Dear JewishGen Community,

Earlier today, we were honored to learn that JewishGen’s JOWBR project (which stands for the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry) was the recipient of the IAJGS “Outstanding Resource” Award. JOWBR is a project with a long name, but one that has tremendous impact.

Under the tireless and devoted leadership of Nolan Altman, JOWBR (this very week) has now surpassed 4.1 million records in total. A truly remarkable accomplishment which is a testament to Nolan and his entire team of volunteers who have devoted so much of themselves toward this important project.

JOWBR is not an Ashkenazic database, nor is it a Sephardic database - it is a Jewish database. Our goal is to create one centralized location whereby people can search Jewish burial records from around the world. And to date, we have collected information from more than 9,000 cemeteries in more than 135 countries. 

So what can you do? 

First, use the database! Visit https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/ and search through our collection. A complete listing of all cemeteries included in the database can be accessed here: https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/tree/CemList.htm 

Second, share this information with family, friends and leadership of Jewish institutions and schools and synagogues. Let them know that JOWBR is a treasure trove available to them at no cost (as with everything at JewishGen).

And finally, get involved!  Either as an individual or as a member of your Jewish genealogical society, YOU can make an impact. You can join our team of volunteers who are spread around the world, and who are contributing towards this project. To learn more about volunteering, and what’s involved with submitting cemetery information, please visit: https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/Submit.htm

We thank IAJGS for this award, and wish a Mazal Tov to Nolan Altman and his team upon this wonderful recognition of their work.

Avraham Groll

Executive Director

JewishGen.org

Tried to reply directly to Adam Turner, but even after logging in, could not find a Reply button (from my Thunderbird email system). In any case, John Myerson's death certificate indicates he was buried by the now defunct Lewis Funeral Home. Some of those records are  held by the Jewish Museum of Maryland (formerly the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland). Adam might try contacting Joanna Church of the Museum (cc-ed above) to see if Myerson's record (Dec. 30, 1917) is there. If it is, it might contain the data that he would otherwise get from the tombstone. 

Jeff Knisbacher, Bradenton, FL (formerly Baltimore)

Dear JewishGen Community,

Earlier today, we were thrilled to learn that our colleague and friend, Nolan Altman, has been named the recipient of the 2021 IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Assuming leadership from Joyce Field upon her retirement, Nolan has worked tirelessly to build up JOWBR (the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry), the Holocaust Database, and the Memorial Plaques Database. Because of his efforts, along with many volunteers that he has recruited, overseen, and engaged, JOWBR has now surpassed the 4.1 million mark, the Holocaust Database has now surpassed the 3.6 million mark, and the (newer) Memorial Plaques Database has surpassed 205k records.

Alongside his "usual” JewishGen responsibilities, Nolan has also played a significant role in crafting strategic goals and initiatives, and constantly volunteers his time and effort towards promoting JewishGen to the broader community. And in that context, it should also be noted that Nolan has held significant leadership roles on both the IAJGS and local society levels, including his own JGS of Long Island.

Nolan represents the values of JewishGen so well, and we are proud that he joins many of his current/past JewishGen colleagues as a recipient of this award.

On behalf of the entire JewishGen team, please join me in wishing him a warm Mazal Tov!

Avraham Groll

Executive Director

JewishGen.org

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Southern Nevada (JGSSN) invites you to a Zoom meeting at 1:00 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) on Sunday, August 15: "History and Geography – Tools for Eastern European Research” with Amy Wachs.

 To request a Zoom link, please complete this short form: https://forms.gle/jM5cJnx9KiUFvWKJ9 which can also be found on our Meetings webpage: https://www.jgssn.org/meetings.html

 Members of JGSSN can attend for free.  Non-members can either pay $5.00 on the Donate page at https://www.jgssn.org/donate.html.   Or you can pay $20 for a subscription to the 2021 series of outstanding speakers (see below).  More details can be found at https://www.jgssn.org/meetings.html.  To become a member and sign up for the 2021 series, go to the Membership page at https://www.jgssn.org/membership.html.

Session Description:

Researching our Eastern European ancestry remains challenging in many countries, where missing records may lead to frustrating “brick walls”. This presentation will offer guidance for using the region’s historical events and geography to help fill in gaps and move past brick walls to determine place of ancestry, trace migration, and identify ancestors.

About Amy Wachs:

Amy Wachs has been involved in Jewish genealogy for over 30 years.   She is Past President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland and served on the Board of LitvakSIG, Inc. from 2014 through 2020.  Amy is a retired attorney and university instructor.  She taught law in Latvia as a Fulbright Scholar and in Moldova as a Fulbright Senior Specialist.   Amy often speaks about Eastern Europe and Jewish genealogy topics at conferences and to local audiences.

JGSSN 2021 Lecture Series:

Become a member for $20 and attend any or all of the upcoming lectures - https://www.jgssn.org/membership.html:

Ben Kempner

Vice President, JGSSN

Manhattan State Hospital was always located on Wards Island in Manhattan.

I used to work there. It was later changed to Manhattan Psychiatric Center.

Gary Gershfield

• Argentina – the AGJA submitted approximately 2,900 new records and 5,300 photos from 14 different existing and new JOWBR cemeteries, the majority from Buenos Aires.
• Belarus – approximately 7,700 records, mostly from Chesed Shel Emet, the largest set from Vitebsk.
• Canada – 7,600 records and 11,200 photos from new and existing cemeteries submitted primarily from the JGS of Montreal and the JGS of Toronto.
• Czech Republic – approximately 2,000 records and 1,600 photos from 8 new and updated cemeteries, the largest set from Bzenec.
• England – 2,800 records and 2,300 photos from 16 new and updated cemeteries, the majority of which are from Hazelrigg and London from the JCR-UK.
• Lebanon – 3,200 records from Ras El Nabba Cemetery in Beirut from the Jeff Malka Collection.
• Netherlands – added 105,800 mostly new records and burial permits from Amsterdam and Mulderberg submitted by Akevoth.
• Romania –approximately 2,200 new records from 37 mostly new cemeteries.
• Russia – added 7,400 records from 30 new and 5 updated Russian cemeteries, the largest sets from Perm and Saratov. 
• Ukraine – 71,400 records from 19 new and 4 updated cemeteries, submitted largely by Chesed Shel Emet, the largest sets from Odessa, Dontetsk, and Belaya Tserkov.
• United States - approximately 27,600 new records and 33,300 photos for 97 new and 63 updated cemeteries. Significant additions came from the Lasky Collection, JGS of Georgia, JGS of Greater Boston, and a number of dedicated individual volunteers and representatives of synagogues and historical societies.

• French Deportees
• German Towns (Peter W. Landé, Allison Zhang and Liliya Meyerovich / US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
• Italian DP Camps (Mina Mauerstein-Bail)
• LaManche Shoah Victims
• Norwegian Deportees (Kristian Ottosen)
• Traunstein, Germany Displaced Persons (DP) Camp Records (Peter W. Landé, Allison Zhang and Liliya Meyerovich / US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
• Ubès Camp Forced Labor

• Auschwitz Medical Test Victims (Jessica Skippon)
• Bucharest Pogrom Victims - January 22-23, 1941
• Romanian Returning Survivors (Sandy Malek / Maramures Records Indexing Project of JewishGen’s Hungarian Research Division)
• Rovno, Poland Community Fee Contributions - 1939
• Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely), Romania Students and Teachers Deported to Auschwitz 1944 (Professor John Hoenig and Andrei Grunfeld)
• The Lados List - Jews Saved by Aleksander Ładoś, Polish Envoy in Bern (The Pilecki Institute)

• 1941 Egyptian Directory
• Bulgarian Partisans
• Crete, Florinam and Volos Victims
• Deported to Bergen-Belsen
• French Deportees and Victims
• Monastir Jews in Treblinka
• Prominent Egyptian Jews
• Tunisian Camp Victims

• Ioannina, Greece Holocaust Victims (Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulous / Museum Director -Kehila Kedosha Janina Museum)
• Jewish Children Attending the Umberto School in Thessaloniki, Greece Between the Wars
• Rhodes and Cos Deportees (Aron Hasson of the Rhodes Jewish Historical Foundation)
• Salonika Victims (Heinz D. S. Kounto & Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulous / Museum Director -Kehila Kedosha Janina Museum)

• USC Shoah Foundation – Holocaust Survivor Testimonies (USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive®)
• Haitian Jews Nationalized in Absentia (“Haiti’s Jewish History” by Joseph Bernard, Jr.)
• Mirer Yeshiva Students
• Palestine Certificates (Professor John Hoenig)
• The Breman Oral Histories (Peggy Mosinger Freedman & Jeremy Katz / William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum)

Is there data available on birth and marriage certificates. looking for marriage of Philip Sperber and Halina Horowicz marriage approx 1931