Now in its third year, the Shtetl CO-OP initiative has enabled us to mobilize Jewish researchers of Poland in the most effective way. Individual researchers quickly learned that in volunteering to help others, they inevitably move their own research along. Shtetl CO-OP teams become family both figuratively and sometimes – after the records have been indexed – literally. That’s how I found my cousin Judie Goldstein - when the Ostrów Mazowiecka Research Family - essentially the very first Shtetl CO-OP by another name, indexed the records of our town in 1995. This Research Family is involved in many more initiatives but we really came together for the initial indexing project.
