[The following article is reprinted by permission of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. The article originally appeared in the Winter 2023 edition of AMERICAN ANCESTORS on pages 27-31. For more information about AMERICAN ANCESTORS magazine and the New England […]
Sephardic Genealogy Society Announced
While everyone has been locked indoors, the Sephardic online community has been thriving. This is largely thanks to weekly Sephardic World talks hosted by Ton Thielen and David Mendoza, which have reached an international audience. Sephardic World was put together […]
Genealogy and the Settlement of Jews in Brazil
According to its census, Brazil, with 123 million Roman Catholics, is the largest Catholic nation in the world. If one considers its DNA legacy, however, we find that many white Brazilians descend from Portuguese Jews and New Christians who arrived […]
The Lost Jews of St. Maarten
The first time I visited the half-Dutch, half-French island of St. Martin/St. Maarten in 1991, I heard that it once had a Jewish community. St. Maarten is a 36-square-mile island in the eastern Caribbean, located between St. Thomas and St. […]
Guiding Principles of the Avotaynu DNA Project
The AvotaynuDNA-sponsored Genetic Census of the Jewish People enters its third year with active DNA testing being carried out within Jewish communities on six continents. As described previously in the pages of AVOTAYNU, the purpose of the project is to […]
Sephardi Tombstones found in Suriname – Index of Surnames
For the benefit of the genealogical community, AvotaynuDNA team member Rachel Brown has compiled an alphabetized index of all surnames found in the outstanding volume Remnant Stones: the Jewish Cemeteries of Suriname: Epitaphs by Aviva Ben-Ur and Rachel Frankel, available […]
A New Genealogy for Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise
In the past years, a wealth of 18th and 19th century Jewish genealogical resources have become available for Bohemia, the western half of Czechia (the new name for the Czech Republic, formerly Czechoslovakia). As a result, a large number of […]
Personal Journeys: Cousin Hillary Rodham Clinton
At my home, we refer to Hillary Rodham Clinton as Cousin Hillary. More precisely, the correct term would be step-cousin. Detailed research demonstrates that Hillary’s grandmother married my father’s fifth cousin. But let’s start at the beginning. In August 1999, […]
The 20th Century Jewish Community of Havana, Cuba
The organized Jewish community in Cuba lasted about 50 years during the first half of the 20th century and was composed of three essentially separate groups, the North Americans, the Sephardim and the European Ashkenazim. Together they built a vibrant […]
The Bohemian Origins of Justice Louis Brandeis
On the 100th anniversary of his appointment as the first Jewish Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Jewish Journal devoted four pages to the towering figure in American legal history, Louis D. Brandeis, recounting his unprecedented advocacy for free speech, […]
Project to Identify and Document Holocaust Memorials & Museums in the Americas
As the child of Holocaust survivors, I have been keenly aware of this Jewish and human tragedy since I was of school-age. Now at the age of 52, I see the youngest of the survivors reach old age and die. […]
Personal Journeys: The Flayer and Razin Families of Shklov
Sitting on the passenger side of the coach, Reiza Flier swept her beady gray eyes over the family’s small home. At approximately 40 years old, this mother showed expressions of defiance and anticipation, even if she also felt sadness for […]
First Fruits of the ‘Reclaim the Records” Access Project Are Obtained!
As previously written about on Avotaynu Online (http://adam.learnpress.esy.es/2015/10/breaking-news-ny-municipal-archives-throws-in-the-towel-in-public-access-fight/) Brooke Schreier Ganz and Reclaim the Records were successful in their Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) case about obtaining the New York City indexes for 1908-1929 marriage licenses and affidavits. All but […]
Breaking News! NY Municipal Archives Throws In the Towel in Public Access Fight!
Reclaim the Records Won! Brooke Won! The Public won! Records Access won! In Early September I posted on Avotaynu Online about how one genealogist can make a difference-(see http://adam.learnpress.esy.es/2015/09/public-records-access-one-genealogist-can-make-a-difference/) when Brooke Schreier Ganz and Reclaim the Records filed a legal […]
Crypto-Jewish Conference Enjoys Record Attendance
Rave reviews continue to pour in from speakers and attendees of the 25th Anniversary Conference of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies (SCJS) held in Miami, Florida in July 2105. The Society was formed over 25 years ago to help facilitate […]
Public Records Access: One Genealogist Can Make A Difference!
This past Thursday, September 3, 2015, a legal petition was filed at the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York. Brooke Schreier Ganz and ReclaimTheRecords.org [Petitioner] vs. New York City Department of Records and Information […]
Polygamy in the Jewish and Western Tradition: Religion, Culture and Class
Why Are We So Hung Up On Polygamy? In the March 2015 elections in Israel, two Muslim polygamists were elected to the Knesset on the United Arab list. Numerous news outlets reported this fact and questioned whether it would be […]
Book Review: The Synagogues of Central and Western Pennsylvania, by Julian H. Preisler
The Jewish communities of the United States have tended to be concentrated in major urban centers, such as New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Many books have been written about these and similar communities, but to get a fuller […]
Jewish Historical and Genealogical Resources in Delaware
Of the original 13 American colonies, Delaware was the second (after New York) to permit Jews to be admitted legally. The first Jews believed to come to Delaware were Isaac Israel and Isaac Cardozo, agents of the Dutch West Indies […]
Jewish Historical and Genealogical Resources in West Virginia
Since Jews first settled two centuries ago in the future state of West Virginia (a portion of Virginia that refused to secede the American Civil War), Jews involved themselves in all aspects of wholesaling and retailing. In most cities and […]
The Obermayers: A History of a Jewish Family in Germany and America, 1618—2009, by Kenneth Libo and Michael Feldberg
The Obermayers: A History of a Jewish Family in Germany and America, 1618—2009, by Kenneth Libo and Michael Feldberg. The book contains histories and genealogies of the Obermayer, Lehmann, Sinsheimer, and Oberndoerfer families from Creglingen, Augsburg, Furth, and other towns […]
Jewish Oklahomans
Considering that Jews constitute a mere one-tenth of one percent of Oklahoma’s population, their contribution to the state is staggering. As one native gentile business leader commented, “Without a doubt, per capita, the Jews have contributed overwhelmingly more to Oklahoma […]
U.S. Library of Congress: Researching Jewish Family History, by James Sweany with Peggy Pearlstein
Recently, a middle-aged woman came into the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room of the Library of Congress seeking to locate her father, whom she had never seen. A search through the city directories and telephone books of Greater New […]
Genealogical Resources at the U.S. National Archives
Despite the plethora of online genealogical resources available today, not all information is online, and sometimes essential and valuable bits of data still can be found only in archives and libraries. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and […]
Jewish Agricultural Colonies in Kansas
This article is adapted from a presentation at the IAJGS conference in Los Angeles, July 2010.—Ed. I had the record of his New York 1881 arrival from Russia. The New York City directories clearly listed Jacob Warschawski as a printer; […]