Archaeologists and historians from the History Association of Poland found a Jewish treasure trove when excavating of an old castle in Nowy Sacz known as Tzanz.   They found silverware, cups, knives, forks and other items.  The valuables were apparently buried there during the course of World War II.

Prior to exhibition in the local museum the items will be further investigated.

See: https://vosizneias.com/2020/06/16/holocaust-era-jewish-artefacts-discovered-in-tzanz/

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

In mid-June 1940 Hitler’s forces were days from completing victory over France. Paris fell on June 14 and a week later an armistice was signed.  Portugal's diplomatic corps was under strict instruction from the right-wing Salazar dictatorship that visas should be issued to refugee Jews and stateless people only with express permission from Lisbon.  For those thronging Bordeaux's streets hoping to cross into Spain and escape Nazi persecution there was no time to wait.

Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954) was Portugal’s consul in Bordeaux during World War ll. He supplied Jews with visas that permitted them to escape from advancing German forces. His decision to save the Jews’ lives cost him his diplomatic career under Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar. The foreign ministry in Lisbon began sending cablegrams to Bordeaux, ordering him to desist, amid reports from colleagues that he had "lost his senses".

Spanish authorities declared his visas invalid, but thousands had already made it across the Bidasoa river into Spain's Basque region.

Among those who escaped occupied France due to Salazar’s visas include surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, filmmaker King Vidor, members of the Rothschild banking family and the majority of Belgium's future government-in-exile.

The rest of his life was spent in penury.

The Consul had a friendship with Rabbi Chaim Kruger who fled the Nazis from his home in Belgium. Consul Sousa Mendes offered the rabbi and his immediate family safe passage across the Spanish border. Kruger refused the offer, as he could not abandon the thousands of other Jewish refugees in Bordeaux. After days of contemplation, according to Menes’ son. “he strode out of his bedroom, flung open the door to the chancellery, and announced in a loud voice: 'From now on I'm giving everyone visas. There will be no more nationalities, races or religions'."

Estimates of number of transit visas allowing refugees to pass from France into Spain and travel on to Portugal range between 10,000-30,000. On June 9 Parliament’s parliament decided for a monument with his name in the National Pantheon.

In 1966 Yad Vashem recognized him as Righteous Among the Nations.

In 1988 Portuguese parliament posthumously withdraws disciplinary charges against him

Now the Portugal has recognized him.

To read more see: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53006790

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

Jewish Genealogy Society of Toronto. Exclusive free MyHeritage webinar on Thursday June 18 at 10 am EST. 

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto is proud to present MyHeritage Genealogy Expert, Daniel Horowitz, in a series of exclusive free genealogical webinars on Thursdays @ 10 am EST.

Thu, Jun 18 @ 10 a.m. EST. MyHeritage's Unique Technologies to Research Your Family EST by Daniel Horowitz

An advance review of new features and technologies on MyHeritage, the online family history service. Take full advantage of MyHeritage's unmatched technologies to help you find long-lost relatives. The tree Consistency Checker, PedigreeMap, Theory of Family Relativity, Calendar and Events, Statistics, Pedigree Tree, Charts, Relationship Report, Surveys, and more.

Registration URL: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8276308103702788879

To register for this and other MyHeritage webinars, go to

https://1drv.ms/w/s!Aj0KbYtxFZQsg7p02wIzT9ap35faiw?e=mKjFgG

JSTOR, the digital library for genealogists and others has expanded its free online reading program until the end of 2020.

JSTOR has access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.

You can read 100 free articles online every month without institutional affiliation. You need to create a JSTOR account.  To register you only need to provide your email address and password

Go to: https://www.jstor.org

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

On behalf of the IAJGS Board and our current membership, it is with great pleasure that we welcome 3 new members to our growing family of IAJGS organizations:

            Jewish Genealogical Society of New Zealand

            Sociedad Genealogica Judia Colombiana (SGJC)

            Upper Valley Jewish Genealogy Society (New Hampshire)

Below is some basic information on each group including contact email addresses and upcoming meeting plans.

Jewish Genealogical Society of New Zealand

The JGS of New Zealand has been organizing and meeting since last year.  Meetings were held in person, but due to the Covad-19 virus, the last membership meeting was held via the internet.  Although meetings are for members only, they gladly welcome first-time visitors without requiring them to be members.  Since the group serves the entire country, membership meetings are always accessible to members via Internet access. For more information about the group, please contact the group’s Secretary, Kerry Aluf at jewish.genealogical.society.nz@...

The next membership meeting is scheduled for 23 August from 3 PM to 5 PM, New Zealand time. As the date gets closer, the group will decide if the meeting will be held via the internet, as it did for its last meeting, or in person.  The agenda for their next meeting will be a presentation by one of their members of their own family research, followed by a short question and answer session; a video presentation of DNA testing as it relates to Jewish genealogy (part two), followed by a discussion; and finally, presentation of information of general interest.

Sociedad Genealogica Judia Colombiana (SGJC)

The Sociedad Genealogica Judia Colombiana (SGJC), which has been meeting since February, is an affiliate of the Confederacion de Comunidades Judias de Colombia in Bogota.  They are working on their upcoming schedule of virtual meetings.  Already in the works are 2 Sunny Morton presentations that will be translated into Spanish.  The topics will be "Comparing the 4 Genealogy Giants" and "Digging for Historical Records on FamilySearch".

For more information about the group, please contact President Lia Sragovicz at Lsragovicz@... or genealogiajudiacolombia@...

Upper Valley Jewish Genealogy Society (New Hampshire)

The Upper Valley Jewish Genealogy Society (New Hampshire) will continue to hold meetings next month via Zoom.  Their next meeting is scheduled for Sunday, July 12th at 1:15 EDT.

Starting at 1:15 PM, representatives from the group will go over group business and host an informal discussion of their members' latest discoveries and questions before the featured speaker’s presentation at 2:00 PM. The presentation will be given by Ruth Craig, one of the group’s members and a certified genealogist. Her topic is "An Introduction to the Resources of Family Search." The presentation is designed for people who are not familiar with the website or would like to brush up on the resources and tools available on the site. Since this will be a Zoom meeting, the group requests RSVPs by July 10th. 

To register for this meeting or for more information on the group itself, please contact President Marilyn Roberts at thefarb14@...

The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) was formed in 1988 as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.  IAJGS is an umbrella group of organizations which provides a common voice for issues of significance to its members, to advocate for and educate about our genealogical avocation, and to coordinate items such as the annual International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  For more information on IAJGS, please see our website at http://www.iajgs.org/blog/ or contact me directly at membership@...

Nolan Altman

Membership Development

Even if the names on someone else’s tree match up perfectly with mine, I always take the extra time to review their sources to make sure the data is also correct.   In fact, today I came across this exact scenario;  by double checking the sources, I found the correct marriage record with bride’s parents’ names.  The owner of the tree, husband of a newly-found fourth cousin three times removed,  assumed that the couple  married in one place since they both came from there; never make assumptions!!

Sharon F. Yampell

Voorhees, NJ USA

GenealogicalGenie@...