JewishGen.org Discussion Group FAQs
What is the JewishGen.org Discussion Group?
The JewishGen.org Discussion Group unites thousands of Jewish genealogical researchers worldwide as they research their family history, search for relatives, and share information, ideas, methods, tips, techniques, and resources. The JewishGen.org Discussion Group makes it easy, quick, and fun, to connect with others around the world.
Is it Secure?
Yes. JewishGen is using a state of the art platform with the most contemporary security standards. JewishGen will never share member information with third parties.
How is the New JewishGen.org Discussion Group better than the old one?
Our old Discussion List platform was woefully antiquated. Among its many challenges: it was not secure, it required messages to be sent in Plain Text, did not support accented characters or languages other than English, could not display links or images, and had archives that were not mobile-friendly.
This new platform that JewishGen is using is a scalable, and sustainable solution, and allows us to engage with JewishGen members throughout the world. It offers a simple and intuitive interface for both members and moderators, more powerful tools, and more secure archives (which are easily accessible on mobile devices, and which also block out personal email addresses to the public).
I am a JewishGen member, why do I have to create a separate account for the Discussion Group?
As we continue to modernize our platform, we are trying to ensure that everything meets contemporary security standards. In the future, we plan hope to have one single sign-in page.
I like how the current lists work. Will I still be able to send/receive emails of posts (and/or digests)?
Yes. In terms of functionality, the group will operate the same for people who like to participate with email. People can still send a message to an email address (in this case, main@groups.JewishGen.org), and receive a daily digest of postings, or individual emails. In addition, Members can also receive a daily summary of topics, and then choose which topics they would like to read about it. However, in addition to email, there is the additional functionality of being able to read/post messages utilizing our online forum (https://groups.jewishgen.org).
Does this new system require plain-text?
No.
Can I post images, accented characters, different colors/font sizes, non-latin characters?
Yes.
Can I categorize a message? For example, if my message is related to Polish, or Ukraine research, can I indicate as such?
Yes! Our new platform allows members to use “Hashtags.” Messages can then be sorted, and searched, based upon how they are categorized. Another advantage is that members can “mute” any conversations they are not interested in, by simply indicating they are not interested in a particular “hashtag.”
Will all posts be archived?
Yes.
Can I still search though old messages?
Yes. All the messages are accessible and searchable going back to 1998.
What if I have questions or need assistance using the new Group?
Send your questions to: support@JewishGen.org
How do I access the Group’s webpage?
Follow this link: https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main
So just to be sure - this new group will allow us to post from our mobile phones, includes images, accented characters, and non-latin characters, and does not require plain text?
Correct!
Will there be any ads or annoying pop-ups?
No.
Will the current guidelines change?
Yes. While posts will be moderated to ensure civility, and that there is nothing posted that is inappropriate (or completely unrelated to genealogy), we will be trying to create an online community of people who regulate themselves, much as they do (very successfully) on Jewish Genealogy Portal on Facebook.
What are the new guidelines?
There are just a few simple rules & guidelines to follow, which you can read here:https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main/guidelines
Thank you in advance for contributing to this amazing online community!
If you have any questions, or suggestions, please email support@JewishGen.org.
Sincerely,
The JewishGen.org Team
|
Harvard Yiddish Theater Collection
#announcements
JG members might be interested in viewing a fine online exhibition of materials in the Harvard Yiddish Theater Collection that is currently freely available online at the following link:
https://library.harvard.edu/collections/harvard-yiddish-theater-collections Here's the website's own description of what is included: "In its heyday, you could find professional Yiddish theater companies throughout Eastern and Central Europe, in major cities like Berlin, London, Paris, Buenos Aires and New York City, and on tour through innumerable small towns. Yiddish actors, directors, designers and producers often crossed into theater work in other languages, making Yiddish theater a global conduit for theatrical ideas and techniques. At the heart of the Harvard Yiddish Theater Collection are unique archival collections documenting the lives and works of some of the most renowned practitioners of Yiddish Theater:
The Joseph Buloff Jewish Theater Archive documents 20th century Yiddish theater through the lives and works of legendary performers and married couple Joseph Buloff (1899-1985) and Luba Kadison Buloff (1906-2006).
The Pesach'ke Burstein and Lillian Lux Yiddish Theater Archive traces the careers and lives of Pesach Burstein (1896-1986) and Lillian Lux (1918-2005), as well as their son Michael Burstyn (b. 1945), who performed separately and as a family in Europe, the United States, South America and Israel for most of the 20th century.
The Seymour Rechtzeit Jewish Theater Collection contains papers, photographs and audio recordings of actors and singers Seymour Rechtzeit (1908-2002) and Miriam Kressyn (1910-1996). In addition to varied careers on the American Yiddish stage, Rechtzeit and Kressyn, who were husband and wife as well as artistic collaborators, were also prolific radio performers with long-running radio programs, such as The Forward Hour and Memories of the Yiddish Theater.
The Leo Fuchs Yiddish Theater Archive follows the life and career of Leo Fuchs (1911-1994), the “Yiddish Fred Astaire.” Fuchs career spanned Yiddish theater, Yiddish film, Broadway theater and Hollywood movies (including The Frisco Kid).
The Max Eisen Jewish Theater Collection provides insight into the business side of Yiddish theater in the United States. Max Eisen (1918-2009) worked as a theater press agent in New York from 1954-1996. Houghton Library [=Harvard's Rare Book Library] has Eisen’s papers from his work for Broadway and off-Broadway productions; the Eisen Jewish Theater Collection features his work on behalf of Yiddish theater productions.
The Yiddish Theater collection also includes scripts, programs and video recordings from the Yidishpil theater in Israel, as well as materials from contemporary Yiddish theater companies in the United States. There are also thousands of audio recordings and musical scores of Yiddish theater music. Many ephemeral publications produced for Yiddish theater around the world—programs, advertisements, posters—have been digitized and can be seen in HOLLIS [=Harvard's online library catalogue].
These primary sources are complemented by a comprehensive collection of scholarly books and articles examining the history and ongoing influence of the Yiddish theater."
-- Some 2,700 digitized images of flyers, posters, brochures, programs, and photographs can be viewed at HOLLIS Visual Collections "Yiddish Theater" Robert Murowchick <robertmurowchick AT gmail.com> Researching these family links:
|
|
|
|
Re: DNA results vs records
#dna
Adam Turner
Forgive the silly question, but it's worth clarifying, since some non-Jewish people do post here occasionally: the ancestors you're referring to in your father's family were Jewish, right? Because when you say "updated DNA results," that makes me think that what you're referring to is Ancestry's estimate of your ethnicity (which were just updated this week for many if not all customers), as opposed to your father's family's birthplaces or their nationality.
Ancestry now gets fairly granular at estimating ethnicity, for both Jewish and non-Jewish ethnicities. Within the "European Jewish" ethnicity there are are now six different sub-regions, which have substantial geographical overlap with one another and are organized into two different groups: three sub-regions in "Central and Eastern Europe," and three in "Western and Central Europe." (This latter group includes the sub-region I think you might be referring to here: "Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg." There are even more sub-regions listed for the non-Jewish "Germanic Europe" ethnicity. Here's the thing: the ethnicity estimates are not even close to a declaration of the specific geographical location where your family lived when they immigrated from Europe about 130 years ago. They are a broad and likely messy estimate of a population your ancestors were a part of, say, 400 to 1500 years ago. (Ancestry says: " your ethnicity estimate..shows you where your ancestors might have lived hundreds, or even a thousand years ago.") But people, especially Ashkenazi Jews, didn't stay in the same place for a thousand years! So just because AncestryDNA's estimate gives your ethnicity as "European Jewish-->Western and Central Europe--> Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg", that doesn't mean that your ancestors couldn't have lived in the Russian Empire around 1880. All it means is a substantial number of your ancestors in maybe 1300 or 1400 most likely came from a Jewish population in Central or Western Europe. They could definitely have moved east from what is now Germany into what became the Russian Empire over the intervening centuries. So where, exactly, did your ancestors live in the 19th century, and how might a family with ancestors who likely lived in Central Europe around the Middle Ages ended up listing "Russia" as their birthplace on their naturalization papers? An ethnicity estimate can't even begin to give you answers to those questions; only careful research can. Adam Turner
|
|
|
|
ViewMate translation request - Polish
#translation
#poland
ofer@...
I've posted a vital record in Polish for which I need a translation. This is the death certificate of my grandmother's lost sister who died in Lublin when they were living in Warszaw/ It is on ViewMate at the following address ... https://www.jewishgen.org/view Please respond via the form provided on the ViewMate image page. Thank you very much. Dr. Ofer Cornfeld
|
|
|
|
Re: Need photo of gravestone in old Jewish cemetery of Casale Monferrato in Italy
#photographs
I am a volunteer for Find A Grave, and photograph gravestones at my local cemeteries when there is a request. I have not done the reverse (someone please correct me if I am wrong), but I think you can create a memorial for the grave, and then request a photo. If there is a volunteer nearby, maybe they will take it.
-- Carl Kaplan KAPLAN Minsk, Belarus EDELSON, EDINBURG Kovno, Lithuania HOFFERT, BIENSTOCK< BIENENSTOCK Kolbuszowa, Galicia STEINBERG, KLINGER, WEISSBERG, APPELBERG Bukaczowce, Galicia
|
|
|
|
FW: Re: Zagradowka, Ukraine
#ukraine
Zagradowka was the Polish spelling. It's Заградівка (Zahrivka) in Ukrainian and Заградовка (Zagradovka) in Russian. Classified as a village (population 717 in 2001) in Vysokopolsky district (Высокопольском районе ru.)/Visokopilsky (Високопільського району ukr.). The district's administrative center is Vysokopillia (Высокополье in Russian and Високопілля in Ukrainian) population 15,015 (2017), some twelve miles/20 km to the east. The district's civil registry would be in this district center, with whatever official records (births, marriages, deaths etc.) remain from before the Soviet era (and surviving WWII), although surviving Jewish institutions in Zahrivka may have their own. You could get to Vysokopillia from Kherson by train, then most likely by bus to Zahrivka. Google Maps doesn't show any hotels in Vysokopillia, but shows two in Nikopol, a city of some 100 thousand population further east on the Dniepr River, fifty-something miles from your destination town. The address of the civil registry (ZAGS in Russian ): ЗАГС ул. Банковая, 1 пгт Высокополье Херсонская обл. 74000 UKRAINE
I don't know exactly how this looks in Ukrainian. Translation: ZAGS, 1 Bankovsky Street, town of Vysokopolye, Kherson Oblast, "zip code" 74000, Ukraine.
Telephone: +380 (05535) 2-14-74 (380 is Ukraine's country code; 05535 is the city ("area") code. If you can enlist a native speaker of Ukrainian or Russian, you could inquire by phone to see what they have, and if there are separate Jewish records in Zahrivka. They are eleven time zones ahead of us, but apparently don't have daylight savings, so it's ten hours ahead for now. I wasn't able to find their hours, but nine to noon and one to six should work.
Here is an email that may also work: dracs_visokopillya@... You might even be able to get somewhere with this in English.
-David Mason, Los Angeles
|
|
|
|
Ordering USCIS records for appeal/rehearing
I have a ship log (Umbria, arr. NY Feb. 19, 1906) for my great grandfather Shmuel Raskin, his wife, and 7 children, the youngest of whom is Wolf, age 4. In the last columns on the ship log for Wolf it says "Dr Certificate Idiot." On the Special Inquiry log, Shmuel and Wolf are deported, the others are admitted on appeal. Thanks to a great Boston JGSGB Zoom session I recently attended conducted by Marian Smith, I have found in indexes 2 index cards listing the appeal and rehearings. The first is headed "REHEARINGS, Jany-26-06" and lists "50,030-1 RASKIN family; Ch-Idiot-Sec 11". The second is headed "Appeals. New York (Feby-5-06)" and lists "50,030-1 RASKIN Schmuel & wf & 6-ch; Idiot-sec-11" (The dates in the headings are surely wrong - unless they are the starting date for each card's list? - because their ship didn't arrive until Feb. 19, 1906.)
My questions: 1) Is there likely to be any correspondence about this case? 2) If so, is 50,030-1 the index case number, in which case I can use it on a Genealogy Records Request USCIS Form G-1041A to see if there is any correspondence about this? or do I have to still submit a request to find the index case number? 3) What is Section 11? Judy Leiderman Kaufman Irvine, CA RASKIN (Chernigor)
SCHIMAYATZSKY(Chernigor) LEIDERMAN (Khashchuvatye)
|
|
|
|
Both Zablotow & Kolomyja are part of the region Galicia.
This region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until WW1, then it was part of Poland and now it is part of Ukrain. Both Gesher Galicua and JRI-Poland have indexed relevent records for thus region. Kherson is not part of the same region. Good luck, Daniella Alyagon
|
|
|
|
Re: Hebrew Translation for Tombstones
#translation
The first line is adapted from the book of Lamentations 3:48.
-- Madeleine Isenberg
madeleine.isenberg@...
Beverly Hills, CA
Researching: GOLDMAN, STEINER, LANGER, GLUECKSMAN, STOTTER in various parts of Galicia, Poland
(Nowy Targ, Nowy Sanz, Wachsmund, Dembno, Lapuszna, Krakow, Ochotnica) who migrated into Kezmarok or nearby towns in northern Slovakia and Czech Republic (i.e., those who lived/had businesses in Moravska Ostrava); GOLDSTEIN in Sena or Szina, Szkaros and Kosice, Slovakia; Tolcsva and Tokaj, Hungary.
|
|
|
|
Re: 🍎🍯 Shana Tova from JewishGen!🍎🍯
#JewishGenUpdates
Everyone else has pretty much covered all the bases so I wish you all a hearty - AMEN!
-- Madeleine Isenberg
madeleine.isenberg@...
Beverly Hills, CA
Researching: GOLDMAN, STEINER, LANGER, GLUECKSMAN, STOTTER in various parts of Galicia, Poland
(Nowy Targ, Nowy Sacz, Wachsmund, Dembno, Lapuszna, Krakow, Ochotnica) who migrated into Kezmarok or nearby towns in northern Slovakia and Czech Republic (i.e., those who lived/had businesses in Moravska Ostrava); GOLDSTEIN in Sena or Szina, Szkaros and Kosice, Slovakia; Tolcsva and Tokaj, Hungary.
|
|
|
|
Re: 🍎🍯 Shana Tova from JewishGen!🍎🍯
#JewishGenUpdates
Charles German
Greetings from Australia , Charles german 😀👍🇮🇱
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
Best Regards, Charles German M: 0438 332 232 PO BOX 120 MALVERN 3144 Tel/Fax: 9530 9465 E: charles@... Suite 6, 175 High Street Prahran, 3181
On 18 Sep 2020, at 7:47 am, Avraham Groll <agroll@...> wrote:
|
|
|
|
Re: 🍎🍯 Shana Tova from JewishGen!🍎🍯
#JewishGenUpdates
Wanda
Thank you and Shana Tova to you as well! Wanda
On Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 3:49 PM Avraham Groll <agroll@...> wrote: Wishing you all a Shana Tova, and a year filled with health, happiness, and only good things!
|
|
|
|
Re: DNA results vs records
#dna
Sally Bruckheimer
"We are talking about the late 1800s, so is this a geographic/historical thing, that country borders changed so much?"
Records of your family beat DNA every time. Much of what was Prussia became Poland, some Germany. In Napoleon's time, the Kingdom of Poland, roughly, was French, the Department of Warszaw. Where my ggrandparents lived was Prussian (New East Prussia), French, then Russian; later it was Poland, near Lithuania and Belarus, so they probably spoke some of all these languages. Their neighbors spoke them all. Even in Germany or Italy, people from one town couldn't understand people from another town, unless they were familiar with that language. Our ancestors knew Hebrew and Yiddish, and they spoke whatever languages were spoken around them, as they bought and sold, so they had to buy and sell in whatever language you spoke. If your ancestor did business with Englishmen, he spoke English My 2nd ggrandfather, actually my ggrandmother's foster father and probable uncle, was a translator for the NYC police department. He was from Sztettin, and spoke the usual bunch of languages, Polish, Russian, German, and dialects of them; Hebrew and Yiddish, of course, and he probably learned enough Italian to get by. Sally Bruckheimer Princeton, NJ
|
|
|
|
Shannah Tova
#JewishGenUpdates
Malka
Best wishes for a healthy, happy year and an end to the pandemic. שנה טובה וגמר חתימה טובה, Malka Chosnek from Texas
|
|
|
|
Re: 🍎🍯 Shana Tova from JewishGen!🍎🍯
#JewishGenUpdates
Deanna Levinsky <DEANNASMAC@...>
May G-d’s light and love shine on us through the coming year, bringing you all health, peace and joy
Deanna Levinsky and Zorro the cat -- Deanna Mandel Levinsky
-- Deanna M. Levinsky, Long Island, NY
|
|
|
|
Re: 🍎🍯 Shana Tova from JewishGen!🍎🍯
#JewishGenUpdates
Andrea Donohoe
Shana Tova 5781, I wish all of you a sweet New Year filled with happiness, good health and peace for all your friends and family!
On Thursday, September 17, 2020, 05:49:02 PM EDT, Avraham Groll <agroll@...> wrote:
Wishing you all a Shana Tova, and a year filled with health, happiness, and only good things!
|
|
|
|
Re: 🍎🍯 Shana Tova from JewishGen!🍎🍯
#JewishGenUpdates
Alfred Jacoby
Shana Tova to ALL my Jewish brothers and sisters. I was the first Jewish baby born in the heart of Nazi Germany after the second World War. The entire Jewish community celebrated my birth. G-d has been in my life. He saved my eye when a Nazi tried to polk it out when I was 5 years old. He saw that when I was in Vietnam that no harm would come to me. May all of you prosper, be in great health, have peace of mind and live until you are 100. My mother is approaching that age.
|
|
|
|
Viewmate translations requested
#translation
#lithuania
Hi! One passport was referenced as "German passport in file". That one is a little confusing, I think it's in Russian. The other two documents are in Polish. There's other documents, but I'm trying to use online translator tools for the rest.
|
|
|
|
marcia@...
Happy New Year! I am researching my paternal grandfather, Jacob Mack, who was born in Ostrog Wolyn, Russia on 9 November 1885. His father's name was Israel Mack, his mother was Annie Lichtenstein. How would I find his birth record, and possibly the marriage records of his parents? He emigrated to to Lynn, Massachusetts (in the US) in 1904. Thank you!
|
|
|
|
Re: 🍎🍯 Shana Tova from JewishGen!🍎🍯
#JewishGenUpdates
ryabinkym@...
And to you, zol mir zayn gezunt und shtark
On Sep 17, 2020 5:47 PM, Avraham Groll <agroll@...> wrote:
Wishing you all a Shana Tova, and a year filled with health, happiness, and only good things!
|
|
|
|
Re: 🍎🍯 Shana Tova from JewishGen!🍎🍯
#JewishGenUpdates
Yvonne Airey
And Shana Tova to you and all the wonderful people at JewishGen.Org who work so hard to get us all connected with our loved ones who have passed! May all your dreams come true this coming year. Yvonne.
On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 9:49 AM Avraham Groll <agroll@...> wrote: Wishing you all a Shana Tova, and a year filled with health, happiness, and only good things!
|
|
|
