Przemysl: Blog, new forum

Even if you can't pronounce it, Przemysl researchers have set up a forum to compare notes and supplement resources found on JewishGen, JRI-Poland and Gesher Galicia.

Find the blog here and the forum here and see the list of topics being discussed.

The blog's title is "The Jewish Przemysl Blog - Sons and daughters of Jewish Przemysl, researching and remembering 700 years of Jewish life in our town."

The grassroots effort wil enable researchers to access context and history, while sharing information and collaboration among those with shared roots.

Participants will be able to compare notes, research and family stories. The blog is written by David Semme.

According to a report, some 55 people are aready registered for the forum, which is providing lively discussions, research breakthroughts and more.

Organizers are asking members to make suggestions as to improving he forum structure and functionality.

Go to the blog above and the forum link, click on the registration link.

Check out the new forum if your ancestors came from the town or environs.

Boston: Belarus Jewish history, cemetery restoration, Nov. 7

Boston readers with roots in Belarus should not miss the next program of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston on Sunday, November 7.

The meeting starts at 1.30pm at the Gann Academy, 333 Forest Street, Waltham.

Speakers Michael Lozman and Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild will provide an inside look at the history of Jews in Belarus and the work being done on Jewish cemeteries.

Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild, a Research Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, will speak on the history of Belarus’ Jewish community, noting that there was always a large Jewish population in that area of the world but that Belarus did not come into existence as a separate country until 1991.

Dr. Michael Lozman will speak about his work in protecting, preserving and restoring Jewish cemeteries destroyed by the invading Nazis and further deteriorated by neglect due to the absence of returning Jews as a result of the Holocaust. He and his team have to date restored ten Jewish cemeteries in Belarus, and have more planned for future years.

Fee: JGSGB members, free; others, $5.

For directions, click here. For more on the JGSGB, click here.

Heads-up:

December 12:
Aaron Ginsburg and a panel, "Finding relatives from the former Soviet Union."

January 16:
Robert Weinberg: “DNA of the Jewish People, Similarities and Differences”

Washington DC: Medieval French Jewish communities, Sept. 20

Author Kirsten A. Fudeman will speak on her new book, "Vernacular Voices: Language and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities," on Monday, September 20, at the Library of Congress.

The talk will begin at noon in the African and Middle Eastern Division Reading Room, Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street SE, Washington DC. The event is free and open to the public; seating is limited.

Fudeman will discuss the intersection between Hebrew and French and the role of both in shaping cultural identity of the medieval French Jews. Texts explored in the book and in the lecture include commentaries on the Bible, Talmud, prayers and wedding songs, medical texts and cooking recipes.

The book was recently published by the University of Pennsylvania Press; see the table of contents and an interesting excerpt at that link.

Fudeman holds a PhD (Cornell University, 1999) and is currently assistant professor of French language and literature at the University of Pittsburgh. She has authored scholarly articles and received several important grants and awards.

For more information on the program, click here.

Geneabloggers: 18 new geneablogs this week

Geneabloggers.com now includes 1,243 geneablogs, with the addition of 18 new ones discovered this week by Thomas MacEntee.

Many focus on individual family history, although the list also includes New Zealand, genealogy education, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and African-American.

Here is the name, link and type for each. Click here for Thomas' take on each one.

American Pomeroy Historic Genealogical Association
Individual family history, surname

Durham-Orange Genealogical Society
Genealogical society, North Carolina

Familypast Blog
Individual family history

For Your Family Story
Genealogy education (newbie-focused)

Genealogic Abounds
Genealogy education, individual family history

Genealogy Clues By The Ancestry Detector
Genealogy education

Genealogy New Zealand
New Zealand genealogy

Johnston Genes
Individual family history

MyBlood blog
Genealogy vendor

NEK Ramblings
Individual family history

Nodwell Genealogy Project
Individual family history

Quilt Stories by Sherry Ann
African-American genealogy, crafts, individual family history, Texas genealogy

Relating Our Past
Genealogy education, Tennessee genealogy

The Family Griot
African-American genealogy, individual family history

The Misadventures of a Genealogist
Individual family history

The William A. Earp Family of Lincoln Co., Oklahoma
Individual family history, Oklahoma genealogy

Timespanner
New Zealand genealogy

Read Thomas' complete post here.

LitvakSIG: Election results

LitvakSIG held elections - with voting by email and in person at the recent LA 2010 conference - for its board of directors.

New directors are Judy Baston, David Hoffman and Eden Joachim.

According to the report by election committee chair Charles B. Nam, the special interest group has 529 members.

Congratulations to Judy, David and Eden.

If your ancestors lived in Lithuania, you will find much information at the group's website, which offers many resources. Read about these in more detail here.

Washington DC: 'DC resources' newest edition

Happy 30th anniversary to the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington!

The society has pubished the new updated and expanded fifth edition of “Capital Collections: Resources for Jewish Genealogical Research in the Washington, DC Area.”

Planning a trip to the nation's capitol? Researching the area or live there? This 116-page guide is essential in so many ways.

Resources, phone numbers, websites and security information is updated; new sites are added. There's even a section on public transport, including a DC Metro system map.

The 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy will be in Washington DC in August 2011, and this guide will be invaluable for those planning research in conjunction with that event.

Contents include:

-- ARCHIVES I
-- ARCHIVES II
-- NATIONAL RECORDS CENTER (WNRC) New!
-- THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
-- U. S. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
-- NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN JEWISH MILITARY HISTORY
-- DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (DAR) LIBRARY
-- FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS
-- NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
-- HOUSE OF THE TEMPLE LIBRARY
-- U. S. NAVY MEMORIAL AND HERITAGE CENTER New!
-- THE NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER New!
-- MARYLAND including: Annapolis, Baltimore City, Baltimore County Eastern Shore, Frederick County, Montgomery County, and Prince George's County
-- VIRGINIA including Northern Virginia and Richmond
-- SYNAGOGUES & CHAVUROT
-- CEMETERIES IN THE WASHINGTON AREA
-- CEMETERIES IN THE BALTIMORE AREA

Spiral-bound, it lies flat for easy use, and would be very useful for genealogy libraries. Price per copy: $25 (including shipping/handling in the US); or, for JGSGW members only, $15 (includes shipping/handling in the US).

To order, send a check, payable to the JGS of Greater Washington Inc., to:

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington, Inc.
P.O. Box 1614
Rockville, Maryland 20849
Att: Capital Collections

For shipment outside the US or more questions, contact the JGSGW.

Florida: 'Googling Goodies for Genealogists,' April 25

"Googling Goodies for Genealogists" will be presented by Paul L. Enchelmayer at the next meeting of the  Jewish Genealogical Society of Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida), in conjunction with Nova Southeastern University (NSU), on Sunday, April 25.

The free program begins at 1pm at NSU's Alvin Sherman Library, 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd, Davie.

Enchelmayer has spoken to nearly two dozen societies and clubs, presenting programs to help others learn how technology can aid in family history projects.

He is chair of the Genealogy Group, University Club, Winter Park; past president and current webmaster, Central Florida Genealogical Society, Orange County; member and webmaster, Florida State Genealogical Society's Speakers Bureau; member, National Genealogical Society; and member, Hamilton County Genealogical Society, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Seating is limited, pre-registration required, so click here to let them know you're coming.

For more information, click on the JGSBC site, or send an email. A link on the JGSBC site will lead to the library site, with a map and directions.

Australia: Bendigo family history expo

On Sunday, we drove up to Gold Rush country for the Bendigo Family History Expo, visited the famous Hanging Rock, saw my first wallaby, and saw the view from Mt. Macedon (left).

The easy ride from Melbourne went through gently rolling green hills, populated by cows, sheep and horses. There were many wineries, historic towns and mineral springs along the way, but no time, unfortunately, to stop and smell the grapes!

At the expo, there were some 60 experts, local groups and societies filling a large hall at the Bendigo Leisure Center (community center, in the US), but there were no classes or workshops as is usual at similar US events There was a steady stream of visitors all day.

Within 15 minutes of putting up two signs (Jewish Research and MyHeritage.com), and starting a MyHeritage overview looping powerpoint presentation, several people had come over to ask questions about both.

Questions included where to find more information about the families SIMEON (Liverpool, UK) and ISRAELOWITZ (Melbourne), while others shared information about postcards from Israel (pre-state)brought back by fathers and grandfathers who had served in the British and Australian armies.

I learned about Jews who had settled in Avoca, a small area community, and met a man who carried his 13,000-name family tree on his iPhone (using Reunion software).

One young woman stopped by to ask about her great-grandparents named ENGLANDER and MOVRIN (both from Germany). I offered various websites for her to access.

Margaret Brown told me about her JASSNIGER relatives from Vienna (see separate post).

Unfortunately, there was no Internet access at the expo or I could have helped more people directly.

As people came up and asked questions, I wrote down websites for them to access at home, including JewishGen and its many components, Ancestry and others. All public libraries in Victoria carry the Ancestry Library Edition, making it easier for researchers.

Here's my first in-person long-distance wallaby (left). A mob of them were eating grass at the Hanging Rock racecourse.

America's WDYTYA: Tree or shrub?

Tracing the Tribe assumes the television reviewer at the New York Times simply doesn't understand genealogy and the passion it creates in many of us.

Neil Genzlinger's review seemed sarcastic with twinges of jealousy toward those with what he considers "interesting" family histories.

It appeared his only contact with genealogy was a quick family tree demo that Ancestry.com built for him. It's easy to see that he perhaps just didn't get it, although he did say that he could understand how people could spend hours on some gen sites, as he did, after seeing that demo.

Genzlinger called today's mass of genealogists and family history fans "a happy cult." We tend to be happy, of course, when we discover new information, although "cult" seems the wrong word. It carries the meaning of "brainwashed" to the extent that such individuals cannot see clearly.

I think that the millions of researchers think clearly, and can handle the expected and unexpected, the unusual and mundane, the simple everyday facts of life, warts and all.

We know there are no Indian princesses and few royals, that our names were not changed at Ellis Island, and we are not only interested in names and dates, but in the people who bore those names and lived in those historical times.

I'm not sure if he is being sarcastic when he writes about the "raised expectations" that the show might trigger among viewers. Genzlinger also writes that "other shows have also worked the gimmick, both in the United States and abroad."

Gimmick? A show that encourages interest in our roots and our families is a gimmick? Providing resources and raising awareness of the possibilities to find information on our families is a "gimmick"?

Does he really think that only Lisa Kudrow had families exterminated by the Einzatsgruppen in Belarus, as my entire ancestral shtetl of Vorotinshtina also experienced (except for a handful of people away on business or at school that day)? Does he realize that 90% or more of Belarus' rural Jews were murdered during the same period? And that was just one geographic area.

He does detail in a few words the focus of each episode, and writes "But all are fascinating, and that’s the problem."

Some of us may take the genealogical plunge expecting cool family stories like the ones the celebrities get, only to find that we’ve been ordinary and uninteresting since we were living in caves.

I think the reviewer missed the point.

Genealogists and family history researchers are happy to find any information on our families. While confirming or uncovering exotic or unexpected family stories are nice achievements, I don't think most of us go looking for these. We are merely searching and tracing our ancestors through whatever means are available. No matter what we find is valuable and we still do our "happy dances" when we find something unexpected or long sought-after.

WDYTYA helps its viewing audience by illustrating the fact that information does exist, that all is not lost, that there is assistance and expert knowledge out there - although viewers may have to dig for it.

To say that viewers will only identify with the celebs isn't giving the viewing public enough credit.

Tracing the Tribe only wants that special permit that the celeb gets, when he or she finds a parking spot every time right in front of archives and libraries, and no lines at the desk when they enter the building.

While many people have romantic histories, the majority of us have ancestors who lived ordinary lives, and all we are doing is to try and understand them, how and where they lived, while preserving and transmitting this information to the younger generations.

So what, if - as the reviewer writes - “you may find that everyone you’re related to was nothing but a drone in the vast hive of humanity, living unremarkably and dying unexceptionally, just as you probably will.”

Tracing the Tribe doesn't think, as the reviewer writes, we need a companion site called fakeancestry.com to supply us with cattle-rustlers, horse thieves or other black-sheep types. The mere fact that we had ancestors who were brave enough to pick themselves up and take dangerous journeys to different countries and manage to survive - or not - is enough for most of us. Could we do what our ancestors did?

I often think of my great-grandmother Riva Bank Talalay, who shlepped across several countries, carrying a 5-month-old infant and a 2-year-old toddler, a samovar, a schissel, feather beds and more, hiding in churches during pogroms hoping her baby wouldn't cry and be smothered by other Jewish refugees also hiding in the building. She led a very ordinary life, but her courage, bravery and strength in doing what she had to do was spectacular.

Every family has a story. I don't think we need to "swap ancestors" to liven things up.

Getzlinger interviewed Kudrow:

Genealogy, she counseled, isn’t just about looking for ancestors who were historically noteworthy; the most remarkable fact of history is simply survival, through mass migrations and economic depressions and flu epidemics and so on. Several of the stars in “Who Do You Think You Are?” seem genuinely humbled by how close they came to never existing.

“To me that’s what this show is about,” Ms. Kudrow said, “that all of us are here because the people before us endured something extraordinary.”

Tracing the Tribe's sentiments exactly.

Read the entire review at the link above.

Today in Jewish history: March 6

Interesting things happen every day, and to keep up with interesting Jewish history, try "This Day in Jewish History."

On this day in history:

1239: With the Edict of Valencia, Spanish King James I validated privileges of the Jews of Aragon. The Jewish courts (bet din) were authorized to try all cases except capital offenses.

1475: Birth date of famed Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. Say Michelangelo to most people and they respond, Sistine Chapel ceiling. Say his name to Jews and the response is “Moses.” “Moses” is a marble sculpture which depicts the greater Jewish leader. Originally intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II in St. Peter's Basilica it was placed in the minor church of San Pietro in Vincoli on the Esquiline in Rome after the pope's death. The statue depicts Moses with horns on his head. This is believed to be because of the mistranslation of Exodus 34:29-35 by St Jerome. Moses is actually described as having "rays of light" coming from his head, which Jerome in the Vulgate had translated as "horns." This horned Moses provided further proof that the Jews were, as the Gospel says, “the Devil’s spawn.”

1815: With the defeat of Napoleon, new restrictions were imposed on the Jews all over Europe.

1816: The Jews were expelled from the Free City of Lubeck, Germany at the instance of the local guilds. This was part of the reactionary backlash that followed the defeat of Napoleon a year earlier.

For more information, go to the Temple Judah website and open the Adult Education Tab.

"This Day...In Jewish History " is part of the Jewish History Study Group in Cedar Rapids, Iowa: "There is no claim to originality or scholarship by the 'compiler,' Mitchell A. Levin. The sources, including texts and websites are too many and too varied to provide academic citations for each entry or part thereof. "

Australia: Jewish genealogy conference, March 7-9

The weather in Melbourne couldn't be better, sunny and breezy. Tracing the Tribe is blogging away and getting ready to speak at the second Australian National Conference on Jewish Genealogy, March 7-9.

The Australian Jewish News reported on the conference in a story on February 22.

The story focused on Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem who will also speak at the conference and describe his search for long-lost relatives in Australia.

Rotem, 50, was posted to Canberra in 2007; he spoke at the first conference in 2008, which the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society held in that city. The embassy hosted a reception for attendees at the conference.

Lionel Sharpe, secretary of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (Victoria) said in the story that the conference theme is "Our Jewish Roots," and that it will look at ways that genealogists - from beginners to experts - can use today's resources most effectively.

One important point that Lionel stressed is that there are so many new sites appearing and more archives are becoming accessible. Many experienced genealogists did a lot of work decades ago and couldn't find anything then, but they are not aware of the new sources.

He says that the conference will recommend that researchers start looking again, but through different glasses.

Dr. Sallyann Amdur Sack-Pikus and myself are among the international speakers.

Other speakers include:

Writer-lecturer Arnold Zable (media as a resource for finding family); researcher Krystyna Duszniak (locating relatives in Poland); journalist-filmmaker Daniela Torsh (genealogy in the Czech Republic and Austria); Holocaust researcher Jenni Buch (Belarus); and Gary Luke (Australian Jewish colonial period.

Tracing the Tribe is very excited to be here and to take part in this event.

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.

On the road again: Hong Kong, Australia

Tracing the Tribe's first-ever trip to Hong Kong and Australia begins tomorrow and I'll be blogging every day.

In Hong Kong, my schedule includes:

• Wednesday, February 24, 8pm, at the Jewish Community Center: "The IberianAshkenaz DNA Project: So You Think You're Ashkenazi?"


• Thursday, February 25, 8pm, at the Jewish Community Center: "Introduction to Jewish Genealogy," for the community.


• During the week, I'll also present "Intro to Jewish Genealogy" for students at Carmel College.

I'll do some sightseeing (weather permitting), enjoy the cuisine, meet interesting people and spend Purim in Hong Kong. Of course, I'll be blogging, so stay tuned.

On March 1, I fly to Melbourne, Australia, for the Second Australian National Jewish Genealogy Conference (March 7-9). I'm honored to have been invited for this event and look forward to seeing the Australian Jewish genealogy community.



My presentations include the IberianAshkenaz DNA Project as well as social media for today's genealogists.

Friends and family are part of the Australian schedule, including cousins who come from Bobruisk, Belarus and from America (in Sydney). I'll be visiting the Sydney cousins for the second part of my trip, and may do some additional talks there.

On the return flight, I will speak on MyHeritage.com, presenting an overview of its tools and features and encouraging people to participate in the new Beit Hatfutsot-MyHeritage.com partnership.

Family trees created with a special version of the free MyHeritage software will be periodically transferred to Beit Hatfutsot for digital archiving for ever.

This should be a very exciting trip, new sights, fascinating people and much much more.

Blogging will be on the menu in Australia as well.

Readers who either live in these destinations or who have been there before, are invited to suggest their favorite experiences - things to see, places to eat, etc.

Next week in Hong Kong!

Cairo: Rededication, Maimonides synagogue, March 7-9

Yves Fedida of the International Nebi Daniel Association has announced the dedication of the restored Moses Maimonides (Rab Moshe) Cairo Synagogue and Yeshiva on March 7-9, in Cairo, Egypt.

The event is by invitation only. Read below to learn how to request an invitation.

See a video (9:47 minutes) on the Maimonides project and visit the association's website, available in several languages.

Learn about the synagogues of Egypt here. To see a short video on Alexandria's synagogues, click here. This is the El Nabi Daniel synagogue in Alexandria:

Cairo's Rabbi Moshe complex - and another nine synagogues in Egypt - are historical heritage sites under the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Through an extensive restoration program, the Supreme Council of Antiquities - with the help of the Jewish Community of Cairo - has completed the renovation of the Maimonides complex.

The rooms have niches where, until recently, sick people of all faiths and genders would spend the night praying for recovery or fertility.

The synagogue adjacent to these rooms was built in the early 19th-century. The yeshiva suffered recurring flooding from underground water and the synagogue was badly damaged in the 1992 earthquake. The restoration has been a painstaking effort returning the compound as faithfully as possible to its original splendour .

The three-day event program includes visits to synagogues and cemeteries, music presentations, history talks, refreshments, brunches and dinners.

- Dinner in the communal centre of the main Synagogue, Shaar Hashamayim, built in the early 20th-century and faithfully restored in its rich decorations.

- Visit to Fostat (Old Cairo) where the oldest remaining synagogue in Egypt stands, believed to have been first built around 340BC.

The pre-Islamic Ben Ezra Synagogue which has also been perfectly restored was the synagogue where Rab Moshe prayed and held services as the head of the Jewish community of the time. The famous Geniza Papers were found at the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the new Geniza museum in the Ben Ezra complex has a number of reproductions of these papers.

- A visit to the also recently restored Moussa Dar’i Synagogue built by the Karaite community in the 1920s. It features Art Deco lotus flower columns and an imposing dome.

- Finally, a visit to the Jewish cemetery at Bassatine, in the southeast outskirts of Cairo, a vast site that has not been easy to maintain.

The Jewish Community of Cairo has made heroic efforts to defend it against a highway overpass and squatters’ buildings which have encroached on the territory itself. Most of the marble tombstones have been stolen in 1967 so that the majority of the tombs are today unidentifiable. However, the Cairo Community has built a perimeter wall and continues to landscape the cemetery and guard it against vandals. It maintains a list of a number of tombs that have been identified.

Events on Sunday, March 7 start at 2pm at the complex, with a presentation, Ladino music, prayer, refreshments, history of Maimonides, history of Jews in Egypt, Arabic songs and a program by the Supreme Council of Antiquities. At 6pm, attendess will have an oriental Egyptian dinner at the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue.

On Monday, March 8, attend a meeting at the Ben Ezra Synagogue, a presentation on Maimonides and his letters discovered in the Genizah, and brunch, followed in the evening by a 9pm dinner reception.

On Tuesday, March 9, attendees will visit the restored Karaite Synagogue, hear the community history. There will be optional tours of other synagogues and the Bassatine Cemetery.

Attendance is by invitation only, which can be applied for from the Cairo Jewish community. Email here or here for more information.

Florida: Secret Jews of the Caribbean, Feb. 4

"Hidden Jews of the Caribbean" is a symposium at Florida International University on Thursday, February 4.

It runs from 8-10pm, at FIU's Biscayne Bay campus, in North Miami, Florida.

Dr. Stanley Hordes (University of New Mexico) will speak on "Identities of Crypto Jews in the Caribbean - A Historical Perspective."

Hordes is an adjunct professor at the UNM Latin American and Iberian Institute. His doctoral dissertation was on the Crypto Jews of the southwestern US. He is the co-founder and immediate past president of the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies, and author of "To The End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico (Columbia University Press, 2005).

Dr. Seth Kunin (University of Durham, UK) will speak on "Contemporary Identites of Crypto Jews in the Caribbean - An Anthropological Perspective."

Kunin is vice chancellor of arts and humanities at the University of Durham, and holds a PhD in anthropology. He has many years of experience conducting ethnographic research among New Mexico's Crypto-Jews, and is the author of "Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity Among the Crypto-Jews (Columbia University Press, 2009). Read an interview with Kunin about his book.

Dr. Abraham Lavender (FIU, Sociology) is the respondent.

Hordes and Kunin are currently working together on the history of crypto-Jews in the Caribbean and the identities of their descendants today, with specific attention to Cuba, Jamaica and in the Miami area.

FIU is home to the President Navon Program for the Study of Sephardic and Oriental Jewry.

The program provides academic training in Sephardic/Oriental Studies for undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing a multidisciplinary track certificate (within the College of Arts and Sciences) and, in the future, degrees.

Lectures and seminars are presented by national and international scholars and artists,along with outreach program participation and close ties and cooperation between academic and lay communities.

Academics and artists will lecture or teach relevant courses, conduct research and share their findings and expertise at university-held conferences, seminars, and community-outreach programs.

For more information on the certificate program, click here. For general information, click here.

Greece: Public outrage at cemetery desecration

Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos is the museum director of New York City's Kehila Kedosha Janina (Ioannina), a congregation formed by early immigrants from this ancient Jewish Romaniote community.

Recently, she passed on good news concerning Christian citizens demonstrating publicly in support of the Jewish cemetery in Ioannina.

Marcia writes:

Normally I would wait for our monthly e-newsletter to pass on recent news from Greece, but some news deserves to be passed on immediately, especially when it is such good news. Too often, negativity makes the front page.

In recent years, anti-Semitism is all too prevalent.

What then can be more emotionally rewarding than to pass on the news of a recent mass demonstration against anti-Semitism?
Where did this demonstration take place? In Ioannina! It was organized by the Christian citizens of the city and was heralded as a “a human chain against racism.”

The cemetery was surrounded by the citizens of Ioannina to show their support for the Jewish community of the city and to publically show their outrage at recent desecrations of Jewish tombstones. In addition, a public exhibition was held, highlighting the ancient Jewish presence in the city and the importance of the Jewish cemetery as a monument to the long Jewish presence in Ioannina.

The committee that organized the public display of support made the following statement: “The Jewish cemetery is not only the religious space of the Jewish Community but, also, a cultural monument of our city, the protection of which, like other historical monuments of our city, is the duty of every citizen.”

Let us all applaud the good citizens of Ioannina who organized and took part in this historic event.

Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos
Museum Director
Kehila Kedosha Janina
280 Broome Street
NYC, NY 10002

Visit the congregation's website for more information. Click "Other Links" (on the left menu of that homepage) for many additional resources for Greek and Sephardic research. Read the online accessible newsletters and view other pages.

Michigan: Public library resources, Jan. 24

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Michigan will host a session on using the Detroit Public Library resources, on Sunday, January 24.

The program runs from 11am-1pm, at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills.

Mark Bowden of the Detroit Public Library will discuss genealogical holdings at the Burton Historical Collection and emphasize Jewish collections.

For more information, click here.

Shanghai: Jewish records index

If your Jewish ancestors spent time in Shanghai, this resource may provide information for you.

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland acquired the Shanghai Polish Consular register from the Sino-Judaic Institute (Palo Alto, California) and indexed the records in this collection.

There are 1,474 entries from January 19, 1934 through December 13, 1941. Of these records, some 57% (846 records) were Jewish.

Why did Jews visit the Polish Consulate in Shanghai?

Two major incidents were likely responsible: The August 1937 Battle of Shanghai and December 1941, following the Pearl Harbor attack.

The register shows many entries for people who received Sugihara passports in Kovno, and those individuals from the Mir Yeshiva.

According to Mark Halpern of JRI-Poland, the indexing is complete, will be put into a database and soon added to the JRI-Poland database.

Index fields include:

-- Registration Number
-- Date entered in register
-- Surname
-- Maiden Name (if provided)
-- Given Names
-- Place of Birth as Written
-- Place of Birth - Current Name (if different)
-- Current Country of Place of Birth
-- Date of Birth
-- Marital Status

The actual register includes other information such as occupation, address in Poland, address in the consular region, documents submitted to register name and date of birth, information on wife and children, passport expiration date and other notes.

During the register's interwar scope, Poland included territories that today are are part of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, while many Polish Jews living in Germany had Polish nationality.

According to Mark, the database includes people who previously lived in Austria, Belarus, Bosnia, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

If your family member was in Shanghai from 1934-1941, Mark offers a look-up before the indexes are added to the JRI-Poland database. Contact him.

JGSLA 2010: Major Polish speaker announced

Sociologist Agnieszka Chraboloska will be making her first appearance at the annual international Jewish genealogy conference this summer, announced the organizers.

She is program director of the non-profit Polish group - The Forum for Dialogue Among Nations - whose mission is to foster Polish-Jewish dialogue, eradicate anti-Semitism and teach tolerance through education.

Activities include seminars, publications, exhibitions and exchange programs for Polish and Jewish youth and leaders.

Chraboloska studied at Georgetown University (Washington, DC) and at the University of Warsaw, where she earned an MA. Her thesis was "The Complex Identity of Poles with Jewish Origins."

The Forum also sponsors twice-yearly Polish tours for US Jewish leaders to meet with local Polish communities, and brings Polish students to the US.

School of Dialogue

Of interest to historians and genealogists is the Forum's new program - School of Dialogue - which brings trained teachers into public schools in towns - where pre-Holocaust Jewish communities existed - to educate the communities about their vanished Jewish heritage.

Some 20 communities are currently in the School of Dialogue's pilot program.

As Chraboloska speaks on the program's structure and goals, it is hoped that conference attendees interested in memorializing their ancestral communities may wish to sponsor their towns, if those communities are not already in the pilot program.

Learn more about the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, which takes place July 11-16, in Los Angeles.

JGSLA 2010: Program deadline January 15

This is for those procrastinators out there!

Tracing the Tribe knows there are many people thinking about submitting great program proposals for JGSLA 2010, but the deadline of January 15 is fast approaching.

The program committee welcomes imaginative submissions to interest genealogists of all skill levels, from beginners through advanced.

Less than two weeks remain to submit presentation proposals for the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (July 11-16, Los Angeles), hosted by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles.

January 15 is the deadline to submit proposals. For a complete list - a guide - of suggested topics, running from films to technology to geographic focus and much more, click here.

Head's up: Conference registration is scheduled to open on Friday, January 15, so mark your calendars now! Be the first on your block to register!

For all breaking news, subscribe to both the Conference Blog and Newsletter, with information at the link above.

See you in Los Angeles!