Preserving Europe's Jewish graves

The London-based Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe is determined to enforce Jewish law - halachah - which requires that the dead not be disturbed.

Local Jewish communities and governments are now turning to the committee to avoid being labeled as violators of Jewish heritage.

The group made its name six years ago in a fight to save a medieval Prague cemetery from the plans of a Czech insurance company which had sought to build its offices on top of the Jewish graves. The two-year battle resulted in the Czech Republic spending $1.2 million for a sarcophagus for the remaining graves and made the site a national monument.

“We get Jews and non-Jews from all over asking what’s the right way to build a fence or protect a grave,” said Rabbi Abraham Ginsberg, the committee’s executive director. “We tell them we are here to offer solutions, not to cause problems.”

The committee was back in Prague this month thanks to the discovery of a 15th-century Jewish cemetery in Pilsen, some 60 miles west of the Czech capital. Construction of a 450-car parking lot is set to begin on the site in the spring.

When a Pilsen researcher told the Czech press he thought a cemetery was located on the site, the Pilsen Jewish community, Sidon, archaeologists and the Israeli-owned construction company consulted the committee.

After a few weeks it was determined that the 50 or so graves in the corner of the site would probably best be protected by building the parking lot on stilts. Preparations for excavation began Monday ...

To read the rest, click here.

Rome: Europe's oldest Jewish community

The Boston Globe has an interesting story on the Jews of Rome, whose presence (since the 2nd century BCE) is considered the oldest in Europe.

In the Middle Ages, they were victims of violence and humiliation (wearing of yellow patches), even though they were bankers, craftsmen, merchants, physicians and served the papal court.

There is also a gastronomic connection to Roman life in the community's famous fried artichokes.

For more than 300 years, Jews were locked behind the ghetto's gates. Today, the community leaders say they have a different problem: the remaining Jewish residents are being forced out due to gentrification of the suddenly fashionable area.

To read the article, click here

Ancestry extends free immigration access

NEWS FLASH!

You can relax now if you've been working feverishly to search through the new Ancestry.com passenger records before free access ends in a few days.

The company just announced that the free access I wrote about has been extended through December 31 as a result of "overwhelming response" from researchers around the world.

So, take a deep breath and continue with your searching.

Families of the Yiddish Theatre

If you're researching Yiddish theatre families - including the Adlers, Thomashefskys, Bertha Kalish, Maurice Schwartz, Abraham Goldfaden, Molly Picon, Jacob Gordin, Paul Muni and more - here's a book you might enjoy.

The New York Times, in its "Reading New York" column, reports on Stefan Kanfer's book, Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy and Mishugas of the Yiddish Theater in America (Alfred A. Knopf, $26.95).

Their outsize personalities, coupled with excerpts of the skits and scripts they performed and adapted, provide some of the most memorable passages in his book.

Readers gratefully tag along as Jacob Gordin escorts Henry James on a tour of the Lower East Side, and listen in as Paul Muni theatrically transforms himself during his interrogation by an immigration judge from a crippled, heavily accented greenhorn into a proud and polished young man who speaks English eloquently. “Your honor, it’s remarkable,” Muni announces. “Now that you’ve made me a citizen, I can speak perfectly!”

Shoah survivor's NY reunion with family that saved her

The Washington Times reported on the recent reunion of Holocaust survivor Lea (Port) Ingel, 84, and Giedrute Ramanauskiene, 74, a daughter of the Lithuanian Catholic family that saved her.

The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous facilitated the reunion at New York's JFK Airport.

Only some 9,000 Lithuanian Jews survived from a prewar population of 235,000. The women had remained in contact over the years through letters. Ingel left the country in 1945; her friend still lives on the farm where Ingel hid.

In 1943, Lea Port and her future husband Samuel Ingel, fled the Kovno ghetto and joined a Jewish partisan group. After 10 days in a forest near Simnas, they were the only group members alive. A Communist also in hiding took them to his sister Elena Ivanauskai and her husband Petras. Ingel grew close to the family's daughter, Giedrute.

Ingel and Port stayed at the farm until August 1944, when the Russians arrived and the couple no longer had to hide. They got married and moved to America.

Researching Israeli archives from the U.S. - UPDATE

Jerusalem-based genealogist Michael Goldstein is a specialist in helping North Americans locate and connect with their Israeli families.

On Dec. 11, he will present “Not for Israel Only: Using Israeli Archives and Resources for Worldwide Jewish Records,” at a Seattle meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State.

He will discuss the use of local Israeli records as well as a range of lesser-known resources which can be used to track down Israeli relatives and/or their descendants. His expertise lies in tracing Israelis whose testimonies are found in Yad Vashem records.

Prior to his program, he will translate documents, photos of tombstones, and other inscriptions written in Yiddish, French or Hebrew. The JGSWS library materials will also be available.

The event is free for JGSWS members; $5 for non-members. Photo ID is required for admission to the venue, check the website for location.

A historic fight: dueling columnists on the merits of genealogy

The Guardian (U.K.) newspaper provides two recent, opposing takes on whether genealogy is an interesting pursuit. I think it's safe to say Tracing the Tribe's readers agree with the "pro-genealogy" camp.

The first, by Zoe Williams, provides such "charming" quotes as:

"In all probability, it lacks context - sure, you might find a tinker uncle who went to a Putney debate or was a Chartist, but generally speaking they all just get born, marry and die."

"If therapy is for people with more money than sense, genealogy is for those with more time than either."

"By definition, it lacks high drama - if anyone in your family had ever done anything remotely interesting, nobody else in the family would have stopped talking about it."

If you read the article, make sure you also read the comments by her readers.

The rebuttal is written by Dave Waddell, author of Who Do You Think You Are?, the books accompanying the BBC-TV series of the same name.

So, researching your ancestry is an impediment to understanding the past? That's absurd. It encourages people to engage with history and immerse themselves in the events that shaped our society. The vast majority of us are descended from ordinary working-class folk. These were the people who fought and were killed in wars; who were forced by circumstance into the workhouse; who worked in the mills or were sent down the mines aged 10. And who exactly does Williams believe comprised the "radicals, grassroots movements, that sort of thing"?

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