Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog

Changing the rules: GenealogyWise

2009-07-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

GenealogyWise.com has changed the rules on its "contest," and may do so again, according to this early morning message from the company.

The rules are somewhat better and not focused on the goal of "grabbing" (quantification) as many members and posting as much as possible. The objective has changed to something more quality-oriented, which puts the responsibility on the page writer and poster for their own work, and not for their "organizing" ability.

Why the change? It seems the geneablogger community and others felt much the same way I did in my previous post. The feedback was not good and GenealogyWise responded quickly.

I am still wondering if the company will now decide to set up an advisory council of geneabloggers and other individuals who will ask the right questions before such events are announced, and thus avoid these type of incidents that come under my favorite category of "Yes, we can do such-and-such, but should we?"

It appears that something like that is in the works, as the contest will be judged by 10 members of the GenealogyWise community.

The new rules still offer $100 for each winner, but the categories are newly described as these:

Due to community feedback, the rules of the contest have been modified so that content contributed by members is more meaningful and of a higher quality:

- for the member with the highest quality blog posts.

- for the member with the highest quality videos shared.

- for the member with the highest quality forum posts.

- for the member with the highest quality photos uploaded (including descriptions).

- for the member with the highest quality surname group.

- for the member with the highest quality society group (historical or genealogical society).

- for the member with the highest quality other group (not surname or society group).

- for the member who has been the most helpful person to new members.
The message indicated that the corporate goal of the contest is to help members of this new social network get to know each other, and to encourage members to add valuable, relevant content to this new site. That's a good thing.

I was delighted to see this sentence: "GenealogyWise may disqualify any members who are 'gaming' the system, such as adding irrelevant or low-quality content." That's also good to know.

Somewhat disturbing, however, is the statement that "GenealogyWise reserves the ability to change the rules (again) if necessary."

I don't know about you, but I believe future events need to be thought out much more carefully. A game that keeps changing the rules mid-stream is just as annoying as one which isn't well-thought out before it is announced the first time.

Personally, I think this is opening another can of worms.

A better way would have been to just call this off for now, sit down, discuss ramifications and consequences and work out the final rules beforehand. Then announce it again when the proper groundwork has been set.

While both previous and new rules messages indicate contacting Debbie Anne Jackson for questions, the only email given is a general mail@.

Let's see what tomorrow's messages brings.

Book: Sephardic Jews, 15th-16th centuries

2009-07-16T04:00:00.000-07:00

With northern New Mexico's large population of Conversos, it seems a good place for Dolores Sloan, 79, to speak about her new book, "The Sephardic Jews of Spain and Portugal: Survival of an Imperiled Culture in the 15th and 16th Centuries."

Sloan will be on hand for a book signing from 5-6pm, Friday, July 15, at Garcia Street Books, Santa Fe.

The story was in the Santa Fe New Mexican.

It's all because of her mother.

Dolores "Dolly" Sloan, 79, became a writer when she was an 8-year-old living in the Bronx.

"I wrote a play for my second-grade class — it was a thrilling experience," Sloan recalled.

It was around that same time Sloan's mother gave her a book about a little Spanish dancer and told her there was a possibility that her family had come from Spain.

Unbeknownst to Sloan at the time, her mother's gift was to become the genesis of her newly published book.

Sloan arrived in NM in 1991 after visiting a friend who lived there, and worked as a counseling services coordinator and state consultant as a director of the Literary Arts Program for its Arts Division.

"That was an incredible experience," Sloan said. "We went to under-served communities around the state like the Mescalero Apache Reservation, the Navajo Nation in Shiprock and communities in Deming, Hobbs, Carlsbad, Mora and other parts of the state. These people didn't have access to professional writers, so we set up writing workshops where published authors from New Mexico could help them develop their own writing skills."

She also worked for the NM Department of Health and then as a peer counseling coordinator at a high school.

Around this time, in the mid-90s, her mother's early words about a family connection to Spain began to resonate. Sloan met New Mexicans with Sephardic Jewish roots and she also traveled to Spain.

"I went to libraries and bookstores to see if I could find information on this subject, and discovered that there weren't any books of this type for the general reader," she recalled. "That's when I decided that I needed to do the research and author my own book. I wrote the preface to the book on a napkin while I was attending the Border Book Festival in Las Cruces."

It took her 10 years: seven in research and three finding a publisher. She calls it a very enriching experience and describes holding 16th-century documents in her hands.

I can relate to that as I have held actual documents dated 1204 and 1353 in my own hands when visiting Spanish archives.

A single mother of three, she was born in New York City and raised in the Bronx. Her journalism and political science degree is from Syracuse University with master's degrees in political science and psychology. Currently, she teaches speech, writing and a course on Jewish women's history at St. Mary's College (Los Angeles).

Each summer she returns to New Mexico to keep up with friends at PEN New Mexico, an affiliate of the largest international professional association of writers, editors and translators.

Read the complete article at the link above.

Wise Guys: GenealogyWise.com

2009-07-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

The geneablogger community went through Facebook fantasy, followed by Twitter twisting.

This past week has been a whirlwind of wise guys (and gals) setting up shop at GenealogyWise.com.

If you haven't heard about Genealogy Wise, it is likely because your cave in the hills is still waiting for an Internet connection.

To tell the truth, I've also been caught up in this.

When Facebook entered the geneablogger spotlight, my learning curve was steep and it took time to decide to join. When Twitter was next, I thought less about it and acted more quickly. When GenealogyWise was announced, I joined immediately and setup three groups, Tracing the Tribe on GenealogyWise, Jewish Genealogy and Sephardic Genealogy. I'm still learning how to use it to its potential and finding some stumbling blocks (topic for another post).

Today, when I announced our new Tracing the Tribe logo, the news went out nearly simultaneously on the blog and on my GW groups.

When I joined GW, there were only a few hundred members. Today, there are more than 5,000. Groups have also increased rapidly, with many people adding several.

Today, the site announced a contest of sorts offering financial incentives (read prizes) for a host of categories, such as the group with the largest number of members and such.

Personally, I'm not happy with this event and think it smacks negatively of running an annoying numbers game for profit (of the individuals attempting to win). I'm not thrilled as it means my inbox is now filled with invitations to become members of groups I'm not interested in, and to be "friends" of people I don't know. Much of this contact is "fishing" and thus false, in my opinion.

The minute such a "contest" - even with the relatively nominal amount of $100 for each category - is announced, the vultures come out of the woodwork. Yes, I know, vultures don't live in woodwork, but you know what I mean.

This is an example of what I call the ethical dilemma of "yes, we can do this - but should we?" Many geneabloggers can think of past incidents by other companies that also fit that classification.

Someone thought up this "great idea," but didn't think it through as to what would happen in the great rush to win $100 in each of the following categories, between now and 1pm MST August 6:

- for the member with the most confirmed friends in GenealogyWise. (How are they going to "confirm" them? It's a snap these days to set up hundreds of emails/identities and have these phantoms join a group and become "friends.")

- to the owner of the group with the most members. (See above comment)

- to the owner of the surname group with the most members.

- to the creator of the genealogy-related video on GenealogyWise that has been viewed the most times. (Yep, and the phantoms can also view the video.)

- to the member who has uploaded the most historical photos.

- to the person who adds the most genealogy-related videos.

- to the person who has the most popular blog entry (most page views). (Is there a theme song for the Phantoms' Parade?)

- to the most active member in the forums. (Some people do have other lives!)

At some newspapers (where I worked in the past) there were signs in the typesetting room: "Don't annoy the typesetters." Sites such as Genealogy Wise might consider a similar sign, "Don't annoy the geneabloggers."

I believe the site has great potential, but strange contests aimed at "grabbing" friends and members detracts from the positive appeal Genealogy Wise had for me - until today.

Introducing Tracing the Tribe's logo

2009-07-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

Tracing the Tribe is tickled pink, blue and green to introduce our new logo.

It was designed by my geneablogger colleague footnoteMaven. Her creation illustrates exactly what Tracing the [Jewish] Tribe focuses on: helping readers learn how to add leaves to all their branches and trees.

As a firm believer in simple logos, footnoteMaven's idea is exactly that. Any logo that takes 15 minutes to explain is not a good graphic.

Read footnoteMaven's blog here.

A color scheme change will eventually take place at Tracing the Tribe to accommodate the new graphic.

Thank you, footnoteMaven, for this major mitzvah (good deed, Hebrew)!

Washington DC: Lincoln's Jewish advisor

2009-07-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

Tablet Magazine is new on the scene and has been producing some excellent articles n diverse Jewish topics.

This article covers an exhibit, running through December, on Washington during the Civil War.

Among issues discussed, there's a section on President Lincoln's podiatrist/Jewish advisor:

“Lincoln is probably the first president to really have personal associations with Jews,” said Gary Zola, executive director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.

Lincoln’s closest Jewish contact was Isachar Zacharie—one of the president’s more unlikely aides. Zacharie first appeared in Lincoln’s life as his foot doctor, and soon became an unofficial adviser. The New York World wrote in 1864 that Zacharie “enjoyed Mr. Lincoln’s confidence, perhaps more than any other private individual [and was] perhaps the most favored family visitor to the White House.”

The capital was a sleepy town prior to the mid-19th century. Once the Civil War began, things began hopping and MOTs had many opportunities.

The exhibit - Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln's City - was organized by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington. It focuses on 19th-century Jewish life and the Civil War.

During the war years, the city’s Jewish population grew tenfold: from 200 to nearly 2,000. Seventh Street, now the heart of the city’s Chinatown, became a center of Jewish activity. The district was home to six kosher restaurants. (Washington today has only two.)

Without a major industry in town, like the rag trade in New York, most Jewish businesses were mom-and-pop operations. “This neighborhood was never like the Lower East Side,” said David McKenzie, curatorial associate at the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington. “Jews were a significant minority within this neighborhood.”

The exhibit, timed for Lincoln's birth bicentennial, spotlights his relationship with the new Jewish community.

View the exhibit at the Washington Hebrew Congregation through July 20, and then at Beth El in Alexandria, Virginia, through December.

Read the complete article at the link above.

Cuba: Today's Jewish community

2009-07-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

A contingent of Floridians recently visited Cuba's Jewish community in Havana, Cienfuegos and Santa Clara.

The Miami Herald covered the story here. There's a photo of the Guanabacoa Jewish cemetery.

When Franklin Silbey and other members of Temple Israel in West Palm Beach recently visited Jewish synagogues and cemeteries in Cuba, they noticed two details right away.

''No security, and no graffiti,'' Silbey said. ``Everywhere else in the world you go, guards are outside the synagogues. Automatic weapons, in some cases metal detectors, and you get graffiti in the cemeteries. In Cuba, you don't see any of that.''

That might be explained by tight state security, but the Jewish visitors said they also felt no prejudice on the part of Cubans during their week on the island in June. Silbey said they may have found one of the few countries in the world devoid of anti-Semitism.

''Of course, there are only something like 1,500 or 1,600 Jews out of 11 million people,'' Silbey said. ``A very, very small percentage of the population, but still it was unusual.''

The delegation of 27 brought medicine, clothing, school supplies to the tiny remaining community - the remnants of what was a thriving 20,000 prior to Fidel Castro's rise to power in 1959. Some 90% of the island's Jews left, most to Florida.

The story details the experiences of the group's members. Some commented on a rich collection of Spanish and Hebrew books at a Havana synagogue library.

There are a half-dozen congregations on the island. Half the community lives in Havana where three congregations are open (Orthodox and two Reform, one Ashkenazi and one Sephardic). None have a rabbi or cantor, although US and South American clergy do visit. Sometimes group ceremonies, such as a bnai mitzvah for 15 young people from all over Cuba, are conducted by the visiting clergy.

Elsewhere, a family's apartment serves as a synagogue for two dozen Jews in the south central city of Cienfuegos and, in central Santa Clara, there are another two dozen (some of them from the rural areas) who attend services.

In Santa Clara's Jewish cemetery there is a Holocaust memorial, with stones brought from the Warsaw Ghetto.

One problem is that the Santa Clara community has only two children, and they are concerned about the future.

Read the complete article at the link above, and search Tracing the Tribe for other articles on Cuba.

Google is our friend!

2009-07-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

Writing in Ancestry Magazine, my colleague Howard Wolinsky speaks about his recent discoveries using the popular search engine in "Google, Genealogy, and You."

You don’t need a degree in computer science or a class in electrical engineering to find out a few new details about your genealogy. Access to Google is all it takes.

My father gave me two clues about family history when I was teenager in the 1960s. First, Wolinsky was not our original family name. It was Schrogin. Second, our family originated in Lithuania.

That was about all he knew. And his father, Henry, for whom I was named, was long dead.

But those tips have led me time and again to new findings, even when I felt there was nothing more to be found.

Howard mentions reading Dan Lynch's recent book, "Google Your Family Tree: Unlock the Hidden Power of Google" (which I call the new Bible of Online Genealogy) and adds his insight as to the resources detailed.

While many bloggers and journalists including Howard, use Google News Service, Lynch inspired him to check out Google News Archive and provides records (some free, some not) over 200 years.

I plugged in the family name Schrogin and found items from newspapers to magazines and legal documents dating back to 1918, arranged in a timeline. Among the items was a piece about a Schrogin who had been implicated by the infamous House Committee on Un-American Activities, known as HUAC, which investigated the “Hollywood Ten.”

This was a news flash to me. So I shot off an e-mail to my cousin Maxim Schrogin in Berkeley. I connected with Maxim in the 1970s after searching the phone directories in the University of Michigan library for Schrogins. Maxim and I were both budding genealogists, and, at the time, we hadn’t met.
He also plugs (using specific examples of each) Google Alerts, providing links to all your interests (and which Tracing the Tribe has used since its inception), Google Maps, Google Earth, Google’s powerful language tools and Google Books.

Dan Lynch also writes a blog detailing newer Google features and how they can help researchers.

Read Howard's complete article to see what he discovered and how.

ProQuest: Historical Jewish newspapers added

2009-07-14T04:00:00.002-07:00

ProQuest.com is often found in public and educational institution libraries. A new collection of historical Jewish newspapers is being added to its lineup.

This new resource of the Michigan-based company will help genealogists and family history researchers find more information on their families and communities.

Historical Jewish Newspapers will provide users with access to esteemed Jewish newspapers from across the U.S. Newspapers such as The Jewish Advocate (1905-1990) from Boston, The Jewish Exponent (1887-1990) from Philadelphia, and other key papers allow users to explore the experience of Jews in America, including coverage of the rise of Zionism, reaction to US policy toward Israel, participation in labor movements and civil rights, as well as community news of value to genealogists.

Researchers using ProQuest Historical Newspapers can browse full-text and full-image newspapers from US and international titles, dating to the 18th century. With continuous newspaper runs, read each complete issue, or look for specific document types, such as articles, editorials, advertisements, obituaries, etc.), date,and author.

Billed as the largest digital newspaper archive, ProQuest Historical Newspapers includes more than 22 million pages since 1764.

Check to see if your local library carries access to ProQuest. For more information, click here.

Poland: Piecing together a Jewish past

2009-07-14T04:00:00.001-07:00

The story of Poland's "hidden" Jewish children finding their ancestral roots and American Jews reconnecting with their Polish Jewish roots is the focus of this JTA story.
Like many children of Jews who grew up in Poland after World War II, Anna
Makowska-Kwapisiewicz was sheltered from her Jewish provenance for much of her life.
There were clues, of course. Her exotic dark eyes and hair occasionally drew remarks about her “Gypsy” or “Spanish” beauty. Her grandmother would constantly teach her the catechism so she could recite it “when they return.” And her grandfather told stories of hiding in the forest.
But it wasn’t until she repeated an anti-Semitic joke she heard in high school that her mother broke down and confessed that her father was, in fact, a Jew.
The news set Makowska-Kwapisiewicz on a path of discovery from Jewish study to ritual observance. Now she is a Jewish educator building a Jewish home and life -- complete with plans for Jewish schooling for her year-old daughter, Nina.

She's part of the Jewish awakening taking in Poland, where Poles, like amnesiacs, are trying to piece together a collective memory.

“We are so much interconnected,” the former president of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, told JTA at a dinner in Warsaw. “I feel that part of my heritage is Jewish tradition,” he said, explaining that his grandmother lived in Vilnus, a heavily Jewish city, and she knew about Jewish dishes like cholent, the Sabbath stew.
If a Pole says “he has not one even drop of Jewish blood in this body,” then he is “not right,” Kwasniewski said.

A former Krakow bookstore owner, now a Polish literature doctoral student at the University of Chicago, Karen Underhill says Jews visiting Poland used to come by her shop seeking heritage information.

Some 75% of American Jews trace their roots to Greater Poland (Poland and parts of Ukraine, Austria and Hungary) says San Francisco philanthropist Tad Taube who is funding efforts to connect American Jews to Polish heritage.

A Krakow native, he says that “worship” of the Holocaust prompted Jews to foresake the 1,000 years of Jewish history in Poland that preceded it, even though it was a “golden period” of Jewish life that gave rise to important religious and cultural development.

Some 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland before the war; more than 90% perished. Mixed heritage descendants of those who stayed in Poland are now reconnecting with Jewish roots and uncovering their unknown family history.

Taube is trying to create projects restoring Jewish pride in Poland, including the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (2011 opening), a new Krakow Jewish community center, Jewish heritage tours and the 19th annual Krakow Jewish Festival showcasing Jewish culture.

Read the complete article at the link above.

India: Holocaust Film Festival planned

2009-07-14T04:00:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi is planning a Holocaust film festival in Lucknow, India, and he's asking for your help as to suggestions and donations for the event. Films will be shown at various institutions in the city.

He writes;

Shalom!

I plan to organize a Series of Holocaust Film Screenings in Lucknow, India, at universities, colleges and other educational institutions here. The objective is to make the Indians aware of the great tragedy and to fight the Holocaust denial, common among Muslims here.

I already have in my possession three documentary films (thanks to the munificence of Yad Vashem), namely:

- Outcast: Jewish Persecution in Nazi Germany 1933-1938

- She Was there and She Told Me: The Story of Hannah Bar Yesha

- May Your Memory Be Love: The Story of Ovadia Baruch

If you could donate documentaries or/and feature-films on the Holocaust it would be a great mitzvah, for which I would be most grateful.

He has set up a blog, Open Space Lucknow and will acknowledge contributions. He also asks DVDs to be sent by registered post of courier service.

Email him for more details and to clear titles you may wish to provide for this good cause.

USHMM: July-August 2009

2009-07-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC) has announced its July-August programs.

North Africa and its Jews in WWII: 2-4pm, Friday, July 24

The Center's Summer Research Workshop Program culminates in a public presentation of participants' work. This program will examine the experiences of North African Jewry with especial focus on Nazi, Vichy, Spanish fascist, and local policymakers; anti-Jewish legislation and property confiscation and its implementation and effects on the ground; Muslim-Jewish relations; and Jewish cultural life. Participants also assess postwar historiography and memorialization of Jewish experiences in North Africa during the Holocaust.

Topics include are "Implementation of Anti-Jewish Legislation in Morocco at the Local and Metropolitan Levels," "Saharan Jews under Vichy: A Historical Assessment," "The Final Solution in North Africa, 1942-43: An Analysis of the Failed German Project to Annihilate North African Jewry," "The Memorial to the Victims in Borgel Jewish Cemetery," "Aryanization" of Jewish Property in North Africa during the War," "The Detained of Hammamet during the War, 1942–43,"Moncef Bey and the Tunisian Jewish Community in the Context of the Political Tradition of the Tunisian Beys," "Morocco during World War II: The Dynamics of Historical Memory and Jewish-Muslim Relations," "Inventing the Ideal Mother and the Perfect Home: Jewish Women in Tunis, 1933-1943," "The Franco Regime and the Jews of North Africa, 1939-1945," "Stages in the Historiography of the Second World War in North Africa," "Information and Research on North African Jewry during World War II," "Between Mendoub and Khalifa: Tangier's Jews."

Bringing the Past into the Present: Missing Narratives of the Holocaust in Ukraine: 2-4pm, Friday, July 31

Workshop participants explore the experiences of Jews and Ukrainians during World War II and the Holocaust, with especial focus on Ukrainian forced laborers; the Lvov ghetto; the Janowska camp; and postwar historiography, collective memory, and contemporary treatment and presentation of this history in Ukraine.

Topics include "Ukrainian Forced Laborers in Austria: The Pain of Memory," "Histories in Discord: Stalinist and Nazi Terror in Ukrainian Historical Culture," "Narratives and Identities in Western Ukraine, 1940-2008,"As in the old days in Shanghai: Propaganda and Forced Recruitment of 'Eastern Workers' for the War Economy of the Third Reich," "Women of the Underground: Female Roles in the OUN and UPA," "Testimonies of Holocaust Perpetrators in Ukraine," "Eyewitness to an Occupation: Collaboration and the Holocaust in Olevs'k, Zhytomyr Region," and "Missing Jewish Narratives in the Publicly Presented Past: An Invisible Tragedy in Lviv."

Exploring the Newly Opened ITS Archive at the USHMM: 2-4pm, Friday, August 14

Drawing on their previous research, participants work in interdisciplinary groups to explore how the Museum's collection of digitized documents from the ITS can inform the study of foreign, forced, and slave labor in the Third Reich and in its occupied and allied territories. More than a dozen scholars will speak.

For more information, see the USHMM site.

Philly 2009: Suchostaw Region meeting, August 4

2009-07-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

An annual conference event is the Suchostaw Region Research Group (SRRG) meeting for descendants of this shtetl - where my FINK family lived.

My grandfather, Shaye (Sidney), was born in Romanowe Siolo, some of his siblings were born in Mikulince, other relatives were from Ostapie and Podhacje. Many other localities figure in the family history, including Skalat and Tarnopol.

The Philly 2009 event is set for 9.45-11am, Tuesday, August 4.

Susana Leistner Bloch, whose maternal family is also from Suchostaw, is the coordinator. If you'll be attending, let her know which shtetls you're researching as she has interesting material to bring. See the SRRG website here.

The Suchostaw SRRG includes the following administrative districts:

Borszczow - Buczacz - Czortkow - Husiatyn - Skalat - Tarnopol - Trembowla - Zbaraz - Zaleszczyki.

The SRRG's shtetls include these where members have roots - there are more.

Barysz, Baworow, Beremiany, Bialoboznica, Biala, Bilcze, Borki,Wielkie, Budzanow, Burakowka, Chorostkow, Cygany, Czahary Zbaraskie, Czarnokonce, Draganowka, Darachow, Davidkowce, Dolina, Gleboczek, Grzymalow, Hadynkowce, Holoszynce, Horodnica, Ilawcze, Iwanowka, Jablon Jagielnica, Janow, Jazlowiec,Jezierzany, Kaczanowka, Kalaharowka, Klebanowka, Klimkowce, Kluwince, Kobylowloki, Kolodrobka, Kolodziejowka, Kopyczynce, Korolowka, Koscielniki, Kosmierzyn, Kosow, Kotowka, Kozaczyzna, Kozowka, Krasne, Krzywcze Gorne, Krzywenkie, Krzywoluka, Kujdance, Ladyczyn, Lanowce, Losiacz, Lozowka, Majdan, Maksymowka, Mielnica, Mikulince, Molczanowka, Monasterzyska, Mszaniec, Myszkowice, Nagorznka, Nowosiolka, Okopy, Olchowiec, Ostapie, Ostra, Pauszowka, Petlikowce Stare, Pilatkowce, Plotycz, Podfilipie, Podwoloczyska, Postolowka, Potok Zloty, Probuzna, Proszowa, Romanowe Siolo, Romanowka, Rosochacz, Rosochowaciec, Ruzdwiany, Salowka, Semenow, Skala, Skomorosze, Snowidow, Sosolowka, Strusow, Stryjowka, Suszczyn, Swidowa, Swierzkowce,Tarnoruda, Teklowka, Tluste, Touste, Trojka, Trybuchowce, Tudorow, Turylcze, Ulaszkowce, Uscie Biskupie, Uscieczko, Uwisla, Wasylkowce, Wierzbowka, Winiatynce, Wolkowce, Worwolince, Wygnanka, Zadniszowka, Zascinocze, Zazdrosc.
For much more information, see the website link above.

Philly 2009: An offer you can't refuse!

2009-07-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

Jewish genealogy film festival coordinator Pamela Weisberger is making an offer that conference attendees should consider.

Pam is calling for volunteers to staff the film festival room throughout the conference, morning to evening.

It's a great opportunity to see some wonderful films and meet some terrific filmmakers up close. The only requirements are knowing how to run a DVD player, turning lights off and on, adjusting sound levels.

Being organized also helps as it will be your job to switch over from one film to the next on our tight schedule, and make sure the films run on time.If you plan to go to see several films anyway, consider volunteering to be in charge for a few of them.

Pam would prefer to have volunteers work in shifts from 2-5 hours for continuity. Films will run until 10.30pm most nights.

Now for the really interesting part:

- Are you traveling with someone who is not attending the conference? If they volunteer for four hours on one day, they can attend lectures for the rest of that day for free.

- Do you have film buff friends in the Philadelphia area? The offer holds for them as well, as long as they are not JGSGP members.

- It's a great opportunity for responsible high school/college students or seniors,. You can even work in pairs.

See the film schedule here. Many films will have speakers taking Q&A to add to the experience.

If you or someone you know is interested in helping, contact Pam for more information.

Sephardim: A culture check

2009-07-12T23:42:00.000-07:00

Modern Sephardic culture was addressed today by JTA.org. The story by Amy Klein touches on items from many regions.
There are dozens of ways to enjoy modern Sephardic culture, art that draws upon traditions from regions such as Spain, Portugal, the Middle East, North Africa, the Far East, Italy, Rome and Greece. The culture includes music, literature, history, cooking, art and theater. Here are just some samples.
Under LISTEN, find

De Leon: Indie rock band with 15th century Spanish influences and Sephardic tradition. http://jdubrecords.org/artists.php?id=22

Pharoah's Daughter: Jewish folk group performing traditional Judaic tunes with Arabic rhythm and African beats.

Vanessa Paloma - singer, performer, scholar and writer - specializes in Sephardic women's songs and their connection to women's spiritual expression.

I'm adding in our cousin Galeet Dardashti's group, Divahn.

Under READ, there's

Iranian Jewish author Gina Nahai's first novel (1991) “Cry of The Peacock." Insiders know the book's characters were based on her family's interesting individuals and the family wasn't very happy about it. She's now writing her fifth book, charting seven generations of a Jewish family beginning in 18th-century Persia to modern-day Iran.

The article does not include the books of Farideh Goldin, Dalia Sofer nor Roya Hakkakian, whose books focus on different aspects of Iranian Jewish life.

Algeria is represented by Joann Sfar's “The Rabbi's Cat” and “The Rabbi's Cat 2,” by Joann Sfar (Pantheon Books, 2005, 2008). These graphic novels spotlight a rabbi's cat who narrates the stories.

Bene Israel Indian auhor Sophie Judah's "Dropped from Heaven" (Shocken, 2007) is a story collection about the everyday life of a fictional Bene Israel community.

Lucette Lagnado's “The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World,” (Harper Perennial: Reprint, 2008) is a memoir of her father and her family's life in Cairo and a relocation to American poverty.

Spanning 150 years with writings of 28 authors covers fiction, memoirs, essays and poetry in “The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature,” edited by Ilan Stavans (Shocken, 2005).

Aviva Ben Hur's “Sephardic Jews in America: A Diasporic History" (New York University Press, 2009) is a new one to read.

There's information on the NY Sephardic Film Festival, a Syrian spoof of "Seinfeld" (Jerry's mother is Syrian) and more.

If Sephardic cuisine is your thing, as it is mine, there are several good books noted:

Syria: "Fistful of Lentils: Syrian-Jewish Recipes from Grandma Fritzie's Kitchen," by Jennifer Felicia Abadi (Harvard Common Press, 2007), and “Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews,” by Poopa Dweck, Michael J. Cohen and Quentin Bacon, (Ecco, 2007)

Morocco: “Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon,” by Claudia Roden (Knopf, 2006).

Iraqi: “Mama Nazima's Jewish Iraqi Cuisine,” by Rivka Goldman (Hippocrene Books, 2006).

There is no Persian Jewish cookbook as classic Persian cooking is the same for all. A few dishes require some minor adjustments, such as not marinating chicken in yoghurt and saffron), but most are the same for Jewish Iranians as for others.

The Bible of Iranian cooking, in my opinion, is "New Food for Life," which is now a little difficult to find, but well worth the search.

Read the complete article here.

Belarus: A trip to Gorodok

2009-07-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

Long ago, a long-lost Talalay left Gorodok and went to Philadelphia. He and his family promptly became "lost" to the rest of the family and we have not found any trace of them since.

However, if Gorodok is your shtetl of interest, there is a great travel story with photographs on My Shtetl, a Russian and English site, sponsored by the Israel-Belarus International Culture Center of Vitebsk. It does focus on the restoration of the town's Jewish cemetery.

There's an excellent map of the Vitebsk region, and a list of the shtetls with links:

Vitebsk • Albrehtovo • Babinovichi • Babynichi • Baran • Bayevo • Begoml • Beloye • Beshenkovichi • Bigosovo • Bocheikovo • Bogushevsk • Bolbasovo • Borkovichi • Borovuha • Braslav • Bychiha • Chashniki • Chereya • Disna • Dobromysli • Dokshitsy • Druisk • Drutsk • Druya • Dubrovno • Dunilovichi • Dvorishe • Germanovichi • Glubokoye • Golubichi • Gomel • Gorodok • Ikazn • Iody • Kamen • Kohanovo • Kolyshki • Kopys • Koziany • Krasnoluki • Krasnopolie • Kublichi • Latygolichi • Lepel • Liady • Liozno • Lukoml • Luzhki • Lyntupy • Matiyevo • Miory • Новый Погост• Obol • Oboltsy • Opsa • Orehovsk • Orsha • Osintorf • Ostrovno • Osveya • Parafianovo • Plissa • Podsvilye • Polotsk • Postavy • Prozorki • Rossony • Senno • Sharkovshina • Shumilino • Sirotino • Slavnoye • Slobodka • Smolyany • Surazh • Svecha • Tolochin • Trudy • Ulla • Ushachi • Verhnedvinsk • Vetrino • Vidzy • Volkolata • Volyntsy • Voronichi • Vorontsevichi • Yanovichi• Yezerishe • Yuhovichi • Zhary •

Click on the English version link above for more information.

The site is requesting that those with roots in the region share information, photographs and memories:

Requests everyone, who was born, lived, worked or visited Belarus and remembers the pre-war Jewish settlements of the country, to contact us.

We request you to share your memories and photographs. They are priceless for everyone, who thinks about the future of their children and grandchildren. They are priceless for our nation.

We are ready to send you a list of questions, which we would like you to answer. We are ready to record your memories on audio or video.

You can e-mail them to us (scanned in the original size, 300 dpi, in JPG format).

The travel article can be found here.

Sacramento: 1940 census, July 20

2009-07-12T10:55:00.000-07:00

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Sacramento will offer a program on the 1940 Census with Joel Weintraub, at 7 pm, Monday, July 20.

The venue is the Albert Einstein Residence Center, 1935 Wright St.

In "Preparing locational search tools for the 1940 census opening," Joel will discuss the planning, unique aspects, questions and undercount of the 1940 census and why we wait 72 years to see a US census. If no 1940 name index exists when the census becomes public in 2012, geographical/locational search tools will be needed to find people.

Joel will discuss the basis of such searches (Enumeration District numbers) and what the National Archives and the Morse One-Step Web site are planning (and in some cases already have in place) to make geographical searches feasible and easy for genealogists. Those tools can be used now to find people by location on the 1880 through 1930 U.S. Census schedules.

An emeritus biology professor at California State University-Fullerton, he became interested in genealogy about 12 years ago and volunteers at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Laguna Niguel.

In 2001, Joel began transcribing streets within census districts to help researchers search the 1930 US Census, and was joined, in 2002, by David Kehs and Steve Morse. Together, they have produced a large number of online census-searching utilities for the federal and New York state censuses on Steve Morse's One-Step Web site. The One-Step team already features finding aids for the 1940 census, to which will be released in 2012.

He has presented workshops for NARA, as well as lectures and computer workshops for local and international genealogy societies on census searching. Click here for more.

Click the Jewish Genealogical Society of Sacramento for more information.

Philly 2009: Local groups to receive low daily rate

2009-07-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

If you are a member of a local Philadelphia metro area synagogue or Jewish organization, you and others can receive a deeply discounted daily registration rate. The deadline is July 15, so contact your synagogue or organization ASAP.

The normal daily attendance rate is $75, but groups can receive the rate of $40 per person.

The conference, which runs August 2-7 at the Sheraton City Center, will offer more than 200 presentations, programs and workshops on all aspects of Jewish family history research by international experts.

According to the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent article:

Groups of 20 should assign a liaison to collect the names and money by July 15. First, visit the conference Web site (www.philly2009.org) to review program offerings, and then select a day.

Group members may then come to the Sheraton at any time on their selected day and enjoy full access to all programs that do not require an additional fee.

This is a great price and, to my knowledge, this is the first time such a group rate has ever been offered at any previous year of the annual event. To contact co-chair David Mink about this offer, see the Exponent article here.

This year is the 29th edition, hosted by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia and co-sponsored by the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.

The 30th conference will be hosted by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles in July 2010.

Survey: Top 18 Jewish-Americans

2009-07-11T04:00:00.000-07:00

The National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia wants your vote, through August 9, on the top 18 most accomplished Jewish-Americans.

The museum's website invites the public to help decide which 18 past and present Jewish Americans should be recognized in a major museum exhibition

To be called the "Only in America" gallery, the permanent, ground-floor exhibition will serve as a Jewish American hall of fame.

From now until Aug. 9, visitors to the Web site can nominate candidates for inclusion or choose (and learn) from a list of 218 Jewish Americans prepared by the museum's historians.

Divided into nine categories, the lineup ranges from the recondite (Nobel laureate and physicist Richard Feynman and cultural critic Susan Sontag) to the ridiculous (the Three Stooges); from high art (painter Mark Rothko, composer Aaron Copland) to pop (Barbra Streisand, the Warner brothers, Steven Spielberg); from the obvious (Einstein) to the obscure.

Ever hear of Judah Benjamin? During the Civil War, he was the Confederacy's secretary of both war and state.

"The story we're telling is what a particular group can achieve when given the blessings of freedom," said Michael Rosenzweig, the museum's president and CEO.

Go to the site and vote. The results will be interesting.

The museum is set to open in 2010.

DNA: Rejoining the tribe

2009-07-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

Family Tree DNA.com answers some 20 queries weekly from Hispanics about Jewish ancestry, according to founder Bennett Greenspan.

The Houston Chronicle covered this story of one Hispanic family's return to the tribe.
Mari Barkhausen’s journey began decades ago as she watched her maternal grandmother’s peculiar ways. Her Mexican-American abuela would light candles on Fridays and draw the curtains before sundown, cover mirrors at home when a relative died and examine eggs for blood spots.

No one questioned her ways, and no explanation was ever offered to little Mari or her siblings.Years later, Barkhausen would realize those customs were not one woman’s idiosyncrasies. They were Jewish customs.

Lighting of candles marked the beginning of the Sabbath. Many cover mirrors when someone dies to avoid concentrating on their grief-stricken appearances.
An increasing number of Latinos believes their ancestors were Conversos or Crypto-Jews — people who outwardly professed another religion but secretley kept Jewish tradition.

Crypto-Judaism has at least a five-century history. Although most people believe it stems from 1492, and the Expulsion, an earlier series of pogroms across Spain also forcibly converted masses of Jews to Catholicism (and many began leaving for other countries back then). The big exodus, of course, was in 1492, when a large number of Sephardic Jews in Spain were given the "choice" of forced conversion or being forced to leave Spain. Many immigrated to Portugal, Europe and Mediterranean countries (Turkey, Greece, Italy, Sicily). Many others converted and stayed.

Some used Catholicism as a cover and kept Jewish tradition, said Stanley Hordes, author of To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto Jews of New Mexico. As the Spanish Inquisition became determined to root out Judaism, Crypto Jews were tortured or burned at the stake.
Numerous Conversos fled to Mexico and others found their way north into New Mexico, Colorado, Texas and elsewhere.

The Garcias (Barkhausen’s maiden name) emigrated to Mexico from Spain in the early 1500s, for instance. Mexico later established its own tribunal to persecute Jews.

According to Hordes, Crypto Jews and their descendants also settled throughout the American Southwest, including Texas, New Mexico and southern Arizona. No one is sure how many descendants exist today.

The secret practices and daily traditions continued in homes for generations until many families no longer knew their origin. Eventually, many families’ religious history was lost.

“Even though Grandma didn’t know it was kosher, that was what she was doing,” Barkhausen said.
The story covers the family's journey from Presbyterian roots, Baptist Church, Jews for Jesus, Messianics and - finally - a full halachic return to mainstream Judaism.

Unfortunately, the reporter has included folklorist Judith Neulander's discredited theories that the Crypto-Jews adopted these very Jewish customs from Protestant missionaries.

I wish she would see my Northern New Mexico friends who have been observing stringent Jewish customs - in great secrecy - since the late 1500s on their arrival from Spain. These families refuse to talk to researchers because of the attitude of a very small number of researchers like Neulander. These Conversos know exactly who they are, and have kept careful records and traditions, as well as speak 16th century Ladino (called "mountain Spanish" in New Mexico) at home. Neulander is very wrong.

Quoted in the story is anthropologist Seth Cunin - who is involved with the Society of Crypto-Judaic Studies - is author of the forthcoming book, Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity Among the Crypto-Jews.

He says (and my friends agree) that many texts were lost after Jews were forcibly converted, but Jewish identity persisted because of its emphasis on action, ritual and memory.

“The fact that it is preserved suggests that identity and culture do have a perseverance that is much stronger than we might expect,” he said. “It is strong against all odds.”
Says Barkhausen, “We are redeeming the choices of our ancestors. They couldn’t be Jewish. Now, we can.”

I find it interesting that the reporter's name is NOONOO, which is also spelled NUNU in Portugal and is a recognized Sephardic name. Wonder if he knows???

Read the complete story at the link above.

Washington DC: The tribe in Congress

2009-07-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

For those who follow MOTs (members of the tribe), JTA has listed Jewish members of the 111th US Congress.

Here is the list of 44 Jewish members, including 13 senators and 31 representatives.

U.S. SENATE
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)
Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.)
Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.)
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Al Franken (D-Minn.)*
Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.)
Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)**
Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.)
Carl Levin (D-Mich.)**
Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.)
Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Arlen Specter (D-Pa.)
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.)
John Adler (D-N.J.)*
Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.)
Howard Berman (D-Calif.)
Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
Stephen Cohen (D-Tenn.)
Susan Davis (D-Calif.)
Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.)
Bob Filner (D-Calif.)
Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)
Alan Grayson (D-Fla.)
Jane Harman (D-Calif.)
Paul Hodes (D-N.H.)
Steve Israel (D-N.Y.)
Steve Kagen (D-Wisc.)
Ron Klein (D-Fla.)
Sander Levin (D-Mich.)
Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.)
Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.)
Jared Polis (D-Colo.)*
Steve Rothman (D-N.J.)
Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)
Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.)
Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)
Brad Sherman (D-Calif.)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)
Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)
Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.)
Robert Wexler (D-Fla.)
John Yarmuth (D-Ky.)

* Elected to Congress for the first time
** Senators who were re-elected.

Democrat Rahm Emanuel was in the Illinois House but left to serve as White House chief of staff.

Although Senators Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) and Michael Bennet (D-Col.), have Jewish roots, they do not identify as Jewish.

Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg!

2009-07-10T18:42:00.000-07:00

Gertrude Berg was Mrs. Goldberg.

She created the radio series, "The Goldbergs," which became the first family TV sitcom. It introduced America to a Jewish family following the Holocaust. The family was welcomed into homes across the country and likely showed Jewish customs and traditions to people who had never seen them before.

The Women and Hollywood site has an interview with director,Aviva Kempner of a documentary , "Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg."
The thing about Gertrude Berg is that she did everything on the show. She wrote the scripts, she produced the show, and she starred in the show. EVERYTHING. She worked her ass off and received the first Emmy for best actress ever.

What was also so great about Gertrude is that she stood up for her co-star Philip Loeb who was named as a communist. Sadly, standing up for her convictions and her friend doomed the show. She lost her sponsors and couldn’t get any more until she fired Loeb which she refused to do for over a year. During the McCarthy insanity there were not many people who stood up for others and Berg was one of those few. The show never really recovered and when they moved the family from the Bronx to the suburbs it was doomed.

This film is a great history lesson about a woman who was a feminist before the word was used. At the height of her popularity she was the second most admired woman in America after Eleanor Roosevelt. I’m so glad that her life has been preserved for generations to see.
Aviva Kempner has been working for many years to bring Gertrude’s story to the screen. She answered some questions about the film.
Why did Kempner want to tell Berg's story?
For the past 30 years I have done films about Jewish heroes–men and women who fought the Nazis and baseball slugger Hank Greenberg. This time I wanted to concentrate on a heroine who had such a positive influence on American culture.
The child of a survivor, Kempner lost three grandparents and an aunt to the Holocaust. Her mission to make films about Jewish heroes and heroines that contradict negative stereotypes about Jews.

Kempner discovered, among other things, that Berg wrote in the bathtub every morning.

It opens this weekend at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the Quad Cinema in New York City, on July 17 in Washington, DC and in other locations over the next few months. Click here for more information.

The New York Times review is here.

San Francisco: 1940 Census, July 19

2009-07-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

The 1940 Census is in the spotlight at the next meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society at 1pm Sunday, July 19, at the Jewish Community High School, 1835 Ellis Street; parking is available (Map)

Joel Weintraub will present "Preparing locational search tools for the 1940 census opening."

He will discuss the planning, unique aspects, questions, and undercount of the 1940 census and why we wait 72 years to see a U.S. census. If no 1940 name index exists when the census becomes public in 2012, geographical/locational search tools will be needed to find people.

Joel will discuss the basis of such searches (Enumeration District numbers) and what the National Archives and the Morse One-Step Web site are planning (and in some cases already have in place) to make geographical searches feasible and easy for genealogists. Those tools can be used now to find people by location on the 1880 through 1930 U.S. Census schedules.

An emeritus biology professor at California State University-Fullerton, he became interested in genealogy about 12 years ago and regularly volunteers at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Laguna Niguel.

In 2001, Joel began transcribing streets within census districts to help researchers search the 1930 US Census, and was joined, in 2002, by David Kehs and Steve Morse. Together, they have produced a large number of online census-searching utilities for the federal and New York state censuses on Steve Morse's One-Step Web site. The One-Step team already features finding aids for the 1940 census, to which will be released in 2012.

He has presented workshops for NARA, as well as lectures and computer workshops for local and international genealogy societies on census searching. Click here for more.

Blogspot vs Wordpress: Some stats

2009-07-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

Chris Dunham - The Genealogue and the Genealogy Blog Finder - has published some stats related to his blog finder database.

He notes the increase of Wordpress, but doesn't attribute a reason: "The most interesting change I see is the increased use of WordPress, which has increased (as a percentage of new blogs added) almost tenfold since last year."

One reason, in my opinion, may have been the Blogger fiasco of last year where thousands of blogs were marked falsely as spam and it took time to fix that major problem.

Tracing the Tribe set up a mirror site on Wordpress to enable continued reader access. When I posted about my solution; other geneabloggers followed suit.

Another reason may have been the recent Blogger-IE 6,7,8 problem in which readers using Internet Explorer had trouble viewing Blogger sites; the technical problem did not impact Wordpress blogs.

Once again, Tracing the Tribe reactivated its Wordpress site due to this problem.

Here are some of Chris' stats:

142 blogs (10%) updated in the last two days
329 blogs (24%) updated in the last week
547 blogs (40%) updated in the last month
926 blogs (67%) updated in the last six months
1096 blogs (79%) updated in the last year
861 blogs (62%) on (free) "blogspot.com"
131 blogs (9%) on (free) "wordpress.com"
70% of blogs abandoned pre-2008 on "blogspot.com"
7% of blogs abandoned post-2008 on "wordpress.com"
1% of blogs don't syndicate content/or unusable feed
928 blogs (67%) have a geographical location assigned
444 blogs (32%) have "Genealogy" in the title
2 blogs have "Genealogue" in the title

See Chris' complete post here.

Germany: Unexpected success story

2009-07-08T14:45:00.000-07:00

Immediately before I left on my trip to the US, our Jewish Family Research Association Israel (JFRA Israel), a Jewish genealogical society, held a board meeting.

Susan Edel, representing JFRA's Petah Tikvah branch, shared with us the story of her recent trip to Germany and the amazing story of what she discovered.

The story is now reported in the Jerusalem Post.

Born and raised in the UK, she's a a volunteer at Magen David Adom's Tracing Services department, which is associated with the International Committee of the Red Cross and helps families determine the fates of their relatives who were Holocaust victims and survivors.

In the spring, she and a colleague attended a Red Cross conference in Germany, and she was assisted in locating graves of her father's family in a nearby town.

"They bent over backwards to help me," Edel said, about the conference leaders who assisted her. "Their attitude to me was just unbelievable."

In April, she became her own success story.

More than 30 international representatives attended a Red Cross tracing services conference hosted by the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany, home to an archive documenting Holocaust victims.

Susan shared with us at the board meeting that she had mentioned her search for paternal ancestors in Breitenbach near Kassel, about 45 km from Bad Arolsen, to an ITS archivist and wondered how she could get the key to the locked cemetery.

The next morning, ITS told her that they had located the man with the key, drove her to the cemetery and later helped find online documentation on her family.

Vandalized in the 1970s, intact tombstones in the cemetery were few, but Susan discovered three graves for her paternal family. The oldest was from 1871, with the others from 1901 and 1929.

When Jews visit cemeteries, we leave small stones on the gravestone to show we were there. Susan couldn't find any stones on the ground, but the archivist sent the driver out of the cemetery to find some for her.

"I was beside myself, very emotional," said Edel. "I never expected to get to the cemetery and certainly never to find legible tombstones of my family."

Read the complete story at the link above.

Museum of Family History: New in July

2009-07-08T14:00:00.001-07:00

Here's what's new at the Museum of Family History, according to founder Steve Lasky.

- Living in America

The Jewish Experience - Philadelphia: From the Museum's Education and Research Center, an article by Shalom Bronstein, reprinted with permission from Avotaynu (Spring 2006) Avotaynu, "Researching Philadelphia in Israel."

- Education and Research Center

- The historic newspaper, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, offered "Shipping News." It listed ships arriving in New York and New Jersey, including the ship's name, shipping line, dock, day and time; it also listed ship departures.

Steve found this important genealogically because he always wanted to know where immigrants disembarked after Ellis Island stopped being the main arrival location. He says he can now find the arrival point, no matter if it is somewhere in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or in New Jersey (Hoboken, Jersey City, Bayonne, etc.).

- New York City Men Summoned for Examination for the Draft

The registration of 24 million men occurred at three times during 1917-1918. On this new web page, find a large list of men summoned for a draft examination. It is too large and too fuzzy, so is just for display purposes.

Also search using the Fulton History website, and at the link above see how Steve found his grandfather's name.

Steve also indicated the usefulness of ProQuest, which had a small article about his paternal grandmother in 1929 in a Utica, NY newspaper although she was living in Brooklyn.

He also says that the Fulton History site often includes the names of students of entire graduating classes of NYC high schools and even middle schools. He found five or so classes for Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, and also found a story about the school's opening.

- Exhibitions

Steve has added two pages with film clips in mp4 format. There are also links to view those films in two alternate ways. The first has a small PowerPoint slide show or you can listen only to the audio portion.

"Nazi Concentration Camps" (59:00)

A footage compilation of Nazi concentration camps after World War II, gathered by the US Department of Defense for war crimes trials. It includes footage from Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, Leipzig, Penig (subcamp of Buchenwald), Ohrdruf (subcamp of Buchenwald), Ahlen, Arnstadt, Nordhausen; Breendonck (Belgium) and Mauthausen (Austria). There are scenes from psychiatric hospital Hadamar (Germany) where mass sterilizations and mass murder of 'undesirable' members of Nazi society, specifically the physically and mentally handicapped, were conducted.

"Seeking Justice: The Nuremberg Trials" (1:15, 1945; US Army)

If you have questions or have materials to contribute, email Steve for more information.