Have you decided to attend this year's Conference on Jewish
Genealogy? Not yet? Well maybe this will help you make that
difficult decision. The preliminary Conference Program is now
online. Go to the Conference homepage at www.philly2009.org
and click on "Program" >from the menu.

There is something for everybody: >from Advanced Googling to
Yiddish Theater; >from Nancy Adelson to Robert Zavos; and many
topics and presenters in between.

Programming starts on Sunday at 9 am with a beginner's track of
programs - 3 hours on beginner's strategies, 2 hours on starting
your Philadelphia research, a local (Pennsylvania, Delaware, New
Jersey) Repository Fair, and a program on Jewish surnames. All
this to help jump start your research activities during the
upcoming week. Sunday will end with our Keynote Speaker, Father
Patrick Desbois. He is best known for his work in searching for
and uncovering mass graves in Ukraine and for his book, "The
Holocaust by Bullets." His keynote address will be followed by a
Q&A period and a reception, where Father Desbois' book will be
sold and autographed.

Each day is packed with interesting presentations on many
subjects as well as SIG programs, over 25 Birds-of-a-Feather
meetings - including firsts for Jewish agricultural colonies
in southern New Jersey,the Paterson, NJ area, and smaller
gatherings for attendees with roots in the old Jewish
neighborhoods of Philadelphia (which are not yet on the
schedule), proven and new/exciting computer workshops, and
some interesting new workshops on Jewish food, document
preservation, photo identification (with the Photo Detective,
Maureen Taylor), and help to decipher Russian and Polish records.

On Monday, Philadelphia's main Jewish Museum, the National Museum
of American Jewish History, will sponsor two lectures by the pre-
eminent scholar on the history of American Jews and Judaism,
Brandeis University Professor Jonathan Sarna. Sarna will speak on
"Jewish Settlement Patterns in the US: Why Jews Ended Up Where
They Did" and in the evening plenary session on "An Old Faith in
the New World: 350 Years of American Judaism."

Tuesday evening will include the annual JewishGen program with a
preview of future developments and projects followed by Jewish
Genealogy Game Night, produced by Conference veterans Ron Arons
and Pamela Weisberger. This event will entertain you, and don't
be surprised to see Litvaks vs. Galitzianers Family Feud amongst
the shows.

We are working on the Wednesday evening program, but it will be
exciting and interesting.

The daily programs have much to enjoy and singling out any small
group of them will do an injustice to those not mentioned, but two
special guests >from overseas deserve mention:

Thanks to ROM-SIG, for the first time ever, an Archivist >from the
National Archives of Romania will visit our Conference. He is not
any Archivist; he is Dorin Dobrincu, the Director General of the
Archive system.

Thanks to Miriam Weiner's Routes to Roots Foundation and IAJGS, a
representative >from the State Committee on Archives of Ukraine,
Deputy Director Olga Muzychuk, will be speaking for the first time
since 2006.

Take some time, review the program, decide which programs you would
like to attend and then register for the Conference. Go directly to
http://www.philly2009.org/registration_information.cfm to register.
You will not regret your decision. Early registration discount ends
April 30.

See you in Philadelphia this August.

Mark Halpern
Mark Heckman
Program Chairs
programs@...
Conference discussion group
http://www.philly2009.org/conference_discussion_group.cfm
Conference Facebook group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37629252567