The JewishGen Communities Database and JewishGen ShtetlSeeker

• Search for Jewish Communities
  Search for Jewish Communities, using various search criteria.
  The results will display each community's historical names and jurisdictions, and a link to further information and resources about that community.
• Search for places by name
  Search all localities in Central and Eastern Europe, using various search criteria.
  The results will display each locality's latitude and longitude, the distance/direction from a reference city, and links to maps.
• Search for places by location
  List all localities within a certain distance of a given latitude / longitude coordinates.

The JewishGen ShtetlSeeker:

The JewishGen ShtetlSeeker is a database containing the names of all localities in the 45 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.  The data is based on the U.S. Board on Geographic Names databases.

For each locality, the search results will display:

• The place's name(s), with the native name in bold.
• The coordinates — latitude and langitude.
• Links to maps (see Mapping Functions, below).
• Country — the country in which the locality is located today.
• Distance/Direction from reference point.
• 10 miles radius — a link to display all places within a 10 mile radius.

The U.S. Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) provides geographic names information from the Geographic Names Database (GNDB).  GNDB foreign geographic names information is used to prepare country gazetteers of feature names approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (USBGN).

Feature coordinates provided in the GNS are sufficiently accurate for map finding purposes.  However, these coordinates were derived from map sources of varying scales and accuracy.  Some coordinates were read by hand to the nearest minute; other coordinates were entered reading to the nearest second.  While due care was taken to read and enter coordinate data as accurately as possible, GNS coordinates cannot be considered accurate in an absolute sense.

There are known errors in the databases.  If you suspect there are errors in the results of your searches, please contact Michael Tobias.

JewishGen Communities Database:

The USBGN data used by the ShtetlSeeker is a great tool, but it has several drawbacks as a shtetl (Jewish community) locator, namely:

• it lists too many places, the vast majority of which did not have Jewish any population.
• it does not contain any historical or jurisdictional information, which could help identify the correct locality — especially problematic when there are dozens of localities with the same or similar names, and when country borders have changed.
• it does not contain Yiddish town name synonyms.

The JewishGen Communities Database uses a different set of data, which has been compiled by JewishGen.  This database contains information on over 6,000 Jewish communities in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, together with Jewish population figures, historical town names and jurisdictions, inset maps, and links to JewishGen resources.  Click on the JewishGen tree icon in front of the each town name for additional information about that Jewish community.

For more information, and a comparison of the “JewishGen Communities Database” and “JewishGen ShtetlSeeker”, see the page About the JewishGen Communities Database.

Mapping Functions:

In the ShtetlSeeker, we display maps via links to MapQuest, Expedia, MultiMap, and Google Maps.  Once a map is on screen, you can zoom in and out as you wish.

In the JewishGen Communities Database, we display inset maps, from both MapQuest and Google Maps.  You can switch between the two maps by clicking on the radio buttons beneath the map.  Within the Google Map, you can zoom and pan using the mouse.

Release Notes:

• JewishGen ShtetlSeeker – Release Notes – July 2005.
• JewishGen Communities Database – Release Notes – August 2006.