UK: Jewish exhibits and museums in London, 1887-1932, February 17

The British Association of Jewish Studies (BAJS), in conjunction with the Jewish Historical Society of England, will offer a lecture on London's Jewish exhibits and museums (1887-1932) on Thursday, February 17.

The program - "Jewish exhibitions and museums in London: From the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition of 1887 to the Foundation of the Jewish Museum in 1932" - begins at 7pm, in the Court Room (Senate House) of the Jewish Historical Society of England, University of London. Refreshments follow.

To register or for additional information, contact the  Jewish Historical Society of England.

Arizona: Jewish centenary, time capsule contest

The Tucson Jewish community will hold its centennial celebration and time-capsule opening on October 24.

The Centennial Exhibit opened in mid-August and will run through December 23. Below see a 1914 postcard of the first synagogue in Arizona, termed by the card's publisher (Kressge) the "Jewish Church." The synagogue is now the Jewish History Museum, the only one in Arizona.

In conjunction with the celebration is the Jewish History Museum's "Be a Part of History" contest.

On exhibit: The history of the Southwest Jewish Pioneers ~ 1860 to present day • Photos taken by Jewish Pioneer Leo Goldschmidt ~ 1870-1890 • Photos and historic newsletter from early Temple Emanu-El • Red White and Blue Dress worn on July 4, 1876 • Statehood Dress worn February 14, 1912 • The Life Cycle Journal of Rabbi Marcus Breger, Anshei Israel • Holocaust Surviving Torah • Southern Arizona Holocaust Survivors Memorial Quilt.

Readers can enter to win their own personal time capsule and to participate in the removal of the original century-old capsule from the building's cornerstone.

The day starts at noon with a live music street festival from Klezmer and everything else!

At 2pm, the cornerstone placed by Jewish pioneers in the foundation of Arizona's historic first synagogue building will be opened.

Following the opening of the old capsule, the new 2010 capsule will be placed and sealed until the 2110 bicentennial event. Five winners will have a chance to win a personal time capsule and help remove the old one. The new capsule will be returned to the winner's descendants in 2110.

Readers can also become a part of the first synagogue and the only Jewish History Museum in Arizona. by having your name and message engraved on a 12-inch x 12-inch granite stone to be permanently installed in the Centennial Courtyard of the museum.

They'd also like you to tell them what should be placed in the new capsule. All suggested items will be submitted to the Museum Board for consideration.

The Jewish History Museum is housed in the oldest synagogue building in Arizona. Built in 1910 it was the home of Temple Emanu-El from 1910 to 1949. Saved from the wrecking ball in 1999, the historic structure has been completely restored and today is the home of the only Jewish History Museum in the Southwest.

For more information on the event and exhibit, click the museum link above.

The Jews of southern Arizona began gathering in the 1880s. In 1884, the Hebrew Ladies Benevolent Society was formed. Twenty years later, they took up the challenge to aise funds for a permanent synagogue. Jewish settlers in other communities, such as Globe, Bisbee and Nogales also contributed.

On June 20, 1910, the grand lodge of Arizona Masons laid the Temple’s cornerstone. The first services were held on Rosh HaShanah, October 3, 1910. Built before Arizona achieved statehood, the synagogue served as an important center of Jewish community for the entire Southwest US. Temple Emanu-El grew significantly and moved from Stone Avenue in September 1949. Over the years, the original building was used for other purposes.

In 1982, the Temple reclaimed its roots at a ceremony sponsored by the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission, the Arizona Heritage Center, and the southern Arizona chapter of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society.

London: Jewish Museum acquires Sephardic treasure

Here's one wedding present that wasn't "re-gifted" after the happy occasion.

Tracing the Tribe wants to know where the bride and groom registered their wish list three centuries ago.

The London Jewish Museum raised £282,000 to acquire the silver hanukkiah, according to the story, although it had been on loan to the museum since the 1930s.

Known as the Lindo Lamp (below), it is a Sephardic treasure of British Portuguese and Spanish Jews. It was commissioned for the marriage of Elias Lindo to Rachel Lopes Ferreira in 1709.

Silversmith John Ruslen fashioned the memento at the request of Isaac Lindo, Elias’s father, who fled the Inquisition in the Canary Isles to settle in London and founded the city’s iconic Bevis Marks Synagogue at the start of the 18th century.

“Hanukah lamps are central to Jewish celebrations and the Lindo Lamp is particularly special as it is the first one known to have been made in England,” said Dame Jenny Abramsky, Chair of the Memorial Fund.“It is witness to the long history of Jewish people in this country, and it’s wonderful that the Fund has played a part in saving it for future generations.”

It will be displayed at the Museum's Judaism: A Living Faith exhibit, which recently reopened following a £10 million redevelopment.

Funds to purchase the piece came from The National Heritage Memorial Fund (£145,000), Art Fund (£75,000) and the MLA/V&A Purchase Fund (£30,000).

Europe: 2010 Day of Jewish Culture, Sept. 5

Each year, the European Day of Jewish Culture offers activities and events in many countries.

While the official day is September 5, events are scheduled for other days as well and there is a calendar on the home page of JewishHeritage.org, which offers links to this year's participating countries.

Countries scheduling events this year: Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

“Art and Judaism” - this year's theme - explores a wide field of topics:

- Media: paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, literature, music, films, theatre

- People: painters, sculptors, writers, actors, composers and performers, directors

- Period: ancient, medieval, modern, contemporary

- Collectors: patrons of art, collections, museums

- Religious: applied art, artifacts, Judaica, everyday life,

Click here for an interactive map. Click the country of interest and a PDF will come up (in English as well as that country's own language), arranged by city and event, with detailed information.

Netherlands: Photos of child Holocaust victims

Gaby Laws of CemeteryScribes.com has informed Tracing the Tribe about a project to create a memorial book for young Dutch Holocaust victims.

Athough CemeteryScribes.com focuses on photographing headstones and recording inscriptions, this request touched on those who have no headstones. Their only memorials are names on lists.

Aline Pennewaard, a freelance writer and Jewish history student, and author Guus Luijters are compiling a "Memor-book" for Dutch children who were transported and killed. The project is similar to Serge Klarsfeld’s "French Children of the Holocaust."

Pennewaard and Luijters have already collected some 2,200 photographs of Dutch Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust. The hope is to find more photographs before the book is published in February 2012.

According to Pennewaard's link above:

Together with Guus Luijters I'm working on a memor-book about Dutch-Jewish children till 18 years, who were deported and never returned. The book is scheduled to be published in February 2012. At the same time there will be an exhibition in the Amsterdam Historical Museum.

I'm looking for as many photos as I can find from children who were deported and never returned. At this moment we have around 2200 photos. If you can help us, or if you're looking for more information about your own family, please contact us.

Tracing the Tribe readers are asked to help in this project. Do you have photos of Dutch Jewish children who did not survive?

If you have such photos and wish to share them for this project, let me knew via a comment to this post or to ask@tracingthetribe.com (include your real email address so I can provide contact information).

Click on Pennwaard's link above for an excellent site with links to the Jewish Historical Museum (Joods Historisch Museum) (English/Dutch), Jewish Historical Childrens' Museum, Hollandsche Schouwburg Monument, The Spanish Portuguese Synagogue, The Bibliotheek Ets Haim - Livraria Montezinos, Joods Digital Monument (Engllish/Dutch), and the Menasseh ben Israel Institute (English/Dutch).

Gaby also noted the Dutch Community Joods Monument, which has thousands of member-uploaded photos of gravestones.

Where does the money go?

JTA's The Fundermentalist blog has an interesting post detailing where prominent Jews are directing their contributions. Education, museums, federations and the like seem to garner the most funds.

Jacob Berkman mentioned these names: Michael Bloomberg, Eli and Edythe Broad, Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg, Larry Ellison, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, George Kaiser, Lorry Lokey, Bernie and Millie Marcus, Bernard and Barbro Osher, David M. Rubenstein, Herb and Marion Sandler, Jeff Skoll, Shelby White (Leon Levy was her late husband), and Sanford and Joan Weill.

I saw only White connected to a possible genealogical purpose in the form of donations to the Center of Jewish History and a separate donation to one of its archival projects.

With all this money - and such prominent names - isn't there a way for Jewish genealogy projects and organizations to benefit for the good of all researchers? It's a question to ponder as the High Holydays creep closer!

Read the complete blog post at the link above.

Museum of Family History: New exhibits

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

Walk in My Shoes: Collected Memories of the Holocaust

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

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

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

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

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

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

Al Jolson Film Festival

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

ERC Lecture Series: The Development of Yiddish Literature

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

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

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

Judaica Europeana: Online access to 10 collections

A two-year project has been launched to digitize, for online access, Jewish culture collections at 10 European institutions.

The European Commission provided $2 million for Judaica Europeana's $4.13 million project, which will digitize 10,500 photos, 1,500 postcards and 7,150 recordings, along with several million pages from books, newspapers, archives and press clippings, from the project's partner libraries, archives and museums. It is part of a larger EC project to digitize general cultural resources.

The project will be headed by the European Association for Jewish Culture and the Judaica Collection of Frankfurt's Goethe University Library. Other partners are:

= European Association for Jewish Culture Judaica Collection, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Library, Frankfurt am Main
= Alliance Israélite Universelle, Paris
= The Jewish Museum of Greece, Athens
= Hungarian Jewish Archives, Budapest
= Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali – Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, Rome
= Amitié, Bologna
= The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw
= Jewish Museum London
= The British Library, London
= MAKASH Advancing CMC Applications in Education, Culture and Science
= The Central Zionist Archives at the World Zionist Organization
= Paris Yiddish Centre – Medem Library

Judaica Europeana (JE) will also work on other digital collections for comprehensive coverage of Jewish life in European cities.

An aim of the project is to demonstrate how the addition of Judaica content leads to improved use in discovery, delivery, and cultural heritage resource integration for multilingual multicultural use by scholars, cultural heritage professionals, educators and students, cultural tourists and the general public.

Upcoming Judaica Europeana (JE) Events:

15 March 2010, Berlin:
Digital Access to Jewish Heritage Collections: JE and MICHAEL
Portals
14 April 2010, Jerusalem:
JE Seminar, Israel Association of Judaica Librarians
21-23 April 2010, Florence:
JE: Applying Semantic Web Technologies to access European Jewish
Heritage
3 May 2010, Tel Aviv:
The European Digital Library: Europeana and JE
25-29 July 2010, Ravenna:
Judaica Partners presentations on urban Jewish studies and Judaica
collections
30 July 2010, University of Bologna, Ravenna Campus:
The JE Digital Humanities Workshop

For more information, see the website above.

Only in America: The Jewish experience

The new Philadelphia-based National Museum of American Jewish History has produced a video, "It's Your Story." Perhaps it should be titled "Only in America."

The new National Museum of American Jewish History is dedicated to telling the still-unfolding story of Jews in America, who embraced freedom with its choices and challenges as they shaped and were shaped by our nation.

The Museum envisions its new home as a place that welcomes all people, inviting them to discover what they have in common with the Jewish experience in America, as well as to explore the features that make this history distinctive.

Rising five stories above Independence Mall, in the heart of historic Philadelphia, the National Museum of American Jewish History will join Independence Hall, the National Constitution Center, the Liberty Bell and other landmarks at the hallowed site of America's birth. There could not be a more fitting place for a museum that will explore the promise and challenges of liberty through the lends of the American Jewish experience.

Tracing the Tribe recommends the video, which demonstrates various aspects of the American Jewish community's achievements.

View it here or below

Sephardim: Museum of Family History exhibits

The virtual Museum of Family History also has material for researchers of Sephardim.

-- Holocaust Memorials in Havana and Santa Clara, Cuba

-- Synagogues of Asia: Burma, China, Hong Kong, India, Lebanon, Singapore, Tajikistan, Turkey [Asian side].

--Synagogues of Turkey: (European side of Istanbul)

-- Synagogues of Spain. The photo at left is the El Transito Synagogue in Toledo.

-- Postcards from Home: Turkey

Museum creator Steve Lasky wishes to include more pre-war family photos. Readers with such photos are invited to contact Steve.

New York: Children's history museum planned

An interactive children's history museum will open at the New York Historical Society in November 2011.

Genealogists will be happy that the museum's planned interactive features will include a place where children can videotape their own histories. There will be a place to use maps and documents to solve historical mysteries.

Perhaps genealogical societies - Jewish and general - could suggest that family history classes be offered for youngsters?

Children 12 and under will receive free admission to the society and free admission to the new museum.

Read the New York Times story here, which details the 4,000-square-foot "museum within a museum," focusing on young New Yorkers, as part of the major renovation ($60 million) of the historical society building. It will be called the DiMenna Children’s History Museum.

According to the story, the new museum will focus on children, such as Alexander Hamilton who came to New York to attend college and the young newspaper sellers of a century ago.

Museum president/CEO Louise Mirrer said:

“In schools, history tends to be about figures once they have matured and become important,” Ms. Mirrer said. “But if we want history to become alive for children, what better way to teach them than showing them children from other periods? We want to be on the permanent agenda of children and families in New York.”

A past president of the society, Columbia University history professor Kenneth T. Jackson said:

“It’s an unusual effort to make a serious attempt to engage young people with the past. Generally, children’s museums are not about history, and history museums are not about children.”

Exhibits will come from the society's collections and will be aimed at about a fourth-grade level.

Information about the “orphan trains” that took thousands of destitute children from New York to families in rural and farm communities across the country will be accompanied by a huge archive from the Children’s Aid Society: journal entries from social workers, children’s artwork, photographs and letters. Children will also be able to sit next to a cutout of a composite orphan on a three-dimensional train, listen to train noises and see a map of places along the routes.

In 2007, there were 243 children's museums in the US, with 78 being planned. The new project will be one of the few history museums specifically for children.

Read the complete story at the link above.

Washington DC: Russian Judaica Collections, Feb. 3

St. Petersburg, Russia, is the home of unique Hebrew manuscripts, which are the focus of a Library of Congress lecture at noon, Wednesday, February 3.

The city's libraries, archives, institutes and museums hold many unique artifacts of Jewish culture, such as more than 15,000 items in The National Library of Russia, which holds the Abraham Firkovich collection. The Leib Friedland collection of manuscripts and rare books is at the Library of the Academy of Sciences, while the Museum of Ethnography houses S. An-sky's Pale of Settlement ethnographic expeditions material.

The Russian Museum of Ethnography's Judaica curator Shimon Iakerson PhD, will present this program at noon in the African and Middle Eastern Division Reading Room, Room LJ220 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public; tickets not required.

The leading scholar in the field of Hebrew incunabula (books printed before the year 1501), and the author of several books on the subject, Iakerson is also senior researcher at the St. Petersburg branch of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 2005, he received the first Honorable Medal presented at the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress in Jerusalem for his two-volume work, "Catalogue of Hebrew Incunabula from the Collection of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America" (New York and Jerusalem, 2004-2005).

In 2009, he won the Antsiferov Award, an international prize in honor of the historian N.P. Antsiferov, for his overall contributions to the field of St. Petersburg studies for his most recent work, "Jewish Treasures of Petersburg: Scrolls, Codices, Documents" (Evreiskie sokrovisha Peterburga), St. Petersburg 2008.

Iakerson's book presents a selection of examples of 16th-17th century medieval manuscripts, incunabula and unique works such as richly illuminated manuscripts, individual pages of "lost" works, classic works and more. Unfortunately, the text of the 240-page text - with more than 140 color illustrations - is only in Russian. The cost is $299, through The Hermitage Museum online store.

See a newspaper article - Jewish Treasures Survive The Czars - about some of these treasures from the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, from April 15, 1995. The Jewish Heritage Society here offers more information, as does the Petersburg Judaica Center. Here are details on a book, "Photographing the Jewish Nation: Pictures from S. An-sky's Ethnographic Expeditions," by Eugene M. Avrutin, ed, which includes 170 photos from the Pale of Settlement.

Sephardic researchers should know that St. Petersburg was home to Sephardim from the Netherlands (who were invited by the Czar), that the Russian court physician was the Sephardic Ribeira Sanchez, and that Russian collections hold Sephardic manuscripts.

The Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division is the center for the study of some 78 countries and regions from Southern Africa to the Maghreb and from the Middle East to Central Asia. The division’s Hebraic Section is one of the world’s foremost centers for the study of Hebrew and Yiddish materials.

Tracing the Tribe has often found materials of interest for our family history among the many resources in the Hebraic Section.

New York City: Voices of the Silk Road, Jan. 16-17

Travel the exotic Silk Road at the American Museum of Natural History, during its "Living in America: Voices of the Silk Road" from noon-5pm, Saturday and Sunday, January 16-17.

The program is in conjunction with the current exhibition, Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World.

In addition to the weekend activities, other special programs will take place in January, such as "Global Kitchen: Aromatics Along the Silk Road," at 6.30pm, Wednesday, January 20, and "Caravanserai: A Perfumed Tasting Menu," at 7pm, Thursday, January 21. In February, there are events for students also, such as the Silk Road Camp for 2nd-3rd graders (Monday-Friday, February 15-19).See these other events here. See the special kids' page.

The Silk Road was also followed by Jewish merchants and traders and many other travelers of diverse religions and ethnicities who interacted with the peoples who lived along the way.

The weekend program includes performances, conversations and hands-on activities. For the details of speakers and presenters, click here.

Saturday: Folk paper cutter, calligrapher, face painting, Arab folktales, Arabic calligraphy, exquisite textiles from India, Silk Road spices, cultural Central Asian treasures. Music: Ukrainian bandura, Japanese fue, Tibetan folk singer, Bukharan Jewish singer, Kyrgyz traditional musician, Iranian vocalist and qanun.

Sunday: Music, dance, acrobatics from three unique cultures with Silk Road ties. Gagaku, the oldest traditional orchestral, Chinese Theatre Works music, acrobatics, dance of the Tang Dynasty; Bukharan Jewish music ensemble Maqam performing shashmaqam, vocal performance, stringed and percussion instruments.

See the link above for more information. Sessions are free with museum admission.

Cleveland: All about Chicago resources, Jan. 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Montreal: McCord Museum resources, Dec. 14

Learn about the McCord Museum's extensive collections and resources at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal in association with the Jewish Public Library, on Monday, December 14.

The program begins at 7.30pm at the Gelber Conference Center.

Guest speaker François Cartier is the McCord Museum curator of archives and history. He's an expert in the field of museum archives.

His presentation will describe the many resources at the museum which are of interest to genealogists and family historians.

A quick search using "Jewish" as a keyword retrieved some 15 photographs and documents, including this one below, a list of offerings at the 1794 wedding of Ezekiel Hart:
For more information about the JGS of Montreal, click here.

Pogroms: 250 events 1903-1905

We've all heard the stories of our immigrant ancestors. Their memories included their personal experiences of pogroms, raids and riots committed against Jewish residents of towns and villages across Europe.

My great-grandmother Riva BANK TALALAI (Tollin) described her frightening nights as she and her two children (toddler Leib and infant Chaya Feige) hid in church basements during these events as they made their way to safety to the boat for America.

She knew that if either child had cried out, the others in hiding would have had no compunction about smothering them to prevent the refugees from being discovered.

Fortunately, they did not cry. The family made it to the boat to join her husband and the children's father, Aron Peretz TALALAI (Tollin) in Newark, New Jersey.

In 1904, the following pogroms occurred in and around Mogilev, Belarus, which surely impacted our TALALAI family in the city and in area towns and villages.

On October 24, 1904, there were 14,000 Jews in a population of 22,093 in Mogilev; 120 Jews were injured; the chief of police had earlier said that a riot would occur and that Jews would not be protected. On the same day, in a place not far north of the city, called Gorki (where other Talalai relatives lived), some 69 shops were looted and demolished with a loss of 200,000 rubles.

A few days later, on October 27, there were a series of attacks on shtetls in the area: Amtchislav, Bykhova and Bunitchi (northeast of Vorotinschtina and Zaverezhye, where many Talalai had lived since the 1830s, about 12 miles south-southwest of Mogilev) Sielzi, Sukhany, Tchausy (where Talalai relatives lived), Tcherikov and Juravitch.

The table showed that in Bykhova, where Jews were 3,172 in a population of 6,536, all the Jewish shops and stalls were destroyed, with an estimate of 200,000 rubles lost. Army reservists caused the riots. In Tchausy (Chausy, Chaus), Jews numbered 3,000 of the 5,550 residents.

Unfortunately, I never heard my great-grandmother mention the towns in which she hid with the children. But I do know where relatives lived.

I know from other relatives - who stayed in Mogilev until immigrating in the 1980s and later - that the Gorki survivors moved into Mogilev soon after that pogrom, as did the Tchausy relatives (including a chief rabbi and religious court judge).

Steve Lasky at the Museum of Family History has announced a new report and table of pogroms committed 1903-1905.

The report was published in the American Jewish Year Book (Vol. 8, 1906-1907), by the American Jewish Committee. If you have not seen these volumes, do try to access them. They contain much information about Jewish communities around the world and in the US.

The table includes more than 250 European towns and cities where pogroms occurred from 1903-1906. There is a supplementary table of pogroms in other places in November 1905.

Comments sometimes include damage and other remarks about each event, and the table includes the date, geographical location, sometimes the Jewish and general population at each place.

There is a report of the Duma Commission of the Bialystok Massacre in June 1906 - it was published in the London Jewish Chronicle (July 13,1906) - providing many details of what happened. If your family had a connection to Bialystok - as did some of my family - read the report to see if any names are listed.

Read about the Duma debates as the report was presented, as well as the US Congress resolutions proposed and passed (1905-6).

The Museum's information is courtesy of the American Jewish Committee Archives. Access all this information here.

Illuminated Leaves: Medieval manuscripts

Facsimile Editions (UK) offers 450 different illuminated leaves available from the facsimile editions of the Kennicott Bible, Rothschild Miscellany, Barcelona Haggadah and a few from the North French Miscellany.

While the company also offers leaves from additional Hebrew manuscripts that are suitable for bat/bar mitzvah, brit milah, festivals, traveller's prayers, weddings, anniversaries, as well as gifts by name and more, the entire site should be of interest to all those who find medieval illustration fascinating. The notes for each page (just float your mouse over the page name to see the detailed notes) are also interesting.

From the Rothschild Miscellany, find exquisitely illuminated pages for Adon Olam, Shir HaKavod, Mah Tovu, Nishmat, Kiddush, Pirkei Avot, Piyuttim, Sheva Berachot, music pages, Eshet Chayil, and items appropriate for such events as weddings, anniversaries or holidays. From the Barcelona Haggadah, find Sheheheyanu and Next Year in Jerusalem.

Click here to see the outstanding decorated individual leaves. Even pages that are mostly black text include imaginative drawings. One page has a pink-spotted dragon with golden claws, Parashot Behar (folio 73) has a bear dipping into a honey jar. Find lions, centaurs, the red heifer (Parashah Chukkat, folio 88), human figures and design elements.

There are special pages that separated sections, called carpet pages, such as this one (right, folio 122).

The facsimile editions were printed on special parchment paper in up to 9-12 colors (depending on manuscript) with hand-applied gold leaf.

The major collections include:

THE ROTHSCHILD MISCELLANY (Israel Museum, Jerusalem).

The most elegantly and lavishly executed Hebrew manuscript of the 15th century. It was planned as a sumptuous work to encompass, in minute detail, almost every custom of religious and secular Jewish life. More a library than a book, the manuscript comprises 37 religious and secular works including, Psalms, Job, Siddur, Mahzor, Haggadah, Pirkei Avot and Meshal Haqadmoni.

THE ROTHSCHILD HAGGADAH (Israel Museum, Jerusalem)

It is exceptional for its elegant and elaborate illustrations of the Passover story. The illuminated and illustrated Haggadah demonstrates the Ashkenazi Passover seder as we know it. In the margins is Maimonides' Hilkhot Hamez Umatsah, 'Laws Concerning Leavened and Unleavened Bread'. In addition, the piyyutim are exquisitely illuminated with fine miniatures.

THE BARCELONA HAGGADAH (British Library)

Written about 1340 when Barcelona was the center of a thriving center of manuscript illumination, this manuscript is outstanding for rich decorative illuminations scattered throughout the text. Its fanciful figures, medieval musical instruments and pictorial scenes provide fascinating insights into Jewish life in medieval Spain.

THE KENNICOTT BIBLE (Bodleian Library, Oxford)

One of the most exquisite medieval Spanish manuscripts extant. It includes the Tanakh and Rabbi David Kimchi's grammatical treatise Sefer Mikhlol. Moses ibn Zabara was the scribe, Joseph Ibn Hayim the illuminator. In 1476, they created this piece for Isaac, the son of Don Solomon di Braga in La Coruña, Spain. The manuscript includes burnished gold and silver leaf.

And - because genealogy concerns names, dates and people - readers should note that medieval manuscripts often include information on both scribe and illuminator.

On folio page 438, is the page for the scribe, Moshe ibn Zabara (right) indicating for whom and when it was created, while a separate page (folio 447) offers information on the artist Joseph ibn Hayim (left).

Leaves run from £55 each to £130 for a set of leaves.

For more information, click here.

Museum of Family History: What's new?

The Museum of Family History has three new November exhibits.

-- Paint What You Remember: The Memories of Mayer Kirshenblatt of Opatów, Poland

Mayer Kirshenblatt left his hometown of Opatów (Apt), Poland in 1934 at age 17 for a new life in Canada. He brought along some physical possessions, but also a storehouse of memories that he would carry with him for many decades.

Thanks to his daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (Core Exhibition Development Team leader for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw) and his wife - both urged him to paint what he remembered -Mayer began painting in 1990. He has created more than 300 paintings, each one a memory of life in his hometown, where thousands of Jews once lived.

Barbara allowed Steve to create an exhibit of her father's work. In this exhibit and a second one, hear Mayer's voice and see dozens of his acrylic-on-canvas works dealing with his family life and Jewish communal life in the 1920s-30s. See his works and listen to him speak on nearly 20 audio clips.

Mayer says that "every Jewish town is the same," so perhaps, writes Steve, we wouldn't be taking liberties to imagine that our families, our European ancestors in a town populated by thousands of Jews, might have lived just like this.

This is a good incentive for viewers to draw or paint their own childhood memories in Europe, the US or elsewhere. Record them on paper or canvas and also audio record the stories for your children and grandchildren.

The first exhibition is here (many audio clips and three video clips); the second exhibition is now part of a larger "Shabbat and the Jewish Holidays exhibit, with his paintings and comments.

-- A Multitude of Immigrants: American Newspapers and How They Addressed the Immigration Issue

This is a series of eight articles from three New York City newspapers published 1891-1910 -The New York Daily Tribune, The Sun and The World. Immigration to the US was extremely high during this period. Politicians and the public were split on what US policy should be toward immigrants, especially the uneducated and unskilled, and not wanting immigrants to become "pauperized." What kinds of restrictions should be imposed, not just on Jewish immigration, but on other nationalities?

-- 250 Years in America

1905 was considered the 250th anniversary of the first Jewish settlers in the US in 1655. Read three articles discussing the contributions of Jews to the US. One is specific to Jewish contribution to New York, while another considers the future of Judaism.

The Museum now has an archive of some 60 historic newspaper articles. Each listing on this web page is linked to an exhibit. Take a look and find articles of interest, arranged by exhibit. Many articles have been added since last month. Most were published 1880-1910, important years for Jewish immigration, pogroms, and other events. Reading them can be a learning experience.

Steve Lasky does a great job in frequently posting new, interesting material. Readers may want to check-in every few days. An even better way is to go to his blog and sign up for alerts via email or RSS.

At the Philly 2009 conference, Steve asked me how he could let people know about the online Museum of Family History and my immediate response was that he set up a blog. His next question was "how?" We sat for a few sessions at a table on the main conference floor and managed to do most of it. I thank Steve for his kind words about helping him to accomplish this, as I am a firm believer in passing on knowledge and assistance to those who deserve and appreciate it.

For more information about his museum, contact Steve.

Out of Africa: Dr. Spencer Wells in San Diego, Nov. 11

National Geographic's Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Spencer Wells will speak at the San Diego Natural History Museum, on Wednesday, November 11.

The program begins at 6.30pm in the Charmaine and Maurice Kaplan Theater. The related exhibit is at the Museum of Man.

"Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project" tackles the universal questions of who are we and where we come from. We look different, are we all related? Wherever we live, we all share a common birthplace: Africa, says Wells. "We are all effectively cousins separated by no more than 200 generations."

He has dedicated much of his career to studying humankind's family tree and closing the gaps in our knowledge of human migration. Wells applied new scientific techniques to dig deeper into the details of our ancient past. Following strict ethical protocols, regional teams of Genographic scientists are collaborating with indigenous and traditional people worldwide to analyze their DNA. Because of their relative isolation, they retain the ancestral context in which their genetic diversity arose.

The Museum of Man exhibit takes visitors along the migration map from 60,000 years ago and traces the routes of female and male descendants of the earliest African hominids. Their paths are found in our own DNA.

For more information, call the Museum of Man, 619-239-2001 or send an email.

New York: JGSNY member brunch, Nov. 15

The Jewish Genealogical Society of New York will hold its membership brunch on Sunday, November 15, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan.

The kosher dairy buffet at 11am will be followed by guest curator Karen Franklin speaking on "Creating the Morgenthau Exhibition: a Family Historian confronts the Twentieth Century." Karen will lead opening day tours of the exhibit after her program.

For more information, click here. The reservation deadline is November 6. Fee: members, $20; others, $25.

She will describe how a simple genealogy request resulted in her participation in an exciting reinterpretation of the family's role in public service and service to the Jewish community.

Karen uncovered fascinating personal stories and documents through two years of research in dozens of archives, libraries and private collections, and she will describe these discoveries, many of which are not in this exhibit.

A co-chair of the Board of Governors of JewishGen, she is a past president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and a past chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums. She serves on the board of ICOM-US (International Council of Museums), and the International Committee of Memorial Museums of ICOM, and is an Obermayer German Jewish History Award juror. She also holds the distinction of being the Jewish museum director elected to the American Association of Museums board.

A researcher on looted art, she has worked on cases for the Origins Unknown Agency in the Netherlands, the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, and the U. S. Treasury Department. In June she spoke at the Holocaust Looted Assets Conference in Prague as a member of the Judaica and Jewish Cultural Property Working Committee.

For more information, click here or send an email. The reservation deadline is November 6. Fee: members, $20; others, $25.