Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 4pm ET
Free – Zoom registration required

This online presentation will focus on interpreting so-called “Jewish DNA” results from the major commercial testing companies (i.e., Ancestry, 23andMe, Family Tree DNA, and MyHeritage), with primary focus on Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. The speaker will dig into common beliefs and misconceptions related to interpreting these results and provide context and strategies to maximize successful research.

Topics will include ethnicity estimates, tools to understand and locate DNA matches, nuances found at each testing company, and strategies to tackle endogamy. Although not required, familiarity with navigating the various DNA testing sites and viewing DNA matches is recommended.

Adina Newman, EdD, is the owner of My Family Genie, where she assists clients with their research and blogs about her own family history. Her main interests are in Jewish genealogy, genetic genealogy, and New England. She has a doctorate in educational leadership and a certificate in genealogical research from Boston University.

She volunteers as a Jewish genetic genealogy Facebook group moderator, social media coordinator for NextGen Genealogy Network, and a discussion leader for ProGen, a self-study group for aspiring and professional genealogists. She was also a 2020 recipient of the AncestryProGenealogists scholarship. She presented four talks for the 2021 IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.

Sunday, January 30, 2022 at 12pm Eastern
Free

Our recording secretary will offer assistance and strategies in busting through your “brick wall” genealogy problems. Please fill out the Google form provided in registration.

The registration window to submit questions has closed, but you are welcome to register and listen in on the session. If we have time we will take questions from the audience.

Registration has ended.

Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 10am Eastern
Free

Deborah H. Long, founder of the Triangle Jewish Genealogical Society in Durham/Chapel Hill, N.C., will present a webinar titled “Out of the Whirlwind: Finding Your Family Lost in the Holocaust”. Her presentation will be followed by a genealogy question-and-answer discussion time.

The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Deborah Long reviews in this presentation the best (as well as some of the obscure) resources and methods for determining the fate of those involved in the Holocaust, including survivors and victims. She will use examples from her own research to demonstrate the documents and artifacts she discovered.

Deborah has been researching her family’s Holocaust history and looking for surviving family members for more than 60 years. Her research in 2009 led to the discovery of surviving cousins in Sweden, Hungary, Canada and, most recently, in Israel. Deborah is a professional educator, though typically her audiences are licensed professionals. She has written more than 20 books, including a memoir about growing up as a child of survivors titled “First Hitler, Then Your Father, and Now You.”

Sunday, October 24, 2021 at 10am
Free

Please join David Goldman along and Jim Grey for an interactive visit to the historic B’nai David Cemetery. Just two miles from the storied Beth Olem cemetery, B’nai David dates back to 1898 when the founding fathers of the then Beth David Synagogue bought a 1.6 acre plot of land in what was then Hamtramck Township for $1,800.

Read more about David Goldman’s urban garden project from the The Jewish News.

We hope you’ll attend. Rain or shine. Street parking at 9535 Van Dyke Detroit, MI.

August 1-5, 2021
All Virtual Conference
Early Bird Registration ENDS JUNE 10: $250
Cost after June 10th: $325

Full Conference registration allows access to all sessions, meetings, and presentations. Limited Access permits attendance at SIG, BOF, Research District, and Research Group meetings only—one meeting for $10 or two or more meetings for $18. Attendance to only the Annual Meetings and the IAJGS-sponsored JGS Leadership Seminars is offered for no charge with Free Access.

The conference will feature over 50 live-stream presentations and more than 100 pre-recorded, on-demand video presentations covering virtually every aspect of Jewish genealogy .

Learn more at https://www.iajgs2021.org/

Cost: Free

“Facade of Sephardic Synagogue – Sofia – Bulgaria” by Adam Jones, Ph.D. – Global Photo Archive is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Jewish Bulgaria: A Virtual Sephardic Journey

Please join us for a virtual annual meeting and election on Sunday, June 13, 2021 at 12:00 PM

Join us for a dynamic interactive trip through Bulgaria’s rich Jewish heritage. Learn about notable moments and individuals from the rich and varied history of Jewish life in Bulgaria. Our virtual tour will make stops in Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s largest cities, and will take us inside the sumptuous Neo-Moorish Sofia synagogue. Other highlights along the way include the medieval capital, the grand Rila Monastery, and the mountain town of Samokov, home to the affluent Arie dynasty. You will have a chance to learn about the history and culture of the Bulgarian Sephardi Jews.

About the speaker:
Joseph Benatov holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches Hebrew. He is originally from Bulgaria and a member of Sofia’s Jewish community. Joseph has over 15 years of experience leading travelers across the Balkans, including UNESCO representatives, 92nd Street Y visitors, JDC board members, and Anti-Defamation League officials. He lectures regularly on the history of Jewish life in Bulgaria and on Balkan Sephardic culture. Every summer Joseph leads Jewish heritage tours of the Sephardic Balkans. You can find out more at https://sephardicbalkans.com/

Proposed Slate 2021-2022:

Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and happy Pesach.

Rothschild Haggadah (Northern Italy, 1450)
National Library of Israel

The journey of the “Rothschild Haggadah” began 550 years ago with the artist Yoel ben Shimon in Northern Italy and ended in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people.

View entire Haggadah here »

Sunday, February 28 2021
12:00 PM Eastern
Zoom – Free

Join us to learn about using Jewish Records Indexing – Poland (JRI-Poland) for your genealogy research, founded by our guest Stanley Diamond. There will be time for Q&A.

You may be interested in the following resources:

• “Jewish Records Indexing-Poland: The Effect of Reaching Critical Mass.” Avoytaynu, Fall 2018
• JRI-Poland January 2021 Newsletter

Stanley M. Diamond is the Founding President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal and the winner of the 2002 IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award. His interest in genealogical research was related to genetics and ultimately led to the creation of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, of which he is the founder and Executive Director, and for which he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal of Canada. Lecturer and author of many articles, Diamond’s journey in the world of family history research and the many paths on which it has taken him were featured in an episode of a documentary series “Past Lives” on Canadian television in 2005. He has also served as a consultant on American and Canadian episodes of “Who Do You Think You Are?”

Mr. Diamond is a graduate of McGill University, Montreal (B. Commerce ’54) and Harvard University, Boston (MBA ’58).

Sunday, January 10, 2021
12:00 PM Eastern
Zoom – Free

Join us for an informal session to help you get started with your search, find a new resource, or help bust through a stubborn brick wall.

When you register, you’ll be able to submit a maximum of two questions/inquiries. This way we can have a sense of topics and areas of research before the session begins, and see where there may be overlaps or duplicate questions. This will allow us to best help you while keeping the meeting organized and on schedule.

Speaker: IGRA Past President, Garri Regev

Sunday, December 20, 2020
12:00 PM Eastern
Zoom – Free

Are you looking for relatives in Israel? This prerecorded lecture is an introduction to the Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA) website and the All Israel Database (AID) collection.

About the All Israel Database:
This search engine currently features 1,770,881 records and was last updated on 10 October 2020.

The Israel Genealogy Research Association [IGRA] has set as one of its primary aims the preparation of databases based upon various records, mainly found in Israel, for as wide an audience as possible. The large amount of archives located in Israel dealing with communities in Israel and Jewish communities outside of Israel have records in a variety of languages but mostly in Hebrew and English. Their data comes from Archives as well as publications which are on open shelves in libraries.

They scan the materials, build databases with the pertinent information, and then link to the original scans, where archival permission has been granted. Surnames and first names will be transliterated from Hebrew to English, and vice versa, depending on the language of the original material. This will enable researchers who are not familiar with the other language to find the families they are searching for.

The collection includes records from:

• Ottoman Administration (- 1917)
• British Administration (1917-1948)
• Israeli Administration (1948- )
• Miscellaneous

This webinar was recorded by IGRA in 2016.