SephardicGen.com: New searchable databases

SephardicGen.com holds excellent resources for those researching their Sephardic families from many countries.

Search the Consolidated Index of Sephardic Surnames with more than 85,800 names.

Among the new searchable databases on SephardicGen.com, compiled and maintained by pioneer Sephardic genealogist Dr. Jeff Malka, are the following:

- Dictionary of Bulgarian Jewish surnames
- Jewish surnames, Juderia of Tarrazona
- Personal files, Amsterdam Community, CAHJP
- Records of Portuguese Inquisition Trials (1583-1656, 1716-1717), CAHJP
- Victims of the Libya Riots
- Census of Jewish Family heads; Belgrade, Serbia
- Sephardic graves, Mount of Olives cemetery, Jerusalem
- VazDias database of aliases, Amsterdam
- Names from the Pautas (orphan girls, etc.), Amsterdam
- Names from the old cemeteries of Algiers
- Sephardic tombstones, marriages, births; Vienna, Austria
- Surnames from all Hispania Judaica books
- Tombstones, Trieste cemetery
- Jewish Surnames, Lebanon
- Craiova memorial of Jews who died in Balkan Wars and WWI

Access all these and many more here. Mathilde Tagger created these databases for SephardicGen.

France: Issue 99, Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive

The newest issue of Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive (Paris, France) is available.

Issue 99 contains the following articles:

-- The descendants of Raphael Vorms from Bionville (Moselle).

Louis Vorms and Guy Worms, descendants of Raphael Vorms (d. 1763) and his two sons Hayman and Salomon, trace the family. The article offers copies of the documents used to accomplish their research.

-- How to find and obtain vital records in Poland and Galicia.

Basile Ginger and Daniel Vangheluwe provide a step-by-step "how-to" manual for genealogists in France who speak no Polish, but some English. This articles updates the chapter on Poland in the Guide pratique de genealogie juive en France et à l'etranger, by Ginger, which was published by the Society. New accessibility of catalogues and databases online make it easy now to obtain many documents.

-- Vital records from Constantine (Algeria) 1843-1895.

Fernand Deray announces the completion of his project which indexes all existing vital records of the Departement Constantine, one of three Algerian administration areas. The source is the "CAOM-Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer" in Aix-en-Provence. His work, with some 15,000 entries, is searchable on on the society's website. with full access in the Members' Corner.

-- Algerian Jewish assimilation after the Cremieux Decree.

Joëlle Allouche-Benayoun provides a description of the life, culture, religious and social practice of the Algerian Jews after the 1870 Cremieux Decree transformed "natives" into full-fledged French nationals. The assimilation process is shown over more than a century, compiled from a massive bibliography.

-- Hebrew monograms.

Eliane Roos-Schuhl focuses on the Hebrew monogram (lamed peh quf) on Mordechai (Simon II) Marx's headstone (i.e. a graphical arrangement combining the three characters in one elegant composition). The set of characters indicates that the date following is 770 and not 5770 for the complete Hebrew year.

--ASF rehabilitates the Jewish cemetery in Crehange (Moselle).

Pascal Faustini details work by young Germans, Poles and Russians from ASF - Aktion Suehnezeichen Friedensdienste - who, during the summers of 2007-2009, restored the Jewish cemetery in Crehange (Moselle). They were guided by two staff members of the Brussels Jewish Museum.

-- The 19th century registers of the Nuremberg commercial school.

Francoise Lyon-Caen writes about the registers (1809-1905) of a Nuremberg school that can be a genealogical source.

For information on the society, how to join or to obtain the new issue (or previous issues), send an email or see the society's website. The website is in English and French versions.

USHMM: July-August 2009

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC) has announced its July-August programs.

North Africa and its Jews in WWII: 2-4pm, Friday, July 24

The Center's Summer Research Workshop Program culminates in a public presentation of participants' work. This program will examine the experiences of North African Jewry with especial focus on Nazi, Vichy, Spanish fascist, and local policymakers; anti-Jewish legislation and property confiscation and its implementation and effects on the ground; Muslim-Jewish relations; and Jewish cultural life. Participants also assess postwar historiography and memorialization of Jewish experiences in North Africa during the Holocaust.

Topics include are "Implementation of Anti-Jewish Legislation in Morocco at the Local and Metropolitan Levels," "Saharan Jews under Vichy: A Historical Assessment," "The Final Solution in North Africa, 1942-43: An Analysis of the Failed German Project to Annihilate North African Jewry," "The Memorial to the Victims in Borgel Jewish Cemetery," "Aryanization" of Jewish Property in North Africa during the War," "The Detained of Hammamet during the War, 1942–43,"Moncef Bey and the Tunisian Jewish Community in the Context of the Political Tradition of the Tunisian Beys," "Morocco during World War II: The Dynamics of Historical Memory and Jewish-Muslim Relations," "Inventing the Ideal Mother and the Perfect Home: Jewish Women in Tunis, 1933-1943," "The Franco Regime and the Jews of North Africa, 1939-1945," "Stages in the Historiography of the Second World War in North Africa," "Information and Research on North African Jewry during World War II," "Between Mendoub and Khalifa: Tangier's Jews."

Bringing the Past into the Present: Missing Narratives of the Holocaust in Ukraine: 2-4pm, Friday, July 31

Workshop participants explore the experiences of Jews and Ukrainians during World War II and the Holocaust, with especial focus on Ukrainian forced laborers; the Lvov ghetto; the Janowska camp; and postwar historiography, collective memory, and contemporary treatment and presentation of this history in Ukraine.

Topics include "Ukrainian Forced Laborers in Austria: The Pain of Memory," "Histories in Discord: Stalinist and Nazi Terror in Ukrainian Historical Culture," "Narratives and Identities in Western Ukraine, 1940-2008,"As in the old days in Shanghai: Propaganda and Forced Recruitment of 'Eastern Workers' for the War Economy of the Third Reich," "Women of the Underground: Female Roles in the OUN and UPA," "Testimonies of Holocaust Perpetrators in Ukraine," "Eyewitness to an Occupation: Collaboration and the Holocaust in Olevs'k, Zhytomyr Region," and "Missing Jewish Narratives in the Publicly Presented Past: An Invisible Tragedy in Lviv."

Exploring the Newly Opened ITS Archive at the USHMM: 2-4pm, Friday, August 14

Drawing on their previous research, participants work in interdisciplinary groups to explore how the Museum's collection of digitized documents from the ITS can inform the study of foreign, forced, and slave labor in the Third Reich and in its occupied and allied territories. More than a dozen scholars will speak.

For more information, see the USHMM site.

Sephardim: A culture check

Modern Sephardic culture was addressed today by JTA.org. The story by Amy Klein touches on items from many regions.

There are dozens of ways to enjoy modern Sephardic culture, art that draws upon traditions from regions such as Spain, Portugal, the Middle East, North Africa, the Far East, Italy, Rome and Greece. The culture includes music, literature, history, cooking, art and theater. Here are just some samples.

Under LISTEN, find

De Leon: Indie rock band with 15th century Spanish influences and Sephardic tradition. http://jdubrecords.org/artists.php?id=22

Pharoah's Daughter: Jewish folk group performing traditional Judaic tunes with Arabic rhythm and African beats.

Vanessa Paloma - singer, performer, scholar and writer - specializes in Sephardic women's songs and their connection to women's spiritual expression.

I'm adding in our cousin Galeet Dardashti's group, Divahn.

Under READ, there's

Iranian Jewish author Gina Nahai's first novel (1991) “Cry of The Peacock." Insiders know the book's characters were based on her family's interesting individuals and the family wasn't very happy about it. She's now writing her fifth book, charting seven generations of a Jewish family beginning in 18th-century Persia to modern-day Iran.

The article does not include the books of Farideh Goldin, Dalia Sofer nor Roya Hakkakian, whose books focus on different aspects of Iranian Jewish life.

Algeria is represented by Joann Sfar's “The Rabbi's Cat” and “The Rabbi's Cat 2,” by Joann Sfar (Pantheon Books, 2005, 2008). These graphic novels spotlight a rabbi's cat who narrates the stories.

Bene Israel Indian auhor Sophie Judah's "Dropped from Heaven" (Shocken, 2007) is a story collection about the everyday life of a fictional Bene Israel community.

Lucette Lagnado's “The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World,” (Harper Perennial: Reprint, 2008) is a memoir of her father and her family's life in Cairo and a relocation to American poverty.

Spanning 150 years with writings of 28 authors covers fiction, memoirs, essays and poetry in “The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature,” edited by Ilan Stavans (Shocken, 2005).

Aviva Ben Hur's “Sephardic Jews in America: A Diasporic History" (New York University Press, 2009) is a new one to read.

There's information on the NY Sephardic Film Festival, a Syrian spoof of "Seinfeld" (Jerry's mother is Syrian) and more.

If Sephardic cuisine is your thing, as it is mine, there are several good books noted:

Syria: "Fistful of Lentils: Syrian-Jewish Recipes from Grandma Fritzie's Kitchen," by Jennifer Felicia Abadi (Harvard Common Press, 2007), and “Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews,” by Poopa Dweck, Michael J. Cohen and Quentin Bacon, (Ecco, 2007)

Morocco: “Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon,” by Claudia Roden (Knopf, 2006).

Iraqi: “Mama Nazima's Jewish Iraqi Cuisine,” by Rivka Goldman (Hippocrene Books, 2006).

There is no Persian Jewish cookbook as classic Persian cooking is the same for all. A few dishes require some minor adjustments, such as not marinating chicken in yoghurt and saffron), but most are the same for Jewish Iranians as for others.

The Bible of Iranian cooking, in my opinion, is "New Food for Life," which is now a little difficult to find, but well worth the search.

Read the complete article here.

Algeria: Jewish society formed

Algeria has created its first official Jewish association, to be headed by a prominent Algerian Jewish lawyer, according to the Jerusalem Post.

A 2006 law on non-Moslem religions provides for representation from accredited associations from those religions. Algerian minister for Religious Affairs Mohamed Fellahi appointed Roger Saïd, a lawyer from the Bilda region, as the representative of the Jewish community.

There are no official records on the number of Jews in Algeria; estimates range from eight to less than 1,000. There are 25 registered synagogues, but no official data on congregants.

"When I traveled to Algeria, I went there freely, without any kind of constraint," Bernard Haddad, Algerian native and founder of L'Association Mémoire Active Bônoise, told The Media Line. "I was able to move around freely, without being questioned."

Mr. Haddad's organization is based in France and deals primarily with the protection and preservation of Jewish cemeteries in Algeria.

There have been several problems with vandalism in Jewish cemeteries in Algeria, and as the number of Jews in Algeria dwindles, there are fewer people to advocate for the preservation of Jewish heritage in the country.

Haddad said many Algerian cemeteries have been restored.

Three waves of migration to France occurred in 1870 (40,000 Algerian Jews were granted citizenship under the Crimeaux degree); after Algerian independence in 1962; and in the late 1980s, with the rise of Muslim fundamentalism.

Read the complete article here.