Plans for the 2010 IAJGS Conference in Los Angeles are moving at a
fast clip. Hope you've marked your calendars for this exceptional
30th anniversary celebration, taking place at the JW Marriott at L.A.
Live in downtown Los Angeles >from July 11 - 16, 2010.

The Call for Papers opened in November 15th and will close on January
15th. If you've been thinking about submitting a lecture or workshop
proposal or film for our consideration, there is still time to craft
your topic and send it in. Go to http://www.jgsla2010.com and click on
the "Call for Papers." Speakers will be notified by mid-February, and
the program should be online by the early spring.

Registration will open on January 15th, and will also be accessible
through our website, although you can make hotel reservations now if
you like. Just follow the links on the home page.

This year, on the first day of the conference, Sunday afternoon, July
11th, we will hold a "Market Square Fair," where SIGs and BOFs can
display their wares and attendees can get one-on-one research help

from these regional experts. There will also be booths with other

genealogically-related non profits and educational groups along with
craft guilds, historical map information, book signings and more.
Their will be beginners' workshops on Sunday and the vendor/exhibit
room and resource room with LDS films, and databases >from the Shoah
Foundation and the USHMM, will also be open on the 11th, so you should
plan to be in town by Sunday afternoon.

If you are thinking about arriving early, there will be
Shabbat-friendly pre-conference learning at the Marriott on Saturday,
July 10th and a Chabad house within walking distance of the hotel for
services.

This year we'll also be offering two evening theatrical presentations,
or "literary cabarets," including a production of "The Bialy Eaters:
The Story of a Bread and a Lost World," an adaptation of Mimi
Sheraton's moving book, which is a tribute to the endurance and power
of memory and how the search for a perfect "chewy crusty roll" echoes
a deeper longing for vanished way of life.

Special Interest Groups (SIG) and Birds-of-a-Feather leaders should be
hearing >from our SIG/BOF coordinator, Vivian Kahn, shortly with
information on how SIGs can co-sponsor an professor, archivist, or
established expert to speak in July with the conference's support.
She will also contact established BOFs to see if they plan to hold a
meeting this year. There are several exciting options for both SIGs
and BOFs which Vivian will explain to you in the information sheet and
application form she's sending out. (Because email contact
information is always changing, if she hasn't reached you by next
week, feel free to write to her at: SIGS_BOFS@... with your
questions or requests.) New BOFs are springing up all the time, and if
you want your group to be included at this year's conference you need
to let us know!

In January we will have a PowerPoint CD filled with conference news,
previews and film clips which will be available to any JGS or Jewish
community group who requests one. This presentation will also come
with one beautiful LA2010 tee shirt to give away as a door prize.
Watch for information on this soon. (In the meantime, tee shirts are
available for order on our website.)

If you want to be up on all the late-breaking conference news, make
sure to subscribe to our newsletter at:

http://www.jgsla2010.com/about/sign-up-for-the-announcements-newsletter/

I join with my co-chairs, Sandy Malek and Lois Ogilby Rosen in sending
happy and joyous Hanukkah and New Year's wishes >from the Jewish
Genealogical Society of Los Angeles, and the entire conference
committee, to Jewish genealogists everywhere. We hope to see you in
July in sunny, palm-tree-swaying Los Angeles!

Pamela Weisberger
Program Chair
info@...
http://www.jgsla2010.com