Yiddish Center: Audio books in Yiddish

The Yiddish Book Center and the Jewish Public Library of Montreal produced the audiobook Kinder-yorn (Childhood Years) as part of Y.Y. Trunk's seven-volume Poylen (Poland: Memories and Images).

The work is considered one of the most important memoirs of Jewish Polish life. The author began the work two days after he arrived in the US in March 1941.

According to the Yiddish Book Center, "He knew that Europe’s Jews were facing an unimaginable disaster, and his book has been called a 'portable literary gravestone for a destroyed community.'"

Two Fellows of the Yiddish Book Center have returned with an additional 200 Yiddish audio books on tape. They will be digitized and made available for free online.

Poyln has also been translated into English and published by the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada.

For those who can read Yiddish, click here . Sample the audio book here.

Books: AJL announces 2011 reference, bibliography awards

The Research Libraries, Archives, and Special Collections Division of the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) has announced the 2011 winners of its Judaica Reference and Bibliography Awards.

The awards will be presented at the AJL’s 46th Annual Convention banquet, on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at the Marriott Montréal Château Champlain (Montréal, Québec).

Tracing the Tribe is also delighted to have been chosen to speak on Sephardic research at the conference. I’m looking forward to seeing our Montreal cousins and gen friends during my visit.

Reference

-- The winner is The Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World (Brill). Edited by Dr. Norman Stillman of the University of Oklahoma, the five-volume work is the first English-language reference that deals with a part of Jewish history that is obscure and inaccessible for many readers. It opens a new window into this world and will inevitably generate more research and interest in the field. An online version is currently available as well. For more information, click here.

-- The Eerdman's Dictionary of Early Judaism, edited by John J. Collins and Daniel C. Harlow, received an honorable mention. It is an essential reference in a field of study that has rapidly expanded in recent decades. For more information, click here.

Bibliography

-- The winner is The Bibliography of Jews in the Islamic World (Brill). Edited by María Angeles Gallego, Heather Bleaney and Pablo García Suárez, it is an important contribution to the study of Jews in the Islamic World due to its thematic and geographical scopes, especially considering the difficulties in covering such a diverse field and multitude of languages. For more information, click here.

Dr. Greta Silver (New York City) and Eric Chaim Kline (Los Angeles) sponsor the annual awards.

For more information on the awards, including past winners, click here.

The awards committee includes Michlean Amir (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), Yoram Bitton (Columbia University), Rachel Leket-Mor (Arizona State University), Daniel Rettberg (Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati), Pinchas Roth (Hebrew University), Rachel Simon (Princeton University), and Daniel Scheide, chair (Florida Atlantic University).

The AJL promotes Jewish literacy through enhancement of libraries and library resources and through leadership for the profession and practitioners of Judaica librarianship, while fostering access to information, learning, teaching and research relating to Jews, Judaism, the Jewish experience and Israel.

For more information on the conference, visit the AJL site.

Books: National Book Critics finalists offer Jewish themes

The National Book Critics Circle - with some 600 book reviewers - was created in 1974 and offers an annual award to be announced on March 10. This year's finalists demonstrate numerous Jewish themes.

The NBCC list of five fiction finalists include:

-- David Grossman - "To the End of the Land"
-- Hans Keilson - "Comedy in a Minor Key"
-- Jonathan Franzen - "Freedom"

Among the five biography finalists are:

-- Tom Segev - "The Lives and Legends" (biography of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal)
-- Kai Bird - "Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978"
-- Christopher Hitchens - "Hitch-22" (who discovers as an adult that his mother was Jewish).

Click here for more information on the NBCC and here's the link for a complete list of the finalists.

Southern California: Five authors to speak, January 9

Five published authors are on the program of the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County, set for Sunday, January 9.

The authors will speak about their books at the meeting - co-sponsored by Temple Adat Elohim - which will begin at 1.30pm at the congregation, 2420 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks. There is no admission charge.

Speaking will be:

-- Warren Blatt is one of the original authors who wrote a book on techniques and resources for doing Jewish genealogy, "Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy."

-- Werner Frank researched his multi-generational family history on the German-Jewish experience going back 800 years including the impact of the Holocaust: "Legacy: The Saga of a German-Jewish Family Over Time and Circumstance."

-- Erica Miller, PhD takes us from her childhood in Romania, to life under a brutal Nazi regime, emigration to Israel, and eventual emergence as a dedicated mental health professional in America: "The Dr.Erica Miller Story: From Trauma to Triumph."

-- Helene Rosen created a family book for her children with copies of family photographs. Anyone can use this technique for their family photographs: "Our Family in Pictures."

-- Mark Abbott Stern wrote a biography of US colonial Jewish businessman - David Franks - from his beginnings in a prominent Jewish family to his trials for treason and exile in the post-Revolutionary period: "David Franks; Colonial Merchant."

Dr. Miller will hold a book signing at the meeting's end (cash and checks only).

For more information, click here or send an email.

Books: Jewish community histories

Hollander Books (San Francisco, California) has a stock of Jewish community histories by Arcadia Publishing, and is offering them at a 20% discount (see details below).

Histories of communities are invaluable for genealogists and family history researchers. In general, they provide the development of a community in which your ancestors may have lived. And, if you are really lucky, your ancestors might even be named in the pages.

The book may explain why Jews migrated there, whether it included people from certain towns in the old country, how the community contributed to the development of the geographic location and more.

Visit Hollander Books online for more information.

Tracing the Tribe learned about this collection from a posting by Harry Hollander on the Association of Jewish Libraries list.

Many of you are familiar with the sepia toned covers of Arcadia Publishings books on local communities. There are now quite a few on Jewish communities.

Fred Isaac recently published a volume in the series, "Jews of Oakland and Berkeley," and feels that these are good solid books for Jewish libraries. At his urging I attempted to exhibit them at the AJL conference in Seattle. However, a number of snafus with the publisher at the time sunk that plan.

In my experience, people get very excited about these books. They not only identify with the place where they live, but also places where they and members of their families have lived, making it worthwhile to include communities outside of your local area in your collection.

Below is a list of the volumes that Hollander currently stocks. He's offering a 20% discount off the listed retail prices. US shipping: $2 for one book, and free for two or more titles. International shipping is at cost. Go to the website link for more information.

CALIFORNIA
Isaac, Frederick. "Jews of Oakland and Berkeley." $21.99
Los Angeles's Boyle Heights. $21.99

COLORADO
Jewish Denver 1859-1960. $19.99

CONNECTICUT
The Jewish Communities of Greater Stamford. $21.99

WASHINGTON, DC
The Jewish Community of Washington, D.C. $19.99

FLORIDA
Jews of Greater Miami. $21.99

ILLINOIS
Chicago's Jewish West Side. $21.99
Jewish Chicago: A Pictorial History. $21.99
Skokie. (Chicago Suburbs) $21.99
Chicago's Forgotten Synagogues. $19.99

LOUISIANA
The Jewish Community of New Orleans. $21.99

MASSACHUSETTS
The Jewish Community of the North Shore. (outside Boston) $19.99
MARYLAND
The Jewish Community of Baltimore. $19.99

MAINE
Maine's Jewish Heritage. $19.99

MICHIGAN
Jewish Ann Arbor. $10.00
The Jewish Community of Metro Detroit 1945-2005. $19.99

MINNESOTA
Reform Jews of Minneapolis. $19.99

NEBRASKA
Jewish Life in Omaha and Lincoln: A Photographic History. $19.99
NEW JERSEY
Jews of Morris County. (New Jersey) $19.99
Jews of Weequahic. $21.99
Jewish South Jersey. $19.99

NEW YORK
Star Lake.(Jews in the Adirondacks - Jewish Hotel, etc.)$19.99
Sullivan County Borscht Belt. (Catskills) $19.99
The Jewish Community of Staten Island. $19.95

OHIO
Jewish Life in Akron. $19.95
Jews of Cincinnati. $19.99
Cleveland Heights Congregations. $21.99

PENNSYLVANIA
The Jewish Community Around North Broad Street. (Philadelphia) $19.99
The Jewish Community of South Philadelphia. $19.99
Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Philadelphia. $19.99
Squirrel Hill. (Pittsburgh) $21.99
The Jewish Community Under the Frankford El. $19.99

TENNESSEE
The Jewish Community of Chattanooga. $19.99
Nashville's Jewish Community. $21.99

Hollander also has a related blog or email him for more information.

New York: Ancestral home memories, Sept. 19

A panel of presenters will discuss post-Holocaust life in ancestral towns, personal experiences, impressions and stories, at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York, on Sunday, September 19.

The meeting begins at 2pm, at Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street

The panel includes Professors Mihai Grunfeld, Mimi Schwartz, Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer, with moderator Renee Steinig.

A Vassar College professor of Spanish and Latin American literature, Mihai Grunfeld ("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 US where he settles.

Mimi Schwartz ("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 12 years, she traveled seeking answers, collecting stories, checking historical records. She is the author of five books and numerous essays, and is a professor emerita at Richard Stockton College (New Jersey) where she teaches workshops in memoir and creative nonfiction.

Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer (husband-and-wife co-authors, "Ghosts of Home, The Afterlife of Czernowitz in Jewish Memory") will 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. Hirsch, the daughter of Czernowitz Holocaust survivors, is a Columbia University Professor of English and Comparative Literature and director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She is the author of many books. Spitzer, a historian, Kathe Tappe Vernon professor of History Emeritus at Dartmouth College and has authored many books, most recently "Hotel Bolivia: A Culture of Memory in a Refuge from Nazism."

The CJH Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute will open at 11am for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.

For more information, click here.

Hong Kong: Asian Jewish Life's new issue

The summer 2010 edition of Asian Jewish Life has hit cyberspace to provide the rest of us with a look at contemporary Jewish diaspora life throughout Asia

When I visited Hong Kong (February/March 2010), I met Erica Lyons - an expat American who lives in Hong Kong with her family. As editor-in-chief of the magazine, she's produced another excellent collection of fascinating articles covering numerous countries.

Check out the new issue online and see these stories:

Animating Jewish-Chinese Relations: Judaism and Israel are hot topics in China. More than 10 Chinese universities offer Judaic studies programs, including at least one doctoral program. China’s state-owned television network, CCTV, recently aired a documentary titled “Walk into Israel - Land of Milk and Honey,” its first series on Israel. The story of the Shanghai Jews is now a popular topic as well.

The Way Home: Born in Seoul, filmmaker Jason Hoffman was adopted by a New York Jewish family. The film, "Going Home," is his story of finding his roots, his birthmother and sister.

Finding a Lost Tribe of Israel in India: The long road home.

The Endless Jewish Audience: Whenever he walks into a new social situation - synagogue, Shabbat dinner or a Judaica store - there's always the chance this Japanese Jewish convert will need to tell his conversion story to a confused, sometimes judgmental, audience.

The Color of Carefully Ordered Chaos: Israeli artist Nir Segal's work on exhibit in Thailand.

Living Tikkun Olam in Nepal: Israeli backpackers and diaspora Jews volunteer in Tevel b’Tzedek (The Earth in Justice), founded by Micha Odenheimer. The group runs intensive four-month Nepal experience (February), as well as five-week programs beginning in October, November and December. Read the story to learn what this organization has accomplished and its plans for the future.

In Book Reviews, two interesting family histories and a family secret (Shanghai and Zimbabwe). Although not new, each provides insights on a destination: Shanghai Shadows (Lois Ruby, Holiday House, 2006) and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun (Peter Godwin, Little, Brown and Company, 2006).

See the table of contents here for more. There are stories by a writer in Cambodia, a social activist in Japan, Asian kosher food, an ex-pat diary story, a travel feature by the New Jersey-born conductor of the The Hong Kong Bach Choir and Orchestra, and more.

AJL is a free quarterly publication designed to share regional Jewish thoughts, ideas and culture and promote unity, while celebrating individuality, diverse backgrounds and customs.

Thank you, Erica, for another good read!

North Carolina: Shtetls and camps, Aug. 25

The daughter of Holocaust survivors - who has been researching her family history and looking for surviving relatives for more than 50 years - traveled to ancestral villages in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Germany.

Deborah Long will speak about her research trip on Wednesday, August 25. The dessert-and-discussion event, from 7.30-9.30pm, will be in a private home and is for the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation.

Long will recount her shocking 2009 unearthing of family artifacts that compelled her to visit ancestral villages in Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, and also to northern Germany to understand her parents' Holocaust history.

The presentation includes her methodology, her trip through shtetls and concentration camps and joyful discovery upon returning home.

A professional educator, Long has written more than 20 books, including a memoir about growing up as a child of survivors.

Those who donate $118 or more to the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation will receive a free copy of her book.

For more information, send an email or click here.

Ukraine: Jewish agricultural colonies updated

Material has been added to the Jewish Agricultural Colonies of the Ukraine site, which states:

The study of Jewish agricultural settlement in an organized form in the European Diaspora contributes to an understanding of the endeavors of Jews to improve their social and economic situation under the restrictive and oppressive Tsarist regime.

The Jewish farmers’ efforts were a unique episode in the struggle for Jewish survival in the Diaspora, even as they held to Jewish values and lifestyle.

As archives in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine become more accessible, more new material is now appearing. In those countries, descendants of the colonists are finding material and developing websites. Although most are in the Russian language, various online translation tools help researchers.

Chaim Freedman is the force behind this site.

Here are some highlights:

Two valuable Russian books hold information about the Ekaterinoslav colonies:

L. Uleinikov [Binshtok], Jewish Agricultural Colonies in Ekaterinoslav Province in 1890, St Petersburg, 1891;

I. Kankrin, Jewish Agricultural Colonies of Aleksandrov Uyezd Ekaterinoslav Province, Ekaterinoslav, 1893.

The authors made detailed censuses of the colonies and provided statistics.

The census of the households included an overview of each colony and a summary of its history and assets. Kankrin added detailed house and street handwritten plans of the 10 colonies he studied, and sketches of buildings.

Uleinikov includes complete lists of heads of all families (surname, name and patronymic) in 17 colonies of Ekaterinoslav Province, Aleksandrovsk and Mariupol Uyezds, with detailed record of family composition, military service, type of house, agricultural implements, livestock, land and its subdivision within family and notes about profession etc.

Kankrin studied in a similar fashion 10 colonies in Aleksandrovsk Uyezd and has even more information about colonists' families. He was obsessed with the idea that colonists in reality remained artisans and not worked much as agriculturalistsPartial translations are available.

Other additions to the site:

-- Interview of Ukrainian residents of former Jewish colony Novozaltopol by Father Patrick Desbois; a horrifying account which demonstrates who actually carried out the massacre of nearly 800 Jews.

-- Photographs from the St. Petersburg Film archive and World ORT Photographic archive taken of many colonies in 1904 and 1922 showing public buildings such as schools, synagogues, municipal offices, and farmhouses.

-- "Nayzlatopler Rayon" [Novozlatopol Region] an account of the Sovietized colonies after the Revolution and Civil War.

-- "Destruction of Jewish Tradition under the Soviet Administration" [in process]

-- An article assessing the affect of Sovietization on the destruction of Jewish cultural and religious life with particular reference to the role of the Yevsekzia.

-- Revision lists from colonies Zelenopole and Mezhirech, 1850 and 1858.

-- Memoirs of Grafskoy 1907-1921 by the son of the colony's rabbi. Description of colony life, and reaction to post-Revolution pogroms.

-- Prenumeranten lists from two 1911 books include many residents.

-- A new links page for more information.

Chaim adds that Yakov Pasik's Russian site has been updated with English, photos and maps.

For more information, contact Chaim Freedman.

New York: First Sephardic Jewish Book Fair, July 25

The first annual New York Sephardic Jewish Book Fair will include book readings, author signings, sales and tours at the Center for Jewish History, on Sunday July 25.

From noon-5.30pm - hosted by the American Sephardi Federation (ASF) - the event brings together authors and book lovers, those who write about and enjoy books relating to the culture, history, philosophy, religion, languages and experiences of Sephardic Jews, past and present.

Hundreds of Sephardic-oriented books - new, hard-to-find or rare - will be available.

Visiting authors will discuss diverse topics and personal histories, Sephardic history, philosophy, culture and religion:

12pm: Jean Naggar will read from her Egyptian memoir, "Sipping From the Nile."
12.30pm: Marc Kligman, Professor of Jewish Musicology (Hebrew Union College) will read from his award-winning book, "Maqam and Liturgy: Ritual, Music, and Aesthetics of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn."
1pm: Andrée Aelion Brooks will read from and discuss the life of the Sephardic banker and heroine, "The Woman who Defied Kings: The Life and Times of Doña Gracia Nasi."
Children's hour, 2-3pm:
1.30pm: Peninnah Schram, Professor of Speech and Drama, Stern College for Women (Yeshiva University), shares a Sephardic tale for youth, "The Hungry Clothes - And other Jewish Folktales."
2pm: Mara Cohen Ioannides, Professor of English (Missouri State University), reads a story about Sephardic and Romanoite Jews from her award-winning children's book, "A Shout in the Sunshine."
2:30pm: Jessica Jiji reads from her novel, "Sweet Dates in Basra."
3pm: Rabbi Marc D. Angel, Ph.D., founder of The Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals and Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Shearith Israel, North America's oldest Jewish congregation. He speaks on his books, "Foundations of Sephardic Spirituality" and "Maimonides, Spinoza and Us."
4pm: Abraham Sutton reads from "The Aristocrat," a book about his father, Rabbi Hillel Menashe Sutton, a leading member of the Aleppo (Syria) and Jerusalem Sephardic communities.
4.30pm, J. Daniel Khazzoom, Professor emeritus, reads from his book, "No Way Back: The Journey of a Jew from Baghdad."
5pm: Mitchell James Kaplan reads from his book about ordinary people swept up in the Inquisition's chaos and upheaval and the Expulsion, "By Fire, By Water."

Vendors will bring out-of-print Jewish books, as well as modern and rare titles, some from the 18th-20th centuries, including antique Ladino and Hebrew volumes from Salonika, Livorno, Tunis, Venice and Jerusalem.

Rare Sephardic books from the ASF Library and Archives will be displayed and Yeshiva University Museum will offer tours of its current exhibits, including "A Journey Through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books.' This collection includes handwritten manuscripts and printed books from Holland, Italy, Spain, Greece and India.

The free event is set for the Steinberg Great Hall at the CJH, 15 W. 16th Street.

Jewish Publication Society names new CEO

The Jewish Publication Society has named rabbi and author Barry L. Schwartz as its new CEO.


JPS - in Philadelphia -has been publishing biblical, scholarly and popular Jewish works in English for more than 122 years.

The company is also known for its Jewish history volumes covering many countries and topics.

From the press release:

Schwartz comes to JPS from Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where he served as senior rabbi for the past 11 years. Rabbi Schwartz has served on the board of several nonprofit social justice organizations, and is especially active in Jewish environmental work.

“Barry has a passion for reaching out broadly to the Jewish community, whether through scholarly study, storytelling, or performing works of tikkun olam,” said David Lerman, president of the JPS Board of Trustees. “We look forward to his leadership in energizing our existing constituents as well as building bridges for JPS with new audiences.”

"Leading JPS into the digital age is the challenge of a lifetime,” Schwartz said. “The Jewish people have survived and thrived by studying and being inspired by Torah while the world around them changes, and our age is no different. I believe JPS will remain the source of choice for the next generation of life-long Jewish learners, publishing books of enduring quality.”

A dynamic speaker and prolific writer, Schwartz is the author of four books, a prize-winning short story, and scholarly articles that have appeared in the Journal of Reform Judaism, American Jewish History, and the Hebrew Union College Annual. His textbook, Jewish Heroes, Jewish Values, is used in more than 300 religious schools nationwide and Honi The Circlemaker: Eco-Fables From Ancient Israel is a series of folktales for children. His latest book, Judaism’s Great Debates, will be published next year.

Schwartz received his BA, magna cum laude, from Duke University, and an MA and rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College, New York, which recently awarded him an honorary doctorate for his 25 years of service to the rabbinate.

Maybe we can now convince JPS to publish Pere Bonnin's Sangre Judia in English?

JPS is the oldest nonprofit, multi-denominational publisher of Jewish works written in English.

Sephardi/Caucus discussion list to end in August - Addendum

A good source of Sephardi and Mizrahi information will end in August.

The Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus Discussion List, compiled by Aviva Ben-Ur, is winding down and all Sephardi researchers will feel the loss.

Ben-Ur included this announcement in the list edition received today.

Dear readers of the Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus Discussion List:

After twelve years of editing and moderating this listserve, I am writing to announce that the final issue of the Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus Discussion List will appear this coming August 2010. I would like to thank all the subscribers to this listserve (at this writing, a total of 347 in the U.S. and abroad) and the innumerable additional readers, all of whom have contributed in some way over the years.

Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies has become a fully developed subfield in its own right. It has also, in most ways, successfully integrated into the broader field of Jewish Studies and other areas of academic inquiry. The goals stated at the Association for Jewish Studies conference, at the first ever Sephardi/Mizrah Studies Caucus back in 1997, have thus been fulfilled.

The website for this listserve (http://www.umass.edu/sephardimizrahi/) will
continue as a historical record of this subfield's development. The meeting of the Caucus at the annual AJS conference will also continue for as long as scholars see fit.

My very best wishes to all!
Aviva Ben-Ur

Tracing the Tribe has always looked forward to the list, which has provided information on conferences, publications and other relevant details.

As just one example, today's edition (Part I) included:

-- The new edition of Iberia Judaica (#2, 2010)
-- The Catalogue of the Cairo Geniza Fragments at Westminster College Library, Cambridge.
-- The book about Samuel Yecutieli's maternal family, Los hijos judios de Istambul.
-- A book review on Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Ottoman Sephardic Culture (Matthias B. Lehmann).
-- A review of a Yale University symposium: "Jews of the Magreb" (April 2010).
-- A review of a conference: "Between Contact and Contrast: Jews and Christians in the Sasanian Empire" (March 2010).
-- Call for applications for Amado Foundation Trave Grants for the AJS.
-- Call for applications: Honoring Cape Verde's Jewish History Project.
-- An online survey regarding Jewish (especially Sephardic) History and Culture.

[Addendum] Part II included:

-- Call for Papers: African Judaism, University of London, October 30-31.
-- Lecture May 3: Gloria Mound, A Certain Identity - Crypto Jews Around The World."
-- Lecture May 6: Nadia Malinovich, "French Nationalism and Jewish Identity in the Early Twentieth Century."
-- ASF Heritage Tour, July 4-13: The Jews of Spain.
-- New Publication: "Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World."
-- New Publication: "Crown of Aleppo: The Mystery of the Oldest Hebrew Bible Codex."
-- New Publication: "Studies on Judeo-Spanish and Sephardic Culture: Cognitive Scientific Essays."
-- New Publication: "An Ambassador and A Mensch: The story of a Turkish Diplomat in Vichy France."
-- New Film: Rafting To Bombay.
-- Book Catalogue, Wyman Books: Modern Sephardic, Chinese, Indian, Mizrachi & Mediterranean Jewish History.
-- Call for Papers: Jewish Cemeteries and World Cultural Heritage: An Exploratory Workshop, May 31-June 1.

The list was most valuable to Sephardic researchers in many areas, and it will be sorely missed.

Access the archives link above to see what has happened or will happen in the near future in the Sephardic world.

New York: Sephardic Book Fair, July 25

The first New York Sephardic Jewish Book Fair - with book readings, author signings, book sales and tours - is set for Sunday, July 25.

Hosted by the American Sephardi Federation (ASF), will be held from noon-5pm, at the Steinberg Great Hall at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W. 16th Street.

The free event, open to the public, will include authors and book lovers, those who write about and read about the culture, history, philosophy, religion, languages and experiences of the Sephardic Jews, past and present.

Hundreds of titles of Sephardic-oriented books, including many rare titles, will be available for sale by the Sephardic House bookstore, as well as by unique vendors that specialize in Sephardic Judaica.

Several visiting authors will discuss a wide range of topics including personal histories, Sephardic history, philosophy, culture and religion. The day's key author and speaker will be Dr. Marc D. Angel, founder of The Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals and Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Shearith Israel, North America's oldest Jewish congregation.

The fair will also feature a display of rare Sephardic books from the ASF Library and Archives, while Yeshiva University Museum will hold tours of their current exhibit: "A Journey Through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books."

The Braginsky Collection includes handwritten manuscripts and printed books from Holland, Italy, Spain, Greece and India.

There will also be hourly free door prizes for attendees.

The ASF promotes and preserves the spiritual, historical, cultural and social traditions of all Sephardic communities as an integral part of Jewish heritage.

New Jersey: Jewish Historical Society, June 17

Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey president Jerry Nathans will speak at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of New Jersey, on Thursday, June 17.

The program begins at 7pm at the YM-YWHA of Wayne.

Nathans will discuss the society's holdings, which include Yiddish books printed in Paterson to objects to cemetery ledgers, and much more. The area's Jewish history begins around 1840.

His talk will be followed by Q&A.

Fee: None.

For directions, or other information visit the JGSNJ site.

France: GenAmi issue 52 contents

Micheline Gutmann informs us that the June issue of GenAmi is now available.

GenAmi 52 is published by the French Jewish genealogy organization GenAmi.org.

Here's what's in the new issue:

-- The Jews' First Return to France (It was in the 16th century): Lionel Levy
-- What occurred in 1510: The birth of Gracia Nasi,"The Senora" : Anne-Marie Fribourg
-- The history of Pastel in Lauragais (Tolosa and surroundings): Anne-Marie Fribourg
-- Los Bernuy from the Juderia of Avila to Tolosa (this Jewish family from Spain were Tolosa judges after their conversion) ... and Pierre de Fermat: Stephane Lalllich
-- Our relatives in Great Britain : families PICARD and BOMSEL of Upper-Rhine, Elie Camille ESPIR of Bordeaux, HAUSER and LANG of Durmenach:Micheline Gutmann
-- Jean Ferrat, a famous singer, genealogy : his father came from Russia, was
deported.
-- The origins of the ancient Hebrews, a major discovery of Joseph Davidovits: Micheline Gutmann.
-- Acquisitions: The Jewish community of Puttelange-aux-Lacs et environs and of Porrentruy aux 19e et 20e siècles; Vilna, Wilno, Vilnius; Une histoire des Juifs de Pologne; Archives juives n°42/1
-- GenAmi Competition and awards
-- Genealogy Press Review; Jan Karski: Catherine Tomat

There's also information about the French national genealogical conference, set for September 25-26, 2010, in Paris.

For more information on the organization, how to join and obtain a copy of this issue, click here.

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.

Illinois: Midwest Jewish Genealogy Conference, June 6

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois will present a one-day Jewish genealogy conference, "From the Shtetl to the 21st Century," on Sunday, June 6, in Skokie.

The venue is Temple Beth Israel, 3601 W. Dempster.

The full-day event, from 8am-5.15pm, features experienced instructors on topics to expand knowledge of genealogical resources, including a two-part Beginners’ Workshop. Fifteen sessions are scheduled - three each in five time slots.

Key note speaker Ron Arons is a nationally known expert on Jewish criminals, Jewish genealogy and research techniques. He will demonstrate new ways to use the Internet to find family information in  “Online Jewish Genealogy Beyond JewishGen and Steve Morse.” During lunch, he'll share how his interest in Jewish criminals led to his book - “The Jews of Sing Sing” - and he'll also lead a mapping techniques session.

Other presenters will be Judith R. Frazin, Harriet Rudnit, Abby and Bill Schmelling, Ralph Beaudion, Leslye Hess, Robin Seidenberg, Irwin Lapping, Alvin Holtzman, Louisa Nicotera, Everett L. Butler and Mike Karsen.

Sessions include: Beginners' Genealogy Workshop, Using the Internet to Research Your Family History, Travel to Your Ancestral Shtetl, Find That Obituary Online, Holocaust Research in Libraries and Internet, Polish Translation Guide, Mining for Gold: Online Newspapers, Waldheim Cemetery, Basics of DNA Testing, Mapping Techniques, Cook County Genealogy Online, Genealogy Research Reasoning, Write Your Family History Now, and Ask the Experts.

Fee: Before May 15, fees are: Members of any Jewish genealogical society, $45; others, $50, Conference plus JGSI membership (new member only), $70. After May 15, each category increases by $10.

The JGSI library with hundreds of books will be available. Refreshments and a box lunch food will all be kosher. The synagogue is wheelchair accessible and has an elevator.

Tracing the Tribe also believes that this event could be considered a great lead-in and preparation for the main event of the Jewish genealogy year, the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy - JGSLA 2010 - which runs from July 11-16, in Los Angeles.

Download an event brochure, and find more program details, at the JGSIllinois website.

Spain: Little-known Sephardic genealogical sources

Here are a few little-known books, from Tracing the Tribe's own collection, offering much detailed information on Sephardic Jews in Girona and other towns in the province of Catalunya, Spain.

Tracing the Tribe purchased some in Girona Jewish Museum bookshop, in second-hand bookshops in Barcelona and elsewhere. The Library of Congress in Washington DC may hold copies as may other libraries - I have not checked WorldCat.

These provide much genealogical information in the form of archival documents and notarial records.

-- Documents dels Jueus de Girona 1124-1595 (Arxiu Historic de la Ciutat and Arxiu Diocesa de Girona), compiled by Gemma Escriba i Bonastre and Maria Pilar Frago i Perez.

It includes an excellent 52-page surname index, a 10-page toponym (geographical) index, 14-page bibliography). The book's text is in English, French, Catalan and Spanish - the documents are in their original language (Latin, Catalan, Spanish). The volume is marked "Colleccio Historia de Girona, 12," published by La Caixa and the Ajuntament de Girona. Other features: A 20-page introduction to the document collection in both the historical and diocesan archives; with 250 pages of documents and record extracts.

-- Per a una Historia de la Girona Jueva (volumes I and II), by David Romano, (1988, Ajuntament de Girona).

It has a 44-page name index, bibliography, and additional references for each chapter in the book. For each chapter, I'm including the number of articles to give readers an idea of the wealth of information. Texts are in Latin, Spanish, Catalan, French - according to the original language.


Chapters and the numbers of articles in each:


1) Introduction (1)
2) Encyclopedia articles about Girona (5)
3) Epigraphs and Hebrew Inscriptions (7)
4) The synagogues (3)
5) Jewish religion and culture (4)
6) Individuals and Texts (5)
7) Historic and Chronological Studies about the Jews of Girona (22)
8) The Inquisition (2)
--name index
--appendix
--chapter references

-- Els Jueus de Valls i la Seva Epoca, by Gabriel Secall i Guell (Edition Vallencs, 1980).

This details the names of Jews of the town of Valls, and also includes some names of those who lived in nearby communities, such as D'Alcover, De L'Aleixar, D'Alforja, De L'Arboc, Cabra, Falset, Montblanc, Pla de Santa Maria, Prades, La Riba, Reus, Santa Coloma de Queralt, Sarral, La Selva, Tamarit, Tarragona, Tortosa, Vallmoll, Vilaplana, Vila-Rodona. It includes the archival references to documents with the names for all towns.

There are separate bibliographies providing additional publications for the Jews of Valls, Tarragona, Comarques Tarragonines (the smaller towns listed above), Lleida, Girona, Barcelona. There's are general bibliographies for the Jews of Catalunya, and for the Iberian Jews.

-- Corografia Portuguesa, published by the Fundacao Ana Lima, Brazil (Fortaleza, 2006) contains:

Two detailed indexes for proper names and toponyms for Portugal. It refers to a 1,500-page history by Father Antonio Carvalho Costa, which in addition to detailed geography includes detailed genealogical information on Portuguese Jewish and other families up to the year 1700. The work was published in three volumes of some 500 pages each in 1706 and 1708, but I do not see a date for the third volume. The second edition of the complete, published in 1868, is the basis of this index. Each name and geographical location provides the original volume and page for more information. The introduction is in Portuguese and English, and contains some very detailed examples of the entries.

-- Jews of the Caribbean, by Mordecai Arbell, provides extensive information on the history of these communities.

-- Sangre Judia, by Pere Bonnin, is the first book of choice for those who wish to see if their name has Jewish roots, but only the most recent edition (the 4th expanded edition) contains the surnames, year and geographical location. Documents are from pre-Inquisition, Inquisition and other sources. A previous edition is part of the large Name Search Engine at Sephardim.com, but the edition used provided no year or city.

This is available online from a Barcelona bookshop, Casa Llibre. The price is 18€ or $28.26; the official title and author's name: "Sangre Judia"  (edicion Aumentada y Revisada, 2006), Pere de Bonnin Aguilo. To find it in the catalogue, use the English page (see top right of the page for other languages).

Pere has also just published a second book, "Sangre Judia 2: La Brillante Estela de los Espanoles expulsados," (2010), the price is the same. I have not yet seen the second book so cannot advise on it. Both books are in Spanish.

-- In 1988, the city Historic Archive (Arxiu Historic de la ciutat) in Girona discovered that multiple layers of 14th-15th century Hebrew manuscripts were used to pad covers of  books and registers held in the archives. They were recycling even in medieval times, and after the Jews were expelled, the Hebrew documents were not needed. The discovery led to a still on-going process of painstaking restoration.

Learn more about this here (unfortunately, it is in Catalan, but is easy to follow if you have some Spanish, French, Italian or Latin) and there is aan 11-minute video here (also in Catalan) showing the process in some detail.

Additionally, there is a search engine for these Hebrew manuscript fragments. Search by title (titol), place name (desriptor toponimic), subject (ambit tematic), date (data del document), and/or name (descriptor onomastic).

Have you seen these resources?
Have you used them?
What have you found?
Now that you know about them, are you planning to work with them?

New York: Three Catalan Sephardic programs, May 2-4

The American Sephardi Federation has scheduled three programs from Sunday, May 2-Tuesday, May 4.

-- A History of Jewish Catalonia
4pm, Sunday, May 2

A lecture on this book, along with a sale and signing, will feature authors Sílvia Planas and Manuel Forcano.

This beautifully illustrated book traces the rich and fertile history of the Jews in Catalonia from the time of the late Roman Empire and the Early Middle Ages, until the drastic decree of expulsion by the Catholic Monarchs.

It captures their wedding songs, the smells from their cooking pots, and reconstructs the soaring intellectual edifice they created despite the difficulties of a daily life fraught with religious persecution and social degradation.
 
The program is in collaboration with and the support of NYU's Catalan Center, an affiliate of the Institut Ramon Llull, and the European Institute of the Mediterranean

Fee: ASF members/students, free; others $5. It will take place at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, NYC. Reservations requested.

-- A Certain Identity: Crypto Jews Around the World
6.30pm, Monday, May 3

Thousands of Iberian Jews went "underground" at the time of the Inquisition and the expulsion from Spain. They dispersed across Europe, across the ocean to South America and the Caribbean, to North Africa and the Middle East. With tremendous tenacity, they preserved their heritage, married among themselves, and passed it down from generation to generation.

Gloria Mound, Director of the Casa Shalom-Institute for Anusim Studies in Israel, will illuminate their fascinating history, their presence in the Caribbean and in European countries, as well as previously unsuspected links with French Huguenots.

Fee: ASF members/students, $5; others $10. It will take place at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, NYC. Reservations requested.

-- Traces of Esther: The Jewish Presence in Contemporary Catalan Literature
6.30pm, Tuesday, May 4

Manuel Forcano, PhD (Semitic Philology), poet and essayist, will offer a Catalan perspective on Jewish culture as reflected in the writings of the great 19th and 20th century Catalan authors. Offering rich passages from the literature, Dr. Forcano will guide us from the negative stereotypes of the 19th century, through the fascination with Israel as both a religious and political inspiration, and the Bible and the Talmud as references, to the emergence of a modern, nuanced view of the place of Jewish culture in Catalonia.

The program is in collaboration with and the support of NYU's Catalan Center and the European Institute of the Mediterranean.

Fee: no charge. It will take place at the King Juan Carlos Center, 53 Washington Square South (bet. Sullivan & Thompson Streets). Reservations requested.

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.