Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain Blog

Our next Sunday meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a specialist talk on a MyHeritage theme by Zoom. • Date: Sunday 4 July 2021 • Time: 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 07:00 Salt Lake City • Title: "The latest updates on MyHeritage" • Speaker: Daniel Horowitz • Description: Check out the latest MyHeritage innovations to expand your research! Explore MyHeritage features that will enhance your family tree and make the most of your DNA results. Learn more about the Pedigree Tree, Pedigree Map™, Tree Consistency Checker, the Theory of Family Relativity™, AutoClusters, and many more. About Daniel Horowitz Dedicated to Genealogy since 1986, Daniel was the teacher and the study guide editor of the family history project "Searching for My Roots" in Venezuela for 15 years. He was a board member of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) for 10 years, now is involved in several ...

Our next weekday meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a specialist talk on a Sephardic theme by Zoom. • Date: Tuesday 22 June 2021 • Time: 19:30 London; 14:30 New York; 21:30 Jerusalem; 11:30 San Francisco • Title: Sephardic Jews - Their story via culinary traditions, customs, memories and connections • Speaker: Rebbetzen Ilana Epstein • Description: Ilana has collected many experiences over the last few decades, including qualifying as a French pastry chef. She is the founder and director of Ta’am, which is the crystallisation of over three decades of fascination, excitement and experimentation with Jewish food and makes food and food history vivid and alive. About Rebbetzen Ilana Epstein Ilana has collected many experiences over the last few decades, from interior designer to international educator, qualifying as a French pastry chef and working as a journalist for a number of publications. An educator with over 25 years’ experience...

From The Jewish History Association of South Wales: "The Jewish History Association of South Wales would like to take this opportunity to invite you to our summer series of online talks. We will be holding three separate talks throughout July, the first of which is being held on Friday 2nd July at 11am. 'Lionel Elton: The Life and Times of an Eccentric Welsh Jewish Atheist' Lionel was born in Grangetown, Cardiff in 1933. He will be talking about his ancestry which stretches back to Poland and Odessa, through to his family emigrating and what life was like growing up in Wales. Lionel is also a very accomplished musician and will be performing some pieces for us on the clarinet. - so grab a beverage and a biscuit and join us for your elevenses! Please register for Lionel’s talk at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82934261708?pwd=NjI2QlU3QmUxSEp4bVB4L1doSlF2Zz09 All of our online events are completely free. At the end of each talk there will be a Q&...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a General Workshop session, covering all regions, by Zoom. • Date 20 June 2021 • Time 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 07:00 Salt Lake City • 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 raymondtax2@gmail.com 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 invitati...

CARPETS, TEXTILES and KISS-ME-QUICK HATS: THE SEPHARDIM OF YORKSHIRE WITH NIGEL GRIZZARD TUESDAY 15 JUNE   7:30 pm UK / 11:30 am PT/ 2:30 pm ET/ 8:30 pm Europe/ 9:30 pm Israel   Leeds-based Nigel Grizzard, Yorkshire’s Jewish Heritage and Tour Guide, has been delving into the Sephardi history of England’s largest county: the Turkish merchants who established a Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue in Leeds, the Sephardi Rabbanim who still serve in Yorkshire, the deportation of Leeds Sephardi Jews on the infamous ship the Dunera to Australia during WW2, the exodus from Egypt in 1956 and the housing of Jewish refugees in Horsforth, the settlement of four generations of Baghdadi Jews in the seaside town of Scarborough – and much more!  Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/ 89258521233?pwd= TFV2UUkwZTE2cDAxSzl2M2MvbXR3UT 09 Meeting ID: 892 5852 1233 Passcode: Leeds   Please note that no registration is required but for security reasons, only partic...

From Jewish Renaissance: BLACK BRITISH JEWISH LIVES "In an attempt to tackle the wide-spread assumption that all Jews are essentially white and European, we're launching our virtual seven-part series with Lyons Learning this Sunday 13 June. For the first discussion we welcome Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies, and journalist Stephen Bush to talk on the topic of Black British Jewish Lives: The Bush Report . Marie is also an accomplished employment lawyer, played a crucial role in the fight against antisemitism in the Labour Party and was voted '40th most influential Jew' by The Jerusalem Post in 2018, the same year she was appointed president of the Board. Stephen led the Board’s 10-month investigation on racial inclusivity in the Jewish community. "I hope my report will enhance communal life for black Jews, Jews of colour and Sephardi, Mizrahi and Yemenite Jews," he said of his findings. Find out more on Sunday night when the pa...

The JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme has, this coming Sunday, our annual Members’ Social Meeting by Zoom on a DNA theme by Vice President Michael Tobias OBE. • Date: Sunday 13 June 2021 • Time: 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem; 07:00 Salt Lake City • Title: The Woolf Pack - a DNA case study • Speaker: Michael Tobias OBE • Description: During the Covid19 pandemic in the UK Michael was approached by several people whose recent DNA tests had revealed Jewish ancestry (typically an unknown Jewish birth father). This talk will cover one such case and will provide an overview of the steps taken in under 2 weeks to construct a family tree of over 800 individuals including over 40 DNA matches and identifying the Jewish birth father. At the end of the talk, questions will be answered and listener opinions will be welcomed. After a 15-minute tea break we will return for a fun exploration of Zoom rooms where we will delight you with some topics o...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a German Special Interest Group Meeting by Zoom. • Date Sunday 6 Jun 2021 • 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 2021 the future meeting dates are Sundays 5 September and 5 December. Please add them to your forward calendar. Jeanette R Rosenberg OBE Convenor of German SIG The i...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is from the JGSGB Eastern European Special Interest Group (EE SIG) by Zoom. • Date: Sunday 30 May 2021 • Time: 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem • Title: From Losice to London – A Story of Courage • Speaker: Warren Grynberg • Description: Warren’s talk centres around his father leaving the ghetto in the far east of Poland, onto Siberia and then joining the British Army. After the talk, there will be an opportunity for Q&A and discussion on the talk. About Warren Grynberg ====================== Warren Grynberg has been a London Blue Badge Tour Guide for the past twenty-four years. He previously worked in book publishing for many years and has written four London history books. At the age of nineteen he volunteered to go to Israel to help out during the Six Day War – and then volunteered to go into the Israeli Army. He was a magistrate for over fifteen years until age called...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is from the JGSGB Eastern European Special Interest Group (EE SIG) on a Lithuanian and Latvian theme by Zoom. • Date: Sunday 23 May 2021 • Time: 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem • Title: “Internal Passports in Lithuania and Latvia & Pitfalls in Researching the Origins of Rebecca Bloom” • Speaker: Arlene Beare • Description: Arlene will ensure that you get your money’s worth with two talks on Lithuania and Latvia. The first is about internal passports in the former Russian Empire and after 1919 in Lithuania and Latvia. The second is more personal about her research into her grandmother’s Lithuanian and Latvian origins. After each talk, there will be an opportunity for Q&A and discussion on the talk. About Arlene Beare =================== Arlene was born in South Africa and emigrated to the UK with her husband and three children in 1974. She is a retired consultant physi...

More videos will be uploaded over the next couple of weeks. The meetings below are now available to watch for free. Please like and share!   • Daniela Weil - Dutch Brazil and the first Jews of New York • Jacob Marrache Fischel - Jewish Genealogy in Morocco • Alain Nedjar - Livorno Sephardic Marriage Registers • Jarrett Ross - Family Nunes Vaz, a Journey of Western Sephardic genealogy • Aviva ben-Ur - Suriname: Jewish Autonomy in a Slave Society • Adam Brown - Sephardic DNA project • Heide Warncke - Highlights from the Ets Haim collection • Michael Waas - Muestro Yerusha: Jewish heritage and Identity in the Ottoman Empire • Noam Sienna - Rabbis with inky fingers: Making the 18th Century Hebrew Book • Stanley Mirvis - The Jews of Eighteenth Century Jamaica • Laura Arnold Leibman - The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a specialist talk on a Sephardic theme by Zoom. • Date: Sunday 16 May 2021 • Time: 14:00 London; 09:00 New York; 16:00 Jerusalem • Title: Breaking with the Past: The Jews of Spain before the Expulsion • Speaker: Dr Cecil Reid • Description: Spain was a crucible of social change in the 14th and 15th centuries. This was the case no more so than for the Jews: their remarkable millennium of cultural coexistence with their Christian and Muslim neighbours would end with their expulsion in 1492. But even before this final act, the communities came under an ever-increasing threat that was both physical and cultural. In this talk Dr. Reid considers the highs and the lows of Jewish life in these last two fraught centuries of the Middle Ages. The changes that affected the communities provide a colourful but also a tragic backdrop to a unique chapter of European Jewish history, one that had repercussions...

From Yad Vashem: Jews in the Red Army, 1941–1945  About the Project From 1941 to 1945 between 350,000 and 500,000 Jews served in various roles in the Red Army during the Soviet-German war of 1941-1945. During the first months of the war a large number of Jews, especially members of the intelligentsia and students, served in the Narodnoe opolchenie (National Guard or militia), the irregular military units whose task was to slow and, hopefully, halt the Wehrmacht assaults on major Soviet cities. The majority of those in the Narodnoe opolchenie, who were poorly trained and poorly armed, were killed in the first months of the war. In the Red Army itself the estimates of the number of Jews killed during the war range from 120,000 to 142,000. The 100 accounts of Jews in the Red Army that are included in the present project highlight those who received formal recognition, primarily as Heroes of the Soviet Union, of their military achievements. However, there are also many biographies o...

Members may be interested to browse the Wiener Library's videos channel on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheW ienerLibrary/videos         Thanks to Jeanette Rosenberg for passing this on.  

Due to the bank holiday there will be no Sunday meeting on 2 May, but coming next in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a meeting from the JGSGB Chilterns Regional Group (RG) by Zoom. Here is the information for this meeting: • Date: Tuesday 4 May 2021 • Time: 19:30 London (note, 14:30 New York, 11:30 San Francisco, 21:30 Jerusalem) • Title: Crypto Jewish Governors & Viceroys of Portuguese India • Speaker: Bernard Miller • Description: The first one seemed like an aberration. The second might have been a mistake but by the time he had found half a dozen, there seemed to be a pattern. Several lines of Bernard Miller’s Sephardic ancestors whom he had traced back to 15th- and 16th-century Portugal seemed to contain Governors and Viceroys of Portuguese India. Like so much in genealogy, initially it appeared counter-intuitive. Many of the individuals appointed by the Portuguese Crown to represent it and govern its colonies came from Jewish ...

Members may be interested in two films about the Liverpool Jewish community. Please see the attached flyers.  

JGSGB SEEKS NEW ACCOUNTS EXAMINER The Society is looking for a new independent accounts examiner as a consequence of the current examiner standing down after many years of service. An independent examiner is defined in law as 'an independent person who is reasonably believed by the charity trustees to have the requisite ability and practical experience to carry out a competent examination of the accounts'. No specific qualification is required, but clearly in all cases the person must have a good understanding of accounts and charity accounts in particular. Independent examiners come from a wide range of backgrounds: accountants, bankers, experienced charity treasurers acting as independent examiners to other charities, and so on. The Society will pay a fee for this annual examination. If you are interested or know of someone who is and want to learn more, contact our Treasurer, Peter Heilbrunn, at treasurer@jgsgb.org.uk .

Harif Lockdown Lectures   The Four Jewish Communities of India with MAISIE MEYER TUESDAY 27 APRIL 7:30 pm UK time/ 11:30 am PT/ 2:30 pm ET/ 8:30 pm Europe/ 9:30 pm Israel   "The four key Jewish communities in India were a minuscule proportion of the subcontinent’s population, but their involvement in the development of India, the contribution they made to Indian Society, and the legacy they left in several unexpected spheres is impressive. We welcome back Dr Maisie Meyer, herself born in India of Baghdadi parents, for another fascinating presentation." Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/ 87260186673?pwd= VkowTXhsb0R3U2J6Ti9hVEZ6Qm9VUT 09  The event will be livestreamed to the Harif Facebook page and recorded. Enquiries to info@harif.org   [If you're viewing this post via the summary email and the links don't work, please go to https://jgsgbnews.blogspot.com/]

From the United Synagogue:  The Jews of London - https://www.thejewsoflondon.co m/ "Brand-new, free, self-guided walking tour: The Jews of London. Written by Rabbi Yoni Birnbaum and Ben Vos as part of our 150th anniversary celebrations, the tour begins at the Barbican and ends at Fournier Street, Spitalfields taking in nearly 1,000 years of Jewish history. The tour begins by asking: how did the first English Jews live? What brought them to London? And how were they received? Over fifteen stops, we then take in the expulsion of 1290 and the Jews' readmission more than three centuries later. We explore the development of London's Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities, look at diamonds and disputes, the formation of the United Synagogue, the seismic changes brought about by Jewish immigration from eastern Europe, the development of kosher food, Jewish schools and the move from the East End to London's suburbs. It is a fascinating journey and one we do hope you'll...

Glamorgan Archives events programme / Rhaglen digwyddiadau Archifau Morgannwg About this Event Researching Jewish History in the Cynon Valley by the Jewish History Association of South Wales The Jewish History Association of South Wales (JHASW) was established in November 2017 with the aim to uncover, document, preserve, and share the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Jewish communities of south Wales. One of the projects undertaken was a partnership with the museums in Rhondda Cynon Taf. This talk will focus on the discoveries and research undertaken in the Cynon Valley Museum and within the local community. The aim is to explain, not only what we found but how we found it. Join us on the 22nd of April to find out how small items in the Cynon Valley Museum’s collection led to the rediscovery of many Jewish families who lived and prospered for many years in the Cynon Valley. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund  To register, see: https://www.eventbrite....