California: Jewish conference track

The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree is only a few months away, set for June 27-29, in Burbank, California. Last year's event was a major success, and this year is expected to be bigger and better.

The committee's program (now online, see link below) features 40 speakers and more than 80 presentations. This is the second year I've enjoyed working with the out-of-the-box creative co-chair Paula Hinkel.

Los Angeles-area readers should know that there is a special Jewish research track on Sunday - so I'd like to encourage you to attend. There are other special tracks for DNA, technology, German and Eastern European research.

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Roots Television: Telly Awards

RootsTelevision.com's co-founders - producer Marcy Brown and professional genealogist Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak - frequently refer to themselves as "two chicks and a channel." As I've watched the progress of the site, I've worked with Marcy on several segments as she filmed at Jewish genealogy conferences and I've even appeared in a few! 

It is great to report that the genealogy and family history site has garnered awards for four original productions, and that one was for Jewish genealogy's own gen-comedian Jordan Auslander of New York.

Texas: Heralding the History

The Centennial year of the Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Texas) is being celebrated with an exhibit of 101 front pages from the paper's continuous publication. The Greater Houston Jewish Genealogical Society has also been involved in preserving the paper's archive.

I've had the pleasure of meeting publishers Joseph and Jeanne Samuels several times at American Jewish Press Association meetings.

We even lived in Teheran, Iran, when their daughter lived there, and I've written for the paper.

New Blog: This Day in Jewish History

Interested in what happened in Jewish history on a particular day?

If so, then This Day in Jewish History blog is for you.

The daily round-up lists interesting global tidbits names families and communities that can lead researchers to additional sources on events impacting Jewish history.

March 8's entry includes some 30 items. The first reads:

Chicago: Spertus Institute's new building

The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies - known by locals as the Jewish Museum - brings history to light in more than one way. Its new 155,000-square-foot building opened November 30, 2007.

"The soaring 10-story structure is a transparent facade built from 726 individual pieces of glass in 556 different shapes," was designed by Krueck & Sexton Architects.

According to a Daily Herald article, "The unique design allows you to see inside the facility from the street and, from the bay-like windows inside, you can see the lake and north Michigan Avenue."

Sharsheret Hadorot's new issue contents

The new issue of the Israel Genealogical Society's journal, Sharsheret Hadorot, should be in the hands of subscribers. Many Jewish genealogical societies around the world maintain exchange agreements with the IGS, so do check your local JGS library.

The award-winning journal's new editor is Israel Pickholtz, with whom I share ancestral roots in Skalat, Galicia (now Ukraine).

Gesher Galicia DNA Project launched

Jewish genealogy is now utilizing the cutting edge tool of DNA to further research of geographic areas.

A number of special interest groups (SIGs) at JewishGen are looking at this new tool, according to Elise Friedman of Florida, who coordinates the JewishGen SIG DNA Projects initiative. The project is designed to:

-Encourage participation in genetic genealogy by Jewish genealogists and their families through geographical DNA projects.

-Discover relationships between different-surname families from within the geographical boundaries of each SIG.

-Study the distribution of Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups of Jewish families who lived within the geographical boundaries of each SIG.

-Contribute to the study of Jewish migration patterns through increased Jewish participation in DNA testing.

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A slew of fake families

What is it that inspires the saga of fake families?

According to the March 8 story A Family Tree of Literary Fakers by Motoko Rich in the New York Times, the literary fakers history goes back at least to the 19th century when an 1863 slave narrative by Archy Moore was revealed as a novel by a white historian named Richard Hildreth. In the early 20th century, "Cradle of the Deep," by Joan Lowell, supposedly detailed her childhood on a ship in the South Seas - she really grew up in Berkeley, California.

The story details recent Holocaust fakes such as Binjamin Wikomirski's 1996 "Fragments," in which he claimed he was a Latvian Jewish orphan in a Nazi concentration camp. It was really written by Bruno Doessekker, who spent the war in Switzerland. The book's German and American publishers suspended publication following a Swiss historian's debunking.

Sephardi resource materials

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) recently received a unique collection of research resource materials concerning Sephardi victims of the Holocaust.

The gift of Professor Haim-Vidal Sephiha and amassed over six decades, it includes scholarly, sacred, and secular texts; published works, doctoral theses and other unpublished manuscripts; music, songs, art and recordings. Sephiha, a Holocaust survivor, is a renowned scholar of Judéo-Espagnol language and culture.
 
Professor emeritus in Judéo-Espagnol (Université Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle), associate professor (Free University of Brussels' Martin Buber Institute), and president of the Vidas Largas Association. The material reflects his dedication to preserving and teaching about the language and culture and to ensure the memory of destroyed Judéo-Espagnol communities.

Avotaynu: Stories from the heart

Gary Mokotoff of Avotaynu has announced a new book, Every Family Has a Story: Tales from the Pages of Avotaynu.

Regular readers of Avotaynu: The International Journal of Jewish Genealogy know that each winter issue - for 20 years - offers articles on the human side of genealogy.

The new book offers 72 of the best in one volume. "The book will not tell you how to do genealogical research," writes Gary, but will show how genealogical research affected the lives of researchers, the people they discovered and others.