Please join us IN PERSON or on Zoom for our annual meeting and election!

Sunday, June 30, 2024 at 10:00 AM
Zekelman Holocaust Center
Free
Coffee, tea, and breakfast snacks provided

Finding Jonah
with Special Guests Linda Twersky and Robert Starkman

Linda Twersky and her cousin Robert Starkman (son of our founder) will join us via Zoom to discuss her book, Finding Jonah: A True Story of Love, Hope and Survival, which will be available for purchase at the event.

The book presentation will introduce audiences to the author’s family members and provide highlights of their amazing journey to freedom during WWII.  Using photographs, maps, and genealogical data, the author will explain her reasons for writing this book and the methods she used to carefully research the details of her family’s story and its historical context.

Linda D. Twersky, M.S.Ed., is a writer and graphic designer whose career focus has been on information design, technical documentation, training manuals, and marketing collateral in both educational and corporate settings. With this non-fiction book, she turns her skills and attention to a first-person account of her family’s dramatic experiences prior to and during World War II. She lives in Florida with her family which includes two feline editors and part-time literary critics.

Proposed Slate 2024-2025:

Sunday, February 4, 2024
9:30 – 10:15 am: Refreshments and socializing
10:15 – 11:15 am: Tour

$10 per person; includes a donation to the Holocaust Center

The Zekelman Holocaust Center
28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, MI
Map of location

Join us for a private, docent-led tour of the brand-new permanent exhibit at the Holocaust Center! We will have time for refreshments and socializing before the tour begins at 10:15am.

Illustrated in this touching video, this new exhibit develops a personal connection between the historic events of the 20th century and the 21st-century visitor. We see the Holocaust through the eyes of those who lived through it—from the child who loved board games, to the teen who played the harmonica, to the parents who doted on their baby. Throughout the exhibit, visitors will encounter the personal testimonies of Michigan survivors. They shine a light on our shared humanity, and their joy, pain, and loss will touch and move us in unsuspecting ways.

Thursday, November 9, 2023 from 4:00-5:30 PM
Free and open to the public
Deadline to register is NOON Thursday November 9th

Temple Beth El
7400 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills
Map of location

Join Archivists and Historians Laura Gottlieb and Robbie Terman for a special afternoon presentation and behind-the-scenes tour. They will share the genealogy resources that you can find at the Jampel Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage, and take you through amazing genealogy discoveries made in their very own archives.

Robbie Terman is the Director of the Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. Laura Gottlieb is the Director of Cultural Resources at Temple Beth El where she oversees the Rabbi Leo M. Franklin Archives and Prentis Memorial Library. Both archivists hold a Master of Library and Information Science and Certification in Archival Administration from Wayne State University. As part of the Joan Meyers Jampel Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage, Robbie and Laura team up to bring history to life through engaging events, exhibits, lectures, workshops, and more. To learn more about the Jampel Center, visit mijewishheritage.org.

Wednesday, June 28, 2023 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Saturday, July 1, 2023 from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Free and open to the public

Transportation / Directions
Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library
5201 Woodward Ave in Detroit Map location

Free parking in the employee parking lot gate (on the South side of the Library).

Carpooling is a possibility.

RSVP by calling or emailing Jim Grey:

Cell: 248-739-9070
Email: gentrex@aol.com

About the Burton
The Burton Historical Collection (BHC) of the Detroit Public Library began as the private library of Clarence Monroe Burton. In addition to being a prominent attorney, Mr. Burton was a Detroit historiographer and the founder of the C. M. Burton Abstract Co. Mr. Burton’s original intention was to assemble a collection on the history of Detroit. Realizing that Detroit’s history was inextricably connected to that of Michigan and the Old Northwest and those histories to that of Canada and New France, he assembled a collection that was one of the most important private historical collections in the country.

Over the course of 40 years, Mr. Burton systematically collected original documents and personal papers of prominent citizens of Detroit and Michigan. By 1914 the library contained 30,000 volumes, 40,000 pamphlets and 500,000 unpublished papers. Mr. Burton donated his collection, including the building it was housed in, to the Detroit Public Library in 1915. The collection was moved to the new main library in 1921.

The Burton Collection’s Detroit city directories cover the following years:

• 1845-1846
• 1850-1941
• 1953 (West side)
• 1954 (East side)
• 1956 (West side)
• 1957 (East side)
• 1958 (West side)
• 1963 (East side)
• 1964 (East and West side)
• 1965 (West side)
• 1967 (East side)
• 1968 (East and West side)
• 1969 (West side)
• 1970 (East and West side)
• 1973 (West side)
• 1974 (East side)

JGSMI is proud to co-sponsor this year’s

Mary Einstein Shapero Memorial Lecture Series Presents Guest Speaker Jennifer Mendelsohn

Tuesday, June 27 at 6pm
Temple Beth El – The Leo M. Franklin Archives

6:00 PM Pre-Glow: For “Friends of the Jampel Center”
7:00 PM Lecture: Maas Chapel
8:00 PM Oneg/Nosh: Slotkin Foyer

Temple Beth El
7400 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills
Free & open to the community, registration required

Join Jennifer Mendelsohn, co-founder of the DNA Reunion Project at the Center for Jewish History to learn more about the fascinating and empowering process of Jewish genealogical research. She’ll show how Jewish family research is unnecessarily shrouded in myths and misunderstandings, (have you heard the one about how the Nazis “destroyed all the records?” dealing an unfair blow to a community with an especially urgent need to understand and reclaim its past.

Her sleuthing has reunited long lost families, debunked decades-old family legends and unearthed poignant, hilarious and sometimes shocking revelations. She’ll also introduce you to the innovative use of genetic genealogy as a means to reclaim Jewish family history, including the founding of the DNA Reunion Project at the Center for Jewish History, which leverages the revolutionary power of commercial DNA testing to reunite families separated by the Holocaust.

Please join us IN PERSON or on Zoom for our annual meeting and election!

Sunday, June 11, 2023 at 10:00 AM
Holocaust Memorial Center
Free
Coffee, tea, and breakfast snacks provided

An Astonishing Search for Roots
with Special Guest Speaker Esther Allweiss Ingber

Join us as we welcome Esther Allweiss Ingber, Life Member and Detroit Jewish News contributor, as she shares the amazing story of how a then-unknown relative in Israel discovered her dad’s Page of Testimony about her grandfather and other family members via the online Yad Vashem archives. 

We will be meeting IN PERSON at the Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills, with the event being broadcast on Zoom as well.

Esther Allweiss Ingber, a native Detroiter of Oak Park, is director of Ameinu Detroit, a progressive Zionist group. She also is a contributing writer for the Detroit Jewish News,  where she has been associated off and on since starting in 1970 as a student intern. A graduate of Wayne State University, Esther is a lifelong member of the Jewish Genealogical and Jewish Historical societies of Michigan and a board member of CHAIM (Children of Holocaust survivors Association in Michigan). 

Proposed Slate 2023-2024:

Sunday, October 9, 2022 at 10:00am

Beth Olem Cemetery is scheduled to be open on Sunday, October 9th, from 10AM to 1PM. This year the opening is after Yom Kippur.

Beth Olem is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Michigan, with graves dating from the 1880s through World War I. It is located on the grounds of the GM Poletown plant in Hamtramck, Michigan, between Smith and Clay Streets. Visitors are allowed only two times per year, around Rosh Hashanah and Passover.

More information about Beth Olem can be found at the following sites:

• A peek inside Beth Olem, the cemetery that was swallowed by a GM plant (Model D Media)
• Hidden cemetery only remnant of Poletown community (jweekly.com)
• Photos on Flickr
• Beth Olem Cemetery on FindAGrave.com

Call Clover Hill Park Cemetery for additional information: 248-723-8884.

Sunday, September 11, 2022 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.

Please join us for a virtual annual meeting and election on Sunday, June 26, 2022 at 11:00 AM
Cost: Free

Eliyahu HaNavi Synagogue. Jewish Quarter, Old City, Jerusalem, Israel by Adam Fagen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
The Eliyahu HaNavi Synagogue is the oldest of the Four Sephardic Synagogues.

Sephardic History in Israel

If you’ve read the book or watched the Netflix series The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, you may be curious about the history of Sephardic Jewry in the state of Israel from the times of the Ottoman Empire.

Join us as we welcome Michael Waas, historian, anthropologist, researcher and co-founder of Hollander Waas Jewish Heritage Services. He will talk on the history of Sephardim in Israel, their interactions with Zionism and the complicated history of Sephardim in the state and pre-state of Israel.

About the Speaker:

Ever since he was a young child, Michael Waas has been interested in history and the world around him. Following a conversation in high school with his cousin about family lore that the famous union leader Samuel Gompers was a cousin, he began his journey into genealogical and historical research. That beginning led him to the path where he is today: Michael is a Heritage Professional, based in New York, specializing in historic preservation and multidisciplinary research into the Portuguese Jews and Ottoman Jewry.

He received his BA in Anthropology with a specialization in Historical Archaeology from New College of Florida, and the subject of his Senior Thesis was “The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis of the Seminole People of Florida,” under the direction of Dr. Uzi Baram. Michael recently completed his MA in Jewish History at the University of Haifa under the direction of Dr. Ido Shahar and Dr. Shai Srugo. The title of his thesis was “Istorya i oy: A comparative study on the Development of Jewish Heritage of Three Jewish Communities of the former Ottoman Empire.” In addition, he has been volunteering with AvotaynuDNA since 2016, where he is the anthropologist and historian of the research.

Michael is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Society for Sephardic Studies, the Association for Jewish Studies, and the European Association for Jewish Studies. He plans to pursue his PhD in the near future.

Proposed Slate 2022-2023:

Sunday, April 3, 2022 at 4pm ET
Free – Zoom registration required

The U.S. 1950 census will become public on April 1, 2022. Society members alive on April 1st, 1950 and a resident of the U.S. and its territories should expect to see their name on the 1950 population schedule. Joel will provide advice on what you can do to prepare for the rollout. He will cover who uses the census, census caveats, who was enumerated and who wasn’t, how the 1950 census was taken, training of enumerators, enumerator instruction manuals, census sampling, and 1950 population and housing forms and large city block summaries. Joel will then discuss name (a preliminary index based on OCR’d handwriting may be available on day 1) and locational tools for finding people. 

The National Archives census map collection, and his and Steve Morse’s 1950 locational tools, online right now at the One-Step stevemorse.org website, will end the talk. The One-Step 1950 utilities took almost 8 years to produce with the the help of 70 volunteers, involve 230,000 or so searchable 1950 census district definitions with about 79,000 more small community names added, and street indexes for over 2,400 1950 urban areas that correlate with 1950 census district numbers

Joel Weintraub,PhD, a New Yorker by birth, is an emeritus Biology Professor at California State University, Fullerton. He became interested in genealogy over 20 years ago and volunteered for 9 years at the National Archives in southern California. Joel helped produce location tools for 1900 through 1950 federal censuses, and the NY State censuses for NYC (1905, 1915, 1925) for the Steve Morse “One-Step” website. He has published articles since retiring on the U.S. census and the 72-year rule, the name change belief and finding difficult passenger records at Ellis Island, searching NYC census records with the problems of NYC geography, and a revision of the biography of naturalist Adolphus Heermann. He has a YouTube channel with his genealogy and field biology talks at JDW Talks. His interests including birding, and collecting interesting exhibits for his PowerPoint talks.