This year’s IAJGS Conference awards banquet (Thursday, July 15) will feature Canadian singer Mitch Smolkin, accompanied by Russian concert pianist Nina Shapilsky. Smolkin will present  "Rexite on the Radio. " 

Crooner Seymour Rexite, known as the "Yiddish Frank Sinatra," was the darling of the golden age of Yiddish radio. For the genealogists among us, his original surname was RECHTZEIT.

Get  just a taste of what dinner attendees will be enjoying live as you listen to Rexite’s Yiddish versions of "Surrey with a Fringe on Top/Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," 1948; "Tea for Two," (with Miriam Kressyn), c1950; "Love and Marriage," (with Miriam Kressyn) c1950; and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," 1954.  He also recorded such ad jingles as the Barbasol jingle, 1948; and the Ajax jingle, 1952.

Did you know that the most popular Yiddish song ever -  "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" – has been recorded by nearly every musical artist and translated into many languages?

It was even popular in Hitler’s Germany until the Nazi Party learned it had been composed by a Jew – Sholom Secunda – and that the title was in Yiddish, not some south German dialect!

The Yiddish Music Project offers a  musical montage of various recordings of "Bei Mir" featuring Guy Lombardo, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Lee Marjane, Zarah Leander, Felix & His Crazy Cats, the Lennon Sisters, Jimmy Rushing, Louis Prima and Judy Garland.

If this makes you hungry for more, here’s a 16-minute NPR documentary on the Yiddish Music Project as it spotlights the Yiddish Melodies in Swing program. Sponsored by the Manischewitz Company, the show ran for almost two decades, beginning in 1938, when it featured a large orchestra and a live studio audience of 1,000.

Don’t forget to register for the IAJGS Conference awards banquet!

We’re going to be making a concerted effort to reach out to those people, those genealogical “newbies”, in the coming months, but we can’t do it alone. We need your help.

So let’s talk about some ways we can all use the Internet to spread the word about the upcoming IAJGS conference to our friends and family members. It won’t take more than a minute or two of your time, it’s totally free, and it’s especially important for reaching younger folks — the next generation of genealogists and family historians — for whom the Internet and social media is like second nature but for whom the subject of organized genealogy may still be utterly alien.

First of all, there’s e-mail, of course. You could start by e-mailing your friends and family an update about your latest genealogical findings, or send out the latest version of each person’s family tree, to spark some interest in what you’re up to with “that wacky genealogy hobby” of yours. A nicely formatted PDF family tree or fan chart unexpectedly arriving in an inbox is a good way to get a conversation going among people who don’t usually pay attention to genealogical things. But with the conference coming up so soon, perhaps you could make an effort to include a note or two in your message about “this big Jewish Genealogy conference this summer in LA”, and how you’ll be attending, and perhaps your relative would like to come out to California with your for a day or two (or five!) to hear some of the lectures and participate in some of the programs…? Don’t forget to reach out to younger relatives and friends; this year, the conference is offering special super-low rates for kids under-18 and for full-time students 19 and over (with proof of student status, such as a school ID). If you’ve got kids or grandkids who are going college-looking in California this summer, maybe they could stop at the conference with you while they’re in town anyway?

But e-mail is only the tip of the iceberg, especially now that there are so many options for what is broadly referred to as “social media”. If you have a Facebook account, you can do quite a lot to promote the conference among your Facebook friends. First of all, you can go to the LA conference’s official Facebook Event page and click on “Attending” (or “Maybe Attending” for you wishy-washy types) on the right side of the page. This will add your name to the unofficial list of people who will be joining us in Los Angeles this summer — which stood at 102 people on Facebook, at last count. You can take a look at that list of names to start planning for the conference with other researchers you might recognize on the list.

This is a good start, but it still represents opting-in by people who already know about the conference and that they’re interested in it. What we really want to do is spread the news to people who don’t know about the conference yet. So here’s the next step to do that in Facebook: click the link on the top righthand side of our Event page that says “Invite People to Come”. You’ll see a little pop-up list of your Facebook friends. Click on the names of people you think might be interested in learning about the conference, and invite them to come check out our Facebook event page. You can include a personal note that mentions a bit about the conference and that you’ll be attending, or you can send them a link to this website, www.jgsla2010.com.

Here’s another thing you can do in Facebook to spread the word to new people: post a link to this website on your Facebook wall. It will show up in your activity feed, and perhaps a curious friend of yours will ask about the conference. That’s your chance to talk about what goes on at an IAJGS conference and all the neat programs, lectures, resources, films, vendors, tours, classes, and even food that will be available there. With luck, maybe your curious friend will also get bitten by the genealogy bug and learn something new about her family history.

Another way to promote the conference online is through Twitter. If you don’t have a Twitter account yet, you can sign up for one for free in about two minutes. It allows you 140 characters to say whatever’s on you mind. It’s very much like the “What’s on your mind?” status field on the top of your Facebook page. In fact, I simply connected my Twitter feed to my Facebook account so that when I update Twitter it also automatically updates my Facebook page too, to keep in sync. If you’ve already got some friends following you on Twitter, why not send out a quick Tweet about the conference, with a link to this site? Don’t forget to include our official conference hashtag #IAJGS, and you can even throw in #genealogy or #jewish if you want to reach a wider potential audience.

During the 2009 IAJGS conference in Philadelphia, three or four conference-goers Tweeted (i.e. “sent Twitter messages”) from the audience of various panels throughout the day, talking about the high points of what they were hearing, and offering up instant commentary on the days’ events. For people like me who were stuck at home unable to attend that year’s conference, reading the Tweets in real-time was pretty much the only way to keep up with what was happening and what new genealogical developments were being revealed. (To @BanaiFeldstein, @Kos2, and those other two intrepid Twitterers whose names I unfortunately don’t remember: thank you!) So don’t forget that Tweets from the conference should use the official hashtag #IAJGS. Why wait until you get home to talk about the latest news from the conference when you can do it right from your seat at a lecture?

These are all simple, free things you can do to spread the word about the IAJGS conference online. They would just take a moment, and they could really help get the news out about the conference. In the coming months, we’ll be sharing more ways you can help us publicize the conference, including posting a downloadable flyer to this website, which you will be able to print out and post on bulletin boards in your local area.

Got a great idea for how to share news about the conference? Post a comment below and let us know!

It’s simple to register!  Go to the Registration tab, click on “New Registration” and you’re there!   To view this year’s pricing, click here.

In addition to full conference registrations, we’re offering spouse/domestic partner discounts, full-time student and under 18 pricing, film festival and daily passes, plus evening-event-only registrations.  And as amazing as our daytime presentations and workshops are going to be,  we also have some unbelievable nighttime lectures and performances coming your way.

SIG lunches and dinners are available for purchase now, with Breakfast-with-the-Experts, Midnight with the Mavens, computer lab and tour options coming soon.  JW Marriott reservations are also open here. The conference room rate is $199 per night (single-quad) and if you need a roomie, we’ll try to match you with one once you’ve registered.

Anyone planning to arrive early can join us for two pre-conference, all kosher, welcome dinners (Friday, July 9 & Saturday, July 10)  with thought-provoking speakers and a special Shabbat-friendly learning session on Kabbalah with author, Arthur Kurzweil, on Saturday afternoon, July 10.

And remember to click here to subscribe to our JewishGen discussion group: Los Angeles 2010, where you can ask questions, get answers, kvetch and quibble about what’s in store for July.

The early bird registration deadline is April 30, 2010 so don’t miss out.  For genealogists and family historians interested in learning more about their Jewish roots and building their family trees, downtown Los Angeles is the place to be this July!

So if you’ve been procrastinating on submitting a talk for our conference, you have just a few more days to get your materials in. And we hope to see you all back on this website on Wednesday so you can start registering for our exciting program!

Brian is the author of “The Genealogical Gazetteer of Galicia,” and he has been instrumental in working on Gesher Galicia’s Cadastral Map and Landowner Records project, which is committed to expanding the availability of land records and maps as adjuncts to vital records’ research.

At the conference he will speak on “The Lviv Archive Research Experience,” and the cadastral maps and landowner records found in Ukrainian and Polish archives.

These extremely detailed maps reveal individual houses, yards, barns, roads, fields, synagogues, cemeteries and more. Although they are considered technical resources, they provide rich detail for a genealogist or family historian who wishes to know more and trace their ancestors.

18th Century-Boryslav Book of Landowners

The land records can provide the size and/or values (for taxes) of properties that an individual owned. This also adds to the history of the family. Some land record books were used for a period of years and when land parcels were sold, the name of the original landowner and his house number were stroked out (but still legible) and the new owner’s information written in.

Along with vital records – or as a substitute if those records do not exist -  maps can be a very powerful research tool.  With a house number and location, the researcher can see the routes his or her ancestors walked or rode by horse and wagon from home to fields, to school, synagogue, and learn about the family’s neighbors.

Bukaczowce Jewish Market Square - 1848

Brian will also staff a table at the Market Square event on the conference’s first day, and display various Austrian Empire property maps and records which were created during three historical periods, 1785-88, 1819-1820, and 1817-1860s.

If your interest is piqued…we encourage you to attend his lectures on Monday and Tuesday where he will present the different types of maps and landowner records held by Ukrainian (and some Polish) archives and explain how to analyze the information gleaned from them.

Close-Up Jewish Buildings

Brian’s expert knowledge will help researchers learn how to use these resources to uncover rich family details.

(Conference attendees are encouraged to bring their own maps to share with other researchers.)

There will be other map-related talks, dealing with digital and Internet resources, map interpretation, and more throughout the conference week.

Direct from Warsaw

We’re planning to have many programs of interest to Polish researchers at the conference, and we’re pleased to announce that sociologist Agnieszka Chraboloska, program director of the non-profit Polish group  The Forum for Dialogue Among Nations , will be making her first appearance at an IAJGS conference.  This non-profit organization was founded by Andrzej Folwarczny,  who is also its president.  Andrzej is an ex-member of the Polish Parliament (the Sejm), from the Freedom Union (Unia Wolności) and the chairman of the Polish-Israeli Parliamentary Group.

The mission of The Forum 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.

Leading our line-up will be the first ever IAJGS Conference “Genealogist in Residence” — Arthur Kurzweil — author of  “From Generation to Generation,” and one of America’s foremost experts in Jewish genealogy.   In addition to giving lectures and classes the entire week, Arthur will also be available for kibitzing, kvetching and commentary on the fly.  In honor of the memorable and magical moments that infuse the conference experience, he will be performing his show “Searching for God in a Magic Shop, ” a unique exploration of the world of illusions, offering profound ideas of Jewish thought.  How many times during your family tree meanderings have you slapped your forehead and exclaimed:  “It was there all the time…I just didn’t see it!”  Kurzweil’s performance will demonstrate how often we miss what is right in front of us, how little we truly “see” at first glance.  An enlightening lesson for genealogists.

He’ll also offer two hands-on workshops, “Climbing Your Jewish Family Tree” and “Holocaust Research: How and Why To Locate Information About What Happened to Your Family During the Holocaust, ” along with discussing the spiritual nature of genealogy.

This year — 2009 — the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles celebrates our 30th year of existence and Arthur was there at the start.  It was following his 1979 lecture that a few budding genealogists got together and founded our society. Next year, 2010, the IAJGS celebrates 30 years of conferences, so it’s fitting that he be invited back to where it all began.

The world of Jewish genealogy has radically changed since those fledgling years.  Many of us do our most productive research at home, making breakthroughs while sitting in front of our computers at 2 AM.  Researchers wonder about the value of leaving these comforts just to interact with others.  Is it worth traveling thousands of miles to spend hard-earned dollars on a lengthy conference?  The JGSLA believes that the answer is a resounding yes, and over the next eight months we plan to offer you countless reasons why.

For those of you already planning to attend, the conference will officially start at 10:00AM on Sunday, July 11^th and conclude on Friday, July 16^th at 12:30PM.  Programming and activities will run non-stop for almost six days. Our keynote speaker and dessert reception will take place on Sunday evening, our banquet on Thursday, July 15th, with complete details available soon.

If your schedule includes arriving early to banish jet lag, there will be Shabbat-friendly, pre-conference learning  on Friday, July 9^th and Saturday, July 10^th including tours and classes.  Did you ever wonder what your ancestors were studying when they entered the cheder in their shtetls?   Why so many of them, as adults, devoted a lifetime to studying sacred texts?  You’ll be able to discover the wonders, wisdom and insights in the Talmud in a special afternoon study session.  We’ll also offer Jewish-themed tours and Friday and Saturday dinners, with compelling speakers, in the days leading up to the conference.  Classes will be free, but tours and special meals will have added fees all detailed when registration opens in January.

On Sunday, July 11th,  you’ll be able to plunge into a variety of beginners’ workshops, films, classes and an afternoon SIG “Market Square” where you can sample the “wares” of  various regional special interest groups.  In this informal, friendly setting, you’ll meet the foreign archivists and experts in overseas research who will be lecturing later in the week.  Our SIG committee chair, Vivian Kahn, will be reaching out to SIG and BOF leaders soon via email. to begin this planning.

On Monday we toured the JW Marriott Hotel and construction is ahead of schedule. The “hardhat” photo on the left was taken in the spring of 2009 when the hotel was mainly steel, drywall and dust, but we were all smiles because we had faith that the space would be perfect for our needs.  This last visit proved us right.  Yes…there are still almost 2,500 workers going at it daily, but chandeliers are being raised, wallpaper being applied, and walking the halls and public spaces we began to visualize conference-goers bustling about, running off to lectures, making discoveries in the resource room, trolling through the vendor and exhibit area, and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

The conference space is going to be beautiful and convenient — everything on one floor, with plenty of public space to meet, greet, network and nosh.  Opening for business in February 2010, this gleaming, modern 879-room hotel (right next to the new Ritz Carlton) will offer luxurious, zen-like accommodations,  a rooftop pool, spa, and fitness center, so even if you never leave the building, you’ll feel like you’ve been on vacation!

If you do venture forth, know that the area surrounding the hotel — the L.A. Live complex — offers restaurants, museums and entertainment venues for all tastes and we’ll preview those in this blog in weeks to come.

If you want to venture further afield, we’ll be offering opportunities to see the Jewish and cultural sites of Los Angeles, including a special preview tour of Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust in its new home,  built into a hill adjacent to Pan Pacific Park’s Holocaust memorial, which was erected in 1991 by survivors.  This will be the city’s first world-class, multi-cultural museum dedicated exclusively to remembering the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis.  It won’t open officially until the fall of 2010, but IAJGS conference registrants will be able to attend a special reception there during the conference week.

We realize that attending a six-day conference is a huge commitment of time and money and we promise to keep the level of interest high for both first-timers and long-time conference-goers.  Remember that the opportunity to network in person with up to 1,000 other colleagues and Internet acquaintances as passionate as you are about Jewish genealogy only comes once a year. Chance encounters — a conversation continued after a lecture has ended or getting to discuss the material in a lecture with the expert who just presented it — can lead to unanticipated connections that could advance your research by light years.

Whether this is your first-time putting your toe in genealogical waters or you’re vying for the “most conferences attended” award, the JGSLA cordially invites you to join us in the City of Angels for what promises to be an extraordinary experience of living intensely for six action-packed days of learning and sharing.  Come celebrate turning 30 with all of us in July 2010!

Watch this space for more firsts and additional conference updates.  And don’t forget to sign up for our conference newsletter!

Here’s some basic travel information.

Travel Information: In addition to Los Angeles International Airport, there’s also Burbank (Bob Hope), Ontario, Long Beach and even John Wayne Airport (Orange County). Shuttles are available from the airports to the hotel (information will be posted). Amtrak’s Union Station is not far from the JW Marriott at LA LIVE. There are bus lines into downtown terminals. Driving in? Reduced parking at the hotel for conference attendees has been negotiated.

The Joys of Los Angeles: The LA LIVE area includes the Grammy Museum, Nokia Theater, Staples Center, as well as broadcast studios, restaurants, cafes, cinemas, bowling lanes, music club. Dining options include Trader Vic’s, The Farm of Beverly Hills, Katsuya, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill, Rósa Mexicano, Lawry’s Carvery, New Zealand Natural and others. Universal Studios, Disneyland, The Getty Center and the Skirball Cultural Center are just a short drive away. Additional information on the city, tourist attractions, beaches, sightseeing and more will soon be on the JGSLA 2010 website. Check out the Official Guide to Los Angeles at discoverlosangeles.com or download a guidebook.

Is a family vacation part of your trip? Check out www.visitcalifornia.com and learn about sights about two hours away (San Diego, Sea World, SD Zoo) or north to Hearst Castle and Monterey. Las Vegas is about a four-hour drive, San Francisco or Yosemite, about six hours.

Physical Challenges: Special rooms are available (make sure to discuss this with the reservations department). All conference programming will take place on one floor. In January, information on reserving scooters or wheelchairs will be announced, as well as devices for audio enhancement or assisted-listening devices.

JW MARRIOTT: The 879-room hotel opens February 2010. In addition to WiFi in all rooms, amenities include a rooftop outdoor pool, spa and fitness center, lobby lounge and bar, and a full-service restaurant on the first floor. All meeting spaces are on one level, making it easy to navigate throughout the day.

Here’s just a hint of what to expect:

• More than 130 speakers and over 250 programs!
• An onsite Jewish genealogical library, with professional translators, Yizkor books, LDS microfilms, and more
• Holocaust research resources, including books and videos from the Museum of Tolerance and the Shoah Foundation
• Day trips to Los Angeles’ historic Jewish neighborhoods, with tours of Boyle Heights and the Breed Street Shul
• Lectures on using DNA and genetic genealogy to trace your family story
• A focus on the Entertainment community, with a Jewish genealogy film festival and new programs on Yiddish theatre, klezmer music, vaudeville, and of course Hollywood!
• New beginner genealogist programs for the Converso/B’nai Anousim community and the Persian Jewish community
• …and much more!

Conference Dates:
Sunday-Friday, July 11-16, 2010.

Conference Venue:
The brand new JW Marriott at L.A. LIVE, in downtown Los Angeles.

Hotel Registration:
Open now. RESERVE YOUR ROOM ONLINE HERE! for the JW Marriott, or call 1-800-228-9290 (in the US). Make sure to identify as a participant in the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, and also that you specifically want the JW Marriott at L.A. Live (there is another Marriott downtown).

Room rates are $199 per room, single or double, including free wireless Internet access. For triple or quad, it is $20 per person additional. The special rate is available for three days pre- and post-conference.

Call for Papers:
Opens November 15, 2009 via online abstract submittal, Closes January 15, 2010. Speakers will be notified by February 15, 2010. Handout/resource material is due by March 1, 2010. Here are some potential topics, so put on your thinking caps and get ready!

• Cemetery research, documentation and preservation
• Converso/B’nai Anousim research
• Computer Training Workshops
• Eastern and Central European research
• Eretz Israel, pre and post 1948
• Genetics and DNA Research
• “Hollywood,” movie-making and the Jewish community
• Holocaust research
• Immigration, naturalization and migration
• Jewish History of Los Angeles and the state of California
• Methodology
• Non-European research (e.g. India, China)
• Oral histories and memoirs
• Persian Jewish research
• Pioneer Jews
• Rabbinical research
• Repositories
• Record preservation
• Sephardic research
• South and Central American research
• Technology and Internet resources
• United States/North American research
• Western European research
• Yiddish theater/Tin Pan Alley/klezmer music/Broadway

Conference Program:
This will go live in early 2010, but the website, blog, Twitter and Facebook, as well as announcement lists will make special speaker/program details available as confirmed.

Stay tuned to this blog for more from JGSLA 2010!

Be a part of the world’s largest Jewish genealogy event, as we get ready for the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, hosted by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles in – where else? – exciting Los Angeles at the new L.A. LIVE Convention Center.

Whether you’re a beginner just starting out, an expert or professional seeking the latest information and tips, or somewhere in the middle on the research spectrum, this conference will have something for you!

We are providing essential information as early as possible so attendees from around the world can make travel arrangements and learn about conference plans.

Everyone on the conference team is excited about the upcoming event, and we are focused on bringing you the best possible conference experience.

Communication is at the top of our list, and this year’s event will feature a blog, Twitter, Facebook and, a newsletter and two e-mail lists (one for announcements, one for discussions). No matter where you are in the world, we want you to know what’s happening. All these resources are designed to complement – not compete with – the other elements.

The JGSLA Blog will provide up-to-the minute announcements, breaking news and information, spotlight special programs and much more. Subscribe via email alerts or RSS feed and learn the latest as it is announced.

The team has been working very hard on producing a great website, here at www.jgsla2010.com. Information will be continually added and the best way to learn about the new additions is to read about it here in the blog.

The FAQ is now available. Remember this is a work in progress and additions will be made. Before asking questions, do read the FAQ – the answer may already be there. Is something essential not covered? Let us know.

Los Angeles is a melting pot of diverse communities and JGSLA wants to reach out to our local communities as well as those worldwide. To that end, many informational pages on the website are being translated into various languages. Also live is the Timeline of Jewish History in Los Angeles, from the 1840s-1930s.

To help communication along, there are links to the blog, Twitter and Facebook on every JGSLA 2010 site page. The blog also offers RSS feeds of content in numerous languages, although there may be a delay as it is translated into other languages. Blog posts will be in English, as will Tweets – but you are welcome to translate and RT (re-tweet) to help get the word out. @JGSLA2010 is the conference account; the hashtag is #IAJGS.

The direct-from-JGSLA Conference Announcement List will go live very soon, and we’ll be able to send you photos, links and graphics that cannot be sent via listserves. Sign up for this to receive up-to-the-minute news and announcements. Your contact information will never be shared with any other group. The JewishGen conference discussion list will launch in January 2010.

We are looking forward to greeting you in Los Angeles and reading your comments and questions.