Lithuanian Jewish Culture, by Dovid Katz. Originally published 2004 and reprinted in 2010, by Baltos Lankos of Lithuania. Large format, 400 pages, hardcover. ISBN 9955-584-41-6. www.baltoslankos.lt. Available online from: http://www.amazon.com/Lithuanian-Jewish-Culture-Dovid-Katz/dp/9639776513 Dovid Katz, the New York-born, award-winning Yiddish scholar who founded the […]
About BIll Gladstone
Jewish Memoirs and Autobiography
People with good stories inside of them often find the drive and determination to get those stories out into the world. On the several occasions when I’ve enrolled in creative-writing or memoir-writing workshops, usually with the aim of finishing a particular […]
Book Review: The Life of Glückel of Hameln, Written by Herself. Translated and edited by Beth-Zion Abrahams.
The Life of Glückel of Hameln, Written by Herself. Translated from the original Yiddish and edited by Beth-Zion Abrahams. New edition published in hardcover by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2010. <www.jewishpub.org> If, as historian Jacob Shatzky once observed, catastrophe […]
Book Review: The Rise of the Toronto Jewish Community, by Shmuel Mayer Shapiro
Toronto: Now and Then Books, 2010; softcover, 170 pp. Price: $22. Order from <www.now andthenbookstoronto.com>. The Jew in Canada, ed. Arthur D. Hart. Originally published in 1926; abridged facsimile edition Now and Then Books, cost: 2010. softcover, large format, 466 […]
An American Experience: Adeline Moses Loeb (1876–1953) and Her Early American Jewish Ancestors.
An American Experience: Adeline Moses Loeb (1876–1953) and Her Early American Jewish Ancestors. Contributors are John L. Loeb, Jr., Kathy L. Plotkin, Margaret Loeb Kempner, and Judith E. Endelman, with an introduction by Eli N. Evans. Hardcover, large format, full […]
A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil Registration Documents (including Birth, Marriage and Death Records). 3rd Edition, by Judith R. Frazin
A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil Registration Documents (including Birth, Marriage and Death Records). 3rd Edition, by Judith R. Frazin. Published by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois, 2009. Hardcover, coil-bound, 464 pages. $35.00. It has been about 20 […]
Contributing Editors: Winter 2009
AUSTRALIA (Sharpe) Jewish Genealogy Downunder, quarterly publication of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (Victoria), Vol. 11, No 3, October 2009. Bubbles Segall, well known for her work over many years with the South African Special Interest Group (SIG), recently […]
“Jewish Life in the South African Country Communities”, and “Jewish Migration to South Africa: Passenger Lists from the UK”
Order form: ORDER FORM 2015 new Jewish Life in the South African Country Communities. Large format, five-volume set. A multi-year project, researched by the South African Friends of Beth Hatefutsoth. Ordering information available from Janine Blumberg, Kaplan Centre, University […]
Book Review: One Hundred Years in Canada: The Rubinoff-Naftolin Family Tree
One Hundred Years in Canada: The Rubinoff-Naftolin Family Tree, by Bill Gladstone, 2008. $40 (U.S. or Canada) Available at http://rubnaft.com/. http://www.billgladstone.ca Some books invite exploration from the minute you first set eyes on them. One Hundred Years in Canada […]
Book Review: A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire: Revised Edition. 2 vols, by Alexander Beider.
Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire: Revised Edition. 2 vols, by Alexander Beider. Avotaynu, 2008. $118.00. To order: http://www.avotaynu.com/books/DJSRE2.htm When the first edition of Alexander Beider’s massive Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire came out in […]
Publish or Perish: How I Got the Rubinoff-Naftolin Family Saga into Print
“Zhhlobin–Market Street” reads the caption of this rare postcard photograph, circa 1900, of the Belarussian shtetl where my great-grandparents lived before bringing their children to Canada around 1910. The postcard is part of an incredible collection of more than 100 […]
Book Review: The Life and Times of Congregation Kesher Israel, by Harry D. Boonin
The Life and Times of Congregation Kesher Israel, by Harry D. Boonin. 192 pages. $29.95. Self-published, 2008. Society Hill, a picturesque area of colonial Philadelphia, was home to this old synagogue, around which grew a lively community of Eastern European […]
Book Review: My Future Is In America: Autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish Immigrants. Edited and translated by Jocelyn Cohen and Daniel Soyer
My Future Is In America: Autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish Immigrants. Edited and translated by Jocelyn Cohen and Daniel Soyer. Softcover, 330 pages. Published by New York University Press in conjunction with YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. $25.00 In 1942, […]
Book Review: Every Family Has A Story: Tales From the Pages of AVOTAYNU, Edited by Gary Mokotoff
Every Family Has A Story: Tales From the Pages of AVOTAYNU. Edited by Gary Mokotoff. Hardcover, 292 pages. Avotaynu, Inc., Bergenfield, NJ. Price: $37 There are several dozen genealogical adventure stories in this collection, straight from the pages of AVOTAYNU, […]
Finding Your Canadian Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide, by Sherry Irvine and Dave Obee
Finding Your Canadian Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide, by Sherry Irvine and Dave Obee. Softcover, large format, 270 pages. Ancestry Publishing, Provo, Utah. $18.95. Available through Ancestry.com Several Jewish-Canadian historians have done an admirable job in recent decades of demonstrating how […]
Book Review: Posen Place Name Indexes: Identifying Place Names Using Alphabetical and Reverse Alphabetical Indexes, by Roger P. Minert
Posen Place Name Indexes: Identifying Place Names Using Alphabetical and Reverse Alphabetical Indexes, by Roger P. Minert, (Provo, UT: GRT Publications, 2004), 101 pp., soft-cover, ISBN 0-9716906-6-9. $9.95 from <www.grtpublications.com>. Note: Roger Meinert published a series of 23 books (and […]
Book Review: Jewish Migration to South Africa: The Record of the Poor Jews’ Temporary Shelter, 1885–1914
Jewish Migration to South Africa: The Record of the Poor Jews’ Temporary Shelter, 1885–1914. Edited by Aubrey N. Newman, Nicholas J. Evans, J. Graham Smith and Saul W. Issroff. Large format softbound book, 504 pages. Published by JPSA, Jewish Publications, […]
Jewish Ancestors? A Guide to Jewish Genealogy In the United Kingdom, by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain
Jewish Ancestors? A Guide to Jewish Genealogy in the United Kingdom. Published by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain; contributing editor Rosemary Wenzerul, 2006. Paperback, 144 pages. Because my paternal grandfather and grandmother were born in London’s East End […]