JewishGen.org Discussion Group FAQs
What is the JewishGen.org Discussion Group?
The JewishGen.org Discussion Group unites thousands of Jewish genealogical researchers worldwide as they research their family history, search for relatives, and share information, ideas, methods, tips, techniques, and resources. The JewishGen.org Discussion Group makes it easy, quick, and fun, to connect with others around the world.
Is it Secure?
Yes. JewishGen is using a state of the art platform with the most contemporary security standards. JewishGen will never share member information with third parties.
How is the New JewishGen.org Discussion Group better than the old one?
Our old Discussion List platform was woefully antiquated. Among its many challenges: it was not secure, it required messages to be sent in Plain Text, did not support accented characters or languages other than English, could not display links or images, and had archives that were not mobile-friendly.
This new platform that JewishGen is using is a scalable, and sustainable solution, and allows us to engage with JewishGen members throughout the world. It offers a simple and intuitive interface for both members and moderators, more powerful tools, and more secure archives (which are easily accessible on mobile devices, and which also block out personal email addresses to the public).
I am a JewishGen member, why do I have to create a separate account for the Discussion Group?
As we continue to modernize our platform, we are trying to ensure that everything meets contemporary security standards. In the future, we plan hope to have one single sign-in page.
I like how the current lists work. Will I still be able to send/receive emails of posts (and/or digests)?
Yes. In terms of functionality, the group will operate the same for people who like to participate with email. People can still send a message to an email address (in this case, main@groups.JewishGen.org), and receive a daily digest of postings, or individual emails. In addition, Members can also receive a daily summary of topics, and then choose which topics they would like to read about it. However, in addition to email, there is the additional functionality of being able to read/post messages utilizing our online forum (https://groups.jewishgen.org).
Does this new system require plain-text?
No.
Can I post images, accented characters, different colors/font sizes, non-latin characters?
Yes.
Can I categorize a message? For example, if my message is related to Polish, or Ukraine research, can I indicate as such?
Yes! Our new platform allows members to use “Hashtags.” Messages can then be sorted, and searched, based upon how they are categorized. Another advantage is that members can “mute” any conversations they are not interested in, by simply indicating they are not interested in a particular “hashtag.”
Will all posts be archived?
Yes.
Can I still search though old messages?
Yes. All the messages are accessible and searchable going back to 1998.
What if I have questions or need assistance using the new Group?
Send your questions to: support@JewishGen.org
How do I access the Group’s webpage?
Follow this link: https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main
So just to be sure - this new group will allow us to post from our mobile phones, includes images, accented characters, and non-latin characters, and does not require plain text?
Correct!
Will there be any ads or annoying pop-ups?
No.
Will the current guidelines change?
Yes. While posts will be moderated to ensure civility, and that there is nothing posted that is inappropriate (or completely unrelated to genealogy), we will be trying to create an online community of people who regulate themselves, much as they do (very successfully) on Jewish Genealogy Portal on Facebook.
What are the new guidelines?
There are just a few simple rules & guidelines to follow, which you can read here:https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main/guidelines
Thank you in advance for contributing to this amazing online community!
If you have any questions, or suggestions, please email support@JewishGen.org.
Sincerely,
The JewishGen.org Team
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Why Did Jews Marry Christians?
#general
Cliff Karchmer
Hello. A colleague with a Jewish ancestor told me she heard that her Jewish grandmother from Lvov married a Christian (Russian Orthodox) to preserve wealthy family assets. Could that have been a legitimate reason for intermarriage in the 19th century? If so, what were the advantages that could compel a Jew to protect assets in such an extreme way? thanks for your advice. Feel free to reply to me directly: ckarchmer@...
Thanks,
Cliff Karchmer
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JewishGen Talks: What You Need to Know About Jewish Given Names
#JewishGenUpdates
Avraham Groll
We invite you to attend the next presentation in our series of JewishGen Talks webinars:
What Jewish Genealogists Need to Know about Jewish Given Names
Speaker: Dr. Sallyann Amdur Sack Tuesday, April 13, 2021 @ 2:00 PM Eastern Time
Registration is free with a suggested donation.
About the Talk
All genealogy research starts with names. Though that statement seems simple enough, in the world of our ancestors, names and the issues governing them, could be quite complex. Among other topics, this talk will cover how Jews got their names, what names were chosen, amuletic names, diminutives and spelling, and what happened to names after emigration from Eastern and Central Europe. A case study will demonstrate how understanding all of the above demolished a long-standing brick wall and carried the Amdur family tree back to the early 1700s.
About the Speaker
Founding chair of the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy; past president of IAJGS and recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award; editor and co-owner of AVOTAYNU the International Review of Jewish Genealogy; founder of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington, author or co-author of seven genealogy books; chair or co-chair of seven IAJGS conferences.
Registration is free with a suggested donation.
Please click here to register now! After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about how to join the webinar.
Questions?
Please click here.
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Re: Does DNA prove that Jews are a race?
#dna
"By Jewish law, tradition and practice, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew, whether their nearer relations lived in Ethiopia or China or Brooklyn or Aleppo. We are all one people (Yes, there are distinctions, divisions, biases and social advantages / disadvantages within the Jewish world but for our purposes I'm just addressing whether someone is or isn't a Jew.) “
Like everything else in this extended discussion, this is more slippery and less simple than it seems. Who decides what is Jewish law, tradition and practice? The complexity of this question is well-illustrated by some of the problems encountered by Ethiopian immigrants to Israel, who certainly saw themselves as Jews, but whose claims to this identity were rejected by state religious authorities in many cases. A good examination of this particular story (as well as a pretty wrenching personal narrative) is a documentary called “400 Miles” ( https://jfi.org/watch-online/jfi-on-demand/400-miles-to-freedom ).
Erika GottfriedTeaneck, New Jersey
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Yom Hashoah Global Commemoration
#education
#announcements
 Yom HaShoah 2021 Global Commemoration7 April 2021
The WE ARE HERE! Foundation and our partners HAMEC are proud to present a live streamed event for Yom HaShoah.
The “Yom HaShoah Global Commemoration,” features students and educators from nine schools in six countries - US, South Africa, Australia, Moldova, Bulgaria and Russia.
Holocaust survivors presenting testimony of experiences include Miriam Lichterman and HAMEC speakers Daniel Goldsmith and Ruth Hartz.
Students present their perspectives of what this legacy means to them!
We present the brand new recording of Zog Nit Keynmol in Yiddish from Sholem Aleichem College of Melbourne, Australia.
Special thanks to:
Jewish Partisans’ Educational Foundation, San Francisco, USA
World ORT, London, USA
The event will be available on YouTube from Thursday, April 8th at 11pm AEST, 9pm WST, 2pm in London, 9am EDT, and 6am PST.
Updated news of our Global Yom HaShoah program can also be found on our WE ARE HERE! Foundation website: https://wah.foundation/yom-hashoah/
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Susan&David
Sheryl: J is pronounced as Y, and W is pronounced as V.
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
This is on FamilySearch.org: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Poland_Languages Pronunciation Guidec = tsch,h = kh ć,cz,ci = ch ś,sz,si = sh ż,zi,rz = zh ą = om, on ę = em, en j = y dz = j ł = w w = v David Rosen Boston MA
On 4/7/2021 8:35 AM, Sheryl Prenzlau
wrote:
How would one pronounce Wajsman from old Polish records? Waxman or Weissman?
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Re: Does DNA prove that Jews are a race?
#dna
Sarah L Meyer
Even taking into consideration the fact that we are not a definable subspecies biologically - and neither are Blacks or Latino/as or Asians - a much kinder term than race, the DNA can't bring into consideration conversion INTO Judaism and the halachic considerations. So we have a AJ mother who marries a Jewish man who went through an Orthodox conversion (or vice-versa), their children are fully Jewish halachically but DNA will show only 50% AJ. Furthermore some of us are Sephardic or Mizrachi- but many of us do have some evidence in our DNA of something other than AJ. We are an ethnic minority - and while I answer caucasian for race, I do put Jewish for ethnicity.
-- Sarah L Meyer Georgetown TX ANK(I)ER, BIGOS, KARMELEK, PERLSTADT, STOKFISZ, SZPIL(T)BAUM, Poland BIRGARDOVSKY, EDELBERG, HITE (CHAIT), PERCHIK Russia (southern Ukraine) and some Latvia or Lithuania https://www.sarahsgenies.com
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Re: Genealogy in Belgium
#general
deborah.shindell@...
If you use https://www.openarch.nl/search.php?name=Bochner I see many Bochner names all listed in the Antwerp Foreign Register, born in Poland. Just click on the first name listed and then go through all the rest using the "Next Result" button. There are several Chaim (possibly Herman), and one Hermann death record listed (died in France).
-- Deborah Shindell |
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Odeda Zlotnick
Weissman
-- Odeda Zlotnick Jerusalem, Israel.
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Vienna Austria genealogist
#austria-czech
Lynn Weisberg
-- Does anyone know a genealogist in Vienna, Austria? I am searching for members of the Morgenstern and Zeiger family Lynn Weisberg Baltimore, Maryland
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Re: Birth record from The Netherlands
#records
sylvia@...
Neilan, on the website that Ron Peeters mentioned, it is stated that Birth records will only be added after 100 years. I could not find it yet. On this website (sorry, in Dutch) you can ask for a copy of the not yet published certificate. https://www.rotterdam.nl/loket/akte-van-de-burgerlijke-stand/ ] You are looking for a Geboorteakte. However, it is also possible that she is not registered at all, because she was born on a ship in transit. I mean, are you sure that somebody bothered to go to the Town Hall and register the baby? Good luck, Sylvia Stawski
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Re: Copying Hebrew text from a PDF into a Translation tool - OCR (Optical Character Recognition) Help Request
#general
meirr@...
Hi All,
Another solution: Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader (a free program) and under the "File" menu - "save as text" -- Meir Razy meir.razy@... Searching: Kisfajn / Sfard / Rothenberg / Ruttenberg / Rojtenberg in Rovno,Volhynia Ross in Dubno,Volhynia
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Re: Tomorrow's Forum for Dialogue Zoom: Krakow Holocaust Survivor Tells Her Story
#announcements
#holocaust
Mark Halpern
All those who were part of the Forum's program yesterday should have received a follow up email with links to many sites of interest to Janet Applefield's story. The part of that email is reproduced below.
On 2021-04-07 8:01 am, tony allan wrote:
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Mark Stone
For: Sheryl Prenzlau or anyone who is interested.
Wajman, maybe I am wrong without the s, is family, probably from Radom or Warsaw.
Any interest!
Mark Paul Stone (Lichtenstein)
P.S. I do not know the pronounciation!
From: main@... <main@...> On Behalf Of Sheryl Prenzlau
Sent: 07 April 2021 13:36 To: main@... Subject: [JewishGen.org] pronounciation of name #names #poland
How would one pronounce Wajsman from old Polish records? Waxman or Weissman?
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Sheryl Prenzlau
How would one pronounce Wajsman from old Polish records? Waxman or Weissman?
Thanks Sheryl Prenzlau
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Geographic references from 1945, near Mizoch, Warsaw, Treblinka.
#yizkorbooks
#warsaw
#poland
#ukraine
Laurence Broun
I am providing a map to accompany the translation of an essay in the Yizkor Book of Mizoch about the story of a partisan. Several of the geographic references are obscure, some being small hamlets, and others just too much of a leap to find on current Polish and Ukrainian maps from the translated Yiddish name. If anyone is familiar with these towns, hamlets, or neighborhoods, you help would be appreciated.
Larry (Itzik Leib) Broun Washington, DC | USA e-mail: Laurencebroun@...
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Re: Copying Hebrew text from a PDF into a Translation tool - OCR (Optical Character Recognition) Help Request
#general
de.ewenczyk@...
I think that Gary Binetter’s solution is a very practical solution. However, I tested it on my psalm book , with printed characters. The Hebrew is read with a medium accuracy of about 80%. This causes the translation to be very poor, almost illegible. Depending upon the original document quality, the result is unpredictable, but very much worth trying. If we are dealing with a manuscript, it’s a lost game. Daniel Ewenczyk
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Re: Tomorrow's Forum for Dialogue Zoom: Krakow Holocaust Survivor Tells Her Story
#announcements
#holocaust
tony allan
Fascinating talk but does anyone know the book that was mentioned.
Tony Allan
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cemetery photos
#photographs
#poland
hello everybody.i am planning a trip to poland.i want to volunteer by take photos from cemetery's.with who in Jewish gen I have to talk about it?
thanks a lot y.z.kinstlich kinstlich123@...
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Re: Seeking Norwegian birth record for Joseph Albert KOLIN
#records
nilsen52@...
I also tried to search in records of births in Flekkefjord and elsewhere in Norway, without any success for the name Kolin. I have also looked up the name Kolin in Oskar Mendelsohn's exhaustive two-volume compilation of Jewish history in Norway, where he mentioned and listed every known Jewish person who lived in Norway up to the dates of publication (1969 and 1986), and the name Kolin does not appear. This might indicate that he and his family used a different surname. Where did you get your information about his name and year and place of birth?
Regards, Shari Nilsen, Oslo
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Re: Seeking Norwegian birth record for Joseph Albert KOLIN
#records
rolf.mc@...
Hi,
I tried a search at the National Archive of Norway, but no success: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/search/persons?s=kolin Kind regards, Rolf Cohn, Oslo, Norway
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