JGSLA 2010: Program highlights

The JGSLA 2010 program committee is releasing names and topics of some speakers.

Acceptances have been received by presenters.

As Tracing the Tribe has previously posted, author Daniel Mendelsohn is the keynote speaker while the first-ever scholar-in-residence will be pioneer Jewish genealogist Arthur Kurzweil.

Among the speakers:

-- New York University geneticist Dr. Harry Ostrer: "The Jewish HapMap: What Genetics Has Given to Jews and What Jews Have Given to Genetics."

-- The American Joint Distribution Committee's Linda Levi will demonstrate how the AJDC archive is organized and how to research.

-- USHMM Registry of Holocaust Survivors director Lisa Yavnai will speak on that registry. Other USHMM repeat speakers Megan Lewis and Jo-Ellyn Decker: "Improving Your Research Experience."

-- The Lucille Gudis Memorial Lecture will be presented by University of Massachusetts Professor Vincent Cannato on his book, "American Passage: The History of Ellis Island."

-- Yad Vashem Hall of Names director Zvi Bernhardt: “Using the Yad Vashem Database (of Shoah Victims’ Names) for Beginners.”

-- Genealogy's well-known "Photo Detective" - Maureen Taylor - will offer her expert forensic advice on photograph interpretation and preservation.

There will be international experts from Vienna (Wolf-Erich Eckstein, Israelitische Kultusgemeinde); Prague (Julius Muller, Toledot Jewish Family History Center); Vilnius (Dr. Egle Bendikaite, Vilnius Institute associate professor); and Warsaw (Yale Reisner, The Jewish Historical Institute's Jewish Genealogy and Family Heritage Learning Center).

Tracing the Tribe will present three programs: an update with new information on the IberianAshkenaz DNA Project, as well as "The Wonderful World of Genealogy Blogging" and "Sephardic Genealogy: Trends and Resources."

Stay tuned for more!