Past Programs
September 16 - 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 - 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 - 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.
January 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 other
June 22, 2008 - Searching Online Historical Directories – and – A New Tool for Shoah Research
Speaker: Logan Kleinwaks
Many pre-World War II business, address and organizational directories from Eastern and Central Europe have been made available online as part of library digitization programs. Logan Kleinwaks' website www.kalter.org/search makes it feasible to search these directories -- an important resource not to be missed if your family ever lived in Romania, Poland, or Galicia (with greater geographic coverage possibly forthcoming). This talk will familiarize you with the method of searching by focusing on real examples, with a complete walkthrough from software installation to refining searches based on search results.
Logan will also describe www.ShoahConnect.org, his new website providing tools for researchers who utilize the more than two million Pages of Testimony documenting Shoah victims on www.YadVashem.org. By using the site to (privately) associate your e-mail address with Pages of Testimony, you can potentially contact submitters and relatives of victims. Eight thousand such associations have already been made by nearly 500 users.
Hold These Dates!!
2007 - 2008
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