A blog: Jewish Maritime Historical Society

Tracing the Tribe discovered the blog of the Jewish Maritime Historical Society, billed as being
"dedicated to Jewish captains, pirates, sailors and all seafaring people."

Unfortunately, it now seems defunct with the most recent post in November 2009. Its posts covered personalities, historical events, maritime instruments like astrolabes, archaeological evidence and more. The articles come from major and minor websites and publications.

Posts that Tracing the Tribe found interesting: Jews and Navigation, First Hero of the Portuguese Discoveries and Jewish Traders of the Diaspora. In these days, when immigration issues are part of the conversation, read  Aaron Lopez's Struggle for Citizenship.  For parts farther afield, there's an article on the Jews of Cochin.

If this area of Jewish history interests you, or if you had ancestors who sailed the seven seas, take a look.

DNA: Revealing more Jewish roots

It's always reassuring to read that major Jewish publications are carrying stories on what Tracing the Tribe and many others already know. A case in point is the new Forward story on how DNA tests are revealing hidden Jewish roots.

The story by Elie Dolgin - "Newer DNA Tests Uncover Hidden Jewish Bloodlines" - discusses both 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA.

It covers University of Chicago genetics doctoral student Joseph Pickrell's DNA odyssey along which revealed similar results to an Ashkenazi Jew, New York attorney Dan Vorhaus. Pickrell was raised Catholic but his results led him to ask his mother about the results.

She did some sleuthing among other relatives, revealing that:

"her father’s father — Pickrell’s maternal great-grandfather — had been raised Jewish in Poland before moving to the United States, where he married a Catholic woman and left his Jewish upbringing behind.

“It’s amusing that using genetics, I could wrestle this out of the bushes,” Pickrell said.

The story also mentioned FamilyTreeDNA.com's tests to uncover Jewish origins. Many Hispanic Americans descended from Jews forced to convert or hide their religion more than 500 years ago in Iberia. 

The story does explain 23andMe's test and why it produces those results.

A molecular anthropologist in Estonia, Richard Villems, is quoted as cautioning against jumping to conclusions based solely on DNA unless there is corroborating evidence, like Pickrell's ancestor.

Another section goes further, answering in part the question about what happens once a person discovers such a link.

Pickrell said he has no plans to start going to synagogue. And since “genes do not define the Jews,” according to Edward Reichman, an Orthodox rabbi and physician at Yeshiva University in New York, the Jewish community at large probably won’t embrace him, either. But according to Bennett Greenspan, president and CEO of Family Tree DNA, many people who learn of Semitic ancestry through DNA often end up converting to Judaism.


Elliot Dorff, a conservative rabbi and ethicist at American Jewish University in Los Angeles, welcomes these conversions. “We would really want to encourage such people to rediscover their Jewish roots,” he said. Although people who find Jewish origins through DNA are not strictly Jewish, halachically speaking, Dorff noted that many people in this situation already feel a deep-seated connection to the religion.

The comments, as always on this type of article, are always interesting and cover the spectrum of belief. One, by "Jack," reads:

Bennett Greenspan regularly presents the services of Family Tree DNA at Crypto-Jewish studies symposia. Also in attendance at these events are Hispanic Americans interested in the potential Jewish ancestry of their families. It would not be an overstatement that a Levantine genetic signal only confirms the Jewish background that many of the test subjects either already suspected or were convinced of. The DNA test is merely a confirmation, not a revelation, afterwards conversion to Judaism is a small step.

Read the complete story and all the comments at the link above.

Tracing the Tribe always recommends that those with known or suspected Jewish roots test with FamilyTreeDNA because it has the largest DNA database, which also includes the largest Jewish DNA database. Nearly all Jewish genealogists test with the company because of the large number of samples, which increases the probability of genetic matches.

There's a related 2010 Forward story covers how Rabbis and Halacha Grapple With Advances in DNA Technology:

Advances in genetic analysis and its medical applications are bringing unprecedented, if uneven, change to the world of Jewish law. Most often, the matter of genetics is considered in the context of issues on either end of life’s spectrum: those that relate to fertility and to the identification of post-mortem human remains.

“DNA analysis is gradually meandering its way through the halachic literature,” said Dr. Edward Reichman, an Orthodox rabbi and associate professor of emergency medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he is also an associate professor of bioethics and education.

“Science has opened up a huge area of research and treatment in the area of the genetic code that just didn’t exist 25 years ago. All of those developments have required authorities in Jewish law to consider what effect it has on their approach,” said Rabbi Avram Reisner, spiritual leader of Baltimore’s Congregation Chevrei Tzedek and a bioethicist who sits on the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.

Read that complete story at the story link above.

Food: Italian Jewish holiday cooking

Did you know that Italians also love gribenes (chicken or goose cracklings)? Do you know how this tradition arrived in Italy? Find the answers below.

A favorite cookbook of Tracing the Tribe is Jayne Cohen's Jewish Holiday Cooking: A Food Lover’s Classics and Improvisations (John Wiley, 2008). She also writes for Jewish Women International's "Jewish Women Magazine."

The holiday issue of the magazine is now online with really interesting articles on Italian Jewish cuisine (and recipes) and a new blog, "Beyond Brisket," written by Cohen. Tracing the Tribe has a separate post on the blog.

When the chestnuts in Piedmont ripen in time for the fall holidays, Roberta Anau serves her Rosh Hashanah guests special burricche: turnovers lush with chestnuts, onions, raisins and smoked goose.

Silvia Nacamulli’s family includes Swiss chard among the ritual foods at its Rosh Hashanah seder; growing in profusion, chard symbolizes a wish for bounty in the new year. But this is Rome, so we’re not talking about serving it simply boiled. “We prepare it in a delicious frittata,” she says, a savory combination of the cooked green leaves, sauteed onions and eggs, fried golden on both sides and served at room temperature.

Jewish-style carciofi alla guidea (artichokes) are the best known Jewish dish, originating in the Roman ghetto, with the oldest continuous Western Jewish community dating back some 2,000 years.

Read the article and learn more about Anau and her restaurant and hotel near Turin, and about Nacamulli, who teaches Italian Jewish cooking in London and organizes cooking tours to Italy.

A Jewish-origin food marks the end of the 1576 plague in Venice. A special annual feast celebrates that event. The traditional dish is pesce en saor, cold fried fish in a sweet-and-sour sauce with raisins and pine nuts. Cohen says it was developed to preserve fish for Shabbat, dousing the fish in hot vinegar with sweet sauteed onions, raisins and pine nuts.

After the 1492 Edict of Expulsion, Sicily's Jews (including many from Spain) were expelled in 1943, and many went to mainland Italy. They brought along marzipan, sweet-and-sour sauces, raisins and pine nuts. Caponata was originally a Sicilian-Jewish dish - a cold salad of fried eggplant, onions, garlic, olives and capers (and New World tomatoes).

Cohen discusses German and Central European Ashkenazi immigrants who settled north of Rome, and brought along their geese. Soon Italian-Jewish recipes incorporated goose fat and cracklings (griebenes, Yiddish; gribani, Judeo-Italian), and made salami, sausage and ham from the birds.

Anau recalls that her great-grandfather, Moise Colombo from Turin, was so fond of his gribani that “he carried them around with him wrapped in paper, like chewing gum. He would go out for a glass of wine, unwrap the paper and snack on the gribani.”

Edda Servi Machlin, whose Italian Jewish cookbooks also share space in my kitchen, describes more specialties. Learn why the Jews in her Tuscan village of Pitigliano call stuffed breast of veal chazarello (piglet).

There are recipes for risotto with pomegranate seeds, cheese and etrog peel; Jewish-style spinach, and the ricotta cheese dessert mentioned above. Yum.

Read the complete article at the link above, and for additional Italian Jewish Recipes, click here.

New York: Merchant Jews in the New World, Nov. 7

Plan ahead for this interesting conference - Merchant Jews in the New World, 1800-1900 - to be held at the Center for Jewish History, on Sunday, November 7.

The 2009 conference covered 1500-1800; this year's program covers 1800-1900; and 2011 will focus on 1900-the present.

The conference will focus on lesser-known Jewish contributions to economic expansion of retail, industry and finance in 19th century America. It is sponsored by The Gomez Foundation for Mill House, as part of the lead up to the 300th anniversary of the construction of the Mill House, on the upper Hudson River. It was built by one of the earliest Jewish merchants in the US.

Sessions include presentations on 19th century developments in retail, industry and finance, as well as roundtables and discussions.

The keynote address will be by Gene Dattel, author of "Cotton and Race in the Making of America: The Human Costs of Economic Power."

Other presenters include:

-- Andrée Aelion Brooks, Jewish historian, journalist and author
-- Kenneth Libo, Adjunct Professor of History, Hunter College
-- Bonnie S. Wasserman, Lecturer, Fordham University
-- Ainsley Henriques, historian, Jamaican and Caribbean Jews
-- Kate Myslinski, Colonial Jewish genealogist, writer
-- Ruth Abrahams, executive director, Gomez Foundation

Said Abrahams, "We hope to encourage further dialogue on the topic of Jewish contributions to the founding and development of America."

The day includes a kosher continental breakfast and buffet lunch, at the CJH, 15 West 16th Street, New York. Registration: $75; seniors 60+ and students under 21, $65 (also CJH members, affiliates and Channel 13).


For more information, email the Gomez Foundation, or to register, click here. Click here for more information on the non-profit The Gomez Foundation for Mill House, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Food: Have teiglach, will travel

Another aspect of family history is to learn about our ancestors' food traditions.

As our families moved from country to country, they brought along their favorite recipes along with their possessions. Sometimes the recipes needed adaptation as the original ingredients could not be found, thus creating a new tradition. The story of Jewish food is the story of Jewish history.

This JTA story, "Exploring Jewish ancestry through food" by Linda Morel, demonstrates one woman's experiences.

Tina Wasserman, a cooking teacher and the food columnist for Reform Judaism magazine, didn’t literally transport clumps of the sticky pastries whose dough is wrapped around nuts and simmered in honey syrup. But among her most cherished possessions, she packed her recipe for the traditional Rosh Hashanah sweet hailing from Lithuania.

“No one had seen it down here,” said Wasserman, the author of "Entree to Judaism: A Culinary Exploration of the Jewish Diaspora (URJ Press, 2010), until she served the dessert to her new friends.

She then introduced the recipe in cooking classes. Before long, teiglach became part of the Jewish culinary scene in Dallas.

Said Wasserman, she wanted to create a link to our ancestry through food as it is the most direct connection to memory in our brain.

For her book, she began collecting recipes based on the question of what makes a specific food Jewish from a historical viewpoint. The laws of Kashrut and Shabbat and holiday observances impacted the foods we have eaten throughout history.

Caponata, an Italian appetizer of eggplants, tomatoes and peppers, is a 500-year-old Shabbt dish from Spain. Following the 1492 Expulsion, thousands of Jews left Spain for Sicily. One year later, they were expelled and 40,000 of them fled to mainland Italy across the Straits of Messina and brought the recipe with them.

Each recipe in the book includes its origins, when and why it was eaten and brought it to a new life in a diffeernt part of the world.

Says Wasserman, some Ashkenazim eat kreplach at Rosh Hashanah, because during the Middle Ages, Central and Eastern European Jews sealed their wishes in little dough pouches and wore them as amulets. So as not to waste the food, they put it into soup. She maintains that most of our food customs date from the Middle Ages.

The article includes much more, and a pointer to Wasserman's website, Cooking and More, which creates a community around food.

The article includes recipes for Dulce de Manzana (Apple Preserves), Syrian Eggplant with Pomegranate Molasses, Ethiopian-style Lubiya (Sephardic Black-Eyed Peas), and Sweet Potato-Pumpkin Caszuela.

Read the complete article, see photos of two of the dishes, and check out Wasserman's website.

JGSLA 2010: Conference makes NBC news!!!

JGSLA 2010 made NBC News Los Angeles' around town event page.

Read all about it here - as if Tracing the Tribe's readers didn't already know that more than 1,000 researchers and experts from around the world will be meeting from Sunday, July 11-Friday, July 16, at the JW Marriott at L.A. Live, in downtown Los Angeles.

The NBC conference story covers the event's attraction for local Jewish families to research their backgrounds and emphasizes that Sunday is targeted to those just beginning the quest for family with how-to sessions, workshops, a Market Square, Klezmer concerts and much more.

The Market Square Fair on Sunday will include craft displays and demonstrations, a daylong film festival and more.

For all conference information and to see the program online, click here.

An opening day (Sunday) pass is $105, and $85 daily for the balance of the conference. Tickets are available online.

See you at the conference!

Moment Magazine: What it means to be Jewish

Moment Magazine's 35th anniversary issue asked two questions of 70 Jewish individuals in diverse fields: What does it mean to be a Jew today? What do Jews bring to the world today?

Click here for the responses of these individuals.

Theodore Bikel - Shmuley Boteach - Geraldine Brooks - Mel Brooks - Michael Broyde - Alan Dershowitz - Stephen J. Dubner  - Dianne Feinstein - Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Rebecca Newberger Goldstein - Dan Glickman -Arthur Green - Blu Greenberg - Jerome Groopman - Roya Hakakian - Michael Hammer - Susannah Heschel - Madeleine May Kunin - Tony Kushner - Liz Lerman - Daniel Libeskind - Joseph Leiberman - Yavilah McCoy - Ruth Messinger - Leonard Nimoy - Sherwin Nuland - Judea Pearl - Itzhak Perlman - Judith Shulevitz - Gary Shteyngart - Ilan Stavans - Elie Wiesel - Leon Wieseltier - Ruth Wisse.

and here for these:

Daniel S. Abraham - Marc Angel - Ed Asner - Adam Berger - David Biale - Mayim Bialik - Sharon Brous - Andrei Codrescu - Anita Diamant - Ari Fleischer - Joshua Foer - Yuri Foreman - Samuel Freedman - Myla Goldberg - Peter Himmelman -  Dara Horn - Yitz "Y-Love" Jordan - Deborah Dash Moore - Walter Mosley - Aryeh Neier - Elisa New - Judith Plaskow - Francine Prose - Jonathan Rosen - Hannah Rosenthal - Elizabeth Samson - David Saperstein - Zalman Schachter-Shalomi - Harold Schulweis - Howard Schwartz - Dani Shapiro - Yoam Shoham - Rigoberto Emmanuel Vinas - Edward Witten - David Wolpe.

Here's some of just five of the list:

Mel Brooks - comedian, writer, actor, director and producer.

I’m part of the generation that changed their name so they’d get hired. I went from Kaminsky to Brooks. My mother’s name was Brookman. But I couldn’t fit Brookman on the drums. ... There was a lot of comedy when I was a little kid, street corner comics. We couldn’t own railroads, so prize fighting and comedy were open to us. We’re still comedians. Maybe because Jews cried for so long, it was time to laugh. Who knows? I started in the Borscht Belt with terrible jokes. The first joke I ever wrote, I think, was, “You can’t keep Jews in jail, they eat lox.” ... What can we offer the world? We can still offer what Maimonides and Moses laid down. We can offer the law of human behavior. We astonishingly were one of the first cultures to create this thing called law, what is right and what is wrong, based on the tenets of the Old Testament. And, if they want something tasty, we can certainly offer matzoh brei.

Roya Hakakian - author, "Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran."

... When I emigrated to the United States in 1985, however, I had options. Living in a democracy means that Judaism is not a monochromatic exercise, it is a multi-colored fact, a brilliant spectrum of many possibilities in which the range is so vast that all of us can find a shade that becomes us and allows us to continue to identify as Jewish. ... This is what we do as Jews: We read. Our connection with the higher authority is through a very rigorous exercise of reading. Human religious proxies are dangerous because it is easier to manipulate people this way. If there is to be a proxy, let it be a book. As Jews, we can help bring all other faith communities, including Muslim ones, in contact with the texts that they worship. Enhancing literacy among all populations is the way to engender the greatest Jewish value there is.

Michael Hammer - population geneticist, University of Arizona.

When I look at the Jews, I see continuity among people of different communities—Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, the Bukharan Jews from Central Asia—who remained apart for thousands of years. From a population geneticist’s point of view, to be Jewish today is to be a beautiful example of the process of descent with modification from a common ancestor. We not only share a common culture and religion, our genes tell us we share a common origin. One example is the special genetic marker of the Cohanim, the priestly class, which is represented by a unique Y chromosome lineage carried by Cohanim in different Jewish communities today that traces back to a common male ancestor over 100 generations ago. I’m not a Cohen but knowing this has an emotional impact on me. Our ancestors almost went extinct many times in history, so it’s amazing that Jews still exist today as a people. Our genetic heritage brings with it all the forces that shaped that struggle for survival. Genetic variation is influenced not only by chance but also by selective pressure. Whether you have what it takes to survive changes in the environment depends on what you carry with you, so in our genes and our culture, we carry the special talents we have as Jews. There are many explanations for this. Perhaps Jews, as a result of having evolved through the many near-extinctions and persecutions, had to be clever and outthink others to survive. Perhaps because Jews could not own land in many places in the past, they had to work with numbers and mental constructs and abstractions more than others. And, of course, our culture has always taught us the importance of education and studying. So what do we offer the world? We offer our unique brand of intelligence.

Rigoberto Emmanuel Viñas - rabbi, Lincoln Park Jewish Center, Yonkers, New York:

To be a Jew is to be a part of a people with a very open, vibrant and inclusive spiritual path. I am a first-generation Cuban-American rabbi and am in contact with many people who are descendants of 14th-century Spanish and Portuguese Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism during the Inquisition but who continued to practice Jewish customs in secret all over the world. Today, there are millions of such people in Latin America, and an enormous number of them are seeking out their Jewish roots. What is calling them home to Judaism is a spiritual quest to get above all the chasing after power and the unbridled hedonism that goes on in this world. Unfortunately, their openness to Judaism is often greeted with suspicion, legalism and exclusion by other Jews. I want Jewish communities all over the world to become more open to these people and to others looking for a connection with something larger. What Jews can offer the world is to present Judaism as the open spiritual path that it is. We should embrace Jews of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and share our diversity and openness with the world. If we do so, it will reinvigorate us and present a different and more accurate face of Judaism to the world.

Marc Angel - rabbi emeritus, Congregation Shearith Israel-Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, New York City.

After nearly 2,000 years of exile, Jews returned to Israel and revitalized the Hebrew language and culture. For an ancient nation to rise again in its homeland is an awesome historic accomplishment. To be a Jew today is to share in the glory and responsibility of Israel reborn. Jews, who may number 15 million in a world of seven billion, offer the world unparalleled idealism. In spite of centuries of anti-Semitism, we have retained an amazing optimism in the ultimate goodness of humanity. There is scarcely a humanitarian cause that does not include Jews as leaders and activists. A recently deciphered inscription dating from the 10th century BCE—the earliest known fragment of Hebrew writing—captures the essential spirit of the Jewish people: “You shall not do it, but worship the Lord. Judge the slave and the widow; judge the orphan and the stranger. Plead for the infant, plead for the poor and the widow. Rehabilitate the poor at the hands of the king. Protect the poor and the slave, support the stranger.”

Read the other 65 responses at the links above.

Canada: Yiddish oxen, tractors in Saskatchewan

The Yiddish Book Center (Amherst, Massachusetts) sends out periodic newsletters on books and events.

The latest update, just received by Tracing the Tribe, has several interesting items, particularly a Yiddish book on a Saskatchewan farming community and an update on the Hania, Crete synagogue fire and attempts at rebuilding its destroyed library.

Learning how our ancestors lived is key to understanding who they were and how they coped with local conditions.

When, in 1911, Michael Usiskin arrived in the Jewish settlement of Edenbridge, in northeastern Saskatchewan, he and the other pioneers struggled.

Weather conditions, isolation and other factors contributed to their attempt to form Jewish cultural life. He recorded this life in his 1945 Yiddish book, Oksn un motorn (Oxen and Tractors).

To learn more about this book, click here.

Readers may remember the devasting fire at the Hania, Crete synagogue that destroyed its library. Many people have already donated books to rebuild that important resource. The drawing at left is part of director Nikos Stravroulakis' drawing of the town.

Click here to read the thank you message from Stavroulakis and his staff. Read the names of those who donated books and see an interactive map, as well as a list of books they still need.

Subscribe to the National Yiddish Book Center's newsletter.

Seattle: Bennett Greenspan, May 10

FamilyTreeDNA.com founder Bennett Greenspan will speak on the new genetic genealogy test at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State on Monday, May 10.

The program is titled "The Y Chromosome and Beyond: Tracing Your Genealogy with the 'Other' DNA."

It begins at 7.30pm in the Stroum JCC Auditorium on Mercer Island. Doors open at 7pm, the JSWS library will be available, along with Wi-Fi.

Many genealogists have been using genetic genealogy, and specifically FamilyTreeDNA.com, to learn more about their ancestors and find relatives using Y-DNA for paternal lines and mtDNA for maternal lines.

The tests have been essential tools in exploring recent and early Jewish roots, including links among Ashkenazim and Sephardim (such as in the IberianAshkenaz DNA Project, co-administered by Judy Simon and myself).

Now there's a new test that uses autosomal chromosomes to look for close relationships along all ancestral lines, and can find links between male and female cousins across all family lines for the past five generations. Bennett will explain the new test in detail and provide exciting examples of new matches. He will also discuss the nuances of Y-DNA and mtDNA testing.

Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Bennett is the founder/CEO of FamilyTreeDNA.com. He spent years investigating his maternal grandfather's ancestors - an obsession that turned into a full-time vocation and led him to become a founder of the growing field now known as genetic genealogy. FamilyTreeDNA and other cooperative ventures, including the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project and AfricanDNA.com, now comprise the largest non-medical DNA testing program in the world.

Fee: JGSWS members, free; others, $5. For more information, click here.

Lebanon: Ashkenazi, Sephardi Beirut burials online

Jeff Malka, creator of SephardicGen.com, informed Tracing the Tribe that Beirut Jewish Cemetery data is online now at his site.

In 1948, some 24,000 Jews lived in Lebanon. Most of them were in Beirut. Today, there only 30 seniors.

Jewish community symbols in Beirut today are the Magen Avraham synagogue and the Jewish cemetery (with 3,300 burials).

Tracing the Tribe has previously written about Beirut and its Jewish community.

 During the Lebanese civil war, the cemetery was the border of  the Christian Phalange forces. Although damaged by bombs, it was never desecrated.

A Lebanese Christian, Nagi Georges Zeidan, has memorialized the Jewish community of his country by researching its history and creating a database, using both cemetery and civil registrations, with 3,184 gravestone inscriptions
.
Both Ashkenazi and Sephardi burials are included in the searchable database.

Click here for the English database and here for the French version.

Do check out the many searchable databases covering numerous countries and topics at SephardicGen.com.

Melbourne: The conference opens

Although Melbourne suffered from a 100-year rain, with flooded streets, damaged and leaking roofs, hail (from marble-size to much larger!), nothing stopped these intrepid genealogists from arriving at the Beth Weizmann community building in Caulfield South.

Sallyann Amdur Sack-Pikus gave the keynote address and focused on "Jewish Genealogy: Past , Present and Future," as she detailed the history and growth of Jewish genealogy in the US and worldwide.

After a coffee break, I was up next with our "Iberian Ashkenaz DNA Project: So You Think You're Ashkenazi." It generated many questions and people were talking to me all day about their family's stories. The point was to raise awareness of the possibilities and it certainly seemed to do just that.

I hadn't known previously, but I was to lead a Sephardic SIG group next, with another group of interested people with even more interesting stories to tell and questions to be answered.

Following lunch (complete with felafel, potato salad and the rest), I then presented "The New Technology Frontier: Social Networks and Blogging," which also encouraged questions and comments, as I covered Facebook, Twitter, Blogging and genealogy social networking sites. Several people at the session and ater during the day mentioned that their trees had been hijacked at Geni.

There were several concurrent sessions. I attended Jenni Buch's Belarus session and Peter Nash's excellent "China: Resources for Family Research," which offered some rather amazing sources discovered by Peter. Attending Peter's talk was our new friend Helen Bekhor of Melbourne, whose Sephardic family - originally from Baghdad - was interned by the Japanese in Shanghai. Peter attended the Kadoorie School in Shanghai and it sounded like they knew some of the same people way back then. Rieke Nash's session on JRI-Poland was next.

What I missed: Krystyna Duszniak's "Unearthing the Polish Past by Necessity: The Historica Journey to a Poish Passport," Todd Knowles' "British Holldings of the Family History Library," Daniela Torsh's "Finding Hilda: An Austrian Genealogy Story," and Prof. Martin Delatycki's "Genetic Disease Among Jewish People." There were also SIG groups on researching early Australia, German research, Hungary and the Netherlands.

In the evening, a reception was held at the nearby Glen Eira Town Hall, complete with wine, sushi and more. A moving address was given by the young mayor, Steven Tang, who described his trip back to Poland and search for his mother's Jewish roots, as well as his father's Chinese roots. Awards were given to hardworking society members.

The society lost some time ago one of its major movers and shakers - Les Oberman - a good friend of mine. A meeting room was dedicated with a plaque bearing his name.

Ziva Fain and I are now out the door to day two of the conference.

Photos and more will be posted tonight.

Australia: Jewish genealogy conference, March 7-9

The weather in Melbourne couldn't be better, sunny and breezy. Tracing the Tribe is blogging away and getting ready to speak at the second Australian National Conference on Jewish Genealogy, March 7-9.

The Australian Jewish News reported on the conference in a story on February 22.

The story focused on Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem who will also speak at the conference and describe his search for long-lost relatives in Australia.

Rotem, 50, was posted to Canberra in 2007; he spoke at the first conference in 2008, which the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society held in that city. The embassy hosted a reception for attendees at the conference.

Lionel Sharpe, secretary of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (Victoria) said in the story that the conference theme is "Our Jewish Roots," and that it will look at ways that genealogists - from beginners to experts - can use today's resources most effectively.

One important point that Lionel stressed is that there are so many new sites appearing and more archives are becoming accessible. Many experienced genealogists did a lot of work decades ago and couldn't find anything then, but they are not aware of the new sources.

He says that the conference will recommend that researchers start looking again, but through different glasses.

Dr. Sallyann Amdur Sack-Pikus and myself are among the international speakers.

Other speakers include:

Writer-lecturer Arnold Zable (media as a resource for finding family); researcher Krystyna Duszniak (locating relatives in Poland); journalist-filmmaker Daniela Torsh (genealogy in the Czech Republic and Austria); Holocaust researcher Jenni Buch (Belarus); and Gary Luke (Australian Jewish colonial period.

Tracing the Tribe is very excited to be here and to take part in this event.

Hong Kong: DNA Project and blast from the past

Tonight I presented the IberianAshkenaz DNA Project at the Jewish Community Center of Hong Kong (JCC logo at left), and also experienced a blast from the past.

I reconnected with someone I haven't seen since 2002.

Joining us (Mira, her husband, me) for the Wednesday night buffet at the JCC coffee shop was Gary Stein of Toronto. Longtime Jewish genealogists will remember Gary, particularly if they attended the IAJGS conference there in 2002, when some 1,200 people attended that week-long event. Gary has been been living in Hong Kong for a year and loves it.

The good turnout included people of many different backgrounds: Ashkenazi, Sephardi, spouses who were one or the other. They represented Israel, Australia, the UK, the US, France, North Africa, Iran and elsewhere - a great mix of people.

I'm also doing a hands-on Intro to Jewish Genealogy tomorrow night, and many people will be attending that as well.

It was great to see Gary, and we will be going to Shabbat services and dinner at the United Jewish Congregation of Hong Kong (the Liberal congregation). I'm also looking forward to their Saturday night Purim Shpiel, billed as "The Little Theater of West South Northampton presents Mordechai Python's Flying Purim."

Nothing really scheduled yet for tomorrow (Thursday) yet, and if it all works out, I'm hoping to take the Kowloon ferry tomorrow and visit the Jewish cemetery on Friday morning.

Canada: Jewish genealogy at ShalomLife

Tracing the Tribe was interviewed by Toronto's ShalomLife.com writer Dan Verbin.

The first of a two-part article is here.

It covers many Jewish genealogy topics, including trends, myths, online resources, Sephardic genealogy, DNA genetic genealogy, technology, opening of Eastern European archives, JGSLA 2010 and more - and that's just in part one!

Books: Other sides to Jewish culture

Author Mara W. Cohen Ioannides guestblogs for the Jewish Publication Society about lesser-known Jewish cultures.

In her latest guest post for the JPS Blog, she discusses the fact that American Jews tend to view American Jewishness as yiddishkeit, or Ashkenazi Jewish culture, although there are so many other Jewish ethnic groups to consider.

Before you pooh-pooh this idea, list Jewish ethnic food. Did you list: matzah balls, bagels, pastrami, rye bread, mandelbrot, challah, or honey cake? Then you are an Eastern European ethnic Jew. What ever happened to humus, lahana, or halvah?

Mara writes that she grew up at a time when Sephardim were only mentioned in history books, even as she grew up an hour from the historic Sephardic synagogue in Philadelphia, Mikve Israel. There were few children's books about American Jewish children.


When she became the mother of a daughter with a Greek father, she wanted her daughter to know all about her history, but there was nothing for children about Greek Jewry. This was the impetus for Mara's series of children's novels.

We know that Jews lived throughout history in almost every part of the world, but we don’t really understand what their lives were like.

She authored "A Shout in the Sunshine," a young adult novel set in 15th-century Greece, about a friendship between two boys from different cultural backgrounds: Miguel, a post-Inquisition Spanish refugee, and David, the son of a wealthy Greek Jewish fabric merchant. As they work together in David's family shop, they find they share a special connection. The book explores what happens when two distinct Jewish communities must learn to live together after the 1492 Exile and Spanish Sephardim arrived in Salonika, which already had a resident indigenous Romaniote Jewish community. See the book link for PDFs of the forward, first chapter and study guide.

Her blog post lists five books for children and adults to help readers get started on seeing other parts of Jewish culture.

Here are just the titles and authors, so read the original post to see Mara's notes. Tracing the Tribe personally recommends all of them.

-- I Remember Rhodes by Rebecca Amato Levy.

-- Zayda Was a Cowboy by June Levitt Nislick.

-- The Book of Jewish Food: An odyssey from Samarkand to New York by Claudia Roden.

-- The Life of Glückel of Hameln

-- Rashi’s Daughters: Rachel, by Maggie Anton.

Mara further suggests acquiring Sephardic music CDs and notes that the language still spoken that is most similar to medieval Spanish is Ladino.

Mara W. Cohen Ioannides is also the editor of the only published manuscript on the Jews of the Ozarks, and co-director of “Home, Community, Tradition: The Women of Temple Israel” (a documentary about the Jewish women of Springfield, MO).

Read Mara's complete post at the first link above.

Virginia: Jews of Cuba, Jan. 13

"The Jews of Cuba: The Road to Paradise and the Land We Called Home" is a program by Cuban Jewish expert Miriam Levinson on Wednesday, January 13.

The program begins at 7.30pm at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, at 8900 Little River Turnpike. Fee: JCC members, $8; others, $10.

Levinson's grandfather set out for the US in 1927 but arrived in Cuba, where the family lived for three decades. More than 15,000 Jews lived there in the 20th century and until the revolution, it was considered a tropical Jewish paradise. Sephardim and Ashkenazim lived side by side.

After the revolution, when Castro came to power, most of the Jews left Cuba - many to Miami.

Born in Cuba, Levinson came to the US with her family in the late 1950s. A Chicago resident, she heads the Jewish Community Center Travel Department and speaks on international Jewish life.

Additionally, the JCCNV is organizing two Jewish missions to Cuba (February 10-18, April 21-28), and Levinson will escort both trips.

Check out the JCCNV site. Tracing the Tribe noted genealogical/historical interest to Jewish historical sites, talks on the Jews of Azerbaijan, Jews of the South and more, besides the active calendar of other services.

For more resources on Jewish life in Cuba, search Tracing the Tribe for previous posts. Don't forget about the work of filmmaker and author Ruth Behar. Adio Kerida follows her on a search for Cuban-American Sephardic memories. Her books are "An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba" and The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart.

Genetics: Joubert Syndrome gene discovered

A genetic mutation causing Ashkenazi Jewish children to be born with Joubert Syndrome - a neurological genetic disease - was discovered by Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem and Dor Yeshorim (Committee for the Prevention of Jewish Genetic Diseases) researchers.

The finding will be published in the American Journal of Human Genetics (January 2010 edition), and the announcement appeared in the Southern California Hadassah Blog.

Hadassah's Department of Genetics and Metabolic Diseases has, in the past two years, discovered 13 genes - including this newest one - whose mutations may cause genetic diseases in children.

Joubert Syndrome affects the cerebellum, which is responsible for controlling balance and coordination of skeletal muscles. Infants born with this condition demonstrate decreased muscle tone, difficulty in swallowing, jerky eye movements and an inability to coordinate voluntary muscle movements. As the children grow, they may suffer from mental retardation and develop kidney failure.

According to the article, Dor Yeshorim was concerned with an increasing number of children born with the syndrome in recent years, and asked Hadassah to investigate.

Analysis of the children's DNA showed each had an identical 14-gene segment. Research identified the one with the mutation that causes the syndrome.

Based on these initial findings, researchers examined the DNA of 3,000 healthy Ashkenazi Jews and discovered that one out of 92 Ashkenazi Jews carried the mutation. This means that one of every 8,000 Ashkenazi Jewish couples may have a child with Joubert Syndrome.

NOTE: Tracing the Tribe wonders about the genetic genealogy matches of the test group. In the past, several studies have initially pointed to "Ashkenazi" conditions, later adjusted to simply "Jewish" genetic conditions, when the same conditions were found among Sephardim. A recent example (2006) was Yeshiva University's study on the discovery of an "Ashkenazi" Parkinson's gene. The definition was amended a few years later when the same gene was found among Sephardim. How many of these Joubert Syndrome test subjects may have a Sephardic oral history or other markers?

The Hadassah researchers included Dr. Simon Edwardson, Dr. Avraham Shaag, Dr. Shamir Zenvirt, and Prof. Orly El-Peleg, with the participation of Dor Yeshorim.

For more information on Hadassah's health and medicine activities, click here.

Tales of success: How sweet it is!

Back in June, Kevin Bowman in Ohio wrote to Tracing the Tribe about his Dutch Jewish ancestry, and shared information on the Akevoth database of Ashkenazim in 18th-century Amsterdam.

He used the Akevoth database to find information on his EZEKIEL family. The photo below is Moses Jacob Ezekiel at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), who fought in the battle at New Market.


Just recently, he found additional success using a new UK database, SynagogueScribes.com, described by Tracing the Tribe.

Here's more on his two reports of success:

In addition to informing me about the Akevoth database, he described his success over several months.

I find it is the most extraordinary website. With this database, I have taken my family tree back 200 years beyond the tree that Rabbi Stern mapped in "First American Jewish Families."

He reported on the ancestors of his great-great-great-grandfather Jacob Ezekiel, a prominent American Jew, whose family was mapped by Stern here. His son, Moses Jacob (photo above), became a famous sculptor. Kevin did note that the points mapped by Stern each led to a brick wall on his genealogical quest.

Kevin knew the family adopted the surname in the US, but were known as Schreiber in the Netherlands. As he played with name variants, he discovered the Akevoth database.

Just googling around with alternative names, one day, I ran into the Akevoth database, and found this.

I was stunned to compare what I knew about the Ezekiel family to Jacob Jokeb Ezechiel Posnan(s)ki Schreiber’s family in the database. It matched nearly perfectly. Then, even more amazingly, it mapped out family trees going back another 200 years.

Says Kevin, an Ohio attorney, matching American families to the Dutch database is a difficult process because of changes in spelling, surname and others. He has been successful more than once, and believes that several of Stern's family trees could be expanded using the Akevoth database.

Occasionally, he's found people in the notes that should have been in the trees, but were somehow overlooked.

As an example, he writes about Sarah Abraham Waterman (Wasserman), listed as the wife of Michiel Mozes Doesburg Gompert Kleef, but not listed among the children of Abraham Waterman, despite the clear connection. The family moved to England and became Gompertz and their children moved to the US.

He recommends searching the entire website with alternative names to see if there are any missed connections, and also recommends variants with "ben" and "bat" as these constructions appear frequently.

Kevin, who also has Sephardic ancestry (De Castro), says the Ashkenazi database is far better than the Sephardic stuff available. Although materials consistently report that the Ezekiels were Sephardic, as does the family legend, and the fact that they attended a Philadelphia Sephardic synagogue, records reveal a patrilineal Ashkenazi family.

However, he's never been able to connect any of the individuals listed by Rabbi Stern on the De Castro to any information regarding Sephardic Jews in the Netherlands, except for one marriage entry (possibly!). But he keeps trying!

He further describes the transformation of the Kerkhoven surname into Myers in the US, which could help Myers descendants go back in time.

Aaltje Abraham Waterman, the sister of Kevin's Step-GGGG-Grandfather, married Emanuel Jacob Kerkhoven, son of Jacob Levie Kerkhoven. See this Akevoth family page. In the US, she became Adeline and he Emanuel Jacob Myers (see this Stern page)

In early December, Kevin had another round of success. Following his reading our post about CemeteryScribes.com and SynagogueScribes.com, his quest revealed the marriage record of his GGGG grandparents.

I always recommend that people using new databases and sites write to them when they find success, and that's what Kevin did. Gaby Laws of SynagogueScribes.com then forwarded his email to me.

I heard about your site through the Jewish Geneablog "Tracing the Tribe." They suggested that you may like to hear about any success in using your database. I think I may have found the marriage record of my 4xG Grandparents.

Ref.No. GSM 232/39 shows a marriage record Jabob Elias (Jeker ben Eliahu) who married Eliza Barnett (Libisha bat Jacob Simon) at the Great Synagogue in London on August 3, 1825. The dates and names all seem to fit, although I did not know Eliza's maiden name.

By 1849, Jacob Elias had died and Eliza remarried, their daughter Kate married John Bowman and the whole family moved to Chicago.This new information may have knocked down a brick wall for me.

We are all inspired by such stories of achievement, and Kevin has done very well in 2009.

When you find success, write in or comment on the relevant Tracing the Tribe post. Also, tell the database or website described that you learned about it here. This makes all of us very happy for you! Success inspires success.

Tracing the Tribe wishes Kevin and all our readers continued genealogical good fortune at this festive time of miracles!

Jewish foods: Fry, fry again!

Tracing the Tribe wishes all readers a very happy Chanukah surrounded by family and friends.

Although this photo shows Israeli sufganiyot (filled doughnuts), this post isn't really about them, except to make you hungry. And if you scroll down, there's more on potato latkes. Yum.

Chanukah starts tonight (Friday) at sundown and we celebrate it for eight nights. Our hanukkiah is cleaned and ready.

Israeli sufganiyot are creative, offering many fillings and topped with chocolate, powdered sugar, dulce de leche and whatever they think of each year. Ordinary jelly doughnuts are not that fashionable and can be found in supermarkets. Many bakeries set up outdoor tents where they fry, fill and top the fresh doughnuts for the lines of customers.

My local bakery today had the following varieties: fillings of mocha, creme patisserie, pistachio, chocolate, halva, vanilla cream, banana and more, topped with chocolate, whipped cream, sprinkles and even more. We bought one of each. Pistachio was new this year.

Hungry yet? Here's more food for thought.

Why do some people eat latkes with sour cream or with applesauce? The simple answer is tradition - or not.

Many Ashkenazi Jews only eat applesauce with their latkes. Back in the shtetl, the only fats were chicken or goose shmaltz (rendered fat) - olive oil was rare. You couldn't fry something in poultry fat and then put sour cream on it - it wouldn't be kosher.

And, although these same families arrived in places where the preferred oil was olive, canola, peanut or sunflower - shmaltz wasn't even seen anymore - the old traditions still held firm.

There are as many ways to make these yummies as there are things to make them out of (potatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchini and various other permutations. I've even seen beet latkes), as well as things to mix into the batter (we've heard of some with raisins or nuts, but we think that's blasphemous) or to put on top (applesauce, sour cream, sugar, cinnamon or just grab them naked - the latkes, not the cook - out of the frying pan!).

Tracing the Tribe likes thin crisp ones, while others prefer thicker pancakes. With our latkes tonight, we'll have a roast turkey breast that's been marinating in a mix of dijon mustard and orange juice.

Of course, the very best way to eat latkes is to get invited to someone else's home who makes a fantastic recipe.

That way, you won't have to scrub the oil spatters off your cabinets, stove and counters and - yes - the floor. It can make a real mess, although for a delicious cause. Some extraordinarily organized individuals start making these a few weeks in advance and freeze them. All they need to do is heat them up - foil-covered - until they are hot and crispy.

It's a good thing there's only one week of Chanukah, as all that frying, oil and sweet stuff often produce a sensory overload.

We wait all year for a fantastic dulce de leche or pina colada or mocha-filled doughnut, covered in chocolate, and think we can eat 10 of them. After about the third one, we can't look at them anymore.

Well, I need to get back to the kitchen, so have a great holiday with your loved ones!

As you gather with family over the holidays, remember to talk to your relatives. Record conversations, make videos, ask questions, write down the details. The holidays are the best time of year to add to your research. Good luck!

Enjoy your holidays!

With best wishes,
Schelly

Jewish foods: Teaching teens about the world

Aliza Green spoke at the Philly 2009 Jewish genealogy conference and participated in a first-ever for the annual conference - a hand's-on cooking demonstration.

Her article on teaching teens about the wonderful world of Jewish foods is in the Philadelphia Inquirer. In her career, she's cooked everything on the decidedly not-kosher edibles list, distancing herself from her Orthodox upbringing:

But in recent years, I've embraced my Jewish heritage, especially its connections to food and culture, and I am researching a book exploring Jewish culinary history through the spread of ingredients worldwide.

So I jumped at the chance to teach Jewish cuisine and culture to high schoolers and junior high kids at the Jewish Community High School of Gratz College, whose mission is to educate Jewish teens about the heritage, traditions and language of the Jewish people. The course brings together my love and knowledge of food and culinary history with Jewish traditions. My weekly challenge is to come up with recipes from far-flung Jewish communities that the kids can make.

The kids come from area high schools and have varying interests.

Nicole Kaminsky, a freshman at Wissahickon High School, whose family comes from Puerto Rico, was interested in learning whether some of the Hispanic cooking at her home was actually Jewish cooking. "I've learned that in Ashkenazi cooking, people used ingredients that wouldn't spoil easily. It all depended on the area and the trade routes."

Green included a large section on olive oil as Chanukah is coming up tomorrow night. She discussed Jewish history, and the miracle of the oil and the holiday's significance, and added how olive oil is central to Jewish food traditions across the Mediterranean.

Olive oil was rare in Ashkenazi lands, where our ancestors used rendered chicken or goose fat (shmaltz) instead.

The class made teiglach - although Tracing the Tribe always associates this dish with Rosh Hashanah but, what the heck, it uses oil - which means little bits of dough in Yiddish and its Italian name cicerchiata means little bits of chickpeas.

Egg dough bits are fried until puffed and crisp, immersed in honey, mixed with nuts and formed into individual shapes or one large centerpiece, as Green does.

The class discussed potato pancakes (latkes), apple fritters and squash latkes for the Ashkenazi communities. Mizrahim and Sephardim add sugar and sesame seeds, or stuff cheese into fritters or doughnuts, or soak fried loukoumades in honey syrup. Indians add yeast, milk and butter and fry them.

Read the complete story at the link above.