FamilySearch.org adds Jewish resources

During the IAJGS conference, the local Deseret News carried a story about FamilySearch.org's new Jewish research page (with three online resources)and Dick Eastman's blog carried the official press release.

A new FamilySearch.org page includes a Jewish genealogy database, a new research guide called "Tracing Your Jewish Ancestors" and information on thousands of Jews from the British Isles called the Knowles Collection, which builds on the work of the late Isobel Mordy. The latter links individuals into family groups, with more names added continuously, according to a press release.

Dick Eastman published the official press release on his blog.

New York: A play to offend everyone

The Jewish Voice and Opinion (Englewood, New Jersey), is, according to its Web site, a politically conservative Jewish publication which presents news and feature articles not generally available elsewhere in the Jewish or secular media.

For something you won't read anywhere else - for sure - try this article by editor Susan Rosenbluth, about the Jewish Theater of New York's current production, "Last Jew in Europe."

Poland may be trying to shed its reputation as a hot bed of antisemitism, one that, today, must exist virtually without Jews (living, that is; Poland has often been called "one giant Jewish cemetery"), but, in this effort, the country will receive no help from Tuvia Tenenbom.

Tenenbom, the artistic director of the Jewish Theater of New York, describes the Lodz, Poland, locale of the play "an antisemite’s paradise, right in the middle of the EU, where anti-Jewish declarations are graphically exhibited in almost every street corner and calls for sending Jews back to the gas chambers go unchallenged."

The play's characters: The possibly Jewish Jozef (but who thinks he is) who fears his anti-semitic fiancee Maria will find out, and John, a young American Mormon "who arrives in Lodz to research the genealogy of dead Polish Jews so that they can be 'baptized' in an after-death proxy ceremony back in Salt Lake City."

The article addresses Tenenbom's extended vist to Radzyn, Poland to see where his great-grandparents once lived and where an ancestor established the Chasidic dynasty called the Radzyner Court. At one stop, a man tells him he couldn't sleep because "there are too many Jews in the world."

In Radzyn, once home to a Jewish majority, the Polish government built a neighborhood on top of the cemetery in 1957. Tenenbom meets a woman who lives in one of the houses and believes the dead Jews under her house have brought her luck, and are the reason for her "sweet apples."

And Tenenbom mentions his visit to Utah, including a computer center which houses the Mormon sect’s genealogical databases. There, he discovered that his grandfather was among those whom the Mormons had baptized by post-mortem proxy.

"What a fate for a Jew: Turned into a Mormon in the US, into fertilizer in Poland," says Mr. Tenenbom.

The article goes on to discuss Tenenbom's belief that the Polish Embassy and Consulate are pressuring the New York Times not to review the production.

For more information, www.JewishTheater.org

The disappearing Mr. Wiesenthal

As Helen Radkey noted in my previous blog posting, Simon Wiesenthal's IGI record would likely be removed as soon as the incident became public.

This is exactly what happened; after that point, readers who clicked the provided link could not view the record. While many did not doubt the report's veracity, others questioned the event. The record can be viewed here.

According to a KUTV.com (Salt Lake City CBS affiliate) statement, the Wiesenthal Center was happy that the record was removed quickly.

Readers can check the International Genealogical Index online, for members of their own families. Several have done so and were shocked to see their relatives listed.

Removing the names, however, doesn't undo the baptism, and perhaps the Church and its members do not truly understand what that word means to the Jewish people.

The mere mention of "baptism" brings back the horrors of many historical forced conversions, from the Spanish Inquisition to the 1858 Mortara Affair in Italy, in which a six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, was kidnapped from his home by Swiss Vatican guards because a Catholic nursemaid claimed she had secretly baptised him. Despite the pleas of his family and the Jewish world, Pope Pius IX refused to surrender him. For more on this story, click here

Some researchers have likened the removal of a name to the unringing of a bell, which cannot simply be "unrung." Avotaynu's Gary Mokotoff, a professional genealogist and Holocaust researcher, maintains that "no one has the right to involve other people's families in their religion."

Although Simon Wiesenthal was removed this time, it is likely that his name will reappear in the future. This is contrary to the church's own guidelines which informs its members that they should not submit non-relatives to the IGI. Currently, there is no quality control over those who do submit unrelated individuals, although a church spokesman indicates such a program is being developed.

While the cases of high-profile individuals are publicly spotlighted, there are many thousands of other Jewish individuals who were "inappropriately entered" (not related to the submitter) into the database and for whom proxy baptisms have been performed.

In response to my request, a Yad Vashem spokesperson said: "Yad Vashem is, of course, opposed to the posthumous baptism of Holocaust victims, and is well aware of the problem. We are in contact with, and support the efforts of, the Jewish groups involved in this issue."

JewishGen, a major Jewish genealogy presence on the Internet, has an excellent compilation of news and journal articles, opinion pieces and more, addressing all facets of the controversy; click here.

Anger over 'baptism' of Simon Wiesenthal

I’ve written previously (here and here) about the matter of posthumous baptism of Jews – ordinary individuals as well as Holocaust victims – and the continued violations of the Mormon-Jewish Agreement.

Is there a reader of Tracing the Tribe who does not know about famed Nazi hunter and Jewish Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal? The Simon Wiesenthal Center, headquartered in Los Angeles, is an important human rights organization named in his honor.

Born on December 31, 1908 in Buczacz (then Austria-Hungary or Galicia, now in Lvov Oblast, Ukraine), Wiesenthal died in Vienna, at age 96, on September 20, 2005.

Dedicated researcher Helen Radkey, who may be described as a thorn in the Mormon side on this issue, just discovered that Wiesenthal is now included in the International Genealogical Index (IGI), searchable online at Family Search. This is a database of individuals who have had posthumous church ordinances performed by proxy for them, including baptisms, sealings and other rituals.

"I have been checking the IGI since September, a year since his death, and knew that his name would appear and it did. Mormons are supposed to wait a year before performing ordinances for deceased parties," adds Radkey, who was preparing a long report on the Mormon-Jewish Agreement scandal when Wiesenthal's entry appeared around December 11, 2006.

This is not only a violation of the 1995 agreement between Mormons and Jews, claims Radkey, “because Wiesenthal would not have direct family ties with any Mormon, but it is an appalling indignity towards him, his family; the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jewish Holocaust survivors and the memory of all Jewish Holocaust victims.”

Wiesenthal was a Nazi death camp survivor, and he and his wife Cyla lost 89 family members. He spent his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice, documenting the Holocaust’s crimes and hunting down perpetrators still at large.

To see the Wiesenthal IGI entry, click here.

Radkey adds, “Schelly, please be aware that Simon Wiesenthal's name will probably immediately disappear from the IGI once the Mormons find out his name is in that database. So if you tell readers to look for him under Family Search, this may only be for a very limited time."

“What the LDS Church is doing to Simon Wiesenthal should not be tolerated,” stresses Radkey, “and even if Mormons decide to hastily remove Wiesenthal's name from the part of the IGI database that is visible to the public, they will forever keep private records of any LDS proxy temple rites that he may have already been subjected to.”

Radkey’s report will not appear for at least a month. Included will be reports on her extensive research since 1999, including findings on Jewish Holocaust victims of Rome, Italy, who are also listed in the IGI.

Here's the Weisenthal Center's outraged response, which JTA received an early copy of:

SWC CALLS ON MORMON CHURCH TO IMMEDIATELY REMOVE SIMON WIESENTHAL’S NAME FROM DATABASE

The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on the Mormon Church to immediately remove Simon Wiesenthal from its online International Genealogical Index (IGI), which is the Mormon database of posthumous ordinances.

“We are astounded and dismayed that after assurances and promises by the Mormon Church that Mr. Wiesenthal's life and memory, along with so many other Jews, would be trampled and disregarded,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Wiesenthal Center’s founder and dean.

“Simon Wiesenthal was one of the great Jews in the post-Holocaust period. He proudly lived as a Jew, died as a Jew, demanded justice for the millions of the victims of the Holocaust, and, at his request was buried in the State of Israel. It is sacrilegious for the Mormon faith to desecrate his memory by suggesting that Jews on their own are not worthy enough to receive G-ds’ eternal blessing, “added Rabbi Hier.

“We therefore urge the Church to remove his name and the names of all other Holocaust victims immediately,” Hier concluded.

Was Zayde a Mormon? Removing names from the IGI

Readers have asked how to remove names they feel were inappropriately entered into the International Genealogical Index (IGI). The method is contained in an informative JewishGen InfoFile, www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/ldsagree.html, written by genealogist Bernard Kouchel.

The specific mechanism to request removal of names, along with additional information on searching the IGI, is at www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/ldsagree.html#A.

Kouchel writes:

If you feel a special connection to those who have gone before you and an increased responsibility to those who will follow, you will insist on removal of their names from the baptismal lists.

We were informed that requests for removal of your family's names from the IGI may be honored, and a confirmation notice may be sent if requested.

Removed names may reappear at a later date, so recheck the IGI periodically. Some say that the Ordinance Index contains historical records of Church activity and those recorded names will never be removed.

E-mail specific requests for IGI name removal to help@productsupport.familysearch.org.

LDS recommends that you submit the following information, if known:

The individual's name
The individual's birth date and place
The individual's parents' names
The individual's spouse's name
Your name, address, and daytime phone number
Your relationship to the mentioned individual
The reason you think the individual should be removed

Alternate address:
Family and Church History Department
Attention: Family History Support, IGI Corrections
50 East North Temple Street,
JSMB 3W
Salt Lake City, UT 84150-3460

Was Zayde a Mormon? The controversy over posthumous baptisms

In 1995, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are known as LDS or Mormons, signed an agreement with the heads of many Jewish organizations, in which the church agreed to stop posthumous baptism of Jews, particularly of Holocaust victims, and remove the names of “inappropriately entered” individuals.

Since then, ongoing meetings have done little to address the practice except to provide a way to remove the names of those “inappropriately” entered into their International Genealogical Index. The IGI has a public section, available to all, and a private section, which holds the details of church rites performed on an individual. The private section is only accessible with a church-supplied password for its members.

To see if your Jewish ancestors have been entered in the IGI, go to www.familysearch.org, and do a search for results in the IGI, not the Social Security Death Index database.

This volatile issue and its continued practice, despite the signed agreement, is taken very seriously by many Jewish family history researchers. While some say they don’t care what non-Jewish rites are performed on Jews after death because it won’t change anything, many others feel that subjecting those who lived and died as Jews (and were murdered because they were) to baptism is a repugnant, insulting act.

A third group believes the process creates fraudulent records. They fear the possibility of future generations researching their families and seeing grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles and ancestors of long ago listed in the IGI. Descendants will think that Zayde (grandfather in Yiddish) was a Mormon, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Researcher Helen Radkey has proven over the years that thousands of Holocaust victims and others who were buried in Jewish cemeteries or listed in Jewish organization records have been similarly baptized after the signing of the 1995 agreement which was to have ended the practice.

Additionally, Radkey discovered that the lack of quality control on data entry by church members has resulted in the strange phenomena of cartoon character Mickey Mouse and even the Easter Island stone statues being accorded church rites.

Genealogist Gary Mokotoff has attended all the Salt Lake City meetings between Mormon and Jewish representatives. He provided a brief report of the most recent meeting to the Jewish genealogical society delegates at the recently concluded International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, which offered some hope that an entry pre-screening process would be instituted.

A detailed report of the latest meeting appears in Mokotoff's Nu? What's New bi-weekly newsletter.

To read about the London Beth Din and how those Jewish records ended up in the IGI, go to www.avotaynu.com/nu/V07N12.htm. For the detailed report of the latest meeting, see www.avotaynu.com/nuwhatsnew.htm. For more on the controversy and the 1995 agreement, www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/ldsagree.html