JewishGen's Memorial Plaques Database Expands to Become JewishGen's Memorials & Plaques Database #JewishGenUpdates
JewishGen’s Memorial Plaques Database (https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Memorial/) was set up to accumulate indexed memorial plaques and yizkor lists from synagogues. Once accumulated, the records and photos were searchable directly from the link above or through JewishGen’s Unified Search (https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/all/).
As Coordinator for the JOWBR and Holocaust Database, I realized that there are memorials and monuments that contain a combination of names, dates, and places for which there was no obvious home within the existing JewishGen database structure. For example, cemeteries have Holocaust memorials with victims’ names but those names aren’t included in JOWBR because the individuals are not buried there, nor are they in the Holocaust Database because the amount of data was small. In addition, synagogues, towns, and other institutions have memorial plaques for those that either fought or died for their country during the World Wars or other conflicts.
Therefore, JewishGen has decided to expand the Memorial Plaques Database to include all of these and other types of plaques/memorials and rename the database, “JewishGen’s Memorials & Plaques Database”. Data sets will now include, but not be limited to, synagogue memorial plaques, yizkor lists, congregation memorials, founding member and officer plaques, war memorials and rolls of honor, Holocaust memorials, deportation memorials, memorials from local conflicts, etc.
2022’s year-end update will include tens of thousands of records from memorials and plaques under the database’s expanded definition. If you ‘d like to see a listing of all the data sets within the Memorials and Plaques Database, see https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Memorial/tree/MemList.htm
If you’re aware of any memorials or plaques from your home town or if you should have photos from memorials in ancestral towns that can be enlarged to read the names and other information, please forward your material to me so we can add the information into our database.
Nolan Altman
Director of Data Acquisition and Coordinator of Holocaust Database, JOWBR (Burial Registry), and Memorial Plaques Project