The Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal,
in association with the Jewish Public Library,
is pleased to announce as our guest speaker:
Jeffrey Gorney
"Remembered Voices"

The meeting will be held on
Monday, April 13, 2015, at 7:30 pm
Gelber Conference Centre
5151 Cote Ste-Catherine/1 Carre Cummings

This talk explores oral history as a vital path to discovering Jewish
roots.
Drawing on his recent book, "Mysterious Places: Journey. Memoir. Quest",
Jeffrey Gorney tells how vibrant family recollections of a Romanian shtetl
inspired him. He will discuss his journeys to Romania: first, shortly after
the Romanian Revolution; then, years later as photographer on assignment in
a
vastly changed nation.

Jeffrey will relate what it means to actually visit ancestral lands, Jewish
identity before and after World War II, and how Romanian pogroms
helped shape the Holocaust.
*Following Jeffrey's talk, there will be a sale and signing of his book*

For all information on our upcoming meetings &
Sunday Morning Family Tree Workshops -
call the JGS of Montreal Hotline - 24 hours a day:
514-484-0969
Please visit our website: http://jgs-montreal.org/
and friend us in Facebook

Merle Kastner
Programming
merlek@bell.net

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal,
in association with the Jewish Public Library,
is pleased to announce as our guest speaker:
Jeffrey Gorney
"Remembered Voices"

The meeting will be held on
Monday, April 13, 2015, at 7:30 pm
Gelber Conference Centre
5151 Cote Ste-Catherine/1 Carre Cummings

This talk explores oral history as a vital path to discovering Jewish
roots.
Drawing on his recent book, "Mysterious Places: Journey. Memoir. Quest",
Jeffrey Gorney tells how vibrant family recollections of a Romanian shtetl
inspired him. He will discuss his journeys to Romania: first, shortly after
the Romanian Revolution; then, years later as photographer on assignment in
a
vastly changed nation.

Jeffrey will relate what it means to actually visit ancestral lands, Jewish
identity before and after World War II, and how Romanian pogroms
helped shape the Holocaust.
*Following Jeffrey's talk, there will be a sale and signing of his book*

For all information on our upcoming meetings &
Sunday Morning Family Tree Workshops -
call the JGS of Montreal Hotline - 24 hours a day:
514-484-0969
Please visit our website: http://jgs-montreal.org/
and friend us in Facebook

Merle Kastner
Programming
merlek@bell.net

Hi Todd,

I did not need to read it to sense some strange things just >from the short
publisher description listed in my original mail - the action must have
taken place BEFORE 1821 (after that the Ottomans did not any longer use
Greeks >from Phanar as rulers of the two Principalities). It is
inconceivable that AT THAT TIME, a Jewish person born in Galati in 1800
or earlier, to have a ROMANIAN sounding surname (ending in "escu"). That
may have been possible 100 years later.
These details make me doubt the writer of a self published book is well
versed in Romanian/Jewish history to the extent that others could use the
book as reference.

Luc Radu
Great Neck, NY

On 3/30/15, 8:49 AM, "Todd A. Halpern thalpern1@comcast.net"
<rom-sig@lyris.jewishgen.org> wrote:

Hi Luc,

I have the book "Departures: Beyond Recognition" and I have read it.
About
one-third of the novel is set in 19th Century Romania. The story begins
in
Romania (in the town of Galati), moves to France, then back to Romania,
and
finally back to France. IMHO, the story does give one an idea of what
life
was Jewish life was like in Romania of that era.

To paraphrase another source (albeit unknown), "RTFB"!

Cheers!

Todd Halpern
Rockville, MD


2. Re: Jewish Life in Botosani
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Jewish Life in Botosani
From: luc.radu@verizon.net
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 20:44:08 -0400
X-Message-Number: 2

To paraphrase Bibi N, better no book than a wrong book. I have not read
"Departures..." but just >from the publisher description below, I highly
doubt
one will get a good idea about Jewish life in 19th century
Moldavia/Romania. I am aware of only one book by G. Sternberg, a
monograph
of Stefanesti, which could be of interest but it is mostly relevant to
post 1900.

I believe the best source of information are the entries in the YIVO
Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, published in 2008.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Todd,

I did not need to read it to sense some strange things just >from the short
publisher description listed in my original mail - the action must have
taken place BEFORE 1821 (after that the Ottomans did not any longer use
Greeks >from Phanar as rulers of the two Principalities). It is
inconceivable that AT THAT TIME, a Jewish person born in Galati in 1800
or earlier, to have a ROMANIAN sounding surname (ending in "escu"). That
may have been possible 100 years later.
These details make me doubt the writer of a self published book is well
versed in Romanian/Jewish history to the extent that others could use the
book as reference.

Luc Radu
Great Neck, NY

On 3/30/15, 8:49 AM, "Todd A. Halpern thalpern1@comcast.net"
<rom-sig@lyris.jewishgen.org> wrote:

Hi Luc,

I have the book "Departures: Beyond Recognition" and I have read it.
About
one-third of the novel is set in 19th Century Romania. The story begins
in
Romania (in the town of Galati), moves to France, then back to Romania,
and
finally back to France. IMHO, the story does give one an idea of what
life
was Jewish life was like in Romania of that era.

To paraphrase another source (albeit unknown), "RTFB"!

Cheers!

Todd Halpern
Rockville, MD


2. Re: Jewish Life in Botosani
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Jewish Life in Botosani
From: luc.radu@verizon.net
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 20:44:08 -0400
X-Message-Number: 2

To paraphrase Bibi N, better no book than a wrong book. I have not read
"Departures..." but just >from the publisher description below, I highly
doubt
one will get a good idea about Jewish life in 19th century
Moldavia/Romania. I am aware of only one book by G. Sternberg, a
monograph
of Stefanesti, which could be of interest but it is mostly relevant to
post 1900.

I believe the best source of information are the entries in the YIVO
Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, published in 2008.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back in 2011 the Sefer Torah belonging to the Sanzer Rebbe, Haim
Halberstam, which survived to Holocaust, was apparently bought from
two brother descendants (either of the Rubin or Jeruchem families - as
quoted in the former case by the Jewish Press and in the latter case
by Hamodia).
Can anyone clarify these brothers for me and their ancestry?
The inheritance would have passed >from Rav Haim to his son Yechezkel,
the Sinover Rebbe to one of two possible sons - Moshe or Dovid.

--
Neil Rosenstein

R. Bezalel Simcha Menachem BenZion Rabinowitz, Admur
Biala-Jerusalem-Lugano and ABD Lugano had eight children but I only
know the name of one -
Abraham Moses Rabinowitz, married in June 1993 to Perl Malka, daughter
of R. Shmuel Shmelke Halpert.
Can anyone help fill in the others, who they married and children?
--
Neil Rosenstein

Back in 2011 the Sefer Torah belonging to the Sanzer Rebbe, Haim
Halberstam, which survived to Holocaust, was apparently bought from
two brother descendants (either of the Rubin or Jeruchem families - as
quoted in the former case by the Jewish Press and in the latter case
by Hamodia).
Can anyone clarify these brothers for me and their ancestry?
The inheritance would have passed >from Rav Haim to his son Yechezkel,
the Sinover Rebbe to one of two possible sons - Moshe or Dovid.

--
Neil Rosenstein

R. Bezalel Simcha Menachem BenZion Rabinowitz, Admur
Biala-Jerusalem-Lugano and ABD Lugano had eight children but I only
know the name of one -
Abraham Moses Rabinowitz, married in June 1993 to Perl Malka, daughter
of R. Shmuel Shmelke Halpert.
Can anyone help fill in the others, who they married and children?
--
Neil Rosenstein

Rav Jacob Zvi Meir Ehrlich, eleventh Admur Koidanovo - trying to find
biographical information on him, who is parents, wife and chidlren
are.

--
Neil Rosenstein

Rav Jacob Zvi Meir Ehrlich, eleventh Admur Koidanovo - trying to find
biographical information on him, who is parents, wife and chidlren
are.

--
Neil Rosenstein

Is anyone related to the Hollaender family? Does anyone have any
information about them?

My aunt was related to the following (I believe through her father):

Oskar (Kuba) HOLLAENDER: attorney, approx. 57 years old (1940s),
lived in Tarnow (born somewhere in Poland)

Pola HOLLAENDER (nee ISZAK), born (1890) & lived in Tarnow, wife
of Oskar

Halinka HOLLAENDER: daughter of Pola & Oskar. Born in Tarnow 1927

All died in the Holocaust.

My aunt reported them to Yad Vashem

Marilyn Robinson

Is anyone related to the Hollaender family? Does anyone have any
information about them?

My aunt was related to the following (I believe through her father):

Oskar (Kuba) HOLLAENDER: attorney, approx. 57 years old (1940s),
lived in Tarnow (born somewhere in Poland)

Pola HOLLAENDER (nee ISZAK), born (1890) & lived in Tarnow, wife
of Oskar

Halinka HOLLAENDER: daughter of Pola & Oskar. Born in Tarnow 1927

All died in the Holocaust.

My aunt reported them to Yad Vashem

Marilyn Robinson

In recent months, with some creative searching, I have found about 100 more
relatives, using the Berlin civil records now available on Ancestry.com, the
Berlin newspapers available on the European Library website at
http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/newspapers, and some other sites. I
thought I would share my method with you!

1. On Ancestry.com enter "Berlin" under Keyword. This will limit the
results to Berlin records and records that contain the word "Berlin".
2. If your surname is common, such as LEVY, or not especially Jewish (I have
several, such as BRAUN, NATHAN, WEISS, SCHWARZ, MICHAELIS, etc.) you may be
able to skip through hundreds of hits for marriage records by skipping over
those entries with several first names. Jews generally had one or maybe two
first names only.
3. Marriages required two witnesses, who were usually relatives. Even if
the witness is not known, research them. Their age and address will be
given on the marriage certificate. They may turn out to be the husband of
another relative you have yet to find! Always keep note of these witnesses
for possible later identification, if you cannot immediately identify them.
4. The marriage and death records will give the parents' names too, as well
as where they lived - and died, if applicable. They will give divorce
details, if any, and sometimes death details, and if they had to assume the
name "Israel" or "Sara. If you are entering your records on a public site
such as Ancestry or Geni, then enter your relative's spouse's relatives
(parents, witness) too, to facilitate other researchers linking their tree
to yours. They may have additional information on your relatives too that
you didn't know about, or their own trees which will then appear as a
"hint".
5. Use wildcard searches (*) as much as possible, especially for surnames
that can easily be misspelled. If the first name ends in "a" or "e" always
use the * to search (for example Johann*), as transcribers will use both
randomly, even though the name probably ends with an "e".
6. Let's say you have found a marriage record for your relative and now you
want to know if the marriage produced children. Let's assume they were
married in 1890. Then do a search using just the surname and enter the
search year as 1896 with a 5 year +/-. This will pull up all Berlin BMD
records for anyone born 1891 - 1901, which should cover all children, unless
it was a large family! You can also use the 2 or 10 year +/- option.
7. If you cannot find the death record for your female relative, also search
using her maiden name. She may have remarried.
8. Once you have exhausted Ancestry.com, then use
http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/newspapers. Of particular interest
are the death notices, usually published in the Berliner Tageblatt. In
addition to the description of "long and painful suffering" which seems to
appear on all these notices, you may find "new" family members. The best
way to search is to use "+", for example "Ottilie+SCHWARZ" (my
gg-grandmother) This will yield 55 hits. Then click on the 4
Staatsbibliothek (for the Berlin newspapers) hits. The last 2 refer to my
Ottilie. The last is her death notice. Click on it and you will see the
relevant part in blue on the left side. Click on it to bring that section
of the newspaper up. Even if you have found the death certificate on
Ancestry, still search for the death notice on this site, in the hopes of
finding more relatives. Then you can contact Weissensee cemetery for the
burial records. juedfriedweissensee@jg-berlin.org. These can also yield
more relatives!
9. If you can't find your married female relative on this site, then try
just using "geb+maiden name", which, for some reason, will bring up
different results.
10. If you search just using the surname you may get thousands of hits, if
it is a common surname. You can then narrow down your search by using
"Decades of Publication" on the right side. Click on the desired decade.
Then click on the Year, if applicable. You can then sort in ascending or
descending time. This will considerably narrow down the hits.
11. This newspaper site also has newspapers >from Hamburg and other
countries too, such as Austria. It is also useful for finding engagement
notices, marriage notices and birth notices, as well as business details and
addresses. A birth notice will typically say a son or daughter was born,
often citing the birth date (but no first name), and then you can continue
your search back on Ancestry using the surname and the birth year. If your
relative lived during the Holocaust years, then also search on
http://tracingthepast.org/minority-census/census-database. To find all those
living at the same address, just put in the surname and street name. This
database is for all of Germany. You can also use
http://www.bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch/directory.html.en?result#frmResults,
http://db.yadvashem.org/names/search.html?language=en and
http://digital.zlb.de/viewer/sites/collection-berlin-adresses/.

Judith E. Elam, Kihei, HI elamj@hawaii.rr.comm

In recent months, with some creative searching, I have found about 100 more
relatives, using the Berlin civil records now available on Ancestry.com, the
Berlin newspapers available on the European Library website at
http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/newspapers, and some other sites. I
thought I would share my method with you!

1. On Ancestry.com enter "Berlin" under Keyword. This will limit the
results to Berlin records and records that contain the word "Berlin".
2. If your surname is common, such as LEVY, or not especially Jewish (I have
several, such as BRAUN, NATHAN, WEISS, SCHWARZ, MICHAELIS, etc.) you may be
able to skip through hundreds of hits for marriage records by skipping over
those entries with several first names. Jews generally had one or maybe two
first names only.
3. Marriages required two witnesses, who were usually relatives. Even if
the witness is not known, research them. Their age and address will be
given on the marriage certificate. They may turn out to be the husband of
another relative you have yet to find! Always keep note of these witnesses
for possible later identification, if you cannot immediately identify them.
4. The marriage and death records will give the parents' names too, as well
as where they lived - and died, if applicable. They will give divorce
details, if any, and sometimes death details, and if they had to assume the
name "Israel" or "Sara. If you are entering your records on a public site
such as Ancestry or Geni, then enter your relative's spouse's relatives
(parents, witness) too, to facilitate other researchers linking their tree
to yours. They may have additional information on your relatives too that
you didn't know about, or their own trees which will then appear as a
"hint".
5. Use wildcard searches (*) as much as possible, especially for surnames
that can easily be misspelled. If the first name ends in "a" or "e" always
use the * to search (for example Johann*), as transcribers will use both
randomly, even though the name probably ends with an "e".
6. Let's say you have found a marriage record for your relative and now you
want to know if the marriage produced children. Let's assume they were
married in 1890. Then do a search using just the surname and enter the
search year as 1896 with a 5 year +/-. This will pull up all Berlin BMD
records for anyone born 1891 - 1901, which should cover all children, unless
it was a large family! You can also use the 2 or 10 year +/- option.
7. If you cannot find the death record for your female relative, also search
using her maiden name. She may have remarried.
8. Once you have exhausted Ancestry.com, then use
http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/newspapers. Of particular interest
are the death notices, usually published in the Berliner Tageblatt. In
addition to the description of "long and painful suffering" which seems to
appear on all these notices, you may find "new" family members. The best
way to search is to use "+", for example "Ottilie+SCHWARZ" (my
gg-grandmother) This will yield 55 hits. Then click on the 4
Staatsbibliothek (for the Berlin newspapers) hits. The last 2 refer to my
Ottilie. The last is her death notice. Click on it and you will see the
relevant part in blue on the left side. Click on it to bring that section
of the newspaper up. Even if you have found the death certificate on
Ancestry, still search for the death notice on this site, in the hopes of
finding more relatives. Then you can contact Weissensee cemetery for the
burial records. juedfriedweissensee@jg-berlin.org. These can also yield
more relatives!
9. If you can't find your married female relative on this site, then try
just using "geb+maiden name", which, for some reason, will bring up
different results.
10. If you search just using the surname you may get thousands of hits, if
it is a common surname. You can then narrow down your search by using
"Decades of Publication" on the right side. Click on the desired decade.
Then click on the Year, if applicable. You can then sort in ascending or
descending time. This will considerably narrow down the hits.
11. This newspaper site also has newspapers >from Hamburg and other
countries too, such as Austria. It is also useful for finding engagement
notices, marriage notices and birth notices, as well as business details and
addresses. A birth notice will typically say a son or daughter was born,
often citing the birth date (but no first name), and then you can continue
your search back on Ancestry using the surname and the birth year. If your
relative lived during the Holocaust years, then also search on
http://tracingthepast.org/minority-census/census-database. To find all those
living at the same address, just put in the surname and street name. This
database is for all of Germany. You can also use
http://www.bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch/directory.html.en?result#frmResults,
http://db.yadvashem.org/names/search.html?language=en and
http://digital.zlb.de/viewer/sites/collection-berlin-adresses/.

Judith E. Elam, Kihei, HI elamj@hawaii.rr.comm

Back in 2011 the Sefer Torah belonging to the Sanzer Rebbe, Haim HALBERSTAM,
which survived to Holocaust, was apparently bought >from two brother
descendants (either of the Rubin or Jeruchem families - as quoted in the
former case by the Jewish Press and in the latter case by Hamodia).

Can anyone clarify these brothers for me and their ancestry?
The inheritance would have passed >from Rav Haim to his son Yechezkel,
the Sinover Rebbe to one of two possible sons - Moshe or Dovid.

Neil Rosenstein

MODERATOR NOTE: Please respond privately with family information.

Back in 2011 the Sefer Torah belonging to the Sanzer Rebbe, Haim HALBERSTAM,
which survived to Holocaust, was apparently bought >from two brother
descendants (either of the Rubin or Jeruchem families - as quoted in the
former case by the Jewish Press and in the latter case by Hamodia).

Can anyone clarify these brothers for me and their ancestry?
The inheritance would have passed >from Rav Haim to his son Yechezkel,
the Sinover Rebbe to one of two possible sons - Moshe or Dovid.

Neil Rosenstein

MODERATOR NOTE: Please respond privately with family information.

As an aside, having read the moderator's note at the end of Paul Nussbaum's
posting, I followed the link to the description of the Dorosic massacre, and
read the description of the data set. But I haven't been able to figure out
how to look at a list of the victims' names. Using the All Hungary Database,
a search for "Dorosic" either in any field, or in town, returns zero records.
How can I browse the records, without having to know their names in advance?

tom klein, Toronto

As an aside, having read the moderator's note at the end of Paul Nussbaum's
posting, I followed the link to the description of the Dorosic massacre, and
read the description of the data set. But I haven't been able to figure out
how to look at a list of the victims' names. Using the All Hungary Database,
a search for "Dorosic" either in any field, or in town, returns zero records.
How can I browse the records, without having to know their names in advance?

tom klein, Toronto

For what it's worth, my father was also a forced labourer at the same
time and place, and barely escaped being killed there. His unit was
there, and they were told that they were setting up a field hospital,
in a barn, for those who were too sick to continue marching. My father
was sick, but he said that there were others who were in worse condition,
and he could still go on. The massacre was carried out that night.

Do you know much about your father's experiences during the war?

tom klein, Toronto

For what it's worth, my father was also a forced labourer at the same
time and place, and barely escaped being killed there. His unit was
there, and they were told that they were setting up a field hospital,
in a barn, for those who were too sick to continue marching. My father
was sick, but he said that there were others who were in worse condition,
and he could still go on. The massacre was carried out that night.

Do you know much about your father's experiences during the war?

tom klein, Toronto