Russia: Lenin's Jewish roots on display

A letter by Lenin's sister claiming their maternal grandfather was a Ukrainian Jew is on display in Russia's State History Museum.

The Jerusalem Post - reporting on the AP story on May 24 - indicated that Stalin told the sister to keep quiet.

Among newly released documents displayed at the museum is a letter written by Lenin’s sister, Anna Ulyanova, claiming that their maternal grandfather was a Jew from the Ukraine who converted to Christianity to escape persecution in the Pale of Settlement and have access to higher education, the report said.

"He came from a poor Jewish family and was, according to his baptismal certificate, the son of Moses Blank, a native of [the western Ukrainian city of] Zhitomir,” Ulyanova wrote in 1932 in a letter cited by AP.

In the letter written to Josef Stalin, who replaced Lenin after his death in 1924, Ulyanova wrote, “Vladimir Ilych had always thought of Jews highly. I am very sorry that the fact of our origin – which I had suspected before – was not known during his lifetime.”

Lenin, born Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov in 1870, adopted the name Lenin while in Siberian exile in 1901. Under Czarist anti-Semitism, he identified only as Russian.

According to the AP, he oversaw a brief period of promotion of Jewish culture ending in the early 1930s when Stalin encouraged anti-Semitic purges and planned to relocate Soviet Jews. Lenin's sister requested that her brother's Jewish background be made public to combat anti-Semitism.

Stalin ignored the request, telling her to “keep absolute silence," according to exhibit curator Tatyana Koloskova. Lenin's official biography (written by his niece Oga Ulyanova) refers to the family's Russian, German and Swedish roots.

In the early 1900s, Russian historians found the sister's letter, but questioned its authenticity.

Read the complete article at the link above.

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.

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.

London: Food of the Jews of Babylon, April 3

The Jews of Babylon have a culinary tradition dating back more than 2,000 years, but it is a home-based cuisine rarely found in restaurants.

The Spiro Ark Centre, 25-26 Enford St., London, W1, will host Linda Dangoor, of a well-known Iraqi Jewish family in the UK, on Sunday, April 3, at 7.30pm.

The cost is £12 + £1 Internet booking fee. Click here to book now.

The cuisine, much like Persian food, is well-flavored, aromatic, but rarely spicy or hot.

The event marks Dangoor's new cookbook - "Flavours of Babylon" - and she will talk with Sami Zubaida about Babylonian Jewish food and its significance as a language and badge of identity.

Attendees will also get a chance to sample some foods.

Dangoor has been working in the design field for more than three decades as a designer, painter and ceramicist. The cookbook is her first book.

Zubaida is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has published several books on the religion, culture and politics of the Middle East; and is co-editor of "A Taste of Thyme: the Culinary Cultures of the Middle East." The event will include a book sale by both authors.

Seating is limited; advance reservations are recommended.

New York: 30 Jewish marriage contracts exhibit, opens March 11

The Jewish Museum will open the exhibit "The Art of Matrimony: 30 Splendid Marriage Contracts from the Jewish Theological Seminary Library," on Friday, March 11 to run through June 26.

The library of The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City holds one of the best collections of ketubot - Jewish marriage certificates. Thirty of the finest will be featured in the exhibit, which dates from a 12th century piece to later examples.

Jewish family history researchers can discover much information on these documents (ketubah, plural ketubot), which exist for all communities around the world, and provide family details on the families, communities and customs

The JTS ketubah collection numbers more than 600 works of every type. The majority are from Italy, with others from Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Iraq, Iran/Persia, Morocco, Syria and Turkey. Other examples represent Croatia, France, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands, Ukraine, and the United States. They represent the diversity of Jewish communities throughout history, with information on the couples, marriage customs and artistic styles.

Before a wedding, families negotiate a marriage contract (ketubah), which includes the husband's duties to his wife and monies due her in case of a divorce or her death.
Some examples:

• The earliest in the exhibit is a rare 12th century Egyptian fragment.
• 1764 earliest known decorated ketubah from Baghdad, drawn on paper from Augsburg, Germany, and indicating Jewish commercial ties.
• 1885 Damascus contract shows vivid colors and lush floral imagery echoing the blessing bestowed on a couple as they stand under the bridal canopy: “Grant perfect joy to these loving companions, just as You made your creations joyful in the Garden of Eden.”
• 1749 Venetian ketubah features the 12 Zodiac signs and an intricate love knot borrowed from Italian folk culture. The wording says that the bride and groom “agree to conduct their mutual life with love and affection, without hiding or concealing anything from each other; furthermore, they will control their possessions equally.“

Although hand-decorated ketubot began to go out of fashion in the late-19th century, there was a revival in the 1960s along with a new interest in Jewish identity. Examples include:

• A 1999 Archie Granot muti-layeredpapercut.
• 1961 ketubah by artist Ben Shahn, showing his fascination with Hebrew calligraphy.

Two related JTS faculty lectures are scheduled:

• Monday, March 14: Dr. David Kraemer, Abbell Librarian and Professor of Talmud and Rabbincs at the JTS, will discuss the history of Jewish marriage contracts.
• Monday, March 21: Exhibition curator Sharon Liberman Mintz will speak about the art of the decorated marriage contract.

The Jewish Museum was established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection. Today's collection numbers some 26,000 objects, including paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects and broadcast media.

Museum hours: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: 11am-5:45pm; Thursday, 11am-8pm; and Friday, 11am-4pm. Admission: Adults, $12; seniors, $10; students, $7.50; no charge for Jewish Museum members and children under 12. Admission is free on Saturdays.

For information on The Jewish Museum, click here  For program and ticket information, click here.

The Museum is at 1109 Fifth Avenue (at 92nd Street), Manhattan.

Museum of Family History: Yiddish Theatre name index transliterared

Steve Lasky of the virtual Museum of Family History has transliterated from Yiddish to English the 2,700 names of individuals and organizations in the six volumes of the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig.

Read more here at Steve's blog and do look at the Museum of Family History's offerings as new information is frequently added.

His list includes an individual's surname, given name, alternate name, dates of birth and death, town and country of birth (if listed in the Lexicon). Steve used YIVO orthographic (name spelling) standards in his transliteration.

There are more than 2,700 individual names, and 30 organizations are also included in the master list. The most-frequently listed place of birth is Warsaw (with 213 mentions), more than twice the number of the second most-frequently listed birth place of Lodz. Others include Odessa, Lemberg, Vilna and Iasi.

There is also much biographical information for personalities that remains to be translated. Contact Steve if you'd like to volunteer in this respect.

The Lexicon volumes were published in New York City, Warsaw or Mexico City from 1931-1969.

He's hoping to create a free, searchable database where those interested can look up the more than 2,700 names and organizations listed. The Lexicon also contains many photos (individual portraits of the individuals and also of Yiddish productions).

Click here to find the six-volume set of the "Lexicon" and search for Lek?sik?on fun Yidishn teater, the Yiddish title transliterated.

Those who have an interest in Yiddish theatre and its personalities should contact Steve for more information.

Thank you, Steve, for another fascinating contribution to making Yiddish culture more accessible to a wider audience.

Poland: JRI-Poland, Museum of History of Polish Jews sign agreement

In a new development, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews have signed an agreement which will enable each of JRI-Poland's "Your Town" pages.

JRI-Poland executive director Stanley Diamond of Montreal announced the new agreement:

We are delighted to announce that Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews have signed an agreement where each of JRI-Poland's "Your Town" pages will have a link to the Museum's Virtual Shtetl pages for the same towns -- and vice versa.

This will enable those reading about their town in the Museum's Virtual Shtetl site to learn about surviving records for their families by clicking on the link to the JRI-Poland page for the same town.

There will be more than 1,000 linked towns and villages.

JRI-Poland contains an index to more than 4 million records of the Jewish presence in Poland - mostly birth, marriage and death records.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews will open in 2012 on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto.

For more information on the agreement, click here and here.

UK: Leeds celebrates Jewish heritage

The city of Leeds (UK) will celebrate 150 years of the city's Jewish history and heritage with an event titled LJ150. In connection with museum exhibits, an appeal is being made for items of interest. See below for details.

The Yorkshire Evening Post covered the story about the event which will be launched in October by Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks to mark the beginning of the first Jewish History Month in the city.

Organised by Makor, the Jewish cultural office for Leeds and Yorkshire, the event will feature memorabilia on the first purpose-built synagogue in Leeds - opened on Belgrave Street in 1860.

"We want to create a real celebration of our unique heritage and invite members of the wider community to volunteer their reminiscences and ideas," said Helen Frais, Makor's project manager.

On November 28, LJ150 will sponsor a heritage day at Leeds City Museum, featuring stalls exploring Jewish heritage over the ages and a mock Jewish wedding, and videos of Jewish life now and then.

Frais is appealing for vintage outfits for the mock ceremony focusing on clothing from Jewish-based firms Burtons and Marks and Spencer. She is also asking for sewing machines and textiles including tailors' dummies, stools and pressers for the museum exhibit.

On February 27, 2011, a sculpture day with Frances Segelman is planned. The artist, who has created pieces of art for the royal family, is offering an opportunity for a community member to have their head sculpted. Sealed bids over £1,000 will be accepted for nominations through the end of September.

For more information, read the complete article at the link above.

Latvia: Riga Ghetto Museum opens, Sept. 21

The Riga (Latvia) Ghetto Museum opens September 21.

More than 70 000 local Jews and nearly 20 000 Jews deported from Western Europe were executed in Latvia in the World War II. The Museum is located in the historical part of the city near the borders of former ghetto.

The opening of the first exhibit includes the names of more than 70 000 Latvian Jews who faced the Holocaust, with stones from the streets of Riga Ghetto. A photo exhibit includes anti-Semitism propaganda, Holocaust in Latvia, the Resistance and the Righteous Among the Nations.

Jewish history in Latvia dates back some 450 years, and a section of the exhibit documents this history.

According to director Rabbi Menachem Barkahan:

Riga Ghetto Museum is not just a museum. I do hope that it will become the significant memento of the dreadful events that occurred in the history of Latvia and should never ever be repeated again. The Museum is becoming a center of culture and education, a source of tolerance and mutual respect.

Earlier this month - on September 1 - a new Jewish calendar was released and dedicated to the history of Jewish development during Latvia's First Republic.

There is also a database with the names of Jewish children who perished during the Holocaust in Latvia.

Click here for more information about the Jewish Culture Festival 5771 in Riga, with a video and photos.

For more information about the community organization Shamir in Riga, send an email.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See the museum website for more information.

Museum: Jews of the Gold Rush

Creating the Museum of the Jews of the Gold Rush is Victoria Fisch's dream.

Highlights of her latest update:

-- The price has dropped for the Hyman House, the proposed museum site. Three years ago, the price was $1.2 million; last week, $699,000. Victoria has asked her realtor to contact the selling agent and inform the home's owners of the plans for the building and her plans to solicit funds for the purchase.

-- The next step is to formulate a business, including a slide presentation which Victoria could present at synagogues in the Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Areas. Readers with connections to influential individuals who might have an interest in this project, should contact Victoria (see below).

-- Victoria is actively looking for a local Jewish businessman who could help her craft such a business plan. Readers who may be aware of such an individual - who may have the time and interest to partner with her - should inform Victoria.

-- Once she has the business plan and slide presentation, she's hoping to find people who will share her vision and actively participate as donors or board members in forming a non-profit foundation to purchase, renovate, and endow the museum.

Victoria is determined to make known the history of the Jews of the Gold Rush. Unless a venue is created to inform and educate the Jewish community and the general public, this history will be lost. Her passion is to preserve the history of the contributions by Jewish pioneers to this region, the US, and the world for generations of American Jewry.

She is the Northern California editor of the Western States Jewish History Quarterly journal, which is dedicated to chronicling and publishing Jewish participation in the pioneering and development of the American West, Canada, Mexico and the Pacific Rim.

For more information, or to help Victoria establish her dream, contact her.

Seattle: Jewish library conference begins

Tracing the Tribe is now in Seattle at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference.

I'm helping Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage.com at the conference, which opened today. People were coming by even before the event officially opened.

Attendees are librarians, archivists and educators at universities, congregations, day schools and elsewhere, in the US and Israel. Some are active in their local Jewish genealogical and historical societies.

It was really interesting seeing so many people who knew about Tracing the Tribe, and many who told us that their users ask them how to start genealogy research.

There were friends of cousins who live here in Seattle, as well as those from many cities who knew one or more of our Dardashti cousins. Monday night, I'm seeing the cousins and going to a birthday barbeque for my cousin Charlie.

Daniel will present "Technology and Museums: A Success Story to Retrieve Information," discussing the partnership between MyHeritage.com and Beit Hatfutsot (Museum of the Jewish People) to grow the museum's collection of Jewish family trees.

Among the familiar faces at the conference is Zvi Bernhardt of Yad Vashem, who will also be speaking later this month at JGSLA 2010, July 11-16.

The keynote speaker tonight was the very animated and interesting Joseph Janes, author and associate professor at the Information School of the University of Washington, who attempted to explain how different libraries are today in the digital age, how some things are the same and what may be coming down the road.

One great quote was that in the old days, when one said "research," it meant standing up and going to get the necessary information. Today, the perception of the term is that research and resources will come to the person who needs it, through the Internet.

While we of a certain generation - likely anyone over 30 - tend to think externally about research, today's students, who have grown up with computers and other electronic information devices since childhood (unlike adults who had to learn the technology), are "wired" for multi-tasking and they think internally about research.

Today the conference focused on meetings and newcomer sessions; tomorrow, the sessions start and Daniel and I will each try to attend sessions of personal interest.

Sephardic topics include:

-- Shulamith Berger will speak on the "Sephardic Collections at Yeshiva University'," in its Mendel Gottesman Library, focusing on the Ladino book collection. It contains several hundred rare Ladino books, which were recently catalogued and microfilmed.

-- Amalia Levi will speak on "Archiving Balkan Jews: Reclaiming the 'Sephardic Homeland' through social media, discuss how social media can be used to unite historians and scholars and how it can promote the creation of online archives for Sephardic studies.

-- Hazzan Isaac Azose will speak on the history of the Seattle Sephardic community.

-- Julia Eulenberg will present the history of Jewish businessmen in the Western US from the 19th century, and describe how she gathered the information.

On Tuesday, a session on Jewish history and economics includes Marlene Schiffman's "How Jews got their last names in Europe in the 18th-19th centuries. A session on Jewish archives collaboration is "Building a Successful Jewish History Archive Through Collaboration: The Washington State Jewish Historical Society Archive.," with a panel from the JHS.

There will be sessions on Yiddish culture, focusing on Yiddish Theater in Argentina and Yiddish Publishing in Winnipeg.

In "Resources at Yad Vashem," Zvi Bernhardt will speak on two topics:

-- "Yad Vashem Reference and Information Services: On Integrating 'Corporate Cultures" in a Reference Setting," as it discusses the combining of Yad Vashem's reference service units (library, archive, photo archive and the Hall of Names.). He'll talk about difficulties in combining the various departments including resistance of some staff and administration to the change, and how the departments have evolved to better fulfil the needs of the public.

-- "Resources at Yad Vashem: Online and Offline" will address the organization's resources, including the database of Shoah Victims' Names, photo archive, library catalog, Shoah Resource Center, scholarly articles and stories of the Righteous among nations, as well as its online services for the public such as basic research, genealogical and scholarly research and more.

Zvi will also be speaking at the 30th IAJGS International Conference of Jewish Genealogy (JGSLA 2010) later this month, from July 11-16, in Los Angeles.

Yoram Bitton will present "Columbia University's Hebrew Rare Book and Manuscript Collection," featuring thousands of of items, mostly from the 12th-19th centuries. It was unknown to the scholarly community until the unversity began cataloging it.

Rachel Misrati of the National Library of Israel will speak on "Who's Been Using my Archives: A Historical User-Study of Personal Archive Users" in the NLI's Archives department. There are some 400 personal archives in this department.

Social media is also a focus, with Heidi Estrin and Diane Romm presenting AJL and the social web, discussing the organization's online presence, including website, blog, podcast, Facebook page and more.

There's a session on the huge digitizing project at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which has covered more than 10 million pages. Michlean Amir will discuss problems of storage, access, quality control, restriction issues and future plans.

Next year's AJL conference will take place in Montreal, June 29-22, 2011. The theme is "Cultural Diversity/Cultural Mosaic: From Bagels to Borekas."

Quest: A mysterious Baltimore tea set

The Jewish Museum of Maryland's blog recently conducted readers through a bit of forensic genealogy.

The post (and photos) revealed how museum Collections Intern Sara Patenaude-Schuster tracked down the history of a mysterious tea set.

It also took Tracing the Tribe a bit of forensic searching through the blog to learn Sara's name, as her post included several photos of her, but not her name. I eventually discovered the intro post with the photos of this year's eight museum interns and searched those photos to find a match to the young woman depicted in the tea set post!

Sara's biggest challenge so far has been confirming the details on a tea set (photo right).

Read the steps she followed as she traced the history of this item.

Last week, my supervisor Jobi and I went to visit a woman who has a tea set that the JMM may be acquiring. The potential donor told us as much as she knew about the family history regarding the tea set, but some important details were missing. The key piece was the inscribed initials “M&S” on the tea pot. The set, she said, belonged to a prominent Jewish Baltimore family. The initials of the members of this family, though, weren’t M and S. She told us that she believed the tea set to have belonged to the wife of the prominent Baltimorean’s parents.

The museum had to confirm the object's details to make a decision on whether or not to accept the object.

Sara realized the names and family relationships were confused, such as identifying the wife for the mother-in-law and a nephew for a son.

Once she figured out the relationships, she attempted to research the wife's mother, but the museum's biographical records held nothing. The Internet had details on the husband and his family, but relatively nothing [pun intended] on the wife, and nothing about her parents.

Sara's then perused the museum's vertical files containing newspaper clippings (obituaries, pamphlets and fliers), and located the wife’s obituary and the name of her family's company. A breakthrough of sorts - although the Internet still showed nothing. Back to the vertical files, where she checked for everyone with the same surname, and hit gold!

A newspaper article revealed the name of a male cousin and the family business, as well as the family history. Sara found the man, M, and his wife, S, mentioned.

See the blog post for her "Eureka!" happy dance photo. Wrote Sara:

There is something immensely satisfying about solving a mystery, even one as seemingly unimportant as identifying the initials on a teapot.

Tracing the Tribe's readers can identify with her "happy dance" moment and congratulates Sara on her successful quest.

Read the complete post at the link above to learn more and see the great photos.

Click here to see the archival holdings of the Jewish Museum of Maryland.

UCBerkeley: Magnes Museum Jewish collection acquired

The Magnes Museum's 10,000-piece collection of music, art, rare books and historical archives will be moved to several University of California-Berkeley locations, as the university has acquired the collection.

[Photo left: Judah Magnes]

According to the press release (with accompanying photos of collection items):

The UCalifornia Berkeley announced a five-year, $2.5 million gift from Warren Hellman, Tad Taube and the Koret Foundation to acquire the Magnes Museum's Western Jewish History Archives, a 10,000-piece collection of music, art, rare books, and historical archives.

During the summer, all letters, diaries, photographs and other archival documents will be relocated to the Bancroft Library, and will be known as the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the Bancroft Library. Musical manuscripts and sheet music will be moved to the Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library.

Supported by the gift, a building renovation in Berkeley's arts and commerce district will provide lecture and seminar rooms, exhibit space for prints, paintings, photographs, costumes, and Judaica objects such as 15th-century Hanukkiah lamps and Torah ornaments.

See the press release link above for more information, photos and details.

New York: Tenement Museum launches photo database

For some two centuries, many of our immigrant ancestors settled on New York's Lower East Side.

They lived crowded together in dark, crowded buildings called tenements.

One such building - 97 Orchard Street - housed some 7,000 people from more than 20 countries from 1863-1935. Restored as the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, visitors can see restored apartments and get some sense of our ancestors' experiences as new immigrants.

According to the Tenement Museum blog, an online photo database has just been launched after four years of work.

It offers images including the neighborhood, historic and contemporary photos of the museum building, as well as portraits of its inhabitants.

The photo database is part of the permanent collection, with more than 5,000 objects and 130 linear feet of archival records.

Anyone with a computer connection around the word can now access the photo archive. Researchers may save their favorite images.

According to the blog, the most popular databases are photos of former residents and their descendants (1860s-2000s); stories of families presented on museum tours, photo essays, WPA photos, Lower East Side images, photos of apartments and the building.

Check out the images here.

New York City: Hebrew manuscripts, books, July 1

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will offer three lectures on the art of Hebrew manuscripts and books on Thursday, July 1.

Lectures will be held from 2-5pm, in the Sacerdote Lecture hall of the Uris Center for Education. They are free with Museum admission.

The exhibit - "A Journey Through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books" - offers recent research in the field and is currently on view at Yeshiva University Museum.

-- "Hidden Treasure: The Intellectual Life of Medieval Ashkenazi Jews," by
Ephraim Kanarfogel, E. Billi Ivry Professor of Jewish History, Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Yeshiva University

-- "Making Hebrew Manuscripts in a Gentile World," by Evelyn M. Cohen, independent scholar, New York

-- "Hebrew Manuscripts after Gutenberg," by Emile G. L. Schrijver, Curator, Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, Special Collections, University of Amsterdam

For more information, see the museum website.

Catskills Bungalow Heritage Museum

While many people joyfully remember their Catskill summers as some of the happiest moments in their lives, there is no physical, visual place to share those memories.

Many Catskill summer kids remember this sign (left). We may have been oblivious to lots of things, but that sign was good to see each year.

Some determined individuals want to change that and create The Catskills Bungalow Heritage Museum.

Phil Brown of the Catskills Institute (which archives information about the region), informed me about this new project

A meeting about the project - whose purpose is the preservation of the heritage and history of bungalow colonies in the Catskills - is set for 11am, Sunday, June 13, at the Mountaindale Firehouse, Mountaindale, New York.

All interested individuals are invited to attend and discuss:

-- Physical acquisition and restoration of at least three original period bungalows.
-- Presentation of furniture, objects, photographs and ephemera from era.
-- Preservation of the history of tenants and tourists of the bungalow colonies
-- Collection of oral histories of former owners and service businesses for the bungalow colonies.

The organizers are Allen Frishman, Evadne Giannini and Raymon Elozua.

We are interested in your ideas and thoughts about such a museum. And we seek support from the local community to develop an initial action plan. We ask if possible to put your thoughts in writing so that the committee will be able to review your recommendations at a later date. We look forward to seeing you there.

Since the 1970s, the bungalow colonies have suffered a severe decline as our nation's wealth and lifestyles have changed. Many colonies were abandoned, demolished or sold for development. In an encouraging sign, a number have survived and thrive today as religious groups seek the same benefits for their members. All in all, a miniscule few remain open for rent to the general public.

The organizers' hope is that the Catskills Bungalow Heritage Museum will become a destination point for families and children who once vacationed in these colonies, creating tourism that will contribute to the economic re-vitalization of Sullivan County.

If you are interested and wish to be kept informed about the project, or wish to share ideas or contacts, email the organizers (above).

Australia: Jewish Museum to receive major funding

The Jewish Museum of Australia, in St. Kilda (Melbourne), will receive major government funding to create a new gallery and online learning portal.

The state of Victoria will provide AU$400,000 to the Museum, according to an article on J-Wire.

Two major museum projects are planned. The Zelman Cowen Gallery will tell the Australian Jewish story, from the First Fleet's Jewish convicts through today. The museum will also develop a new online learning portal which will make the collections and education resources more accessible.

The new museum director, Rebecca Forgasz, said the government contribution will enable work to progress on curating, designing and building the Zelman Cowen Gallery of Australian Jewish History. It is a story that is not well known even within the Australian Jewish community.

Additionally, the new Gallery will create a hub for education and discussion on the issues of community, identity and civics in a multicultural society, and to tell that story to school students using accessible exhibits.

Learn more about the Museum here.

Newspapers: Southern Israelite Archive expands

Did you have family in Georgia, or across the South? Here's a newly-expanded resource that may provide information on your Southern Jewish heritage.

The Digital Library of Georgia and the Cuba Archives of the Breman Museum announced the expansion of the Southern Israelite Archive to more than 48,000 images..

The Southern Israelite Archive now includes issues 1959-1983, spanning 1929-1986.

The paper began as an August temple bulletin founded by Rabbi H. Cerf Straus in 1925. it became so popular that it became a monthly newspaper. It was sold and moved to Atlanta, circulated across the state and then throughout the South.
In October 1934, a four-page weekly edition began along with a monthly already-estblished magazine. , supplemented by its established monthly magazine edition. The monthly edition was discontinued in 1973 to concentrate on the growing weekly. In 1987, the Southern Israelite change its name to the Atlanta Jewish Times and published 32-page issues. Today owned by Jewish Renaissance Media, its readership is more than 25,000.

"Even in these earliest years, the paper not only covered the news of the southern Jewry, but also the issues that involved Jewish populations throughout the nation and world, including the Holocaust and later the creation of the Jewish state of Israel."

The Southern Israelite database is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia, a GALILEO initiative that shares Georgia's history and culture online. Digitization is made possible by the Cuba Archives of the Breman Museum and the generosity of the Srochi family of Atlanta.

Other newspaper archives available through the Digital Library of Georgia include the Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive (1847-1922), the Macon Telegraph Archive (1826-1908), the Columbus Enquirer Archive (1828-1890), the Milledgeville Historic Newspaper Archive (1808-1920), and the Red and Black Archive (1893-2006). Access these archives here.

Moment Magazine: Jewish Heritage Guide

The 35th anniversary issue of Moment magazine is now out and includes its second annual Jewish American Heritage Guide, noting museums, archives, historical societies and attractions, in recognition of Jewish American Heritage Month.

Tracing the Tribe was delighted to see Congregation Kehila Kedosha Janina of New York City on the list. KKJ was established by Romaniote Jews from Ioannina, Greece, in the early 20th century.

Although this is an American list, the The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre also appears.

Here's the rest of the list - read the story online for the complete descriptions of each.

National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Jewish Museum of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland
American Jewish Historical Society (Center for Jewish History, New York)
The Wyner Center of the American Jewish Historical Society (Newton, Masschusetts)

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, Georgia

Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, Ohio

Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, Skokie, Illinois

Kansas City Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art/The Epsten Gallery/Museum Without Walls, (Overland, Kansas

Oregon Jewish Museum, Portland, Oregon

The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio

Noah’s Ark at the Skirball, Los Angeles, California

From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America - a traveling exhibit

Dr. Seuss Goes to War ... and More! Remarkable World War II Editorial Cartoons by Theodor Seuss Geisel  - a traveling exhibit

Florida Jews in the Military, Miami Beach, Florida

And for a Jewish road show:

Mount Ripinsky. Haines, Alaska. Named for Polish-born Solomon Ripinsky of the "frozen chosen."

Houdini Museum. Scranton, Pennsylvania. Harry Houdini, AKA Budapest-born Erich Weiss.

Shoney’s Monument. Restaurant chain Shoney's is derived from its founders Betty and Alex SCHOENBAUM. A monument is at the original restaurant in Charleston, West Virginia.

The National Mustard Museum. Created and founded by Barry Levenson. Want a great gift? Buy a gift pack at the museum (Middleton, Wisconsin) and receive two musuem yarmulkes inscribed, "Mustard -  it's the mitzvah for your sandwich."

Temple Emanu-El. Levi Strauss was an active member here at this famous San Francisco synagogue.

The guide was compiled by Diana Cohen Altman.

Read the entire article here.