Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain Blog

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is from the JGSGB Eastern European Special Interest Group (EE SIG) by Zoom. Here is the information for the meeting: • Date: Sunday Jul 17th 2022 • Time: 14:00 London (note; 09:00 New York, 16:00 Jerusalem, 07:00 Salt Lake City) • Title: “Czernowitz: Jewish heritage & genealogy, with stories of life, death & narrow escapes” • Speaker: Nigel Siederer • Description: In the last 150 years, Czernowitz has been in Austria, Romania, and the Soviet Union. It is now in Ukraine, with its name and home language varying accordingly. Its Jewish population has varied from 30%-plus to virtually nil. This talk will explain these dramatic changes, and will use the Siederer family to illustrate how genealogical records and graves can be found. After the talk, there will be an opportunity for Q&A and discussion on the talk. About Nigel Siederer Nigel Siederer has had a 40+ year career in the voluntary sector, at national, reg...

There is no meeting on Sun 10 th July, so here is early warning of a future Sunday meeting in the JGSGB Programme - an outside visit in person! Date: Sunday July 24 th 2022  Time: 14:00 London  Venue: Sandy’s Row Synagogue   Address: 4A Sandy's Row, London E1 7HW  How to get there: Sandy’s Row is a short walk from Liverpool Street station or Aldgate  Description: Sandy's Row Synagogue is a historic Grade II listed synagogue and former Christian church in the East End of London. Built by refugee French Huguenots in 1766, it was later converted into a Baptist chapel and in 1867 was acquired by a Jewish congregation. It is the oldest surviving Ashkenazi synagogue in London.      After touring the synagogue there will be a short Jewish East End tour involving about a one mile walk.    Essential  (1) RSVP to Anita Benson at anita.benson@virgin.net     (2) Bring enough cash or a credit card to buy a ticket. £5.50 ...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a General Workshop session, covering all regions, by Zoom. • Date: Sunday June 26th 2022 • Time: 14:00 London; 15:00 Amsterdam 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; • Title: “BWBU: The JGSGB Brick Walls and Brush Up Workshop” • Description: Mentors will be on hand to assist you overcome the ‘Brick Walls’- this is where you feel that you can’t go any further with your researches … but with a little help from experts and fellow Members, possibly can - plus the much needed ‘Brush Up’ - for those who may have lapsed in recent times and are seeking that extra boost to get going again. We hope to point one and all in the right direction. If you have any specific questions please send a brief summary to Raymond Montanjees at programme@jgsgb.org.uk and he will brief the relevant expert before the meeting. But it is fine to just turn up on the day and we will answer with the best advice we can muster. The invitation to registe...

Our next Sunday meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is from the JGSGB Dutch & Sephardi Special Interest Group (D&S SIG) by Zoom.   Date: Sunday June 19 th 2022   Time 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 07:00 Salt Lake City   Title: “ The Etty Hillesum Research Centre”   Speaker: Lotte Bergen   Description: The Etty Hillesum Research Center (EHOC) was founded in 2006 by Professor Dr. Klaas Smelik and his collaborators at the time, all working at the University of Ghent. The aim of the EHOC was to promote scientific research into the writings and person of Etty Hillesum. One of the objectives was the publication of a periodical. This is where the results of this research could find a place. The yearbook was named Etty Hillesum Studies.   In Etty’s birthplace at Molenwater 77, Middelburg we will realize The Etty Hillesum House, an institute for education, science, art and culture. Various activities will ...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a German Special Interest Group Meeting by Zoom. Date: Sun June 12 th 2022   Time: 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 15:00 Germany   Title: “New developments and recent discoveries in German-Jewish Genealogy” Speaker: Jeanette Rosenberg OBE     Description: We will discuss new developments and recent discoveries in German-Jewish genealogy. As ever, the presentation from the meeting will be made available after the meeting. If you have questions about your research that you would have asked in person at the meeting, you will still be able to ask them, but for this meeting, you will need to email them in advance to jeanette.r.rosenberg@googlemail.com and hopefully either I or others attending our virtual meeting will be able to help you and answer them. For 2022 the future meeting dates are Sundays 4 September and 4 December. Please add them to your forward calendar. Jeanette R Rosenb...

There is no JGSGB meeting next Sunday due to Shevuot, but an upcoming special meeting in about a month in the JGSGB Programme is a joint meeting between the JGSGB and the Jewish Historical Society of England (JHSE) by Zoom and in person at the Jewish Museum, Camden, London.   Here are the details: • Date: Sunday July 3rd 2022 • Time: 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 15:00 Switzerland • Title: “Just Passing Through: Interactions With the World, 1938-2021” • Speaker: Daniel Snowman • Venue: Zoom details below, and/or in-person at the Jewish Museum London, Albert Street, London, NW1 7NB • Essential: To attend in person please email programme@jgsgb.org.uk to avoid paying Museum entrance. • Description: We will celebrate a book that is as much an autobiography as a history of Britain, and of English Jews: Just Passing Through: Interactions with the World, 1938–2021 . In the book, historian Daniel Snowman writes of a Jewish child's memories of the War, gives c...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a Leeds Regional Group Meeting by Zoom. Date: Sunday May 29th 2022 Time 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 15:00 Switzerland Title: “Mamaliga Blues - a Brazilian man's J-Family search in Moldova” Speaker: Cassio Tolpolar Description: This is an award winning & interesting film "Mamaliga Blues" & the director Cassio Tolpolar is from Brazil; he travelled with his family to find his Jewish roots in Moldova. The film is in English and English subtitles.(Yiddish/Portuguese) Following the showing will be Q&A after the talk. About Cassio Tolpolar     Cassio Tolpolar was born in the south of Brazil. Cassio’s debut as a director and writer, the short Venus , was screened in a number of film festivals around the world and won several awards, including Best Director and Best Cinematography. It led him to direct for television and, ultimately, to move to the US and complete the MFA in Film at the San F...

Our next Sunday meeting in the JGSGB Programme is an in-person only visit to the Novo Cemetery. . • Date: Sunday May 22nd 2022 • Time: 12:00 – 16:00 BST • Venue: Queen Mary University, Mile End Rd, Bethnal Green, London E1 4NS • Event: OUTSIDE EVENT - a visit to the NOVO cemetery • Facilitator: Raymond Montanjees • Description: The cemetery is located within and at the rear of the University's grounds. Between MILE END and STEPNEY GREEN Underground stations. About a seven-minute walk from either. Easy, free parking in Bancroft Rd and surrounding roads. I'm asking for volunteers please to assist in an inscription clean-up of a tombstone or two for a NOVO database. Cleaning material, gloves, implements etc. etc. will be provided. It’s not hard work – in fact, it’s quite an enjoyable, worthwhile and heart-warming task. If you just wish to simply explore the grounds, then you will be more than welcome. . RSVP and/or for further information: raymondtax2@gmail.com ...

Our next Sunday meeting in the JGSGB Programme is an in-person only workshop for beginners. • Date: Sunday May 15th 2022 • Time: 14:00 – 16:30 BST • Duration: 2.5 hours • Venue: in-person at the Jewish Museum London, Albert Street, London, NW1 7NB • Event: JGSGB Beginners’ Workshop • Speaker: Daniel Morgan-Thomas and JGSGB Mentors • Description: This workshop is for anyone interested in getting started in tracing their Jewish ancestors, whenever they arrived in the UK. The workshop will include: 1. Presentation on how to start tracing your Jewish ancestors and where to look for information. 2. A chance for one-to-one advice from a genealogical expert. 3. A tour of JGSGB's unique library, now hosted at Jewish Museum London. • The cost of the workshop includes admittance to the Jewish Museum's exhibitions and will be redeemable against membership of JGSGB if you decide to become a member of the Society. • To book, please visit: Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/ e/...

Our next Sunday meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a specialist talk by Zoom. • Date: Sunday May 8th 2022 • Time: 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 15:00 Switzerland • Title: “The Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls, Women and Children” • Speaker: Dr Martin Walsh • Description: Almost all Jewish women entered England through London’s East End, where a cross-section of the poorer and working-class Jewish community resided. It was a dangerous and overcrowded place with its warren of lanes and criminality; most noted for the Jack the Ripper murders of the late 1880s. Many of the promises of marriage and employment never materialised. Worse still, some of these women arrived in London only to end up on the next boat to South America as part of the white slave trade. Even in London there was a real risk of these women ending up in the clutches of brothel keepers when the promised employment fell through and family members were not there to p...

Due to the bank holiday, there is no JGSGB meeting on Sunday 1st May, but our next weekday meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a specialist talk from the Chilterns Regional Group by Zoom on an Oriental theme. Please note the earlier start. Date: Tuesday 3rd May 2022 Time: 19.00 London, 14:00 New York, 11:00 San Francisco, 21:00 Jerusalem  Title: From Tashkent to Paris - the story of a Bukharian Jewish family’s triumph over adversity  Speaker: Eve Weinberg  Description: A true story about Revolution, occupation and survival. This memoir about Aron and Adina Abramoff, the author’s maternal grandparents, depicts their tranquil life in the early 1900s in Kokand and Tashkent, Central Asia; their escape from Stalin’s Russia in the 1930s and their miraculous survival from Nazi persecution in France during WWII. Eve feels privileged to be able to give you a glimpse into their turbulent lives, and although the book makes poignant reading, it is also life-affirmi...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is from the JGSGB Eastern European Special Interest Group (EE SIG) by Zoom and in person at the Jewish Museum, Camden, London.  Here is the information for the meeting: • Date: Sunday Apr 24th 2022 • Time: 14:00 London (note; 09:00 New York, 16:00 Jerusalem, 07:00 Salt Lake City) • Title: “The Dvorkins of Brest-Litovsk” • Speaker: Leigh Dworkin • Venue: Zoom details below, and/or in-person at the Jewish Museum London, Albert Street, London, NW1 7NB • Essential: To attend in person please email programme@jgsgb.org.uk to avoid paying Museum entrance. • Description: The speaker finally gets around to researching his own surname! Instead of his usual Polish research, attempts to crack the tricky archives of Belarus were met with frustration, a rapidly emptying wallet and many brick walls. This is the story of Harris (Tzvi Hirsch) Dworkin who fled the pogroms to come to the UK. Learn how chance findings in the Bialystok archives l...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a Specialist Talk by Zoom or in person at the Jewish Museum in Camden, London – our first Hybrid meeting. Date: Sunday 10 April 2022 Time 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 07:00 Salt Lake City Title: Thoroughly Modernising Millie - What the Dickens? Speaker: Bernard Miller Venue: Zoom or Jewish Museum London, Albert Street, London, NW1 7NB Essential: To attend in person please book at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/296370450997 on Eventbrite to avoid paying Museum entrance. Description: Bernard will speak about his mother, one-time Mayor of Camden and MP, Millie Miller and her many interesting relatives. From the 1950s to the '70s the name Millie Miller was widely known in London, particularly in local government and Parliament. To mark the beginning of what would have been her 100th year, 45 years after her death, her son, JGSGB member Bernard Miller has been researching Millie’s genealogical connections, ...

Our Sunday after next meeting in the JGSGB Programme is an outside visit in person (!). • Date: Sunday April 3rd 2022 • Time: 15:00 London • Venue: Imperial War Museum (IWM), Holocaust Galleries • Address: Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HZ • How to get there: IWM London is a short walk from Lambeth North (7 minutes), Elephant & Castle (10 minutes) Underground stations or Waterloo National Rail stations (14 minutes), and is served by the 344 and 360 bus routes, as well as the 59 and 159. The C6 Cycleway runs past the museum from Elephant & Castle. At present there is limited parking around the museum. • Description: The Holocaust Galleries at IWM London offer an account of the events that came to be known as the Holocaust and tell the personal stories of some of the six million Jewish people who were murdered. How did persecution turn to mass extermination? Drawing on a rich collection of objects, from a teddy bear taken on the Kindertransport, through to the typewriter used to type...

Our next Sunday meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a specialist talk on a digital theme by Zoom. • Date: Sunday 27 March 2021 • Time: 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 15:00 Switzerland • Title: "Digitising Your Archives" • Speaker: Harry Sassoon • Description: Harry will be speaking on the importance of digitising your archives, including topics such as sharing, security and the age-old question - where do I begin? In this discussion, we will be talking about different forms of archives, such as documents, photos, tapes and more, the processes for digitising and organising them, best practices as well as how to keep everything safe and future-proof. About Harry Sassoon Harry Sassoon lives in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, is 28 years old; a cybersecurity professional, co-founder of The Scannery and a self-proclaimed advanced amateur genealogist since 2016. After the talk, there will be an opportunity for Q&A on the talk. The invitation to register...

After our Education Webinar on Visiting Archives on17th Mar at 7.30pm, our next weekday meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a specialist talk from the Chilterns Regional Group by Zoom on an haute couture theme.   • Date: Tuesday 22nd March 2022 • Time: 19.30 London, 15:30 New York, 12:30 San Francisco, 21:30 Jerusalem • Title: "The Clothes on our backs: how refugees from Nazism revitalised the British fashion trade". • Speaker: Anna Nyburg • Description: Jews had long been active in the clothing trade in Europe, excelling in design and production. However, in the UK, clothes production was mostly conservative and design was not a concept. After 1933, many Jews found asylum in Britain and British companies started to recognise what the refugees could offer including Pringle of Scotland who hired an Austrian refugee designer, who thought up the twinset which became a huge commercial success and Kangol, who made berets for the British Army. The refugees brought new...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a speaker meeting from the JGSGB Anglo-Jewish Special Interest Group (Anglo SIG) by Zoom. Here is the information for this meeting: • Date: Sunday 13 Mar 2022 • Time: 14:30 London (note, 09:30 New York, 16:30 Jerusalem, 15:30 Switzerland) • Title: Unfortunate Incidents in the History of the Southport Jewish Community: Broiges & Consensus • Speaker: John Cowell • Description: The talk will cover details on the individuals involved from his book on the Southport Jewish Community, Philanthropy, Consensus and Broiges , and some of the many disputes that arose between them. After the talk, there will be an opportunity for Q&A and discussion on the talk. Following a quick tea break, we will return for a workshop where we will offer help for any genealogical problems and listen to your genealogical successes. Beginners always welcome.  About John Cowell John Cowell is a retired librarian. Born in Blackpool, he attended the...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a German Special Interest Group Meeting by Zoom. • Date 6 Mar 2022 • Time 14:00 London • Title: “New developments and recent discoveries in German-Jewish genealogy” • Speaker: Jeanette Rosenberg OBE • Description: We will discuss new developments and recent discoveries in German-Jewish genealogy. As ever, the presentation from the meeting will be made available after the meeting. If you have questions about your research that you would have asked in person at the meeting, you will still be able to ask them, but for this meeting, you will need to email them in advance to jeanette.r.rosenberg@googlemail.com and hopefully either I or others attending our virtual meeting will be able to help you and answer them. For 2022 the future meeting dates are Sundays 12 June, 4 September and 4 December. Please add them to your forward calendar. Jeanette R Rosenberg OBE Convenor of German SIG The invitation to register is below, but please k...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a General Meeting on a Tasmanian/Australasian theme by Zoom. • Date: Sunday 27 Feb 2022 • Time: 10:00 London; 05:00 New York; 12:00 Jerusalem; 21:00 Hobart • Title: “Hobart Synagogue Digital Archive” • Speaker: Jeff Schneider • Description: The history of Hobart's tiny Jewish community is long and remarkable. It is a curious story of survival that is reflected in the Hobart Synagogue, Australia’s oldest synagogue still in use (1845). We will explore the stories found in the synagogue's online collection, which feature a variety of digitised documents that date back to 1838. There will be a special emphasis on the British roots of the congregation and how these connections were still a significant part of Tasmania's Jewish community identity well into the 20th century.    About Jeff Schneider Jeff Schneider is a Collections Analyst who works with cultural institutions to build and share digital collections. He is pre...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is from the JGSGB Dutch & Sephardi Special Interest Group (D&S SIG) by Zoom. • Date: Sunday 20 February 2022 • Time 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 07:00 Salt Lake City • Title: “Vincent Van Gogh and an Amsterdam Jewish cemetery (or two, or three....)” • Speaker: Ruth Ellen Gruber • Description: Ruth Ellen Gruber follows the footsteps of the great Dutch painter to an abandoned Jewish cemetery in Amsterdam, plus two other Jewish cemeteries, including the famous Portuguese Jewish Cemetery in Ouderkerk. Ruth is an award-winning writer, the author of "Jewish Heritage Travel" and coordinator of the Jewish Heritage Europe website.   About Ruth Ellen Gruber Ruth Ellen Gruber has written on Jewish heritage, revival and tourism for more than three decades. Currently she coordinates the website www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu , a project of the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe. With her 2002 book Virtually...