This article is based upon a talk given at the IAJGS Conference in Philadelphia, August 2–6, 2009—Ed. For the past five years, I have been researching the fate of Jewish refugees in Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom […]
Directories
This section will discuss four categories of directories whose contents can be useful for genealogical research: city directories, telephone directories, biographical directories, and professional directories. All of these valuable reference sources can be found in the United States and internationally. […]
History and Genealogy of the Jews of Rhodes and Their Diaspora
From the Ottoman Turkish conquest of Rhodes in 1522 until the Holocaust, a vibrant Judeo-Spanish community flourished on this Mediterranean isle. Many books and articles richly chronicle the history of this relatively small community.1 From antiquity, a Romaniote (Greek-speaking) Jewish […]
Successful Quest for Ancestors in Aleppo and Baghdad and for Kinsmen in Calcutta
After more than 20 years of sporadic research carried out with the help of others, I can now report the success of my quest to trace the mutual relationships of the members of the Gubbay family of Aleppo, to identify […]
Gleanings from a Week in Israel
On the surface, Jerusalem seemed relatively calm the first week in December. It was unseasonably warm; flowers were blooming, and the rebuilding of the famous Hurva Synagogue in the Old City (destroyed by the Jordanians during the War […]
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Israel
Some medieval maps show the city of Jerusalem as the center of the world. Thanks to modern technology, this is becoming more and more of a reality when it comes to Jewish genealogical research. Many archival collections that have gathered […]
Search Bureau for Missing Relatives: Brief History and Current Status of Records
As head of the Jewish Agency’s Search Bureau for Missing Relatives in Jerusalem for many years until my retirement in 1999, I have helped many Jewish genealogists locate family living in Israel and abroad. Since then, I have often have […]
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Israel
Some medieval maps show the city of Jerusalem as the center of the world. Thanks to modern technology, this is becoming more and more of a reality when it comes to Jewish genealogical research. Many archival collections that have gathered […]
SephardicGen: A Resource Guide for Navigating the Website and Exploring Its Riches
SephardicGen – www.SephardicGen.com – is a large website dedicated to providing the Sephardic genealogist with the tools and information needed to uncover Sephardic family histories. In an effort to remedy the absence of a Sephardic presence within JewishGen, a subset […]
Military Resources in Eretz Israel For the Genealogical Sleuth
The following article is adapted from a talk given at the IAJGS conference in Salt Lake City, July 2007—Ed. For thousands of years, Eretz Israel has been the crossroads of invasions and an arena for wars, but documentation of individual […]
The Jews of Modern Egypt and Their Records, by Yves Fedida
In 1807, two years after the Ottoman Sublime Porte anointed Mohamed Ali as viceroy of Egypt, the Jewish population of Egypt numbered only 6,000. Jewish migration to Egypt grew dramatically from the mid-19th century onward, reaching a peak of 90,000 […]
Book Review: Jewish Remnants in Spain: Wanderings in a Lost World
Jewish Remnants in Spain: Wanderings in a Lost World. By Sidney David Markman. Large format, softcover, 236 pp. Published by Scribe Publishers, Meza, Arizona, 2003. Out of Print. Used copies are available at http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Remnants-Spain-Wanderings-World/dp/0972723706 In the town of Trujillo, Spain, home of […]
Bushkando Muestros Nonos i Nonas: Family History Research on Sephardic Jewry Through the Ladino Language Archives of the Jewish Community of Salonika
Several years ago, Andreas Sefiha, then president of the Jewish community of Salonika, remarked in an interview with a Greek newspaper, “Many people come to us (the offices of the community) and ask for information about their families or lost […]
Costa Fascination: One of England’s Oldest Jewish Families
Genealogy, the research and study of family history, is such a fascinating subject, so fascinating that it has been linked with addiction—not alcohol, gambling or drugs, but the sheer pleasure of finding new facts that lead on to more searching […]
Israel Report, Spring 2007
No traces of the Second Lebanese War were apparent in early March, neither down by the Port of Haifa, nor anywhere in the stunning vistas surrounding Tzippori, an archeological park in the lower Galilee. Tzippori is the place where Rabbi […]