Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 2:00 PM
Help Session 1:30 PM
Holocaust Memorial Center
This is a memoir of a very interesting life. The author is a feisty, larger-than-life lady, well-known in Jerusalem and also in various American cities and towns, especially Chicago, where she was a Rebbetzin, supporting her equally well-known husband, Rabbi Jay Karzen.
Her life began in New York on May 9th, 1938. Her parents Isidore Ray and Minnie Gartner Ray were both born and married in Poland, and her memoir begins in a Polish town called Staszow where the Raja family (now Ray) were lumber and leather merchants. There is a very detailed family tree as we are introduced to her many forebears, and throughout the book we meet many more relatives as her memoir covers almost 70 years. The title Cherry on the Top stems from her belief that all of life’s activities flow from faith in the Almighty. Comparing life to an ice-cream sundae, she maintains that it rises higher and higher with acts of goodness and charity. The cherry on top represents the achievement of becoming a “mentsch” (an honorable person).
Cherry on the Top was written as a memoir and an ethical will for their children and descendants. If you like Jewish Geography, you will come across many familiar names. The book is not – nor does it purport to be – a great work of literature. But if you would enjoy sitting down for a few hours with an accomplished, entertaining lady and sharing her life experiences, this memoir will give you a lot of pleasure.
Ruby served for almost a decade as President of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI). An inspirational speaker, she is a constant source of support for the Anglo community in Israel, always ready to serve. She is an avid writer; many of her articles, spanning topics on Israel and Interior Design, have been published in magazines and newspapers. She and her husband, Rabbi Jay Karzen, have lived in Jerusalem since their Aliyah in 1985. All of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are passionate religious Zionists and live in Israel.
Read More...
Sunday, February 9, 2014
A longtime member of JGSMI, Gayle tirelessly dedicated nearly 20 years as our Librarian, and was a regular speaker at the IAJGS International Conferences on Jewish Genealogy. There seemed to be little she didn’t know about, and she was always ready to offer her knowledge and research assistance. She had a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Wayne State University, and later joined a PhD program at the University of Chicago. She spent an academic year in India, absorbing the myriad cultures and languages of that nation. In 2010, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She fought bravely and never lost her upbeat outlook and sharp wit. She died in December 2012, at age 69.
A professional genealogist and the founder of JGSMI, Betty served as our first President and Editor of the newsletter, and continues to serve as a Board member. A formal social worker and counselor, she received BA and MSW degrees from Wayne State University and the University of Wisconsin, respectively. She has lectured, written and taught Jewish genealogy for over 20 years. She has visited Israel (at least 27 times), Poland, Russia, Hungary, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Great Britain, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, France, and the Czech Republic in search of Jewish records. An early childhood interest in China led her to an in-depth study of Jewish communities in China. After three journeys to China, she became a member of the Sino-Judiac Institute and attended their first conference at Harvard. She has been a frequent speaker at IAJGS conferences, and with her late husband Morris (z”l) have long sponsored the Morris (z”l) and Betty Starkman Annual Genealogy Lecture and Election of Officers, our annual meeting.
Sholem Rabinovitch was 15 years old when he wrote his first book, a Jewish version of Robinson Crusoe. He became one of the founders of modern Yiddish literature, the man behind “Tevye” and the author of some of the most memorable stories about life in the shtetl.
We all have ancestors came from somewhere outside of the United States. The difficulty is often determining exactly where that somewhere is. Often records such as Census records indicate only a country and family lore frequently identifies only a geographic area. Many of these ancestors who were part of the immigrants who came to the United States were naturalized. If that naturalization occurred after 1906, the process created records that contain a wealth of information. 
With author and JGSMI member Richard Jaeger
