Date
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Speaker/Topic
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December 8, 2019 |
Annual Meeting
Election of Officers and Trustees
and
Dr. Sean Martin shared highlights of his sabbatical
in Poland.
Dr. Martin taught as a Visiting Professor in the Institute
of History at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, during the spring
2019 semester. He taught in a special, English-language program within the
Institute, Studies in Central and Eastern Europe: Histories, Cultures and
Societies. He taught twentieth century Central and Eastern European survey
courses, with a focus on Jewish history. During his stay in Krakow he also
spent time doing research on Polish Jewish history and re-acquainting himself
with Kazimierz, the city's Jewish neighborhood. Martin told us about
Jewish studies and Jewish life in Poland today and about his travels throughout
the country and region.
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November 17, 2019
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Kirsten Fermaglich
Author of "A Rosenberg by Any Other Name"
&
Associate Professor of History, Michigan State University.
Two sessions co-sponsored by the Jewish Genealogy
Society of Cleveland (JGSC,The Laura & Alvin Siegal Lifelong Learning Program
of Case Western Reserve University, and the JCC Jewish Book Festival.
Session 1: 1:30-2:30 p.m.
TOO LONG, TOO FOREIGN....TOO JEWISH?: RISE OF JEWISH NAME CHANGING IN NEW
YORK CITY BETWEEN THE WARS
We tend to think of name changing as something that only
immigrants do—or perhaps movie stars—hoping to escape their families and
find their way in a glamorous, rich New World. But beginning in World War
I and intensifying during World War II, thousands of native-born American
Jews in New York City changed their names together as family units. Why
would these ordinary Jewish Americans seeking jobs not as actors or singers,
but as businessmen, lawyers, and secretaries change their names? We discussed
their motivations, their experiences, and their struggles.
Session 2: 3:00-4:00 p.m.
I CHANGED MY NAME: CULTURAL DEBATES OVER NAME CHANGING AFTER WORLD WAR II
How did leaders in the Jewish community respond to name
changing? How did Jewish comedians, writers, and directors respond? How
did name changers' neighbors and co-workers respond? We talked about
negative responses from Jewish leaders after World War II, who tended to
assume that name changers were trying to escape the Jewish community. Quietly
challenging these negative images, however, were the voices of Jewish name
changers who continued to describe themselves as Jews, explaining they changed
their names so that their Jewish identities would not impede their ability
to get through daily life.
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October 2, 2019
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Getting Our Records Back
Brooke Schreier Ganz
Our guest speaker, Brooke Schreier Ganz,
founder and president of Reclaim the Records, provided an update on her
efforts leading Reclaim the Records, a not-for-profit group that
files Freedom of Information requests to get public data released back into
the public. Their goal is to get these record sets put online for free,
open to everyone. And if the government doesn’t comply, they take them to
court. To date, they have been successful in reclaiming over 25 million
records. She reported Learn about the work of Reclaim the Records, including their
most recent success stories and what is on their “To-Do” list.
Brooke Schreier Ganz is the first genealogist to
successfully sue a government archive for the return of records to the public.
A computer programmer, she is also the creator of LeafSeek, a free open
source records management platform and multi-lingual search engine that
won second place in the 2012 RootsTech Developer Challenge. Her work has
helped non-profit organizations like the Israel Genealogical Research Association
(IGRA) and Gesher Galicia publish over 1.5 million unique genealogical records
online for free use. She also designed and built one of the first public
API’s for records sharing between non-profit genealogical organizations.
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September 4, 2019
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Report on the 2019 IAJGS conference in Cleveland
Ken Bravo gave a report on the attendance and some of the programs at
the conference. He was followed by Robin Selinger, Feige Stern, and Jaime
Klausner, who each had not previously attended an IAJGS conference. They
each spoke about their experiences and what they considered to be highlights
of the event.
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August 7, 2019
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Genealogy Activities You Can Do With Your Kids
and Grandkids
Sunny Jane Morton
The best way to TELL family history often involves SHOWING it. In her
presentation, Sunny Morton shared experiences that have inspired her own
kids' interest in history and their family's place in it. These included
activities that teach younger generations the value of their OWN stories;
thoughts about finding the right "hook" for each person; how to tell a good
short story (with an emphasis on SHORT); and hands on experiences that fire
historical imaginations young and old.
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July 28, 219
through
August 2, 2019
|
IAJGS 2019
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies
39th International Conference on Jewish Genealogy
Hosted by The Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland
Over 1,000 attendees, exhibitors, volunteers, guests, and others, were
hosted by the JGS of Cleveland at the annual IAJGS conference, held
at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown. The attendees came to Cleveland from 16
countries on 5 continents, and those from the USA represented 36 states
plus the District of Columbia.
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July 10, 2019
|
A Town Called Brzostek
A Documentary Introduced by Russ Maurer
|
The program consisted of a screening of the award-winning
documentary, “A Town Called Brzostek.”
This documentary is a compelling tale of a professor from London
who goes looking for his Jewish past In Poland and how a reconciliation
takes place that reverberates around the world.
This one-hour film, which won awards for its beauty
and sensitivity at two Jewish film festivals in eastern Europe,
presented the story of Professor Jonathan Webber, who returns to
the place of burial of his grandfather.
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Upon his arrival, he learns that a vacant plot of
land is the only remnant of the former Jewish cemetery. With the
help of the mayor, priest and local community, the main protagonist
restores the burial site and brings about its consecration. It also
includes the interesting stories of three different families with
roots in Brzostek—from Australia, France and the United States—who
returned to Brzostek for the commemoration ceremonies.
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June 19 & 24, 2019
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My Parents Were Holocaust Survivors and There Are No Records...
In conjunction with the Kol Israel Foundation, we conducted a two-part
beginner genealogy workshop geared to Second and Third Generation Holocaust
descendants who know very little about their fa mily history.
Topics covered included:
- Learning how to get started
- Locating ship manifests
- naturalization records
- Explore key websites and International Tracing Service (ITS)
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June 5, 2019
|
The Temple Archives—A Valuable Resource for Genealogists
Jane Rothstein, Archivist for the Temple-Tifereth Israel
Jane Rothstein is used to hearing genealogical questions
like “was my ancestor a member?” and she generally answers by saying “maybe.”
The Temple-Tifereth Israel Archives are a relatively untapped treasure for
exploring Cleveland Jewish history and genealogy. Holdings include records
from the congregation’s founding in 1850 through the congregation’s growth
under Rabbi Moses J. Gries and Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, and on to the present.
Jane provided an overview of the Archives’ collection and discussed the
type of records genealogists may find especially interesting.
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May 15, 2019
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How Jewish Ancestry Impacts Genetics
Sarah Mazzola and Megan Quinlan, two board-certified genetic counselors
with the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Personalized Genetic Healthcare provided
a general overview of common conditions in individuals with Jewish ancestry
such as Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome due to BRCA mutations.
They also provided helpful information for those who are considering meeting
with a genetic counselor, and what to expect from genetic testing.
Sarah's presentation focused on non-cancer related inheritable disorders
such as Gaucher, and also touched on prenatal risk screening. Megan shared
information related to inherited cancer risk in the Eastern European Jewish
population.
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April 3, 2019
|
Tracing Our Ancestral European Roots—A Panel Discussion
Five members of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland
shared their journeys to ancestral villages in Europe in conjunction with
last year’s IAJGS Conference in Warsaw. Helen and Paul Wolf, Muriel Weber,
Anne Lukas, and Henny Lukas Fierman have all gone to great lengths to trace
their families' ancestral roots and identify unknown, missing and lost relatives
over many years, if not decades. They reveaedl some of the twists and turns
in the road that led to some amazing discoveries—not to mention a few surprises.
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March 3, 2019
|
Peter J. Haas
Abba Hillel Silver Professor Emeritus
Case western Reserve University
The Clubs: What Excelsior and Oakwood
tell us about Jewish Life in Cleveland
In 1872 about two dozen Jewish business men, excluded from
other clubs in Cleveland, met to form their own social club. The result
was the Excelsior Club which hosted Jewish high society life in Cleveland
for the next nearly 60 years. Due to changing social, demographic and financial
factors, the Excelsior Club voted in 1930 to end its separate existence
and to merge into the newer suburban Jewish club, Oakwood. This Oakwood
Club continued to be an important part of the Cleveland Jewish community
until it was dissolved in 2010 and its membership combined with Mayfield
Sand Ridge Country Club.
This talk focused on the social history of our community
from the character, trajectories and experiences of these two institutions.
It also focused on how these clubs throw light on larger trends that were
shaping North American Jewry.
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February 3, 2019
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Russ Maurer, JGSC Trustee
Spoke on
The Latest and Greatest in Litvak Records
the Vilnius Household Registers
Russ Maurer, who coordinates the household register
project for LitvakSIG, recounted the events that led to the introduction
of household registration to Vilnius in 1919. He explained how household
registration worked, information which provides the background necessary
to understand these records and the unique insights they can provide
into one's family over the inter-war years. The presentation was
illustrated with specific examples.
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January 6, 2019
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The business meeting included Installation
of our Officers and Board for 2019 and a drawing of prizes for early
payment of dues for 2019, followed by our speaker,
Amy
Wachs, Immediate Past President, Jewish Genealogy Society of
Cleveland
OUR EASTERN EUROPEAN ROOTS: WE ARE WHAT OUR ANCESTORS ATE
Amy described what family recipes can tell you about
your ancestors’ places of origin and life in the shtetls of Eastern
Europe.
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December 2, 2018
|
ANNUAL MEETING - Election of Officers
and
Report on the 2018 IAJGS conference in Warsaw.
The meeting began with Annual Reports by President, Sylvia Abrams, and
Treasurer, Marilyn Baskin, the annual election of officers and trustees,
and a report by Marlene Englander and Paul Wolf describing our new website.
Following the business meeting, Speakers Marlene Englander, Sean Martin,
Anne Lukas, and Ken Bravo reported on the 38th Conference of the International
Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies which was held in Warsaw, Poland
in August. The panel shared conference sessions and experiences, and discussed
the upcoming 39th conference, which will be in downtown Cleveland from July
28 through August 2, 2019.
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November 11, 2018
|
|
Lara
Diamond, President, Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland
Session 1/DNA 101: How to Use Genetic Testing for Genealogical
Research
Recent scientific advances in genetic sequencing
allow consumers to test their own DNA in a quick and non-invasive
process. In this lecture, Lara Diamond explained how you can leverage
such tests to assist in your genealogical research. She discussed
the various sorts of tests available (including autosomal, yDNA
and mtDNA) and explains the types of genealogical questions each
one can help to answer. She also explained how each company presents
results, the strategies for transferring results from one company
to others, and how to use them to assist in your genealogical research.
Session 2/Sorting Out Distant Cousins From Close Family:
Genetic Testing in Cases of Endogamy
Genetic genealogy is particularly daunting for those
whose forebears come from endogamous populations (such as Ashkenazi
Jews, native Hawaiians and Cajuns, who have married in a closed
group for generations). The work of identifying actual relatives
from the mass of genetic distantly-related family can be frustrating.
Drawing on case studies, this lecture explained how you can have
success in such a situation. For Lara Diamond, this work has led
to reunification with many relatives, including a family branch
thought to have been killed in the Holocaust.
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October 10, 2018
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Patricia Edmonson
Curator of Costumes and Textiles
Cleveland History Center of the Western Reserve Historical Society
The Way We Were: What Photos Tell Us
Ms. Edmonson provided valuable tips to understanding
and preserving family photos (1870’s- 1920’s) plus
- Creating a photographic family tree
- Using clues from clothing and hair styles to date images
- How to organize and store archival materials properly
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September 20, 2018
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Introduction to JEWISHGEN.ORG
an interactive workshop for members
Led by Russ Maurer
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September 5, 2018
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Mark Jamba, DVM
What Killed Grandma: Dissecting Death Certificates
Before the introduction of antibiotics and certain
vaccines there were common illnesses that were often life-threatening
and could be found handwritten on death certificates.
Understandably, it would become challenging for
family genealogy researchers to comprehend fully what were common
causes of death in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Veterinarian Mark Jamba helped demystify historical
medical terminology in his lighthearted presentation, as he explained
the common causes of death dating back more than a century ago with
emphasis on understanding the impact that sickness had on our ancestors
and history. His presentation covered each of the major organ systems
with the necessary scientific terminology broken down into prefix,
root and suffix to further comprehension. Fourteen infectious diseases
that often killed our ancestors were introduced and for each the
cause, transmission, diagnosis and treatment was highlighted.
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Sunday
August 5, 2018
|
Judy Cetina
FIELD TRIP to the
Cuyahoga County Archives
3951 Perkins Avenue
Cleveland
We had a guided tour of the Cuyahoga County Archives now
located in the former Halle Brothers warehouse at 3951 Perkins Avenue, Cleveland.
The Archives encourages the use and scholarly research of
all County records and makes staff assistance available for that purpose.
This was an opportunity for members and guests to learn
about the holdings and resources available to the general public as well
as research policies and procedures.
Time was available for questions and responses from archivist
Judy Cetina and members of her staff.
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July 11, 2018
|
Harry Brown
Partner - Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP
Creating an Ethical Will
There is an old Jewish custom whereby a parent writes not
one, but two wills. The first is a conventional or disposition will to pass
on material possessions. The second, equally or even more important, is
an ethical will. The ethical will states the values in which the parents
want the children to subscribe. Attorney Harry Brown shared examples of
ethical wills and how they are prepared in contemplation of death to create
something of meaning that will live on after we are gone, providing a sense
of completion for our lives.
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June 21, 2018
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Introduction to ANCESTRY.COM
an interactive workshop for members
Led by Murray Davis
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June 6, 2018
|
Betsie Norris
Founder and Executive Director of the Adoption Network Cleveland
and Mark Elliott
Accessing Adoption Records
Betsie Norris spoke about current laws regarding adoption
records in Ohio and other states, including the movement to open previously
closed birth records to adult adoptees. In addition, she also addressed
how DNA testing can help reunite adult adoptees with their birth families.
Mark Elliott, who was adopted at the age of 2-1/2 from Bellefaire, shared
his journey to a successful reunion with his biological family members.
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May 2, 2018
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Sunny Morton
Comparing the Genealogy Giants
Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com
These genealogy giants all provide international audiences
with tools and records for researching family trees online. But which should
you use? We learned why we should be familiar with all four sites; subscription
and free access options; and how they compare for historical record content
(including records for Jewish research), family trees and DNA tools, and
we were told about insider tips on each site’s best features—and cautions
or challenges for working with each.
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April 11, 2018
|
Sylvia Abrams, President, Jewish Genealogy Society of
Cleveland,
Ken Bravo, President, International Association of
Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS), and
Chuck Lissauer, Past President, Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland
LOCAL EXPERTS SHARE PERSONAL BREAKTHROUGHS AND “AHA MOMENTS”
The speakers shared valuable techniques that led them to
experience “aha moments” in researching their own ancestors, and revealed
insights from years of examining marriage records, census documents and
school yearbooks to enhance family research. Each cited specific examples
of breakthroughs they had made and invited questions from the audience on
how to get the most value out of their investigative research. Tips from
“how to” video clips on census records, marriage documents and school yearbooks
were also featured courtesy of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island,
New York.
Sylvia Abrams discussed marriage record information that
can further family research. Ken Bravo provided tips on making the most
of federal census reports. Chuck Lissauer spoke about examining school yearbooks
as a source of useful information for genealogists.
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March 4, 2018
|
Matthew Skvasik
Innovation Programming Specialist
Cuyahoga County Public Library
The Memory Lab at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Library
Branch
An Asset for Genealogy Research
Matthew Skvasik explained the equipment, capabilities and
software that can be used for free in the library’s lab to digitize and
preserve family photographs, artifacts and other items.
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February 4, 2018
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Mitchell Balk
President, Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation
Whither Jewish Hospitals - the Mt. Sinai Legacy
Mitchell Balk discussed the history of Jewish-sponsored
hospitals in the United States, with a focus on Cleveland’s Mt. Sinai Medical
Center, In his presentation, he explained how the medical institution has
had a lasting impact on the community through the grantmaking Foundation
formed from its sale in 1996 and the people who fondly remember the history
of the hospital.
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January 7, 2018
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Ken Bravo, and Richard Spector
Installation of Officers
and
Learn how to “Break down Brick Walls”
A panel of experts, past presidents of the Jewish Genealogy
Society of Cleveland, gave advice on how to break through a brick wall while
researching your family tree. They shared research strategies and examples
of how they have found missing ancestors.
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For lists of earlier programs and speakers, click on the
ARCHIVE tab on the menu bar at the top of the page.
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