Jewish Genealogical Society NY Meeting
Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 2 p.m.
Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16^th St., New York

Lecture: The Sugihara Refugee Story: Survivors and Those Without Whom This Story Would Not Be Told
Speaker: Mark Halpern, 2018 Recipient of the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award

Most Jewish genealogists know the story of Chiune Sugihara, the “Japanese Schindler.” Sugihara issued over 2,000 Japanese transit visas that enabled many Jews to escape war-torn Europe in the summer of 1940. In his talk, Mark Halpern will identify some of the many additional people – Europeans, Americans, Japanese – who participated in the rescue efforts, and talk about their exploits. He will trace one woman’s 15-year odyssey from Poland via Lithuania, Russia, Japan, China and Canada to Santa Monica, California, using her Sugihara transit visa to ultimately obtain US citizenship.  Mr. Halpern will document her journey using genealogical methods and records.

Mark Halpern was formerly an international businessman (who lived in Japan) who became interested in his roots while on a business trip to Poland. Since his retirement, Mark serves in various leadership and research roles with, among other organizations, JRI–Poland, JewishGen, IAJGS, Gesher Galicia, and the Jewish Genealogical and Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia. In 2018 he received the 2018 IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award.

$5 at the door; free for JGSNY members 

More information on our website: jgsny.org and on our Facebook page

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