Exhibit on the
Jews of Poznan, 1793–1939
For the first time since before 1939, an exhibition was held January 13, 2007, to March 15, 2007, on the life of the Jews in the city of Poznań, Poland, in the Poznań City Museum. Designed as a popular exhibition for the general public, the exhibition focused on Poznań Jewry in the 19th and 20th centuries (to 1939), including both Prussian times and the interwar period. The primary goal was to show the process of transformation of Poznań Jewry in the 19th century and the consequences this had in the 20th century (emancipation, acculturation, assimilation, reform, modernization and emigration). A second focus was the participation of the Jews in various aspects of the social, economic, cultural and political life of the city.
The exhibition was accompanied by an excellent hardcover illustrated catalogue of many of the exhibits by curator Tamara Sztyma-Knasiecka (www.mnp.art.pl/2007/ judaica/index.html). Copies of the catalogue, Sztyma-Knasiecka, Tamara, Między tradycją a nowoczesnoścą: Żydzi poznańscy w XIX i XX wieku/ Between Tradition and Modernity: The Jews of Poznań in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Poznań: National Museum in Poznań, 2006, are available for purchase for 37 zl. (about US$11.00) at the Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu. Contact Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu, Oddział Historii Miasta, Stary Rynek 1, 60-772 Poznań, Poland, (ratusz@mnp.art.pl) or Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu, Oddział Handlowy, Aleje Marcinkowskiego 9, 61-745 Poznań, Poland, (libra@mnp.art.pl). The catalogue is available for sale even though the exhibit has closed.
Edward David Luft
Washington, DC
About Efrem Millers
Like so many AVOTAYNU readers, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about those “eureka” moments throughout the Winter issue of AVOTAYNU and in the pithy entries entitled “Short Stories.” I do not think this counts, but I love retelling it.
About ten years ago, I was at the National Archives and Records Administration facility here in New York City scrolling my way through microfilms looking for relatives in our extended family in census records. At the microfilm reader immediately adjacent to mine was a gentleman perusing records for a community in upstate New York in the 1830s. On a clipboard was one name in prominent letters: Efrem Miller.
I excused myself and asked him who Efrem Miller was. He said it was an elusive ancestor whom he knew had lived in this community at that time, but was having difficulty documenting. I then introduced myself with my full name: Philip Efrem Miller. His eyes grew so large and his face registered such shock, I was afraid he might faint. I hurriedly explained that while Miller was my last name, Efrem was the name of a great-grandfather on my mother’s mother’s side. Moreover, his Efrem Miller was of Anglo-Irish background, while I am Eastern European Ashkenazic. (For the record, the Millers were from Suwalki, Poland, and hence Litvak, and Efrem Shargorodsky was from Bessarabia and married to a woman from Buczacz, a Galician.)
We both shared a good laugh at the coincidence and then took a break, buying one another a cup of coffee.
Phil Miller
New York, New York
Take Digital Pictures of Documents
Gary Mokotoff’s article “Backing Up Your Records,” (AVOTAYNU Vol. XXII, No. 4, Winter 2006) about digitizing his data was interesting, but another do-it-yourself method is equally good and much less expensive. That is to take digital pictures of the documents.
Taking digital pictures is much faster than scanning the data. I used that method for the Russian Consular Records Catalogue and Index, which JGSGW put on a CD-ROM for its 25th-anniversary celebration. Some pictures were slightly unfocused because I hand-held the camera. I should have purchased a camera holder instead. I saw one at the National Archives in Washington, DC; it looks like a tripod, but the camera is inserted at the top and points downward. That way the photographer never needs to refocus, but simply places the document under the camera, and clicks using a remote clicker. With no need ever to move the camera, the focus never changesCno need to unstaple items; just fold them so the desired view is on top. This method is as fast as picking up the documents to package them to send somewhere. It also is much safer. I always worry when I put something irreplaceable in the mail, because mail sometimes does get lost.
Sallyann Amdur Sack and I produced a cable television show on “downsizing” in which we discussed this method. It can be seen on the web at: http://tracingroots.nova. org.
Arline Sachs
Lorton, Virginia
Amalia and Mollie the Same Person?
In her article, AThe Unfolding Story of a Family@ (AVOTAYNU Vol. XXII, No. 4, Winter 2006), Alice Perkins Gould reports finding a man who seemingly had two wives, one named Amelia, the other Mollie. In my Slovakian research, I have found that the name Amelia is often an updated version of Amalia with an a instead of an e. Amalia is often recorded in the old records as Mali, so it is entirely possible that Mollie and your Amelia are one and the same person.
Barbara Kaufman
Mount Vernon, New York
