Greetings. I would appreciate if someone would translate for me
the writing on my greatgrandfather Max Plisner's gravestone.
Please email me privately at jplissner1953@gmail.com and I will
send you photographs that I took on my recent visit to family in
New York City.

Thanks for this kindness.

Regards, Jeff Plissner

Greetings. I would appreciate if someone would translate for me
the writing on my greatgrandfather Max Plisner's gravestone.
Please email me privately at jplissner1953@gmail.com and I will
send you photographs that I took on my recent visit to family in
New York City.

Thanks for this kindness.

Regards, Jeff Plissner

Could Efroim Berka DUSHKES and Efroim Yankel DUSHKES (fathers of children
born Vilijampole 1857 and 1873) be the same person? Both listed as son of
Leyzer with same wife (Grune).

Elizabeth Schwartz Lourie
Washington, DC
DUS[H]KIN/DUSHKES: Vilijampole, Lithuania
ROGOV: Kaunas, Lithuania
ROSENBLUTH/LIEBERMAN: Humenne, Slovakia
SCHWARTZ, EHRENREICH: Uzhgorod, Ukraine (Ungvar, Hungary)
SZYRETT/SHEINMAN: Falesti, Moldova
LOURIE: Varena (Oran), Lithuania

Could Efroim Berka DUSHKES and Efroim Yankel DUSHKES (fathers of children
born Vilijampole 1857 and 1873) be the same person? Both listed as son of
Leyzer with same wife (Grune).

Elizabeth Schwartz Lourie
Washington, DC
DUS[H]KIN/DUSHKES: Vilijampole, Lithuania
ROGOV: Kaunas, Lithuania
ROSENBLUTH/LIEBERMAN: Humenne, Slovakia
SCHWARTZ, EHRENREICH: Uzhgorod, Ukraine (Ungvar, Hungary)
SZYRETT/SHEINMAN: Falesti, Moldova
LOURIE: Varena (Oran), Lithuania

Dear Genners:

I have posted on ViewMate, VM15237, the death certificate for my
g-g-grandmother, Leah Harrison, and would be grateful for help in reading
the name of her father written on the document.

The ViewMate address is:
http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=15237.

Try as I might, I have been unable to decipher the handwriting in this
space. However I have been able to read the rest of the death certificate.
Learning Leah's Father's surname name would push back this branch of my
family tree another generation. The Harrisons are a Jewish family
believed to have originated in the German part of Poland. They immigrated
to Philadelphia, via Manchester and Ecclesall Bierlow in Great Britain,
in about 1875.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Randy

Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D.
fishnet@pipeline.com
http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate

HARRISON, Poland, Manchester, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver; FISHBEIN,
Warsaw; ACKERMAN, Klishkivtsi and Sokolets Ukraine; REINES, Khotin Ukraine
and(possibly Novoselitsa); ROSENBERG, Slovakia; ROSENBERG, Poland; GERSTEIN,
Zhvanets Bessarabia/Ukraine; SZUMSKI, RYNKOWSKI, POWEMBROWSKI, RECHTMAN,
Augustow, Poland; WEISS, WEISSMAN, Miskolc, Hungary; HOROWITZ, Hungary

MODERATOR'S NOTE: Please respond privately.

Dear Genners:

I have posted on ViewMate, VM15237, the death certificate for my
g-g-grandmother, Leah Harrison, and would be grateful for help in reading
the name of her father written on the document.

The ViewMate address is:
http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=15237.

Try as I might, I have been unable to decipher the handwriting in this
space. However I have been able to read the rest of the death certificate.
Learning Leah's Father's surname name would push back this branch of my
family tree another generation. The Harrisons are a Jewish family
believed to have originated in the German part of Poland. They immigrated
to Philadelphia, via Manchester and Ecclesall Bierlow in Great Britain,
in about 1875.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Randy

Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D.
fishnet@pipeline.com
http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate

HARRISON, Poland, Manchester, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver; FISHBEIN,
Warsaw; ACKERMAN, Klishkivtsi and Sokolets Ukraine; REINES, Khotin Ukraine
and(possibly Novoselitsa); ROSENBERG, Slovakia; ROSENBERG, Poland; GERSTEIN,
Zhvanets Bessarabia/Ukraine; SZUMSKI, RYNKOWSKI, POWEMBROWSKI, RECHTMAN,
Augustow, Poland; WEISS, WEISSMAN, Miskolc, Hungary; HOROWITZ, Hungary

MODERATOR'S NOTE: Please respond privately.

Hello,

It is with great pleasure that I announce the official start of the
Grajewo Yizkor (Memorial) book translation project.

As a brief summary, The Yizkor book is written in Yiddish, Hebrew,
Polish, German and English. We are about to hire a professional
translator to translate the Yiddish sections into English.

Additionally, we have two very generous landsmen who graciously offered
to translate the Hebrew and German sections.

I want to stress this Yizkor book was written approximately 60 years
ago with the goal of keeping the memory of Grajewo alive. As many of
you may know, Yiddish is a dying language and we consider ourselves
very fortunate to have found someone very passionate about the
language. So, it may be only a matter of time before Yiddish becomes
a language of the past. Therefore, we feel it is our duty to translate
the Grajewo Yizkor into English as soon as possible. This is one way of
ensuring the memory of Grajewo and all of her souls who were brutally
murdered during the Holocaust is kept alive for generations to come.

To find out what can you do to help please write to me privately at
<Crzprncess@aol.com> and then write to your your friends and relatives
who you think would be willing to help.

You can read the project description at the following url:
http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/projectdesc/YB_Grajewo.html

May the memory of Grajewo live on forever, to all generations:
(LeDor VaDor).

Thank you very much!

Co-Coordinators,
Shelly Levin and Evelyn Fine

Hello,

It is with great pleasure that I announce the official start of the
Grajewo Yizkor (Memorial) book translation project.

As a brief summary, The Yizkor book is written in Yiddish, Hebrew,
Polish, German and English. We are about to hire a professional
translator to translate the Yiddish sections into English.

Additionally, we have two very generous landsmen who graciously offered
to translate the Hebrew and German sections.

I want to stress this Yizkor book was written approximately 60 years
ago with the goal of keeping the memory of Grajewo alive. As many of
you may know, Yiddish is a dying language and we consider ourselves
very fortunate to have found someone very passionate about the
language. So, it may be only a matter of time before Yiddish becomes
a language of the past. Therefore, we feel it is our duty to translate
the Grajewo Yizkor into English as soon as possible. This is one way of
ensuring the memory of Grajewo and all of her souls who were brutally
murdered during the Holocaust is kept alive for generations to come.

To find out what can you do to help please write to me privately at
<Crzprncess@aol.com> and then write to your your friends and relatives
who you think would be willing to help.

You can read the project description at the following url:
http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/projectdesc/YB_Grajewo.html

May the memory of Grajewo live on forever, to all generations:
(LeDor VaDor).

Thank you very much!

Co-Coordinators,
Shelly Levin and Evelyn Fine

I have posted on ViewMate, VM15237, the death certificate for my
g-g-grandmother, Leah Harrison, and would be grateful for help in reading
the name of her father written on the document.

The ViewMate address is:
http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=15237

Try as I might, I have been unable to decipher the handwriting in this
space. However I have been able to read the rest of the death certificate.
Learning Leah's Father's surname name would push back this branch of my
family tree another generation. The Harrisons are a Jewish family believed
to have originated in the German part of Poland. They immigrated to
Philadelphia, via Manchester and Ecclesall Bierlow in Great Britain, in
about 1875.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Randy

Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D.
fishnet@pipeline.com

HARRISON, Poland, Manchester, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver; FISHBEIN,
Warsaw; ACKERMAN, Klishkivtsi and Sokolets Ukraine; REINES, Khotin Ukraine
and(possibly Novoselitsa); ROSENBERG, Slovakia; ROSENBERG, Poland; GERSTEIN,
Zhvanets Bessarabia/Ukraine; SZUMSKI, RYNKOWSKI, POWEMBROWSKI, RECHTMAN,
Augustow, Poland; WEISS, WEISSMAN, Miskolc, Hungary; HOROWITZ, Hungary

MODERATOR'S NOTE: Please respond privately.

I have posted on ViewMate, VM15237, the death certificate for my
g-g-grandmother, Leah Harrison, and would be grateful for help in reading
the name of her father written on the document.

The ViewMate address is:
http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=15237

Try as I might, I have been unable to decipher the handwriting in this
space. However I have been able to read the rest of the death certificate.
Learning Leah's Father's surname name would push back this branch of my
family tree another generation. The Harrisons are a Jewish family believed
to have originated in the German part of Poland. They immigrated to
Philadelphia, via Manchester and Ecclesall Bierlow in Great Britain, in
about 1875.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Randy

Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D.
fishnet@pipeline.com

HARRISON, Poland, Manchester, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver; FISHBEIN,
Warsaw; ACKERMAN, Klishkivtsi and Sokolets Ukraine; REINES, Khotin Ukraine
and(possibly Novoselitsa); ROSENBERG, Slovakia; ROSENBERG, Poland; GERSTEIN,
Zhvanets Bessarabia/Ukraine; SZUMSKI, RYNKOWSKI, POWEMBROWSKI, RECHTMAN,
Augustow, Poland; WEISS, WEISSMAN, Miskolc, Hungary; HOROWITZ, Hungary

MODERATOR'S NOTE: Please respond privately.

Calling All Early Birds to the IAJGS Conference in Los Angeles!

Tick, tock, tick, tock. The Friday, April 30th deadline for the early
bird registration rate for the IAJGS International Conference on
Jewish Genealogy is fast approaching! Don't delay in registering or
you might forget before midnight Pacific Daylight Time when the
discount expires. The conference is taking place >from 11-16 July at
the JW Marriott at L.A. Live in downtown's newest cultural and museum
district.

Programs, films, workshops and classes are still being added, but here
are a few of our newest entries:

We're honored to add Dr. Stephen Smith, new executive director of the
USC Shoah Foundation Institute, to our speaking roster. Smith
was the founding director of The UK Holocaust Centre, Britain's first
dedicated Holocaust memorial and education center. For his work in
establishing this center he became a Member of the Order of the
British Empire (M.B.E.). He also co-founded the Aegis Trust, an agency
engaged in the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide.
Smith also chairs the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the body that runs
the national Holocaust commemoration in the United Kingdom. Smith will
also participate in a "Breakfast With the Experts," entitled: "No
Stone Unturned: Furthering Your Holocaust Research," on Thursday, July
15 at 7:00 AM.

Smith is a dynamic speaker, dedicated to bringing the Shoah
Foundation's survivor testimonies into the 21st century by making them
accessible to a worldwide audience -- a topic he will address in his
lecture on Wednesday evening, July 14 at 7:30 PM. The conference will
have a dedicated section of the resource room for attendees to view
the streaming Shoah Foundation survivor interviews daily during the
conference week, beginning on Sunday at 10AM.

Professor Delores Sloane will be discussing her new book, "The
Sephardic Jews of Spain and Portugal: Survival of an Imperiled Culture
in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries," a storyteller's account of
what happened to the Spanish Jews who were expelled and built new
lives outside of the Sefarad that had been their home for more than
1,500 years. Sloan is a vibrant and insightful speaker, who believes
that history is best understood through the experiences of those who
lived it. Sloan offers a compelling portrait of the Sephardic Jews,
who created a Golden Age on the Iberian Peninsula under Moslem rule
for almost 700 years, then continued to advance science, medicine,
political economy, government and the arts under the Christian hegemony
that followed. Go to: http://www.doloressloan.com/bookshelf/
for more information on her works.

Magnificent Maps! Tantalizing Travel! Fabulous Films!

This year we will have Brian Lenius talking about cadastral maps and
landowner records, researched at the Lviv, Ukraine archives, as well
as Alexander Dunai, >from Lviv, discussing maps located in the archives
in Ternopil, Ukraine as well. These lectures will be of interest to
both Galician and Ukrainian researchers, as these records are an
important adjunct to vital record research and can fill in the gaps of
historical and genealogical information when metrical records don't
exist for your towns or if there are gaps in the years of coverage.
We will also have Alexander Denysenko, another Lviv-based researcher
and guide, talking about travel to one's ancestral shtetl and Dunai
and Sol Sylvan (of the Seattle shtetl) will be teaming up to detail
how you can embark on a "trip of a lifetime." Experts will also be
available to discuss Jewish-focused journeys to parts of Hungary,
Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Cuba.

A special guest will be filmmaker, researcher and travel planner,
Michael Masterovoy, flying in >from Russia to speak at the Belarus SIG
luncheon about his recent trip to several Belarusian towns including
Movsha Shagal's -- aka Marc Chagall's -- Vitebsk. Masterovoy, a proud
Jewish resident of Moscow, has created documentary and campaign videos
for North American Jewish philanthropies and will be
screening several of his films as part of the film festival including,
"Brailov: A Town Without Jews," about this former Ukrainian shtetl.

We'll also be screening several films by Slawomir Grunberg, an Emmy
Award-winning documentary producer, director, and cameraman, born
in Lublin, Poland, including his newest work, "The Peretzniks"
(Perecowicze) which tells the story of a Jewish school in Lodz,
Poland. The school was shut down following the Communist anti-Semitic
campaign, which took place in Poland in 1968. and the
graduates were dispersed between the US, Canada, Israel, Sweden,
Poland, and other countries. The bittersweet memories of their youth
in post-war Poland are what bind the Peretzniks together till this
day. The Peretzniks is the first documentary, which addresses the
complexities of the Polish-Jewish experience. Go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioqq6Pf2ois -- to watch the trailer or
this charming and poignant film.

Workshops and Classes -- Knives Optional!

If you need a break >from the lecture circuit, we are offering several
classes to allow you to express your creativity. On Sunday, Lil Blume
will be offering a two-part workshop on "Writing Family Stories and
Memoirs," with additional writing/book/and newsletter classes taking
place Monday -- Thursday like Lynn Saul's "Creating and Retelling Your
Family's Stories: A Participatory Writing Workshop," Mike Karsen's
"How to Create Your Family History," and Marlis Humphrey's "I Couldn't
Put it Down! New Ways to Publish Family History."

We'll also offer a tallit --making class which will cover the history
of the tallit, the Hebrew prayer for the atarah, the aleph bet
chart including different Hebrew printing types, images to stitch to
decorate the tallit, how to tie the tzitzit, and sha'a'tnez.

Another class will cover "How to Create a Genealogical Quilt" using
your ancestral photographs as the artwork. If you're good with a pair
of scissors, come to the "Pomegranate Jewish Paper-cut" session to
learn the art of Jewish paper cutting. Jewish paper cuts are a
unique and beautiful form of Jewish folk piety. References to Jewish
paper cutting date >from 14th century and this became an important folk
art among both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews during the 17th and 18th
centuries. There are two popular methods; sharp knife and special
scissors. Scissors for our crowd! Upon completion of the class project
each student will have a lovely paper art that they can proudly
display in their home.

Be Our Guest!

Many of you have asked if you can invite guests (or spouses not into
genealogy!) to our evening events, dinners and the IAJGS
awards and entertainment banquet. The answer is yes, and we've made
this option very easy this year. Just log onto the "Guest
Registration" page on the "Registration" drop down menu. There you'll
find a simplified form for purchasing tickets to these special events,
or you can
direct your guests to this page so they can purchase these items
themselves. Evening event passes are for conference entry starting at
6:30PM. These passes will be available at the registration desk or
can be purchased on site the day of the event.

Computer Classes, breakfasts, luncheons, and Midnight with the Mavens
should all be uploaded to the registration site by Thursday and
available for purchase. Check our website links for more details:
http://www.jgsla2010.com. Use the "Program" and "Registration" tabs
to find out more information, and subscribe to our "Announcements
Newsletter" for all the up-to-the-minute news. Subscribe to our
JewishGen discussion group (JGSLA2010) to ask conference questions, or
email us at: info@jgsla2010.com.

See you in July! (And set your clocks for April 30th to take
advantage of the early bird discount.)

Pamela Weisberger
Program Chair
programs@jgsla2010.com

Calling All Early Birds to the IAJGS Conference in Los Angeles!

Tick, tock, tick, tock. The Friday, April 30th deadline for the early
bird registration rate for the IAJGS International Conference on
Jewish Genealogy is fast approaching! Don't delay in registering or
you might forget before midnight Pacific Daylight Time when the
discount expires. The conference is taking place >from 11-16 July at
the JW Marriott at L.A. Live in downtown's newest cultural and museum
district.

Programs, films, workshops and classes are still being added, but here
are a few of our newest entries:

We're honored to add Dr. Stephen Smith, new executive director of the
USC Shoah Foundation Institute, to our speaking roster. Smith
was the founding director of The UK Holocaust Centre, Britain's first
dedicated Holocaust memorial and education center. For his work in
establishing this center he became a Member of the Order of the
British Empire (M.B.E.). He also co-founded the Aegis Trust, an agency
engaged in the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide.
Smith also chairs the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the body that runs
the national Holocaust commemoration in the United Kingdom. Smith will
also participate in a "Breakfast With the Experts," entitled: "No
Stone Unturned: Furthering Your Holocaust Research," on Thursday, July
15 at 7:00 AM.

Smith is a dynamic speaker, dedicated to bringing the Shoah
Foundation's survivor testimonies into the 21st century by making them
accessible to a worldwide audience -- a topic he will address in his
lecture on Wednesday evening, July 14 at 7:30 PM. The conference will
have a dedicated section of the resource room for attendees to view
the streaming Shoah Foundation survivor interviews daily during the
conference week, beginning on Sunday at 10AM.

Professor Delores Sloane will be discussing her new book, "The
Sephardic Jews of Spain and Portugal: Survival of an Imperiled Culture
in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries," a storyteller's account of
what happened to the Spanish Jews who were expelled and built new
lives outside of the Sefarad that had been their home for more than
1,500 years. Sloan is a vibrant and insightful speaker, who believes
that history is best understood through the experiences of those who
lived it. Sloan offers a compelling portrait of the Sephardic Jews,
who created a Golden Age on the Iberian Peninsula under Moslem rule
for almost 700 years, then continued to advance science, medicine,
political economy, government and the arts under the Christian hegemony
that followed. Go to: http://www.doloressloan.com/bookshelf/
for more information on her works.

Magnificent Maps! Tantalizing Travel! Fabulous Films!

This year we will have Brian Lenius talking about cadastral maps and
landowner records, researched at the Lviv, Ukraine archives, as well
as Alexander Dunai, >from Lviv, discussing maps located in the archives
in Ternopil, Ukraine as well. These lectures will be of interest to
both Galician and Ukrainian researchers, as these records are an
important adjunct to vital record research and can fill in the gaps of
historical and genealogical information when metrical records don't
exist for your towns or if there are gaps in the years of coverage.
We will also have Alexander Denysenko, another Lviv-based researcher
and guide, talking about travel to one's ancestral shtetl and Dunai
and Sol Sylvan (of the Seattle shtetl) will be teaming up to detail
how you can embark on a "trip of a lifetime." Experts will also be
available to discuss Jewish-focused journeys to parts of Hungary,
Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Cuba.

A special guest will be filmmaker, researcher and travel planner,
Michael Masterovoy, flying in >from Russia to speak at the Belarus SIG
luncheon about his recent trip to several Belarusian towns including
Movsha Shagal's -- aka Marc Chagall's -- Vitebsk. Masterovoy, a proud
Jewish resident of Moscow, has created documentary and campaign videos
for North American Jewish philanthropies and will be
screening several of his films as part of the film festival including,
"Brailov: A Town Without Jews," about this former Ukrainian shtetl.

We'll also be screening several films by Slawomir Grunberg, an Emmy
Award-winning documentary producer, director, and cameraman, born
in Lublin, Poland, including his newest work, "The Peretzniks"
(Perecowicze) which tells the story of a Jewish school in Lodz,
Poland. The school was shut down following the Communist anti-Semitic
campaign, which took place in Poland in 1968. and the
graduates were dispersed between the US, Canada, Israel, Sweden,
Poland, and other countries. The bittersweet memories of their youth
in post-war Poland are what bind the Peretzniks together till this
day. The Peretzniks is the first documentary, which addresses the
complexities of the Polish-Jewish experience. Go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioqq6Pf2ois -- to watch the trailer or
this charming and poignant film.

Workshops and Classes -- Knives Optional!

If you need a break >from the lecture circuit, we are offering several
classes to allow you to express your creativity. On Sunday, Lil Blume
will be offering a two-part workshop on "Writing Family Stories and
Memoirs," with additional writing/book/and newsletter classes taking
place Monday -- Thursday like Lynn Saul's "Creating and Retelling Your
Family's Stories: A Participatory Writing Workshop," Mike Karsen's
"How to Create Your Family History," and Marlis Humphrey's "I Couldn't
Put it Down! New Ways to Publish Family History."

We'll also offer a tallit --making class which will cover the history
of the tallit, the Hebrew prayer for the atarah, the aleph bet
chart including different Hebrew printing types, images to stitch to
decorate the tallit, how to tie the tzitzit, and sha'a'tnez.

Another class will cover "How to Create a Genealogical Quilt" using
your ancestral photographs as the artwork. If you're good with a pair
of scissors, come to the "Pomegranate Jewish Paper-cut" session to
learn the art of Jewish paper cutting. Jewish paper cuts are a
unique and beautiful form of Jewish folk piety. References to Jewish
paper cutting date >from 14th century and this became an important folk
art among both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews during the 17th and 18th
centuries. There are two popular methods; sharp knife and special
scissors. Scissors for our crowd! Upon completion of the class project
each student will have a lovely paper art that they can proudly
display in their home.

Be Our Guest!

Many of you have asked if you can invite guests (or spouses not into
genealogy!) to our evening events, dinners and the IAJGS
awards and entertainment banquet. The answer is yes, and we've made
this option very easy this year. Just log onto the "Guest
Registration" page on the "Registration" drop down menu. There you'll
find a simplified form for purchasing tickets to these special events,
or you can
direct your guests to this page so they can purchase these items
themselves. Evening event passes are for conference entry starting at
6:30PM. These passes will be available at the registration desk or
can be purchased on site the day of the event.

Computer Classes, breakfasts, luncheons, and Midnight with the Mavens
should all be uploaded to the registration site by Thursday and
available for purchase. Check our website links for more details:
http://www.jgsla2010.com. Use the "Program" and "Registration" tabs
to find out more information, and subscribe to our "Announcements
Newsletter" for all the up-to-the-minute news. Subscribe to our
JewishGen discussion group (JGSLA2010) to ask conference questions, or
email us at: info@jgsla2010.com.

See you in July! (And set your clocks for April 30th to take
advantage of the early bird discount.)

Pamela Weisberger
Program Chair
programs@jgsla2010.com

Calling All Early Birds to the IAJGS Conference in Los Angeles!

Tick, tock, tick, tock. The Friday, April 30th deadline for the early
bird registration rate for the IAJGS International Conference on
Jewish Genealogy is fast approaching! Don't delay in registering or
you might forget before midnight Pacific Daylight Time when the
discount expires. The conference is taking place >from 11-16 July at
the JW Marriott at L.A. Live in downtown's newest cultural and museum
district.

Programs, films, workshops and classes are still being added, but here
are a few of our newest entries:

We're honored to add Dr. Stephen Smith, new executive director of the
USC Shoah Foundation Institute, to our speaking roster. Smith
was the founding director of The UK Holocaust Centre, Britain's first
dedicated Holocaust memorial and education center. For his work in
establishing this center he became a Member of the Order of the
British Empire (M.B.E.). He also co-founded the Aegis Trust, an agency
engaged in the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide.
Smith also chairs the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the body that runs
the national Holocaust commemoration in the United Kingdom. Smith will
also participate in a "Breakfast With the Experts," entitled: "No
Stone Unturned: Furthering Your Holocaust Research," on Thursday, July
15 at 7:00 AM.

Smith is a dynamic speaker, dedicated to bringing the Shoah
Foundation's survivor testimonies into the 21st century by making them
accessible to a worldwide audience -- a topic he will address in his
lecture on Wednesday evening, July 14 at 7:30 PM. The conference will
have a dedicated section of the resource room for attendees to view
the streaming Shoah Foundation survivor interviews daily during the
conference week, beginning on Sunday at 10AM.

Professor Delores Sloane will be discussing her new book, "The
Sephardic Jews of Spain and Portugal: Survival of an Imperiled Culture
in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries," a storyteller's account of
what happened to the Spanish Jews who were expelled and built new
lives outside of the Sefarad that had been their home for more than
1,500 years. Sloan is a vibrant and insightful speaker, who believes
that history is best understood through the experiences of those who
lived it. Sloan offers a compelling portrait of the Sephardic Jews,
who created a Golden Age on the Iberian Peninsula under Moslem rule
for almost 700 years, then continued to advance science, medicine,
political economy, government and the arts under the Christian hegemony
that followed. Go to: http://www.doloressloan.com/bookshelf/
for more information on her works.

Magnificent Maps! Tantalizing Travel! Fabulous Films!

This year we will have Brian Lenius talking about cadastral maps and
landowner records, researched at the Lviv, Ukraine archives, as well
as Alexander Dunai, >from Lviv, discussing maps located in the archives
in Ternopil, Ukraine as well. These lectures will be of interest to
both Galician and Ukrainian researchers, as these records are an
important adjunct to vital record research and can fill in the gaps of
historical and genealogical information when metrical records don't
exist for your towns or if there are gaps in the years of coverage.
We will also have Alexander Denysenko, another Lviv-based researcher
and guide, talking about travel to one's ancestral shtetl and Dunai
and Sol Sylvan (of the Seattle shtetl) will be teaming up to detail
how you can embark on a "trip of a lifetime." Experts will also be
available to discuss Jewish-focused journeys to parts of Hungary,
Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Cuba.

A special guest will be filmmaker, researcher and travel planner,
Michael Masterovoy, flying in >from Russia to speak at the Belarus SIG
luncheon about his recent trip to several Belarusian towns including
Movsha Shagal's -- aka Marc Chagall's -- Vitebsk. Masterovoy, a proud
Jewish resident of Moscow, has created documentary and campaign videos
for North American Jewish philanthropies and will be
screening several of his films as part of the film festival including,
"Brailov: A Town Without Jews," about this former Ukrainian shtetl.

We'll also be screening several films by Slawomir Grunberg, an Emmy
Award-winning documentary producer, director, and cameraman, born
in Lublin, Poland, including his newest work, "The Peretzniks"
(Perecowicze) which tells the story of a Jewish school in Lodz,
Poland. The school was shut down following the Communist anti-Semitic
campaign, which took place in Poland in 1968. and the
graduates were dispersed between the US, Canada, Israel, Sweden,
Poland, and other countries. The bittersweet memories of their youth
in post-war Poland are what bind the Peretzniks together till this
day. The Peretzniks is the first documentary, which addresses the
complexities of the Polish-Jewish experience. Go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioqq6Pf2ois -- to watch the trailer or
this charming and poignant film.

Workshops and Classes -- Knives Optional!

If you need a break >from the lecture circuit, we are offering several
classes to allow you to express your creativity. On Sunday, Lil Blume
will be offering a two-part workshop on "Writing Family Stories and
Memoirs," with additional writing/book/and newsletter classes taking
place Monday -- Thursday like Lynn Saul's "Creating and Retelling Your
Family's Stories: A Participatory Writing Workshop," Mike Karsen's
"How to Create Your Family History," and Marlis Humphrey's "I Couldn't
Put it Down! New Ways to Publish Family History."

We'll also offer a tallit --making class which will cover the history
of the tallit, the Hebrew prayer for the atarah, the aleph bet
chart including different Hebrew printing types, images to stitch to
decorate the tallit, how to tie the tzitzit, and sha'a'tnez.

Another class will cover "How to Create a Genealogical Quilt" using
your ancestral photographs as the artwork. If you're good with a pair
of scissors, come to the "Pomegranate Jewish Paper-cut" session to
learn the art of Jewish paper cutting. Jewish paper cuts are a
unique and beautiful form of Jewish folk piety. References to Jewish
paper cutting date >from 14th century and this became an important folk
art among both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews during the 17th and 18th
centuries. There are two popular methods; sharp knife and special
scissors. Scissors for our crowd! Upon completion of the class project
each student will have a lovely paper art that they can proudly
display in their home.

Be Our Guest!

Many of you have asked if you can invite guests (or spouses not into
genealogy!) to our evening events, dinners and the IAJGS
awards and entertainment banquet. The answer is yes, and we've made
this option very easy this year. Just log onto the "Guest
Registration" page on the "Registration" drop down menu. There you'll
find a simplified form for purchasing tickets to these special events,
or you can
direct your guests to this page so they can purchase these items
themselves. Evening event passes are for conference entry starting at
6:30PM. These passes will be available at the registration desk or
can be purchased on site the day of the event.

Computer Classes, breakfasts, luncheons, and Midnight with the Mavens
should all be uploaded to the registration site by Thursday and
available for purchase. Check our website links for more details:
http://www.jgsla2010.com. Use the "Program" and "Registration" tabs
to find out more information, and subscribe to our "Announcements
Newsletter" for all the up-to-the-minute news. Subscribe to our
JewishGen discussion group (JGSLA2010) to ask conference questions, or
email us at: info@jgsla2010.com.

See you in July! (And set your clocks for April 30th to take
advantage of the early bird discount.)


Pamela Weisberger
Program Chair
programs@jgsla2010.com

Calling All Early Birds to the IAJGS Conference in Los Angeles!

Tick, tock, tick, tock. The Friday, April 30th deadline for the early
bird registration rate for the IAJGS International Conference on
Jewish Genealogy is fast approaching! Don't delay in registering or
you might forget before midnight Pacific Daylight Time when the
discount expires. The conference is taking place >from 11-16 July at
the JW Marriott at L.A. Live in downtown's newest cultural and museum
district.

Programs, films, workshops and classes are still being added, but here
are a few of our newest entries:

We're honored to add Dr. Stephen Smith, new executive director of the
USC Shoah Foundation Institute, to our speaking roster. Smith
was the founding director of The UK Holocaust Centre, Britain's first
dedicated Holocaust memorial and education center. For his work in
establishing this center he became a Member of the Order of the
British Empire (M.B.E.). He also co-founded the Aegis Trust, an agency
engaged in the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide.
Smith also chairs the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the body that runs
the national Holocaust commemoration in the United Kingdom. Smith will
also participate in a "Breakfast With the Experts," entitled: "No
Stone Unturned: Furthering Your Holocaust Research," on Thursday, July
15 at 7:00 AM.

Smith is a dynamic speaker, dedicated to bringing the Shoah
Foundation's survivor testimonies into the 21st century by making them
accessible to a worldwide audience -- a topic he will address in his
lecture on Wednesday evening, July 14 at 7:30 PM. The conference will
have a dedicated section of the resource room for attendees to view
the streaming Shoah Foundation survivor interviews daily during the
conference week, beginning on Sunday at 10AM.

Professor Delores Sloane will be discussing her new book, "The
Sephardic Jews of Spain and Portugal: Survival of an Imperiled Culture
in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries," a storyteller's account of
what happened to the Spanish Jews who were expelled and built new
lives outside of the Sefarad that had been their home for more than
1,500 years. Sloan is a vibrant and insightful speaker, who believes
that history is best understood through the experiences of those who
lived it. Sloan offers a compelling portrait of the Sephardic Jews,
who created a Golden Age on the Iberian Peninsula under Moslem rule
for almost 700 years, then continued to advance science, medicine,
political economy, government and the arts under the Christian hegemony
that followed. Go to: http://www.doloressloan.com/bookshelf/
for more information on her works.

Magnificent Maps! Tantalizing Travel! Fabulous Films!

This year we will have Brian Lenius talking about cadastral maps and
landowner records, researched at the Lviv, Ukraine archives, as well
as Alexander Dunai, >from Lviv, discussing maps located in the archives
in Ternopil, Ukraine as well. These lectures will be of interest to
both Galician and Ukrainian researchers, as these records are an
important adjunct to vital record research and can fill in the gaps of
historical and genealogical information when metrical records don't
exist for your towns or if there are gaps in the years of coverage.
We will also have Alexander Denysenko, another Lviv-based researcher
and guide, talking about travel to one's ancestral shtetl and Dunai
and Sol Sylvan (of the Seattle shtetl) will be teaming up to detail
how you can embark on a "trip of a lifetime." Experts will also be
available to discuss Jewish-focused journeys to parts of Hungary,
Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Cuba.

A special guest will be filmmaker, researcher and travel planner,
Michael Masterovoy, flying in >from Russia to speak at the Belarus SIG
luncheon about his recent trip to several Belarusian towns including
Movsha Shagal's -- aka Marc Chagall's -- Vitebsk. Masterovoy, a proud
Jewish resident of Moscow, has created documentary and campaign videos
for North American Jewish philanthropies and will be
screening several of his films as part of the film festival including,
"Brailov: A Town Without Jews," about this former Ukrainian shtetl.

We'll also be screening several films by Slawomir Grunberg, an Emmy
Award-winning documentary producer, director, and cameraman, born
in Lublin, Poland, including his newest work, "The Peretzniks"
(Perecowicze) which tells the story of a Jewish school in Lodz,
Poland. The school was shut down following the Communist anti-Semitic
campaign, which took place in Poland in 1968. and the
graduates were dispersed between the US, Canada, Israel, Sweden,
Poland, and other countries. The bittersweet memories of their youth
in post-war Poland are what bind the Peretzniks together till this
day. The Peretzniks is the first documentary, which addresses the
complexities of the Polish-Jewish experience. Go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioqq6Pf2ois -- to watch the trailer or
this charming and poignant film.

Workshops and Classes -- Knives Optional!

If you need a break >from the lecture circuit, we are offering several
classes to allow you to express your creativity. On Sunday, Lil Blume
will be offering a two-part workshop on "Writing Family Stories and
Memoirs," with additional writing/book/and newsletter classes taking
place Monday -- Thursday like Lynn Saul's "Creating and Retelling Your
Family's Stories: A Participatory Writing Workshop," Mike Karsen's
"How to Create Your Family History," and Marlis Humphrey's "I Couldn't
Put it Down! New Ways to Publish Family History."

We'll also offer a tallit --making class which will cover the history
of the tallit, the Hebrew prayer for the atarah, the aleph bet
chart including different Hebrew printing types, images to stitch to
decorate the tallit, how to tie the tzitzit, and sha'a'tnez.

Another class will cover "How to Create a Genealogical Quilt" using
your ancestral photographs as the artwork. If you're good with a pair
of scissors, come to the "Pomegranate Jewish Paper-cut" session to
learn the art of Jewish paper cutting. Jewish paper cuts are a
unique and beautiful form of Jewish folk piety. References to Jewish
paper cutting date >from 14th century and this became an important folk
art among both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews during the 17th and 18th
centuries. There are two popular methods; sharp knife and special
scissors. Scissors for our crowd! Upon completion of the class project
each student will have a lovely paper art that they can proudly
display in their home.

Be Our Guest!

Many of you have asked if you can invite guests (or spouses not into
genealogy!) to our evening events, dinners and the IAJGS
awards and entertainment banquet. The answer is yes, and we've made
this option very easy this year. Just log onto the "Guest
Registration" page on the "Registration" drop down menu. There you'll
find a simplified form for purchasing tickets to these special events,
or you can
direct your guests to this page so they can purchase these items
themselves. Evening event passes are for conference entry starting at
6:30PM. These passes will be available at the registration desk or
can be purchased on site the day of the event.

Computer Classes, breakfasts, luncheons, and Midnight with the Mavens
should all be uploaded to the registration site by Thursday and
available for purchase. Check our website links for more details:
http://www.jgsla2010.com. Use the "Program" and "Registration" tabs
to find out more information, and subscribe to our "Announcements
Newsletter" for all the up-to-the-minute news. Subscribe to our
JewishGen discussion group (JGSLA2010) to ask conference questions, or
email us at: info@jgsla2010.com.

See you in July! (And set your clocks for April 30th to take
advantage of the early bird discount.)


Pamela Weisberger
Program Chair
programs@jgsla2010.com

Does anyone have experience with the use of the names "Gladys" and
"Harriet" as anything other than Americanizations of "Gittel" and
"Chana" (as they are according to the GNDB?) I think I identified my
grandfather's cousin Isaac Cooper of the 1910 census as an Isadore
Cooper on the 1930 census. All details match, except that his two
oldest daughters are named Gladys and Harriet, while his own mother,
who probably died before either daughter was born, was called "Mamie."
I suspect there was another child there who died, and whose name I
don't know. But I would expect to find a daughter named something
like Mamie or Marsha or Mary or something, and the fact that I don't
makes me wonder if this is the same fellow. Did the name Harriet ever
stand in for Esther (his grandmother's name?) Should I take the fact
that these girls don't seem to be named after his mother as a sign
that this Isadore isn't the Isaac of the earlier census (if not, then
almost every single member of this family just disappeared. How
common is that?)
Which leads in to my next question, which is whether my experience of
often not finding my NYC ancestors in the marriage and death indexes
is common or not. I understand that these ancestors might not all have
had civil marriages, though some were naturalized at the time so I
don't see why not. And I realize that not everyone living in New York
City died in New York City, but I do have a lot of relatives that seem
to have just evaporated in the 10 years between the federal censuses,
including spouses that probably hadn't left. I have definitely
searched under spellings so alternative that I don't know how I would
recognize them even if I did find them, but that didn't work either.
Even adding or subtracting years >from their lives didn't help. They
just aren't there. Is this a fairly common experience, or just a case
of bad luck?
I apologize if these questions seem picayune, but I'm really feeling
stuck, and feedback >from other family researchers would be most welcome.
Shoshana Kahan

Does anyone have experience with the use of the names "Gladys" and
"Harriet" as anything other than Americanizations of "Gittel" and
"Chana" (as they are according to the GNDB?) I think I identified my
grandfather's cousin Isaac Cooper of the 1910 census as an Isadore
Cooper on the 1930 census. All details match, except that his two
oldest daughters are named Gladys and Harriet, while his own mother,
who probably died before either daughter was born, was called "Mamie."
I suspect there was another child there who died, and whose name I
don't know. But I would expect to find a daughter named something
like Mamie or Marsha or Mary or something, and the fact that I don't
makes me wonder if this is the same fellow. Did the name Harriet ever
stand in for Esther (his grandmother's name?) Should I take the fact
that these girls don't seem to be named after his mother as a sign
that this Isadore isn't the Isaac of the earlier census (if not, then
almost every single member of this family just disappeared. How
common is that?)
Which leads in to my next question, which is whether my experience of
often not finding my NYC ancestors in the marriage and death indexes
is common or not. I understand that these ancestors might not all have
had civil marriages, though some were naturalized at the time so I
don't see why not. And I realize that not everyone living in New York
City died in New York City, but I do have a lot of relatives that seem
to have just evaporated in the 10 years between the federal censuses,
including spouses that probably hadn't left. I have definitely
searched under spellings so alternative that I don't know how I would
recognize them even if I did find them, but that didn't work either.
Even adding or subtracting years >from their lives didn't help. They
just aren't there. Is this a fairly common experience, or just a case
of bad luck?
I apologize if these questions seem picayune, but I'm really feeling
stuck, and feedback >from other family researchers would be most welcome.
Shoshana Kahan

I just discovered that the new improved IAJGS cemetery site (new as of
last August) is no longer coming up in search engines. Please help us
if you have a web site by linking to the appropriate page on our site.
It is easy to link directly to a town or country.

http://iajgs.org/cemetery/

The goal of the IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project is
documentation of every Jewish burial site in the world.

Kitty Cooper, Fort Collins, CO
IAJGS Cemetery project webmaster

suggestions on where to look for NY obit
someone who died this month.

todah,
Jackie Lerner Aderman

I just discovered that the new improved IAJGS cemetery site (new as of
last August) is no longer coming up in search engines. Please help us
if you have a web site by linking to the appropriate page on our site.
It is easy to link directly to a town or country.

http://iajgs.org/cemetery/

The goal of the IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project is
documentation of every Jewish burial site in the world.

Kitty Cooper, Fort Collins, CO
IAJGS Cemetery project webmaster

suggestions on where to look for NY obit
someone who died this month.

todah,
Jackie Lerner Aderman