Next JGSNY Meeting: October 17th, 2010, 2:00 PM
Topic:"One Foot in America, the Jewish Emigrants of the Red Star Line and
Eugeen Van Mieghem"
Speaker: Speaker: Erwin Joos
This is a riveting account about the mass emigration of Eastern-European
Jews >from Antwerp to America between 1873 and 1934. The greatest number came
over after the pogroms, between 1900 and 1914. The journey to American ports
which took >from seven to fourteen days was a grueling experience for those
in steerage. The estimate is that between 30-40 percent of Jewish Americans
have ancestors who sailed with the Red Star Line, which was one of the most
important American shipping lines. Many stories have been written about the
emigration experience >from Antwerp by Jewish writers such as Sholom Aleichem
and Yuri Suhl. Noteworthy passengers include Irving Berlin, Golda Meir, and
Albert Einstein. The Antwerp artist Eugeen Van Mieghem is probably the only
artist in Europe who made a cycle of works of art about these Jewish
emigrants. He lived in his parents' tavern on the Montevideo Street just in
front of the warehouse of the Red Star Line.
Erwin Joos is the curator of Belgium's Eugeen Van Mieghem Museum and
president of the Eugeen Van Mieghem Foundation, a non-profit organization
with more than 1,000 members. He has organized exhibitions at YIVO, the
Ellis Island Immigration Museum and South Street Seaport Museum in addition
to numerous exhibitions in Europe. Mr.Joos has lectured in Antwerp,
Amsterdam, Paris, and New York, has written five major art books including
Antwerp New York: Eugene Van Mieghem and edited 12 albums.
Book-signings will follow the meeting. The book, the title is the same as
the presentation, will be available at a special price of $20 cash only from
the author.
Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street (between 5th and
6th Avenues), Manhattan, New York
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open at 11:00 AM
for networking with other researchers and access to research
materials/computers before the meeting at 2:00 PM.
Roni Seibel Liebowitz
V.P. Programming
Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc (NY)
