UK: Jewish exhibits and museums in London, 1887-1932, February 17

The British Association of Jewish Studies (BAJS), in conjunction with the Jewish Historical Society of England, will offer a lecture on London's Jewish exhibits and museums (1887-1932) on Thursday, February 17.

The program - "Jewish exhibitions and museums in London: From the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition of 1887 to the Foundation of the Jewish Museum in 1932" - begins at 7pm, in the Court Room (Senate House) of the Jewish Historical Society of England, University of London. Refreshments follow.

To register or for additional information, contact the  Jewish Historical Society of England.

UK: Leeds celebrates Jewish heritage

The city of Leeds (UK) will celebrate 150 years of the city's Jewish history and heritage with an event titled LJ150. In connection with museum exhibits, an appeal is being made for items of interest. See below for details.

The Yorkshire Evening Post covered the story about the event which will be launched in October by Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks to mark the beginning of the first Jewish History Month in the city.

Organised by Makor, the Jewish cultural office for Leeds and Yorkshire, the event will feature memorabilia on the first purpose-built synagogue in Leeds - opened on Belgrave Street in 1860.

"We want to create a real celebration of our unique heritage and invite members of the wider community to volunteer their reminiscences and ideas," said Helen Frais, Makor's project manager.

On November 28, LJ150 will sponsor a heritage day at Leeds City Museum, featuring stalls exploring Jewish heritage over the ages and a mock Jewish wedding, and videos of Jewish life now and then.

Frais is appealing for vintage outfits for the mock ceremony focusing on clothing from Jewish-based firms Burtons and Marks and Spencer. She is also asking for sewing machines and textiles including tailors' dummies, stools and pressers for the museum exhibit.

On February 27, 2011, a sculpture day with Frances Segelman is planned. The artist, who has created pieces of art for the royal family, is offering an opportunity for a community member to have their head sculpted. Sealed bids over £1,000 will be accepted for nominations through the end of September.

For more information, read the complete article at the link above.

Out of Africa: Dr. Spencer Wells in San Diego, Nov. 11

National Geographic's Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Spencer Wells will speak at the San Diego Natural History Museum, on Wednesday, November 11.

The program begins at 6.30pm in the Charmaine and Maurice Kaplan Theater. The related exhibit is at the Museum of Man.

"Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project" tackles the universal questions of who are we and where we come from. We look different, are we all related? Wherever we live, we all share a common birthplace: Africa, says Wells. "We are all effectively cousins separated by no more than 200 generations."

He has dedicated much of his career to studying humankind's family tree and closing the gaps in our knowledge of human migration. Wells applied new scientific techniques to dig deeper into the details of our ancient past. Following strict ethical protocols, regional teams of Genographic scientists are collaborating with indigenous and traditional people worldwide to analyze their DNA. Because of their relative isolation, they retain the ancestral context in which their genetic diversity arose.

The Museum of Man exhibit takes visitors along the migration map from 60,000 years ago and traces the routes of female and male descendants of the earliest African hominids. Their paths are found in our own DNA.

For more information, call the Museum of Man, 619-239-2001 or send an email.

European Day of Jewish Culture marked

Twenty European countries marked the 10th European Day of Jewish Culture dedicated to its rich Jewish heritage.

Participating countries this year included Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.

In Italy, nearly 60 cities and towns opened their synagogues, community centers and other Jewish sites for shows, concerts, exhibits, conferences and other events related to Italy's Jewish history. The main site was in Trani, in southern Puglia. A Jewish community still exists there five centuries after the expulsion of Jews from Naples.

In Turkey, the Jewish community even hosted an iftar (a fast-breaking dinner held during Ramadan) as one of the events.

In Bulgaria, the Shalom organization held an open house at the Jewish Community Center in Sofia, a few days before the 100th anniversary of the city's main synagogue consecration.

B'nai B'rith initiated, in 1996, the European Day of Jewish Culture. The annual event attracts some 200,000 people across Europe each year for diverse events.

Colorado: Denver's Kurzweil Day, September 13

One of Jewish genealogy's greats, Arthur Kurzweil, will speak on Sunday, September 13 at a Denver JCC event to commemorate 150 years of Jewish Colorado.

JGS of Colorado president Ellen Schindelman Kowitt has now provided information on the group's related - and creative - first fundraiser.

"We’re putting together a card deck with 55 unique historical images of Colorado Jewish family history. JGSCO is partnering with the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society to utilize their collection of historic photos housed at the University of Denver Penrose Library, Peryle H. and Ira M. Beck Memorial Archives.

Anyone who sponsors a card for $75, $150 or $200 gets their choice of an image – it can come from the Beck Archive or they can provide one of their own, which is what we encourage."

Some details: Photos must be 30 years or older and taken in Colorado. State dignitary photos will include Sen. Simon Guggenheim, Golda Meier, Dr. John Elsner (the first mohel and Denver Health founder), founding pioneer families and more.

The deck will also offer educational facts and how to research Jewish family history. Each card face may be sponsored by individuals who may add “In Memory of…” or “In Honor of…”, or businesses who wish to list a company name, phone number or website.

The JGSCO encourages everyone with Colorado Jewish family history to get involved. Images of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues and other Jewish structures or locations of significant Jewish Colorado history such as Cotopaxi and Atwood Agricultural Colonies, mining towns such as Leadville, Cripple Creek, Aspen, Black Hawk or Central City and families representing Jewish communities outside of Denver such as Pueblo, Trinidad, Colorado Springs, Boulder and Greeley are encouraged to participate by providing pictures and/or sponsorships.

“This is a great way to preserve and tell the local Jewish family history of the area,” said JGSCO president Ellen Kowitt. “Besides raising much-needed funds, these cards will create an acute awareness of our nonprofit organization and all of the programming and volunteer-led indexing projects we provide to the Colorado Jewish community. These playing cards will cross all age groups, are collectible items, educational and fun.”

Ellen also asks the worldwide Jewish genealogy community to delve into their family history databases and photo albums to see if they have a piece of Colorado Jewish family history to share. Let Ellen know what you have.

The Sunday, September 13 includes two free events by Kurzweil, and a dessert reception for the opening of "Blazing the Trail: 150 Years of Jewish Colorado" exhibit at the Denver JCC.

Often described as America 's foremost Jewish genealogist, Arthur Kurzweil's name has become synonymous with Jewish genealogical research. His highly praised book, "From Generation to Generation: How to Trace Your Jewish Genealogy and Family History," has become known as the definitive guidebook to the field. He has spoken before hundreds of Jewish groups on a variety of topics related to Jewish genealogy. A co-founder of the very first Jewish Genealogical Society in the 1970s, today there are some 70 Jewish genealogical societies throughout the world, including the Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado.

The program includes a workshop (2.30-4.30pm), a kosher dessert reception and exhibit (5.30-7.30pm) and a lecture (7.30-9.30pm). To register for one, two or all three events, contact Jeanne Abrams.

To sponsor a card, contact Barry Levene, or see the JGSCO website for more information.

New York: One foot in America, Sept. 10

As you look at immigration manifests for your ancestors, do you see ships of the Red Star Line?

From 1873-1934, more than 2 million European emigrants left for the US via Antwerp. The city was a major junction of European rail connections and transatlantic steamship links.

Since the mid-19th century, a direct rail link to the Central Station existed between Antwerp, Germany and beyond to Eastern Europe. Once in the city, passengers were housed (according to their budgets) close to the station or the piers.

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, in association with the City of Antwerp, The Eugeen Van Mieghem Foundation and the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, is hosting a special program on the Jewish emigrants of the Red Star Line and Eugeen Van Mieghem.

The CJH will also present an exhibit on the Red Star Line's Jewish emigrants in YIVO Constantiner Gallery, with brief tours conducted by Mandy Nauwelaerts, Red Star Line Museum curator. A related panel discussion is also set for the following week (details below).

"One Foot in America: The Jewish Emigrants of the Red Star Line and Eugeen Van Mieghem" is set for 7pm, Thursday, September 10, at the Center for Jewish History in New York City.

Speakers will be Antwerp vice mayor and promoter of the Red Star Line Museum Philip Heylen, and Erwin Joos, co-author of "One Foot in America" and director of the Van Mieghem Museum and Foundation. There will also be a book-signing by Joos.

Many Eastern European Jews who immigrated to the United States around the turn of the 20th century began their journey in Antwerp, Belgium, on the steamships of the Red Star Line.

They made a deep impression on the Flemish artist and Antwerp native Eugeen Van Mieghem (1875-1930), whose timeless, evocative drawings and paintings of the emigrants are beautifully reproduced in "One Foot in America."

This new book, and the Red Star Line Museum scheduled to open in Antwerp in 2012, will do much to illuminate the experience of those who made the brave decision to leave their old lives behind for the New World.

A related panel discussion, "Shtetl on the high seas: the steamship companies and Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe," with the participation of Gur Alroey (University of Haifa), Frank Caestecker (University of Ghent) and moderator Hasia Diner (New York University), is set for 7pm, Tuesday, September 15.

For more information and reservations (by August 31) for both the lecture and panel discussion, email yivorsvp@yivo.cjh.org .

Philadelphia-area readers can attend Erwin Joos' lecture at The Kaiserman JCC, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, at 10am Monday, September 14. Make reservations (by August 31) to http://us.mc337.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=goldenslipper@phillyjcc.com .

Germany: Learning to farm in the 1930s

My eyes are always looking for Sullivan County (New York) news, and here's one about a Loch Sheldrake exhibit at Sullivan County Community College. It details the story of the Gross Breesen agricultural training camp.

The exhibit is not your typical Holocaust exhibit, but focuses on the pictures and words of young men and women learning to farm, despite the chaos around them in 1930s Germany. It was created by Dr. Curt Bondy who saw it as a way to counter Nazi oppression, to create a place where young people could learn skills and languages which would allow them to emigrate.

The project gathered the stories and photos of the 130 young men and women who found refuge there.

The farm has been an obsession of Steve Strauss for nine years.

Strauss, a photographer who used to work for "60 Minutes" and now splits his time between New York City and Sullivan County, started the project when he met George Landecker, a farmer from upstate New York who is a survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp and a former student at Gross Breesen.

Strauss began to restore and blow up for display Landecker's nearly microscopic photographs of the farm.

The result is "Learning Seeds," a multimedia exhibit, portions of which are on display for the next few weeks at the Sullivan college.

According to Strauss:

"The majority of (the Gross Breeseners) survived the Holocaust and went on to contribute great things all over the world," Strauss said. But he said an accounting of all 130 wasn't possible.After Kristallnacht, the Nazis took over Gross Breesen. They sent all the 18-year-olds to concentration camps and essentially made the farm a prison for the rest. But most had learned the skills to survive.

The exhibit will move to the New Jersey Museum of Agriculture later this year.

Read the complete article here. Learn more about Gross Breesen here.

Washington DC: Lincoln's Jewish advisor

Tablet Magazine is new on the scene and has been producing some excellent articles n diverse Jewish topics.

This article covers an exhibit, running through December, on Washington during the Civil War.

Among issues discussed, there's a section on President Lincoln's podiatrist/Jewish advisor:

“Lincoln is probably the first president to really have personal associations with Jews,” said Gary Zola, executive director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.

Lincoln’s closest Jewish contact was Isachar Zacharie—one of the president’s more unlikely aides. Zacharie first appeared in Lincoln’s life as his foot doctor, and soon became an unofficial adviser. The New York World wrote in 1864 that Zacharie “enjoyed Mr. Lincoln’s confidence, perhaps more than any other private individual [and was] perhaps the most favored family visitor to the White House.”

The capital was a sleepy town prior to the mid-19th century. Once the Civil War began, things began hopping and MOTs had many opportunities.

The exhibit - Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln's City - was organized by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington. It focuses on 19th-century Jewish life and the Civil War.

During the war years, the city’s Jewish population grew tenfold: from 200 to nearly 2,000. Seventh Street, now the heart of the city’s Chinatown, became a center of Jewish activity. The district was home to six kosher restaurants. (Washington today has only two.)

Without a major industry in town, like the rag trade in New York, most Jewish businesses were mom-and-pop operations. “This neighborhood was never like the Lower East Side,” said David McKenzie, curatorial associate at the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington. “Jews were a significant minority within this neighborhood.”

The exhibit, timed for Lincoln's birth bicentennial, spotlights his relationship with the new Jewish community.

View the exhibit at the Washington Hebrew Congregation through July 20, and then at Beth El in Alexandria, Virginia, through December.

Read the complete article at the link above.

Israel: Diaspora Museum name change set

The world’s first museum to tell the story of the Jewish people will open in Tel Aviv in 2012. The $25 million project was announced in Tel Aviv today at a meeting of the international board of governors of Beth Hatefutsoth, by chair Leonid Nevzlin.

The museum's name will also change from the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora to the Museum of the Jewish People.

He said the 16,000 sq.m. museum will house a new permanent exhibition covering 4,200 sq.m. over three floors. Exhibits will be constructed in Beth Hatefutsoth’s Nahum Goldmann building - on the Tel Aviv University campus - which will be entirely rebuilt.


The project is funded by the Government of Israel, the Claims Conference, the NADAV Fund and other international donors. Teams of architects, consultants, historians and academic advisors from Israel and abroad have begun the planning and design of the new museum.

Said Nevzlin:

This innovative museum is the first of its kind, and will be built on a scale never seen before in Israel. Its purpose is to convey the unique and ongoing story of the Jewish people, while giving expression to a new perception about the relationship between the Jewish people and the State of Israel – the perception of one Jewish people, incorporating Jews living in Israel or any other place in the world.

For this reason we decided to change the name from "the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora" to the "Museum of the Jewish People."

The preliminary concept - developed by curator Dr. Orit Shaham-Gover - was presented today to the Board of Governors of Beth Hatefutsoth.

The new museum will take its visitors on a fascinating journey to discover, understand and experience the unique story of the Jewish people and attempt to solve the mystery of its existence and remarkable survival.

The aim of the interactive exhibition is to inspire in visitors a sense of belonging and connection to the overall Jewish story through a variety of narrative threads such as the unity and diversity of the Jewish people, the Jewish world in modern times, the cultural influence of non-Jewish surroundings and the Jews’ interaction with it, the place of women in Jewish life, and the special significance of the land of Israel and the State of Israel for the Jewish people.

New CEO of Beth Hatefutsoth Avinoam Armoni said the exhibit is designed to draw on the many voices and faces of Jewish culture across all eras, will be pluralistic and modern, and give due representation to all communities, streams and groups comprising the Jewish people.

Said Armoni, this will be the biggest experiential and interactive museum in Israel. The core of the experience will be the dialogue with the visitor, who we see as not only a spectator but as an active participant and contributor to the museum's narrative. The goal is to inspire visitors to contemplate their future as individuals within the Jewish collective.

Jewish American Heritage Month: May 2009

The road to family history takes many turns. Tracing the Tribe recommends that Jewish family history researchers investigate the Library of Congress Hebraic section. What better time to do this than now, during Jewish American Heritage Month with many events set for Washington, DC and online exhibits. The site was just completely updated (May 1) for the 2009 celebration.

In my case, the Hebraic section held two family treasures - slim volumes of Yiddish poetry by a young man, Leib Borisovich Talalai, who died in the 1941 Minsk Ghetto uprising. Peggy Pearlstein of the Hebraic Section arranged to have the two volumes copied and sent to me.

Years ago, writer Mikhail Shulman, former head of the Mogilev (Belarus) Jewish community, mentioned to me that there was a plaque on the wall of the Belarussian Writer's Union in Minsk mentioning Leib Borisovich Talalai and his death in 1941.

Although we know that all Talalai/Talalay from Belarus are related, I was unsure as his short bio indicated Baranovichi as home. However, as I deciphered Leib Borisovich's poems, I came across one that posed the concept, "if walls could talk," which described the family home and past generations in Vorotinschtina. This confirmed the relationship as our Talalai were among the founding families of the Vorotinschtina agricultural colony in 1832; they were the sons of Rabbi Leib ben Harav Mikhel Talalai of Mogilev.

Do check for works by European relatives in various LOC sections. We also have a few Talalai who have written music and history books and those are also available

May 2009 events include:

Tuesday, May 5, noon: Aviva Kempner's upcoming documentary “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” about American radio and television personality Gertrude Berg. Through film clips, she will explore how American radio and television personality Berg drew on her cultural heritage to pioneer a new medium. The program is sponsored jointly by the Hebraic Section and the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Mary Pickford Theater, third floor, James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, May 13, 6:30pm: Gershon Greenberg, 10th annual Myron M. Weinstein Memorial Lecture on the Hebraic Book, “Breaking the Holocaust Silence: A Hidden Chasidic Text of 1947.” Whittall Pavilion of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, DC. Gershon is a professor of philosophy and religion at American University. Reservations required (202) 707-3779.

Tuesday, May 19, noon: Laura Cohen Apelbaum and Wendy Turman of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, “Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln’s City,” the society’s new exhibition and companion book catalog, in the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room, Room 220, Thomas Jefferson Building. An exhibit exploring the Jewish community in Washington and Alexandria during the Civil War is on display through May 31 at Washington Hebrew Congregation (Washington, D.C.), and from Sept. 11-Dec. 31 at Beth El Hebrew Congregation.

Other relevant exhibits:

Hannah Szenes, Parachute Commando: From 1943-45, a group of Jewish men and women volunteers from palestine parachuted into German-occupied Europe to organize resistance and aid in the rescue of Allied personnel. Szenes is one of the best-known of this group.

Desert Jewels: North African Jewelry and Photography: Jewish artists and craftsman, descendants of Jews who fled Spanish oppression and persecution beginning in the 13th century, contributed to North African coast artistic communities in urban centers. Jewish silversmiths living among the Kabyle of northern Algeria specialized in cloisonne enameling and introduced niello. See a photo exhibit.

Jewish Veterans of World War II: A group of US servicemen in the European Theater had a sepcial reason to fight Nazi Germany. Find video and audio interviews, personal correspondence, photos and more.

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings: Recordings highlight the rich Judaic collection - Sephardic and Ashkenazi - including folk songs, religious music, classical literature, readings, children's songs and games and more.

Click here for additional exhibits, including collections, National Archives, Historic Newspaper Archive, audio/video, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and teacher guides. Materials include both Sephardic and Ashkenazi sources.

A few newspaper articles:

"Condition of the Jews Today" – New-York Daily Tribune, August 25, 1901
"Future of Judaism of America" – The San Francisco Call, December 10, 1905
"Part Played by the Hebrew in the History of the Nation and State" – The Salt Lake Herald, November 19, 1905
"Some New Books - The Jewish Encyclopedia" – The (New York) Sun, September 28, 1902

Michigan: Upper Peninsula Jewish history

The Beaumier Upper Peninsula Heritage Center will host a traveling exhibition - "Uneasy Years: Michigan Jewry During Depression and War" - through May 16, according to this story at NorthWindOnline.com.

Michigan State University originally organized the travelling exhibit which is appearing across the state.

"This exhibit looks at the whole context of Michigan, its communities, and their relationship with Jewish life and culture. There are community stories and personal stories that speak to the hardship, loss, and renewal of hope," said Julie Avery, curator of rural life and culture at Michigan State University Museum.

The exhibit focuses on Michigan's Jewish community from World War I through World War II. Avery said there are past assumptions that little was done to stop the mistreatment of Jews, but research uncovered communities all over Michigan that providing food and money to help them.

Beaumier Heritage Center director/curator Daniel Truckey said the exhibit is important because it extends Northern Michigan University's educational mission of embracing diversity.

"We have courses in Jewish history and the Holocaust, but only so many students will take these courses in their time at Northern. If we can expose more information about the past, we can expose students to things they might not have learned about," Truckey said.

The exhibit is a panel display with interpretative boards of photos, texts, and maps.

Truckey called it a fascinating display about the state's Jewish community of Michigan, and that the university wanted people to know there is a Jewish community in the Upper Peninsula.

Read more at the link above.

South Africa: Online newsletter, other resources

Did your Jewish ancestors land in South Africa? The South African Special Interest Group (SASIG) offers an online newsletter with articles sure to assist you in finding information.

The December 2008 issue is the latest online, but the earliest one is from 1999, so enjoy nearly a decade of informative articles and resources.

This issue's articles include:

Insights into South African Genealogical and Historical Holdings
Rose Lerer Cohen writes about holdings in the Central Zionist Archives, details genealogical databases and offers document images.

Databases of South African Jewish Births, Marriages and Deaths
Louis Zetler references the South African Rootsbank Jewish Database, Johannesburg Chevra Kadisha and Netcare Hospital, mentions the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) and his own databases of vital records, which he began keeping ni October 2001.

It's Not All Black and White: The South African Jewish Story
Roslyn Sugarman, John Saunders Curatorial Chair at the Jewish Museum in Sydney, Australia, writes on the collection of memories (artifacts, Judaica, oral history, etc.) of South Africa exhibit that opened in December 2008.

Book Review: The Jews in South Africa: An Illustrated Story
Saul Issrof reviews the first comprehensive history of South African Jews in more than 50 years. The authors are Professors Richard Mendelsohn and Milton Shain

The Ochberg Orphans
David Sandler edited, in 2006, 100 Years of Arc Memories, about the Arcadia Jewish Orphanages (in Johannesburg), where David lived from 1956-1969. For the past century, it has cared for more than 3,000 children. He is now compiling several new books (More Arc Memories, early 2009; and The Ochberg Orphans). The Ochberg Orphans were a group of 167 children brought to Cape Town in early 1921; 78 were taken to Johannesburg on their arrival and placed in the South African Jewish Orphange.

South African Small Country Communities Project, Vol. 1
Volume 1 of Jewish Life in South African Country Communities hs been reprinted, covering Northern Transvaal (Limpopo Province) and the Great Escarpment (Mmpumalanga). There is a list of communities covered in the article, and an order form to obtain a copy.

Revisiting Muizenberg
An exhibit - "Memories of Muizenberg" - is being planned for December 2009, and material is being sought for the project, including photographs and information on families, shops, schools, etc.

Additionally, there's a list of books for sale and an index of surnames appearing in this issue.

Other resources at the SASIG homepage include the JewishGen South African files , a more detailed explanation of the South African Jewish Rootsbank project to document some 15,000 core families who arrived in Southern Africa 1850-1950.

New York: Major Jewish library exhibit, sale

We Jews are called the People of the Book for good reason, and throughout history, many of our books have been lost for well-known reasons.

If you have a spare $40 million in your pocket and love rare Jewish books, this 13,000-item (Sotheby's says "more than 11,000") collection is for you.

If you don't have the ready cash (who does these days?), at least run over to Sotheby's (1334 York Avenue at 72nd St., Manhattan) to see the Valmadonna Trust Library exhibit, through February 19 (except for February 14). It is considered one of the greatest privately held Judaica libraries in the world - displayed in its entirety for the first time. You may not have another chance to see it.

“Make books your companions. Let your bookshelves be your gardens,” wrote 12th-century Spanish Jewish scholar Judah Ibn Tibbon.

“Blessed be He... Who has magnified His grace with a great invention, one that is useful for all inhabitants of the world, there is none beside it, and nothing can equal it among all wisdoms and inventions since God created man on the earth: The Printing Press,” is an unusual blessing written by David Gans, a 16th-century Prague Jewish scholar.

Throughout history, Jews have kept copying and printing copies of the Torah and Talmud, as well as other works, religious and secular. Often the works were confiscated (1240 Paris, 1509 Germany) or burned (1553 Italy by Papal decree, 1,000 copies in Venice alone). While Hebrew books were destroyed in many places and in many years, others might survive if the "blasphemous" text was removed.

For those not familiar with the terms, the Hebrew Bible - Torah - is known as the written law, while the Talmud or oral law, comprises centuries of rabbinical discussion and debate on the laws of the Torah.

These rare works were created or printed in Amsterdam, Paris, Leiden, Izmir, Bombay, Cochin, Cremona, Jerusalem, Ferrara, Calcutta, Mantua, Shanghai, Alexandria, Baghdad and elsewhere.

According to this New York Times article and the Sotheby's press release, the Valmadonna Trust Library will be shown for the first time.

The collection is the work of Jack V. Lunzer, a London resident born in Antwerp in 1924, who made a fortune in industrial diamonds. The Valmadonna name according to the Jewish Chronicle, notes the Michtavim Blog, comes from the fact that Lunzer is also known as Count of Valmadonna after his native village near Alessandria in Piedmont, Italy. The New York Times notes that the family has been connected with the village since World War II.

The collection includes rare religious and philosophical books and manuscripts of all types, as well as Hebrew grammar and legal texts, medical works, and even rare wall calendars. Here are some of the treasures:

- A handwritten Hebrew Bible - known as the Codex Valmadonna I - from England, 1189, one year before the York Jewish community was massacred and its property looted. The Jews were expelled from England in 1290.

- A 10th-11th century Franco-German Pentateuch, written in Ashkenazic script is one of the earliest copies written anywhere in Europe.

- An early 15th century illuminated Yemenite Pentateuch

- A 1737 Vienna book for the birkat hamazon, or “Grace After Meals and other Benedictions.”

- A Venice edition of the Babylonian Talmud (1519-23) by Christian printer Daniel Bomberg, which set the pattern for how the Talmud is printed even today. Lunzer learned of its existence in the Westminster Abbey collection in 1956 and spent 25 years to acquire it, eventually trading a 900-year-old copy of the Abbey's charter for it.

- A 12th-century Samaritan Torah scroll written in ancient Hebrew script.

- From Fez in 1516, the first Hebrew book printed in Africa.

- A 1547 multilingual Torah from Constantinople, with Spanish and Greek translations written in Hebrew script.

- A 19th-century Judeo-Arabic copy of “A Thousand and One Nights” from Calcutta.

- A 1496 copy of a scientific work by Jewish mathematician and astrologer Abraham Zacuto - the first scientific work printed in Portugal.

- An early 20th-century Pakistani guide for ritual slaughters in Hebrew and Marathi.

- 1490 Hijar Torah by David Solomon Sassoon with Hebrew and Aramaic text - the last dated Hebrew book before the 1492 Expulsion.

- 1492 Mishnah, by Joshua Solomon Soncino and Joseph ibn Peso in Naples, with 47 woodcuts.

- 1490 Speier Hebrew travel and exploration text by Bernhard von Breydenbach.

- 1526 Prague Haggadah - by Kohen - is the earliest extant dated and illustrated edition. It has Yiddish song lyrics.

Sotheby's vice chairman David Redden said,

"We have worked to honor the collection by mounting an unprecedented exhibition – all 11,000 works on view together for the first time. For scholars and collectors who have only ever seen its highlights, this provides an extraordinary opportunity to view the Valmadonna Library as a whole. And for the public, it is the chance to see one of the greatest collections in the world and witness firsthand the history of the Jewish people.

“The collection is filled with treasures - individual works valued at millions of dollars each. Whoever acquires this remarkable Library, whether a private collector or institution, will take their place among the world’s foremost collections, including such great institutions as the British Library, the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, La Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and the National Library of Israel.”

Lunzer's collection includes almost complete holdings of 16th century Italian printed Jewish texts, from such places as Mantua, Venice, Naples, Livorno, Pisa and Trieste. The volumes also track the migration of Sephardim following 1492, with texts printed in Amsterdam by refugee Conversos, with more than 350 other treasures from Constantinople and some 440 from Salonika. There are also books from Africa, Iraq and China; a rich collection from India; more than 500 printed in Baghdad in Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic and Aramaic.

The press release offers illustrations of seven of the treasures detailed in the text.

About his books, Lunzer told the The New York Times:

“They’re my friends,” he says. Will he miss them? “I’ll be happy if they are well kept and respected.”

But each one, he says, could be printed only because of permission that was granted by others. “Every one of these books,” he says with bibliophilic compassion, “is crying its own tears.”

Go see this important exhibit - you may not have another opportunity. Read the complete article and press release at the links above.

Seattle: Polish heroes exhibit, through Feb. 13

"Polish Heroes: Those Who Rescued Jews" is an exhibit at the Suzzallo Library, University of Washington, Seattle It is open through February 13. For more information, click here

This moving exhibition by photographer Chris Schwartz tells the story of 21 Poles who rescued Jews during the World War II German occupation of Poland. Each of these heroic individuals still resides in the Krakow region today. This exhibition is a tribute to the "Polish Righteous Among Nations" created by the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oswiecim, Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, and the Polish American Jewish Alliance for Youth Action.

Five companion lectures (free admission) are also scheduled Thursdays at Kane Hall, Room 220 at UW. The first two have taken place.

7.30pm, January 29
"Irena Sendler's Children"
Prof. Przemyslaw Chojnowski
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań

7.30pm, February 5
"Henry Friedman, Holocaust Survivor: One of the Rescued"
Henry Friedman

7.30pm, February 12
"Rescue in the Polish Countryside- Politics, Differentiation in the Occupied Village"
Prof. Keely Stauter-Halsted
Michigan State University

The exhibit and lectures are sponsored by the University of Washington Polish Studies Endowment Committee, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles, and Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, in cooperation with the University of Washington Slavic Department, Jewish Studies Program, Ellison Center, and History Department.

London: Sacred textiles exhibit, through March 2009

Three 17th-18th-century Torah mantles from the exhibit.
The center piece is made from a wedding dress.

London's Jewish Museum presents "Hidden Treasures, Sacred Textiles," through March 15, 2009, at the Bevis Marks Spanish and Portuguese Congregation. The rare textiles are from the collection of the congregation and the Montefiore Endowment.

Although Jews were officially expelled from England in 1290, historians and scholars say some Jews remained in the country, although not outwardly identified as such. The Sephardic community of London's East End settled near Aldgate in the 1640s, founded by descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who fled Spanish persecution. Spanish Jew Antonio Carvajal founded a synagogue in Creechurch Lane in Aldgate in 1656, which outgrew its premises and served as the impetus for the building of a larger facility at Bevis Marks in 1701.

The elegant fabrics of the Bevis Marks' Torah mantles are being displayed for the first time in this joint venture. The Collection dates to the late 17th century, including silks, brocades and gold-work embroidery donated to the synagogue over time.

Each item tells the stories of members of this community who donated them over the centuries. Some carry the inscriptions of the donors and the occasions. Many are created from recycled English and French dress fabrics, including Lady Montefiore's wedding dress.

According to a news report, restorers found a December 1780 men's magazine cutting in the top of an 18th century silk mantle to help stiffen the fabric and, of course, also helping to date the item.

Many fabrics were made of famed Spitalfields silk, woven by Huguenots who lived and worked around Spitalfields and Whitechapel.

In 1851, a mantle was presented to the congregation by David Lindo, uncle of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, whose father attended the synagogue until he had problems with the administration and baptized his children.

The exhibit also includes guided tours, lunchtime lectures, craft activities and sessions with expert embroiderers.

Admission: £3. Hours: Monday-Friday: 11am-1pm, Sunday: 10.30am-12.30pm. Group visits by appointment.

Shanghai: Jewish history, name database

The "Hunt for Jewish History" in Shanghai was detailed in this Shanghai Daily story.

The managers of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum said they are working to collect more artifacts and artwork from Shanghai and overseas to enrich the facility's exhibits and better document this important part of the city's history.

The government-operated museum, at 62 Changyang Road, was established in the former Ohel Moshe Synagogue, a religious and cultural center used by Jewish refugees in Shanghai during World War II.

Nearly 15,000 people from 50 foreign countries and regions have visited the museum since it opened in October last year, museum managers said.

The synagogue is located near the former Jewish neighborhoods around the Tilanqiao area in Hongkou District.

District government spent US$1 million last year on a major renovation to restore the synagogue to its original look and opened the museum at the same time. The managers of the museum have been working to enrich the exhibits and artwork ever since.

Two galleries, in separate buildings outside the synagogue, have been completed and opened to the public over the past six months.

One gallery holds more than 100 photos and items, and a short movie detailing the city's Jewish past is screened. Artwork is in the other gallery.

Museum curator Chen Jian, a district government official, said there is an urgent need for more exhibits: "It's not only meant to make the museum more attractive to visitors but for the sake of preserving this special history."

"Witnesses to this history, including the Jews who used to live in Shanghai and the old Shanghai residents, are passing on. So we need to gather precious historical evidence such as photos and papers as quickly as possible to add to our exhibits," he said.

The museum is planning to develop more interactive content for the building's third floor.

Of special interest to Jewish genealogists who had family in Shanghai is the interactive database launched in June. It holds some 14,800 refugee names of those who fled Europe and were granted asylum in the Tilanqiao area. The museum is trying to complete the name list of nearly 30,000 refugees who arrived.

Names were collected from memoirs, historical documents and those contributed by overseas visitors to the museum. A dedicated museum computer with the database is available for visitors at no charge.

Museum of Family History updates of interest

Steve Lasky of the Museum of Family History shares this month's updates:

Zionism in Europe: 12 pages dealing with the various Zionist youth movements that existed in Europe pre-World War II, e.g. the Betarim, Hashomer Hatzair, the Gordonia, Maccabi Hatzair (sports), Yugen Freiheit, Poalei Zion, Hapoel Hatzair, and the Hachalutz pioneering movement.

Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger was a fourteen-year-old poet, a native of Czernowitz, Ukraine. Tragically she perished in a Nazi SS camp in December 1942. Fortunately we are blessed that her many works survived.

Walk in My Shoes: Collected Memories of the Holocaust: Istvan Katona from Kartal, Hungary, was in Buchenwald and Mauthausen.

Yiddish great Maurice Schwartz's biography, next four chapters in the series. The final chapters will appear next month.

Works-in-progress: Exhibition devoted to the city of Czernowitz, Ukraine. Steve is hoping to announce in December that some transcripts will be ready to view as part of the Education and Research Center (ERC) Lecture Series.

Thank you to Steve for doing such a fantastic job with his Museum of Family History. Jewish genealogy is always thankful for those individuals who develop a concept for an innovative offering and run with it, thus enriching the lives and research of so many people around the world.

New Blog: Jewish Art Monuments

Samuel Gruber writes the Jewish Art Monuments blog.

Sam is a cultural heritage consultant involved in a wide variety of documentation, research, preservation, planning, publication, exhibition and education projects. Trained as a medievalist, architectural historian and archaeologist, his expertise for two decades is in Jewish art, architecture and historic sites.

I'm happy to announce that he will be contributing his expertise to the Jewish Graveyard Rabbit. And, if you think the name is familiar, he's the brother of expert Jewish travel writer Ruth Ellen Gruber; they often work together.

Here's how Sam describes his blog:

This blog provides news and opinion articles about Jewish art, architecture and historic sties - especially those where something new is happening. Developed in connection with news gathering for the International Survey of Jewish Monuments website (www.isjm.org), this blog highlights some of the most interesting Jewish sites around the world, and the most pressing issues affecting them.

His blog, he says, "allows me to clear my email and my desk, by passing on to a broader public just some of the interesting and compelling information from projects I am working on, or am following. Feel free to contact me for more information on any of the topics posted, or if you have a project of your own you would like to discuss. Much of this material on this blog I share with the International Survey of Jewish Monuments. ISJM is always looking for volunteers!"

His blog came to my attention with this posting on the Jews of North Carolina, recounting that the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina (JHFNC) premiered its documentary film "Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina" with showings in Greensboro, NC on October 11 and 19, to be followed on February 22, 2009 in Charlotte. The film is the first part of a much larger project (museum exhibit, educational resources and a book).

There's more information in this Greensboro News article.

North Carolina's only Jewish historical group, the JHFNC was established in 1996 and seeks to promote understanding of the Jewish people by educating both Jews and the general public about the history, culture, and religion of the Jewish people and by encouraging appreciation of the beauty of Jewish ritual and practice. It collects and preserves artifacts and records the history of Jewish settlement in North Carolina, presents programs on the state's Jewish experience, and connects state resources.

The exhibit, "Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina" will present four centuries of Jewish life and. in 2010, will travel to the state's major history museums.

The article indicates that Sara Lee Saperstein of Greensboro, a JHFNC board member, remembered only a single sentence about Jews in her eighth-grade state history book. As an adult, she learned about metallurgist Joachim Gans of Prague who arrived in 1585 with Sir Walter Raleigh. She hadn't realized that the state's Jewish history went back that far.

JHFNC research historian Leonard Rogoff has sought project support for 10 years. and said “We heard, 'I thought we were going to be forgotten,’ a lot.”

The documentary's audience is not only Jewish, however. Prior to Ellis Island, many immigrants (including Jews) entered through coastal shipping ports, such as Wilmington and Charleston.

“The interesting thing about North Carolina is not only that the story has never been told or presented, but it’s never really been researched,” Rogoff said.

Many early Jews were peddlers who settled where their money ran out. The story begins there but continues with those same families creating successful companies employing thousands of people and how they built their communities, including Brenner Children’s Hospital (Winston-Salem), Levine Children’s Hospital (Charlotte), Moses Cone Hospital (Greensboro) and the Brody School of Medicine (East Carolina University).

In 1949, Benjamin Cone became Greensboro's first Jewish mayor when Jews were only some 500 in the city of 70,000.

A line producer of the film said that in the 19th century, according to Southern historians, many Christians who lived in the stat had a strong affiliation with the Old Testament. “These people coming in were viewed as the 'people of the book’ and they were viewed with fascination. People would come to them and have their babies blessed.”

The flip side: There were also murders, mob attacks and social discrimination.

There's much more; read the complete story at the link above.

Tel Aviv: 1,800 rare photographs found

In Tel Aviv, Liselotte Grschebina worked as a photographer for more than 20 years. In 1957, she stopped and hid the photographs. In 2000, years after she died, the images were discovered. The Israel Museum is now holding an exhibit on her work. The story was in Haaretz.

Eight years ago, some 1,800 rare photographs taken by Liselotte Grschebina were gathering dust in several crates that for decades had sat in a storage space above the ceiling of her apartment on 18 Bialik Street in Tel Aviv. The negatives had been thrown into the trash and only the pictures remained - most of them which she had printed in her small kitchen, which was not usually used for cooking, as her only son, Benny Grschebina, testifies.

The German-born photographer died in 1994 at the age of 86, unknown to researchers of Land of Israel photography. She had already abandoned her profession in 1957, said her son this week. He doesn't know what made her stop taking pictures, but says that from then on she devoted her time to working in the clinic of her husband Jacob, a well-known gynecologist in the city.

"After my parents died, everything was transferred to me in cartons," says Grschebina. He didn't know what to do with them until a photography student, Itai Bar Yosef, heard about the find by chance and contacted the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. "The people in the museum's photography department chose the pictures they wanted. The family pictures remained with me."

The purchase of the collection was funded by Dov and Rachel Gottsman and donated to the museum in 2000. In 2003, some images were in the "Pioneers of Photography in Israel," and a few years ago, some were in an exhibit in Berlin.

On October 10, "Woman with a Camera," an exhibit solely devoted to Grschebina's work will open on October 10, at Ticho House in Jerusalem, under Israel Museum auspices. Included are 95 photos from 1930s-1940s.

Not much is known about Grschebina, who arrived in Palestine in 1934. Some photos appeared in newspapers of that period and in a 1938 calendar. Her son is quoted:

"Mother was not a tough woman, but she was a Yekke [a German Jew]," says her son. "Yekkes don't open blogs and don't write revealing diaries, and certainly don't pour out their hearts in their letters. The Yekkes lived among themselves and didn't open up even to their children. Therefore, my knowledge of her and her biography, and of the period in which she worked as a photographer, is quite limited."

The story carries an interview with her son, Benny, who says she wouldn't have imagined her work exhibited in a museum and didn't promote or preserve her work. In Germany, she studied photography at the highest standards.

Although the story says not much is known about Grschebina, there is quite a lot of genealogically-relevant information:

Born in May 1908 in Karlsruhe, Germany Liselotte Billigheimer as the daughter of wine merchant Todros-Otto Billigheimer. He was drafted into the Germany Army in WWI and killed, leaving his widow Rosa to raise two daughters, Liselotte and Hilde.

At 17, Liselotte began to study applied graphics and figurative painting in Karlsruhe. When she finished her studies she moved to Stuttgart and studied advertising photography at the academy, which was part of the drawing and design track in the graphics department. In 1929, she began to teach advertising photography in the academy, but was dismissed two years later.

In Karlsruhe, Liselotte met her Russian-Jewish husband, Jacob Grschebina, born in Tblisi. His parents moved to Danzig where he studied medicine. In Karlsruhe he was pathologist and the couple married in 1932.

In March 1934, they arrived in Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv, which was then full of German Jewish refugees. Among them were many with art world connections, including photographers. Only some of them made a living. There were so many photographers that the city of Tel Aviv limited the number of photographer's permits. Archival research, noted in the story, revealed dozens of letters from photographers asking for the revocation of rival photographers' permits.

This story is also interesting from a sociological view, as it explains why young women studied this craft in Germany: a profession and practical art that was relatively easy to learn and to work in. According to a researcher, the very first series of Swiss tourist photos, preceding photographed postcards, was created by a woman. More than 100 of Berlin's 600 photography studios in the early 1930s were run by women. The story goes on to detail her attempt to open a photography school; the permit was denied.

The story talks about her career in Israel, her associations and work, cameras and projectors, her friends and colleagues. It presents how refugees lived, worked and ate.

Read this fascinating complete story at the link above.

North Carolina: Jewish heritage project

For more than four centuries, there has been a Jewish presence in North Carolina, and an ambitious new undertaking - a multi-media cultural offering - is documenting this history, "Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina."

The Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina (JHFNC) has raised $1 million towards producing the project, with only another $250,00 remaining to reach the budget, according to a press release. Public and private funding has included corporate, state and individual family gifts from throughout the state.

Down Home will tell the over 400-year history of Jewish settlement in North Carolina in a multi-media project that will include a traveling museum exhibit, a broadcast quality documentary film, a richly illustrated book published by UNC Press and public school educational programming with a teacher’s guide. The written and oral histories, photographs and artifacts chronicling the story of immigrant Jews and their contributions to the communities in our state will travel in the museum exhibition to North Carolina’s major history museums.

The Down Home film will debut this fall at the Museum of History in Raleigh and will be shown in venues throughout the state in 2009.

According to the JHFNC website:

Fragments of North Carolina’s Jewish history can be found on the shelves of libraries, museums, and archives. But the stories that make this history come alive remain forgotten in attics and closets, and waiting in the memories of community elders. As letters and photographs fade, as parents and grandparents pass away, and as small-town synagogues close and their records disappear, this heritage may be lost forever.

The research material for the project will be the largest body of historical records about North Carolina's Jews. The permanent home for “The North Carolina Jewish Collection” will be at the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. It will be professionally preserved and available to scholars.

The JHFNC is also working with a university libraries consortium from across the state (Duke University, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Chapel Hill, and UNC-Charlotte) that hold Jewish North Carolina collections. A master guide is planned to aid those interested in this subject.

Established in 1996, the JHFNC is the state’s only Jewish historical organization. It collects and preserves artifacts and records North Carolina's Jewish settlement history while conducting programs to examine and portray the state's Jewish experience. Its slogan is "Honoring History. Celebrating Culture. Connecting Communities."

Learn more about the project in a movie trailer for the "Down Home" exhibit here.

Read more here .