JewishGen.org Discussion Group FAQs
What is the JewishGen.org Discussion Group?
The JewishGen.org Discussion Group unites thousands of Jewish genealogical researchers worldwide as they research their family history, search for relatives, and share information, ideas, methods, tips, techniques, and resources. The JewishGen.org Discussion Group makes it easy, quick, and fun, to connect with others around the world.
Is it Secure?
Yes. JewishGen is using a state of the art platform with the most contemporary security standards. JewishGen will never share member information with third parties.
How is the New JewishGen.org Discussion Group better than the old one?
Our old Discussion List platform was woefully antiquated. Among its many challenges: it was not secure, it required messages to be sent in Plain Text, did not support accented characters or languages other than English, could not display links or images, and had archives that were not mobile-friendly.
This new platform that JewishGen is using is a scalable, and sustainable solution, and allows us to engage with JewishGen members throughout the world. It offers a simple and intuitive interface for both members and moderators, more powerful tools, and more secure archives (which are easily accessible on mobile devices, and which also block out personal email addresses to the public).
I am a JewishGen member, why do I have to create a separate account for the Discussion Group?
As we continue to modernize our platform, we are trying to ensure that everything meets contemporary security standards. In the future, we plan hope to have one single sign-in page.
I like how the current lists work. Will I still be able to send/receive emails of posts (and/or digests)?
Yes. In terms of functionality, the group will operate the same for people who like to participate with email. People can still send a message to an email address (in this case, main@groups.JewishGen.org), and receive a daily digest of postings, or individual emails. In addition, Members can also receive a daily summary of topics, and then choose which topics they would like to read about it. However, in addition to email, there is the additional functionality of being able to read/post messages utilizing our online forum (https://groups.jewishgen.org).
Does this new system require plain-text?
No.
Can I post images, accented characters, different colors/font sizes, non-latin characters?
Yes.
Can I categorize a message? For example, if my message is related to Polish, or Ukraine research, can I indicate as such?
Yes! Our new platform allows members to use “Hashtags.” Messages can then be sorted, and searched, based upon how they are categorized. Another advantage is that members can “mute” any conversations they are not interested in, by simply indicating they are not interested in a particular “hashtag.”
Will all posts be archived?
Yes.
Can I still search though old messages?
Yes. All the messages are accessible and searchable going back to 1998.
What if I have questions or need assistance using the new Group?
Send your questions to: support@JewishGen.org
How do I access the Group’s webpage?
Follow this link: https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main
So just to be sure - this new group will allow us to post from our mobile phones, includes images, accented characters, and non-latin characters, and does not require plain text?
Correct!
Will there be any ads or annoying pop-ups?
No.
Will the current guidelines change?
Yes. While posts will be moderated to ensure civility, and that there is nothing posted that is inappropriate (or completely unrelated to genealogy), we will be trying to create an online community of people who regulate themselves, much as they do (very successfully) on Jewish Genealogy Portal on Facebook.
What are the new guidelines?
There are just a few simple rules & guidelines to follow, which you can read here:https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main/guidelines
Thank you in advance for contributing to this amazing online community!
If you have any questions, or suggestions, please email support@JewishGen.org.
Sincerely,
The JewishGen.org Team
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Re: receiving multiple digests and duplicate emails
Also: Is there a Lithuania SIG? I didn’t see one in your list.
The Litvak SIG has a discussion group accessible from JewishGen's home page. Chuck Weinstein chuck1@...
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Re: Zlotnick
Jerry Krassner
Bruce- I too have a ZLOTNICK interest. A relative of mine (exact connection is under evaluation but a DNA match is involved) is the grandson of Myra ZLOTNICK and Mark LEAS, of Capetown S Africa. Myra and her sisters (Ruby, Rhoda, Doris, Iris, Alma, Lucille, Zena) were daughters of Hymie ZLOTNICK and Anna KUWTER (~1882-1940). Although Hymie and Anna lived in Capetown, I suspect a Lithuanian ancestry.
Hymie had a brother who came to USA ~1904 and changed his name to SILVERMAN. No other information available. Does any of this sound familiar?- Jerry
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Re: Comments about format change
David Brostoff
On Oct 14, 2019, at 4:07 PM, Carolyn Lea <leacl7@...> wrote:
If by Jgen you mean this page <https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main>, that is only for the JewishGen.org Discussion Group. (The green title "JewishGen.org: The Global Home for Jewish Genealogy" is misleading -- the "regular" JewishGen.org site remains where it has always been and can be accessed as usual.) So, you don't have to change your password for the regular site but you do have to create a new password if you want to log on to the discussion group online. To do that, click the green "Log in if you are already a member" button near the bottom of the page, then on the resulting page click "Forgot your password, or don't have one yet?". Enter your email address and click "Email me a link to log in," and when you get the link, click it to log in and create a password for the discussion group site. Note that your regular JewishGen.org account will remain unchanged. David
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Re: Cherkassy-Smela
#ukraine
Hoping to find more information about my grandfather, Max Rothstein (Smela)His father and grandfather, Shlomo and Nachum (Rotshteyn), his uncle Shimon, Shimon's children Isaak, Shlomo, Max, Rosa and Riva. Also from Cherkassy, my great-grandmother Chaya Kosminsky, her parents Pincus and Bessie (obviously Anglicized), my great-uncle Nissen (Nathan) Kosminsky, my great-aunt Chave Kosminsky, Nissen's wife Gittel Cherkasy and her parents, Jonah and Tolia Tovorovsky. As you can see, I have extensive family from both Smela and Cherkassy, but I think my grandfather Max must have had siblings and I'm trying to find them and their descendants. I remember an aunt, Tante Perel, but have no information about her, other than she was from his side of the family. I could never connect them as siblings.
Thanks, Judi Rothstein Zimmer
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Re: Cherkassy-Smela
#ukraine
Hoping to find more information about my grandfather, Max Rothstein (Smela)His father and grandfather, Shlomo and Nachum (Rotshteyn), his uncle Shimon, Shimon's children Isaak, Shlomo, Max, Rosa and Riva. Also from Cherkassy, my great-grandmother Chaya Kosminsky, her parents Pincus and Bessie (obviously Anglicized), my great-uncle Nissen (Nathan) Kosminsky, my great-aunt Chave Kosminsky, Nissen's wife Gittel Cherkasy and her parents, Jonah and Tolia Tovorovsky. As you can see, I have extensive family from both Smela and Cherkassy, but I think my grandfather Max must have had siblings and I'm trying to find them and their descendants. I remember an aunt, Tante Perel, but have no information about her, other than she was from his side of the family. I could never connect them as siblings.
Thanks, Judi Rothstein Zimmer
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Re: Comments about format change
Carolyn Lea
I tried to login to Jgen and it says I don't have a password. Do we all have to change our password? Carolyn Lea
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Re: Genealogy software for Linux
laura ramona
Hello everybody, I am looking for the Aron/Aaron family from Podoleni, Romania.
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Re: JGSGW Presents Telling Your Story, Leaving a Legacy with Anne Bolen on Sunday, October 20, 2019
Annette Weiss
For the last 4 years I have been the volunteer leader of a group at the JCCManhattan for a program called the Memory Book Project, where I take pairs of volunteers and assign them to an elderly person to capture their stories. Using Mixbook.com, we create hardcover books for them to share with their families. Having grown up without any grandparents, I want to make sure that no on suffers the same sense of identity deprivation that I have. My team has done 10 books so far and it's truly been a labor of love, and I'm happy to see other organizations taking up the cause!
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Re: Hebrew/Russian translation requested
As others have pointed out, the top is in Yiddish. Here's a translation.
Yiddish: My dear beloved brother Borekh and sister-in-law with your beloved children. To you as a remembrance from your sister Rosie and my little son Leybenyu. Russian: To my dear ones, newly found brother, sister-in-law, and beloved children from sister Reyzl and son Leybele. Proskurov 29 July 1947. Alan Shuchat Newton, MA SHUKHAT (Talnoe, Simferopol, Sevastopol, Odessa, Balta (Abazovka), Pogrebishche) VINOKUR (Talnoe), KURIS (Mogilev-Podolskiy, Ataki, Berdichev) ZILBERMAN (Soroki, Kremenets), BIRNBAUM (Kamenets-Podolskiy) KITAIGORODSKI (Zvenigorodka)
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Help needed to recognise this Ferramonti couple please 1943 e
#holocaust
#austria-czech
#germany
I have photos of various people from Ferramonti di Tarsia internment camp whose identity I am trying to establish. They were a married couple, no children, he apparently from Zagreb, she German. He was quite a few years older than her and diabetic. They left the camp after it was liberated in September 1943 and then went to Bari, (Italy) but after that I have no idea. As my late father's book on Ferramonti is nearing completion it would be great to include these people in the photo section. My father is in the photo of 3, the man on the right. Sorry I have mis-labelled them all but I hope it makes sense. Many thanks.
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Re: Digest
Susan J. Gordon
I, too, requested a summary - one per day - but now receive digests every hour at least, day after day! I would think the servers would deliver the digest in the same form that members received it previously. One per day is plenty, please. Susan Gordon
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Re: receiving multiple digests and duplicate emails
Jack Berger
Can someone tell me how to compose and send my own message without having to reply to something already posted?
I can’t believe I cannot find this feature anywhere.
Also: Is there a Lithuania SIG? I didn’t see one in your list.
Pls advis JSB
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Re: Please help with Hungarian translation on Viewmate
judyyoung@...
How does one get on Viewmate from this message? Before one could link directly to the Viewmate page with the request. Now I would think there are several extra steps to make to find the page? Sorry about sending this to everyone; I don't see how to reply just to Beth or how to get on the site and then get back here. Judy Young
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Re: New JewishGen platform
Alan Ehrlich
Yes, I simply switched, in the settings link, to daily digests, Now I really like the new platform. It offers very useful new features, and "overview" with this "delivery" frequency is perfect as well.
Friendly regards, Alan Ehrlich (JGen No. 6925) Geneva, Switzerland
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How to privately reply
Here's a question related to the new system: I've found that not everyone's email is showing up with a link when I get the digests. As a consequence, I wasn't able to privately thank two people who answered my question about SS5 and Immigrants. I looked at the online option, and under each reply, there's a link to 'reply,' but does anyone know if that option replies just to the person, or does it go to the whole group? Thanks, Margie Geiser Arizona, USA
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PLEASE READ: Multiple Digest Issues
We understand that many of you are frustrated with receiving multiple digests on the same day. The current default setting of “Full Feature Digest” compiles up to 12 messages together and then sends them as one Digest email. When more than 12 messages and replies are sent to the Group, more than one Digest will automatically be created. We will explore if there are ways to modify this and will get back to you. In the meantime, your patience is greatly appreciated as we are taking all of your suggestions and recommendations into consideration.
Other options of delivery currently available are:
• Individual Messages - each message sent separately to you • Daily Summary - an index delivered each morning of the group’s messages posted the prior day; subject line only, not the full message • Special Notices Only - sent occasionally by the Group’s Moderator
If you want to change to one of the other above options, at the top of the Digest page there should be an option, under the green banner, to “edit your subscriptions, here.” If that doesn’t appear on your page, you can change your subscription settings by clicking on “View/Reply Online” found after each message, then clicking on “Subscription” on the left-hand side of the page. Or by clicking on “Unsubscribe Here” at the bottom of the digest page. This will bring you to a page where you can click on the delivery option you want.
On a related topic, there have been no changes to the SIG Groups. Thank you, Nancy Siegel (San Francisco, CA, USA) Communications Coordinator JewishGen.org
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Replying individually to someone who has posted a message
Bruce Drake
I'm sure the answer to this is staring me right in the face, but on the old listserv, when someone posted a message you could see his/her email address is you wanted to send a reply that might not be of interest to the whole group. But I'm not seeing it on this new platform. Where do I look or how do I do it?
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new format
jbonline1111@...
There is much I like about the new format, including the ability to skip directly to messages that interest me. I now see that I can cut-and-paste previous comments if I wish, but they no longer appear automatically, which was convenient. I can also reply directly from my email client (Google, in this case) without going to the website, just as before. However, the roll-out has been problematic. Why am I now receiving 3-4 Daily Digests a day instead of one? Is there a limit on the number of messages for a digest, perhaps? Why do some posts have no private email addresses to which we can reply? That requires public replies when that is not necessary? I assume these bugs will be worked out sooner or later, but I hope it's sooner. Barbara Sloan
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ViewMate Posting: Yiddish translation of photo inscription
Roy Ogus
The photo in the following ViewMate posting shows an inscription in Yiddish that I found on the back of a photo of a man holding a child. Can anyone translate it for me?
https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=75441 Thanks for any input! Roy Ogus Palo Alto, California r_ogus at hotmail.com Moderator Note: please respond privately
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Re: receiving multiple digests and duplicate emails
Updating pages and an entire website is the pits...been there, done that. When I go to the jewishgen.org mailing list management page https://www.jewishgen.org/ListManager/ I am given these options: DIGEST — Receive daily digest with all the messages of the day INDEX — Receive daily index of the subject lines of the messages of the day MAIL — Receive mail as it is contributed NOMAIL — Receive no mail — Temporarily stop the mail In the answers to organizing my responses for the new mailing group, these are my options: Individual Messages - You will receive each message in an individual email. Full Featured Digest - Group up to 12 messages together as one email instead of being sent individually (rich formatting). Daily Summary - A daily summary, delivered in the morning, of the group's messages from the previous day. Special Notices Only - You will only receive special notices from the moderators. So, how and where can I access the new mailing group preference? And do the old choices page still apply or will that eventually match the new pages? Judi Missel Mesa, Arizona
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