Springfield, Illinois: Tracing the Tribe at FGS 2011

Tracing the Tribe is now in Springfield at the Federation of Genealogical Societies annual conference.

Many geneabloggers are attending and it is always good to see one's colleagues.

We'll soon be sharing notes on some excellent expert presentations. Two of my favorites focused on societies: building a better website and publicity tips. All societies should have the notes on these two informative programs.

Geneablogger guru Thomas MacEntee - who handled publicity for this event - arranged an excellent media hub - sponsored by RootsTech - complete with computer connections and very comfy seating. Readers on Twitter will have seen the prolific tweets of bloggers here.

Tracing the Tribe has been rather quiet for some time and this was due to a combination of heavy workload and very busy conference schedule. The calendar has finally slowed somewhat and we are getting back on track.

Of course, presentation deadlines are quickly approaching for both Jamboree 2012 (Burbank, California; June) the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE 2012 family history fair (London UK; February).

Stay tuned for more.

FGS 2011: Official bloggers named for conference

Tracing the Tribe is an official blogger for the Federation of Genealogical Societies upcoming FGS 2011 event to be held September 7-10, Springfield, Illinois).

We are looking forward to two firsts: our first FGS event and the first time visiting Springfield!

Here's the official press release:

FGS Names Official Bloggers for FGS 2011 Conference
National Genealogy Conference Continues to Tap into Social Media

May 31, 2011 – Austin, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), along with local host Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS), announce the Official Bloggers for the upcoming FGS 2011 Conference - Pathways to the Heartland – in Springfield, Illinois, September 7-10, 2011.

The Official Bloggers are:

• Amy Coffin - We Tree
• Schelly Talalay Dardashti - MyHeritage Genealogy Blog and Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog
• Dick Eastman - Eastman’s Online Genealogical Newsletter
• Jen Holik-Urban - Chicago Family History and GenerationsBiz
• Linda McCauley - Documenting the Details 
• Gena Philibert Ortega - Gena’s Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera 
• Carolyn Pointer - Family Stories and For Your Family Story
• Ol’ Myrt - DearMYRTLE
• Randy Seaver - Genea-Musings
• Ginger Smith - Genealogy by Ginger

With less than 100 days left before the start of FGS 2011, be sure to follow each of the Official Bloggers for their perspective on the upcoming conference. Many will be posting about research resources in the Springfield, Illinois area, what to pack for the conference and more. In addition, during the conference look to the Official Bloggers for live reporting via blog posts, Facebook and Twitter. Complete conference information can be found on the conference website. We look forward to seeing you in Springfield in September!

Learn More and Stay Connected

-- Subscribe via email to Conference eUpdates: (place “Subscribe” in Subject line).
-- Visit the Conference News Blog.
-- Follow the Conference on Facebook and on Twitter.
-- Discover Springfield.

About the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)

The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) was founded in 1976 and represents the members of hundreds of genealogical societies. FGS links the genealogical community by helping genealogical societies strengthen and grow through resources available online, FGS Forum magazine (filled with articles pertaining to society management and genealogical news), and Society Strategy Series papers, covering topics about effectively operating a genealogical society. FGS also links the genealogical community through its annual conference -- four days of excellent lectures, including one full day devoted to society management topics. To learn more, click here.

Tracing the Tribe looks forward to attending FGS 2011.

Footnote.com: The Great Chicago Fire, 1871

Footnote.com is a wonderful resource for original documents.

October 8 was the anniversary of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, and the site has a special collection of research material based on Chicago Tribune contemporary reports.

Primary sources available on Footnote.com for this historical event include:

--The original Chicago Tribune Article
-- Photo of Fire's destruction
-- Illustration of the Fire
-- Map of the Destruction
-- The Great Chicago Fire Footnote Page

Click here for more. Although Footnote.com is a subscription site, some collections are free and searches produce hits for free and fee materials. See what you can find in tthe site's extensive resources and you might find that a subscription could further your research.

On October 8, 1871, around nine o'clock in the evening, a fire started in the O'Leary's barn at 13 DeKoven Street and quickly spread throughout Chicago's business district.. Although legends hold O'Leary's cow responsible for causing the fire, the actual source is still unknown.

The blaze raged for two days, killing hundreds, destroying millions of dollars in property, leaving thousands homeless, and ravaging almost four square miles.

From the smoldering ashes, the citizens of Chicago began to rebuild and a new era began in the city's history. The resulting boom in building construction made Chicago one of the most populous, most economically profitable, and most modern cities in the United States. The Great Chicago Fire was a tragedy, but out of this disaster emerged the modern metropolis of Chicago.

Chicago: Success session, August 29

Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois members will report on their family history research successes on Sunday, August 29.

Researchers will also share how they discovered their "finds," and the Ask the Experts panel will also chime in. Attendees are encouraged to bring a success story to share.

The program begins at 2pm at Temple Beth Israel, Skokie, although doors open at 12.30pm for library access, assistance and networking.

For more information, see the JGSI website.

Geneabloggers discovers 13 new genblogs

Thomas MacEntee at GeneaBloggers is always on the hunt for new genealogy and family history blogs.

This week he's discovered 13 of them, bringing a total of 1,209 genealogy blogs at Geneabloggers.

The list - see it here - includes blogs focused on individual family history, Illinois genealogy, research service blogs, Maine and New England genealogy, Missouri genealogy, a genealogy vendor blog, Jewish and UK genealogy (Todd Knowles' blog, which Tracing the Tribe has previously noted) and DNA.

Thanks, Thomas, for all your hard work!

Chicago Tribune: Digitizing 130 years of photos

The venerable Chicago Tribune has begun digitally archiving its extensive photo library, which includes historic photos and negatives dating back to the 19th century. The original vintage archive photos will be available to collectors once re-archived in digital form.


There are 130 years of photographs - most never published - in the archive.

The paper is partnering with Image Fortress Corporation and Masterpiece Marketing Group, on the multi-year initiative, to provide the online digital archiving of these photographs, integration with the paper’s editorial and business systems and to market the photos.

Once digitally archived, the original vintage photos are now being sold to collectors and individuals worldwide who are interested in these unique, authenticated, historical collectibles. The revenue will support the program.

Thousands of photos are digitized each week and include Hollywood stars, musicians, singers, politics, space, places such as Chicago and New York, sports, transportation and military.

For more information, view the The Tribune Photo Archives website.

Illinois: Midwest Jewish Genealogy Conference, June 6

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois will present a one-day Jewish genealogy conference, "From the Shtetl to the 21st Century," on Sunday, June 6, in Skokie.

The venue is Temple Beth Israel, 3601 W. Dempster.

The full-day event, from 8am-5.15pm, features experienced instructors on topics to expand knowledge of genealogical resources, including a two-part Beginners’ Workshop. Fifteen sessions are scheduled - three each in five time slots.

Key note speaker Ron Arons is a nationally known expert on Jewish criminals, Jewish genealogy and research techniques. He will demonstrate new ways to use the Internet to find family information in  “Online Jewish Genealogy Beyond JewishGen and Steve Morse.” During lunch, he'll share how his interest in Jewish criminals led to his book - “The Jews of Sing Sing” - and he'll also lead a mapping techniques session.

Other presenters will be Judith R. Frazin, Harriet Rudnit, Abby and Bill Schmelling, Ralph Beaudion, Leslye Hess, Robin Seidenberg, Irwin Lapping, Alvin Holtzman, Louisa Nicotera, Everett L. Butler and Mike Karsen.

Sessions include: Beginners' Genealogy Workshop, Using the Internet to Research Your Family History, Travel to Your Ancestral Shtetl, Find That Obituary Online, Holocaust Research in Libraries and Internet, Polish Translation Guide, Mining for Gold: Online Newspapers, Waldheim Cemetery, Basics of DNA Testing, Mapping Techniques, Cook County Genealogy Online, Genealogy Research Reasoning, Write Your Family History Now, and Ask the Experts.

Fee: Before May 15, fees are: Members of any Jewish genealogical society, $45; others, $50, Conference plus JGSI membership (new member only), $70. After May 15, each category increases by $10.

The JGSI library with hundreds of books will be available. Refreshments and a box lunch food will all be kosher. The synagogue is wheelchair accessible and has an elevator.

Tracing the Tribe also believes that this event could be considered a great lead-in and preparation for the main event of the Jewish genealogy year, the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy - JGSLA 2010 - which runs from July 11-16, in Los Angeles.

Download an event brochure, and find more program details, at the JGSIllinois website.

Chicago: 'My Uncle, The Hollywood Producer,' April 25

Robin Seidenberg will present "My Uncle, The Hollywood Producer: A Fabulous Tale," at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois, on Sunday, April 25.

The program begins at 2pm at Temple Beth Israel, in Skokie.

Seidenberg, who will present this topic (with a slightly different title) at the upcoming JGSLA 2010, will demonstrate how she used online historical newspapers and other research tools to separate fact from fiction about her famous uncle.

Family whispers captured Robin’s curiosity about her uncle, the Hollywood producer. Having made millions in real estate and radio manufacturing, he was known as the zipper king when he arrived in Hollywood. Gregory Peck, James Stewart, Charles Laughton, Barbara Stanwyck, Angie Dickinson, Jane Powell and a future president of the United States starred in his productions.

Always amidst a bevy of beauties, he had several wives, including a Ziegfeld Follies star, a society heiress, and an actress called one of the most beautiful women in the world. Hear this fascinating story and learn how can research your family using online historical newspapers.

A former college French teacher, Seidenberg earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees (University of Chicago) and completed most of her PhD requirements (University of Illinois). A member of the Genealogical Speakers Guild, Robin has been researching her family history since 1997. She is the JGSI's executive vice president and Lake County Area Computer Enthusiasts president.

The day begins at 12.30pm, so members can access the JGSI library, and receive help prior to the program.

For more information and directions, click here.

Illinois: Digitizing the records

The availability of digitized records spurs interest in genealogy research.

More people, regardless of where they live, will be able to access more records and find the information required to advance their family's history.

In Pekin, Illinois, a project is making general research easier for Tazewell and Mason counties.

This week, Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society member Carol Hiller finished scanning in the last pages of two large history texts and converting them to CDs: “The History of Tazewell County, 1879” and “A Portrait and Biographical Record of Tazewell and Mason Counties, Illinois, 1894.”

Both books, which are 794 pages and 712 pages respectively, are now available on CDs, which the Genealogical Society is selling to any history buff who fancies one — or anyone who knows a history buff who would fancy one.

Both digitized books are searchable by name and are in PDF format, which can be read by the commonly used program Adobe Reader, Hiller said.

The article, by Tara Mattimoe, covers the advantages of such projects, covering the cost of reprints versus inexpensive scanning to CDs. With budget problems facing many groups, the for-sale CDs ($20 each) are expected to bring in needed funds.

The books offer personal accounts and memories, biographies, drawings, geographic features, houses and settlements, soldiers and more.

It took several months to scan the books and convert them to PDF format.

The project could be replicated by other societies using rare materials from their own libraries.

Read the complete story for more details.

Cleveland: All about Chicago resources, Jan. 3

Chicago genealogy resources are the topic at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland on Sunday, January 3, 2010.

The meeting begins at 1.30pm, at Park Synagogue East. There is no fee.

"Another City by the Lake: Jewish Genealogy Resources in Chicago," will be presented by Chicago historian, genealogist and attorney Charles B. Bernstein, who has been involved in Jewish genealogy since 1965.

Bernstein's great-grandfather founded a congregation in the city in the 1880s. In 1977, he was a founding member of the Chicago Jewish Historical Society, the Jewish Genealogical Society (New York),; he's a member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois.

For three decades, Bernstein has conducted personal research and private research for clients, in addition to lecturing widely, teaching Jewish genealogy and serving as scholar-in-residence.

He has authored or co-authored six books: "The Descendants of Moritz Loeb, A History of Community Service," "Torah and Technology: The History and Genealogy of the Anixter Family," "The Rothschilds of Nordstetten: Their History and Genealogy," "From King David to Baron David: The Genealogical Connections between Baron Guy de Rothschild and Baroness Alix de Rothschild," "Chaya Ralbe Hovsha and Rabbi Yechiel Michel Hovsha and Their Descendants," and "The Loeb Family of Trier and the Myer Family of Illingen." He has contributed to both the "Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy" and the "Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy."

This should be a fascinating meeting with one of Chicago's true Jewish genealogy experts.

Illinois: Maxwell Street film, Nov. 22

If you can get to Skokie, you'll be able to see a great documentary called "Maxwell Street: A Living Memory," on Sunday, November 22.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois is hosting the film at 2pm, at Temple Beth Israel.

I saw the 2001 film when it was shown at Beth Hatefutsoth in Tel Aviv several years ago and interviewed filmmaker Shuli Eshel. Whether or not your family's roots are in old Chicago, it is a wonderful homage to long-ago days.

Read about the Maxwell Street Foundation, dedicated to preserving, interpreting and presenting the multicultural history of some 150 years of the old Maxwell Street Market and neighborhood in Chicago.

In 1994, when the University of Illinois at Chicago and the City of Chicago teamed up to move the market and begin the neighborhood's final destruction, there were many pockets of resistance. A coalition formed consisting of property owners, neighborhood businesses, street vendors, residents, blues musicians and fans, and historic preservationists.

The group was formed in 1997 as the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition. In 2004, with the destruction and redevelopment of the neighborhood nearly complete, it became the Maxwell Street Foundation. When the last residents and businesses were remove, the new focus became preserving the area's history.

With Eshel, it co-produced the 30-minute documentary which captures the Maxwell Street Market through memories of the children and grandchildren of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who built it, incorporating some rare film and photographs.

In association with the Chicago Historical Society, the group also produced a book of photographs - "Chicago's Maxwell Street," and a book of oral histories, Jewish Maxwell Street Stories. (both by Arcadia Publishing).

The JGSI meeting will open at 12.30pm, so that members and guests can use the genealogical library, get help with genealogy websites or ask related questions before the film is screened.

For more information, view the JGSI website.

Illinois: Family history Internet resources, Nov. 8

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois will host Harriet Rudnit on "Using World Wide Web Resources in Researching Your Family History," on Sunday, November 8.

The program will cover use of various websites and the finer points of searching Google, Ancestry and JewishGen. It is geared to all levels of researchers.

Doors open at 12.30pm at Temple Beth Israel in Skokie for attendees to use the library or receive help from experts. The main program starts at 2pm.

For more information, click here.

Chicago: Fragile family ties, personal histories, Nov. 12

Fragile family ties and conserving personal histories will be discussed at Chicago's Spertus Museum in Chicago, on Thursday, November 12.

An exhibit viewing (see below) is set from 6.30-6.15pm, with the presentation following from 6.15-7.15pm.

This program should be required for anyone who has ever wondered about the importance of family objects in their home and, of course, for everyone interested in Jewish and genealogical history.

An artist and author, Chicago Conservation Center CEO Heather Becker will help participants understand the important role that conservation of family treasures play in family and cultural history.

Drawing on personal items conserved by the CCC, Becker will demonstrate images from before, during and after restoration. These items have a lasting impact on how families and communities understand themselves.

The related exhibit - What Does It Say to You? - presents more than 60 objects from the museum's collection.

Related programs, such as the one by Becker (above) are an important component of the exhibit. On the second Thursday evening of each month, the public joins museum staff, community leaders, scholars, artists, performers and others to explore the roles objects play in our lives.

For more information, click here.

Books: Immigrants and émigrés

Tablet Magazine hit another home run again today, with Josh Lambert's column - On the Bookshelf - focusing on immigrants and emigres.

In his coverage of peripatetic Jewish families, he mentioned a slew of good books.

In Jacob’s Cane: A Jewish Family’s Journey from the Four Lands of Lithuania to the Ports of London and Baltimore (Basic, October) Elisa New tells the story of how her family "wheeled and dealed" its way through their connections in Lithuania, London, Baltimore and beyond.

[She] offers a reminder that the Jewish immigrant experience has been as various as the immigrants have been numerous, and that not all the Jews who arrived in America viewed it as a destination. “We imagine every immigrant a transplant from the rutted shtetl,” she writes, “his background pious, his experience thin, his hopes fastened on the new land to which he makes his way.”

Historian Walter Lacquer left Breslau as a teen in 1938, and lived in Palestine, London, and the US, which he covered in Thursday’s Child Has Far to Go: A Memoir of the Journeying Years (1993). His new book, Best of Times, Worst of Times: Memoirs of a Political Education (Brandeis, November), explores his encounters with Nazism, Marxism, Zionism, and the Cold War.

Kati Marton's Enemies of the People: A Family’s Escape to America (Simon and Schuster, October) covers recently opened Hungarian archives to tell her parents' story and emigration to the US in 1957.

[Her] parents were Hungarian children of privilege who became prominent international journalists thanks to their English fluency and ran afoul of the Communist secret police in the 1950s. Marton’s mother’s alleged crime? “Discussing the price of eggs (and meat) with the Americans.”

Lambert also mentions Marton's previous book, The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World.

Tracing the Tribe thoroughly enjoyed (and highly recommends) Frances Dinkelspiel’s Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California (St. Martin’s, December, paperback), in which she describes her great-great-grandfather's role in developing the state's major industries.

[Her] great-great-grandfather never countenanced going anywhere but California when he left Bavaria in 1859, at the age of 16: he had relatives with a dry goods store in a tiny town called Los Angeles, and he aimed to join them.

German immigrant Walter Roth, in Avengers and Defenders: Glimpses of Chicago’s Jewish Past (Academy Chicago, September), views the records of Chicago’s past to uncover colorful Jewish characters who wielded extraordinary influence in his collection of historical anecdotes.

[It] introduces machers who innovated in advertising, mail order, radio, and the stockyards, as well as a number of influential Chicagoan scientists and jurists.

Journalist Miriam Pawel's The Union of Their Dreams: Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez’s Farm Worker Movement (Bloomsbury, October), reveals that although a number of Jews established the movement with Chavez, he turned against them in the late 1970s.

Lambert lists two novels: Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City (Doubleday, October), and Paul Auster's Invisible (Holt, November). One centers on New York's Upper East Side and the other on the Upper West Side.

The round up ends with The Enigma of Isaac Babel: Biography, History, Context (Stanford, November) edited by Gregory Friedin. Babel was sent to prison in 1939 and shot a few years later by Stalin's NKVD.

Read the complete article at the link above.

Chicago: Rugelach now online

When the going gets hard, mortgage bankers turn to baking rugelach - and sell them online - according to a story in the Chicago Tribune (see below).

If you don't know what rugelach are, you don't know what you're missing.

Google tells us that this Ashkenazi pastry is made with a cream cheese dough and different fillings, of fruits and nuts. There are recipes using hazelnuts, sour cherries, chocolate, raisins, toffee, walnuts, apricots and anything a cook can think to add or combine. My favorite is chocolate.

In America, the dough has butter and cream cheese and is cut into triangles and then wrapped around the filling to make crescents that should melt in your mouth. Food historians claim that the cream cheese is an American addition and that back in Europe only butter was used, meaning observant Jews cannot eat these delights with meat meals.

A parve (no dairy) rugelach isn't worth the trouble it takes to make, in my humble opinion.

In Yiddish, it is spelled רוגלך and is a diminutive of the Hebrew רוגלית (roglit). Genealogists are used to spelling variations, so choose your favorite from among rugelach, rugulach, rugalach, ruggalach, rogelach, rugalah, rugala. According to Wikipedia (always taken with a salt shaker) it means "creeping vine," perhaps because it is rolled up. Others say it means "little twist." What's in a name? In my dictionary, the definition is "delicious."

Even the Chicago Tribune is kvelling (happy praise, Yiddish) about this nostalgic product marketed in a very contemporary way - just in time for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins September 18.

There are still some old fashioned Jewish bakeries in New York and other major cities, but their ranks are thinning. If customers can't come to the few bakeries, then the bakeries will go to their customers - via the Internet.

Old-style Jewish bakeries are a dwindling lot, but one Chicago Web site entrepreneur has taken up the call for rugelach, the cream cheese- and butter-rich pastries that reside in the food memories of many Jewish people -- old and young alike.

Leon Greenberg, a former mortgage banker, turned his passion for cooking into a catering and online rugelach business. Greenberg comes from a large rugelach-loving family. He once brought 500 pieces to a family reunion in the Bahamas. But it really wasn't a burden.

Leon's father had been hocking (encouraging strenuously, Yiddish) him for two years to create a Web site to sell his rugelach. He finally gave in to his father and is shocked at the response.

He launched his Internet business just after July 4, and the "Rugelach Man" already has more than 600 Facebookfans. Most of his orders are from Chicago, but the former New Yorker is proud that New York -- where rugelach fans can be rather uncompromising -- has the second-highest number of customers.

He bakes out of a professional kitchen and plans to hire helpers for the holiday rush. Currently, his flavor list includes apricot, chocolate, cinnamon sugar, macaroon and raspberry, at a cost of $19 per pound.

I wonder if he ships to Israel? There is a place in the Jerusalem Bus Station that does make excellent chocolate ones, but still nothing like those in the Bronx or Brooklyn from long ago.

For more information, visit Rugelach Man.

Thanks for this item to my good friend Chicago-based Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.com who knows what good rugelach taste like! He grew up with good Jewish bakeries and delis in upstate New York (e.g., Kaplan's in Monticello). You don't have to be Jewish to love rugelach. Yum!

Click here for the famous Joan Nathan's great recipe for either chocolate or apricot rugelach.

1929: Jewish buildings unbuilt

Prior to the Great Depression of 1929, one could say that euphoria was rampant in American Jewish life, so writes Diana Muir Appelbaum in her latest Tablet Magazine article.

In the irrational exuberance of 1928, everything seemed possible. Boards of directors could plan enormous synagogues in glistening white stone to rival the Parthenon. Academic dreamers could design a great Jewish university with towers, courtyards, and gardens to challenge the magnificence of Princeton or Oxford. No ambition was too large, no plan too expensive. One had only to hire an architect, draw an elegant façade, and watch the building fund fill. Then, in October, 1929, the great building boom ended with a crash, leaving magnificent synagogues on architects’ drawing boards, forever unbuilt. It all feels very 2008. What follows is a glimpse at some of the more ambitious plans and what, ultimately, became of them.

The article has some great archival plans, renderings and photos of these mega-magnificents.

The story details Boston's Temple Israel, Kehillat Israel and Mishkan Tefillah, as well as the Great Central Synagogue and the city's oldest congregation Ohabai Shalom. Appelbaum details Temple Israel's plans which echo Jefferson's idea for the University of Virginia's main building.

In the architect’s drawing, the four-columned meetinghouse and school building, in use since 1927, are shaded grey. None of the other 22 columns in the plan were ever erected, nor were the buildings that would have risen behind them. In the 1960s, Temple Israel built a spacious, modern sanctuary beside the classical Meeting House of the 1927 plan.

In New York, she writes, the most ambitious plan of the decade was the main campus of Yeshiva College in Washington Heights. Previously, US universities were Gothic in design, while some went with Classical (Virginia's Medical College walked like an Egyptian). Columbia University went Renaissance.

Since Jewish scholarship was older than Gothic, Classic or Renaissance, it needed something else, and the plans of architect Henry Beaumont Herts were designed to cover several centuries BCE.

The campus that emerged from Herts’s drawing-board was an exotic world of courtyards, arches, towers, and domes calculated to put Columbia, Princeton, and Yale to shame and satisfy the most romantic soul ever to dream of life in the Ivory Tower. This particular rendition of the ivied campus dream was the Arabian Nights. The domes were Ottoman, the arches Moorish, and all the towers were minarets.

In the midwest, Temple Mizpah (Chicao) planned a domed, Byzantine synagogue. Only the Hebrew School was built.

Congregation Shaarey Zedek (Detroit) also went Byzantine but on a small scale. They wanted a $750,000 campus, with gym, library, school, offices, chapel, auditorium, banquet hall for 1,200, small sanctuary for 500, main sanctuary for 2,500. What they got was a no-frills (and no gym) $300,000 Byzantine building. When it moved to the suburbs in 1962, it did get a futurist design.

Art Deco and lions were on the grandiose plans for Chicago's Congregation Anshe Emet. All it got was a renovation adding space to pray in the old Hebrew School.

Closer to home - in my case, Brooklyn - was Union Temple's Classic design with an eight-story Hebrew School, the only part finished before the crash. It did, however, get a renovated auditorium for a sanctuary.

Read the complete article and view the historic plans and photographs at the link above.

Illinois: Beau Sharbrough, June 14

National lecturer and author Beau Sharbrough will present "Jewish Research on Footnote.com" and "Automated Search Tools" at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois, on Sunday, June 14.

The meeting begins at 12.30pm at Temple Beth Israel in Skokie.

Sharbrough is familiar to attendees of Jewish and general genealogical conferences, who have always enjoyed both his knowledge and sense of humor.

A Houston native, Sharbrough earned a BA in philosophy from Texas A&M in 1977. Since 1980, he has been involved with programming, and is currently self-employed.

He's the founder of the FGS web site, the GENTECH web site, and the Lexicon Working Group. The former president of GENTECH, he has previously been Ancestry.com product manager for tree products and Footnote.com content vice president.

He writes regularly on technical topics in family history, and also maintains the humor, RootsWorks.com website. He is the author of Gene’s Anniversary Scrapbook.

Fee: JGSI members, free; others, $10. For more information, click here or reserve here.

Illinois: Skokie beginner's workshop, May 31

The Skokie Library will host a beginner's genealogy workshop given by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois (JGSI) on Sunday May 31.

Experienced researcher and past JGSI president Judith Frazin will present the program, which starts at 1pm.

The practical workshop will focus on available records, books and websites available to help with your family research, and a comprehensive handout will be provided.

Frazin is the author of two editions of A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish Language Documents (Birth, Marriage, and Death Records) and has developed two unique forms for recording genealogical information. A genealogist for 26 years, she was program chairperson for the 1984 international Jewish genealogy conference.

For more information, click here.

Collections: A Holocaust show-and-tell

Collections of Judaica, even as mundane as kippot from life cycle events, can provide clues to our family's lives. This collection of artifacts tells the story of the Holocaust in a different way.

The story was in the Penn State Collegian.

When civil rights activist Ken Lawrence heard Ku Klux Klan members in the '70s denying the existence of the Holocaust, he thought the best way to fight them would be to show, not tell.

In 1978, Lawrence, a now-66-year-old resident of Spring Mills, Pa., started collecting letters, postcards and other historical documents pertaining to the Holocaust.

The collection numbers about 250 items, and he has spent more than three decades exhibiting them at schools and universities and proving the Holocaust through those who suffered.

Lawrence recently sold the collection to the Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation to ensure that it will continue to be seen whether or not he is around.

"I'm getting old. I've traveled around for 30 years," he said. "It's time for somebody else to take over and continue the work."

Danny Spungen met Lawrence at a stamp collector's group and was amazed at what he had collected.

"I saw this older man holding this Jewish Torah made out of animal skin," Spungen said. "And it was torn up and used as an envelope. And it had Nazi stamps on it."

Spungen, who is Jewish, said he knew little about the Holocaust before he saw Lawrence's collection because his family and friends never talked about it. But that single piece of torn Torah intrigued him.

"To see our written laws being destroyed and used to make shoes, lampshades, and used as envelopes ... that's very powerful," he said.

After the foundation acquired the collection, Spungen began taking it on the road to teach about the Holocaust. The traveling exhibit will be loaned to the new Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie.

Read the complete article at the link above.

Illinois: Opening day, new Holocaust museum

Some 12,000 people made it to the opening day of the new $45 million Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie.

Major speakers included former President Bill Clinton, author/survivor Elie Wiesel, philanthropist J.B. Pritzker, as well as Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, violinist Miri Ben-Ari, the German ambassador and others, as well as many educators invited to the event.

The Chicago Tribune extensively covered the event here, and the story offers several videos, photographs and related links.

The newly opened museum at 9603 Woods Drive, designed by architect Stanley
Tigerman, covers 65,000 square feet and contains two wings, one dark and one
light. The dark side houses the main exhibit with the horrors of the Holocaust
depicted, while the light side symbolizes rescue, renewal, hope and remembrance.

During Clinton's remarks, in a speech thanking survivors for their courage to educate others during a time when genocide still unfolds across the world, he also called attention to the fact that it was significant to him "that this will be the last museum built in the United States with the direct memories of the survivors."

Wiesel's remarks emphasized that each person can make a difference with a simple action: ""You never can know the impact and the consequences of a word, a sentence, a prayer or a smile."

"We must learn now very simple lessons, that whatever happens to one community happens to all communities," he said. "Some people believe, 'Oh, it's only the Jews.' Oh, no. When a Jew is slapped in the face, it is all of humanity that falls to its knees."

The impetus for the museum was a threatened march - more than three decades ago - on Skokie by neo-Nazis. Although the march never took place, the survivors living in the town formed a foundation and speakers' bureau in a storefront museum.

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