Tel Aviv: Family Festival, Day 3

The crowds of families are still strong on this last day of the One Family Many Faces festival.

Attending a special event last night were Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, and Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov, who both visited the MyHeritage.com display.

Daniel Horowitz, the company's genealogy and translation manager, helped Edelstein create his tree online.

      Sitting at computer, Minister Edelstein. Standing left, Daniel  Horowitz. 

Standing right, Minister Misezhnikov

Avinoam Armoni, Beit Hatfutsot's director, dropped by yesterday to check his family tree. We mentioned that visitors are hoping that this will be offered again next year.

This morning, Tracing the Tribe reader, Serge Blinder - originally from Toulouse, France - came by to say hello:

Carol Hoffman and Rose Feldman (Israel Genealogical Society) and I have been fielding visitors' questions about resources, where to go for more information and how to learn more. We've been talking about how to offer genealogy classes next year as part of the event.

It has been a fabulous three days.

Tracing the Tribe will say it again: Everyone who says kids are not interested in family history has never seen this crowd: grandparents, parents, children all working together to create family trees.

We are looking forward to next year!

Tel Aviv: Family Festival - Day 2

Whoever says that children are not interested in family history has never been to a festival like this.

Today is the third day of the "One Family, Many Faces" family festival at Beit Hatfutsot (Museum of the Jewish People) in Tel Aviv.

Each day has seen crowds of families to the MyHeritage.com bank of 50 computers and a team of 15 experts. The plan was to provide each family with a 30-minute consultation on how to set up a family tree on MyHeritage.com. Over the first two days, some 950 new trees were created!

Yesterday, I spoke to several families as to why they were here, why family history was important to them, why they brought their children.

A family with roots in Libya brought their two young sons. The mother's family tree with many photos is already on the site. They were at a computer to show the children the online tree and add information. Why were they here?

The father smiled and just pointed to his boys: "We want them to know their history."

A jovial grandfather came on the first day with one set of grandchildren, and came again yesterday with another set. He came by our desk and said "I'm baaack!" I'm not sure if he's coming again with more of them!

A young woman with family roots in Baghdad brought her young niece, 6: "We don't know much beyond my grandparents," she said, "but I'm trying to learn more." She asked where she might find more information on resources; I provided a few leads.

The more questions I asked her, the more she asked me: "Why are you so interested in family history? Why are others so interested? I mentioned some of the reasons we want to learn about our family, and stressed my belief  that learning - every day - about new resources, databases, books and more to increase our knowledge kept our brains active and absorbing. Long ago, my pediatrician aways said to us "resting is rusting."

While we were talking, one of the MyHeritage team was helping the niece fill in names. I asked her if she was having a good time. "Fantastic!" she said.

A woman with roots in Hamadan, Iran brought her grandchildren. She came over to say how wonderful this event was for the younger generation, to connect with their history. We spoke in Farsi and we learned we knew each other's families in Teheran, Los Angeles and here. Her grandchildren kept coming over to ask her about details to put into their new tree.

The next post will detail some of the people who have visited the family history area!

Israel: 'One Family, Many Faces Festival,' Day 1

When Tracing the Tribe arrived at Beit Hatfutsot at 8.30am, nothing much was happening. In  less than an hour, nearly all of the 50 MyHeritage.com computers were in use by people of all ages, including many children.

Tracing the Tribe is sharing a table with Rose Feldman and Garri Regev of the Israel Genealogical Society (photo below right) and we also are displaying the 2010 IAJGS International Jewish Genealogy Month poster.

Many people are stopping by and asking about genealogy, how to get started, what to do, even questions on DNA genetic genealogy.

It appears to be a great day for MyHeritage. In just the first five hours, neary 400 trees were added.

It's a good day to be in the air-conditioned lobby of the museum, as it's humid and hot outdoors today.

People who've said hello: Harvey Krueger stopped by to say hello before the Beit Hatfutsot international board of directors meeting, and Assia Reuven and Haim Ghiuzeli of the museum.

Judging from the people in the lobby, it seems more and more people are coming in - which is a good thing.

We're all looking forward to tomorrow's second day!

Tel Aviv: Family history festival, Sept. 26-28

Tracing the Tribe will be covering a special event Sunday-Tuesday, September 26-28, during the week-long holiday of Sukkot.

This is when families go on outings, take to the roads, visit with friends and relatives, vacation in other parts of the country and participate in many events listed in newspapers, magazines and on television.

Tracing the Tribe - wearing our multiple hats - will cover the Beit Hatfutsot (Museum of the Jewish People) first-ever "One Family, Many Faces" Festival. The free event is open Sunday-Tuesday, 9.30am-5pm, September 26-28, at the museum and on the surrounding Tel Aviv University campus.

Family history and genealogy will play a big part at this event, and Tracing the Tribe will bring it to you.

In addition to usual festival fare of music, food, displays, and more, MyHeritage.com is bringing a 15-person team to man 50 computers in the museum lobby.

Visitors will sign up for a free one-on-one personal "getting-started" consultation to set up their family trees and begin their research.

There will also be a giant Jewish Family Tree mural, and families will be able to add a pomegranate to the tree with their surname.

The Israel Genealogical Society will also be there. Tracing the Tribe will be wearing several hats - as blogger and helping out - at both the MyHeritage event and the adjacent IGS table.

Israeli readers of Tracing the Tribe are welcome to drop by and say hello in person.

See you at the festival!

Tel Aviv: 'One Family, Many Faces Festival' Sept. 26-28

Beit Hatfutsot will hold a "One Family, Many Faces Festival" - on September 26-28, during the Sukkot holiday, on the Tel Aviv University campus.

The festival is free and will run from 9.30am-5pm each day.

Readers who live in Israel or those planning visits may wish to add this event to their calendars. The museum's International Board of Governors will be meeting during the festival.

In addition to an artist-designed sukkah display, Jewish music, children's events and food, Jewish genealogy will be a prominent component.

Israeli artist Rami Meiri will create a huge Jewish family tree mural and visitors will be able to add individual family pomegranates. Additionally, attendees will learn to build their own digital family trees from MyHeritage.com experts. Watch for more information on this.

The "Leaders Inc. The Jewish Peoplehood Leadership and Entrepreneurship Conference" will take place at the same time.

The museum's core exhibit will be open, in addition to a new one featuring Andy Warhol's 10 portraits of 20th century Jews (donated to the museum), and works of famed Israeli artists Igal Tumarkin, David Tartakover and Hanoch Piven.

Learn what's happening in Jewish communities, and the cultures and traditions of diverse communities, as well as connecting with your Jewish roots and family trees.

Tracing the Tribe will soon provide more details on the family history events.

See the museum website for more information.

Inspiration: Vote for this Jewish genealogy video

"Genealogy is roots, connections, wanderings, imaginings, hearts, souls and minds," says one participant in a short inspiring video that all genealogists - Jewish or not - should see (and vote for now).

Developed by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado and produced by the multi-talented Ellen Shindelman Kowitt, this video has the potential to influence a large audience of young people and bring them into the field.


But the JGSColorado needs the help of Tracing the Tribe's readers to do it. Watch the video here as it reveals to viewers concisely and precisely what Jewish genealogy is, why we do it and some advice for beginners.

It takes only eight minutes to view the video and a few seconds to vote for the full five stars it deserves.

Ellen is one of the most dedicated and passionate genealogy people that I know. Her work focuses on the preservation and connectivity of the Jewish community in Colorado and throughout the world. Her passion for our favorite topic has brought people to their roots and revealed stories that would have been lost forever.

The video was produced as part of a larger JGSColorado project, and the group needs your help in a grass-roots video contest.

If the video wins any final position from first to fifth place, it will be announced at the Jewlicious Festival - the largest Jewish student and young adult festival in the world - in southern California February 19-21. It is the only video with a genealogy theme in the competition.

As genealogists, we are always talking about how we can bring in younger people. Imagine if this video were played to that huge young audience? How may this video impact the future of the Jewish genealogy world?

Be a part of this dream and help the JGS of Colorado - and perhaps the entire field of Jewish genealogy - by voting for this video.

Let's win one for Jewish genealogy! Vote now!

Send this announcement to the members of your family, to the members of your genealogy societies, to your friends who understand your passion to this field, and ask them to vote as well. This post will be on Facebook and on Twitter, so if that's your thing, please "LIKE" it and retweet it to let people know about it.

Go here or http://www.leadel.net/jews-that-do-contest/videos/connecting-your-roots

Some relevant quotes from the video:

According to Rabbi Josh Rose of Congregation Har HaShem:

"It isn't just accumulating information about your [ancestors], but being drawn into the process and being affected by it. Genealogy is you. Both what we discover and the very process of discovering is at the core of what we are. Link this to the study of Torah and you are learning the story of our people, the genealogy of our people. It is not only what we discover but the process, how that learning informs you, changes you, draws you in."

Martin Mandelsberg, a Holocaust artist, notes that genealogy asks (and sometimes answers): "Where did I come from? How far can I go back? Are there people like me? I had to come from somewhere - who am I?

Terry Lasky, who has documented 22,000 Jewish burials in Colorado, advises viewers of two important points: "Have patience. Don't expect to find everything in an hour," and "Never give up."

Go to the link above, see the full video, be inspired and vote for it now.

Arizona: History, genealogy and more, January-February

The Jewish History Museum in Tucson, Arizona presents its third Jewish Story Telling Festival during January and February. The first program is tomorrow (Saturday evening, January 9).

The Jewish History Museum has set five interesting programs. Fee: members, $4; others, $5.

7pm, Saturday, January 9
The Third Golden Age of Judaism: Pioneer Jews of the West and Why They Succeeded So Well with Jewish storyteller and historian David W. Epstein as keynote speaker.

Noted as a story-telling historian, presenting his material in such a way that listeners can easily pass these wonderful stories on to family and friends in the best of Jewish tradition. Epstein is co-publisher/managing editor of the excellent Western States Jewish History, a historical journal published for nearly 40 years, and chronicling the history of the Jews in the growth and development of the American West. He is also co-editor of "Pioneer Jews of Los Angeles in the Nineteenth Century."

2pm, Sunday, January 10
The First Jewish Pioneer: The Journey of Nathan Appel with Jewish historian and genealogist Alfred Lipsey

Lipsey is the former president of the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Arizona and currently a board member of The Jewish History Museum. He will answer the question of who really was the first Jew to settle in the barren Arizona Territory and what brought this enterprising individual to the desert Southwest.

Noon, Sunday, January 24
Spinning Family Stories: A Workshop To Get You Started with historian and storyteller Sheila Wilensky

This workshop will teach you how to collect all your family stories, organize them and save them for the next generations.

2pm, Sunday, January 24
My Year of Living Religiously with storyteller and playwright Warren Bodow

Bodow tells his story of a fun-loving, baseball-card collecting child dealing with the way-to-early death of a parent, as he struggles to fulfill a daily religious and family obligation rarely met by Jewish adults. For nearly 20 years, Warren served as general manager of the New York Times radio stations. He has written a number of plays. Two were presented Off-Broadway, New York City, and three at the Beowulf Alley Theatre in Tucson.

7pm, Sunday, February 7
Charles Strauss: Tucson’s First Jewish Mayor with historian and storyteller Jim Turner

Turner holds a masters degree in history and served seven years as Arizona Historical Society historian. He makes history come alive. Jim will tell the story of Tucson’s first Jewish mayor who helped to establish the University of Arizona, caused the courthouse and library to be built, started a street improvement program and was part of the Arizona Legislature. Today his is one of the most widely recognized photos of the West. Yet not one building, plaza or street is named after this controversial pioneer.

Check out the Jewish History Museum website (link above) for much more. On February 14, the museum's annual ketubah (Jewish marriage document) exhibit opens.

India: Holocaust Film Festival planned

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi is planning a Holocaust film festival in Lucknow, India, and he's asking for your help as to suggestions and donations for the event. Films will be shown at various institutions in the city.

He writes;

Shalom!

I plan to organize a Series of Holocaust Film Screenings in Lucknow, India, at universities, colleges and other educational institutions here. The objective is to make the Indians aware of the great tragedy and to fight the Holocaust denial, common among Muslims here.

I already have in my possession three documentary films (thanks to the munificence of Yad Vashem), namely:

- Outcast: Jewish Persecution in Nazi Germany 1933-1938

- She Was there and She Told Me: The Story of Hannah Bar Yesha

- May Your Memory Be Love: The Story of Ovadia Baruch

If you could donate documentaries or/and feature-films on the Holocaust it would be a great mitzvah, for which I would be most grateful.

He has set up a blog, Open Space Lucknow and will acknowledge contributions. He also asks DVDs to be sent by registered post of courier service.

Email him for more details and to clear titles you may wish to provide for this good cause.

Cape Cod: 'Four Seasons Lodge" premiere

If you'll be on Cape Cod (Massachusetts) next week, attend this film premiere of "Four Seasons Lodge," which views Holocaust survivors in the Catskills' Borscht Belt.

Phil Brown of the Catskills Institute has shared the news that film will premiere at the Provincetown International Film Festival, June 17 -21.

It is by New York Times reporter Andrew Jacobs and the legendary Albert Maysles (other cinematographers include Justin Schein and Avi Kastoriano).

The moving and startlingly entertaining documentary, to be released theatrically nation-wide this fall by First Run Features, follows the last summer in the Borscht Belt for an amazing collective of genocide survivors who, having endured the worst of humanity, gather to cook, gamble, flirt, fight and celebrate life, while reliving their harrowing pasts.

Every Saturday night is a party in their homemade casino: women do their hair, men wear jackets and ties, and they dance, often past midnight. The subjects are part of a remarkable tribe whose members are fast disappearing – Holocaust survivors with a unique joie de vivre and a bracing sense of humor.

The film will screen at 4.30pm on Thursday, June 18, and Saturday, June 20, at The Vixen, in the Pilgrim House. Producer Matt Lavine will do a Q&A after each screening.

One of the world's most celebrated documentarians, Maysles, 81, pioneered "direct cinema," a distinctly American take on French cinema verité, which captures life as it is, without sets, scripts or other cinematic contrivances. This film showcases a refreshingly modern take, mixing the classic Maysles-brothers style with powerful nature cinematography.

“When Andrew approached me I was deeply inspired by these worldly, complicated people whose positive outlooks were remarkable given their horrific WWII experiences,” Maysles said. “I was immediately drawn to them and made an instant, almost familial connection. My parents were Russian immigrants and I grew up with anti-Semitism all around me in Boston.”

If you will be in the "neighborhood" during the festival, try to see it.

Philly 2009: Film Festival schedule online

There has been much interest in the Philly 2009 edition of the Film Festival, and the program is now online.

Check it out here and organize your days so you can take full advantage of the entire conference program, including the film festival. Tracing the Tribe offered a quick rundown on the films for this year here.

Film Festival coordinator Pamela Weisberger of Los Angeles says:

• To see films at a glance, click on "Session Topic" -> "Film Festival" -> "Search."
• Click on the film title to see a description with synopsis and photo. Some films will be screened multiple times to make it easier for conference attendees to see them.
• Filmmakers, researchers, or other creative participants will be introducing, discussing and leading Q&As on many of the offerings.

This year's edition covers globetrotting documentaries, features and shorts in Argentina, Austria, Belarus, Columbia, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Germany, Holland, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Libya, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Siberia, Slovakia, South Africa, Tajikistan, the Catskills, the Czech Republic, New York's Lower East Side, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and, of course, Philadelphia!

Offerings cover personal voyages of discovery, sweeping epics of WWII bravery, Holocaust memoirs, court battles for restitution, travel in search of identity, Jews in basketball, telling jokes, singing and dancing, living and thriving, often in unexpected places and providing opportunities for both laughter and tears.

Pamela also thanks many people who suggested films for this year's edition. And, of course, if those suggestions couldn't be worked in this year, there will be another edition at the Los Angeles 2010 conference - the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy - which will be hosted by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles in July 2010.

Los Angeles: 'At Home in Utopia,' April 27

For former New Yorkers, 'At Home in Utopia' may shed light on details of our families' lives.

The film tells the story of the United Workers Cooperative Colony, a housing cooperative in the Bronx organized by poor Jewish immigrants in the 1920s.

It will be screened at 7.30pm, Monday, April 27, at Laemmle's Music Hall Theatre, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, as part of the LA Jewish Film Festival.

A panel discussion, moderated by Occidental College professor of politics Peter Dreier, will follow and includes filmmaker Michal Goldman, PJA Executive Director Elissa Barrett and Hershl Hartman, a child of the Colony and education director of the Sholem Community.

Tickets are $9 (seniors, students), $12 (adults).

For more information, click the festival site here.

Philly 2009: Film Festival

The annual Jewish Genealogy Film Festival, screening some 40 films, will be a highlight of this summer's 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. Films will be shown from Sunday-Friday, August 2-7.

"I'm excited that so many filmmakers are coming through to talk about their films at the conference," writes festival coordinator Pamela Weisberger in an email . "A lot of these films are very new and Philadelphia premieres to boot!"

Although film selection and scheduling is still underway, Pam wants to let Tracing the Tribe's readers know about already confirmed films and filmmakers. This year's edition will span the globe, covering a diverse range of topics, locales and Jewish historical periods.

Here's a preview:

"The Tree of Life" - A personal family saga that illuminates the fascinating history of the Jewish people of Italy, following Israeli-born director, Hava Volterra, as she travels from the U.S. to Italy to trace the roots of her family tree. She digs up rare historical manuscripts linking her to the da Volterra filmy of banks in Florence of the Medici, Ramhal, a Venetian rabbi and mystic involved in the Kabbalah, Luigi Luzzatti, Italy's first Jewish prime minister, and back to New York's own mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Volterra will be present to discuss her film.

"The Longing: The Forgotten Jews of South America" - A small group of South Americans long to affirm their faith. Their ancestors, European Jews, were forced to convert during the Spanish Inquisition. Isolated in Catholic countries, rejected by local Jewish communities, they battle to become Jews regardless of the consequences. Argentinian-born, producer/director Gabriela Bohm will discuss her film.

"In Search of Bene Israel" - Follows a group of 3,500 Jews in and around Bombay which believes that it was shipwrecked in India 2000 years ago and is in the process of a community-wide migration to Israel. We meet a Jewish Indian filmmaker working in Bollywood, a family who takes care of a rural synagogue, and a young couple on the eve of their marriage and departure for Israel. Director Sadia Shepard will discuss her film and sign DVDs.

"No. 4 Street of Our Lady" - The remarkable, yet little-known, story of Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish-Catholic woman who rescued 16 of her Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust by cleverly passing herself off as a Nazi sympathizer. On the eve of World War II, more than 6,000 Jews lived in Sokal, a small town in Eastern Poland, formerly Galicia and now part of Ukraine. By the end of the war, only about 30 had survived, half of them rescued by Halamajowa. The film draws on excerpts from a diary kept by one of the survivors, Moshe Maltz, whose granddaughter produced the film. The film's Lviv-based researcher Alex Denishenko will be present to discuss it.

"Philly Hoops: The SPHAS & Warriors" - A look back at the first two professional basketball in the city of Philadelphia that were both owned and operated by Eddie Gotlieb "the mogul of basketball." Producer Jim Rosin will be present to discuss the film and sign DVD copies.

"House of Life" - The story of the old Jewish cemetery in Prague, the site of layer upon layer of buried members of the once-vibrant Jewish community. Almost a million people from all over the world now visit the cemetery each year, and the film chronicles its history, which is rich in lore, mysticism, tradition and philosophy. Tales of great rabbis and philanthropists and the story of the giant golem, created from clay to protect the Jewish people, are narrated by Claire Bloom. Producer Mark Podwal will discuss the film. He is best known for his drawings on The New York Times OP-ED page and as an author and book illustrator, exhibited in museums throughout the world.

"Horodok - A Shtetl's Story 1920-1945" - This is the story of vibrant life in an Eastern European Jewish village, before WWII, told by partisan-survivors, who moved to Israel after the war. Horodok was in Poland prior to 1939; then in Russia; invaded by the Nazi's in 1941 and included into Belarus after the war. The film covers the shtetl's community and religious life; the shtetl economy; Jewish and secular education; the flourishing Zionist youth movements and political parties; the background story of an early 1930's film of the shtetl; Russian and Nazi occupation; the creation of the Ghetto and Nazi slaughter; Horodok partisans and the end-of-the-war revenge.

"The Rise and Fall of the Borsht Belt" - At is peak, 1 million New York Jews spent their summers in the Borscht Belt, the birthplace of Jewish-American iconoclastic humor. Many of us spent time there during the 1950s and 60s. This film shows how the Catskills communities were run by women and how class divisions were reflected in the resort hotels: a happy, humane, ironic and bittersweet tale of the past.

"Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh" - Narrated by Joan Allen, "Blessed Is the Match" is the first documentary feature about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter, and modern-day Joan of Arc. Safe in Palestine in 1944, Senesh joined a mission to rescue Jews in her native Hungary. Shockingly, it was the only military rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust. Through Senesh’s diary entries and poetry, her correspondence with her mother, and unprecedented access to the Senesh family archive, this film looks back on the life of a uniquely talented and complex young woman who came of age in a world descending into madness.

"My Mexican Shiva"- Set in Polanco, a Jewish quarter of Mexico City, and spoken in Spanish, Yiddish and Hebrew, this is a dramatic comedy about how the death of a man results in the celebration of his life.

"Toyland" - The 2008 Oscar-winning short subject film : Winter 1942. A small town in Germany. Despite her good neighborly relations with the Silbersteins, Marianne Meissner has certain difficulties to be really behind them in those dangerous times. Marianne’s son Heinrich entertains a close friendship with David, the son of the Silbersteins, whose deportation is imminent. What can Marianne tell her son? For his sake in order to protect him she tries to make him believe that the neighbors are going on a journey to "Toyland." When he hears this, he's envious...and runs off to join them.

"Against the Tide" - Human lives sold for $50. Rabbis marching on Washington. Epic battles between American Jewish communities. These are just three of the realities documented with finesse in this Dustin Hoffman-narrated documentary which addresses the attitudes of President Roosevelt and his senior advisors, who used the pretext of winning the war against the Nazis to block any Jewish immigration to the U.S. and juxtaposes the events in America with heart-wrenching heroic stories of the doomed Jews of Europe and the leaders of Polish Jewry who had faith that their powerful brothers and sisters in the United States would somehow be able to save them.

"Vienna's Lost Daughters" - Anita, Dorit, Eva, Hennie, Lizzy, Susanne, Susy und Rosalie live in New York, where they have started families and built up lives. “Vienna’s lost daughters” grew up Jewish in Vienna and had to flee suddenly in 1938/39. Director Mirjam Unger encounters them with impressive openness and emotion, providing insight into and a look back at extremely personal areas of their lives as they open the doors to their pasts in Vienna—a Vienna that lives on in New York.

"On Moral Grounds" - The story of former Uzhgorod, Czechoslovakia resident, Adolf Stern, who wouldn't take no for an answer and battled the giant insurance company, Generali, in court for not giving Holocaust survivors what they rightfully deserved under their policies. His daughter, attorney Lisa Stern teamed up with attorney William Shernoff to win a landmark settlement that resulted in a US $5.2 billion fund that German companies established to pay reparations to the Holocaust survivors.

The complete film list and schedule will be available online in a few weeks. Tracing the Tribe will post updates as more films and filmmakers are confirmed.

Food: A taste of heritage

In Jerusalem, they lined up for a taste of Grandma's cooking on Sunday at the first Festival of the Jerusalem Pot.

Trying to get a precise recipe from one of Jerusalem's elderly cooks is impossible - they have neither specific quantities nor cooking times.

"It's simple," says Rachel Guate, who was preparing a couscous and a black-eyed pea dish, delicacies from her native Tripoli that are much more complex than this description would imply.

The cooking process will have to remain a mystery. When asked, Guate listed only some of the ingredients: white beans, mangold leaves "ground really well and fried," stuffed intestines, some sort of beef patties that were cooked for hours, made from "beef fat, eggs, semolina, garlic and spices," and couscous.

The festival attracted thousands of hungry residents into the city's Mahane Yehuda market, reported Haaretz.

Some of the most famous home cooks were paired with famous chefs from local restaurants who helped the grandmothers make large quantities of traditional ethnic delights from many communities.

The enormous pots of food sat on improvised tables, while several road shows
offered additional entertainment. Unlike every other food festival that has been
held in recent years, this one offered a rare combination of roots, groove and
even Hassidic robes.

Chefs Keren Kadosh and Tallie Friedman, who organized the festival, visited each of the grandmothers in their own homes, eventually tasting food from 50-60 grandmothers. The event featured dishes from Morocco, Italy, Iran, Poland, Ashkenazi, Jerusalem, Kurdistan and Tripoli (Libya).

Nu? So where's the cookbook? I'd buy one if it were available.

California: Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival, Oct. 26

The Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival is branching out for its 17th annual edition, which runs Oct. 26 through Nov. 19. It will include some 22 full-length, short, and short short films, speakers, special programs and a concert.

On November 13, "Ladino: 500 Years Young" will be screened. It's about an Israeli singer who keeps alive the songs of Sephardic Jews. Following the film, the Sephardic Music Experience, led by Bay Area jazz vocalist Kat Parra, will perform.

Check out a full schedule and ticket information here.

Ireland: Jewish culture festival, Oct. 18-19

Irish Family History - the blog - had a neat piece on the documentary, "Shalom Ireland," at the Cork Festival of Jewish Culture, Oct 18-19.

In 1861, there were only 341 Jews living in Ireland, but by the turn of the 20th century the Jewish population had risen to more than 3,000.

In 1901, the largest Jewish populations were in Dublin (2,048), Belfast (708), Cork (359) and Limerick (171).

This autumn, Cork celebrates the Jewish community in the Cork Festival of Jewish Culture, October 18 – 19, 2008. If you are interested in the history of the Jewish community in Ireland, don’t miss out on the screening of ‘Shalom Ireland’.

In this documentary, director Valerie Lapin Ganley reveals Ireland’s remarkable, yet little known Jewish community.

"Shalom Ireland" chronicles the history of Irish Jewry while celebrating the unique culture created by blending Irish and Jewish traditions.
From gun running for the Irish Republican Army during Ireland’s War of Independence to smuggling fellow Jews escaping from the Holocaust into Palestine, "Shalom Ireland" tells the untold story of how Irish Jews participated in the creation of both Ireland and Israel.

Events will take place in Main Restaurant and Boole Lecture Theatre 1, University College Cork.

Saturday,October 18
7-7:15pm
Opening, Cork Festival of Jewish Culture
7:15-8:15pm
Klezmer dance, Yiddish song workshop; Vivi Lachs (London); accompaniment, Klezmer Klub (London)
8:30-9:45pm
Concert, Klezmer Klub (London)
10:00-11:30pm
Concert, The Fireflies (klezmer band, South West Ireland)

Sunday,October 19
4-4:45pm
Lecture, Professor Dermot Keogh, UCC History Department; history of Cork's Jewish community
5-6pm
Screening, “Shalom Ireland” - history of Ireland's Jewish community in Ireland
6-6:30pm
Break & refreshments
6:30-7:30pm
Concert, Festival Ensemble
8-9:30pm
Concert, North Strand Klezmer Band (Dublin)
10-11:30pm
Concert, Yurodny (Dublin)

The Festival is held under the patronage of the Lord Mayor of Cork, Brian Bermingham and University College Cork president, Dr. Michael Murphy.
Concert tickets: €10/ €15. For more information: corkjewishfestival@gmail.com

Florida: Jewish heritage films, family ties

The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and Castle Hill Productions celebrate a century of leagcy with 10 films on Jewish heritage, to be screened June 18-23, at Cinema Paradiso, Fort Launderdale.

The films include:

Line King: The Al Hirshfeld Story - documentary takes a look at works by renowned artist Al Hirshfeld, whose caricatures of celebrities were featured on playbills and in The New York Times.

The Power of Good: Nicholas Winton - documentary about the courage and determination of a young English stockbroker who saved the lives of 669 children between March 13 and Aug. 2, 1939.

Hester Street - film about a young Jewish woman who comes to America in the 1890s, only to discover that her husband has found a new life and is dating another woman. In English and Yiddish.

Partisans of Vilna - film chronicles the endeavors of Jewish resistance fighters during World War II and the Holocaust.

The Greenhouse - film about a professor who makes up a story to his granddaughter about how his son was heroically killed in World War II. In French with English subtitles.

Alan and Naomi - film is set in the 1940s and is about a young Jewish boy who helps a young girl come out of her shell after she watched her father die at the hands of the Nazis.

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg - film tells the story of baseball Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg, through archival footage and interviews with Jewish and nonJewish fans, former teammates, friends and his family.

The Boat is Full - film about refugees who sneak into Switzerland from Germany during World War II. They are allowed to stay at an inn if they pose as a family. In German with English subtitles.

The Tollbooth - film explores the life of a Jewish family in Brooklyn through the eyes of a struggling painter in her first year of art school.

Left Luggage - film about a rebellious student struggling with her relationship with her parents, who are concentration camp survivors. In English, Hebrew and Yiddish.

For the schedule and ticket prices, click here here.

Chicago: Jewish Folk Arts Festival, June 15

The Greater Chicago Jewish Folk Arts Festival will take place from 11am-6pm Sunday June 15, at the Cook County Forest Preserve in Morton Grove.

The production group volunteers, according to the site, say:

We are linked by a single purpose: to produce an event which celebrates Jewish life and culture. We are committed to this project because of our resolve that Jewish identity must be based, in part, on a tangible positive feeling about Jewish life, especially for children.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois will have a booth at the event.

Started in 1980, it is today the largest Jewish cultural event in Chicago and the largest ongoing Jewish festival in America. The community production is called the "Heart and Soul of Jewish Chicago" because attendees can find everything that is Jewish in Chicago.

The day brings together the best of the community's professional and amateur singers, dancers and artists. There are seven hours of entertainment on four stages, including music, dance, theater and storytelling, as well as a children's stage, a hands-on activity area, art fair, craft fair, ethnic food fair and organization information booths.

Produced by the non-profit Jewish Production Organization for Cultural Events and Theater (POCET), the festival attracts people from all over to attend, sell and to perform. For more information, click here.

Poland: Krakow Jewish Festival, June 27-July 6

The 18th Jewish Culture Festival will take place in the Kazimierz quarter of Krakow, Poland, from June 27-July 6. Since 1987, the historic Jewish quarter fills with music, art, dance, lectures and exhibits celebrating the 900-year history of Jews in Poland.

World-famous Jewish music personalities appear, among them Michael Alpert, Brave Old World, Theodore Bikel, The Klezmatics, David Krakauer, Frank London, Cantor Ben-Zion Miller, Andy Statman and others. Fans come from Poland, Central and Western Europe, Israel, the United States, and elsewhere to participate in this event.

The Festival Program runs from morning to night with performances (theater, music) and exhibits (art, photographs) all over Kazimierz at such venues as the Popper Synagogue, Stara Synagogue, Tempel Synagogue, Kupa Synagogue, Wysoka Synagogue, Manggha Museum, Muzeum Inzynierii Miejskiej, Muzeum Etnograficzne, Galicia Museum, National Museum of Krakow and various galleries. Some are organized in connection with Israeli organizations.

There are walking tours (Polish and English) of the quarter's synagogues and Ghetto, Remuh and other cemetery visits, tours of former Krakow environs shtetls, poetry sessions, Yiddish and Hebrew workshops, Judaism lectures, children's workshops, Jewish cooking, Hebrew calligraphy, Jewish paper-cutting workshops, lectures and films.

Music includes lunchtime concerts, choirs, klezmer workshops, drumming workshops, free jazz, Jewish dance, Hasidic singing and dance, klezmer and gypsy musicians, Yiddish singing, Jass Klezmer and even a Sephardic music program with Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI from Spain.

Jewish genealogy will be represented several times during the festival by the well-known Yale Reisner and Anna Przybyszewska at the Galicia Museum.

See the program here.

See the past Festival posters here.