Jewish Family Research Association Israel

Date	Place	Speaker	Title	Material
Oct. 12, 2008	Ra'anana	Leah	Special Lecture presented by ESRA (English Speaking Residents' Association) and JFRA "The Sephardic Journey of Leah Jacob Garrick" Leah was born in Shanghai, the 4th generation of her family to live there. She had a typical colonial upbringing, living through the war years under Japanese occupation, immigrating to the United States in 1947. She has returned to Shanghai several times and currently resides in San Francisco. Leah has an extremely interesting family history to relate. There is limited seating so advance reservations have to be made via the ESRA office: Telephone 09-748 2957
Sep. 24, 2008	Ra'anana	Schelly Talalay Dardashti & Daniel Horowitz	Schelly will speak about the Chicago IAJGS conference and Daniel will speak about the "Federation of Genealogy Societies (FGS)" conference in Philadelphia and the new amazing photo manager with tagging capabilities and face recognition that MyHeritage has developed.
Sep. 23, 2008	Tel Aviv		Internet Evening: Hints and help in accessing the abundant genealogical information on the internet.
July 29, 2008	Tel Aviv	Chava Seller	How I found out what happened to Uri's father, Chava will explain (in English) how she discovered, after years of research, what happened to her husband's father who disappeared in 1930s Germany. Her story – describing the countless letters, applications for information, dead ends and frustrations – concludes with her success. Through her experiences, learn "what is available where" in the German archives she searched
June 17, 2008	Tel Aviv		Translation Aids for Dealing With Foreign Languages
July 29, 2008	Tel Aviv	Chava Seller	Chava will explain how she discovered, after years of research, what happened to her husband's father who disappeared in 1930s Germany. Her story describing the countless letters, applications for information, dead ends and frustrations concludes with her success. Through her experiences, learn "what is available where" in the German archives she searched (in English)
July 09, 2008	Ra'anana	Michael Goldstein	After 60 years of being hidden away, the records of 17.5 million people persecuted and murdered by the Nazis in WWII housed in Bad Arolsen, Germany were opened. In May 2008, 42 genealogists spent a week doing research at the archives. Michael Goldstein (IGS president) will give us a presentation and report of that fascinating week.
June 24, 2008	Rehovot	Trisher Wilson	Reuniting Holocaust Survivors. Trisher is a great genealogical sleuth. She has some riveting stories to tell about her successes in reuniting people.
June 17, 2008	Tel Aviv	Hinda Solomon	Translation Aids for Dealing With Foreign Languages Language of Meeting: English
May 27th, 2008	Tel Aviv	Ora Leshem	The Ins & Outs and Ups & Downs of Creating a Book. Ora will tell us about her experience of creating a book about her family, one of the pioneering families of Rishon LeZion and Kenya.
May 20, 2008	Rehovot	Daniel Horowitz	Creating and Storing Family Trees on the Internet: Daniel Horowitz, JFRA's webmaster, will give a presentation of how to build, manage and share your family trees using sites on the web. (in English)
April 09, 2008	Ra'anana	Nissim Moses	Nissim Moses has compiled a family tree of the 7 branches (the community is descended from 14 people) of the Bene Israel comprising 11,600 names. He did a presentation on the history of the Bene Israel and similarities between the Hindu and Jewish religions.
April 6th, 2008	Rehovot	Neville Lamdan	The new Institute of Genealogy
March 25th, 2008	Tel Aviv	Hinda Solomon	What is the oldest object or fact or story that you know of from your family? How far back in time can you reach? Please bring them along. Aviva Neeman will be joining us with some items from her family with roots of many years in Eretz Yisrael. (Hebrew)
March 10th, 2008	Rehovot	Rabbi Shalom Bronstein	Rabbi Shalom Bronstein will give a talk entitled "A Window on Galicia". His talk will include the results of his recent research on medical questionnaires from the Yad Vashem Archives. Rabbi Bronstein is a professional genealogist and an expert on Galicia.
March 06, 2008	Ra'anana	Daniel Horowitz	How to do the Shorashim school project: Daniel Horowitz has more than 10 years of experience teaching genealogy to children with his project "Searching for My Roots". His goal is to motivate children to investigate their family's past over the last century. He will share his methodology and strategies for producing an excellent Shorashim school project.
February 28th, 2008	Rehovot		The film "Chicken Soup & Scourse"
February 26, 2008	Tel Aviv	Hinda Solomon	Memories From Before the Age of Technology How far back in time can you reach? What is the oldest object or fact or story that you know of from your family? We will use them as a base for an interesting discussion.
February 13, 2008	Ra'anana	Dr. Doron Behar	The JFRA Israel Annual General Meeting Dr. Doron Behar Population geneticist at Rambam Medical Center, Haifa; speak about "Maternal diversity among the Jewish Diaspora" and help us with our own DNA testing!!!
January 29, 2008	Tel Aviv	Hinda Solomon	A Survey of Sources for Polish Genealogical Research. The emphasis is on sources that are available to Israelis. (in Hebrew)
January 23, 2008	Petach Tikva	Tuvia Schwartz	The well-known tour guide whose expertise is Poland will speak in Hebrew on "Jewish Poland: Past, Present and Future" accompanied by a DVD photo presentation. This should be of interest to everyone who is concerned about the future of Jewry in Eastern Europe, so even if you are not researching Poland specifically, you will add to your knowledge of what is happening in the Diaspora.
January 3, 2008	Ra'anana	Arnon Hershkovitz	Online Genealogy Communities - not a Virtual Reality. The lecture will discuss the need for online genealogy communities and the differences between several types of such communities. Especially, genealogy forums (discussion boards), blogs and wikis will be presented and discussed. The most essential questions will be raised: What is the purpose of each community? Who can initiate them? Who is the driving force behind them? What kinds of participation do they provide? Are they regulated? etc.
December 25, 2007	Tel Aviv	Daniel Horowitz	Creating and Storing Family Trees on the Internet: Daniel Horowitz, JFRA's webmaster, will give a presentation of how to build, manage and share your family trees using sites on the web. (in English)
December 19, 2007	Rehovot	Romy Lanzkron	Romy will give an audio-visual presentation on the "Lanzkron Family History 1800- 1900"
December 02, 2007	Rehovot	Dr. Yuval Shaked	Dr. Yuval Shaked, Director of the Feher Jewish Music Centre at Beth Hatefutsoth, a repository for music pertaining to Jewish life in the past in ommunities around the world. Dr. Shaked will be illustrating his talk with musical examples. This is a talk not to be missed!
November 27, 2007	Tel Aviv	Sherry Kisos	Yad Vashem microfilmed some 20 million records from the International Tracing Service in Arolsen, Germany between the years 1955-57. The records are basically lists of people whose names were obtained from various sources immediately after WWII. Locating the names of family members on the index cards could give clues to tracing those survivors even today, 60 years later. Sherry will share her experiences of using the reels of files in an attempt to help trace people for families outside Israel. The lecture will be in English.
November 8th, 2007	Rehovot	Dr. Jeremy Pfeffer	His research into the Pinhas of the London Beth Din, 1805 - 1856
November 14th, 2007	Petach Tikva	Dr. Michael Toben	The Anatomy of a Pogrom – Rechitsa Michael says that it is actually not very gruesome. It is about the historical background and how these things unfolded at that time. Since most of us have families which have been touched by those events, it is relevant. In addition, it will increase our knowledge of Jewish history of a very troubled time for Jews in Eastern Europe.
10 October, 2007	Ra'anana		"Chicken Soup and Scouse": A portrait of the Liverpool Jewish community from the 18th Century to the present day. This film includes authentic film footage and wonderful interviews with some of the elders of the community who recall 'the early days'. Although this is specifically about the Liverpool Jewish community, the experiences our ancestors had in Liverpool were similar to those in any other community, as they fled from the pogroms in Russia at the beginning of the 20th Century, and later from Nazism in the 1930s.
28 August, 2007	Tel Aviv		We will be using the internet to see some sites that can be used for gleaning genealogical information. Bring along your suggestions, too.
31 July, 2007	Tel Aviv		Watermarks. A touching movie about the champion women's swim team of the legendary sports club "HaKoah Vienna" in the period preceding the Holocaust. Seven of the women who are now in their 80's, tell about their championships, the challenges and the dilemmas that stood before them. The film is accompanied by historical footage. Languages spoken: Hebrew, English and German, with English subtitles.
11 July 2007	Ra'anana		Self-Help session. Bring your successes - they might give others an idea of what to do. Bring your "brick walls" - someone might have a good idea of how to break it down. We show a short film of how Jay Shapiro spotted an obviously Jewish soldier’s grave from WWI in the British military cemetery in Ramle, with a cross on the headstone. Jay traced the soldier’s family, now living in the U.S., and eventually had the cross changed to a magen david.
11 July 2007	Rehovot	Cynthia Wroclawski	The Yad Vashem Names Recovery Project. The presentation will take place at the Rehovot Municipal Libary
26 Jun 2007	Tel Aviv		Watermarks. A touching movie about the champion women's swim team of the legendary sports club "HaKoah Vienna" in the period preceding the Holocaust. Seven of the women who are now in their 80's, tell about their championships, the challenges and the dilemmas that stood before them. The film is accompanied by historical footage. Languages spoken: Hebrew, English and German, with English subtitles.
20 Jun 2007	Petach Tikva	Chaim Freedman	Misleads in Family Trees
13 Jun 2007	Ra'anana	Trisher Wilson	Reuniting Families of Holocaust Survivors: Trisher Wilson, who has been written about in several newspaper articles lately, will tell us about her amazing successes in reuniting about 12 families. She will describe how she did it using information from the internet, Yad Vashem and genealogical research methods. (The lecture will be in English). We will show a film of 2 cousins reunited by Trisher - as shown on Israel community TV.
29 May 2007	Tel Aviv	Dr. Neville Y. Lamdan	Who needs an Institute for Jewish Genealogy? In January 2006 the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy was launched at the National and Hebrew University Library in Jerusalem. Its primary purpose is to engage in research and teaching with a view to making Jewish genealogy a recognized academic discipline and, in general, to raising the field to new heights.
09 May 2007	Ra'anana	Rachel Kreisberg-Zakarin	From a Few Threads to a Whole Quilt. The Story of my Genealogical Research into the Simon Wiesenthal Family. Until about a year ago Rachel knew very little about her grandfather's family other than the fact that he and his wife lost 89 family members in the Holocaust. Rachel's research sheds light on the Wiesenthal family roots in Galicia, those family members who immigrated to the US, those who died in the Holocaust and those who survived - to tell their stories and of those who perished.
01 May 2007	Tel Aviv	Trisher Wilson	Reuniting Families of Holocaust Survivors: Trisher Wilson, who has been written about in several newspaper articles lately, will tell us about her amazing successes in reuniting about 12 families. She will describe how she did it using information from the internet, Yad Vashem and genealogical research methods. (The lecture will be in English)
11 April 2007	Ra'anana	Dr. Neil Rosenstein	His new book "The Grandees of New Jersey", a family saga and continuous history from pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal to Holland, the Caribbean and the United States, where descendants of Joshua Naar played a major role in the history of New Jersey and New York.
27 March 2007	Tel Aviv	Zippi Rosenne	Preserving, restoring, displaying, and analyzing photos for genealogical information. What you should do instead of storing your photos in the proverbial shoebox.
14 March 2007	Ra'anana	Haim Ghiuzelli	New Developments in Genealogical Resources at Beth Hatefutsoth: The Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center boasts a computerized database that now holds records about well over 2 million individuals. An important collection of LDS microfilms; the Jewish Family Names database (a unique collection of over 20,000 entries about the meaning and origins of surnames from all Jewish communities); and the Jewish Communities database, with information on 5,000 Jewish communities worldwide, have long made Beth Hatefutsoth a goldmine for Jewish genealogists. During the past year Beth Hatefutsoth has undertaken a major project of integrating and updating these databases with the aim of turning them and the other databases that would be added to them into an advanced tool that would serve genealogists from all over the world. The lecture will describe these various databases and the collections that have been acquired by the Museum during 2005 and will explain the range of services available at Beth Hatefutsoth. A special emphasis will be put on the features of the new integrated database that is currently being created at the Museum.
28 February 2007	Rehovot	Dr. Alexander Karnovsky	FamiliaBuilder and FamiliaOnline software for building genealogical Web sites.
27 February 2007	Tel Aviv	Yuval Shaked	Beth Hatefutsoth music collection. Musican and musicologist, father of four, lecturer at Haifa University's Music Department and at the Kibbutzim College and, since 1999, Head of the Feher Jewish Music Center of Beth Hatefutsoth.
8 February 2007	Ra'anana	Sherry Kisos	The Arolsen Files: Yad Vashem microfilmed some 20 million records from the International Tracing Service in Arolsen, Germany between the years 1955-57. The records are basically lists of people whose names were obtained from various sources immediately after WWII. Locating the names of family members on the index cards could give clues to tracing those survivors even today, 60 years later.
30 January 2007	Tel Aviv	Haim Ghiuzelli	New Developments in Genealogical Resources at Beth Hatefutsoth: The Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center boasts a computerized database that now holds records about well over 2 million individuals. An important collection of LDS microfilms; the Jewish Family Names database (a unique collection of over 20,000 entries about the meaning and origins of surnames from all Jewish communities); and the Jewish Communities database, with information on 5,000 Jewish communities worldwide, have long made Beth Hatefutsoth a goldmine for Jewish genealogists. During the past year Beth Hatefutsoth has undertaken a major project of integrating and updating these databases with the aim of turning them and the other databases that would be added to them into an advanced tool that would serve genealogists from all over the world. The lecture will describe these various databases and the collections that have been acquired by the Museum during 2005 and will explain the range of services available at Beth Hatefutsoth. A special emphasis will be put on the features of the new integrated database that is currently being created at the Museum.
17 January 2007	Rehovot	Haim Ghiuzelli
10 January 2007	Ra'anana	Gilad Japhet	New Genealogy Technologies: Face Recognition and Super Search: A new genealogy startup has been developing technologies that aim to benefit the family history research done by each one of us. These technologies and tools, all free, were unveiled for the very first time in the 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. Join MyHeritage CEO Gilad Japhet in a breathtaking session on these new innovations. Learn how face recognition technology can benefit your genealogy research; meet a new search engine that aggregates hundreds of online databases to find more ancestors on the Internet than ever possible before; and discover additional gems that bring genealogy to a new age.
28 December 2006	Rehovot	Schelly Talalay Dardashti	Various genealogy conferences she has attended during the last few months (notably the IAJGS Conference in New York and the recent DNA conference) and the latest research tools and information unveiled
26 December 2006	Tel Aviv		Let's Play Genealogical Trivia
13 December 2006	Ra'anana	JFRA experts
08 November 2006	Ra'anana	Daniel Horowitz	Family Tree Maker 6.0
30 October2006	Tel Aviv	Daniel Horowitz	Family Tree Maker 6.0
19 February 2003	Ra'anana	Dr. Doron Behar	New DNA studieCochin Indian Jews and Levites
6 February 2003	Petah Tikva		DoroTree Exhibition Learn about the made in Israel Genealogy Software
29 January 2003	Tel Aviv		Video/discussion, "Uncle Chatzkel" The film emphasizes the relationship of the past to the present as seen by an extraordinary person.
22 January 2003	Ra'anana	Marcel Glaskie	Genealogical Resources in the UK
26 December 2002	Petah Tikva		Experienced members helping beginners
28 November 2002	Petah Tikva		Video/discussion, "Uncle Chatzkel." The film emphasizes the relationship of the past to the present as seen by an extraordinary person.
20 November 2002	Ra'anana	Batya Unterschatz	Post-Batya Research in Israel From 1972-2001 (when it was disbanded) Batya Unterschatz worked at the Jewish Agency's Search Bureau for Missing Relatives. Multi-lingual Batya reunited thousands of families separated by war, and assisted researchers around the world to find their relatives in Israel, using every possible resource. Since her retirement, Batya now works privately. She will share with us her unique knowledge of resources to locate people in Israel, as well as anecdotes from her very successful past. A popular at international Jewish genealogy conferences, she has also assisted in some major projects, such as locating passengers of the St. Louis for Steven Spielberg, as well as working with Jewish children hidden by gentile families and helping the hidden children discover their real identities. Join us for a wonderful evening with Batya.
November 6, 2002	Tel-Aviv	Micha Reisel	Changing borders How the borders of Eastern Europe changed over time Micha Reisel offered his very interesting, illustrated program on how changing borders through the centuries impacted our ancestors' lives and how they continue to impact our search for archival documents.
October 17, 2002	Petah Tikva	Micha Reisel	Changing borders How the borders of Eastern Europe changed over time Micha Reisel offered his very interesting, illustrated program on how changing borders through the centuries impacted our ancestors' lives and how they continue to impact our search for archival documents.
October 16, 2002	Ra'anana	Micha Reisel	Changing borders How the borders of Eastern Europe changed over time Micha Reisel offered his very interesting, illustrated program on how changing borders through the centuries impacted our ancestors' lives and how they continue to impact our search for archival documents.
October 9, 2002	Tel-Aviv	Hinda Solomon	Rooting for your Roots How to start your research
July 4, 2002	Petah Tikva		What do we want to know?
June 19, 2002	Ra'anana		First Steps in Researching Your Family History Our panel of genealogical experts will answer all your questions, give you advice and provide you with resources. All researchers invited - a 'mutual help' evening.
June 6, 2002	Petah Tikva	Chaim Freedman	Sums of Genealogy Chaim Freedman will speak on finding the kernel of truth behind family stories, based on his own research and that of others. He will offer some very unusual and interesting stories illustrating this.
May 22, 2002	Ra'anana	Aubrey Newman	The Poor Jews Temporary Shelter in London's East End, Aubrey Newman has done all the work on the Poor Jews Temporary Shelter (1886-1914) in London's East End, and made the database available. Wonderful wonderful
May 15, 2002	Ra'anana	Haim Shapiro	The Accidental Genealogist Haim Shapiro will speak about his recent Eastern European Adventures.
April 24, 2002	Ra'anana	Beryl Baleson	Southern Africa Jewish Genealogical Resources Immigration statistics for Southern Africa show 50% were born in Lithuania, 30% in Latvia (Kurland) and 10% in Russia (Minsk and Dvinsk). Hear about the SA SIG, why it was formed and the advances it has made in making resources available to researchers. The SIG provides information to those researching Jewish family history in the communities of South Africa, Lesotho (Basutoland), Botswana (Bechuanaland), Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), Zambia (Northern Rhodesia), Swaziland, Mocambique and the former Belgian Congo.
April 11, 2002	Petah Tikva	JFRA experts	Learn how to begin at the beginning and overcome obstacles
April 7, 2002	Ramat Gan	Rob Sealtiel	From a Leaf to a Whole Forest Holocaust survivor Rob Sealtiel will tell about his experiences in post-War Holland as a young boy and how he began his search for his lost family. The talk will include a 30-minute segment from the TV documentary "The Shealtiels - A Family Saga".
March 10, 2002	Ramat Gan	Sassoon Simontov, President of the Bet Kurosh Cultural Center	The Jews of Afghanistan more about Mr. Sassoon Simantov
March 6, 2002	Ra'anana	Marcia Chamovitz	A Successful Search for Family in Argentina
February 28, 2002	Petah Tikva	Schelly Talalay Dardashti	Genealogy and Its Relationship to Jewish History
February 24, 2002	Holon		Internet Genealogy A special hands-on meeting on researching genealogy on the internet. Beginners as well as more advanced family history researchers are invited to attend and learn about helpful resources on the internet.
February 10, 2002	Ramat Gan	Film and discussion	"A Time to Gather Stones Together" Tracks US Holocaust survivors in 1992 as they travel back to prewar Galicia, now Poland and Ukraine, to view old family and communal records of Jewish life.
February 6, 2002	Ra'anana	Shi Lei, Bar Ilan University	The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng "There is only memory," says Shi Lei, 23, of Kaifeng, China, whose wish to learn about Judaism, Jewish observances and his family's memories led to his visit to Israel. He is the first direct descendant of Kaifeng Jews to study in Israel. Bar Ilan University granted him a one-year scholarship to study Hebrew, history and culture. An ancient community and an important stop on the Silk Road, Kaifeng's Jewish community was founded about 1000 CE. Today, only a few hundred people identify as descendants of Kaifeng's Jews.
January 24, 2002	Petah Tikva	Schelly Talalay Dardashti	Genealogical Resources in Israel
January 20, 2002	Ramat Gan	Diana Sommer	Hamburg Port: Gateway to the New World. Learn about Hamburg, Germany, the port through which about 5 million immigrants passed on their way to the US, Canada, the UK, South Africa, South America etc. will present an extensive illustrated talk on how our ancestors reached Hamburg from their places of birth and residence. Find out how they got there and how long it took. Discover what happened when they got to the port, and what their lives were like while they waited for onward passage. Learn about the ships they traveled on and all sorts of interesting facts.
January 16, 2002	Ra'anana	Rob Sealtiel	Hamburg Port: Gateway to the New World
December 23, 2001	Tel Aviv		Board Elections Results
December 2, 2001	Tel Aviv	Hadasah Assouline, Director Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People	Genealogical Resources and How to Use Them
November 21, 2001	Ra'anana	Mr. Shlomo Akale, The Ethiopian Heritage Center	Ethiopian Jewry and the Ethiopian Heritage Center
November 11, 2001	Tel Aviv	Schelly Talalay Dardashti	Tales of the Talalay Talalay Family Research
November 7, 2001	Ra'anana		Jewish genealogical resource books and help from advanced researchers
October 28, 2001	Tel Aviv	Mr. Shlomo Akale, The Ethiopian Heritage Center	Ethiopian Jewry and the Ethiopian Heritage Center
October 17, 2001	Ra'anana	Jerry Esterson	European Jewish Given Names, Data Bases, and the Impact of Rabbinic Sources & Yiddish
September 23, 2001	Tel Aviv	Dr. Doron Behar, Technion	Genetic Archaeology in the Jewish Diaspora
September 2, 2001	Tel Aviv	Anton Felton of London UK	"Jewish Carpets" Anton is a collector of Judaic carpets, A passionate man who truly loves his hobby, he is a fascinating and has exhibited his collection and lectured at Jewish museums and to many communities in the UK and US. Before the start of the lecture Schelly Dardashti will deliver a brief report on the International Genealogy Conference held in London in July this year.
August 29, 2001	Ra'anana		Featuring a conference report Intro to Jewish genealogy Programming for the year
July 15, 2001	Tel Aviv	Ben Noach	Building the Database of Dutch Jewish Family Trees in the Center for Dutch Jewish History at Hebrew University
June 24, 2001	Tel Aviv	Rob Sealtiel	The European Federation of Jewish Genealogical Societies(EFJGS) A short explanation on the history of its formation, its goals and its relationship with the IAJGS. Screening of the film "Nobody's Business" and a panel discussion on inter-generational genealogy
June 5, 2001	Tel Aviv	Schelly Talalay Dardashti	Following the Silk Road - Persian and Bukharan Research Tips on the new Ellis Island Website Spring 2001:
May 9, 2001	Tel Aviv	Aviva Neeman, past President, JFRA	Genealogical Research in Eretz Israel
April 15, 2001	Tel Aviv	Rob Saltiel, Director, Genealogical Study and Research Institute	Dutch Jews First immigration into North and South America
March 11, 2001	Tel Aviv	Alex Abraham, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem	Developing an On-Line Data Base of the Yad Vashem records
February 25, 2001	Tel Aviv	Diana Sommer, Director, Genealogy Dept., Bet Hatefutsoth	My Family's Story: The Prof.Yitzhak Halbrecht International Family Tree Competition Held annually by the Goldman Jewish Genealogy, Bet Hatefutsoth
February 11, 2001	Tel Aviv	Dr.Saul Issroff, Coordinator, London 2001, JGS Great Britain	The International Summer Seminar on Jewish Genealogy and Jewish Genealogical Resources in London, July 8-14, London UK
January 30, 2001	Tel Aviv	Prof. Karl Skorecki of Rambam Hospital, Haifa and The Canadian Center for Molecular Biology, Technion	Genetic Archeology of Jewish Communities