I am seeking the whereabouts of my family who lived in Alytus (Olite). They are
my Aunt Fayge EPSTEIN BLUM and my Uncle Elimelech BLUM and their four daughters.
The last time my family in the USA heard >from this family was a cablegram in 1940.
Any information about my family would be welcome. And I would appreciate
contact with any landsleit who lived in Olite.

Howard V. Epstein, Ph.D.
hvepstein@...
***
MODERATOR NOTE: To increase your chances of success, don't forget to list your
surnames of interest in the JewishGen Family Finder,
http://www.jewishgen.org/jgff/

I am seeking the whereabouts of my family who lived in Alytus (Olite). They are
my Aunt Fayge EPSTEIN BLUM and my Uncle Elimelech BLUM and their four daughters.
The last time my family in the USA heard >from this family was a cablegram in 1940.
Any information about my family would be welcome. And I would appreciate
contact with any landsleit who lived in Olite.

Howard V. Epstein, Ph.D.
hvepstein@...
***
MODERATOR NOTE: To increase your chances of success, don't forget to list your
surnames of interest in the JewishGen Family Finder,
http://www.jewishgen.org/jgff/

If anyone lives in or around Carmel, Israel, I am trying to contact someone who
lives on Tavor. Please reply privately for more information if you can help me.

Thanks!

Sheila Toffell
Glen Rock NJ

If anyone lives in or around Carmel, Israel, I am trying to contact someone who
lives on Tavor. Please reply privately for more information if you can help me.

Thanks!

Sheila Toffell
Glen Rock NJ

Alex Sharon wrote:
"I recall that surname Rapaport has Sephardic origin and it means: doctor >from
town Porta. Is this correct?"

According to Google, Rapaport is an Ashkenazic name; most of them being descended

from an Ashkenazi Jew named Rapa who lived in Porto, Italy at the beginning of the

16th century; and the etymology of Rapa is unknown. The Google item then asserts
"but may come >from German Rappe, meaning raven."

The Google informant is mistaken! the German word for raven is Rabe, not Rappe.
However, according to my German dictionary, Rappe means "a black horse" (i.e.
raven-colored!)

A Jewish classmate in my (non-Jewish) London high school during the 1940's was
named Rapaport -- and she was certainly raven-haired! She had very dark eyes and
black hair, worn in two long braids and looked quite different >from my other
Jewish schoolmates. But while it is tempting with hindsight to imagine her having
a sephardic background, she could equally have belonged genetically to a large
group of Polish Jews who have these features.

The speculation that Rapa comes >from Rofe' (Hebrew for physician, literally
meaning "healer") is very interesting. While the noun (actually it's the
present participle of a qal verb) does mean doctor, it contains no dagesh, so is
never pronounced with the"P" sound. However, the verb "to heal" is also
commonly found in the pi'el conjugation (both in biblical and modern Hebrew)
and the middle root letter of pi'el requires a dagesh hazaq, so the pi'el verb
"to heal" le-rappe' (also found in the Talmud as le-rapp'ot). is pronounced with
"P" rather than "F" This makes it unlikely that

So the odds seem evenly divided (no pun intended!) between the black horse and the
doctor!

Judith Romney Wegner

Alex Sharon wrote:
"I recall that surname Rapaport has Sephardic origin and it means: doctor >from
town Porta. Is this correct?"

According to Google, Rapaport is an Ashkenazic name; most of them being descended

from an Ashkenazi Jew named Rapa who lived in Porto, Italy at the beginning of the

16th century; and the etymology of Rapa is unknown. The Google item then asserts
"but may come >from German Rappe, meaning raven."

The Google informant is mistaken! the German word for raven is Rabe, not Rappe.
However, according to my German dictionary, Rappe means "a black horse" (i.e.
raven-colored!)

A Jewish classmate in my (non-Jewish) London high school during the 1940's was
named Rapaport -- and she was certainly raven-haired! She had very dark eyes and
black hair, worn in two long braids and looked quite different >from my other
Jewish schoolmates. But while it is tempting with hindsight to imagine her having
a sephardic background, she could equally have belonged genetically to a large
group of Polish Jews who have these features.

The speculation that Rapa comes >from Rofe' (Hebrew for physician, literally
meaning "healer") is very interesting. While the noun (actually it's the
present participle of a qal verb) does mean doctor, it contains no dagesh, so is
never pronounced with the"P" sound. However, the verb "to heal" is also
commonly found in the pi'el conjugation (both in biblical and modern Hebrew)
and the middle root letter of pi'el requires a dagesh hazaq, so the pi'el verb
"to heal" le-rappe' (also found in the Talmud as le-rapp'ot). is pronounced with
"P" rather than "F" This makes it unlikely that

So the odds seem evenly divided (no pun intended!) between the black horse and the
doctor!

Judith Romney Wegner

I have been asked by Nadia Kahan of Yad Vashem to post the following message:

Joyce Field
jfield@...


I would like to avail myself of the opportunity to tell you and your
readers what has happened here in the three weeks since the launch,
and what they can expect >from Yad Vashem.

First of all I would like to thank all of you for the overwhelmingly
positive responses that we have received >from the more than 2.75
million visitors to the site.

For those of you who sent us comments or corrections through the
site: We are currently working our way through the backlog of
approximately 12,000 such queries. We appreciate your patience. I
am providing details and suggestions regarding some of the most
common categories of responses.

For those of you who have received responses which seem
unsatisfactory, feel free to contact us again. We are trying hard to
find a balance between the efficiency of standard answers, and the
need to examine each case individually. Many of our policies are
still being clarified and modified based on actual responses, and we
can only do this through your feedback. Also, as our staff becomes
more experienced we hope that fewer errors in judgment will occur.

If you have not managed to access the site we suggest trying again.
Many of the initial technical problems have been solved. We suggest
trying again. Appendix 1 includes a few suggestions for those still
experiencing technical difficulties.

Appendix 2 includes a few guidelines regarding corrections. These
are designed to help you in your submissions, and in your evaluation
of our responses.

After corrections, the most frequently asked questions are about
locating submitters. Unfortunately we rarely have information beyond
what can be found on the Pages of Testimony. Appendix 3 includes
guidelines which you may find helpful.

The other type of comment which we are pleased to receive, is that an
individual who appears in the database survived. See Appendix 4 for
various possibilities.

If you discover overlapping records pertaining to the same individual
such as two different Pages of Testimony, or the person's name in a
list and on a Page of Testimony, we will make a note of it so that we
can link the records at some point in the future.

When dealing with Pages of Testimony this is rare, but in the case of
material derived >from archival lists, this is to be expected. While
all the archival lists in the database include mostly people who
perished, in some cases they include people we know survived, and in
this case the fact that they survived is noted in the database. In
cases of individuals >from lists where we do not know their fate (even
though we know that statistically, most of those in the list
perished), the people in the list are not marked as people who were
murdered in the Holocaust . (See, for instance, the records >from the
census of the Lodz ghetto.) Not all individuals who were deported--

from Drancy, for example--were subsequently murdered. If someone is

not marked as a survivor and you know that they in fact survived, we
want to know about it these cases, so we can, in fact, note this in
the database. We can note that the individual is a survivor, but will
ask for documentation, such as a copy of an identity card or
passport, to verify it.

The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names is a work in progress,
and the product of cooperation between the public and Yad Vashem. We
continue to welcome your corrections, comments, photographs, and new
Pages of Testimony, even if there may be a delay in our replies.

With best wishes for a Happy Hanukah,

Nadia Kahan
Director of Reference and Information Services
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Appendix 1 - Technical Suggestions

At times, the database has been hard to access because it was
overloaded. This is no longer happening. If you have tried getting
into the database a few times at different hours and failed, we
suggest you check the following points:

-Do you have a version of Explorer above 5.5?

-If you have a firewall, at times turning it off will allow access to
the database.

-If you have protection against pop-up ads, canceling this protection
will allow access to the database.

-It is not always possible to access the database with Apple computers


Appendix 2 - Corrections

Yes we want them!

Submit corrections through the "correct our deciphering form" >from
the individual Page of Testimony, on the "more details" page". It
saves time and confusion in identifying the Page in question.

If the Page of Testimony is correct, and we agree that the
information was keyed in improperly, we will correct it. If we
disagree, we will tell you that we disagree.

Note that it will be several months before these corrections appear
in the online database, which is only updated periodically.

If the mistake is on the Page of Testimony and not in our
transcription, we cannot alter the Page of Testimony which is in and
of itself a piece of archival documentation. We suggest submitting a
new Page of Testimony.

In the case of a minor mistake on a Page of Testimony, which you
yourself submitted, we will alter it as per your specific
instructions.


Appendix 3 - Finding Submitters

Yad Vashem's goal and mandate in collecting Pages of Testimony and
developing the Central Database was to commemorate the victims of the
Shoah. Reconnecting family members is a secondary function.
Unfortunately, we rarely have information on whether the submitter of
a Page of Testimony is still alive, nor on how to contact them today.

To locate a person's current address in Israel:

1. Look for them in the online Israel phone book
http://www.144.bezek.com/. The site is in Hebrew. Stephen Morse at
http://stevemorse.org/hebrew/bezeq.html has created a utility which
allows non-Hebrew speakers to use the Bezeq site.

2. Call or write the Israeli Ministry of Interior.
oc_info@.... 972-2-6294666. Generally, the information they
can give is the person's current address, or whether the person is
deceased. The more you know about the person, the more likely they
are to be able to supply you with information. This service is
limited to one request per day.

3. Use the various services on the JewishGen website
www.jewishgen.org. Note that there are many different services on
this website, some of which require registration.

4. Use the service being developed by the Israel Genealogical
Society [IGS]. By sending full information to: "Rose Feldman"
rosef@... who will post it to www.isragen.org.il. In
"Projects" on the side bar, there is a category called "Searching for
Submitters of Pages of Testimony in Israel".

5. If you know Hebrew, send a letter to the family roots
(Shorashim Mishpachtiyim) forum on the Tapuz website
http://www.tapuz.co.il/tapuzforum/main/anashim.asp?forum=325&pass=1

For survivors outside of Israel there are local and online phone
books, as well as various Internet services such as Yahoo's People
Search http://people.yahoo.com.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum maintains a registry of
Holocaust survivors. http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/registry,
which includes survivors primarily, but not exclusively, >from North
America.

The Yad Vashem Archives and Library include extensive offline,
information about survivors, but few of the records go beyond the
year 1954. As such, the submitter's information on the Pages of
Testimony, is usually more recent than what we are likely to find for
you at Yad Vashem. However, you are welcome to contact us. There is
a fee for the research and it may take us up to two months to
respond. You are also welcome to come to the reading room, where our
staff can help you to research the matter yourself.

We hope that you will find this information helpful, and that you
will succeed in contacting your family members.

Appendix 4 Individuals who survived who appear in the database.

When dealing with Pages of Testimony this is rare. Verify that the
details, such as parents' names, spouse's name, and approximate dates
of birth match before contacting us.

In the case of material derived >from archival lists this is to be expected.

All the archival lists in the database include mostly individuals who
perished, but in some cases they include people we know survived, and
in this case the fact that they survived is noted in the database.

If someone is not marked as a survivor and you know that they were,
please tell us so that it can be noted in the database. In order to
maintain the integrity of the database, we require documentation,
such as a copy of an identity card or passport, to verify that the
individual indeed survived.

Thanks to all the genners who responded to my questiona about my
great-uncle's name.

Chuna/Karl/Charles ZIMMER came >from the town of Zborow which is now in Ukraine.

Your answers ranged >from "There was not necessarily any connection
between his Yiddish name and the name he chose in the U.S" to
examples where your relatives had been Chuna and chose Henry, or Karl.


So was it a nickname? That also raised up a number of responses.

Israel P. said: It may have been derived >from Elhanan.
aleph-lamed-het-nun-nun. Or Hanania - het-nun-nun-yod-heh. Or more
rarely Elkanna - aleph-lamed-kof-nun-heh.

It has also evolved into a standalone.

Karen said: There were many Yiddish names and nicknames that are
indigenous to specific areas. Yehuda became Yudel, Yisrael became
Srul. Chuna is probably one of these cases.

Naomi said: I had an uncle who perished in the holocaust His name was
Chuna,and my mother called him, in Hebrew, Chanan. (like ch in
Chanuka).

Judianne said: Though Chuna is not a common name, it is definitely a
Hebrew name. I am acquainted with 2 gentlemen with this name. It is
sometimes pronounced Chona, the "o" pronounced as the "o" in torn. It
is not a nickname.

Leah said: CHUNA is a nickname for 2 main names: ELKANA or CHANAN.
Both are dealing with GOD. ELKANA means literally "God was angry but
with mercy" - but the idiom is taken >from the prayer "El kone
avon/rachamim" - meaning God is there listening and watching crimes
and mercy and tolerance.
The word CHANAN means literally - gave forgiveness in trial or jail,
meaning mainly for God who has mercy and can forgive us. The word is used in
Hebrew as a verb for a judge who gives a prisoner his freedom after an appeal
was given.

And Marion said:
I have recently discovered a relative named Chuna in the Yad VaShem
Pages of Testimony. When I read the full record, I found out that
his full Hebrew name was Elchanan. There is also a less-likely
chance that his name could have been Hanoch.
Hebrew and Yiddish nicknames often come >from the END of the name
rather than the beginning, like in English.

Thank you one and all!
Barbara Zimmer
Norfolk VA

My aunt Lena's birth name was Carolina, pronounced Caroleena. She was >from a
small village near Vienna.

Sally Goodman
Palm Springs/LA, CA

Researching:
ABELES Vienna, San Francisco; BROWN/GROSS Schenectady, NY; CARDOZO London,
Rochester, NYC; GOITMAN Kishinev, Tiraspol; HAYS Germany, Rochester, NYC;
KIRSCHBAUM Jaroslaw, Vienna; MANDELBERG Jaroslaw, Vienna, Berlin; MUHLSTEIN
Rzeszow, Vienna; NEUSPIEL, Nikolsburg, Moravia; Vienna & Hollabrunn Austria;
RESHOWER Austria, Germany, NYC; ROSENSTOCK Stryj, Rzeszow, Jaroslaw;
SELIGMAN Germany, Rochester, NYC; STEIN Stryj, Vienna.

I have been asked by Nadia Kahan of Yad Vashem to post the following message:

Joyce Field
jfield@...


I would like to avail myself of the opportunity to tell you and your
readers what has happened here in the three weeks since the launch,
and what they can expect >from Yad Vashem.

First of all I would like to thank all of you for the overwhelmingly
positive responses that we have received >from the more than 2.75
million visitors to the site.

For those of you who sent us comments or corrections through the
site: We are currently working our way through the backlog of
approximately 12,000 such queries. We appreciate your patience. I
am providing details and suggestions regarding some of the most
common categories of responses.

For those of you who have received responses which seem
unsatisfactory, feel free to contact us again. We are trying hard to
find a balance between the efficiency of standard answers, and the
need to examine each case individually. Many of our policies are
still being clarified and modified based on actual responses, and we
can only do this through your feedback. Also, as our staff becomes
more experienced we hope that fewer errors in judgment will occur.

If you have not managed to access the site we suggest trying again.
Many of the initial technical problems have been solved. We suggest
trying again. Appendix 1 includes a few suggestions for those still
experiencing technical difficulties.

Appendix 2 includes a few guidelines regarding corrections. These
are designed to help you in your submissions, and in your evaluation
of our responses.

After corrections, the most frequently asked questions are about
locating submitters. Unfortunately we rarely have information beyond
what can be found on the Pages of Testimony. Appendix 3 includes
guidelines which you may find helpful.

The other type of comment which we are pleased to receive, is that an
individual who appears in the database survived. See Appendix 4 for
various possibilities.

If you discover overlapping records pertaining to the same individual
such as two different Pages of Testimony, or the person's name in a
list and on a Page of Testimony, we will make a note of it so that we
can link the records at some point in the future.

When dealing with Pages of Testimony this is rare, but in the case of
material derived >from archival lists, this is to be expected. While
all the archival lists in the database include mostly people who
perished, in some cases they include people we know survived, and in
this case the fact that they survived is noted in the database. In
cases of individuals >from lists where we do not know their fate (even
though we know that statistically, most of those in the list
perished), the people in the list are not marked as people who were
murdered in the Holocaust . (See, for instance, the records >from the
census of the Lodz ghetto.) Not all individuals who were deported--

from Drancy, for example--were subsequently murdered. If someone is

not marked as a survivor and you know that they in fact survived, we
want to know about it these cases, so we can, in fact, note this in
the database. We can note that the individual is a survivor, but will
ask for documentation, such as a copy of an identity card or
passport, to verify it.

The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names is a work in progress,
and the product of cooperation between the public and Yad Vashem. We
continue to welcome your corrections, comments, photographs, and new
Pages of Testimony, even if there may be a delay in our replies.

With best wishes for a Happy Hanukah,

Nadia Kahan
Director of Reference and Information Services
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Appendix 1 - Technical Suggestions

At times, the database has been hard to access because it was
overloaded. This is no longer happening. If you have tried getting
into the database a few times at different hours and failed, we
suggest you check the following points:

-Do you have a version of Explorer above 5.5?

-If you have a firewall, at times turning it off will allow access to
the database.

-If you have protection against pop-up ads, canceling this protection
will allow access to the database.

-It is not always possible to access the database with Apple computers


Appendix 2 - Corrections

Yes we want them!

Submit corrections through the "correct our deciphering form" >from
the individual Page of Testimony, on the "more details" page". It
saves time and confusion in identifying the Page in question.

If the Page of Testimony is correct, and we agree that the
information was keyed in improperly, we will correct it. If we
disagree, we will tell you that we disagree.

Note that it will be several months before these corrections appear
in the online database, which is only updated periodically.

If the mistake is on the Page of Testimony and not in our
transcription, we cannot alter the Page of Testimony which is in and
of itself a piece of archival documentation. We suggest submitting a
new Page of Testimony.

In the case of a minor mistake on a Page of Testimony, which you
yourself submitted, we will alter it as per your specific
instructions.


Appendix 3 - Finding Submitters

Yad Vashem's goal and mandate in collecting Pages of Testimony and
developing the Central Database was to commemorate the victims of the
Shoah. Reconnecting family members is a secondary function.
Unfortunately, we rarely have information on whether the submitter of
a Page of Testimony is still alive, nor on how to contact them today.

To locate a person's current address in Israel:

1. Look for them in the online Israel phone book
http://www.144.bezek.com/. The site is in Hebrew. Stephen Morse at
http://stevemorse.org/hebrew/bezeq.html has created a utility which
allows non-Hebrew speakers to use the Bezeq site.

2. Call or write the Israeli Ministry of Interior.
oc_info@.... 972-2-6294666. Generally, the information they
can give is the person's current address, or whether the person is
deceased. The more you know about the person, the more likely they
are to be able to supply you with information. This service is
limited to one request per day.

3. Use the various services on the JewishGen website
www.jewishgen.org. Note that there are many different services on
this website, some of which require registration.

4. Use the service being developed by the Israel Genealogical
Society [IGS]. By sending full information to: "Rose Feldman"
rosef@... who will post it to www.isragen.org.il. In
"Projects" on the side bar, there is a category called "Searching for
Submitters of Pages of Testimony in Israel".

5. If you know Hebrew, send a letter to the family roots
(Shorashim Mishpachtiyim) forum on the Tapuz website
http://www.tapuz.co.il/tapuzforum/main/anashim.asp?forum=325&pass=1

For survivors outside of Israel there are local and online phone
books, as well as various Internet services such as Yahoo's People
Search http://people.yahoo.com.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum maintains a registry of
Holocaust survivors. http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/registry,
which includes survivors primarily, but not exclusively, >from North
America.

The Yad Vashem Archives and Library include extensive offline,
information about survivors, but few of the records go beyond the
year 1954. As such, the submitter's information on the Pages of
Testimony, is usually more recent than what we are likely to find for
you at Yad Vashem. However, you are welcome to contact us. There is
a fee for the research and it may take us up to two months to
respond. You are also welcome to come to the reading room, where our
staff can help you to research the matter yourself.

We hope that you will find this information helpful, and that you
will succeed in contacting your family members.

Appendix 4 Individuals who survived who appear in the database.

When dealing with Pages of Testimony this is rare. Verify that the
details, such as parents' names, spouse's name, and approximate dates
of birth match before contacting us.

In the case of material derived >from archival lists this is to be expected.

All the archival lists in the database include mostly individuals who
perished, but in some cases they include people we know survived, and
in this case the fact that they survived is noted in the database.

If someone is not marked as a survivor and you know that they were,
please tell us so that it can be noted in the database. In order to
maintain the integrity of the database, we require documentation,
such as a copy of an identity card or passport, to verify that the
individual indeed survived.

Thanks to all the genners who responded to my questiona about my
great-uncle's name.

Chuna/Karl/Charles ZIMMER came >from the town of Zborow which is now in Ukraine.

Your answers ranged >from "There was not necessarily any connection
between his Yiddish name and the name he chose in the U.S" to
examples where your relatives had been Chuna and chose Henry, or Karl.


So was it a nickname? That also raised up a number of responses.

Israel P. said: It may have been derived >from Elhanan.
aleph-lamed-het-nun-nun. Or Hanania - het-nun-nun-yod-heh. Or more
rarely Elkanna - aleph-lamed-kof-nun-heh.

It has also evolved into a standalone.

Karen said: There were many Yiddish names and nicknames that are
indigenous to specific areas. Yehuda became Yudel, Yisrael became
Srul. Chuna is probably one of these cases.

Naomi said: I had an uncle who perished in the holocaust His name was
Chuna,and my mother called him, in Hebrew, Chanan. (like ch in
Chanuka).

Judianne said: Though Chuna is not a common name, it is definitely a
Hebrew name. I am acquainted with 2 gentlemen with this name. It is
sometimes pronounced Chona, the "o" pronounced as the "o" in torn. It
is not a nickname.

Leah said: CHUNA is a nickname for 2 main names: ELKANA or CHANAN.
Both are dealing with GOD. ELKANA means literally "God was angry but
with mercy" - but the idiom is taken >from the prayer "El kone
avon/rachamim" - meaning God is there listening and watching crimes
and mercy and tolerance.
The word CHANAN means literally - gave forgiveness in trial or jail,
meaning mainly for God who has mercy and can forgive us. The word is used in
Hebrew as a verb for a judge who gives a prisoner his freedom after an appeal
was given.

And Marion said:
I have recently discovered a relative named Chuna in the Yad VaShem
Pages of Testimony. When I read the full record, I found out that
his full Hebrew name was Elchanan. There is also a less-likely
chance that his name could have been Hanoch.
Hebrew and Yiddish nicknames often come >from the END of the name
rather than the beginning, like in English.

Thank you one and all!
Barbara Zimmer
Norfolk VA

My aunt Lena's birth name was Carolina, pronounced Caroleena. She was >from a
small village near Vienna.

Sally Goodman
Palm Springs/LA, CA

Researching:
ABELES Vienna, San Francisco; BROWN/GROSS Schenectady, NY; CARDOZO London,
Rochester, NYC; GOITMAN Kishinev, Tiraspol; HAYS Germany, Rochester, NYC;
KIRSCHBAUM Jaroslaw, Vienna; MANDELBERG Jaroslaw, Vienna, Berlin; MUHLSTEIN
Rzeszow, Vienna; NEUSPIEL, Nikolsburg, Moravia; Vienna & Hollabrunn Austria;
RESHOWER Austria, Germany, NYC; ROSENSTOCK Stryj, Rzeszow, Jaroslaw;
SELIGMAN Germany, Rochester, NYC; STEIN Stryj, Vienna.

Barbara Zimmer posted on the Galicia mailing list as follows:

"My uncle was Chuna (which I assume uses the CH as in Chanukah) but he
became Charles in the U.S. In this case it seems his new name was
simply based on the two letters at the beginning of his name, rather
than on the sound of the initial letters as in the original name.

I tried putting typing in Chuna on the left side of the input form
and received no hits. (The choices given are a bit bewildering....)

I received 54 possible responses for Charles and gave up after wading
through about half of them!

Is Chuna a nickname? If so, what name is it derived from?"


The name Chuna actually does appear on the Galicia Given Names Data Base,
along with the US secular name Charles as adopted by many immigrants.

< http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/GivenNames/ >

Your problem was that you were using a non-standard transliteration method
to render the Yiddish name Khune in English characters, obtaining
Chuna. CHUNA is the way the Yiddish name would be written using German
characters -- a method which was common some years ago in the US, but is
today considered to be non-standard. And CHUNA therefor does not appear in
the Yiddish nickname list on the GNDB, because it is not the proper
transliterated name.

In establishing a data base such as this one, it is simply not feasible to
include all of the dozens of methods which have been and are used to
transliterate Yiddish names into English characters. The GNDBs on
JewishGen use only the YIVO standard method, and that is the one you should
learn to use.

For those not familiar with this, a table is presented in the JewishGen web
site showing how this standard works.

If you will use the YIVO standard representation of the CHanuka CH
pronunciation, which is KH in YIVO, you will find the name for which you
are searching. But it is better for you to realize that the way _you_
spell names may not be standard or may indeed be otherwise incorrect, and
therefor you should compensate for this by also using the Daitch-Mokotoff
Soundex search (which is an option on the web site). This approach used
with your name CHUNA will give you the results you seek. Try it -- you'll
like it!

Incidentally, I tried searching for CHARLES on the right-hand input form,
and for Galicia, found only 40 "hits" (not 54, as you found), of which the
fourth item gave the result you want -- for the Hebrew name Elchanan. This
set of linked names includes Charles and Chune for the US adopted names,
showing that a number of Galician immigrants to the US adopted the
Anglicized name Chune, based on their Yiddish nickname Chune in Galicia.

Chag sameach,

Prof. G. L. Esterson, Ra'anana, Israel

Barbara Zimmer posted on the Galicia mailing list as follows:

"My uncle was Chuna (which I assume uses the CH as in Chanukah) but he
became Charles in the U.S. In this case it seems his new name was
simply based on the two letters at the beginning of his name, rather
than on the sound of the initial letters as in the original name.

I tried putting typing in Chuna on the left side of the input form
and received no hits. (The choices given are a bit bewildering....)

I received 54 possible responses for Charles and gave up after wading
through about half of them!

Is Chuna a nickname? If so, what name is it derived from?"


The name Chuna actually does appear on the Galicia Given Names Data Base,
along with the US secular name Charles as adopted by many immigrants.

< http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/GivenNames/ >

Your problem was that you were using a non-standard transliteration method
to render the Yiddish name Khune in English characters, obtaining
Chuna. CHUNA is the way the Yiddish name would be written using German
characters -- a method which was common some years ago in the US, but is
today considered to be non-standard. And CHUNA therefor does not appear in
the Yiddish nickname list on the GNDB, because it is not the proper
transliterated name.

In establishing a data base such as this one, it is simply not feasible to
include all of the dozens of methods which have been and are used to
transliterate Yiddish names into English characters. The GNDBs on
JewishGen use only the YIVO standard method, and that is the one you should
learn to use.

For those not familiar with this, a table is presented in the JewishGen web
site showing how this standard works.

If you will use the YIVO standard representation of the CHanuka CH
pronunciation, which is KH in YIVO, you will find the name for which you
are searching. But it is better for you to realize that the way _you_
spell names may not be standard or may indeed be otherwise incorrect, and
therefor you should compensate for this by also using the Daitch-Mokotoff
Soundex search (which is an option on the web site). This approach used
with your name CHUNA will give you the results you seek. Try it -- you'll
like it!

Incidentally, I tried searching for CHARLES on the right-hand input form,
and for Galicia, found only 40 "hits" (not 54, as you found), of which the
fourth item gave the result you want -- for the Hebrew name Elchanan. This
set of linked names includes Charles and Chune for the US adopted names,
showing that a number of Galician immigrants to the US adopted the
Anglicized name Chune, based on their Yiddish nickname Chune in Galicia.

Chag sameach,

Prof. G. L. Esterson, Ra'anana, Israel

Karol Schlosser wrote:

Hope someone out there can help. I came across two records on EIDB which
may be connected to me. The towns recorded are Lomsc and Lomra. Anyone
have a
clue where or what these towns may be? Can they be one and the same?
Also,
the only other clue I have of home town is Koniuszhow. I've been told
that this
can be one of two towns- one near Stryj and one near Brody. I think the
one
near Brody might be the right one. Could the other towns (Lomsc and
Lomra) be
near Koniuszhow? I can't find it on a map or Stetl finder.

Also, is anyone researching the name SCHWANBURD? If so, can you contact
me
directly? And can anyone who has experience checking on Death
certificates in
New York City also contact me directly? I have some questions they might
help
me with.

Karol,

I believe that town you are searching for is Lomna. Handwritten words
sometimes are playng the trick.
You are correct, there are two Lomna but location of towns is not near Stryj
and Brody.


1. Lomna #1 was located in Dobromil district Lwow Province. Following WWII
reshuffle of the borders between USSR and Poland, town is now located within
Polnad modern borders and is identify at 4938 2231, 25 km South of Przemysl.

Town prewar general population (1921 census) was 672 people. There is no
evidence (1929 Directory) that Jewish people have been residing there.

WOWW quotes Jewish population in this town at 235 which appears to be
incorrect.
This data should have been allocated to Lomna #2.

2. Lomna #2

This Lomna with all other territories located East of Bug River, following
WWII, have been given to Ukraine and town name was changed to Limna - see at
4915 2250.

Prior to WWII (1921 census) town was part of Turka district in Stanislawow
Province. Town general population (1921 census) was 1775 people and as 1929
Directory attests, Jews have been residing amongst them.
Town is located on the eastern slopes of the Beskid range, part of the
Carpathian Mountains

Those are Jewish names for Lomna #2 as per 1929 directory:

POZNAR, R - midwife
SONDMAN I and M - tailors
HIRT, O - baker ( Correct name should read: Hirth)
ARBEIT, I - general store
KESSLER, M- general store
SINGER, S- general store
TEICHMAN, M - general store
SZTARK, Chaim and SZTARK, M - butchers
RESPLER, S and SINGER, I - upholsterers
SUSS, H - tobaconeer
HIRTH, O - liquor store (tavern)
KAMPF, B - liquor store (tavern)

Our people residing in the shtetls alongside the east slopes of Carpathians
have been "transported" with the residents of Turka, Stary Sambor and Sambor
towns and nearby villages in a first days of August 1942 to Belzec death
camp.

There are no entries for Lomna in JGFF database.


Town Koniuszkow was part of Brody district, Tarnopol Province prior to WWII
Currently town name has been slightly modified and is known nowadays as
Konyushkov at 5008 2507 in Ukraine.

This message has been aslo forwarded to GG discussion group since
information about the towns is the subject of the general interest.

Alexander Sharon
Calgary, Ab, Canada

Chuna is generally a nickname for Elchanan.

Charles Hexter
Rehovot, Israel

I have been asked by Nadia Kahan of Yad Vashem to post the following message:

Joyce Field
jfield@...


I would like to avail myself of the opportunity to tell you and your
readers what has happened here in the three weeks since the launch,
and what they can expect >from Yad Vashem.

First of all I would like to thank all of you for the overwhelmingly
positive responses that we have received >from the more than 2.75
million visitors to the site.

For those of you who sent us comments or corrections through the
site: We are currently working our way through the backlog of
approximately 12,000 such queries. We appreciate your patience. I
am providing details and suggestions regarding some of the most
common categories of responses.

For those of you who have received responses which seem
unsatisfactory, feel free to contact us again. We are trying hard to
find a balance between the efficiency of standard answers, and the
need to examine each case individually. Many of our policies are
still being clarified and modified based on actual responses, and we
can only do this through your feedback. Also, as our staff becomes
more experienced we hope that fewer errors in judgment will occur.

If you have not managed to access the site we suggest trying again.
Many of the initial technical problems have been solved. We suggest
trying again. Appendix 1 includes a few suggestions for those still
experiencing technical difficulties.

Appendix 2 includes a few guidelines regarding corrections. These
are designed to help you in your submissions, and in your evaluation
of our responses.

After corrections, the most frequently asked questions are about
locating submitters. Unfortunately we rarely have information beyond
what can be found on the Pages of Testimony. Appendix 3 includes
guidelines which you may find helpful.

The other type of comment which we are pleased to receive, is that an
individual who appears in the database survived. See Appendix 4 for
various possibilities.

If you discover overlapping records pertaining to the same individual
such as two different Pages of Testimony, or the person's name in a
list and on a Page of Testimony, we will make a note of it so that we
can link the records at some point in the future.

When dealing with Pages of Testimony this is rare, but in the case of
material derived >from archival lists, this is to be expected. While
all the archival lists in the database include mostly people who
perished, in some cases they include people we know survived, and in
this case the fact that they survived is noted in the database. In
cases of individuals >from lists where we do not know their fate (even
though we know that statistically, most of those in the list
perished), the people in the list are not marked as people who were
murdered in the Holocaust . (See, for instance, the records >from the
census of the Lodz ghetto.) Not all individuals who were deported--

from Drancy, for example--were subsequently murdered. If someone is

not marked as a survivor and you know that they in fact survived, we
want to know about it these cases, so we can, in fact, note this in
the database. We can note that the individual is a survivor, but will
ask for documentation, such as a copy of an identity card or
passport, to verify it.

The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names is a work in progress,
and the product of cooperation between the public and Yad Vashem. We
continue to welcome your corrections, comments, photographs, and new
Pages of Testimony, even if there may be a delay in our replies.

With best wishes for a Happy Hanukah,

Nadia Kahan
Director of Reference and Information Services
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Appendix 1 - Technical Suggestions

At times, the database has been hard to access because it was
overloaded. This is no longer happening. If you have tried getting
into the database a few times at different hours and failed, we
suggest you check the following points:

-Do you have a version of Explorer above 5.5?

-If you have a firewall, at times turning it off will allow access to
the database.

-If you have protection against pop-up ads, canceling this protection
will allow access to the database.

-It is not always possible to access the database with Apple computers


Appendix 2 - Corrections

Yes we want them!

Submit corrections through the "correct our deciphering form" >from
the individual Page of Testimony, on the "more details" page". It
saves time and confusion in identifying the Page in question.

If the Page of Testimony is correct, and we agree that the
information was keyed in improperly, we will correct it. If we
disagree, we will tell you that we disagree.

Note that it will be several months before these corrections appear
in the online database, which is only updated periodically.

If the mistake is on the Page of Testimony and not in our
transcription, we cannot alter the Page of Testimony which is in and
of itself a piece of archival documentation. We suggest submitting a
new Page of Testimony.

In the case of a minor mistake on a Page of Testimony, which you
yourself submitted, we will alter it as per your specific
instructions.


Appendix 3 - Finding Submitters

Yad Vashem's goal and mandate in collecting Pages of Testimony and
developing the Central Database was to commemorate the victims of the
Shoah. Reconnecting family members is a secondary function.
Unfortunately, we rarely have information on whether the submitter of
a Page of Testimony is still alive, nor on how to contact them today.

To locate a person's current address in Israel:

1. Look for them in the online Israel phone book
http://www.144.bezek.com/. The site is in Hebrew. Stephen Morse at
http://stevemorse.org/hebrew/bezeq.html has created a utility which
allows non-Hebrew speakers to use the Bezeq site.

2. Call or write the Israeli Ministry of Interior.
oc_info@.... 972-2-6294666. Generally, the information they
can give is the person's current address, or whether the person is
deceased. The more you know about the person, the more likely they
are to be able to supply you with information. This service is
limited to one request per day.

3. Use the various services on the JewishGen website
www.jewishgen.org. Note that there are many different services on
this website, some of which require registration.

4. Use the service being developed by the Israel Genealogical
Society [IGS]. By sending full information to: "Rose Feldman"
rosef@... who will post it to www.isragen.org.il. In
"Projects" on the side bar, there is a category called "Searching for
Submitters of Pages of Testimony in Israel".

5. If you know Hebrew, send a letter to the family roots
(Shorashim Mishpachtiyim) forum on the Tapuz website
http://www.tapuz.co.il/tapuzforum/main/anashim.asp?forum=325&pass=1

For survivors outside of Israel there are local and online phone
books, as well as various Internet services such as Yahoo's People
Search http://people.yahoo.com.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum maintains a registry of
Holocaust survivors. http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/registry,
which includes survivors primarily, but not exclusively, >from North
America.

The Yad Vashem Archives and Library include extensive offline,
information about survivors, but few of the records go beyond the
year 1954. As such, the submitter's information on the Pages of
Testimony, is usually more recent than what we are likely to find for
you at Yad Vashem. However, you are welcome to contact us. There is
a fee for the research and it may take us up to two months to
respond. You are also welcome to come to the reading room, where our
staff can help you to research the matter yourself.

We hope that you will find this information helpful, and that you
will succeed in contacting your family members.

Appendix 4 Individuals who survived who appear in the database.

When dealing with Pages of Testimony this is rare. Verify that the
details, such as parents' names, spouse's name, and approximate dates
of birth match before contacting us.

In the case of material derived >from archival lists this is to be expected.

All the archival lists in the database include mostly individuals who
perished, but in some cases they include people we know survived, and
in this case the fact that they survived is noted in the database.

If someone is not marked as a survivor and you know that they were,
please tell us so that it can be noted in the database. In order to
maintain the integrity of the database, we require documentation,
such as a copy of an identity card or passport, to verify that the
individual indeed survived.

Karol Schlosser wrote:

Hope someone out there can help. I came across two records on EIDB which
may be connected to me. The towns recorded are Lomsc and Lomra. Anyone
have a
clue where or what these towns may be? Can they be one and the same?
Also,
the only other clue I have of home town is Koniuszhow. I've been told
that this
can be one of two towns- one near Stryj and one near Brody. I think the
one
near Brody might be the right one. Could the other towns (Lomsc and
Lomra) be
near Koniuszhow? I can't find it on a map or Stetl finder.

Also, is anyone researching the name SCHWANBURD? If so, can you contact
me
directly? And can anyone who has experience checking on Death
certificates in
New York City also contact me directly? I have some questions they might
help
me with.

Karol,

I believe that town you are searching for is Lomna. Handwritten words
sometimes are playng the trick.
You are correct, there are two Lomna but location of towns is not near Stryj
and Brody.


1. Lomna #1 was located in Dobromil district Lwow Province. Following WWII
reshuffle of the borders between USSR and Poland, town is now located within
Polnad modern borders and is identify at 4938 2231, 25 km South of Przemysl.

Town prewar general population (1921 census) was 672 people. There is no
evidence (1929 Directory) that Jewish people have been residing there.

WOWW quotes Jewish population in this town at 235 which appears to be
incorrect.
This data should have been allocated to Lomna #2.

2. Lomna #2

This Lomna with all other territories located East of Bug River, following
WWII, have been given to Ukraine and town name was changed to Limna - see at
4915 2250.

Prior to WWII (1921 census) town was part of Turka district in Stanislawow
Province. Town general population (1921 census) was 1775 people and as 1929
Directory attests, Jews have been residing amongst them.
Town is located on the eastern slopes of the Beskid range, part of the
Carpathian Mountains

Those are Jewish names for Lomna #2 as per 1929 directory:

POZNAR, R - midwife
SONDMAN I and M - tailors
HIRT, O - baker ( Correct name should read: Hirth)
ARBEIT, I - general store
KESSLER, M- general store
SINGER, S- general store
TEICHMAN, M - general store
SZTARK, Chaim and SZTARK, M - butchers
RESPLER, S and SINGER, I - upholsterers
SUSS, H - tobaconeer
HIRTH, O - liquor store (tavern)
KAMPF, B - liquor store (tavern)

Our people residing in the shtetls alongside the east slopes of Carpathians
have been "transported" with the residents of Turka, Stary Sambor and Sambor
towns and nearby villages in a first days of August 1942 to Belzec death
camp.

There are no entries for Lomna in JGFF database.


Town Koniuszkow was part of Brody district, Tarnopol Province prior to WWII
Currently town name has been slightly modified and is known nowadays as
Konyushkov at 5008 2507 in Ukraine.

This message has been aslo forwarded to GG discussion group since
information about the towns is the subject of the general interest.

Alexander Sharon
Calgary, Ab, Canada

Chuna is generally a nickname for Elchanan.

Charles Hexter
Rehovot, Israel

I have been asked by Nadia Kahan of Yad Vashem to post the following message:

Joyce Field
jfield@...


I would like to avail myself of the opportunity to tell you and your
readers what has happened here in the three weeks since the launch,
and what they can expect >from Yad Vashem.

First of all I would like to thank all of you for the overwhelmingly
positive responses that we have received >from the more than 2.75
million visitors to the site.

For those of you who sent us comments or corrections through the
site: We are currently working our way through the backlog of
approximately 12,000 such queries. We appreciate your patience. I
am providing details and suggestions regarding some of the most
common categories of responses.

For those of you who have received responses which seem
unsatisfactory, feel free to contact us again. We are trying hard to
find a balance between the efficiency of standard answers, and the
need to examine each case individually. Many of our policies are
still being clarified and modified based on actual responses, and we
can only do this through your feedback. Also, as our staff becomes
more experienced we hope that fewer errors in judgment will occur.

If you have not managed to access the site we suggest trying again.
Many of the initial technical problems have been solved. We suggest
trying again. Appendix 1 includes a few suggestions for those still
experiencing technical difficulties.

Appendix 2 includes a few guidelines regarding corrections. These
are designed to help you in your submissions, and in your evaluation
of our responses.

After corrections, the most frequently asked questions are about
locating submitters. Unfortunately we rarely have information beyond
what can be found on the Pages of Testimony. Appendix 3 includes
guidelines which you may find helpful.

The other type of comment which we are pleased to receive, is that an
individual who appears in the database survived. See Appendix 4 for
various possibilities.

If you discover overlapping records pertaining to the same individual
such as two different Pages of Testimony, or the person's name in a
list and on a Page of Testimony, we will make a note of it so that we
can link the records at some point in the future.

When dealing with Pages of Testimony this is rare, but in the case of
material derived >from archival lists, this is to be expected. While
all the archival lists in the database include mostly people who
perished, in some cases they include people we know survived, and in
this case the fact that they survived is noted in the database. In
cases of individuals >from lists where we do not know their fate (even
though we know that statistically, most of those in the list
perished), the people in the list are not marked as people who were
murdered in the Holocaust . (See, for instance, the records >from the
census of the Lodz ghetto.) Not all individuals who were deported--

from Drancy, for example--were subsequently murdered. If someone is

not marked as a survivor and you know that they in fact survived, we
want to know about it these cases, so we can, in fact, note this in
the database. We can note that the individual is a survivor, but will
ask for documentation, such as a copy of an identity card or
passport, to verify it.

The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names is a work in progress,
and the product of cooperation between the public and Yad Vashem. We
continue to welcome your corrections, comments, photographs, and new
Pages of Testimony, even if there may be a delay in our replies.

With best wishes for a Happy Hanukah,

Nadia Kahan
Director of Reference and Information Services
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Appendix 1 - Technical Suggestions

At times, the database has been hard to access because it was
overloaded. This is no longer happening. If you have tried getting
into the database a few times at different hours and failed, we
suggest you check the following points:

-Do you have a version of Explorer above 5.5?

-If you have a firewall, at times turning it off will allow access to
the database.

-If you have protection against pop-up ads, canceling this protection
will allow access to the database.

-It is not always possible to access the database with Apple computers


Appendix 2 - Corrections

Yes we want them!

Submit corrections through the "correct our deciphering form" >from
the individual Page of Testimony, on the "more details" page". It
saves time and confusion in identifying the Page in question.

If the Page of Testimony is correct, and we agree that the
information was keyed in improperly, we will correct it. If we
disagree, we will tell you that we disagree.

Note that it will be several months before these corrections appear
in the online database, which is only updated periodically.

If the mistake is on the Page of Testimony and not in our
transcription, we cannot alter the Page of Testimony which is in and
of itself a piece of archival documentation. We suggest submitting a
new Page of Testimony.

In the case of a minor mistake on a Page of Testimony, which you
yourself submitted, we will alter it as per your specific
instructions.


Appendix 3 - Finding Submitters

Yad Vashem's goal and mandate in collecting Pages of Testimony and
developing the Central Database was to commemorate the victims of the
Shoah. Reconnecting family members is a secondary function.
Unfortunately, we rarely have information on whether the submitter of
a Page of Testimony is still alive, nor on how to contact them today.

To locate a person's current address in Israel:

1. Look for them in the online Israel phone book
http://www.144.bezek.com/. The site is in Hebrew. Stephen Morse at
http://stevemorse.org/hebrew/bezeq.html has created a utility which
allows non-Hebrew speakers to use the Bezeq site.

2. Call or write the Israeli Ministry of Interior.
oc_info@.... 972-2-6294666. Generally, the information they
can give is the person's current address, or whether the person is
deceased. The more you know about the person, the more likely they
are to be able to supply you with information. This service is
limited to one request per day.

3. Use the various services on the JewishGen website
www.jewishgen.org. Note that there are many different services on
this website, some of which require registration.

4. Use the service being developed by the Israel Genealogical
Society [IGS]. By sending full information to: "Rose Feldman"
rosef@... who will post it to www.isragen.org.il. In
"Projects" on the side bar, there is a category called "Searching for
Submitters of Pages of Testimony in Israel".

5. If you know Hebrew, send a letter to the family roots
(Shorashim Mishpachtiyim) forum on the Tapuz website
http://www.tapuz.co.il/tapuzforum/main/anashim.asp?forum=325&pass=1

For survivors outside of Israel there are local and online phone
books, as well as various Internet services such as Yahoo's People
Search http://people.yahoo.com.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum maintains a registry of
Holocaust survivors. http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/registry,
which includes survivors primarily, but not exclusively, >from North
America.

The Yad Vashem Archives and Library include extensive offline,
information about survivors, but few of the records go beyond the
year 1954. As such, the submitter's information on the Pages of
Testimony, is usually more recent than what we are likely to find for
you at Yad Vashem. However, you are welcome to contact us. There is
a fee for the research and it may take us up to two months to
respond. You are also welcome to come to the reading room, where our
staff can help you to research the matter yourself.

We hope that you will find this information helpful, and that you
will succeed in contacting your family members.

Appendix 4 Individuals who survived who appear in the database.

When dealing with Pages of Testimony this is rare. Verify that the
details, such as parents' names, spouse's name, and approximate dates
of birth match before contacting us.

In the case of material derived >from archival lists this is to be expected.

All the archival lists in the database include mostly individuals who
perished, but in some cases they include people we know survived, and
in this case the fact that they survived is noted in the database.

If someone is not marked as a survivor and you know that they were,
please tell us so that it can be noted in the database. In order to
maintain the integrity of the database, we require documentation,
such as a copy of an identity card or passport, to verify that the
individual indeed survived.