Jewish Music: International winners announced

Musicians in the family?

Here are more you may not have known about. They are the winners of the second International Jewish Music Festival, held in Amsterdam.

Participants included 24 groups from 12 countries.

As in 2008, the Amsterdam-based festival managed to attract top ensembles from around the world to this unique competition. The pre-selected 24 ensembles came from 12 countries and four continents. For them, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to showcase their talent for an audience of programmers, agents and aficionados. The jury included world-renowned Yiddish singer Adrienne Cooper and klezmer expert Hankus Netsky.

Eight workshops were also presented, incuding Adrienne Cooper's Yiddish/Ladino masterclass and the famed Hankus Netsky's Instant Klezmer workshop.

The first-place winner was a Chassidic band, The Heart & The Wellspring (Israel).

Other winners:

Mames Babegenush (Denmark)
Voice of the Levites (Israel)
Shir (UK) - Best Yiddish song
Di Gojim (Netherlands)
Yonit Shaked Golan & Gabi Argov (Israel)
Lafra (Spain) - Best Sephardic performance
Klezmafour (Poland)
Trio C Tot De Derde (Netherlands)
Vent d'Ouest Klezmer Band (France)

To view an 11-minute documentary of the finale, click here.

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.

New York: Sephardic Book Fair, July 25

The first New York Sephardic Jewish Book Fair - with book readings, author signings, book sales and tours - is set for Sunday, July 25.

Hosted by the American Sephardi Federation (ASF), will be held from noon-5pm, at the Steinberg Great Hall at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W. 16th Street.

The free event, open to the public, will include authors and book lovers, those who write about and read about the culture, history, philosophy, religion, languages and experiences of the Sephardic Jews, past and present.

Hundreds of titles of Sephardic-oriented books, including many rare titles, will be available for sale by the Sephardic House bookstore, as well as by unique vendors that specialize in Sephardic Judaica.

Several visiting authors will discuss a wide range of topics including personal histories, Sephardic history, philosophy, culture and religion. The day's key author and speaker will be Dr. Marc D. Angel, founder of The Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals and Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Shearith Israel, North America's oldest Jewish congregation.

The fair will also feature a display of rare Sephardic books from the ASF Library and Archives, while Yeshiva University Museum will hold tours of their current exhibit: "A Journey Through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books."

The Braginsky Collection includes handwritten manuscripts and printed books from Holland, Italy, Spain, Greece and India.

There will also be hourly free door prizes for attendees.

The ASF promotes and preserves the spiritual, historical, cultural and social traditions of all Sephardic communities as an integral part of Jewish heritage.

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.

SephardicGen.com: New searchable databases

SephardicGen.com holds excellent resources for those researching their Sephardic families from many countries.

Search the Consolidated Index of Sephardic Surnames with more than 85,800 names.

Among the new searchable databases on SephardicGen.com, compiled and maintained by pioneer Sephardic genealogist Dr. Jeff Malka, are the following:

- Dictionary of Bulgarian Jewish surnames
- Jewish surnames, Juderia of Tarrazona
- Personal files, Amsterdam Community, CAHJP
- Records of Portuguese Inquisition Trials (1583-1656, 1716-1717), CAHJP
- Victims of the Libya Riots
- Census of Jewish Family heads; Belgrade, Serbia
- Sephardic graves, Mount of Olives cemetery, Jerusalem
- VazDias database of aliases, Amsterdam
- Names from the Pautas (orphan girls, etc.), Amsterdam
- Names from the old cemeteries of Algiers
- Sephardic tombstones, marriages, births; Vienna, Austria
- Surnames from all Hispania Judaica books
- Tombstones, Trieste cemetery
- Jewish Surnames, Lebanon
- Craiova memorial of Jews who died in Balkan Wars and WWI

Access all these and many more here. Mathilde Tagger created these databases for SephardicGen.

Netherlands: Miep Gies dead at 100

Miep Gies is dead in the Netherlands at age 100, according to the BBC.

BBC cited Miep Gies' website as its source.

Gies was the last survivor of a group that helped protect Anne Frank, her family and the others hiding in a secret annex from the Nazis from 1942-1944, when the Jews were betrayed and deported. Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen in 1945.

The employees of Otto Frank - Anne's father - provided food and other essentials to the people hiding at Prinsengracht 263, Amsterdam. Gies was a secretary of Otto, whose office was in the building.

The other protectors, in addition to Gies, were Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Bep Voskuijl, Jan Gies and Johan Voskuijl.

After the family was taken away, Gies gathered Anne's papers and kept them safe until after the war. She returned the papers to Otto Frank, who survived, and assisted him to compile the diary published in 1947. To date, it has sold tens of millions of copies in many languages.

Gies also wrote a book, "Anne Frank Remembered. The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family," published in a new edition in February 2009.

According to the BBC story:

Speaking last year as she celebrated her 100th birthday, Mrs Gies played down her role, saying others had done far more to protect Jews in the Netherlands.

Gies traveled extensively, talked about Anne's experiences, campaigned against Holocaust denial and refuted claims that the diary was forged. She was often honored for her efforts to protect the family and their memory.

In the BBC story, she describes finding the pages after the family was taken away.

Read the complete story here and also see Miep Gies' website for more information.

Tales of success: How sweet it is!

Back in June, Kevin Bowman in Ohio wrote to Tracing the Tribe about his Dutch Jewish ancestry, and shared information on the Akevoth database of Ashkenazim in 18th-century Amsterdam.

He used the Akevoth database to find information on his EZEKIEL family. The photo below is Moses Jacob Ezekiel at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), who fought in the battle at New Market.


Just recently, he found additional success using a new UK database, SynagogueScribes.com, described by Tracing the Tribe.

Here's more on his two reports of success:

In addition to informing me about the Akevoth database, he described his success over several months.

I find it is the most extraordinary website. With this database, I have taken my family tree back 200 years beyond the tree that Rabbi Stern mapped in "First American Jewish Families."

He reported on the ancestors of his great-great-great-grandfather Jacob Ezekiel, a prominent American Jew, whose family was mapped by Stern here. His son, Moses Jacob (photo above), became a famous sculptor. Kevin did note that the points mapped by Stern each led to a brick wall on his genealogical quest.

Kevin knew the family adopted the surname in the US, but were known as Schreiber in the Netherlands. As he played with name variants, he discovered the Akevoth database.

Just googling around with alternative names, one day, I ran into the Akevoth database, and found this.

I was stunned to compare what I knew about the Ezekiel family to Jacob Jokeb Ezechiel Posnan(s)ki Schreiber’s family in the database. It matched nearly perfectly. Then, even more amazingly, it mapped out family trees going back another 200 years.

Says Kevin, an Ohio attorney, matching American families to the Dutch database is a difficult process because of changes in spelling, surname and others. He has been successful more than once, and believes that several of Stern's family trees could be expanded using the Akevoth database.

Occasionally, he's found people in the notes that should have been in the trees, but were somehow overlooked.

As an example, he writes about Sarah Abraham Waterman (Wasserman), listed as the wife of Michiel Mozes Doesburg Gompert Kleef, but not listed among the children of Abraham Waterman, despite the clear connection. The family moved to England and became Gompertz and their children moved to the US.

He recommends searching the entire website with alternative names to see if there are any missed connections, and also recommends variants with "ben" and "bat" as these constructions appear frequently.

Kevin, who also has Sephardic ancestry (De Castro), says the Ashkenazi database is far better than the Sephardic stuff available. Although materials consistently report that the Ezekiels were Sephardic, as does the family legend, and the fact that they attended a Philadelphia Sephardic synagogue, records reveal a patrilineal Ashkenazi family.

However, he's never been able to connect any of the individuals listed by Rabbi Stern on the De Castro to any information regarding Sephardic Jews in the Netherlands, except for one marriage entry (possibly!). But he keeps trying!

He further describes the transformation of the Kerkhoven surname into Myers in the US, which could help Myers descendants go back in time.

Aaltje Abraham Waterman, the sister of Kevin's Step-GGGG-Grandfather, married Emanuel Jacob Kerkhoven, son of Jacob Levie Kerkhoven. See this Akevoth family page. In the US, she became Adeline and he Emanuel Jacob Myers (see this Stern page)

In early December, Kevin had another round of success. Following his reading our post about CemeteryScribes.com and SynagogueScribes.com, his quest revealed the marriage record of his GGGG grandparents.

I always recommend that people using new databases and sites write to them when they find success, and that's what Kevin did. Gaby Laws of SynagogueScribes.com then forwarded his email to me.

I heard about your site through the Jewish Geneablog "Tracing the Tribe." They suggested that you may like to hear about any success in using your database. I think I may have found the marriage record of my 4xG Grandparents.

Ref.No. GSM 232/39 shows a marriage record Jabob Elias (Jeker ben Eliahu) who married Eliza Barnett (Libisha bat Jacob Simon) at the Great Synagogue in London on August 3, 1825. The dates and names all seem to fit, although I did not know Eliza's maiden name.

By 1849, Jacob Elias had died and Eliza remarried, their daughter Kate married John Bowman and the whole family moved to Chicago.This new information may have knocked down a brick wall for me.

We are all inspired by such stories of achievement, and Kevin has done very well in 2009.

When you find success, write in or comment on the relevant Tracing the Tribe post. Also, tell the database or website described that you learned about it here. This makes all of us very happy for you! Success inspires success.

Tracing the Tribe wishes Kevin and all our readers continued genealogical good fortune at this festive time of miracles!

Call for Papers: Journal for study of Sephardic/Mizrahi Jewry

Florida International University is now publishing a new Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry; the call for papers is out for the Winter 2009 edition.

It is an ongoing, interdisciplinary project which draws upon the expertise of leading scholars and covers all aspects of the Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish experience.

Even better, the new journal is free, fully online, and easily accessible to everyone via the journal website. Four issues are now online.

The publication is part of FIU's President Navon Program for the Study of Sephardic & Mizrahi Jewry. Dr. Zion Zohar is editor, and Abraham Lavender (well-known to Sephardic Jewish genealogists and the Society of Crypto-Judaic Studies) is the book review editor. The editoral board includes Jane S. Gerber, Norman Stillman, and other experts.

Perusing the four online issues, there seem to be many Kabbalah-focused articles (many aspects), which is not one of Tracing the Tribe's favorite subjects although other readers are fascinated by this topic.

Tracing the Tribe found the following articles interesting.

Abraham D. Lavender: DNA Origins and Current Consequences for Sephardi, Mizrahi, and Ashkenazi Males and Females: Latest Results from Medical, Genealogical-Familial, and National-Ethnic Research

Matthew Warshawsky: Trans-Atlantic Crypto-Judaism and Literary Homage: Tomás Treviño de Sobremonte and the Women in his Life

Abraham D. Lavender: Book review: Jonathan Ray. The Sephardic Frontier: The Reconquista and the Jewish Community in Medieval Iberia. The book's seven chapters are 1-The Migration of Jewish Settlers to the Frontier, 2-Jewish Landownership, 3-Money-lending and Beyond: The Jews in the Economic Life of the Frontier, 4-Royal Authority and the Legal Status of Iberian Jewry, 5-Jewish Communal Organization and Authority, 6-Communal Tensions and the Question of Jewish Autonomy, and 7-Maintenance of Social Boundaries on the Iberian Frontier.

Here's only a small portion of Lavender's four-page review:

The Sephardic Frontier uses a large amount of unpublished material in royal, ecclesiastical, and municipal archives, as well as rabbinic literature, to suggest a new view of this time period. Ray, studying Jewish and non-Jewish life in the frontier of al-Andalus following the expulsion of the Muslims, argues that the significant depletion of population caused by the expulsion of most Muslims from al-Andalus, and the subsequent successful efforts to repopulate this area with Christians as well as with Jews from other sections of Iberia and areas outside Iberia, resulted in Jewish life that was different from that in other parts of Iberia. This challenges the traditional historical view which has taught that already developed Jewish communities, mostly from other areas of Iberia, were reestablished in al-Andalus ...

Samantha Baskind: Picturing Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam. This is a very interesting 13-page article focusing on how Jews were depicted in contemporary art of the time. Here's a small portion (I highly recommend reading the entire article for interesting insights into how our ancestors lived):

By showing the Ashkenazim bound to ritual, artists offered a particular vision that fulfilled the imaginings of the Gentile population. In contrast, by picturing the less “serious” (and by extension seemingly less “religious”) Sephardic Jew in fashionable attire and with trimmed facial hair, artists presented the Sephardim as understandable within a Dutch context, thereby defying the “physiological and psychological unknown” to borrow Barbara Stafford’s apt phrase. The manner by which the Sephardim were pictured in prints during this period gave assurance to viewers fearful of the Other, of the foreign Jew who, in fact, was not so foreign. Moreover, as an observed subject, the Ashkenazi Jew became an understood subject, and even more significantly, the Sephardic-Ashkenazi disparity demonstrated that “the Jew” was clearly able to reform (i.e., become Dutch, to a degree), as the Portuguese Jews had already done.

Each issue also features a list of books received and available for review - I wish I had them all. Here are a few:

Aviva Ben-Ur. Sephardic Jews in America: A Diasporic History, (New York: New York University Press, 2009) 321 pages.

Joseph B. Glass and Ruth Kark. Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Jerusalem: The Valero Family 1800-1948, (Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2007) 440 pages.

Emily Gottreich. The Mellah of Marrakesh: Jewish and Muslim Space in Morocco's Red City, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007) 211 pages.

Antonio Munoz Molina and T.A. Perry. Traces of Sepharad/Huellas de Sefarad, Etchings of Judeo-Spanish Proverbs, (New York: Gravity Free Press, 2008) 143 pages.

Zion Zohar. (Editor), Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry - from the Golden Age of Spain to Modern Times, (New York: New York University Press, 2005) 352 pages.

Academics in Sephardic and Mizrahi studies are invited to submit articles and contribute to the new journal. Among the benefits is the short time span between submission and publishing compared to other journals. If you are interested in contributing to this online publication, see submission guidelines and instruction sheet here. The Call for Papers is here.

Read the complete articles at the links above.

Amsterdam: Saving more than 100

Ten minutes from Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam is another building that saved 100 Jews.

The story of Dr. Tina Strobos was detailed in the New York Times.

Now 89, she continues to be honored for the brave deeds of some seven decades ago. Working with her mother, the then-medical student hid the Jews in their three-story rooming house.

That sanctuary, which included an attic lair that was never discovered, was just a 10-minute stroll from a more famous hideout: Anne Frank’s at 263 Prinsengracht. Indeed, the question of why the Franks did not have an escape hatch for when the Gestapo barged in gets her fairly worked up.

At her home, the Jews were stowed away on the upper floors with quick access to the attic, which had a secret compartment for two or three people to cram into. “A carpenter came with a toolbox and said: ‘I’m a carpenter from the underground. Show me the house, and I’ll build a hiding place,’ ” she recalled.

There was an alarm bell on the second floor so she or her mother, Marie Schotte, could alert those above. They drilled their fugitives in how to scramble out a window to a roof and make their way to an adjoining school, which was not likely to be raided.

A psychiatrist who retired last May, Strobos was honored Monday by the Westchester-based Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center.

Along with hiding individuals, she carried news and ration stamps to Jews on farms outside the city, carried radios and guns for the Dutch resistance. Nine times she was seized or questioned by the Gestapo. So why did she do it for people she barely knew?

“It’s the right thing to do,” she said with nonchalance. “Your conscience tells you to do it. I believe in heroism, and when you’re young, you want to do dangerous things.”

The Center's director Donna Cohen says this philosophy is "learned behavior."

Strobos' family were socialist atheists who sheltered Belgian refugees during World War I and hid German and Austrian refugees before World War II. She had close Jewish friends and even a Jewish fiancé (although not her husband) Abraham Pais, who went on to become a particle physicist.

In addition, Strobos created false papers by stealing documents from gentile guests and adding new photos and fingerprints. The family's six-bedroom house was a way station, until better hiding places could be found.

Among the people who lodged with her was her close friend Tirtsah Van Amerongen, a blonde who passed for a gentile, and her sister and brother-in-law. She hid an Orthodox couple with five children, who brought their own kosher food. She helped Jews in other hideouts, including a prominent impressionist, Martin Monnickendam, who painted her portrait, which now hangs in her apartment, at a residence for older people.

Read the complete story at the link above for more of her story.

UK: London Jewish genealogy conference, Oct. 25

Will you be in London or elsewhere in the UK in late October? If so, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain's 16th London Conference is set for Sunday, October 25.

Only 19 days to go, for this full-day conference. It runs from 10am-4.30pm, at 33 Seymour Place, W1, and includes a light buffet Lunch with the Experts and two refreshment breaks.

The event sells out every year, so register quickly; the link has the conference newsletter and registration form.

For speaker bios and program abstracts, click on the newsletter link. The speakers are:

-Dr Ruth Levitt: Jews in the Netherlands: Researching the Wiener Library's Dutch Collection.

-Dr Carol Reeves: Tracing your Ancestors through Medical Records.

-Prof. Tony Kushner: Anglo-Jewry since 1066: Place. Locality and Memory.

-Elaine Collins: Findmypast.com's director will demonstrate how to get the most from this website including major online databses, 1911 census and outbound passenger lists.

Make sure you have a seat and avoid the waiting list! Register today.

The cost: Register by Friday, October 9, for £30; After that date, £35. There is a vegetarian lunch option (see registration form for details).

SephardicGen: Sephardic Jewish aliases, Amsterdam

Jeff Malka of SephardicGen.com has just informed Tracing the Tribe of a new database containing 1,888 alias names used in Amsterdam by Sephardic Jews.

The list was prepared from the index by Abraham de Mordechai Vaz Dias which is preserved at the Amsterdam Stadsarchief (State Archive).

When the Conversos fled Portugal to settle in Amsterdam they returned openly to Judaism. Because they often still had relatives in Portugal, they tried to protect them by using aliases in their transactions. However, it wasn't only the Portuguese who wound up in Amsterdam. Even a century after 1492, conversos were finding their way from Spain to Amsterdam. It is a convoluted history as many Spanish Jews fled to Portugal in 1492, as they thought they would be safe. They were - but only for a few years. In 1497, they again had to make a choice of convert or flee.

In those days, Portuguese was a synonym for Sephardic Jewish, and encompassed the Spanish Jews as well. Listing a person as a Portuguese merchant generally meant he was Jewish. Their family contacts worldwide, along with their language skills, were great commercial assets in their farflung business ventures. And in their contacts with family back home, they had to be discreet as to not bring suspicion on relatives left behind.

One man was known by 12 aliases. Here are the names and years of these aliases. Will the real Antonio Hidalgo o Velho please stand up?

1657 - Antonio Hidalgo o Velho
1659, 1665 - Antonio Hidalgo
1657 - Antonio Cortissos
1665 - Jacob Semah Cortissos
1657 - Jacob Cortissos
1659 - Antonio Hidalgo

Antonio/Jacob's Jewish name was Isac (Isaac), and he also used these Jewish surnames (and corresponding aliases):

1647 - Semas (Antonio da Costa Cortissos)
1647 - Semach Cortissos (Antonio da Costa (Cortissos)
1648 - Semach (Antonio da Costa Cortissos)

Antonio da Costa (Cortissos) was also known as Teunis van den Coster (1657).

Vaz Dias, in the first half of the 20th century, went through the archives' notarial records and identified the aliases, preparing a separate card index (identified as archive no. 5059, inventory nos. 267 and 268) providing an individual's Jewish name and its aliase as well as the notarial record identifying that alias.

Vibeke Sealtiël Olsen transcribed the card index collection into a database made available to SephardicGen. Many surnames are composite surnames (Da Costa, D'Aguire, etc.) which creates problems in searching for a specific name. Due to this problem, use the "contains" search parameter.

As I am always looking for clues to TALALAY, I entered "tal" and searched for "contains."

Although there were none, the results were interesting in terms of variations in family and first names:

Italiaander, Abraham -> Levi Victoria, Abraham - 1697
Italian, Jan Pietersz -> Leon, Isak Jehuda - 1645
de Luna Montalto, Abraham -> Hogenberch, Abraham - 1676
Montalto, Isac -> de Luna Montalto, Lopo - 1618
Luna Montalto, Michael -> Montalto, Mozes - 1618
Montalto, Mozes -> de Luna Montalto, Michael - 1618
Correa de Vega, Gil -> Mocatta, Jacob - 1645
Roemer, Gerrit -> Martens, Gerrit - 1710
Roemer, Gerrit -> Henrigues Faro, David - 1710

When you consider the famous Abravenel family, here spelled Abarbanel, we see the following:

Abarbanel, Isaque -> Lopes Gomes, Francisco - 1638
Abarbanel, Isaque -> d"Aguilar, Alonco - 1696
Abarbanel, Joseph -> Homen, Pedro Manuel Thomas - ?
Abarbanel, Joseph -> Da Serra, Joseph - 1674
Abarbanel, Mozes Baruch -> Van Der Graft, Albertus -1671
Abarbanel, Pinechas -> Thomas, Manuel - 1615
Abarbanel, Samuel -> De Souza, Samuel - 1649
Abarbanel, Samuel -> Rodrigues de Sousa, Jeronimo - 1616
Abarbanel, Sara Meyer -> Da Silveira, Philippa - 1669
Abrabanel, Efraim -> Fernandez, Tomas - 1615

There were Cohens whose aliases were Luis, da Costa, d'Azevedo, Henriques, Carlos, Levi, de Rocha Pinto, da Silva Ramos, Dias and Ergas.

Remember to read the FAQ for tips on searching. Search this database here.

Amsterdam Sephardim: Where did they go?

If you are searching for Sephardic Jewish ancestors, check out Dr. Jeff Malka's frequently updated SephardicGen.com.

Jeff is a pioneer expert Sephardic researcher, and his book, "Sephardic Genealogy," is a must-read for those thinking about beginning a project or who need more information to make progress.

From 1759-1813, nearly 450 poor Sephardic families were provided with funds (tzedekah, Hebrew for charity) to leave Amsterdam for other parts. They promised not to return to the city for 15 years.

Tracing the Tribe has previously written here and here about additional Sephardic records available elsewhere. For more Sephardic posts that may help your quest, use the blog's Google-powered search.

Concerning this list:

This alphabetic list was found in the Sephardic Jewish Registers PA334-978/979 "Registros dos Despachos" (Registers of Dispatched Persons), Amsterdam Municipality Archives. The list covers the period 1759-1813 with all the names of the poor Sephardic Jews who were granted Sedaca (charity) - an amount in Dutch florins- against the promise to leave Amsterdam and not to return within the next 15 years.

The index was prepared by Vibeke Sealtiel Olsen.

Destinations listed (and number of families): Altona (2), Barbados (2), Bayonne (9), Beograd (1), Bordeaux (18), Copenhagen (1), Curacao (71), Cuyden (1), Da Isla (1), Den Haag (1), Emden (3), Frisia (1), Gibraltar (3), Hamburg (31), Isla Demarara(1), Istanbul (3), Izmir (1), Jamaica (16), Livorno (12), London (58), Mantua (1), Marseille (1), Mogador (2), New York (2), Paris(3), Philadelphia (1), Rotterdam (1), St. Eustatius (19), Trieste (2), Tunis (1), Venice (2) and Vienna (1).

Countries listed: America, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Guyana, Israel (Palestine), Italy, Jamaica, Morocco, Netherlands Antilles, Serbia, Suriname, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, US and the West Indies. See important note below on searching for countries.

You can search by surname, first name, city or country. Searching by country, I found one anomaly. clicking "America" brought the record of Aron LOPES COLACO to America in 1784, via Bordeaux, France.

Clicking "USA" returned three records: Abraham b. Ely AZUBY to 1783 Philadelphia, Sara (nee SASO) COHEN DA SILVA (widow of Ebiatar) to 1759 New York, and Joseph LEVY FLORES, also to 1759 New York via London.

Clicking "Israel" - a misnomer as the country did not exist in the year of the record 1759 - shows Isaac LOPES GONSALES and his wife.

Clicking "UK" brings 59 records. The first 10 are for the families of Aron b. Isay ACOHEN (HACOHEN) 1770 with wife and three children, Aron b. David ALVARES 1802 with wife and two children, Semuel AZOUGE 1766 with wife and six children, Imanuel b. Jacob AZULAY 1765 with wife, Moseh AZULAY 1776, Abraham b. Isaac BARUH 1789 (grandson of Zeharia), Rachel BERNAL 1790 widow of Abraham, Eliau BUZAGLO 1789 with two children, Sara b. Ishac CARTZO 1764 and Isaac COHEN DE AZEDO 1789.

In 1766, Semuel Azouge with his wife and six children received only FL40, while in 1770, Aron ACOHEN, his wife and three children received FL200. Individuals such as widow Bernal received only FL25 in 1770, while other single travelers received from 40-60FL.

Other families to London: CORTISOS, DA COSTA DE ANDRADE, DASILVA SOLIS, DECANEZES, DE LA PENHA, DE LEON, DELGADO, DE LIMA, DE LIMA A BELMONTE, DELMONTE, DE PALACIOS, DE TORES, DIAS SANTILHANA, FERRO, GARCIA, ISRAEL, JESSURUN, JESURUN AL;VARES, LEDESMA, LEVY MENASE, LOPES MELHADO, MASSAHOEL DE CHAVES, MASSIAS BLAAUW, MENDES, MENDES ALVARAS, MENDES CHUMASERO, MENDES QUIROS, MONTEZINOS, MUNIA, NUNES DA COSTA, NUNES DE ANDRADE, NUNES FERO, NUNES PEREIRA, PEREYRA, PIZA, RAMOS,R0DRIGES MENDES, RODRIQUES GARSIA, ROMANEL, SAQUY, TALANO.

The record may include other details as to how and where they traveled to their destination, how much money they received, whether they went with spouses and how many children, if a woman was a widow (and her husband's name), father's name, names of spouses, even grandparents' names in some cases, etc.

Not everyone went far from Amsterdam, some went to other cities in the Netherlands. In 1787, Simon b. Jacob De Leon and his wife, went to Den Haag (The Hague), and was given FL25 to do so. In 1763, Jacob b. Ishac LOPES went to Frisia (possibly Friesland?), and, in 1808, Ishac ALVARES VEGA went to Rotterdam with his wife and two children.

Search anomalies: If you click Netherlands Antilles as a country, there are no hits (because it did not exist when the records were produced). If you click Curacao in the city list with Netherlands Antilles in the country list, there are no hits. If you click Curacao in the city list, with a blank for the country, the database returns 71 results.

Thus, it is better to click the city list as some countries did not exist at the time these people left Amsterdam. If no hits result on one set of parameters, change them.

UPDATE NOTE: On May 15, I received an email from Dr. Jeff Malka of SephardicGen: "I took advantage of your testing and fixed the problems you noticed with the Netherlands Antilles and Israel. I had missed them!"

This database is an excellent source of Sephardic names with many genealogical details.

Feeling stressed? Maybe this will help

Forbes.com just put out the list of the top 10 happiest countries to live in.

According to a British Medical Journal 2005, research in several countries indicated that although individuals typically get richer during their lifetimes, they don't get happier. What brings joy is family, social and community networks.

Tracing the Tribe hopes that includes genealogy communities!

Here's the list:

1- Denmark
2- Finland
3- Netherlands
4- Sweden
5- Ireland
6- Canada
7- Switzerland
8- New Zealand
9- Norway
10- Belgium

Data was used from last year's Gallup World Poll conducted in 140 countries, which asked respondents whether they had experienced six different forms of positive or negative feelings within the last day.

Sample questions: Did you enjoy something you did yesterday? Were you proud of something you did yesteday? Did you learn something yesterday? Were you treated with respect yesterday? No more than 1,000 people, age 15 or older, were surveyed in each country. and the poll was scored from 1-100. The average score was 62.4.

Genealogists would likely answer these questions positively!

Overall economic health was a strong factor. Although the global economic crisis has been felt in every nation, those scoring highest in this poll had some of the highest GDPs per capita in the world.

However, wealth wasn't the highest indicator. Although Norway ranked highest in GDP per capita, it ranked ninth in the list, despite a GDP per capita of nearly $100,000. New Zealand's GDP per capita was only a little more than $30,000, yet ranked eighth.

Another important factor is work-life balance. Scandinavian countries work 37 hours per week or less. Low-scoring China has a 47-hour workweek and a GDP per capita of only $3,600.

Low unemployment contributes to happiness. The OECD resercher says "not having a job makes one substantially less satisfied." Top-ranked Denmark has an unemployment rate of only 2%; the Netherlands, 4.5%; the US, 9% - which didn't make the top 10.

Read the complete article here.

Book: A war story told in hidden letters

A workman finds hidden letters from the past that tell a young man's war-time tale.

Now a book, The Jewish Exponent's literary editor Robert Leiter reviews it here.

In 1997, Manus de Groot, the foreman of a demolition company, was tearing down a house along Amsterdam's Vrolik Street when he found two bundles of letters hidden in the ceiling of the third-floor bathroom. It struck him that the correspondence must be of some importance since there was so much of it -- 86 letters and postcards, and one telegram. They had all been written in a single year, 1942, by Philip Slier, known to friends and family as Flip, from a forced-labor camp. He was just 18 years old at the time, and his correspondence was all directed to his parents.

De Groot read through them and took them to the Dutch National Institute of War Documentation.

The only condition he made was that he eventually be told what had happened to the young man and his family, and if there were any survivors. As the book's publisher and co-annotator, Deborah Slier, states in her introductory remarks to Hidden Letters, this book is de Groot's answer.

Children's book publisher Deborah Slier annotated the letters and her company, Star Bright Books, published it - their first adult title. Slier was also personally involved as Flip was her first cousin; she acquired the letters in 1999. For seven years, Slier and co-annotator Ian Shine tracked down details and annotated the letters. The book contains 86 letters and postcards, maps, documents, and 300 photographs (most taken by Flip).

Slier's father and Flip's father were Amsterdam-born brothers; Slier's father emigrated to South Africa in 1922. Before the war broke out, 56 relatives lived in Amsterdam and other European countries (in addition to Slier's branch). At the end of the war, her family received a letter saying that the Slier brothers, sister and mother had died in camps.

The Germans invaded in May 1940 when Flip was 17. By 1942, Jews were prohibited from nearly all work. Once unemployed, they were sent to some 50 work camps in the Netherlands. Flip was sent to Molengoot camp in spring 1942; one of 7,000 Jews sent to a work camp.

The young man was working as an apprentice typesetter at the daily paper Algemeen Handelsblad. The book's bio says

...he was just about 5 feet, 8 inches tall, weighed 156 pounds, had black hair and gray eyes. "He was a good-natured, gregarious young man who was described by his friend Karel van der Schaarf as brutaal -- that is, audacious."

In April 1943, the Jewish Council ordered him to the Molengoot camp, where he continued to send upbeat letters to his family. He later escapes, knowing that family members had died in Auschwitz. In Amsterdam, he was hidden, obtained false papers, and even saw friends and family occasionally. Arrrested at Amsterdam Central Station, he was sent to another Dutch camp - Vught - and then to Sobibor in Poland, where he was killed.

Writes Leiter:

Flip's extraordinary spirit and the irrepressible nature of his personality come directly through his 86 pieces of correspondence. When you read them, you touch -- and are touched by -- an astonishing individual.

Read the complete review here.

Netherlands: New chief rabbi's priorities

The European Jewish Press reported on the newly appointed Netherlands Chief Rabbi, Binyamin Jacobs. He's the first to hold the position since 1986.

One of his major tasks will be to seek out Jews who were adopted by Christians during WWII.

As chief rabbi of Holland, Rabbi Jacobs is determined to locate thousands of individuals residing in Holland whose parents perished in the Holocaust and whowere adopted and raised as non-Jews.

Some 100,000 on a total of 140,000 Dutch Jews were killed by the Nazis between 1940 and 1945.

"It's quite shocking for me as a rabbi, to realize that people were born, raised and even passed away, without knowing that they were Jews", he said.

During WWII many Dutch citizens came to the assistance of Jews persecuted by the Nazis.

One of the means of assistance was to adopt the children of Holocaust victims.

However, since the war, there have been a series of court cases between adoptive families and relatives of the adopted children. Relatives returned to the Netherlands after the war to reclaim and return children to surviving family. In most cases, judges ruled in favor of the adopting families.

Jacobs himself reported that he had information about his own relatives who remained under their adoptive families until they were quite advanced in years. There are archives and documents, he said, that may lead to the whereabouts of those children who are now elderly.

He plans to access the sensitive data and, as a rabbi, he said he will demand the material be made available to him.

His other priority is the restoration and maintenance of Jewish cemeteries throughout Holland. Read more on this at the International Jewish Graveyard Rabbit.

Cemeteries were created as early as the 17th century by Sephardic Jews escaping from the Iberian peninsula. Jacobs believes the Dutch government should participate in the preservation and maintence of these sites because of their historical value.

Brussels: Low Countries Jewish Studies, May 20

It seems to be conference time again, and here's one at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, on Jewish Studies in the Low Countries, set for May 20, 2009

The Institute of Jewish Studies organizes for the second time an interdisciplinary conference concerning Jewish Studies on the Low Countries at the University of Antwerp. The purpose of the conference is to facilitate contacts between researchers working within this area of study.

We especially encourage young researchers to participate in the workshop. We also hope for contributions from more established researchers, in order to establish a positive exchange between different research generations.

Presentations may include works in progress. We welcome all themes and disciplines within Jewish Studies concerning the Low Countries. Proposals need not be limited to a specific historical period. Both individual and panel proposals are possible. The conference languages are Dutch and English.

A 400-word abstract and CV must be received by December 18, 2008. For more information, contact Karin Hofmeester.

Germany: 47 Jewish cemeteries documented

The Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History in Duisburg, Germany has documented 47 Jewish cemeteries in the Euregio Rhein Maas region - part of North Rhine Westfalia and part of the Dutch province of Limburg

The online searchable database of these cemeteries offers more than 3,400 gravestone inscriptions (1715 is the oldest), with German translations, commentaries, biographical details and photographs. It will be continuously updated. The Institute welcomes additions, corrections and biographical details.

Names, years of death, the Hebrew, German and Dutch inscriptions and translations into German are fully searchable in both German and Hebrew.

These are the cemeteries (NL=Netherlands; D=Germany):

B: Boxmeer/Vierlingsbeek (Nl), Brueggen (D), Brueggen-Bracht (D),
D: Dormagen (D), Dormagen-Zons (D),
G: Geldern (D), Gennep (Nl), Grevenbroich (D), Gr-Hemmerden (D), Gr-Huelchrath (D), Gr-Wevelinghoven (D), Grimlinghausen (D),
I: Issum (D), J: Juechen (D), J-Garzweiler (D), J-Hochneukirch (D),
K: Kempen (D), Korschenbroich (D), K-Glehn (D), Krefeld (new cemetery) (D), Kr-Huels (D), Kr-Linn (D),
M: Meerbusch-Lank-Latum (D), Moenchengladbach (D), Mg-Giesenkirchen (D), Mg-Odenkirchen (D), Mg-Rheindahlen (D), Mg-Rheydt (D), Mg-Wickrath (D),
N: Nettetal-Kaldenkirchen (D), Neuss (D),
R: Roermond (Oude Kerkhof, old andnew part) (Nl), Rommerskirchen (D), R-Butzheim (D),
S: Schiefbahn (Bertzweg) (D), Schiefbahn-Knickelsdorf (D), Schwalmtal-Waldniel (D), Sittard (Nl),
T: Toenisvorst-St. Toenis (D), T-Vorst (D),
V: Venlo (old and new cemetery) (Nl), Viersen (D), V-Duelken (D), V-Suechteln (D),
W: Willich (D), W-Anrath (D)

The "image-text inventory, documentation and comparative research on Jewish cemeteries in Dutch and German frame of reference" was carried out within the framework of a "setup of a euregional network for regional historic research" sponsored by the euregio rhein-maas-nord, the provincial government in Limburg and the government of North Rhine Westfalia.

The database, which has now been presented online, contains more than 3,400 gravestone inscriptions, the oldest from the year 1715, with German translations, commentaries, biographical details and photographs. It will be continously complemented (additions and corrections,particularly those of biographical details, are welcome!).

Access the database here, and also view Arolsen, the old cemetery of Frankfurt am Main (Battonnstrasse), Hamburg-Altona, Muelheim an der Ruhr and Winsen.

Here's an example of a burial in Muelheim an der Ruhr.

Hitzle bat [Jeho]schua ∞ Schimon Mülheim [23.06.1725]

‎‏פה‏‎
‎‏טמונה אשה[...]
‎‏מרת היצלה בת‏‎
‎‏[...]ושע ז״ל אשת
‎‏שמעון מילם [?] שנפטרת‏‎
‎‏ונקברת ביום ד׳ כ״ג תמוז‏‎
‎‏שנת תפ״ה לפ״ק‏‎
תנצב״ה
Hier
ist geborgen eine Frau [...]
Frau Hitzle, Tochter von
Jeho]schua (?), sein Andenken zum Segen, Gattin des
Schimon Mülheim. Verschieden
und begraben am Tag 4, 23. Tammus
des Jahres 485 der kleinen Zählung.
Ihre Seele sei eingebunden in das Bündel des Lebens

The database is constantly being extended to include more cemeteries and inscriptions.

To access the database, select cemeteries under "Auswahlmenue." Searching can then be carried out in German or Hebrew (change language by [alt]+[shift]).

To look at only one cemetery, go to "Inschriften" to access chronologically arranged inscriptions. Go through the list individually or select a specific year at "Jahr."

There are more details under "Information," which now only appears in German.

Netherlands: Jewish genealogy society

The Netherlands Society for Jewish Genealogy was established in 1987. In 2007, its 20th anniversary year, saw some 500 members and the society celebrated with a symposium in Amsterdam.

Here is information on the 2007 symposium. The website is in English and Dutch, although symposium details are only in Dutch.

Its main goals and activities are:

- Sharing of genealogical data about Jewish families having lived or currently living in the Netherlands;

- Developing sources for research on Jewish families;

- Publication of a quarterly periodical (Dutch);

- Meetings and lectures;

- Encouraging genealogical research on Jewish families in the Netherlands and their ancestors from other countries;

- Study - from the genealogical view - on Dutch Jews throughout history.
Publications:

The annual Family Register includes the names of families for which members hold data; it helps members contact each other for additional research and collaboration.

The quarterly journal Misjpoge (Dutch-Yiddish: mishpokha, family, Hebrew). It appears in Dutch with an English summary. The Q&A section is very popular, and the latest issue's Q&As are also on the website. To publish a question or provide an answer, send to forum@nljewgen.org, with the family name in the subject line.

For more information on the society publications, email publications@nljewgen.org

Membership is 30 Euros or US$50; paid members receive the member list, Family Register and the current year of Misjpoge. The membership form is here.

Family names being researched by members and non-members are here.

Netherlands: Jewish home interior

Amsterdam researchers have found an almost-intact 1940s interior in a house that belonged to Jewish banker Lodewijk Korijn. According to them, the living room is apparently more authentic than the Anne Frank House.

In 1942, the Korijn family was transported to concentration camps. Since then, the interior has barely been touched.

The story is here, with photographs.

University of Amsterdam heritage studies instructor Alexander Westra discovered the room last year when working on a historic interiors project. He believes that the home should be protected heritage.

After the war, theology students used the house; the living room was their common area. In the hall is an original dresser, and the still-working lighting is historic.

Read more at the link above.

Amsterdam's Jewish history by bike

Amsterdamn's Jewish Historical Museum, the Amsterdam City Archive and the bike rental company MacBike have collaborated on mapping out a special bike route leading visitors through the "Hidden Treasures of Jewish Amsterdam."

Read "A bike trip through Mokum" by Michael Blass and Klaas den Tek here.

Amsterdam's deeply-rooted Jewish history is revealed in the city's popular nickname, Mokum. The word is a corruption of the Hebrew word makom, which means simply 'place.' Jews began settling in the city from the end of the 16th century, and despite the ravages of the Holocaust there is still much to be seen of the Jewish presence in Amsterdam.

Waterlooplein in Amsterdam is now dominated by the Stopera, a building that houses both the town hall and the Muziektheater. Only a line of stones set into the ground marks the place where the Jewish orphanage stood. It was once the district of Vlooienburg, home to 80 percent of Amsterdam's Jews.

"This used to be the heart of the Jewish neighbourhood," explains Daniël Bouw.

"The conditions were extremely bad, so many people chose to move to the Transvaal neighbourhood. But this still a very important district, because of its strong connections with the Jewish past."

The story covers Amsterdam's significant population since the 16th century, with the arrival of the first Jews from Spain and Portugal. The first Jew was registered as a citizen of the city in 1595. The city was a haven for persecuted Sephardim, who often returned to public Judaism on their arrival from countries where they had been forced to convert. They were welcomed for the business links, culture and science.

Ashkenazi Jews arrived in the 17th century. According to the story, if a Portuguese Jew married a German Jew, people called it a mixed marriage.

The Jewish presence in Amsterdam still has a clear voice in the city's everyday slang. Words with Jewish origins include mazzel (meaning good luck, but also used as a farewell), gabber (mate or pal - but in recent years also the name of a house music subculture), bajes (jail), and the nickname for Amsterdam itself, Mokum.

City buildings in a former Jewish area carry coats of arms of wealthy Sephardic families.

The bicycle tour was organized to inform visitors and tourists that there is much more to see in Amsterdam than the red light district, shopping streets and Dam Square.

Before the war, Amsterdam was home to 80,000 Jews; today the number is 20,000. The Holocaust figures in such monuments as the Dockworker on Jonas Daniël Meijerplein and the Auschwitz memorial in Wertheimpark.

Read the complete article here.