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Past Programs - 2009
The following
programs and workshops were held in 2009; they are shown here so that
you may view the range of activities of JGSGW.
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| January |
Sunday, January 25, 2009 |
| Program: |
Dr. Edmund C.
Tramont, "The Plague and Genetics," and "The Influenza Pandemic of 1917-1918" |
| Location:
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B'nai Israel, Rockville, MD |
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Dr. Edmund C. Tramont
will devote much of his talk to recent research which indicates that an
unusually large percentage of Ashkenazi Jewish communities have (and in the
past had) genetic protection against the plague. He will also use part of
his time with us to address his previously announced subject of the
Influenza Pandemic of 1917 - 1918. The question and answer period will
provide an opportunity to explore both subjects with Dr. Tramont.
In discussing the fact
that the plague of the 13th to 17th centuries had less impact on Jewish
communities than on others, Dr. Tramont will tell us about new data showing
a genetic trait that strongly appears to have protected many European Jews
from the plague pandemics of those times. He will trace how this trait was
discovered (from research related to HIV infection), how it works, and how
it was recently connected to protection from the plague but found to
increase mortality from West Nile virus. He will also share his thoughts on
how this greater resistance to the plague might have influenced Jewish
history.
Dr. Tramont, a well known expert
on pandemics who was Director of the Division of AIDS at the National
Institutes of Health for many years, is now Associate
Director for Special Projects at the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, NIH.
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| February |
Sunday, February 8, 2009 |
| Program: |
Joan Nathan, "The Foods Our Ancestors
Ate" |
| Location:
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Adas
Israel, Washington, D.C. |
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We are pleased to announce
that Joan Nathan, the widely acclaimed expert on foods and cooking, including
Jewish foods, will speak to the JGSGW at our monthly meeting, 1:30 pm on
February 8, 2009 at Adas Israel Congregation, 2850 Quebec Street NW, in
Washington, D.C. Her topic will be "The Foods Our Ancestors Ate."
She is the author of ten
cookbooks and a regular contributor to The New York Times. Among the many
awards she has received for her writing, two of her books, Jewish Cooking in
America (in 1994) and The New American Cooking (in 2005) won both the
James Beard Award and an IACP/Julia Child Cookbook Award. Her other books
include Foods of Israel Today, Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook,
The Jewish Holiday Baker, The Children's Jewish Holiday Kitchen,
The Jewish Holiday Kitchen, and The Flavor of Jerusalem. She is
currently working on a new cookbook on the foods of the Jews of France.
A native of Providence, RI,
Ms. Nathan’s academic degrees include a master’s degree in French literature
from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in public administration
from Harvard University and an honorary degree from the Spertus Institute of
Jewish Culture in Chicago. She has worked for Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem
when she lived in Israel for three years. In 1974, while working for Mayor
Abraham Beame of New York City she co-founded the Ninth Avenue Food Festival.
The mother of three grown
children, Ms. Nathan lives in Washington, D.C. and Martha's Vineyard with her
husband, attorney Allan Gerson.
Fully detailed information
about Ms. Nathan’s accomplishments and her books may be found on her web site at
http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/nathan/index.html
Attendees are
requested to bring a family recipe, preferably one that has come down two or
more generations. Recipe should be typed to avoid mistakes in transcription.
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| March |
Sunday, March 15, 2009 |
| Workshop:
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Jonina Duker,
Leader, Beginner's Workshop |
| Location:
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B'nai Israel, Rockville, MD |
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Advance Registration is required.
No charge for JGSGW members. Non-members
wishing to participate in this workshop may join JGSGW
up until the day of the workshop and participate if
there is space available.
Enrollment is limited to 20. |
Jewish family history does not have to be a mystery. We and
our ancestors all leave a paper trail that can unravel the story of our
families for many
generations, across the ocean and into the smallest of shtetls.
Join us for our
free (to members) Beginner's Workshop
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A great start for the novice...
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Even if you have been a member of JGSGW for a while, a
great way to get back to the basics...
Jonina Duker is a
well-known Jewish genealogist and educator.
This will be a 2-hour session jam-packed with resources, helpful hints and
motivation. |
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| Program: |
Dr. Louis Blumen, "Jewish Medicine in
Medieval Times" |
| Location:
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B'nai Israel, Rockville, MD |
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On March 15, 2009, Dr.
Louis Blumen will speak to the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington on
Jewish Medicine in Medieval Times.
Dr. Blumen, a retired Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeon, is a graduate of Brown
University in Providence, RI. He received his M.D. degree from Tufts University
Medical School. He did his residency and further training in Cardiac and
Thoracic Surgery in Boston and went on to practice surgery for more than 50
years. In the course of his career Dr. Blumen held professorships at Harvard,
Tufts and the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Blumen, a member of the faculty of JSSA's Himmelfarb Mobile University,
speaks frequently on this and other topics, including the history of the
Sephardic communities of Newport, RI, and New Orleans, LA.
Dr. Blumen is a World War II veteran. He grew up and attended public school and
Hebrew school in Newport, RI. |
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| April |
Sunday, April 12, 2009 |
| Program: |
Special Program:
Steve Morse |
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Location:
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Tikvat
Israel, Rockville, MD |
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This double session promises to be twice as interesting.
Well-known developer of genealogy database search tools, Steve Morse will
provide us with not one but two programs:
1:15 PM: One-Step Webpages: A Hodgepodge of Lesser-Known Gems
This is a sequel to the Potpourri talk (read abstract on
Steve's website). There are too many utilities on the One-Step
website to be covered in a single talk, so many of them found their way to
the cutting room floor when the Potpourri talk was being edited. However
several of those are quite useful. This talk describes those gems that you
might not otherwise be aware of. They range from problems with genealogical
searches to problems with identity theft to problems with DNA.
2:30 PM: From DNA
to Genetic Genealogy: Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask
The study of genetics that started with Gregor Mendel's
pea experiments in 1865 has now entered the genealogy field with Megan
Smolenyak's coining of the term "genetealogy" in 2000. To understand the
genealogical aspects requires an understanding of some of the basic
concepts.
This talk introduces genes, chromosomes,
and DNA, and goes on to show how DNA is inherited. That knowledge of
inheritance can be used for finding relatives you didn't know you had,
learning about your very distant ancestors and the route they traveled, and
determining if you are a Jewish high priest (Kohan),
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| April |
Sunday, April 19, 2009 |
| Program: |
Constance Potter, "It’s
Called Research, not Data Retrieval: Searching for Records Online and
Off" |
| Time: |
1:30 PM -
Society business, introductions, and guest speaker |
| Location:
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Beth El, Alexandria,
VA |
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Constance Potter, an archivist at the National Archives in
Washington, DC, specializes in federal records of genealogical interest. She
speaks at national conferences and locally. She is also the contributing editor
to the “Genealogy Notes” section of Prologue.
Since Connie started working
in reference in 1986, she has noted that technology and access have changed, but
the records and researchers have not. With the advent of Ancestry, Footnote, and
Heritage Quest, researchers spend more and more time online; people think that
if it is not online, it does not exist. This lecture will explain some of NARA’s records that are not online, and how to use online sources to locate
those records.
Connie is not only extremely knowledgeable
about the records but she is also a very entertaining speaker. You certainly
don’t want to miss this meeting. |
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| May |
Sunday, May 17, 2009 |
| Workshop: |
Discussion with Dr. Mark Ozer about his recently published book, "The
Litvak Legacy."
This
workshop is open to all JGSGW members without charge;
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| Time: |
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM |
| Location:
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B'nai Israel, Rockville, MD |
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Dr. Ozer's book
will be available for purchase at the workshop and Dr. Ozer will
be available to autograph your copies, whether bought at the
workshop or previously. The workshop and Dr. Ozer's book is
of great interest - - not only to the Litvaks among us but to
all of us who are interested in learning more about the cultures
our forebears created before they emigrated to the United States
and how our inherited culture has affected the lives we lead
every day.
Dr. Ozer is a
descendant of Litvaks and a native of Boston who trained in
modern European History as a Harvard undergraduate. He
has practiced and taught medicine in Washington, DC, for many
years. Since his retirement from a noteworthy career as a
professor of Neurology, he has written and lectured extensively
on the history of cities throughout the world. He resolved to
write his book on Litvak history when he visited the Ponar
forest site of the Nazi murder of tens of thousand of Litvaks.
The resulting book is the product of the extensive research and
analysis he has undertaken since that visit to Lithuania.
Dr. Ozer’s
thesis is that there is a distinctive Litvak cultural heritage
that can be traced through the maintenance of that culture
through the several generations and the significant impact it
has had on the countries in which the immigrants settled. You
will get a better understanding of these roots as
he discusses his deeply researched findings published in
The Litvak Legacy.
As members of JGSGW know, the Jewish
inhabitants of Lita were called ‘Litvaks’ (Litvakes in Yiddish),
to distinguish them from non-Jewish Lithuanians as well as from
other Jews. In their European home, they formed a distinct
culture that differed in its variant of their language of
Yiddish as well as the character of their religion. The
characteristic Litvak intellectual strand was expressed in the
flowering of secular literary and historical studies that
partook of the intensity previously devoted to the sacred
writings.
The Great Migration from Lita occurred in the
period of the latter third of the 19th century and in the 20th
century prior to the First World War, but extended through World
War II. Even beyond the Holocaust/Shoah, the few
survivors continued to bear witness to its memory.
In his book, Dr. Ozer first presents his
history of the distinctive characteristics of the culture the
Litvaks created in Eastern Europe during the 19th and early 20th
century. He then addresses how Litvaks brought their culture
with them as they emigrated in large numbers to English speaking
countries such as the US, England and South Africa and to
Israel.
Our President Jeff Miller and program chair
Harris Weinstein will moderate the discussion with Dr. Ozer. Please email
your questions and comments in advance of the workshop,
and they will undertake to collate the questions and provide
them to Dr. Ozer for his consideration prior to the workshop.
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| Program: |
Professor Daniel Schwartz, GWU, "The
Ghetto in Jewish History and Memory" |
| Time: |
1:30 PM -
Society business, introductions, and guest speaker |
| Location:
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B'nai Israel, Rockville, MD |
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Daniel
Schwartz, Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Judaic Studies
Program of George Washington University, will speak to the JGSGW on "The
First Secular Jew? - - Spinoza and the History of an Image."
Professor Schwartz is an expert on Spinoza
- - the famous and heretical 17th Century Jewish philosopher. His talk is
taken from his book of the same title, which is under contract with Princeton
University Press. His prior works on Spinoza include his Ph. D. thesis at
Columbia University, which was entitled "The Spinoza Image in Jewish
Culture," a study of the shifting perception of Spinoza in the modern Jewish
mind.
In addition to producing a documentary
reader bringing together various responses to Spinoza in modern Jewish
thought and literature, Professor Schwartz is presently working on an
article on the relationship between Haskalah and Kabbalah and a new study on
the ghetto in Jewish history and Jewish memory.
Professor Schwartz's teaching interests
include the History of Modern Israel, Jewish Intellectuals and History and
Historians.
He received two master's degrees from
Columbia in addition to his doctorate. His summa cum laude
undergraduate degree is from Princeton University. |
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| June |
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Annual Luncheon and Volunteer Recognition Meeting |
| Program: |
Dr. Sallyann Sack,
Standing
on One Foot: "The International Tracing Service of the Red Cross:
Strategies for the Genealogist" |
| Time: |
1:30 PM -
Society business, introductions, and guest speaker |
| Location:
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Clara Barton, Cabin John, MD |
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For 60 years the vast store of Holocaust
documents housed in the International Tracing Service (ITS) were not available
to the public. That changed in November 2007. The first group to take advantage
of the new open-door policy was 40 Jewish genealogists who visited the ITS at
Bad Arolsen, Germany, in May 2008 and were given full access to vast numbers of
records relating to Holocaust victims and survivors. All of these records will
ultimately be shared with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.,
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and the National Institute of Remembrance (IPN) in
Warsaw. The ITS Bad Arolsen contains all of the many records maintained by the
Nazis on each person that entered their system, including all the persons who
lived in their concentration camps. These records consist of each of the places
a person was located, daily entries on their activities, detailed personal
information, etc. All of this information will be invaluable to genealogists,
among others. Learn more about the kinds of records that exist and how they may
be accessed from members of the research group that visited Bad Arolsen.
 Sallyann
Sack, Ph. D., our guest speaker, is the Founding President of JGSGW. She has
made three trips to the ITS and organized the group that visited in May. She is
the editor, co-founder and co-owner of Avotaynu (the leading journal for Jewish
Genealogy), president of Avotaynu Foundation, a past president of the
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and recipient of its
Lifetime Achievement Award; chair of the Founding Committee of the International
Institute for Jewish Genealogy; author or editor of seven major reference books
on Jewish genealogy; a recognized pioneer and leader in the world of Jewish
genealogy, and a clinical psychologist in private practice.
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| September |
Sunday, September 13, 2009 |
| Program: |
The Virtual
Shtetl Project |
| Location:
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B'nai Israel, Rockville, MD |
| Time: |
1:30 PM - Business Meeting and Announcements
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2:00 PM - Program
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Speakers:
- Grzegorz (Greg) Kolacz, Deputy Coordinator,
Museum of the History of Polish Jews, The “Virtual Shtetl” Project
- Robert Socolof, Executive Director, Museum of the
History of Polish Jews, North American Council
- Beata Schulmann, Staff, Museum of the
History of Polish Jews, The “Virtual Shtetl” Project
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There will be a brief introduction to the Museum of the
History of Polish Jews which will open in 2012 on the site of the former
Warsaw Ghetto. This multimedia narrative museum and cultural center will
present the history of Polish Jews and the rich civilization they
created over the course of almost 1000 years. Initiated by the Jewish
Historical Institute Association in Warsaw in 1996, the Museum of the
History of Polish Jews will be a unique institution. Not only is it the
first and only museum to focus on the history of Polish Jews, but also
it is a truly twenty-first century institution in every regard.
Then, the speakers will describe the Virtual Shtetl
Portal (www.shtetl.org.pl)
which is devoted to the local history of Jews.
On the Portal one
can find information pertaining to the past but also to the present; to
little towns, but also to large cities. The Portal presents both
contemporary and also pre-war Poland (including Eastern Galicia).
For more information on
this program and the Virtual Shtetl Project, click
here. |
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| October |
Sunday, October 18, 2009 |
| Workshop: |
Philly2009 - Lessons Learned and
Discussion Forum |
| Location:
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B'nai Israel, Rockville, MD |
| Time: |
11:00 AM |
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Marlene Bishow will lead a facilitated discussion of all phases
of the Philly 2009 conference. Attendees will have ample opportunity
to voice their opinions and experiences about their positive and
negative aspects of the conference, conference hotel,
conference website, et al. We hope that this will be a learning
experience for the society, so that we can use these lessons learned
in planning our DC2011 Conference.
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For
workshop attendees only, a light
dairy lunch will be served between the workshop and the program. |
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| Program: |
"The
Best of Philly 2009" |
| Location:
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B'nai Israel, Rockville, MD |
| Time: |
1:30 PM - Business Meeting and Announcements
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2:00 PM - Program
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Six JGSGW members will present brief synopsis
of their favorite lecture or workshop at the Philly Conference. More than 40
JGSGW members attended the conference in August, 2009. We will share information
about Jewishgen, Ancestry, Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and other meetings and
announcements made at the conference. The discussion will surely be lively. |
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| November |
Sunday, November 15, 2009 |
| Special
meeting: |
Gesher Galicia Regional Meeting; chair Pamela
Weisberger, President & Research Coordinator of Gesher Galicia
(open to JGSGW members and non-members) |
| Time: |
11:00 - 12:15
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Gesher Galicia ("Bridge
to Galicia") is the special interest group for researchers who have
Jewish roots in this former province of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. This program will offer a short overview of the history of
Galicia and provide an introduction to our SIG's research
activities. We'll cover metrical records, newspapers, school and
landowner records, and explain where they can be found both online and
in US and overseas archives. In the last half hour of the program we
will screen the video "The Bad Arolsen Research Experience" which
details what on-site research is like at the International Tracing
Service in Germany. The film highlights the ITS campus building where
some extraordinary Galician community records are housed. Q & A will
follow. |
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For
Gesher Galicia meeting attendees only, a light
dairy lunch will be served between the meeting and the program. |
| Program: |
Cadastral
Maps & Landowner Records:
Alternate Resources for Genealogical Research
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Note: this meeting is free to non-members. |
| Location:
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B'nai Israel, Rockville, MD |
| Time: |
1:30 PM - Business Meeting and Announcements
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2:00 PM - Program
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Speaker:
Pamela Weisberger - Program Chair, JGSLA |
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Cadastral
land records and property maps
(click on hyperlink to left) are an excellent source of family
history information. Studied together, they can show the exact
location where a family lived in a shtetl. They can tell the story
of neighbors or siblings who resided near each other and demonstrate
how close a family lived to the synagogue, cemetery, schools, or the
market square. Using house numbers gleaned from vital records, a
connection can be made between these physical locations and the
genealogical data. Landowner taxation books show the size and value
of the properties that Jewish families owned or rented, adding
greatly to the history of a family. These records are invaluable
when other metrical records are not available, and in some cases
they may be the only documented evidence relating to your
ancestors. In 2007 Gesher Galicia began a project to inventory and
obtain copies of this type of record housed in the Lviv (Ukraine)
Historical Archive. This talk will elaborate on this ongoing
project, show the new searchable Internet databases with landowner
record information, and cover "House Number Projects" to show how
maps and landowner records provide a window into the history of the
Jews of Galicia.
"Go West,
Genealogists! Preview of the 2010 IAJGS Conference in Los Angeles,"
by Pamela Weisberger, will take place at the conclusion of the
regular meeting.
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| December |
Sunday, December 13, 2009 |
| Program: |
 Joint program with the Jewish Historical Society of
Greater Washington (JHSGW)
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Professor
Anne Rubin, a widely recognized expert on the Civil
War, will speak on
"Father
Abraham and the Children of Israel: Lincoln and
American Jews"
(click for
her bio) |
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Note: this meeting is free to members of JGSGW and JHSGW. |
| Location:
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| Time: |
1:30 PM - Business Meeting and Announcements
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2:00 PM - Program
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Speaker: Prof. Anne
Rubin of the University of Maryland |
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The Historical Society's important exhibit
on the Jews of DC during the Civil War will be on display at
Beth El and the meeting will be preceded by guided tours of the
exhibit.
This touring exhibit opened at Washington
Hebrew earlier this year; on July 20 the exhibit moved to Temple
Beth El in Alexandria.
One of the most important events in our
nation's history, the Civil War forever altered American life.
Washington and Alexandria were sites of intense activity. This
new, original exhibition tells stories of Jewish life in
Civil-War Washington and across the river in Alexandria.
Mounted as part of national celebrations
of Lincoln's bicentennial in 2009, this exhibition includes
images from JHSGW collections, supplemented by photographs from
the Library of Congress and other local repositories.
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Exhibit Tour:
From 12:15 PM to 1:30 PM there will be
tours of the Jews of DC exhibit. Don't miss this rare opportunity. |
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© 2014, Jewish Genealogy Society of
Greater Washington, Inc.
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