New York: The Tree of Life, June 12

A film - "Tree of Life" - on a Jewish Italian family will be the focus of the next Jewish Genealogy Society of New York on Sunday, June 12.

The film celebrates the passion for life, love and family that unites Jews and Italians, as Israeli-born director Hava Volterra traces her roots in Ancona, Italy.

Beginning in the ancient Adriatic city of Ancona, Volterra and her feisty 82-year old Aunt Viviana travel extensively through Italy, digging up rare historical manuscripts, interviewing an array of quirky historians, and discovering the astonishing and humorous stories of their ancestors, including the da Volterra family of bankers in Florence of the Medici; Ramhal, a Venetian rabbi and mystic involved in the Kabbalah; renowned scientist and mathematician Vito Volterra; New York City’s legendary mayor Fiorello LaGuardia; and Luigi Luzzatti, Italy’s first Jewish prime minister.

The program - a joint meeting of the JGSNY and the Primo Levi Society - begins at 2pm at the Center of Jewish History, 15 W. 16th Street, Manhattan. The Levi Society's deputy director Allesandro Cassin will facilitate the post-screening discussion of this personal family saga that illuminates the fascinating history of Italian Jewish people.

Admission: JGSNY members, free; others, $5.

Read the NJ Jewish Standard's review here, and a review in The Forward here.

Television: 'Triangle: Remembering the Fire," March 21

A documentary on the 1911 Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire will be broadcast on HBO, 9-9.45pm (ET/PT), on Monday, March 21.

The premiere of "Triangle: Remembering the Fire," marks the 100th anniversary of the event that began the modern labor movement.

On March 25, 1911, a catastrophic fire broke out at the Triangle Waist Company in New York City.

Trapped inside the upper floors of a ten-story building, 146 workers – mostly young immigrant women and teenage girls, of Jewish and Italian descent were burned alive or forced to jump to their deaths to escape an inferno that consumed the factory in just 18 minutes.

It was the worst disaster at a workplace in New York State until 9/11.

The tragedy changed the course of history, paving the way for government to represent working people, not just business, for the first time, and helped an emerging American middle class to live the American Dream.

"Remembering the Fire" is inspired by Celia Gitlin, a 17-year-old Russian immigrant who perished in the fire, and was the great aunt of HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins, also the film’s executive producer. Nevins had long suspected that her grandmother’s younger sister died in the fire. While filming “Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags,” the producers located Gitlin’s death certificate and confirmed the fact.

An HBO On Demand exclusive, “Triangle: The Unidentified,” tells the story of the last remaining victims to be acknowledged. Of the 146 victims, six were burned beyond recognition. Their identities were lost to history until co-producer and historian Michael Hirsch used genealogical investigative techniques to reveal their identities.

For the first time, and as a result of Hirsch’s research, the full list of the victims’ names is revealed in the documentary.

The list of victims will be read in its entirety for the first time at the annual commemoration on March 25 at the site on Washington Square. In addition, the 100th anniversary of the tragedy will be marked by citywide events.

The event was the first great uprising of women - when were not allowed to vote. Organized by the newly created International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), the workers marched in the streets, stood on picket lines and were beaten by hired thugs. When many of them later appeared on the ledges of the burning Asch Building, with no chance of survival, it broke the hearts of New Yorkers who remembered their pleas.

Worst of all, the fire was preventable. Although sprinkers and fire drills existed at the time, they were not required by government regulations. As public outrage grew, the city made changes and worked with the ILGWU to improve workplace conditions and wages.

See the trailer for the documentary.

Among those interviewed for the documentary:

• Susan Harris, granddaughter of Triangle co-owner Max Blanck, who says, “From a personal point of view, I’m happy my grandfather didn’t have to go to jail. From the victims’ and families’ point of view, if my daughter had died in the fire and he hadn’t been my grandfather, I probably would have shot him."
• Leigh Benin, whose cousin Rosie Oringer, 19, jumped from the building. The Adelphi University labor historian says. “People forget the Triangle fire at their peril…If people want to know what deregulated industry would look like, look at the bodies on the sidewalk outside the Triangle building.” His cousin, 19-year-old Rosie Oringer, jumped from the building.
• Suzanne Pred Bass, whose great-aunt Rosie Weiner died in the fire. Rosie’s sister Katie survived and served as a witness for the state at the subsequent manslaughter trial. She offered some of the most dramatic testimony, supporting the prosecution’s contention that the Washington Place door on the ninth floor of the factory was locked.
• Katharine Weber, author of the critically acclaimed novel “Triangle,” whose grandmother had worked at Triangle since the Uprising of the 20,000 in 1909. She describes the working conditions, recounting her grandmother’s dramatic confrontation with police.
• Erica Lansner, grandniece of beloved forelady Fannie Lansner, 21, credited with saving numerous lives. Fannie Lansner ushered many workers off the floor but was killed in the fire herself.
• Ray Ott, whose grandfather, Andrew Ott, was one of the first firefighters to respond that day. Also a firefighter, Ray Ott witnessed similar horror on 9/11.

For more information, click here. There is also information at HBO, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Michigan: Yiddish World Remembered, Dec. 12

"A Yiddish World Remembered" - a documentary - will be presented at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Michigan on Sunday, December 12.

 

The screening takes place at 11am at the Holocaust Memorial Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills. Members, free; others, $5.Reservations are suggested. Contact the JGSMi

Narrated by Academy Award nominated actor Elliott Gould and accompanied by never-before-seen archival films, vintage photographs, and, of course, traditional Klezmer and cantorial music, the documentary takes a realistic and enlightening look at this unique and all-but-vanished way of life.

For those in rural communities, there was often no running water or electricity. For many, anti-Semitism was a part of daily life. But for everyone, crowded conditions and poverty seemed to prevail. Despite these trials, through the eyes of the individuals interviewed, we learn that Jewish communities were close-knit and often even joyous places to live. This television special explores everything from the fascinating language of Yiddish to the Rabbis and Rebbes that often ran the communities to the powerful Jewish movements of Khasidism, Bundism and Zionism.

Southern California: "Ost meets West," Oct. 4

"Ost meets West: Immigrant Film Moguls, Émigré Directors and the Rise of Film Noir" is the program for the fifth anniversary meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Conejo Valley, on Monday, October 4.

The program runs from 7-9pm at Temple Adat Elohim, 2420 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks. This is a different day and time than usual.

A group of Eastern European Jews, who headed most major American film studios, founded the Hollywood film industry. Another influx of German/Austrian Jewish film directors were driven, in the 1930s, to the US by the Nazis. A number of them, such as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger and Edward G. Ulmer would play a determining role in the rise of what was called film noir.

The Hollywood film noir genre ranged from the early 1940s-late 1950s, and is associated with a black-and-white style with roots in German Expressionist cinematography.

Speaker Vincent Brook will examine the ethnic origins of the two groups and how their different backgrounds enabled their considerable contributions to the cinema, and in particular film noir.

Brook holds a PhD (film and television, UCLA) and teaches media studies at UCLA, USC, Cal-State LA, and Pierce College. He is the author of "Something Ain’t Kosher Here: The Rise of the 'Jewish' Sitcom," and dozens of journal articles, essays and reviews. His book, “Driven to Darkness: Jewish Émigré Directors and the Rise of Film Noir "will be available for purchase ($20, cash/check) at the meeting

The free meeting is co-sponsored with Temple Adat Elohim. For more information, see the JGSCV website.

Atlanta: Bielski story, Sept. 26

Readers in Atlanta will have an opportunity to hear filmmaker Sharon Rennert of Los Angeles on Sunday, September 26.

The program begins at 2pm, at the Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum on "In Our Hands: A Personal Story of the Bielski Partisans." For more information, click here.

She is the granddaughter of the group’s commander, Tuvia Bielski, and has been exploring her family legacy from Brooklyn to Belarus, Israel and Lithuania.

The multi-media presentation provides a unique and personal glimpse into the real characters behind "Defiance" and includes Bielski family movies and excerpts from her upcoming Bielski documentary.

Sharon presented this program at the last two IAJGS conferences. Local JGSs, synagogues or JCCs interested in having her speak, may reach her via her website.

Thanks to Pamela Weisberger for this pointer.

North Carolina: 'Down Home' Jewish life

North Carolina has a long history of Jewish life, much the same as in other states, as immigrants arrived to create better lives.

The first Jew in what is today North Carolina was metallurgist Joachim Gans of Prague, who arrived at Roanoke Island in 1585 with Sir Walter Raleigh's second expedition. A year later, Gans returned to England.

The North Carolina Museum of History's exhibit (through March 7, 2011) - "Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina," is the first celebration of this minority culture. Along with the exhibit and a book, a television documentary recently aired and a special school curriculum (for 4th and 8th grades) was developed.

The project, in conjunction with the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina, took about six years to complete, including oral and written histories research, as well as extensive records from the 1840s-1880s. In the project's companion book, author Leonard Rogoff writes: "The challenge for native and immigrant Jews alike was to become southerners while remaining Jews."

Two recent stories, in the News Observer and the Herald Sun, provide details of the project, exhibit and book.

"It was not always assumed North Carolina had a Jewish history or that it was significant," said Leonard Rogoff, exhibit curator and the author of a companion book published by UNC Press. "But we found it, and it dates back to 1585."

Jewish immigrants settled in ports, such as Wilmington - the first and largest Jewish community and the state's first synagogue. Jews served in the Confederate army. In the late 1870s, there were Jews from Poland, Bavaria, Prussia and the Netherlands as well as the native-born, living in Durham. Some 300 Jews were listed in the 1870 census.

In the late 1800s, Eastern European Jews were directed to the South by a Baltimore dry goods warehouse owner whose agents met immigrant Jews at the docks to offer them peddling. Many settled in North Carolina and graduated from wagons to permanent shops. Such chains as Family Dollar and Pic 'n Pay Shoes began in this way. Other families - Cones of Greensboro, Blumenthals of Charlotte - built factories and plants for a variety of items.

The museum exhibit is intended to teach non-Jews about their Jewish neighbors, and includes prayer books, kipas and a shofar (ram's horn). There's also a 1950s Jewish kitchen with a refrigerator and a pot of matzo ball soup on the stove, and visitors can braid challah or write down their own memories and family recipes.

Things weren't always so easy. The prestigious Duke University had a 3% Jewish quota in the 1930s-40s, and school organizations were divided along religious lines. Fast forward to 1988 and 1994, when two North Carolina Jews won Nobel science prizes.

Harry Golden - a former stockbroker and humorist - moved to Charlotte in 1941 and began publishing "The Carolina Israelite," which served as a pulpit for civil rights advocacy.

He is probably best known for his "Vertical Negro Plan," in which he recommended eliminating chairs to solve the problem of segregation. (Southern whites didn't mind standing with blacks, but they didn't want to sit down alongside them.)

The Herald Sun story quotes Leonard Rogoff, author of the book and exhibit curator, as saying the project has two missions: "To tell who we are. To tell how we are."

Visitors can see a seder table, an early immigrant's peddler cart. They are also asked questions to think about:

"Why do Jews need to study? Isn't belief enough?" and "If I'm a JewishAmerican, am I different than other Americans?" and "Why is it said where there are two Jews, there will be three questions?"

The first section - Keeping the Faith - asks a question that non-Jews might have:

"Is Judaism an ethnicity, a culture or a religion?" "Yes, yes and yes."

It also provides information on prominent families:

One area displaying merchants' information and photographs from over the years includes a familiar name in Durham: E.J. "Mutt" Evans, a 1928 graduate of UNC and the mayor of Durham from 1951 to 1963. His store, Evans United Department Store, was the only store on Main Street with an integrated lunch counter before integration. When a local judge told him that the state prohibited blacks and whites from sitting together in public, Evans took out the tools and raised the countertop to elbow height.

Detailed in the second article is the role of Jews in the tobacco industry. In 1881, Moses Gladstein in New York brought more than 100 workers to tobacco king Buck Duke's factory, where they were supervised by Joseph Siegel. Duke's competition, W.T. Blackwell, hired Joseph's brother David to bring workers to his factory. Although the Duke workers left following problems, Gladstein stayed. His brother, Louis, opened a men's clothing store which remained open until the 1970s.

The "Down Home" project took about six years to complete, including oral and written histories research, as well as extensive records from the 1840s-1880s.

"The challenge for native and immigrant Jews alike," writes Rogoff in the book, "was to become southerners while remaining Jews."

The book - "Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina" - is $35 (UNC Press). For more, read the two newspaper articles (links above), and visit the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina.

Washington DC: 'Gift to Stalin' film, June 23

The Kazakh film - "Gift to Stalin" - will be shown in the Washington, DC area on Wednesday, June 23.

Sasha, a young Jewish orphan, is sent into exile during a Stalinist purge. Losing his grandfather on the long train journey, Sasha is rescued by a gruff widowed rail worker Kasym (the distinguished Kazakh actor Nurzhuman Ikhtimbaev). Kasym takes the boy to his remote village where Sasha becomes part of a surrogate family of other cast outs. A Muslim living by the tenets of ethnic and religious tolerance, Kasym renames Sasha as Sabyr, meaning "humble of heart" in its Arabic origin, but the older man still preserves the boy's Jewish identity. What Sasha/Sabyr finds on the lovingly-filmed, sweeping Kazakh steppes is more than survival in this lyrical, poignant story told through a child's memories. Film clips in Kazakh and Russian with English subtitles.

At noon, the film will be presented at the Library of Congress (Mumford Room,6th Floor, Madison Building), and at the Magen David Sephardic Congregation (Rockville, Maryland) at 7pm.

From the website of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival:

In 1949, railcars holding Jews and other deportees creep eastward into oblivion. Or is it? For young Sasha, salvation comes through a rubric of chance, defiance and love. His enforced rebirth finds him surrounded by a makeshift new clan: his savior and new grandfather, Kasym (veteran actor Nurzhuman Ikhtimbaev), who is Muslim; Verka, the wife of a traitor; Ezhik, a Polish resister; and a gang of orphans—a wilderness family with deep bonds despite habitual harassment from authorities. Rare news comes from Moscow announcing a children’s contest celebrating Stalin’s 70th birthday. If Sasha’s original gift wins, he hopes to achieve his parents’ freedom. Decades pass, and Sasha questions history and his fate: “Who are you in the land of your God if a part of your soul was left behind?” Gift’s allegorical ending will linger long in your heart and mind, likely to raise questions, yet perhaps answer others, such as Kasym’s early query, “Whose flock are you from?"

The screening is in cooperation with the European Division and Hebrew Language Table of the LOC with the Washington Jewish Film Festival and the Embassy of Kazakhstan.

The LOC event includes clips of the film and a lecture by producers Boris Cherdabayev and Aliya Uvalzhanova.

The complete film will be screened at Magen David, along with a discussion by the filmmakers.

Both events are free to the public.

Cherdabayev and Uvalzhanova founded Aldongar Productions Kazakhstan in 2006. Their mission is to preserve the cultural and historical legacy of the country, which has a history of tolerance and diversity, as exemplified by its Jewish community with a history of some 2,500 years.

New Resource: SCIRUS finds people!

Are there academics or scientists in your family? Would you like to know? Do you want to cast a wider family search net? Here's a new resource to help you.

SCIRUS.com is considered the most comprehensive science-specific search engine on the Internet, it searches more than 380 million science-specific Web pages. Researchers can pinpoint scientific, scholarly, technical and medical data; find the newest reports, articles, patents, journals, websites, homepages, courseware and repository information that other search engines might miss; and help scientists and researchers.

Importantly, it is also great for genealogists and family researchers looking to cast a wider net.

My search centered on our TALALAY and DARDASHTI families, and I was very pleased with the results.

There are quite a few academics and scientists in our TALALAY family, and this search engine found them. From Dr. Paul Talalay of Johns Hopkins Medical School, to Dr. Mikhail Talalai (a Russian historian who lives in Italy), Dr. Pavel Talalai (Misha's brother in Saint Petersburg, a specialist in deep-sea ice), Dr. Alexander Talalai (communications) and many others, including Dr. Boris Talalai (originally of Saint Petersburg, now Beersheva University). Paul's daughter Rachel, a film/documentary producer, even got a mention.

Results: For TALALAY, there were 9,835 hits;  for TALALAI, 58 hits (this is the Russian spelling and also for a family of Polish Catholics in New Jersey and elsewhere). There were even 261 hits for TALALLA (sometimes the Spanish spelling as LL=LY, which can also be Talalya). A search for TALALAJ (a variant Polish spelling) produced 274 hits for people in Poland, the US and elsewhere. TALLALAY produced 13 hits, seemingly with TALALAY misspelled (I knew the people referred to, such as cousin Paul).

Our DARDASHTI family is also well-represented: Cardiologists Drs. Iraj Dardashti and Omid Dardashti; musician/anthropologist Dr. Galeet Dardashti; some in Iran (although I have no way of figuring out how they might be related at this point in time); some in Germany, Sweden, Norway; Dr. Kambiz Dardashti, our Philadelphia cousin Ephi Dardashti, and more. Tracing the Tribe even got a mention on a posting on the Sephardi Studies Caucus. There were 1,055 hits, with just one for DARDASHTY (a variant rare spelling).

Areas represented cover medicine, research, patents, culture, technology, anthropology and much more. It is well worth a visit and a search, particularly if you are dealing with an uncommon name.

Tracing the Tribe is not sure if a search for COHEN will turn up useful information for a particular family. Non-family names, such as my old New York pediatrician, Isaac Newton Kugelmass - who was in his 90s when I last knew him - got six mentions.

It is so successful at locating these types of results that it was voted Best Specialty Search Engine (2001. 2002) and Best Director or Search Engine Website (2004-2007).

And, since Tracing the Tribe often brings readers more than esoteric bits of information, here's the background on how the organizers selected the name SCIRUS:

"To the Eleusinians who were warring against Erechtheus, came a man, Scirus by name, who was a seer from Dodona, and who also established at Phalerum the ancient temple of Athena Sciras. After he had fallen in the battle, the Eleusinians buried him near a winter-flowing river and the name of the region and the river is from that of the hero."

We chose the name Scirus because seers and prophets are said to judge the signs of what is to come. And science is a visionary discipline in which you are continuously working on new ideas and developments. The Scirus search engine will pro-actively support your role as a seer.

*Excerpt from "The Description of Greece" by Pausanias, translated by August A. Imholtz, Jr., CIS Executive Editor

Check it out and see if Scirus can help you. See what you can find.

Hong Kong: 'Asian Jewish Life,' spring issue online

On my recent Hong Kong visit, I met with editor-in-chief Erica Lyons of "Asian Jewish Life: A Journal of Spirit, Society and Culture."

The new AJL spring 2010 issue is now online with stories covering India, Shanghai, Cambodia, foodies, book reviews, film and more.

"Asian Jewish Life is a contemporary journal of Jewish diaspora life throughout Asia. As Jews in Asia we are but a tiny minority unified by tradition, a love for Israel, common contemporary concerns and shared values. While Asian Jewish Life is a common media forum designed to share regional Jewish thoughts, ideas and culture and promote unity, it also celebrates our individuality and our diverse backgrounds and customs."

Here's the table of contents (read each online or download the PDF at the link above):

-- Inbox: Your letters
-- Letter from the Editor
-- India Journal- Life with the Bene Ephraim (Bonita Nathan Sussman and Gerald Sussman)
-- Eating Kosher Dog Meat: Jewish in Guiyang (Susan Blumberg-Kason)
-- Through the Eyes of ZAKA (Jana Daniels)
-- Interview: Ambassador Yaron Mayer
-- Replanting Roots in Shanghai: Architect Haim Dotan’s journey (Erica Lyons)
-- A Palate Grows in Brooklyn: Birth of a foodie (Sandi Butchkiss)
-- Poetry by Rachel DeWoskin
-- The Death Penalty: What Asia can learn from Judaism (Michael H. Fox)
-- Learning to Speak: A cross-cultural love story (Tracy Slater)
-- Book Reviews (Susan Blumberg-Kason)
-- Places I Love
-- Expat Diary: Raising a Jewish Child in Cambodia (Craig Gerard)
-- Film in Focus

Each article provides a diverse look into life in Asia, with a Jewish "hook." Tracing the Tribe will always remember the line "tenderloin of my heart," from Tracy Slater's "Learning to Speak."

Readers and writers with Jewish Asian experiences are invited to submit articles; click here for more information.

If you enjoyed this issue (the winter issue is also online), let Erica know, and tell her you learned about AJL at Tracing the Tribe. Feedback is always welcome.

A great issue, Erica!

Museum of Family History: New exhibits

What's new at the Museum of Family History this month?

Walk in My Shoes: Collected Memories of the Holocaust

-- Chaim Basist (Lida, Belarus): He and his family hid in the forest with the Bielski partisans. Hebrew/English.

-- Peter Kleinmann (Munkacs/Mukachevo, Ukraine). Nine of 12 chapters of his autobiography are online with more to follow very soon. He was in Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen and Flossenburg.

MOFH Film Series (through April 18): World War II and the Holocaust

-- "The Jews of Krakow's Kazimierz District." 1936 archival film shows Krakow's Kazimierz Jewish district. Most buildings can be visited today and are in a similar condition - only the people who walked those streets are long gone. Note: A YouTube version of this film states the years are 1938-9, not 1936.

Exhibit: "The Jewish Ghetto" (coming in 2010)

-- "The Ghettos of Dabrowa Grnicza and Bedzin" (10:51). Two parts shot in the ghettos of Dabrowa Grnicza and Bedzin, probablywhen the ghetto was founded in May 1942, although deportations began in October 1940. Despite cooperation with the occupiers, as shown in this film, several large deportations took place in 1942; the last major ones were in 1943: 5,000, 22 June 1943; 8,000, around 13 August 1943. The 1,000 remaining Jews were subsequently deported. An uprising took place August 1943, was quelled and the ghetto eliminated. Both films are in the Polish film archive (ul. Chelmska, Warsaw.

Al Jolson Film Festival

-- Jolson stars in and sings in the film trailer to "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum." Don't forget to visit the Museum's large Al Jolson exhibit, "The Immortal Al Jolson" (see and hear many more videos, more than 40 sound clips).

ERC Lecture Series: The Development of Yiddish Literature

-- Since the Czernowitz Conference: In October 2008, Boris Sandler, Forverts editor-in-chief, gave a Yiddish speech at the IAYC (International Association of Yiddish Clubs) conference about the development of Yiddish literature since the 1908 Czernowitz conference on the future of the Yiddish language. A transcript of the talk is now available in English and can be found within the "ERC Lecture Series" at the Museum's Education and Research Center.

Visit the Museum of Family History online. Learn what's new at the Steve Lasky's blog.

Questions for Steve on new exhibits or material you'd like to share? Contact him.

Michigan: 'The Brothers Warner,' April 26

Join in the nosh-and-a-movie fundraiser for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Michigan, on Monday, April 26.

The event starts at 7pm, the film screens at 8pm, in the Commerce Theatre, 14 Mile and Haggerty, Walled Lake, at the Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival.

This is the inside story of the little known major player in the Warner Bros. studio legend, Harry Warner, honest Abe, visionary Sam, and volatile Jack – the original Hollywood independent filmmakers. This close-knit band of brothers was the first to use mass media to “educate, entertain, and enlighten.”

“‘The Brothers Warner’ is a well-made, fascinating documentary. Cass has not only honored her grandfather’s legacy with this work, she’s also paid homage to one of the guiding principles of the four Warner brothers who founded the studio by producing a film that will educate, entertain and enlighten audiences.” —Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment

Their legendary scrappy rise from nothing, their overcoming of personal tragedies, and their battles are all woven together with the times they lived in. From opening their first storefront theater by hanging a sheet on the wall and borrowing chairs from a funeral parlor to creating one of the top studios in America – four brothers built an empire on a dream and revolutionized Hollywood creating the first major studio with a social conscience.

Fee: $18 per person ($8 goes to support JGSMi; additional donation appreciated); for more information or to order tickets, register online.

Shanghai: Saving the stones

As is too often the case, Jewish gravestones are used for other purposes by people who live where Jewish populations no longer care for and maintain cemeteries.

Israeli journalist Dvir Bar-Gal, who arrived in Shanghai nine years ago, is the Jewish tombstone collector of the city, according to a CNNGO.com story.

Scattered in cauliflower patches, or sunken, mud-covered, in riverbanks, or sometimes used as washing slabs by villagers around the city, are the gravestones of old Jewish settlers of Shanghai. During the Cultural Revolution, the gravestones were uprooted, smashed and scattered throughout the region. The cemeteries have long been paved over, with no recognition of the bodies buried underneath. The stones that remain are like historical islands, isolated and disconnected from their past.

For Israeli photo-journalist and documentary maker Dvir Bar-Gal, a first encounter with a headstone in a Shanghai antique store has become a decade-long quest to discover their origins. And what started as a journalistic project quickly turned into a personal mission. “I got more connected emotionally,” he says. “There’s a lot of energy involved every time we flip over the stones and read the mud-covered inscriptions.”

Bar-Gal's quest, now called the Shanghai Jewish Memorial Project, has seen him journey to numerous rural villages around Shanghai. There, he’d find old tombstones in fields, along rivers, or used as construction blocks for pathways and walls. His plan is to discover and restore as many stones he can and then display them, as a shrine to this nearly lost aspect of Shanghai's Jewish history.

Stones have been recovered by the Shanghai Jewish Memorial Project from bike path bridges, fields and riverbeds. Bar-Gal interviews local residents and tries to put the puzzle pieces together.

Bar-Gal says there may have been some 3,700 Jews buried in the city, but couldn't find gravestones or cemeteries other than the pieces he discovers. He's found some 85 stones over the past 10 years. He's contacted families of the deceased and asked architects to design a permanent home.

A few years ago, American Lily Klebanoff Blake joined Bar-Gal and they went to the rural location where he found her grandmother's stone in a riverbed.

“It was still covered in mud but I felt compelled to show my respect for my grandmother by washing the mud off the gravestone,” she says. “Touching the gravestone, I felt an uncanny connection to my grandmother, who died when I was four years old.”

The recovered stones remain in a few places: a storage space, a Buddhist cemetery and the journalist's own gallery.

He has a network of people who let him know when stones are found. In March, a neighbor told him some stones were found in a western suburb and he found two new ones.

His inspiration comes from days like that, and he's working on various projects: a documentary (not yet funded), a book about Shanghai's Jewish history, and as a tour guide and photographer.

Yanhua Zhang, research director for a non-profit heritage conservation group, believes that a permanent home for the stones can help people trace their family history, and would raise awareness of the former Jewish ghetto.

Read the complete story at the link above.

JGSLA 2010: What you will find!

Don't bother getting vaccinated for the genealogy bug - it won't help! Just be prepared for an amazing genealogy immersion experience this year.

From gold-rush pioneers to goniffs, from geo-tagging to gazetteers, and many other exciting topics, JGSLA 2010 has gathered experts, archivists, professors and authors from around the world to share their knowledge of a diverse range of fascinating topics with you and your fellow conference attendees.

These experts will bring genealogy - and possibly your personal genealogy - to life and present a new world of possibilities.

Regardless of whether you identify as a mind-mapper, Google geek, PC-pusher, Mac-Maven, Litvak, Galitzianer or "somewhere in Russia," JGSLA 2010 is for you!

In fact, you don't even need to be Jewish or researching your Jewish heritage - many programs provide general information, no matter what you are personally researching.

You'll never know whom you'll connect with at lunch, having a cup of coffee or taking a workshop. A long lost cousin? Descendants of your ancestral village? Someone investigating your family?

Will this be the year you find someone to share your research, to collaborate with others, to design a website for your research interests? Will a new resource or database provide that all-important clue enabling a major breakthrough?

You won't know unless you come to this year's conference!

A few tidbits:

-- Ancestry will provide classes and a free (by-appointment) digital scanning service for attendees.

-- JewishGen's Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias will present "JewishGen LIVE at L.A. LIVE” on their latest databases and search capabilities.

-- Steve Morse, a household genealogy name, will present a series on his website's resources, but his new program, presented with daughter Megan, will be "DNA and the Animal Kingdom: Evolution and Genealogy in the Natural World."

Stay tuned for news on workshops, special interest groups, birds-of-a-feather groups, films, breakfasts and tours. Everything you need to know is at JGSLA 2010.

JGSLA 2010: Blondes, Poles, Pix, Razzle Dazzle

No matter your personal research interests, JGSLA 2010 holds something for somebody regardless of your ancestry, ethnicity, research skill or genealogical knowledge.

Here are just a few of the topics in store for you at JGSLA 2010, July 11-16, in Los Angeles.

Research techniques for family scandals

Unearthing scandals will be demonstrated by Robin Seidenberg, who will show how historical newspapers and old-fashioned detective work will find family history in Hollywood and the Jewish Roaring 20s crowd in Chicago. She'll talk on "My Uncle, the Hollywood Producer: A Spicy Tale” and "The Kissing Blonde."

Warsaw's Jewish Genealogical Learning Center

It will be great to again see Yale Reisner and Anna Przybyszewska-Droz, from Warsaw's Jewish Genealogical Learning Center.

Their topics include "How to Do Genealogy Research in Poland And How Not to: Potential and Pitfalls," "Grandma’s Name Was Rosenberg: Am I Jewish?," "Uniquely Jewish Surnames - What They Prove and What They Don’t," "The Lost Tribes of Poland: Apostasy, Intermarriage and Jewish Genealogy in Poland" and "A Different Memory: Poles, Jews & What We Think We Know About Them."

Thinking out of the box, photographically.

"Photo Detective" Maureen Taylor will analyze photographic questions posed on JewishGen's Viewmate over the years and also provide private consultations while Ava (aka Sherlock) Cohn (with ancestors from Belarus, Romania, Ukraine and the Austrian Empire), will demonstrate how to find clues our immigrant ancestors left for us in their photo portraits.

Technology and journalism to razzle dazzle

TV news producer and reporter Leron Kornreich will show how to use multi-media and reporting skills to document family history in "Razzle Dazzle ‘em: Using Technology to Present Your Family History Research with Pizzazz" and "Breaking News: A Reporter's Guide to Genealogical Research and Using Video to Capture Roots & Shtetl Travel."

For all conference details, check out JGSLA 2010.

JGSLA 2010: Hollywood's silver screen

How could any group hold a Jewish genealogy conference in Los Angeles and not focus on Hollywood?

JGSLA 2010 will recount the influence of Jewish pioneers who headed west, not for gold, but for better production facilities. These pioneers built and headed the major movie studios, making Hollywood the industry's center.

Author Vincent Brook will speak on "Ost Meets West: Immigrant Jewish Moguls: Jewish Directors and the Rise of Film Noir."

Hollywood was founded largely by a group of immigrant Ostjuden (Eastern European Jews), who eventually headed nearly all of the major American film studios.

In the 1930s, an influx of German/Austrian Jewish film directors arrived in the US, due to the rise of Nazism. Some would play an important role in the rise of a crime genre later called film noir.

Have you registered yet for the conference? Reserved your room? Your transportation? For all details, check out JGSLA 2010.

Brook will examine the ethnic origins of these filmmakers and what part their backgrounds played in their contributions to American cinema.

Southern California: "Hitler's Hidden Holocaust," April 11

A special screening of "Hitler's Hidden Holocaust," is the program for Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) at a meeting co-sponsored by the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County, and Temple Adat Elohim, on Sunday, April 11.

The event begins at 1.30pm at Temple Adat Elohim, 2420 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks.

The documentary is a production of the National Geographic Channel and the American Red Cross Holocaust Tracing Services.

Before the death camps were the killing fields - mass graves of executed men, women and children. The Einsatzgruppen (German word meaning action–groups) became an organized killing machine, roaming through Poland, Ukraine and Belarus, murdering an estimated 1.5 million Jews and partisans, prior to the establishment of concentration camps. The Einsatzgruppen were created to combat those considered hostile to the Reich, including Jews, Communists,and others.

Father Patrick Desbois, author of Holocaust by Bullets, (the story of discovering mass gravesites of Jews exterminated in the Ukraine) is shown interviewing people in the FSU to gather information about the mass killings. The documentary is woven together with harrowing testimonials from survivors, witnesses and experts with rare video footage.

Following the screening, American Red Cross Holocaust Tracing Services-Ventura Chapter's Bob Rich will address the tracing services which research the fate of loved ones missing since the Holocaust and its aftermath. The ARC assists US residents searching for information on themselves, family members, and friends regarding: proof of internment, forced/slave labor, or evacuation from Europe and the former Soviet territories. These services are free and involve partner organizations worldwide.

There is no charge to attend.

For more information and directions, visit the JGSCV site.

Moment Magazine: Passover Fix

Tracing the Tribe loves Moment Magazine for its many interesting stories.

If you are already a subscriber or friend of the mag, you'll be receiving regular roundups, news items and quirky stories noticed by the editors. Readers can sign up for this free newsletter service here.

Mondays will focus on politics; Wednesday, culture; and Friday, religion.

Here's the Pesach special!

The first is on my favorite nostalgic Haggada; the second, a peek at silverscreen seders; and the third, on eyewatering chrein (horseradish). Click on the links below:

HOW COFFEE GOT INTO THE CHAROSET BUSINESS

Maxwell House started publishing Haggadahs in 1934 to give out free with the purchase of a can of coffee. It’s wide reach into American society “did more to codify Jewish liturgy than any force in history,” says one scholar. Approximately 50 million copies have been printed over the past 75 years. How did the Maxwell House Haggadah come to reign supreme in American Passover Seders for so many decades? Learn the true story in Moment’s intellectual food feast Talk of The Table.

LOOK WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, PASSOVER EDITION
As any movie-goer should know, the Passover-table is the showcase for Jewish dysfunctional families. From Marjorie Morningstar to Woody Allen, Moment’s Film Watch spotlights some great Seder films!

THE SWEETNESS OF MAROR
Horseradish has not always come in jars. A Moment writer recalls her grandmother’s horseradish garden and how growing and serving horseradish at the Seder following her death, she commemorates her grandmother’s legacy.

The print/online March/April 2010 issue can be viewed here. Among the stories: An eggplant journey, Matzah Man, Haggadah art, and many others.

Sign up for the free newsletter.

Holocaust: Galician deportation films now online

The Museum of Family History's Film Series short films will be online through April 4.

The first film incorporates three geographic locations; one is allegedly a Galician village during he war. The last 90 seconds appears to be the deportation from the Lodz Ghetto.

Steve Lasky of the Museum of Family History is asking Tracing the Tribe readers for confirmation of these details:

"While watching the end of this film, I felt that I was in the railroad car as people were boarding.

"It's one thing to read about the deportations, or see still photos, or even see films about the Lodz Ghetto, but another to see actual footage.

"I am hoping that someone who once lived in these areas or is otherwise familiar with the landmarks in these towns will be able to identify the town."

If you can do this for Steve, he will send another post and inform everyone.

Also, while it is unlikely that readers may recognize anyone in the film, one never knows, so do take a look.

The 8 1/2-minute clip name is "Deportations of Jews" (aka "Deportation to the Death Camps"), and was allegedly shot by a Nazi cameraman.

The second film is 3 1/2-minutes and shows deportation of Jews to the Krakow Ghetto. The title is "Deportation to the Krakow Ghetto."

Take a look at both clips. If you can help Steve, send him an email. You can also access Steve's blog.

Tel Aviv: Iranian film forum, Feb. 23-May 25

The Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University will present an Iranian Film Forum on Tuesdays, from February 23-May 25.

Screenings, followed by Q&A, will run from 6-8.30pm (Room 281, Gillman Building).

Attendees will have the opportunity to become acquainted with diverse aspects of the Iranian experience, within the country and abroad

Professor Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, an Iranian filmmaker and creative arts profession at Siena College of New York, will lead the discussions. He is a visiting Fulbright scholar at the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University.

-- February 23: Introduction to Iranian Cinema
Dream Interrupted (2004); Mahmood Karimi-Hakak
A documentary film based on "Exiled to Freedom: A Memoir of Censorship"

-- March 16: Women in Iran
The Day I Became a Woman (2000); Marzieh Meshkini

-- April 13: Iranian Youth
The Girl in the Sneakers (1999); Rasul Sadrameli

-- May 4: Minorities in Iran
The Blackboard (1999); Samirah Makhmalbaf

-- May 25: Iranian Diaspora
To be announced

The program is tentative and subject to change

Holocaust: Iranian Jewish filmmaker, 'The Desperate'

An Iranian Jewish filmmaker has produced a Holocaust story, "The Desperate."

The recently released film focuses on a Jewish surgeon, a concentration camp inmate, forced to perform emergency surgery on a Nazi general's son.

Ben Hur Sepher is interviewed by Karmel Melamed, who writes the Iranian American Jews blog for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal.

The story and interview is quite interesting.

When we talk about cultural traditions in the Persian Jewish community, Sepher's career is unusual.

Careers in the arts or entertainment were frowned upon. This may be an outgrowth of the popularity of Persian Jewish musicians in Shiraz and other cities whose work took them late at night into non-Jewish homes to entertain at parties and where there would be non-kosher food.

Young people - in the old days - who professed interest in such occupations were advised to get a real job.

Sepher is one of the rare ones who succeeded both in Iran and in the US for writing, directing and producing films. He trained at the Swedish Film Institute and worked at the Stockholm State Theatre for Ingmar Bergman. Additionally, he was the personal filmmaker for the Shah of Iran in pre-Revolutionary times.

Part of the Iranian Jewish diaspora in Los Angeles, which arrived some 30 years ago, Sepher directs television programs and short films in Hollywood.

To read the story, see the interview and the film's trailer, click here.