San Francisco: Jewish life in Tsarist Kiev, May 3

Learn about Jewish life in Tsarist-era Kiev with Natan M. Meir of Portland State University on Tuesday, May 3, at a meeting co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Library and the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.

Meir's talk - "A 'Russian Zion' or a Jewish Nightmare? Jewish Life in Tsarist Kiev" - will be presented in Russian at 4pm and in English at 7pm, at the Jewish Community Library. There is no admission fee for the two talks.

The JCL is at 1835 Ellis Street, in San Francisco; there is free parking.

From a small group of merchants in the early 1860s, the Jewish population of Kiev grew rapidly until it became one of the largest urban Jewish communities in the Russian Empire.

Meir - author of "Kiev, Jewish Metropolis: A History, 1859–1914"- will chart the growth of this vital community from its founding until the outbreak of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution. He will discuss the external and internal challenges that it faced, including pogroms, intracommunal divisions, and the 1913 Beilis affair, in which a Ukrainian Jew was accused of ritual murder.

Meir received a Ph.D. in Jewish history from Columbia University in 2003 and is now the Lorry I. Lokey Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at Portland State University (Oregon). He is co-editor of the recently published "Anti-Jewish Violence: Rethinking the Pogrom in East European History" and is currently working on a study of vulnerable and marginalized groups among East European Jews in the 19th century. He is a consultant for the Russian Jewish Museum of Moscow, now in its development stages.

For directions and more information, click here.

San Francisco: California Jewish cemeteries, May 1

Robinn Magid will speak on "California Jewish Cemeteries: From the Gold Rush to the Roszgolds," on Sunday, May 1, at the next meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.

The program begins at 1.30pm, at Congregation Beth Israel-Judea, 625 Brotherhood Way, in San Francisco (next to Brandeis Hillel Day School). There is no admission fee.

Ever wonder who is buried in California Jewish cemeteries and what we remember about them?

Curious how someone could be buried FOUR times?

Studying the history and matzevot (tombstones) in California's 86+ Jewish cemeteries, we can find butchers, bakers, beggermen, thieves, doctors, and lawyers, but did we find the proverbial Indian chief?

Come take a virtual whirlwind tour of California's Jewish cemeteries and find out what people said about some of the interesting people buried there (from the "horse's mouth"). The tombstones and epitaphs demonstrate our unique California lifestyle and fascinating local history even if your ancestors aren't buried here in the Golden State!

Magid is a long-time SFBAJGS member, a JRI-Poland board member and a compulsive genealogist since her 1991 retirement from management consulting with an international CPA firm.

In 2001, she realized her childhood dream of visiting Poland and “walking a mile in her grandmother’s moccasins.” She has four children, a loving husband, and a UCLA bachelor’s degree in economics. Her personal research includes Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and Galicia.

For directions and more information, click here.

Seattle: 150 years of Jewish history, May 9

Rabbi Jim Mirel will speak on 150 years of Jewish history in Washington State at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State on Monday, May 9.

The program includes powerpoints by Jeff Adelson and the Washington Jewish Historical Society.

Doors open at 7pm at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island. Admission: free for members and one guest per year; others, $5.

Rabbi Mirel will talk about the three waves of Jewish immigration into Washington, including Ashkenazi and Sephardic populations. He'll give highlights about Jewish individuals and families who affected the state and Seattle history. He'll show historic pictures of these families, their synagogues, businesses and social life.

Senior Rabbi of Bellevue's Temple B'nai Torah, Mirel has served there since 1985. Previously, he was rabbi at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle.

He was educated at Reed College, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Washington, and was ordained at Hebrew Union College.

The author of "Stepping Stones to Jewish Spiritual Living," Mirel has served as president of the Washington State Jewish Historical Society, the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis, University Kiwanis, Washington State Coalition of Rabbis, and is a founder of the Jewish Archives at UW. He has lectured at most colleges in the state and at many local churches and mosques.

For more information and directions, click here.

Southern California: Gurs concentration camp, May 1

Holocaust Memorial Day will be commemorated by the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley (JGSCV) on Sunday, May 1.

Speaker Werner Frank will speak on this little-known first massive Jewish deportation to Camp de Gurs in 1940.

The meeting - co-sponsored with Temple Adat Elohim - runs from 1.30-3.30pm, at 2420 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks. There is no admission fee.

Gauleiters Robert Wagner and Joseph Bürckel, administrative heads of the States of Baden and the Pfalz/Saar, sought to be the first among their Nazi cohorts to make their territories Judenrein (free of Jews). They had engineered a massive expulsion of over 6,500 Jews to Camp de Gurs, located in unoccupied Vichy France. The event became known as the Wagner-Bürckel Aktion and was offered by the Gauleiters as their gift to the Führer on October 23, 1940.

The relocation of Jews to the Gurs concentration camp became only an intermediate step prior to the infamous "Final Solution" which was pronounced in January 1942. This Nazi inspired annihilation program triggered yet a second round of transports that would move the incarcerated from Gurs to the Parisian suburb of Drancy, an assembly point where the victims faced a final deportation to the death camp of Auschwitz.

Frank will delve into the background of the historical events that led to the Aktion, and recount the impact of this cataclysm on his hometown of Eppingen, as he relates the tribulations and ultimate fate encountered by his widely located family in the State of Baden.

He is a founding member, former board member, former JGSCV newsletter, and a member of JGSLA. He was one of the founders of GERSIG (the German Special Interest Group of JewishGen) and has written articles for ROOTS, Maajan, Avotaynu and Stammbaum.

He has been researching his family’s history, amassing a genealogical database of more than 33,000 names, and published his family history ("Legacy: The Saga of a German-Jewish Family over Time and Circumstance," Avotaynu 2003).

For more information and directions, click here.

London: 'Sounds of Silence' Lithuania exhibit opens May 5

A free exhibit - Sounds of Silence - is dedicated to the annihilated Jewish communities of Lithuania, and will open May 5, at the Spiro Ark Centre in London. It will run through June 17.

Hours are Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm. The Center is located at 25-26 Enford St., London W1.

Photographs capture the images of the cemeteries, prayer houses, and other buildings and sites, portraying the remnants of the Jewish golden age in Lithuania.

Attendees will learn about the Yiddish and Lithuanian names of towns and villages where Jewish inhabitants made up a large proportion of the inhabitants - if not the majority of the population in the 19th-20th centuries.

For more information on Spiro Ark, click here.

Michigan: Success & Strategies, May 1

Genealogical success stories and strategies are on the program for the Jewish Genealogical Society's next meeting on Sunday, May 1.

The meeting begins at 1.30pm at the Farmington Hills Library Main Branch, 32737 W. 12 Mile Road, Farmington Hills. Admission: Members, free; others, $5.

Three JGSMi members will relate start and subsequent research in Jewish genealogical pursuits. Hear them recount their experiences as they share their successes and tips.

Jonathan Haber
will discuss what he has accomplished researching his grandmother’s nine siblings and their descendants.

Richard Jaeger
has discovered many relatives he didn’t know a thing about through a large collection of photographs he received.

Alexandra Goldberg
will talk about her breakthrough in finding the missing link affirming her descendancy from a rabbinical family with possible roots to King David.

For more information and directions, click here.

New Jersey: 'MyHeritage Super Search Engine,' April 27

The Jewish Genealogical Society of North Jersey will host MyHeritage.com's chief genealogist for a sesson on the site's super search egengine on April 27.

The meeting starts at 7.30pm at the YM-YWHA of Wayne (New Jersey). The library will be open at 7pm. There is no admission fee.

MyHeritage.com's chief genealogist Daniel Horowitz will speak on "Finding relatives in one click: using the MyHeritage Genealogy Super Search Engine," an advanced tool for online genealogical research.
The site's Super Search Engine which allows users to cover effortlessly, in a single search, 1500+ genealogy databases and relevant online repositories, which cannot be searched by regular search engines like Google.

For more information and directions, click here for the JGS of North Jersey site.

New York City: Ethiopian Jewish Film Festival starts May 15

The 8th Sheba Film Festival begins in New York on May 15.

This festival showcases films showcasing the culture and heritage of Ethiopian Jews.

Films this year include:

• Across the River

Moshe Rahamim (Tesgau Mahari) carries a great burden. For years he has been explaining and preaching, and yet, the pervasive HIV virus keeps killing in his community. Against the “silencing” policy of the Public Health Authority and the denial of the Ethiopian community, Moshe sets out to expose the disease and stop it from spreading.  He goes back to Ethiopia, where he finds thousands of Ethiopians, waiting for years in compounds, where they are exposed to the HIV virus, to fulfill their dream and immigrate to Israel.

• Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean

Living in the lingering wake of the Idi Amin regime of terror and intolerance, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Ugandan coffee farmers challenged historical and economic hurdles by forming “Delicious Peace” Cooperative. Their mission was to build harmonious relationships and economic development, and they are succeeding. Partnering with a Fair Trade US roaster, the farmers’ standard of living is improving, peace is flourishing, and their messages of peace and fair wages are spreading to their coffee customers in the US.

New York Premiere of

• Twilight Revelations: Episodes in the Life & Times of Emperor Haile Selassie

Ethiopia’s last emperor Haile Selassie (1892 – 1975) is to this day revered by the million-strong Rastafarian community. Yemane I Demissie’s documentary explores and analyzes watershed events during the reign of the Ethiopian emperor.  Using a wealth of archival footage and photographs, the film reexamines the imperial administration through the eyes of numerous individuals who played important roles in the monarchy.The observations and narratives of these individuals shed new light on the personality, leadership style and humanity of the last and final Ethiopian emperor.

• Millennium Ethiopia

Ethiopia enters the new millennium on September 11, 2007 nearly eight years after the rest of the world. The celebrations are riotous.  Desaly Goshu left his birthplace of Ethiopia seventeen years ago. As a young boy, his family immigrated to Israel for the opportunity to live in their holy land. Now for the first time, Desaly is returning to Ethiopia to
remember his past and to celebrate the coming of a new era.

• These are My Names

Ethiopian Jews’ multiple names reflect the richness, wisdom and beauty of their culture — and every name tells a story. In the film, young Ethiopian Israelis share their journeys toward their names: stories of love and connection, survival and loss, anger and pride. The characters’ original names – changed without their consent upon arrival in Israel – take them back to their childhoods in mountain villages, to the hunger and fear in Sudan, to longing for loved ones who died or disappeared on the journey to Israel, to denial of their identity…and reclamation of their roots.

There is also a related art exhibit, "The Many Faces of Yisrael," with an opening reception on June 5, and running through June 26.

For more information on the film festival, locations, dates, times and admission, click here.