JewishGen is proud to announce its 2011 year-end update to the JOWBR
(JewishGen's Online Worldwide Burial Registry) database. The JOWBR database
can be accessed at http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/ If you're
a new JOWBR user, we recommend that you take a look at the first two
explanatory screencasts at
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/Screencasts/

This update adds approximately 60,000 new records and 16,000 new
photos. The database is adding 120 new cemeteries along with updates or
additions to an additional 225 cemeteries.

In what may be our most diversified update, we are adding or updating
records to cemeteries >from 37 countries literally spanning >from A to Z,
Australia to Zambia. This update brings JOWBR's holdings to 1.76 million
records >from more than 3,350 cemeteries / cemetery sections >from 64
countries!

Once again, you will see that the donors for this update include a mix
of individuals, Jewish genealogical societies, historical societies and
museums. We appreciate all our donor's submissions and the transliteration
work done by a faithful group of JewishGen volunteers.

I want to particularly thank Eric Feinstein who has been helping me to
find and gain permission to add many of the records >from under-represented
countries. In addition, without our volunteer transliterators, led by
Gilberto Jugend, we would not be able to add the information >from some very
difficult to read photos.

Of particular note in this update are the following additions:
. Brno & Ivanèice, Czech Republic. Thanks to Jaroslav Klenovsky of the
Jewish Community of Brno (http://zob.cz/ ) for more than 11,900 Bruno and
900 Ivanèice records for these two cemeteries.
. Ontario, Canada. Thanks to Allen Halberstadt, coordinator of the Jewish
Genealogical Society of Canada, Toronto's Cemetery Project, for submitting
and updating approximately 200 cemeteries with 4,900 records >from various
cemeteries. In addition to the records, over 3,900 photos >from Dawes Road
Cemetery are included in this update thanks to the efforts of Robert
Lubinski.
. Albany, NY. Thanks to Professor Barry Trachtenberg and the students in
his fall 2011 course: American Jewish Experience at the University at
Albany, State University of New York. The students photographed and indexed
3 cemeteries and 2 synagogues' memorial plaques resulting in a contribution
in excess of 4,000 records. (Look for an upcoming article on this model
which I think could be successfully replicated in other schools.)
. Petach Tikvah / Segulah and Savyon, Israel. Thanks to Gilda Kurtzman for
her ongoing submissions of 3,900 new records and 2,600 new photos. The
Petach Tikvah cemetery is represented by 62,600 records and 19,800 photos.
. Czernovitsi, Ukraine. Thanks to Bruce Reich and the JGS of Ottawa for
submitting an additional 3,200 records and photos bringing the total for the
Czernovitsi cemetery to more than 19,300.
. Czech Republic. Thanks to Achab Haidler for the first installment of 15
cemeteries >from his site at www.chewra.com
. Balassagyarmat, Hungary. Thanks to Ruben Weiser for 2,700 burial records

from this Hungarian town.

. Tiraspol, Moldova. Thanks to Roberta Solit for her submission of 2,500
records >from Tiraspol.
. Mexico City, Mexico. Thanks to the "Hebra Kadisha, Comunidad Maguen
David" in Mexico City and Liz Hamui Sutton for arranging the submission of
information for two Mexico City cemeteries totaling approximately 1,700
records.
. Wroclaw, Poland. Thanks to Dr. Marcin Wodzinsk who submitted 1,700
records >from the Polish town of Wroclaw.
. Catskills, New York. Thanks to David Preiver for submitting more than
1,600 records >from 9 cemeteries in the Montecello / Liberty / Catskills area
of NY State.
. Soroca, Moldova. Thanks to the efforts of Brock Bierman we are adding more
than 1,600 records >from this town. Brock is also coordinating efforts to
photograph and index other Moldovan cemeteries and would appreciate hearing

from researchers interested in this area through his website

www.civicancestry.com
. Rhodes, Greece. Thanks to Aron Hasson of the Rhodes Jewish Historical
Foundation we are adding 1,400 records. For photos of the headstones and
more information on the Jewish community of Rhodes, please see
http://www.rhodesjewishmuseum.org/
. Suriname. Thanks to Aviva Ben-Ur and Rachel Frankel, authors of "Remnant
Stones: The Jewish Cemeteries of Suriname, Volume One: Epitaphs", we are
adding more than 1,300 records of stones in the 4 Jewish cemeteries in
Suriname.
. Various Countries. Our thanks to Hana Holland, director of "Journey into
Jewish Heritage" a student based group that is sharing their indexing
records >from various countries throughout Europe and Asia. This installment
includes records >from Greece, India and Turkey. For more information,
please see http://www.jewish-heritage.org.il/default.aspx
. New Countries. This update includes our first listings for Bolivia,
Haiti, Kazakhstan, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Russia, Slovenia,
Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia. Although some are small in number, these
listings help achieve JewishGen's goal of permanently memorializing Jewish
communities around the world.
. Whether your name or records are listed above, we appreciate all your
submissions! Thank you to all the donors that submitted information for
this update.

We appreciate all the work our donors have done and encourage you to make
additional submissions. Whether you work on a cemetery / cemetery section
individually or consider a group project for your local Society, temple or
other group, it's your submissions that help grow the JOWBR database and
make it possible for researchers and family members to find answers they
otherwise might not. Please also consider other organizations you may be
affiliated with that may already have done cemetery indexing that would
consider having their records included in the JOWBR database.

Stay tuned for our inaugural upload for JewishGen's Memorial Plaque
project. We currently have approximately 7,500 records to start with and
are very interested in your help to add to those figures. We're actively
looking for more records for the launch. Please contact me to find out more
about this project and how you or your JGS can help.

Nolan Altman
NAltman@...
JewishGen VP for Data Acquisition
JOWBR - Coordinator
December, 2011