San Francisco: Our great-grandparents' world, May 17

Learn about the world of our Eastern European Jewish ancestors with Ken Blady, at the next meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.

The program starts at 1pm, Sunday, May 17, at the Jewish Community High School, 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco. There is free parking.

"The World of Our Great-Grandparents: A History of the Jews of Eastern Europe from Earliest Times to 1900" will portray Jewish life in Eastern Europe, specifically Greater Poland (including Lithuania and Ukraine), from the earliest history to the waves of mass migration to the New World beginning in the late 19th century.

Over the past thousand years Eastern Europe has been both a harbor of refuge and a scene of horror for Jews. Here Jewish culture rose to some of its greatest glories; here Jewish society suffered some of its greatest tragedies.

This will encompass historic and geographic background, everyday surroundings, family life and education, social and economic life, and religious activity.

Ken Blady is a Jewish educator, speaker, author and Yiddish translator

Born in Paris, France, he grew up in Chassidic Brooklyn and attended yeshiva and rabbinical seminary. Blady has been a San Francisco Bay area resident since 1972 and holds a BA in History (UC Berkeley) and an MA in Clinical Counseling (CalState Hayward). Blady is a lecturer at the American Jewish University (formerly University of Judaism) in Los Angeles.

For more details and directions, click here.