Wexler Oral History Project goes to camp!

Some of Tracing the Tribe's best summers were at camp. The memories last a lifetime.

Even those who only spent long weekends or a week here or there at various youth organization activities went home imbued with a sense of camaraderie, new knowledge and singing essential songs together.

The National Yiddish Book Center offers an interesting look at Jewish summer camps. There are videos of oral history interviews, links to the full interview texts and to the Wexler Oral History Project.

Summer camps, then and now, play an important role in identity for American Jews. Various studies of camps - such as one on the Conservative movement's Ramah system of camps - indicate that children who attend Jewish summer camps develop a much stronger identity with their heritage and also are more likely to become leaders in their communities and to maintain a more Jewish lifestyle.

According to the Yiddish Book Center's link:
Among the camps mentioned:

• The Sholem Aleichem Folks Institute, known for its commitment to Yiddish literature, founded Boiberik in 1923.
• Camp Kinderland was founded and was eventually associated with the Ordn Shuln with communist leanings. (The photo above left is of Kinderland)
• The Workmen's Circle founded their socialist summer camp, Kinder Ring.
• The Farband, Labor Zionists, created Kinderwelt around the same time.
• Camp Hemshekh was the Bund's summer camp, founded in 1959 by Holocaust survivors.

Kinderland and Kinder Ring still exist but in different locations.

As everyone who has ever attended a Jewish summer camp knows, each was its own world with its own family. Shared experiences with social values, fun, Jewish culture, shows, plays, camp songs and Shabbat ceremonies all contributed to "family" life. And everyone thought that their camp was the best of all of them.

The Wexler Oral History Project interviewed campers of diverse ages about their summer experiences, including friendships, memories, values and loves.

See the videos at the link above, visit the full texts of these and more at the project's digital archive here.

Learn more here on the Wexler Oral History Project.

When it came to choosing a camp for your children, there were a number of factors to weigh: language, socio-political views, location, and cost. Many New York Yiddishist organizations created summer camps to help people get out of "The Big City" for the summer.

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.

Ohio: 20th-century black sheep in Cleveland, June 1

Learn about Cleveland, Ohio's Jewish black sheep at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland, on Wednesday, June 1.

The meeting begins at 7.30pm at Menorah Park, 27100 Cedar Road, Beachwood. There is no admission fee.

The speaker is Sean Martin, associate curator for Jewish history of the Western Reserve Historical Society. He will speak on "The Jewish Connection: Jews and Crime in 20th-century Cleveland."

For more information, click here.

NGS 2011: Some stats

Tracing the Tribe spoke at the National Genealogical Society conference this year for the first time.

The NGS has distributed a short informational release with statistics pertaining to this year's event:

-- Attendance was 2,270 at NGS 2011 in Charleston, South Carolina.

-- More than 1,500 purchased full conference registrations, with more than 100 attending on daily registrations. Conference attendance included speakers, vendors, booth staff and volunteers from the South Carolina Genealogical Society (SCGS) and its local chapters.

--Ancestry sponsored a Saturday "Ancestry Day" program which brought in 575 people to the venue.

-- More than 2,000 meals were served at the convention center and social events sponsored by the SCGS.

-- Mark your calendars for the NGS 2012 Family History Conference (9-12 May 2012; Duke Energy Convention Center, Cincinnati, Ohio). The Hyatt Regency Cincinnati is the conference hotel; conference registration will open 1 December.

As a first-time NGS speaker, I found the experience excellent, and my DNA talk was well-received. A highlight of the week was staffing the MyHeritage.com booth, which provided an opportunity to meet with so many attendees and discuss matters of mutual interest.

On a personal note, it was enlightening to speak with numerous individuals who, while not Jewish today, know about their Jewish ancestry. Quite a few had only recently discovered that connection and needed guidance on where to go for more information.

If you haven't already visited Charleston, consider it for a vacation. It is a quaint town, with major Civil War history, Jewish history, very friendly people and fantastic food!

The only criticism pertained to the conference center's spotty internet connection and non-existent ATT cellphone signal. Other than that - and the $3.50 charge for a small bottle of water (there's nothing like a thirsty captive audience!) - things went swimmingly.

I'm looking forward to next year's edition.

London: Jews of Parma and beyond, June 1

What links Alberto Moravia to Lorenzo dei Medici's dancing-master? Or Mozart's librettist to the founder of Olivetti?

Learn about the Jews of Parma (Italy) and beyond at the Spiro Ark Centre, 25-26 Enford St., London W1, at 7.30pm on June 1. The fee is £10 + £1 Internet booking fee

Jews have lived in Italy for more than 2,000 years. Rome is Europe's oldest surviving Jewish community.

But Italy has been a united nation only since 1861. Before then it was a collection of duchies, republics, kingdoms and Papal States, each with its own unique history and character.

The history of the Jews in Italy also varied according to the area in which they lived. As boundaries and rulers changed, so did their fate.

This talk will begin with snapshots of some of the more significant Jewish communities in Italy, to illustrate their differences in origin and destiny, before focusing on Parma, in Emilia Romagna, the heart of Italy, now a dying community of barely 20 families but still home to one of the most important collections of Hebrew Manuscripts in the world.

Click the link above for more information on Spiro Ark events and to purchase tickets.

JDC Archive: Finding gold!

Looking for lost relatives? Try the searchable, online archive of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) launched earlier this week. Even more documents will be added during the summer.

Read about the goldmine of records in an NPR story, which mentions the work of volunteer transcribers and how the past president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York - Linda Cantor - found a relative.

JDC has made a collection of its historic records and photographs from the Holocaust period available online on its Shared Legacy website. During and after WWII, the organization cared for hundreds of thousands of Jews in many places around the world. JDC supported Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler in Kobe, Japan until 1941, and supported Jewish refugees in Yokohama (1918-20), most fleeing Russia. It supplied free parcels to thousands of Jewish individuals and families in the Soviet Union, 1943-45. And that's only scratching the surface.

JDC was also active in Iran until 1978 or so. It supported schools, an old-age home, kindergartens and the Jewish hospital, particularly in the 1950s and earlier. But this current collection focuses on Holocaust records.

The online database has more than 500,000 names; more will be added. There are some 1,500 photos from 14 countries - readers help in tagging the photos is sought.

Among those receiving assistance from the JDC was number 665 on page 2 of a list of beneficiaries of JDC’s free parcel service in the Soviet Union, 1943-1945:

There is a list of more than 6,300 individuals and families who received these packages. An addendum lists name and address changes for those in the main list. This was an interesting find in their new online archives.

When searching for BANK, my maternal great-grandmother's family near Kovno, my first search brought up a list of 270 names -  but only a few were Bank, many others were Band, Blank and others. There is no provision for "exact" searches.

I tried to go through the many pages, clicking on names to see the birthplaces of individuals in various lists, but when I tried to return to the search results there was often an error page ("There are no results matching your query. SEARCH AGAIN"). Whether this is due to high traffic, I don't yet know. I tried several times, sometimes reaching the list, more often not.

A second try brought up the list again. People were listed as going to Uruguay, Australia, the US and many other locations. I haven't yet found any on the list from around Kovno, but I'll keep looking.

For FINK (my maternal grandfather), there were some 135 results with geographical locations of Shanghai, Israel, Brazil, Australia and more. Some were from Galicia - I was looking for Skalat and Suchostaw and have not found those yet, although I did find Grybow, Lemberg (Lviv) and other towns I knew relatives had lived in, according to JRI-Poland.org.

Tracing the Tribe believes this information may be a goldmine for many researchers. Unfortunately, the search engine is far from ideal. Where is Steve Morse and his One Step programs when we need him?

To search properly through these valuable records, there should be provisions for "sounds like," "begins with," "exact," etc. To avoid going through a list of hundreds of names, it would have been good to put the person's birthplace with his or her name in the list of results. Thus, a search could be narrowed down more usefully. There should be a way to search for birthplace or other geographical locations to narrow down results for a more practical search. There is only one search field - last name or first and last name.

To see what JDC has done in its history, click here for a roundup by decades.

This is a very valuable collection of records but somewhat difficult to negotiate because of the current search engine. So grab yourself a cup of something, and settle down for a long search.

Holocaust: New victims' assets database

A comprehensive archive of Jewish Holocaust victims' assets has been made public. The searchable, user-friendly database - known as Project HEART (Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce) - will help victims and heirs reacquire losses.

The database may also assist genealogists and family history researchers to learn more about their families.

The database includes property addresses, insurance policies, lists of homeowners, professions, lists of known confiscated properties, business directories, and other archival information that can assist potential applicants in their research.

Archivists plan to release several million records, making the database the international community’s largest single-source database of lost Jewish property assets from the Holocaust era.

Project HEART unveiled yesterday an initial set of archival records, in the presence of American Jewish community leaders.

The press release stressed the availability of new technologies in this cause.

“These new technological tools together with the official involvement of the State of Israel in this process give us the hope that this time things will be different," said Natan Sharansky.

"As a former Prisoner of Zion, I remember the difficulty that existed in transferring information in the Soviet Union. In the age of the Internet, Google and Facebook allow us to create magnificent revolutions. Project HEART’s website has received more than 700,000 hits during its first few weeks.

According to the press release:

NEW YORK, May 4, 2011 – A large-scale international effort to help Jewish victims of the Holocaust redress claims of lost property confiscated, looted or forcibly sold under the Nazi regime was jumpstarted this week with the unveiling of a large, publicly available and searchable database of more than 650,000 Holocaust era property records in its first release.

The records were compiled and made available by Project HEART (Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce), an initiative of the Jewish Agency, in cooperation and with the support of the Government of Israel, to help Jewish families identify personal property confiscated by the Nazis and to help victims seek restitution. ...

... Launched in late February, 2011, Project HEART seeks to identify Jewish Holocaust victims and their heirs worldwide whose families owned real estate, movable, immovable, or other intangible personal property that was confiscated, looted, or forcibly sold in countries governed or occupied by the Nazi forces or Axis powers during the Holocaust era. The only limitation for application is if a post-war settlement already has been made to a victim or the victim’s heirs for that property. In such cases, people are not eligible to apply to Project HEART regarding that property.

To participate, individuals need to fill out the questionnaire available on HEART’s website, www.heartwebsite.org. Since it was launched, details about Project HEART’s purpose and the application process have been translated into 13 languages, and a 24-hour call center is operational in all languages. To date, the project has received tens of thousands of requests for additional information."

For more information, click Project HEART's website.

San Francisco: Jewish life in Tsarist Kiev, May 3

Learn about Jewish life in Tsarist-era Kiev with Natan M. Meir of Portland State University on Tuesday, May 3, at a meeting co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Library and the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.

Meir's talk - "A 'Russian Zion' or a Jewish Nightmare? Jewish Life in Tsarist Kiev" - will be presented in Russian at 4pm and in English at 7pm, at the Jewish Community Library. There is no admission fee for the two talks.

The JCL is at 1835 Ellis Street, in San Francisco; there is free parking.

From a small group of merchants in the early 1860s, the Jewish population of Kiev grew rapidly until it became one of the largest urban Jewish communities in the Russian Empire.

Meir - author of "Kiev, Jewish Metropolis: A History, 1859–1914"- will chart the growth of this vital community from its founding until the outbreak of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution. He will discuss the external and internal challenges that it faced, including pogroms, intracommunal divisions, and the 1913 Beilis affair, in which a Ukrainian Jew was accused of ritual murder.

Meir received a Ph.D. in Jewish history from Columbia University in 2003 and is now the Lorry I. Lokey Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at Portland State University (Oregon). He is co-editor of the recently published "Anti-Jewish Violence: Rethinking the Pogrom in East European History" and is currently working on a study of vulnerable and marginalized groups among East European Jews in the 19th century. He is a consultant for the Russian Jewish Museum of Moscow, now in its development stages.

For directions and more information, click here.

San Francisco: California Jewish cemeteries, May 1

Robinn Magid will speak on "California Jewish Cemeteries: From the Gold Rush to the Roszgolds," on Sunday, May 1, at the next meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.

The program begins at 1.30pm, at Congregation Beth Israel-Judea, 625 Brotherhood Way, in San Francisco (next to Brandeis Hillel Day School). There is no admission fee.

Ever wonder who is buried in California Jewish cemeteries and what we remember about them?

Curious how someone could be buried FOUR times?

Studying the history and matzevot (tombstones) in California's 86+ Jewish cemeteries, we can find butchers, bakers, beggermen, thieves, doctors, and lawyers, but did we find the proverbial Indian chief?

Come take a virtual whirlwind tour of California's Jewish cemeteries and find out what people said about some of the interesting people buried there (from the "horse's mouth"). The tombstones and epitaphs demonstrate our unique California lifestyle and fascinating local history even if your ancestors aren't buried here in the Golden State!

Magid is a long-time SFBAJGS member, a JRI-Poland board member and a compulsive genealogist since her 1991 retirement from management consulting with an international CPA firm.

In 2001, she realized her childhood dream of visiting Poland and “walking a mile in her grandmother’s moccasins.” She has four children, a loving husband, and a UCLA bachelor’s degree in economics. Her personal research includes Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and Galicia.

For directions and more information, click here.

Seattle: 150 years of Jewish history, May 9

Rabbi Jim Mirel will speak on 150 years of Jewish history in Washington State at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State on Monday, May 9.

The program includes powerpoints by Jeff Adelson and the Washington Jewish Historical Society.

Doors open at 7pm at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island. Admission: free for members and one guest per year; others, $5.

Rabbi Mirel will talk about the three waves of Jewish immigration into Washington, including Ashkenazi and Sephardic populations. He'll give highlights about Jewish individuals and families who affected the state and Seattle history. He'll show historic pictures of these families, their synagogues, businesses and social life.

Senior Rabbi of Bellevue's Temple B'nai Torah, Mirel has served there since 1985. Previously, he was rabbi at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle.

He was educated at Reed College, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Washington, and was ordained at Hebrew Union College.

The author of "Stepping Stones to Jewish Spiritual Living," Mirel has served as president of the Washington State Jewish Historical Society, the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis, University Kiwanis, Washington State Coalition of Rabbis, and is a founder of the Jewish Archives at UW. He has lectured at most colleges in the state and at many local churches and mosques.

For more information and directions, click here.

London: 'Sounds of Silence' Lithuania exhibit opens May 5

A free exhibit - Sounds of Silence - is dedicated to the annihilated Jewish communities of Lithuania, and will open May 5, at the Spiro Ark Centre in London. It will run through June 17.

Hours are Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm. The Center is located at 25-26 Enford St., London W1.

Photographs capture the images of the cemeteries, prayer houses, and other buildings and sites, portraying the remnants of the Jewish golden age in Lithuania.

Attendees will learn about the Yiddish and Lithuanian names of towns and villages where Jewish inhabitants made up a large proportion of the inhabitants - if not the majority of the population in the 19th-20th centuries.

For more information on Spiro Ark, click here.

New York City: Ethiopian Jewish Film Festival starts May 15

The 8th Sheba Film Festival begins in New York on May 15.

This festival showcases films showcasing the culture and heritage of Ethiopian Jews.

Films this year include:

• Across the River

Moshe Rahamim (Tesgau Mahari) carries a great burden. For years he has been explaining and preaching, and yet, the pervasive HIV virus keeps killing in his community. Against the “silencing” policy of the Public Health Authority and the denial of the Ethiopian community, Moshe sets out to expose the disease and stop it from spreading.  He goes back to Ethiopia, where he finds thousands of Ethiopians, waiting for years in compounds, where they are exposed to the HIV virus, to fulfill their dream and immigrate to Israel.

• Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean

Living in the lingering wake of the Idi Amin regime of terror and intolerance, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Ugandan coffee farmers challenged historical and economic hurdles by forming “Delicious Peace” Cooperative. Their mission was to build harmonious relationships and economic development, and they are succeeding. Partnering with a Fair Trade US roaster, the farmers’ standard of living is improving, peace is flourishing, and their messages of peace and fair wages are spreading to their coffee customers in the US.

New York Premiere of

• Twilight Revelations: Episodes in the Life & Times of Emperor Haile Selassie

Ethiopia’s last emperor Haile Selassie (1892 – 1975) is to this day revered by the million-strong Rastafarian community. Yemane I Demissie’s documentary explores and analyzes watershed events during the reign of the Ethiopian emperor.  Using a wealth of archival footage and photographs, the film reexamines the imperial administration through the eyes of numerous individuals who played important roles in the monarchy.The observations and narratives of these individuals shed new light on the personality, leadership style and humanity of the last and final Ethiopian emperor.

• Millennium Ethiopia

Ethiopia enters the new millennium on September 11, 2007 nearly eight years after the rest of the world. The celebrations are riotous.  Desaly Goshu left his birthplace of Ethiopia seventeen years ago. As a young boy, his family immigrated to Israel for the opportunity to live in their holy land. Now for the first time, Desaly is returning to Ethiopia to
remember his past and to celebrate the coming of a new era.

• These are My Names

Ethiopian Jews’ multiple names reflect the richness, wisdom and beauty of their culture — and every name tells a story. In the film, young Ethiopian Israelis share their journeys toward their names: stories of love and connection, survival and loss, anger and pride. The characters’ original names – changed without their consent upon arrival in Israel – take them back to their childhoods in mountain villages, to the hunger and fear in Sudan, to longing for loved ones who died or disappeared on the journey to Israel, to denial of their identity…and reclamation of their roots.

There is also a related art exhibit, "The Many Faces of Yisrael," with an opening reception on June 5, and running through June 26.

For more information on the film festival, locations, dates, times and admission, click here.

Connecticut: 'An 800-year Sephardic Journey,' April 17

Dr. Daniel Laby will be speaking on his family's eight century journey from Aragon (Spain) to Massacusetts, for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Connecticut on Sunday, April 17.

The program starts at 1.30pm, at the Godfrey Memorial Library, 134 Newfield Street, Middletown.

Dan and I share some roots in Lerida (Lleida) in Catalunya, the same great researcher (Maria Jose Surribas) and a Persian connection. The Lerida archives provided him with a document dated 1204, while our earliest document from the same archive is dated 1353.

Dan is a great speaker and his family's story is fascinating. A few years ago, his family went on a roots trip to Spain. He presented a multi-media program on that trip to the Jewish Family Research Association (JFRA) in Israel. I was privileged to also meet his parents during the 2006 IAJGS conference in New York.

"From Aragon to Massachusetts" follows Dan's family history (Laby de la Caballeria or Cavalleria) from western Massachusetts and New York’s Lower East Side back to the Ottoman Empire and pre-Inquisition Spain.

Dan will describe how he traced his family to 13th-century Spain using both modern DNA analysis and microfilms. He shares his story because he hopes to make Sephardic Jewish genealogy more widely known.

An assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, Dan is also a sports vision specialist, working with the Boston Red Sox and several other professional and Olympic teams. His search for his family predates his medical practice.

For more information, click on the JGS of Connecticut website.

Dan's story is worth telling to many more family historians and genealogists, and not only because it is Sephardic story. If your JGS can convince him to speak - if he has time - it will be worth it.

Washington DC: Jews, magic in Medici Florence, April 13

Edward Goldberg will discuss his new book, "Jews and Magic in Medici Florence" (University of Toronto Press) at the Library of Congress on Wednesday, April 13.

The free event - open to the public - begins at noon in the African and Middle Eastern Division Reading Room, Room 220, Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street SE, Washington, DC. Tickets are not required, but seating is limited. The program is sponsored by the Hebraic Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division and the European Division.

Between 1615 and 1620, Benedetto Blanis (c.1580-c.1647), a Jewish scholar and businessman in the Florentine ghetto, sent 196 letters to Don Giovanni dei Medici (1567-1621), an influential member of the ruling family.

Blanis served Don Giovanni as palace librarian—organizing and cataloging the library’s contents, acquiring books from various sources and sharing his patron’s most esoteric interests. Together they ventured into dangerous and often forbidden territory—astrology, alchemy and the Kabbalah.

Discovered nearly four centuries later by art historian Edward Goldberg during his research in the Medici Granducal Archive, Blanis’ letters provide a portrait of a man struggling to survive in a strange no-man’s land between the Jewish ghetto and the Medici court. The letters also reveal the bond between two figures who strove to explain the world through the language of magical power.

Edward Goldberg holds a Ph.D. in modern history (Oxford University, 1979) and taught in Harvard University's Department of Fine Arts (1981-87). He has published widely in the course of 30 years of archival research in Florence. In 1995, Goldberg founded the Medici Archive Project to provide worldwide public access to the historical data in the Medici Granducal Archive through a fully searchable database at www.medici.org .

Established by Grand Duke Cosimo I in 1569, the archive of the Medici Grand Dukes offers the most complete record of any princely regime in Renaissance and Baroque Europe. The 3 million letters contained in more than 6,000 volumes richly documenting more than 200 years of human history (1537-1743).

JewishGen: Sarina Roffé elected to board of governors

The Board of Governors of JewishGen announced that Sarina Roffé has been elected to the board.

A family historian and journalist, Sarina is a member of Brooklyn's Syrian Jewish community and an active member of the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc. (JGSNY).

She has published widely on themes connected with Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish genealogy and is a recognized authority on the history and culture of Aleppan Jewry.

She is executive director of New York's non-profit Shehebar Sephardic Center, which fundraises for its rabbinical training program in Israel, and support for schools and outreach centers in more than 60 cities worldwide.

According to Rand Fishbein, PhD, a board member: "We will be looking to her for fresh ideas on how to expand our programming and online resources in Sephardic genealogy. Her knowledge and experience are sure to prove invaluable as we look to expand our outreach activities.”

Tracing the Tribe congratulates Sarina on this election!

WDYTYA: Gywneth Paltrow & JRI-Poland

Jewish Records Indexing-Poland played an essential part in research for the new episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" - spotlighting actress Gywneth Paltrow - to be aired Friday night, April 1, on NBC.

Paltrow's family's original name was PALTROWICZ, a rabbinical family from northeastern Poland, specifically Suwalki, Lomza and other towns. JRI-Poland offers 90 records for the family.

JRI-Poland will appear in the credits for the episode.

Our dear friend Montrealer Stan Diamond (co-founder and executive director of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland) called Tracing the Tribe the other day to let us know about the JRI-Poland connection.

For readers not familiar with JRI-Poland, it is a continually growing resource of more than 4.2 million records used by many readers to discover family data.

The following press release provides more information:

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland

4.2 million Polish-Jewish records database is key resource for Gwyneth Paltrow episode of NBC's "Who Do You think You Are?

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s ancestral search, told in a new episode of NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?”, might not have happened if not for Jewish Records Indexing - Poland.

The April 1st episode of the documentary series features Academy Award-winner Paltrow’s search. The U.S. born daughter of producer Bruce Paltrow ("St. Elsewhere," "The White Shadow"), her roots go back to a long line of rabbis named Paltrowicz from northeastern Poland and the towns of Suwalki, Lomza and nearby shtetls.

The show’s researchers were able to tap into JRI-Poland’s online database as the starting point in documenting Paltrow's ancestry. The website has 90 record entries for Paltrow's ancestors and the WDYTYA team said "JRI Poland is a wonderful resource for anyone researching Jewish Polish ancestry and was invaluable during the research for the Gwyneth Paltrow episode."

Founded in 1995, JRI-Poland was an outgrowth of Montrealer Stanley Diamond's need for access to Jewish vital records of the former Lomza Gubernia area of Poland for research into his family’s genetic history. Diamond is Executive Director and the organization has a global board, hundreds of volunteers serving thousands of researchers, funded by groups and genealogists around the world.

JRI-Poland is creating searchable on-line indices of Jewish records from current and former territories of Poland. The vast database of records going back to the late 18th century belies the misleading notion all the Jewish records of Poland were destroyed in World War II.

The searchable database has indices to 4.2 million records from more than 550 towns, with thousands added every month, vital records and censuses from the Polish State Archives and other sources both inside and outside of Poland. The database also includes army draft lists, cemetery burial indices, ghetto death records, birth, marriage and death announcements in newspapers in Poland, and more.

JRI-Poland has been recognized by the medical and scientific communities for the potential benefit for Ashkenazic families trying to trace medical histories, particularly those at increased risk for hereditary conditions and diseases. As a result of statistical analyses indicating a high incidence of medical and genetic abnormalities in individuals of Polish-Jewish descent, JRI - Poland is creating a finding aid for those who may need answers to medical-related questions or require bone marrow or other transplants. Because of this, JRI-Poland has received commendations from the Gift of Life Foundation and the National Marrow Donor Program.

For more information,  visit JRI-Poland, or contact Stanley Diamond. And for more information on the upcoming episode, click here.

Thank you, Stan, for creating this valuable resource for so many researchers. JRI-Poland's many volunteers are also to be commended for their work over the years and in advance for their future contributions.

Southern California: 'Jews of the Pacific Coast,' April 3

Dr. Ava F. Kahn will present "Jews of the Pacific Coast," at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County (JGSCV), in conjunction with the Western States Jewish History Journal, on Sunday, April 3.

The meeting runs from 1.30-3.30pm, at Temple Adat Elohim, 2420 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks, which also co-sponsors JGSCV meetings. There is no admission fee.

From the California Gold Rush of 1849 to the explosion of population centers in the Southwest in the 1980s, Jews have played a significant role in shaping the Pacific West.

In the process, they have reshaped themselves as individuals and as communities. Through their mercantile networks and cultural innovations, their philanthropic institutions and political leadership, western Jews created a distinctive identity.

Using historical photographs from her new co-authored book Jews of the Pacific Coast: Reinventing Community at America's Edge Ava F. Kahn will explore the nature of the Jewish experience in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland and the small towns of the West. She will explain the important differences among these cities, as well as highlighting the ways in which the western Jewish experience has echoed and deviated from the familiar story of American Jewish history.

Speaker Ava F. Kahn, PhD, is affiliated with the California Studies Center, University of California, Berkeley. She has published numerous articles and books on Jews in the West including: "Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush," "Jewish Life in the American West and California Jews." There will be a book-signing following the meeting.

Western States Jewish History Journal is a quarterly journal dedicated to discovering, chronicling, and making available to the general public information on the Jewish participation in the pioneering and development of the American West, Canada, Mexico, and the Pacific Rim.

For more information, click on the JGSCV website, or send an email.

UK: 'Jews of Morocco' conference, June 20-22

The British Institute for Jewish Studies is planning a summer conference on the Jews of Morocco.

The conference will take place June 20-22, at University College London, Gower Street WC1.

Jews have lived in Morocco for nearly two thousand years, in desert and mountain regions, in the imperial cities of central Morocco and in towns along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, with Berber and with Arab  neighbours. This conference is a rare opportunity to find out more about the rich and varied culture of Moroccan Jews and their history.

The program has not yet been announced, but the list of speakers includes:

Joseph CHETRIT (University of Haifa),
Emily GOTTREICH (UC Berkeley)
Paul FENTON (Sorbonne)
Henry GREEN (University of Miami)
Oren KOSANSKY (Lewis and Clarke College, Portland, Oregon)
Michael LASKIER (Bar-Ilan University)
Jessica MARGLIN (Princeton University)
Hilary POMEROY (University College London)
Moises ORFALI (Bar-Ilan University)
Vanessa PALOMA (Casablanca)
Norman STILLMAN  (University of Oklahoma)
Susana WEICH-SHAHAK (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

For more information, email the Institute of Jewish Studies at UCL or check out the IJS website.

Call for Papers: Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies' 21st conference

The Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies has announced the call for papers for its 21st annual conference, set for August 7-9, in San Diego, California.

The Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies (SCJS) fosters the research of the historical and contemporary development of crypto-Jews of Iberian origin. Additionally, it provides a venue for the descendants of crypto-Jews, scholars, and other interested parties to network and discuss pertinent issues.

The society was founded 1991 by Rabbi Joshua Stampfer of Portland, Oregon; Dr. Stanley Hordes of New Mexico; and playright Rena Down of New York.

Here is the announcement from the society:

Tracing the Tribe is pleased that this year's conference does not conflict with the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, August 14-19, in Washington, DC. Thus, we can attend this conference before going on to the East Coast.

We invite papers on crypto-Judaism from any discipline (e.g.,anthropology, history, sociology, philosophy, literature, music, etc.) and from any geographic location or time period. We also welcome papers on all aspects of the Sephardic experience and that of other communitiesexhibiting crypto-Jewish phenomena.

Papers breaking new ground in research on the California-Mexico borderlands are particularly welcome.

Interested scholars and professionals, including advanced graduate students, are invited to submit proposals for papers, presentations or workshops.

Proposals are also welcome from individuals with personal stories or other research relating to crypto-Judaism.

Proposals may be for individual papers/presentations or for complete sessions on specific topics.  Please indicate if presentation represents completed research or work in progress.

Proposals must include a 200-word abstract and a brief bio. The deadline is May 1.

Please send proposals or inquiries to Seth Ward in the Religious Studies department at the University of Wyoming,

For more information, see the SCJS website.

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.