss life in the towns after the Holocaust, personal experiences, impressions, and anecdotal stories.
Mihai Grunfeld, author of Leaving, Memories of Romania, offers a rich and stimulating account of growing up in post-war Romania, haunted by the Holocaust his parents do not speak about. At age 18, he and his brother travel to Czechoslovakia and escape to Austria, Their journey takes them through several countries and finally the United States where he settles. Mihai Grunfeld is a professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature at Vassar College.
Mimi Schwartz, author of Good Neighbors, Bad Times, Echoes of My Father’s German Village, grew up in America, hearing her father’s boyhood stories about his German village. Only when she heard about the remarkable story of the Torah being rescued by Christians on Kristallnacht, did she begin to understand what these stories mean. For twelve years, she traveled seeking answers, collecting stories, checking historical records. Mimi Schwartz, the author of five books and numerous essays, is a professor emerita at Richard Stockton College in N.J. where she teaches workshops in memoir and creative nonfiction.
Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer are the co-authors of Ghosts of Home, The Afterlife of Czernowitz in Jewish Memory. Professors Hirsch and Spitzer narrate an exciting multilayered tour of Czernowitz, through story-telling, part history and part memoir, that includes voices of parents, survivors, and witnesses. It is also a delicate and moving story of how individuals connect to each other, giving us back the richness and frailty of the past. Marianne Hirsch, the daughter of Czernowitz Holocaust survivors, is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the Institute for research on Women and Gender at Columbia University. She is the author of many books. Leo Spitzer, a historian, and Hirsch’s husband, is Kathe Tappe Vernon professor of History Emeritus at Dartmouth College and also has authored many books, most recently Hotel Bolivia: A Culture of memory in a Refuge from Nazism.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open before the meeting, starting at 11:00 AM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
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October 17, 2010, 2:00 p.m. - JGSNY Meeting - “One Foot in America, the Jewish Emigrants of the Red Star Line and Eugeen Van Mieghem"
Speaker: Erwin Joos
This is a riveting account about the mass emigration of Eastern-European Jews from Antwerp to America between 1873 and 1934. The greatest number came over after the pogroms, between 1900 and 1914. The journey to American ports which took from seven to fourteen days was a grueling experience for those in steerage. The estimate is that between 30-40 percent of Jewish Americans have ancestors who sailed with the Red Star Line, which was one of the most important American shipping lines. Many stories have been written about the emigration experience from Antwerp by Jewish writers such as Sholom Aleichem and Yuri Suhl. Noteworthy passengers include Irving Berlin, Golda Meir, and Albert Einstein. The Antwerp artist Eugeen Van Mieghem is probably the only artist in Europe who made a cycle of works of art about these Jewish emigrants. He lived in his parents’ tavern on the Montevideo Street just in front of the warehouse of the Red Star Line.
Erwin Joos is the curator of Belgium’s Eugeen Van Mieghem Museum and president of the Eugeen Van Mieghem Foundation, a non-profit organization with more than 1,000 members. He has organized exhibitions at YIVO, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and South Street Seaport Museum in addition to numerous exhibitions in Europe. Mr.Joos has lectured in Antwerp, Amsterdam, Paris, and New York, has written five major art books including Antwerp New York: Eugene Van Mieghem and edited 12 albums.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open before the meeting starting at 11:00 a.m. for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
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November 21, 2010, 2:00 p.m. – JGSNY Meeting - “American Passage, The History of Ellis Island”
Speaker: Vincent J. CannatoProfessor Cannato masterfully illuminates the story of Ellis Island from the days when it hosted pirate hangings witnessed by thousands of New Yorkers in the 19th century, to the turn of the 20th century when massive migrations sparked fierce debate and hopeful new immigrants often encountered corruption, harsh conditions, and political scheming. American Passage captures a time and place unparalleled in American immigration and history, and articulates the dramatic and bittersweet accounts of the immigrants, officials, interpreters, and social reformers who all play an important role in Ellis Island’s chronicle. Providing readers with a glimpse into the lives of these individuals, Cannato masterfully narrates this complex and often heart-wrenching epic.
Though the last immigrant was processed at Ellis Island over fifty years ago in 1954, this comprehensive history traces the importance of this historic location well after the final immigrant set foot there. American Passage illustrates the port of entry’s lasting legacy, from the discussion of the detention of aliens during World War II, to the rebirth of Ellis Island as a national monument. As immigration policy, national security, and the war on terror remain at the forefront of national debate today, this timely history offers Americans an important perspective on how the nation addressed similar challenges a century ago. In this sweeping history, tracing the dramatic stories and evolution of this influential American landmark, Cannato reveals that the history of Ellis Island is ultimately the story of what it means to be American.
Professor Cannato teaches history at the University of Massachusetts, Boston
and is the author of The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. A book-signing will follow the presentation.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan.
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open before the meeting starting at 11:00 a.m. for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
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December 19, 2010 – JGSNY Annual JGS “MEMBERS-ONLY” BRUNCH and Meeting
NOTE TIME and LOCATION:
Brunch at 11:00 a.m. Program at 12:30 p.m.
Brotherhood Synagogue
28 Gramercy Park South, near 3rd Avenue, Manhattan
Program: “HIAS Photo Archives: Faces of Immigration”
Speaker: Valery BazarovTo freeze-frame a moment in real life is generally an unachievable task, but sometimes with the help of a camera it can be captured. In every family, such photos are treasured and relished – even more so in the family of HIAS that amounts to more than 4 million Jews who immigrated to America. Forty linear feet of the archival collection contain 22,000 images taken at the most crucial times, when ties with the past were severed and a new life was still unknown. These pictures chronicle a period that lasted more than 100 years. The refugees from persecution, pogroms, and poverty, escapees from death and famine – they all pass before our eyes when telling the story of their suffering and hope. The first Seders on Ellis Island and Jewish children in Yokohama, the internment camps in Vichy France and displaced persons on board the military transports that brought them to safe havens, Hungarian and Cuban refugees, North African Jews and the Soviet Jewry exodus – these images will leave no hearts unmoved. This PowerPoint presentation will be accompanied by case studies of rescued and resettled families from different periods of immigration.
Valery Bazarov is the Director of HIAS Family History and Location Services helping immigrants of different generations find family members and friends – often in other countries – with whom they have lost contact over the years, sometimes decades. Valery is committed to finding and honoring the heroes, Jewish and non-Jewish, who rescued European Jews during the Holocaust. Valery Bazarov researches HIAS history and presents his findings in lectures and publications and is a frequent lecturer at the international and national conferences on Jewish genealogy.
+ Click here to Expand 2007 Past ProgramsSeptember 16, 2007 - 2:00 PM – JGSNY Meeting - Four Lives of Gregory Meisler: Jew, Warrior and Polish Patriot - Valery Bazarov
This biography of a Polish officer, reconstructed from scratch, highlights a relatively unknown page of Jewish life in Poland between the two wars, as well as the treatment of Jewish prisoners of war in Nazi camps. Enlisted in the Polish armed forces a year before Polish independence, Gregory Meisler learned how to be a Jew and an officer in the anti-Semitic Army. He later spent six years as a POW in Stalag VII at Murnau, Germany.
The illustrated case-study presentation will demonstrate how to find important information on the Internet and use such well-known resources as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC and the archives of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, along with lesser-known sources such as the Ministry of Defense in Great Britain.Valery Bazarov joined the staff of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in 1988, where he now is the director of the HIAS Location and Family History Service. During the 1990s he assisted with the arrival of more than 200,000 Jewish refugees who came from the former Soviet Union to the U.S. under HIAS auspices. Today he helps immigrants of different generations to find family members and friends – often in other countries – with whom they lost contact over the years. He also researches HIAS history and presents his findings in lectures and publications.
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History will be open from 12:30 to 1:45 PM on September 16 for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computer resources.
JGSNY Members - Free. Non-Members $5.00
October 21, 2007 - 2:00 PM – JGSNY Meeting - Recreating Your Shtetl – Why and How: Creating a Research Group and Website Dedicated to your Ancestral Town - Susana Leistner Bloch
Memorializing and learning about our ancestral hometowns (shtetlach) is key to understanding our past. This program will discuss the methodology and benefits of creating a research group and a cyberspace memorial to the vanished world of our ancestors. The shtetl page, which is easier to design than you think, becomes a record of what remains and is accessible throughout the world. Techniques for reaching out to your landsmen to create newsletters, organize research projects and share information will be demonstrated. Valuable resources for our descendants are created through these groups and publications about Jewish communities that no longer exist.
Susana Leistner Bloch, a Brazilian-born Canadian, has lived in Israel, England and South Africa. She is project coordinator for JewishGen ShtetlLinks and the international support desk and has been a moderator trainer. She coordinates the Kolbuszowa Region Research Group and the Suchostaw Region Research Group, producing two extensive websites of 270 shtetl pages that serve as memorials to destroyed Eastern European communities. Her published articles have appeared in The Galitzianer and East European Genealogist.
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History will be open from 12:30 to 1:45 PM on October 21 for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computer resources.
JGSNY Members - Free. Non-Members $5.00Gesher Galicia, the special interest group for those with Jewish roots in the former Austrian province of Galicia, will hold its annual regional meeting at 11:30 AM on October 21. The agenda includes a report on the Lviv (Ukraine) Archive research project involving landowner records and cadastral maps from the 19th century, an update on Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, a shtetl trip/cemetery restoration report by Linda Cantor, an update on Daniel Mendelsohn’s Bolechower Jewish Heritage Society by Joan Adler, and a screening of the short film, Past Lives: The Stanley Diamond Story. This program will conclude at 1 PM, to be followed by town and region research groups and birds-of-a-feather networking during lunch (1 to 2 PM). The Gesher Galicia meeting is open to all interested researchers and is free of charge. Pamela Weisberger is the Gesher Galicia research coordinator. More information at http://www.geshergalicia.org
November 18, 2007 - 2:00 PM – JGSNY Meeting - “Trick or Treat – Family History Web Searches” Speaker: David Kleiman. Please note: This is a program change from the listing in Dorot.
Explore web research tricks· Start with the basics.
· Work with "new" or "ignored" resources on well-known genealogy sites.
· Bring the data into your own system for customized and detailed analysis.
· Start from any general search engine (Google for example).
· Learn how to dig deep, follow a thread or a clue, and maybe find family treasure in the most unexpected websites.
· Grab targeted lists from "protected" websites (legally) and set up the information to do your own sorting and selections.
· Combine search results from both free and paid databases into your own analysis tool.This program has something for everyone - from the newest genealogist or computer user to the experts.
David M. Kleiman has been a family historian for over 35 years and is chair of the NY Computers and Genealogy SIG. He is the developer of both software and on-line databases for genealogists and served on the JGS-NY executive council. David does genealogical consulting for several current publishing projects and is president of Heritage Muse, Inc., an ePublishing company producing digital texts in the humanities and custom, multi-media books for family historians.The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History will be open from 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computer resources.
JGSNY Members - Free. Non-Members $5.00Tuesday, December 25, 2007 – Brunch at 11:30 AM (reservations required), Program at 12:45 PM (open to JGS members) - Annual Membership Brunch and 30th Anniversary Celebration at the 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York - “Write Your Family History NOW!” - Speaker: Mike Karsen
Help celebrate our 30th Anniversary by attending our Members’ Brunch.The day will provide an opportunity to get together with old and new friends, and reminisce about another great year for JGS and especially about the special events and accomplishments over the past three decades. The cost is $18 for members and $25 for non-members. Reserve early as seats are limited. Invitations will be mailed shortly. The annual business meeting will be held at 12:45 PM, followed by a special program, both open to all JGS members at no charge. Our guest speaker is Mike Karsen on the topic of “Write Your Family History Now.” It will be of interest to genealogists at every level of family history research. You may email Brunch Co-Chair Edie Ewenstein at Edie@jgsny.org. with your questions. We look forward to seeing you on December 25th.
We genealogists are very good at doing research and collecting many facts about our families. For any of a number of reasons, however, most of us delay publishing the results of this research. Learn how you can publish your findings in a book that varies from a simple 32 pages to one that contains detailed biographies and places your family in historical context. Your goal should be to organize your findings and share them with your family as soon as possible.
A professional genealogy speaker/instructor and researcher based in Chicago, Mike Karsen is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Genealogical Speakers Guild, and the National Genealogical Society. He speaks on genealogy topics locally and nationally, teaches classes in genealogy, and is on the faculty of the Newberry Library and Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies. Mike has presented at state, national, and international conferences. He is the author of the JewishGen website “Guide to Jewish Genealogy in Chicagoland” and of numerous articles on genealogy, and is President of the JGS of Illinois.
+ Click here to Expand 2008 Past ProgramsJanuary 20, 2008 - 2:00 PM - JGSNY Meeting - State of the Art: Researching and Restitution
Speaker: Karen S. Franklin - This program will demonstrate how Jewish genealogical research has been utilized to help solve looted art cases in New York, the Netherlands, Israel and Ukraine. Case studies for the Leo Baeck Institute and research for the Origins Unknown Agency will be highlighted. The cases vary from a potentially multi-million dollar restitution settlement for the Larsen family, to the return of a doll and furniture to a family who fled Germany to Palestine in the mid-1930s. Each study illustrates the specific research techniques and the general legal and ethical issues regarding looted art. Karen Franklin will also describe how the Council of American Jewish Museums ’ Resolution on Nazi-Era Looted Art, which she co-authored, affects the Jewish community and claims for Jewish objects. She will examine how individuals who may wish to research or claim art may do so.
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute will be open 12:30 to 1:45 pm for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers. Admission: Free to JGS members, $5 for others
February 17, 2008 - 2:00 PM - JGSNY Meeting - Arthur Szyk: An Artist’s Self-Portrait in Documents
Speaker: Rhoda Miller - A case study of the life of political cartoonist, illuminist, and illustrator Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) will be presented through the use of genealogy documents. Szyk is noted for his extraordinarily detailed art involving Jewish themes, anti-Nazi cartoons, advertising, and illustrations in which he typically includes self-portraiture as well as characterizations of his family. While Szyk was a ubiquitous artist during the WW II era, this is the first time his life has been examined in the context of his involvement with bureaucratic systems during his most prolific periods. The detail of his self-portrait through documents is revealed through genealogical research strategies that intertwine rabbinic research, Polish records, the Holocaust, American immigration and naturalization, as well as FBI investigation. His Jewish, anti-Nazi, and Zionist themes are explored as an expression of his personal and artistic life.
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute will be open 12:30 to 1:45 pm for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers. Admission: Free to JGS members, $5 for others
March 16, 2008 - 2:00 PM - JGSNY Meeting - Identical Strangers: Jewish Adoptees Fill in the Blanks to the Past
Speakers: Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
Elyse Schein, a writer and filmmaker, had always known she was adopted, but it wasn't until her mid-thirties that she searched for her biological mother. When Elyse contacted Louise Wise Services, the prestigious Jewish adoption agency in Manhattan, she was shocked to discover she had an identical twin sister. Paula Bernstein, a married freelance writer and mother, also knew she was adopted, but had no inclination to find her birth mother. When she answered a call from the adoption agency one spring afternoon, Paula's life suddenly divided into two starkly different periods: the time before and the time after she learned the truth. After their reunion, Paula and Elyse set out to answer the haunting questions surrounding their origins and their separation. As they investigate their birth mother's past, Paula and Elyse move closer toward solving the puzzle of their lives. This program is based on Bernstein and Schein's experiences researching Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited, which was published by Random House in October 2007. Bernstein and Schein will discuss how, as Jewish adoptees, they researched their biological roots using the Internet and the New York Public Library Genealogy Division.
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute will be open 12:30 to 1:45 pm for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
Admission: Free to JGS members, $5 for othersApril 13, 2008 - 2:00 PM - JGSNY Meeting - The Jewish Calendar Demystified -- and -- Searching the New York State Census with Fewer Tears
Speaker: Stephen P. Morse
This program will be held at The Abraham Joshua Heschel High School, 20 West End Avenue (at 60th Street).
The Jewish calendar is important to genealogists because Jewish vital records use the Jewish dates. This includes not only birth, marriage, and death certificates, but tombstone inscriptions as well. The Jewish calendar is both a solar and lunar calendar, with the months being synchronized to the moon and years to the sun. As such, the rules governing the calendar can be a bit daunting. This talk presents the calendar in an easy-to-understand – and sometimes tongue-in-cheek – fashion. The aim is not to make you an expert in computing Jewish dates (we have programs that do that) but rather to give you an appreciation for what's involved in such calculations. Topics covered include the 19-year calendar cycle, the origin of time, errors in the Jewish and secular calendars, andthe use of Hebrew letters to represent dates on tombstones.
There were several state censuses taken in New York starting from 1790. The most valuable for genealogical purposes are the 1905, 1915, and 1925 censuses because that was a time of large influx of immigration. There were numerous assorted aids for navigating through those censuses, but they were often hard to use, covered only specific years or boroughs, and were not available at all libraries. The One-Step website rectifies that situation by putting a universal finding aid on line that covers all the boroughs of New York City in each of the three census years. This presentation describes the One-Step approach and contrasts it to the previous methods.
Stephen P. Morse is the creator of the One-Step Website for which he has received both the Outstanding Contribution Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, and the Award of Merit from the National Genealogical Society. He has also received the first ever Excellence Award from the Association of Professional Genealogists. In his other life Morse is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in electrical engineering. He has held various research, development, and teaching positions, authored numerous technical papers, written four textbooks, and holds four patents. He is best known as the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today's Pentium processor), which sparked the PC revolution 25 years ago.
Travel to the Abraham Joshua Heschel High School, 20 West End Avenue (at 60th Street)
Subway
· 59th St / Columbus Circle A, B, C, D or #1 Exit at Broadway and 60th St, walk west 3 blocks towards West End Ave (11th Ave)
or
· W 72nd St #1, 2 or 3, then M57 bus – corner of W 72nd and Broadway (in front of Urban Outfitters) to West End Ave and 60th St (across the street from the school)
Buses
M31 – get off at W 57th St and 11th Ave (walk 3 blocks north)
M57 – get off at West End Ave and 60th St (in front of the school)
M11 – get off at W 60th St and Amsterdam Ave (walk one block west)May 18 , 2008 - 2:00 PM - JGSNY Meeting - Fusgeyers: Jewish Immigrants Who Walked to Freedom in the Early 1900s
Speaker: Jill Culiner
When Moldavia and Walachia united to become Romania in 1858, the new constitution granted citizenship to Christians only. Jews became foreigners in their own country. Forbidden to be market traders, artisans, innkeepers, evicted from villages, twenty thousand were soon on the streets and starving. In 1899, 78 unemployed Jewish artisans from Romania and Bessarabia decided to cross Europe on foot, then continue, by ship, to America. To raise money they would give theatrical performances in Yiddish. Although the authorities forced this group of Fusgeyers (wanderers) to continue on by train at the Austro-Hungarian border, they attracted much admiration. Soon thousands of Jewish men and women were forming Fusgeyer groups, training in long-distance walking, and leaving for North America in the search for freedom and respect. When they arrived, they worked as peddlers in mining towns or founded Jewish farming communities. One hundred years later, Jill Culiner crossed Romania on foot, looking for lost Jewish communities, searching through European archives, then tracing the immigrant trail from Vienna to Liverpool and across America
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute will be open 12:30 to 1:45 pm for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
Admission: Free to JGS members, $5 for otherJune 22, 2008 - Searching Online Historical Directories – and – A New Tool for Shoah Research
Speaker: Logan Kleinwaks
Many pre-World War 2 business, address and organizational directories from Eastern and Central Europe have been made available online as part of library digitization programs. They can potentially help genealogists discover relatives or places where relatives lived. The website www.kalter.org/search makes it feasible to search 22,000 pages of these directories – an important resource that should not be missed by researchers of families from Romania, Poland, or Galicia. Logan Joseph Kleinwaks will explain how to search these directories by focusing on real examples, with a complete walk-through from software installation to refining searches based on search results.Logan will also describe www.ShoahConnect.org, his website that provides tools for working with one of the most important Jewish genealogical sources, the more than two million Pages of Testimony documenting Shoah [Holocaust] victims on www.YadVashem.org. By using this website to associate an e-mail address with Pages of Testimony, a researcher can potentially make contact with submitters and relatives of victims. More than 8,000 such associations have already been made by nearly 500 users. ShoahConnect also makes it easier to manage searches at www.YadVashem.org that return many results from the vast database.
Logan Kleinwaks is the Coordinator of the JewishGen Danzig/Gdansk SIG [Special Interest Group] and creator of the genealogy websites www.ShoahConnect.org, for reuniting families separated by the Shoah, the Search Engine for Online Historical Diretories at www.kalter.org/search, and www.FamilyTreeRegistry.org. His broader genealogical interests include the photographic documentation of Jewish cemeteries, improving Internet access to genealogical information, and privacy. A hobbyist genealogist living near Washington DC, he has a research background in physics and recently started the Book Wish Foundation (www.bookwish.org), a nonprofit providing books, reading glasses, libraries, and school supplies for Darfur refugees and villagers in eastern Chad.
>> The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
Note: This program will be held in the Kovno Room on the second floor,
not in the Auditorium.Sept 14, 2008 - The Pages in Between: Unearthing the Hidden Legacy of Two Families, One Home
When reporter Erin Einhorn found the family in Poland that hid her mother from the Nazis during World War II, she thought she’d created a made-for-TV-reunion for two families thrown together by history. A man who knew her mother as a child threw his arms around her and – tears streaming down his face – told her the little girl had been a sister to him. But when Erin is asked to fulfill a decades-old promise involving the house that her family still owned, she must search through centuries of dusty records, maneuver an outdated, convoluted legal system, and prove the death of a great-grandfather born in 1868 to right the wrongs of the past.
In this special presentation to the Jewish Genealogical Society, she tells what she discovered in ghetto records, property and social service agency archives, and in troves of birth, marriage and death records that had been harboring family secrets for decades. In a year spent living in the country where her mother was born, she found the only known photo of her grandmother and shocking news about how she may have died. She learned that her mother’s only memory of Poland was provably false. And she discovered, as with most family stories, that memory is not always the same as truth.
Speaker: Erin Einhorn is the author of The Pages In Between (Simon & Schuster, September 2008) and a reporter for the New York Daily News, covering the New York City public school system and education-related issues. She has written for the Philadelphia Daily News, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Fortune and is a contributor to public radio’s This American Life.
Location: UJA-Federation, 130 East 59th Street, 7th floor
Oct 19, 2008 - 2pm - Research at the International Tracing Service (ITS) Archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany: Film and Panel Discussion - preceded by Gesher Galicia meeting (11am - 1pm)
In May 2008, 40 genealogists spent a week researching at the ITS archives, the most important repository in the world containing information about individual victims of World War II. Although its stated mission was to document “the fate of the victims of Nazi persecution,” it remained closed to the public for more than 50 years. On Nov. 28, 2007, after years of conflict and debate, ITS opened its doors to researchers. A short video will provide a first-hand look at the vast resources of the ITS and what the on-site research process looks like, followed by a panel discussion in which five trip participants – Valery Bazarov, William Fern, Janet Isenberg, Renee Steinig and Pamela Weisberger – will offer their unique perspectives on their experience. The program will include:
• Description of ITS, the archives, categories of documents and their accessibility to the public
• Gaining access to and researching in the archives
• Obtaining copies of documents
• Discovering new items of individual, personal interest
• Analyzing documents for greater meaning
• How to research the ITS archives yourself
• Community documents as an adjunct to personal researchGesher Galicia (GG) Regional Meeting, 11 AM to 1 PM, Viennese Research, Cadastral Maps and “Good-Bye Bohorodchany”
After an update on GG’s newest map and landowner records project in Lviv, we’ll waltz through the fascinating process of mining Viennese resources to discover your Galician relatives, including the IKG’s (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien) vital records collection, the treasures found in the Gasometer archives and the Austrian National Library collections. Then join Bernard Reiner on his “homecoming” trip with Alex (“Tevye”) Dunai, as he returns to the Bohorodchany burial site where his ancestors were laid to rest more than four centuries ago, reads the megillah in the Great Stanislawow synagogue, attends shul in Kolomea on Purim morning, and eats from the “conflicted soil” of his ancestors.Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
►► The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
Nov 16, 2008- Lucille Gudis Memorial Fund all-day seminar -- From Here to Eternity: Jewish Cemetery Research, Preservation and Restoration. Lucille Gudis Memorial Fund All-Day Seminar. Location: UJA-Federation, 130 East 59th Street. Pre-registration required. Kosher lunch will be served. The speakers are:
Chaim Bruder, Heritage Foundation for Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries
Joyce Fields, JewishGen Vice President of Research and Data Acquisitions
Ada Green, Chair of JGSNY Cemetery Project
Abraham Laber, Founder of Jewishdata.com
Steve Lasky, Founder of Museum of Jewish History
Norman Weinberg, Executor Coordinator of Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project
The afternoon program will be open at no charge to JGS members. More details will follow. Save the date.
Dec 25, 2008- Annual JGS Membership Brunch - Warren Shaw will present “Bums, Slummers and Swells: Social Class, Immigration and the Birth of American Popular Culture on the Lower East Side”
• Get together with old and new friends during Hanukkah
• Catered kosher dairy buffet
• Cost: $18 for members, $25 for non-membersBrunch at 11:30 AM. Reservations required. Seating is limited. Program at 1:00 PM is open to JGS members.
Learn about the development of the class structure that we still live under in the U.S. and the beginnings of what we now call Pop Culture, in the Lower East Side of more than a century ago. In the early 19th century the Five Points, a tiny area in the general vicinity of today’s Chinatown, became America's first slum. There immigrants, craftsmen and former slaves united at first only by their poverty and the disdain directed at them by “respectable” New Yorkers developed their own identity, language and entertainment, rather than striving for respectability. Several decades later, Eastern European Jewish immigrants built on this heritage. They nationalized and mass-produced both the popular culture of the Lower East Side and its pro-labor, pro-tenant political activism. These Eastern European Jewish immigrants took the internal culture of the Lower East Side and turned it outward, completing the cultural revolution that began in the 1830s with the collision of craft workers, Irish immigrants and freed slaves. Warren Shaw is a writer, historian, professor and attorney whose career in New York City history stems from his experiences growing up Jewish on Manhattan’s then-impoverished Upper West Side in the 1960s. He has published hundreds of articles and appeared on PBS, WNYC, the History Channel and many other television and radio stations discussing New York, including a year-long feature series on National Public Radio. He is a Senior Counsel in the office of Corporation Counsel of the City of New York.
Location: 92nd Street Y
+ Click here to Expand 2009 Past ProgramsJanuary 18, 2009 - 2:00 PM - JGSNY Meeting: Who Do You Think You Are, Stephen Fry? A Film About a Genealogical Quest
The BBC's wildly successful TV series, Who Do You Think You Are?, follows British personalities as they trace their roots. The subject of this particular episode is Stephen Fry, the English comedian, writer, actor, humorist, novelist, columnist, filmmaker, and television personality -- famous in America for his role in the TV series Jeeves and Wooster. This film realistically portrays the joys and sorrows of a genealogical search, from an initial spark of interest through the process of interviewing family, going to archives, using sites on the Internet, traveling to ancestral lands, visiting significant people and places of the past, and sharing the discoveries with relatives.
The story that pricked Stephen's interest the most was that of his beloved Jewish maternal grandfather, Martin Newman, whose original name was Neumann. By the time of his death, when Stephen was eleven years old, his flamboyance had made an indelible mark on his grandson. Martin had left Surany, a small town in what is now Slovakia, in 1927 with his wife and daughter and settled in Bury St Edmunds, England. Stephen was interested in discovering more about Martin and his family's life prior to their move to East Anglia. And what of the other branches of the Neumann family?
Join us for this fascinating and dramatic presentation. Can't wait to find out what Stephen learns? Check out his story at www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/past-stories/stephen-fry.shtml.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
February 15, 2009 - 2:00 PM - JGSNY Meeting: Google Your Family Tree. Speaker: Daniel M. Lynch.
As the Internet's most popular search engine, Google has firmly established itself as an indispensable tool for billions of people worldwide. During the past decade, genealogy and family history research have experienced unprecedented growth due in large part to the electronic availability of family records via the Internet. Dan Lynch, author of the popular new book, Google Your Family Tree: Unlock the Hidden Power of Google, will explain how to use the many powerful features of Google to jumpstart a family history search. What is there to Google beyond learning how to use keywords? Dan will demonstrate its many other capabilities, including Language Tools, Google Books, Google News Archives, Google Images and Videos, Google Alerts, Google Maps, Blog Search, Google Earth, Google Notebook, and Google Toolbar. Dan's book will be available for purchase following his presentation.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
March 15, 2009 – 2:00: Twentieth Century Probate Research: Confirming Relationships and Finding Family
Speaker Debra Braverman
Don’t miss out on learning about this important genealogical too!! Probate is the process by which the assets of a person who has died are distributed. Probate files represent an incredible wealth of little-known and underutilized records. Whether a person has died with a will or intestate, records are created in order to facilitate the distribution of property. While probate laws dealing with the process of inheritance differ from state to state, there are numerous similarities, chief of which is that these records are always public. The paperwork in a twentieth century estate file can offer clues to finding unknown or lost family. Using these documents together with other research tools can break down brickwalls in searching for family.
Debra is a member of a number of genealogical organizations, including the Association of Professional Genealogists, and JGS (New York), among others. She is an alumna of the National Institute on Genealogical Research. Debra lectures both on the local and national level.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
April 19, 2009 – 2:00: Preview of the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.
29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.
Come hear about the place where history changed America and the Jewish people; where we had an opportunity for full unqualified citizenship and unprecedented inclusion into the fabric of our country. Members of the conference committee will talk about their city, where they were equal under the law and where their voices were heard in setting National policy. Learn the city, where as early as 1783, Jewish Philadelphians from Congregation Mikveh Israel influenced the writers of the US Constitution on the importance of the separation of church and state.On August 2-7, 2009, the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy will return to the oldest large continuous Jewish community in America. Here you may access over 150 programs and 30 workshops for professional genealogists and the family historian who is just starting. There will be 20 special interest groups, 25 informal common interest groups, 8 breakfasts with experts, a chance to hear Father Patrick Desbois, author of Holocaust By Bullets: A Priest’s Journey To Uncover The Truth Behind The Murder Of 1.5 Million Jews, and an invaluable opportunity to network and learn.
Participants will be encouraged to do personal research at many convenient repositories and explore unique Jewish heritage sites while experiencing the joy of hamisheh Yiddishkayt.
This presentation about Philadelphia and the conference includes an interactive 45-60 minute presentation about what will make the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy special. It is a lively forum on details and questions about this exciting meeting. Lead presenter is Dr. Stephen Schecter, a conference board member, is responsible for compiling a Philadelphia Area Resource Guide and coordinates volunteers. He will host this program along with other members of the conference committee. Come prepared with your questions about research sites in Philadelphia and details about the upcoming conference.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
May 17, 2009 – 2:00 PM – JGSNY Meeting: Crossing the River: reconciling present life with the indelible mark left by a childhood in the Kovno Ghetto.
The book, Crossing the River, is both a personal memoir and a valuable historical resource. Against the backdrop of Lithuania's occupation - first by the Red Army, next by the Germans, and then again by the Russians - it is a story reflected through the prism of a sharp-eyed young child, Shalom Eilati. His story starts in the occupied Kovno Ghetto and ends with his flight across the Soviet border, through Poland and Germany and finally, his arrival in Palestine. The adult survivor, while recalling the terrorized child that he was and how he then perceived the adult world, also takes stock of his present life. Throughout the memoir, Eilati attempts to reconcile his present life as a husband, father, scientist, and writer, with the images, feelings, and thoughts from the past that have left an indelible mark on his life and that continue to haunt him.Shalom Eilati, born in 1933 in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, was the son of Israel Kaplan, a teacher, historian and author, and mother Leah (nee Greenstein), a nurse and poet. In 1941, he and his family were imprisoned in a ghetto created by the occupying Germans. In 1944, at his mother's initiative, he escaped from the ghetto alone. He survived the ghetto (as did his father) and reached Palestine in 1946. He was a member of Kibbutz Tel-Yosef, earned a Ph.D. in the cultivation of citrus fruits, and became a lecturer in the Faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew University in Rehovot. Later he was among the founders of Israel's Environmental Protection Service, and coordinating editor of Cathedra, a quarterly on the history and settlement of Israel. He is married with three children and five grandchildren, and lives in Jerusalem.
Mr. Eilati will be available for book-signing following the meeting.
Can't wait to learn more about Mr. Shalom Eilati? Read about his return trip to Kovno in Back to the River.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.June 14, 2009 – 2:00: What’s New on JewishGen - Speaker Warren Blatt
Learn about the latest developments at JewishGen, the world’s leading internet site for Jewish genealogy, including JewishGen’s partnership with Ancestry.com, newly released historical records, website enhancements, online data transcription projects, and previews of future developments.Warren Blatt is the Managing Director of JewishGen (www.jewishgen.org), the primary Internet site for Jewish genealogy, a division of the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust (www.mjhnyc.org), in New York City.
He is the author of Resources for Jewish Genealogy in the Boston Area (Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston, 1996); and co-author (with Gary Mokotoff) of Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy (Avotaynu, 1999). He was the Chair of the 15th International Seminar on Jewish Genealogy. In 2004, he was awarded the IAJGS’ Lifetime Achievement Award in Jerusalem.
Mr. Blatt has over 35 years of research experience with Russian and Polish Jewish records, and is the author of the JewishGen FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about Jewish Genealogy, and many other JewishGen InfoFiles.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
September 13, 2009, 2:00 p.m. Exploring the 1940 Census.
NOTE LOCATION: UJA-Federation of New York 130 East 59th Street New York, NY 10022 7th Floor Conference Center
This presentation explores the historical backdrop of the 1940 Population Schedule and highlights new supplemental questions asked of a small sample of the population. A long awaited genealogical gem, researchers will also learn what to look for in preparing for the release of this census in April 2012.
The speaker, Dorothy Dougherty, is currently the Public Programs Specialist for the National Archives at New York City. As lead for public, education and outreach efforts, she has developed and presented numerous programs on the holdings of the National Archives. In her ten years as an archivist with the National Archives, Ms. Dougherty also worked on the development, training and deployment of NARA's online Archival Research Catalog, (ARC). Prior work experience includes that of a Manhattan research consultant, New York State Archives Records Manager, and a historical museum interpreter. Ms. Dougherty received her Masters in History with an Archives Certificate from C.W. Post, Long Island University, NY. She frequently lectures how to research both original and online records of interest to family historians.
October 18, 2009, 2:00 p.m. Mapping Madness
NOTE LOCATION: The Abraham Joshua Heschel High School 20 West End Avenue New York, NY 10023 In the Cafeteria Monthly Program:
Ron Arons, will discuss a variety of websites that provide historical maps for genealogical research. Then he will review the basics of both Google and Microsoft's internet-based mapping facilities (maps.google.com and www.bing.com/maps, respectively), and provide additional discussion of the more advanced functionality of both systems. Ron will also introduce other online mapping facilities provided by whitepages.com, Microsoft's MapCruncher, IBM's Many Eyes, and more! Things are constantly in flux on the internet, including information from Microsoft & Google, as you'll see in Ron's presentation. He will keep up to the minute with these changes and discuss them at his presentation. Of course, since Ron is giving this talk, Jewish criminals will make several cameo appearances along the way, whether they want to or not! ;-) Ron Arons began researching his roots a dozen years ago and has spoken at six previous IAJGS conferences. Ron has also given presentations on Jewish genealogy and Jewish criminality at local JGSs, synagogues, JCCs, history conferences, and book fairs across the country and internationally. Last June, after a decade of research, his book The Jews of Sing Sing was published. In January, 2008, he discussed Jewish criminals of NY's Lower East Side on the PBS TV series The Jewish Americans. Ron earned a B.S. in Engineering from Princeton and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Travel to the Abraham Joshua Heschel High School, 20 West End Avenue (at 60th Street):
Subway
· 59th St, Columbus Circle A, B, C, D, or #1 ( Exit at Broadway and 60th St., walk west 3 blocks towards West End Ave (11th Ave))
or
· W. 72nd St #2, 3, or 1 then M57 bus – Corner of W 72nd and Broadway (in front of Urban Outfitters) to West End and W. 60th St (across the street from the school)Buses
M31 – get off at W 57th St and 11th Ave (walk 3 blocks north)
M57 – get off at West End and W. 60th St (in front of the school)
M11 – get off at W. 60th St and Amsterdam Ave (walk one block west)November 15, 2009, 11:00 a.m. ANNUAL "MEMBERS-ONLY" BRUNCH, MEETING and TOUR - Creating the Morgenthau Exhibition: A Family Historian confronts the Twentieth Century
click here to print registration form
NOTE TIME and LOCATION: Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust 36 Battery Place New York, NY 10280 Event Room
Karen Franklin, will present the topic, coordinate and lead tours of the just-opened exhibition for our members after the presentation. She will describe how a simple genealogy request resulted in her participation in an exciting reinterpretation of the family's role in public service and service to the Jewish community. Karen uncovered fascinating personal stories and documents through two years of research in dozens of archives, libraries and private collections. These discoveries, many of which will not be found in the exhibition-- will be described in this talk. Members will be able to tour recent Museum exhibitions after the presentation.
Karen Franklin, a JGS member, is currently a guest curator at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. A co-chair of the Board of Governors of JewishGen, she is a past president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and a past chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums. Mrs. Franklin serves on the board of ICOM-US (International Council of Museums), and the International Committee of Memorial Museums of ICOM. She is also a juror for the Obermayer German Jewish History Award.
Karen was the only director of a Jewish museum ever to be elected to the board of the American Association of Museums. A researcher on looted art, she has worked on cases for the Origins Unknown Agency in the Netherlands, the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, and the U. S. Treasury Department. In June she spoke at the Holocaust Looted Assets Conference in Prague as a member of the Judaica and Jewish Cultural Property Working Committee.
Subway: 4/5 to Bowling Green, walk west along Battery Place; W/R to Whitehall Street, walk west along Battery Place; 1 to South Ferry, walk north along Battery Park/State Street, turn left and walk west on Battery Place; J/M/Z to Broad Street, walk one block west to Broadway, and then south to the corner of Battery Place and Bowling Green. Walk west on Battery Place.
Bus: M1 to Battery Park; M6 to Battery Park; M9 to Battery Park City, stops in front of Museum; M15 to Battery Park City; M20 to Battery Park City, stops in front of MuseumDecember 20, 2009, 2:00 p.m. - JGSNY Meeting – “The Lost Synagogues of Brooklyn”
Speaker: Ellen Levitt
Jewish life in Brownsville, East New York, Flatbush-East Flatbush, Bedford-Stuyvesant and other nearby areas of Brooklyn through the 1950s was a lively, rich and varied environment. Over the next few decades it dissipated greatly. As Jews moved to other areas, they left behind their synagogues. This book is a photographic essay of these ex-shuls; what happened to them, and how they appear today. Many became churches whose facades still have Jewish symbols. Each of the 91 featured ex-shuls include a photograph of how it appears today with a narrative that explains the history of the building.
Ms. Levitt is a life-long resident of Brooklyn. In 1999, she took photographs of a former synagogue near the Sears in Flatbush. Formerly Kesser Torah (Crown of Torah), where her mother and her aunt attended Hebrew School, it became a church. For some years the church retained a few old synagogue symbols, including the corner stone with the founding date, and the name "Kesser Torah" in Hebrew. When she went back to reshoot photos there in July 2004 these were gone, painted over, sheared off. Over the years she searched out former synagogues in Brooklyn-- "ex-shuls"-- to take their photos and seek out what Jewish symbols still peek through. Many of these ex-shuls have become churches. Others became day care centers, community centers, or are just shells. The Jewish population of certain Brooklyn neighborhoods has for the most part vanished (East Flatbush, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, etc.). The buildings hang on in different incarnations.
In addition to writing two books and various freelance pieces, Ms Levitt is a NYC public school teacher. Ms. Levitt lectured about her book at this year's Brooklyn Book Festival.
A book-signing will follow the meeting.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
+ Click here to Expand 2010 Past ProgramsJanuary 17, 2010, 2:00 p.m. - JGSNY Meeting - “Polish Records—What They Contain, Where They Are and How to Get Them.”
Speaker: Hadassah Lipsius
Hadassah will discuss the various types of records and documents available from the Greater Poland area. She will show examples of different vital record formats which were based on the time period and the governing ruler. She will demonstrate how to identify what records are available for your ancestral town, how to acquire them and how to use them to further your genealogy research. The regions that she will cover include Congress Poland, Russian Pale of Settlement (Bialystok area), Galicia, and Prussia.
Ms. Lipsius is a member of the Executive Council of the Jewish Genealogical Society of NY, a board member of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and a member of the Board of Governors of Jewishgen. She was co-chair of the 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. Das takes pride that her family were city dwellers (i.e. Warszawa and St. Petersburg) for over 200 years.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
February 21, 2010, 2:00 p.m. - JGSNY Meeting “Treasure Hunt at the Division of Old Records”
Speaker: Joseph Van Nostrand, Senior Management Analyst, New York County Clerk’s Office
Joseph Van Nostrand will discuss the use and interrelationship of the various record series at the Division of Old Records for use in genealogy. The talk will discuss the information provided in the New York County naturalizations (1792-1924) with emphasis on the dichotomy in the records before and after 1895. Additionally, the census records for 1855, 1870, 1905, 1915 and 1925 and their varying information and means of access, depending on the year, will be explored. Mention will be made of the business records and the genealogical information they provide. Of course, court proceedings in civil actions such as divorces, guardianships, changes of name, foreclosures, and other court actions will be discussed in regard to the information they provide. Almost all these actions are accessible by plaintiff and defendant prior to 1911.
Mr. Van Nostrand has been the supervising archivist at the Division of Old Records of the New York County Clerk for almost thirty years. He received a BA in history from Fordham University and an MA in American history from New York University.
He serves as a trustee and officer for two not-for-profit corporations concerned with the preservation and use of historical records. Since the inception of the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund by the New York State Archives, he has successfully written grants for over a $1,000,000 for the conservation treatment of colonial and early national court minute books, microfilming and scanning of court records, and the creation of database indexes to search pre-1911 court records by both plaintiff and defendant. The latter opened up many more records for research use. In recognition of these achievements, the Appellate Division, First Department of the Supreme Court of the State of New York presented him on March 30, 2009 with the prestigious Bernard B. Botein Award for "outstanding contributions to the administration of the courts."
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers
March 21, 2010, 2:00 p.m. - JGSNY Meeting - “ANNIE’S GHOSTS: A Journey into a Family Secret”
Speaker: Steve Luxenberg
Steve’s mother was an only child. That’s what she told everyone, sometimes within minutes of meeting them. When Steve heard that his mother had been hiding the existence of a sister, he was bewildered. Through personal letters and photographs, official records and archival documents, as well as dozens of interviews, Steve revisits his mother’s world in the 1930s and 1940s in search of how and why the secret was born. Employing his skills as a journalist, he pieces together the story of his mother’s motivations, his aunt’s unknown life, and the times in which they lived. His search takes him to imperial Russia and Depression-era Detroit, through the Holocaust in Ukraine and the Philippine war zone, and back to the places where his Aunt languished in anonymity.
Mr. Luxenberg, an associate editor of The Washington Post, has worked for more than 30 years as a newspaper editor and reporter. Steve’s journalistic career began at The Baltimore Sun, where he worked for 11 years. He joined The Post in 1985 as deputy editor of the newspaper’s investigative/special projects staff, headed by assistant managing editor Bob Woodward. In 1991, he succeeded Woodward as head of the investigative staff. Post reporters working with Steve have won several major reporting awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes for explanatory journalism. From 1996 to 2006, Steve was the editor of The Post’s Sunday Outlook section, which publishes original reporting and provocative commentary on a broad spectrum of political, historical and cultural issues.
In his current role as a Post associate editor focusing on special projects, Steve has directed coverage of in-depth stories on the causes and consequences of the financial crisis that unfolded in the fall of 2008.He grew up in Detroit, where Annie’s Ghosts primarily takes place. He is married and has two grown children.
A book-signing will follow the presentation.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th StreetThe Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
April 11, 2010, 1 pm – 5 pm - Basics and Beyond, a family history workshop
JGS is holding Basics and Beyond, a family history workshop, on Sunday April 11th from 1:00 to 5:00 pm at 130 East 59th Street in Manhattan.
Intended for family historians of all national and ethnic backgrounds, the presentations by experienced genealogists, will follow two tracks, one for beginners and one for more experienced researchers.
Topics covered include finding and interpreting United States records, including the census, birth, marriage and death, passenger arrivals, and naturalizations; the latest in computer resources for genealogists; organizing genealogical research, keeping records, and setting goals; and searching European records at home.
Advance registration is required. Click here for further details and registration.
Please connect from the ‘click here’ to the registration pdf that is on the site.
******************************************TWO MEETINGS April 18, 2010: Gesher Galicia in the morning and JGSNY meeting in the afternoon.
April 18, 2010, 11:00 a.m. -12:30 p.m. Gesher Galicia will hold a regional meeting at the Center for Jewish History.
Speaker: Pamela Weisberger
Gesher Galicia ("Bridge to Galicia") is the special interest group for researchers who have Jewish roots in this former province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This program will offer a short overview of the history of Galicia and introduce our research activities. We'll cover metrical records, newspapers, school and landowner records, and explain where they can be found both online and in US and overseas archives. We will also demonstrate our new interactive website, searchable databases, and Cadastral Map and Landowner Records project.
April 18, 2010: 2:00 p.m. - JGS Meeting – “Suddenly Jewish”
Speaker: Roma Baran
In August 2008, at the age of 61, Roma Baran received a stunning email from a Jewish genealogist looking for heirs to a small estate of a Holocaust survivor -- her father's cousin – and learned that her casually Christian parents, and the whole rest of her family were not Polish Catholics, but Jews, including a rabbi and a Warsaw ghetto leader, and that her parents had survived the Holocaust under assumed names. Roma learned that not only were her family's names and identities false, but that she had actually lived in Israel from 1949 to 1951.
Ms Baran will describe -- with photos, documents and maps -- how she systematically reconstructed her past over the last year. She will focus on the Galizianer side of her family, and will include her new research on her father's Warsaw family. She will trace her parents' war-time escape from the Przemysl ghetto to Tarnawa, Krakow, and other towns, and their post-war journeys to Israel and Canada. She will also examine the emotional consequences of uncovering family secrets of staggering proportions.
Roma Baran, producer, engineer, musician, attorney, grew up in Montreal, and has lived in New York City since 1976. She has produced many albums, in the US, Canada and Europe. For 12 years, she produced most of Laurie Anderson's recorded work, from "O Superman" which shot to the top of the British pop charts, to Grammy-nominated "Strange Angels," and, most recently worked on Anderson's soon-to-be-released "Homeland." With co-producer Vivian Stoll, she has produced two Grammy-nominated albums for artist Rosalie Sorrels, and won 2006 CFMA Best Canadian Folk Album award for a CD with Canadian artist Penny Lang. She has also worked on a number of film soundtracks as composer, sound designer, and music producer, from Lizzie Borden's "Working Girls" to "Jonathan Demme's "Swimming to Cambodia." She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary for producing "Bernard Herrmann: Music for the Movies." As an attorney, she specializes in forensic audio, and has represented many indigent criminal defendants.
Go West, Genealogists: IAJGS 2010 Conference Sneak Preview (Presenter: Pamela Weisberger)
Are you passionate about genealogy, but haven't attended a conference? Have you been attending for years and wonder what's special about this one? The Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles is hosting the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Los Angeles this July and we’ll preview our slate of workshops, lectures, films and panels on global Jewish history, resources and methodology so you can make plans to join us for six days of learning, networking and sharing.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
May 16, 2010, 2:00 p.m. – JGSNY Meeting – The JDC Archives: Resources for Genealogists
Speaker: Linda Levi, Director of Global Archives, The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Since its inception in 1914, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC, or popularly known as "the Joint") has borne witness to the greatest events of twentieth-century Jewish history. The JDC Archives documents JDC operations and activities overseas and serves as a record of life in Jewish communities throughout the world. Its extensive holdings include eye-witness accounts, correspondence, reports, logs, passenger lists, emigration cards, photographs, and much more. Participants will learn how the Archives are organized, see examples of rich genealogical records in the JDC archival collections, and find out how to conduct research at its repositories. New efforts to digitize the JDC collections will also be included in the discussion.
Linda Levi is Assistant Executive Vice President for Global Archives at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and is responsible for archives centers in NY and Jerusalem. Ms. Levi is a graduate of New York University and received her MA in Contemporary Jewish Studies from Brandeis University.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
June 13, 2010, 2:00 p.m. – JGSNY Meeting – Naturalization: Where are the Documents?
Speaker: Phyllis Kramer
Naturalization is a voluntary process which enables an Alien to become an American Citizen. The documents after 1906 reveal birthplace, birthdates, immigration and family; even photographs were required after 1924! We will cover the history of naturalization in the United States, the four documents produced, derivative citizenship for women and children, and the myriad of Federal, State and County Courts involved. We will next discuss how to find the documents. We will outline a research plan starting with clues from the Census, then clues from the manifests, finally outlining the court system. We will document what is online and what is in the archives and share experiences with the many governmental agencies involved.
Phyllis is a practicing genealogist, with primary interest in Eastern European Jewish research. She developed the JewishGen education system and has taught over 1000 students online at JewishGen; her lessons and lectures emphasize using the Internet for Research.
Phyllis has an MBA from Fordham University, and a B.S. from Cornell. She retired from IBM as a Business Consultant designing and implementing client Document Imaging Systems, after having held Systems Engineering, Product and Business Management positions.
At JewishGen Phyllis has developed 12 Shtetlinks web sites for her ancestor’s Galician shtetls, created the online version of the 1891 Galician Business Directory, recruits volunteers, and is a member of the JewishGen Advisory Board.In 2000 Phyllis developed and managed the first ever Computer Education Lab at the International Jewish Genealogical Conference held in NYC. She has lectured at the 5 previous conferences and at multiple Jewish Genealogy Societies, JCCs, the Museum of Jewish Heritage and Norwalk College.
She finds genealogy to be challenging, stimulating, fascinating and absorbing.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.
Hold These Dates!!
2010/2011
Sept. 19, 2010
Oct. 17, 2010
Nov. 21, 2010
Dec. 19, 2010
Jan 16, 2011
Feb. 20, 2011
Mar. 6, 2011
Apr.10, 2011
May 22, 2011
June 12, 2011
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