Chicago 2008: IAJGS awards, elections

At the conference banquet on Thursday evening, the following awards were presented:

Howard Margol (Georgia), Lifetime Achievement;

Award for Outstanding Contribution to Jewish Genealogy via the Internet, Print or Electronic Product: Steve Lasky (New York), The Museum of Family History;

Award for Outstanding Programming or Project That Advances the Objectives of Jewish Genealogy: Petra Laidlaw (UK) for the database documenting Anglo-Jewish residents registered in the 1851 UK Census.

Award for Outstanding Publication by a Member Organization: JGS of Great Britain (UK) for its excellent series of handbooks on a variety of topics.

The Malcolm Stern Grant honors Malcolm H. Stern, widely considered to be the dean of American Jewish genealogy, and his efforts to increase the availability of resources for Jewish genealogical research. The Stern Grant provides funding to encourage institutions to pursue projects, activities and acquisitions that provide new or enhanced resources to benefit Jewish genealogists: The $2,500 grant was given to the Italian Genealogical Group (NY), which has indexed thousands of New York records useful for researchers everywhere, through its army of volunteers. The grant will be used to index Brooklyn Brides, 1910-1930.

On Wednesday, presidents and voting representatives of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies elected the following individuals to the board: Jan Meisels Allen (California), Daniel Horowitz (Israel), Bill Israel (Florida), Kahlile Mehr (Utah), Paul Silverstone (New York), and Jackye Sullins (California).

Congratulations to all the award recipients and elected board members!