Cleveland: learn about Lithuania on March 7

The Cleveland Jewish News had an interesting story about genealogist Richard Spector.

“Since I became interested in genealogy, I’ve identified 1,500 relatives I did not know I had, going back over 200 years,” says the Beachwood resident, who serves as the Jewish Genealogical Society of Cleveland’s first vice president. This past year alone, Spector found 100 more relatives who either perished in the Holocaust or are currently living in Israel."

The story touches on resources, online databases, DNA and much more.

The Cleveland group will meet on March 7 to hear about about a trip to Lithuania taken by member Aaron Fine and his wife. The Fines traveled with a local guide, visited lost communities and returned with many photos and stories which they will share.

And for those in Cleveland and environs who like to plan ahead, get out your calendars to mark the March 25 visit by Avotaynu editor Sallyann Amdur Sack who will present a program on "The Project to Reconstitute the Destroyed Communities of Eastern Europe." On June 6 will be a visit by internationally renowned genealogist and technology guru Stephen Morse of San Francisco, whose One-Step pages and other tools have helped thousands of researchers.

For more information on the society and its meetings, click here.

Los Angeles: adventurous genealogists tell their tales

If you have a hankering to visit the old homestead in Eastern Europe, an upcoming program may help you understand how to take the trip of a lifetime.

On March 11, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles is hosting four adventurous genealogists as they present multimedia programs about their recent trips to Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland and the former Galicia. Each program focuses on a different kind of trip.

"Where Once We Walked: Traveling Back in Time" features Mark Heckman, Lois Rosen, Karen Roekard and Andrea Massion.

Heckman attended a summer 2006 symposium of more than 60 former residents of Czernowitz, Ukraine. Now called Chernivtsi, it was, for hundreds of years, the leading city of North Bukovina and southern Galicia and home to a vibrant Jewish population. Many of its residents survived but most emigrated to Israel and the West. The meeting provided a chance for former residents to reconnect with their home town, and younger generations had an opportunity to see a place they had only known via family stories. Heckman will show pictures and video, highlights of the reunion and visits to other towns including Sadagora, Zastavna, Zaleshchiki, Tluste and Horodenka.

In August 2006, Rosen (researching the Rozinko family) traveled to Latvia. She didn't hire a guide, but planned the trip herself, and visited Riga, Daugavpils and then Pasvalys, Lithuania. She met the researcher who had helped her locate information, met members of the Jewish community, and visited the restored synagogue and active Jewish community center.

Roekard, on her third Ukraine trip in 2006, spent two weeks researching in both the Scientific and State Historical Archives in Lviv (Lvov, Lemberg), which was once in Galicia/Poland. With Natalie Dunai, she studied books, files, maps and lists, and will elaborate on the pleasures, treasures, value and "OY!" of archival research. She will share video of davening and singing in the Zolkiew shul with its amazing acoustics, and explain a planned synagogue restoration project.

In May 2005, Massion traveled with a cousin to Ukraine, accompanied
by researcher/guide Alex Dunai, spending four days in her ancestral shtel of Ananiev, and also visiting Odessa, Balta and Uman. In Kiev, she met a cousin for the first time, discovering the real story of her family as together they searched for the answers to family mysteries.

For more information, click here.

Working around higher copy fees

With the genealogy world abuzz over the National Archives' new plan to raise copying fees, Chris Dunham of The Genealogue suggests a possible work-around via a recognized name in Washington document transfers.

Click here for the innovative, albeit farcical, solution.

The first Jewish president?

What a week for DNA links in the news -- The Rev. Al Sharpton, Strom Thurmond, and now Thomas Jefferson!

A New York Times story says researchers studying Jefferson's Y chromosome have discovered that it belongs to a lineage rare in Europe but common in the Middle East. This has raised the possibility that the third U.S. president had a Jewish ancestor. According to the article:

"Jefferson’s Y chromosome belongs to the branch designated K2, which is quite rare. It occurs in a few men in Spain and Portugal and is most common in the Middle East and eastern Africa, being carried by about 10 percent of men in Oman and Somalia, the geneticists report in the current issue of The American Journal of Physical Anthropology."

Providing some interesting information, University of Arizona geneticist Dr. Michael Hammer said that the Jefferson Y chromosome produced four close matches in his database. One was a perfect match with a Moroccan Jew and there were also close matches with another Moroccan Jew, a Kurdish Jew and an Egyptian.

According to Hammer, he would “hazard a guess at Sephardic Jewish ancestry” for the president, albeit tentatively. Descendants of Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1492 are termed Sephardic Jews.

Bennett Greenspan, president of Family Tree DNA, a DNA-testing service, said that among the 90,000 Y chromosome samples contributed to his database, K2 occurred in 2 percent of Ashkenazim, Jews of Central or Northern European origin, and 3 percent of Sephardim.

“Whether the non-Jews with K2 are descendants of Jews or come from an earlier migration into Europe is hard to say,” Mr. Greenspan said, “but my sense is that it’s separate migrations from the Middle East.”."

London: South Africa at the Jewish Museum

If you are a former South African living in Britain, you're invited to meet the curators of the Jewish Museum in London and bring along family history materials on March 11.

The museum is looking for objects, photographs, documents, ephemera, memoirs (unpublished) and reminiscences relating to the lives and family histories of Jewish South Africans now in Britain.

Of particular interest:
• Jewish immigrant journeys to South Africa, especially if via Britain
• Early settlers' lives, including family, work and religion.
• Jewish life in relation to apartheid
• Journeys from South Africa to Britain, migration and rebuilding lives.
• Contemporary community life – South African Jewish community organizations in Britain

A significant Jewish South African community has settled in Britain, mainly in London and, according to the museum, it deserves representation in collections reflecting the diverse roots and history of the Jewish community.

The Jewish Museum is undergoing redevelopment, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund - a new flagship museum will open in 2009, with a new gallery that explores the contemporary British Jewish community. Donated materials will be of great value for research and display.

If you are a Jewish South African living in the UK, and are prepared to donate relevant items, they'll be happy to see you. Items should be in good condition with strong personal stories attached to them. If you have old family photographs, the museum will digitally copy them and return the originals.

For more information about the event, click here.

Seattle: Forensic genealogy program

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State is preparing for another great speaker - Colleen Fitzpatrick - at its next meeting on March 19, at 7 p.m.

According to Lyn Blyden, JGSWS president:

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to get the most from your genealogical materials. Colleen Fitzpatrick will talk about the techniques of forensic genealogy, focusing on how to draw information out of old photos."

Colleen Fitzpatrick is an expert in optical and laser measurement techniques, with many years of experience in developing innovative technologies for NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense. She is also an avid genealogist. Her book Forensic Genealogy has been praised for its innovative application of forensic science investigative techniques to genealogical research, and has been featured on NPR and in genealogical publications. She is also the co-author of DNA & Genealogy.

The evening will begin with a Q&A; attendees are asked to bring questions or share success stories.

For more information, click here.

New York: A Purim concert on March 1

Looking for a musical way to honor Purim and contribute to a worthwhile endeavor?

ESTHER IN AFRICA: A Middle Eastern-themed benefit concert for Darfur, with performances by Divahn and Pharoah's Daughter is set for 7 p.m., March 1, at New York's Congregration Shaare Zedek, 212 West 93rd St.

For advance tickets, call the congregation, 212-874-7005. And for those who collect such facts, it's the third oldest synagogue in New York, founded in 1827.

Just as Queen Esther raised her voice to save the Jews of Persia, female artists Basya Schechter of Pharaoh's Daughter and Galeet Dardashti of Divahn will sing out against genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

All concert proceeds support the American Jewish World Service's Darfur Action Campaign; the event is co-sponsored by 20 New York congregations and major Jewish educational institutions.

Pharaoh's Daughter presents Hasidic chants, Mizrachi and Sephardi folk-rock, and spiritual stylings with percussion, flute, strings and electronica. Click here to hear some tracks.

Divahn infuses traditional songswith sophisticated harmonies and arrangements through tabla, cello, rabel, doumbek, violin and other acoustic instruments, plus vocals in Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish, Persian, Arabic, Aramaic and Turkish. It is the only all-female ensemble performing Mizrahi-influenced music. Click here to learn more. Listen to Ayni Tzofiah for Galeet's classic Persian technique.

And for even more toe-tapping Jewish melodies, here's a link from Shaare Zedek's Web site to that of Upper West Side havurah, Kehilat Hadar and its Pri Eitz CD.

Leitz, camera, action

When I saw a JewishGen posting by Howard Orenstein about the Leitz family of Leica camera fame, I clicked on the links and found a fascinating story.

The Leitz family saved many of its Jewish employees and friends by sending them off to America with brand-new Leica cameras around their necks and finding them jobs.

As late as 1967, Gunther Leitz refused to allow anyone to write about the role his father Ernest Leitz II had played.

A recent article in the Financial Times focused on an interview with California-born Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith of the Harrow and Wembley Progressive Synagogue in northwest London, who wrote a book about the Leitz "freedom train." Smith grew up in San Diego and spent his bar mitzvah money on a Leica camera.

On Feb. 9, the Anti-Defamation League honored Ernst II’s granddaughter, Cornelia Kuhn-Leitz, with the Courage to Care Award, in recognition of her grandfather's role in helping at least 41 Jews to flee Germany during the 1930s Nazi persecution. Leitz is also credited with helping an additional 23 people to circumvent Nazi laws aimed at punishing Jews and Germans related to Jews by marriage.

"Smith first heard about Leitz’s role in Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany when he was a student at Berkeley and came across a passing reference to the Leica apprentices in an article about Norman Lipton, the managing editor of Popular Photography magazine."

Lipton witnessed the arrival of scores of German Jewish refugees from the Wetzlar factory, and said the refugees were processed by Leitz's general manager and vice president Alfred Boch.

To read the complete article, click here

To see a trailer of a film being made about this, click here and scroll to "One Camera, One Life."