New York: HIAS photo archives, Dec. 19

A picture is worth a thousand words.

What is more precious to a family historian than the treasured photos of our families through the generations?

Valery Bazarov of HIAS will present “HIAS Photo Archives: Faces of Immigration,” at the JGS of New York's annual members-only brunch on December 19.

The event will begin with brunch at 11am, followed by the program at 12.40pm, at the Brotherhood Synagogue 28 Gramercy Park South (near 3rd Avenue), in Manhattan. Admission: JGSNY members, free; others, $5 at the door for the presentation at 12.30pm only.

In every family, such photos are treasured and relished – even more so in the family of HIAS that amounts to more than 4 million Jews who immigrated to America. Forty linear feet of the archival collection contain 22,000 images taken at the most crucial times, when ties with the past were severed and a new life was still unknown. These pictures chronicle a period that lasted more than 100 years.

Refugees from persecution, pogroms, and poverty, escapees from death and famine – they all pass before our eyes when telling the story of their suffering and hope. The first Seders on Ellis Island and Jewish children in Yokohama, the internment camps in Vichy France and displaced persons on board the military transports that brought them to safe havens, Hungarian and Cuban refugees, North African Jews and the Soviet Jewry exodus – these images will leave no hearts unmoved.

Valery will also present case studies of rescued and resettled families at different periods of immigration history.

He is the director of the HIAS Family History and Location Services, which helps immigrants of different generations find family members and friends – often in other countries – with whom they have lost contact over the years, sometimes decades. He is committed to finding and honoring the heroes, Jewish and non-Jewish, who rescued European Jews during the Holocaust.

Tracing the Tribe's good friend Valery researches HIAS history and reports on his findings as frequent lecturer at international and national Jewish genealogy conferences and societies.

For more information, click here.

HIAS: Google's Brin gives $1 million gift

HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) received a $1 million gift from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, according to a press release from the organization.

The organization was one of the groups that helped his family when it left the Soviet Union some three decades ago.

Both of Google's co-founders (Brin and Larry Page) are Jewish.

The New York Times reports that Brin has given several gifts to Jewish organizations that helped his family:

“I would have never had the kinds of opportunities I’ve had here in the Soviet Union, or even in Russia today. I would like to see anyone be able to achieve their dreams, and that’s what this organization does.”

The gift was announced on the 3oth anniversary of his arrival in the US, when Brin was 6 years old.

Many readers of Tracing the Tribe had ancestors who were helped by HIAS when they arrived. HIAS has been helping immigrants and refugees since it was established in 1881. The estimate is that more than 4.5 million refugees and immigrants have been helped to resettle in the US, Israel and other countries.

In a HIAS press release, chair Michael Rukin noted that “As a refugee himself, Sergey Brin knows better than most the value of living freely in a country that allows people to dream and -- through vision, creativity and hard work -- fulfill those dreams."

He and his family were able to build a new life in the United States and, as a result, he was able to create a new industry by changing the way we process and use information. His contributions literally have changed the world.”

For more information on HIAS, click here. Read the New York Times story here.

HIAS also runs a location service, helping to reconnect families through a database of missing people. Learn about it here.

Museum of Family History: New in September

Steve Lasky of the virtual Museum of Family History has provided information on his new exhibits.

- Jews in Small Towns: Legends and Legacies: This exhibit is based on a 1997 book (of the same name) written by Howard V. Epstein, Ph.D. The stories provide an intimate look into the lives of Jews who spent part or all of their lives in small towns (fewer than 25,000 people) of the US and Canada.

Epstein writes, "Each individual story reflects the life and times of the author as he or she experienced living as a small-town Jew. For some, this existence could be characterized as 'the best of times,' and for others it was 'the worst of times'.... Perhaps this will have some meaning for succeeding generations. I hope that as these stories are read, they will impart the flavor of a very special segment of the Jewish community of North America."

The book includes 140 personal experiences; the online exhibition presents 29 of them.

- HIAS: The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society: Many Jewish immigrants who entered countries such as the US sought assistance for food, housing and other needs upon their arrival. Aid societies, such as HIAS, founded in 1881 by Russian Jewish immigrants in New York City, often had representatives at major ports of entry, waiting to help the immigrants.

The founding of HIAS was a response to the large wave of immigration following the 1881 assassination of Russian Czar Alexander II and subsequent pogroms. Many Jews were forced to flee Russia and immigrate to the US, the majority entering via New York.

HIAS provided food and shelter to the immigrants, and tried to find them jobs. In 1911, HIAS ran a kosher kitchen at Ellis Island and supplied more than 500,000 meals 1925-1952.

Read all about HIAS c1913 in the new exhibit. Also see some of the content that appeared in a full-page advertisement in the New York Times (December 28, 1913), as HIAS appealed for fundraising from the public. There's an example of a HIAS immigration card completed by HIAS officers and immigrants on arrival in the US.

Tracing the Tribe was happy to help Steve set up his Museum of Family History blog when we met at the Philly 2009 conference in August. Sign up for his blog via RSS or email and learn about new exhibits. It also features Google Translate and all postings are also available in audio format via Odiogo - just like all the posts at Tracing the Tribe.

In October, he's planning an exhibit on “Shabbat and the Jewish Holidays.”

If you have questions or need information, contact Steve.

Philly 2009: Resource Room adds more records

UPDATE: Corrections re PJAC address, hours, ID and access, microfilms and copying and provided by Sarah Sherman, in bold below.

We are only a week away from Philly 2009 and, even now, additional resources are being added to aid conference attendees.

Note the following information will be on hand in the conference Resource Room, through an arrangement with the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center (PJAC):

- All Philadelphia Jewish Ethnic Bank records.

The indices to these records are online: Blitzstein Bank, Lipshutz Bank, and the Rosenbaum Bank.

Save time by checking the index, create your list and bring it to Philly to see the actual records.

If you won't be at the conference, request records from the PJAC at their new address:

Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center
Temple University Urban Archives
Samuel Paley Library
1210 West Berks St
Philadelphia, PA 19122-6088

NOTE: Sarah writes that for those conference attendees planning to visit the archives, the resources will be in the Lecture Hall in the Paley Library, which is the university's main library. Both the Lecture Hall and Urban Archives (the PJAC's new administrative home) are in the Library's basement.

- HIAS records in the Resource Room will include:

HIAS Passenger Lists 1884 - 1892
HIAS Arrival Records by Ship
HIAS Naturalization Cards
HIAS Port Cards
HIAS Immigration Records

- WPA - Jewish Congregation Survey - 1930s

UPDATE NOTES: Conference attendees planning to visit the PJAC should pay careful attention to this updated information, as communicated by Sarah Sherman:

1. HOURS: Conference attendees may visit PJAC personally from 1-5pm, Tuesday Thursday, August 4-6, (not on Monday) to access the records below:

2. USE INFO: Each visitor will need a photo ID card (e.g. driver's license) to enter Paley Library to use materials. Inform entrance attendants at Paley Library that you want to go to Urban Archives. You will be asked to show ID and sign-in.

3. MICROFILM: can be used one reel at a time, after giving Urban Archives Personnel your photo ID.

4. SEARCHING: Urban Archives Personnel will search the cards for relevant names.

5. COPIES: Copying will be done by Urban Archives personnel.

6. RECORDS at PJAC include:

Neighborhood Centre records: Regarding aid to families in crisis or with special needs.

National Council of Jewish Women records: Cards created when aiding immigrants in the naturalization process. They sometimes contain more information than the naturalization documents.

The Resource Room at the conference venue is always a busy place, but this year may be even busier with so many records and indexes available.

Tracing the Tribe plans to be there looking for records of the TALALAY family who became FEINSTEIN (taking the name of the four brothers' sister's husband after he helped bring them to Philadelphia).

See you in Philly!

Chicago 2008: Two sessions on migration

Fellow gen-blogger Dan Ruby - who also attended the Chicago 2008 conference - has a post on some interesting sessions he attended, focusing on migration.

In Dan's "Two takes on the migratory narrative," he covered "Litvak Migratory Decisions in the 19th Century and Their Consequences," by University of Klaipeda Professor Ruth Leiserowitz, and gave a pointer to her Jews in East Prussia online exhibit.

He also covered my dear friend Valery Bazarov's presentation on "HIAS Archives: What Can and Cannot Be Found There." Valery, originally from Odessa, is a HIAS historian and also works with the relocation service. He has contacted Talalay relatives still in Russia for me and is a fascinating guy.

Valery is well-versed in the HIAS files, in 150 worldwide branches and he still finds hidden boxes; files may be in different places and not indexed.

Do read Dan's complete post at the link above.