| President - Howard Margol |
| Treasurer - Eden Joachim |
| Secretary - David Blass Hoffman, Ph.D |
Members-at-large : |
| Gene Alpert |
| Judy Baston |
| Rose Lerer Cohen |
| Michael A. Posnick |
| Aaron Roetenberg |
| Dorothy Leivers |
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| Online Journal Editor - Judi Langer-Surnamer Caplan |
| Membership chairman - Gene Alpert |
| Webmaster - Dave Lewak |
| All Uyezd and Project Coordinators |
Short Biographical Summaries for the Board
| Eden S. Joachim, Treasurer:
I have worked in the field of accounting, finance and human resources for 30 years.
I have held positions of Cash Manager, Credit Manager, Office Manager, Controller and General Manager for national retailers, an insurance company (surety and fidelity), a regional health and beauty aids distributor, an expanded vinyl manufacturer (footwear, belts and handbags), a cheese manufacturer and distributor (most major Northeast supermarket chains and grocery distributors), a national menswear manufacturer, a restaurant corporation and currently as a real estate property manager (residential, retail, warehouse and office centers). My experience has allowed me to work closely with people of all walks of life and at all levels of business experience. I have supervised as many as 50 employees in the accounting department of my employer. I have written user manuals, training materials and company policy papers. I have trained employees in the areas of credit, collections and accounts receivable. I have managed the finances of multi-million dollar companies as well as worked independently managing a local restaurant corporation with annual sales of $1.3 million. In my genealogical life, I am currently the acting Coordinator of Gesher Galicia, Inc. I was integral in helping GG become incorporated in 2006, and am currently working with an attorney to file for non-profit status with the IRS. I am an Archive Coordinator for 2 archives in the PSA system for JRI-Poland. In this position, I have personally raised over $20,000 towards the indexing of more than 15 towns records. I am the coordinator of the Vilna District for the LitvakSIG. I am a member of the JGS Inc. (NYC) Executive Board. I was Vice President of the now defunct JGS of Bergen County, NJ. I was on the Conference Organizing Committee for the 2006 IAJGS Conference in NYC. I do not know how to say no! My long term membership in the LitvakSIG has afforded me the opportunity to become acquainted with many like-minded people, some of whom now serve on the board of directors. I believe my outgoing personality, forward thinking abilities and desire to assist others to reach successful goals are all characteristics which would benefit the LitvakSIG board. I am a stickler for details and enjoy working with numbers very much, and am confident my background more than qualifies me for the position of Treasurer. |
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David Blass Hoffman, Ph.D., Secretary, Co-founded and served as co-president of the LitvakSIG. He organized the district research groups, developed the
Online Journal and the Website (with Trevor Tucker), and served as coordinator for the Ukmerge and the Raseiniai
groups. He traveled to South Africa, Israel, London and around the U.S. to hold face to face meetings with Litvak
researchers to encourage them to work together to acquire and translate records for the All Lithuania Database.
David brings an analytical research orientation to the LitvakSIG. He emphasizes that genealogy can only be
completely understood in the context of political, economic and social movements during any period.
David is also the President of the Jewish Family History Foundation which focuses on 17th and 18th century records of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland [Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine]. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles. David coordinates the Ariogala, Lithuania Shtetl Research Group and has developed systems for indexing complex records such as inheritance, court, business, and official correspondence files. David has traced his family back to the mid-1600s in Lithuania and Poland. David’s presentations to five International Genealogy conferences reflect that view: Using Mid-19th century Revision Lists to Create a Census of the Jews of Lithuania, The Collection of Box Taxes in the Pale of Settlement, The Recreation of Ariogala: A Lithuanian Shtetl, Finding Your Family in 18th Century Records of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He has published research papers in Avotaynu: "Collection of Box Taxes in 19th Century Lithuania" (with Vitalija Gircyte) and "Researching 18th Century Census and Tax Lists from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania" (with Sonia Hoffman), Fall 2001; "18th Century Records from the Former Commonwealth of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland," Fall 2003; and in Roots-Key: "Revision Lists in the New LitvakSIG Online Lithuanian Database," Spring 1999; "Genealogists Collaborate to Confirm Family Lore" and "Russian Archival Research: Tracking family in the Russian Empire," Winter 2003; "Social Action, Yiddish Culture and Zionism: Leo Blass and the Eastern European Influence," Summer/Fall 2003; "The Grand Duchy of Lithuania Project: Challenges in Researching 18th Century Records," Winter 2004; "Documenting Family History Stories from 1812" (in Napoleon and the Jews), Summer 2006. David is a clinical psychologist and former professor of Community Psychology and Public Health at Florida State University and UCLA. At UCLA he trained health professionals as agents of health behavior change. He worked in Israel at the Hadassah Wizo Canada Research Institute on Instrumental Enrichment, a diagnostic model used to increase learning potential. |
| Eugene J. Alpert, Ph.D.
has been involved with Jewish genealogy since the IAJGS conference in Las Vegas in 2005. Since that time he has attended the 2006 IAJGS conference in NY and plans to attend the next one in Salt Lake City this summer. He is completing his first year as Recording Secretary for JGSGW and is currently the Membership Coordinator for the LitvakSIG. During the summer of 2006, he traveled to Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine to visit his ancestral shtetls.
Gene is currently a senior administrator for a non-profit educational organization in Washington, D.C., where he oversees academic seminar programs and courses designed for college student interns. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. degree in political science from Michigan State University and a B.A. from the University of Rochester. Prior to this position, he taught political science at the university level in Texas for seventeen years. In 1982, Gene served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, working for the House and Senate leadership. He is a member of numerous professional associations and advisory committees, including the National Society for Experiential Education (immediate past president) and the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (alternate director). Other non-profit board experience includes the Fort Worth Hebrew Day School. |
| Rose Lerer Cohen, Ph.D.:
I am a former South African resident in Jerusalem with strong Litvak roots. My father was born in Uzventis and my mother in Plunge. I have been involved in Lithuanian family research since 1994. My fathers entire family was murdered in Uzventis in the Shoah in Lithuania. I have visited Lithuania five times and during these visits have focused on both family and archival research.
In 1997 together with Saul Issroff, we founded the Lithuanian Names Project, which I continue to coordinate. The aim of the project is to collect as many lists of names of murdered victims in the Shoah in Lithuania. Researching and locating lists for the project brought me in contact with archives in Israel, Lithuania, Latvia, and Germany. The outcome of the Lithuanian Names Project was the publication of Holocaust in Lithuania 1941-1945: A Book of Remembrance. (Gefen: Jerusalem 2002), co authored with Saul Issroff. I have a keen interest in Oral History and coordinated the International Slave Labour Interviewing Project for the University of Hagen, Germany in Lithuania and South Africa. In Lithuania, Jewish, non Jewish and Roma Forced Labourers who survived the Nazi occupation of Lithuania were interviewed. In addition, the subject of my PhD also related to Lithuania. The title of PhD is Resilience and Achievement: The Case of Jewish Lithuanian Child Holocaust Survivors. For the purposes of research, I interviewed Holocaust survivors both in Lithuania and in Israel. My research and interest in Lithuania is diverse, enabling me to have contact with archives, and individuals world over. A significant portion of the members of LitvakSIG live in Israel, South Africa, Europe and Australia I would like to serve as a liaison between these Litvak researchers, hearing their needs and let them know more about LitvakSIG, thus serving as liaison between LitvakSIG and other Litvak organizations abroad. I would also like to act as the liaison between LitvakSIG and archives in Israel, Germany and other places in the world with Lithuanian holdings so as to enhance and broaden the scope of research. As a resident of Jerusalem, I hope I will be able to bring and international flavour to the board and augment the success of LitvakSIG. |
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Aaron Roetenberg, has 15 years of experience in genealogical research. He has made research trips to Lithuania, Germany, and
Ireland. He enjoys helping others with their research and many times, has enabled them to break through their brick walls. Aaron is the webmaster for www.pusalotas.org. |
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Judy Baston, Moderator of the LitvakSIG Discussion Group, was born in Oakland,
California. Her father was born in Eisiskes (Eishishok), Lithuania, and a number of photos
of Judy’s BASTUNSKI, KAGANOVICH and KAPLAN grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins
from Eisiskes are in the Tower of Life exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington, D.C. Judy has been researching her family’s history for 20 years, and she
has traveled to Lithuania, Northern Belarus, and Poland. Since her mother was born in
Lomza Gubernia, Poland (making for an occasional heated discussion about Yiddish
pronunciation around the dinner table), Judy also serves on the Board of Directors of
Jewish Records Indexing-Poland.
Judy has been a presenter on genealogy resources at conferences of the American Jewish Historical Society, American Library Assn. and the California Library Assn. She has published several articles in Avotaynu, including "The Morgenthau Mission to Poland to Investigate the 1919 Pogroms," "Finding Jeremiah," and "Shtetl-Based Jewish Genealogical Research," and in the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society’s ZICHRONOTE, "From Vilnius to Vilna: Learning About My Father’s Brothers’ Families in the Vilna Ghetto." Since 1992, when she retired from her position as Regional Public Affairs Coordinator of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Judy has been involved with the Jewish Community Library in San Francisco. She lives in San Francisco with her cat, Malka. |
| Michael A. Posnick is a residential builder, developer and property manager who has been actively engaged in the
field of genealogy for 12 years. He is a member of the JGS of Michigan and Belarus, Grodno, Latvia,
Litvak, Odessa, Suwalk-Lomza, and Ukraine SIGs.
Positions he has held in genealogical organizations are IAJGS Treasurer (2001-present); IAJGS Secretary (2000-01); IAJGS Director (2000); Member, IAJGS By-Laws Committee (1999-2000); Secretary-Treasurer, Grodno Genealogy Group, Inc. (Grodno SIG) (2000-present); Member, 2005 FEEFHS Conference Planning Committee (2004-05). Significant genealogical projects, articles or special events that Michael has been involved with are the Family Tree of the Jewish People CD-ROM (Version 2.0); Index of Jewish Records at the Family History Library CD-ROM (Version 1.0); Transliterator, 1906 Duma list for Novogrudok District of Minsk Province (approximately 3600 names) for Belarus SIG; Inputter/Editor of a Number of revision and other lists obtained by the Raseiniai District Research Group of Litvak SIG from the Kaunas Regional Archives (approximately 2000 individual records). Michael received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History, University of Minnesota, 1968 and graduated Juris Doctor cum laude, University of Minnesota, 1971. He was admitted to practice before the Minnesota Supreme Court and the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota (1971). He was licensed as a Real Estate Broker (1972) and a Residential Building Contractor (1996) by the State of Minnesota. He is the editor of [Minnesota] Residential Real Estate Closing (1982). He was the International Director (1978-92), Treasurer (1980-86), Vice President (1986-88), and President (1989-91) of the Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity and was the recipient of the Silver Medal from the North-American-Interfraternity. |
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Dorothy Leivers, coordinator for the LitvakSIG District Research Groups project:
Having discovered JewishGen by accident the result of an article I read in the Daily Telegraph in England around 7 years ago, I was excited by the possibility of learning about my ancestors from Poland and Lithuania. I did not know then what pleasure the research was going to provide me with and the wonderful people I would get to know as a result of that work. Over the years I have become committed to helping make available as much information as possible. I love the research and continue to write about what I have learned. My commitment to finding and saving every scrap of evidence available keeps growing. While searching for records relating to my own family, I realised that it would be possible to create a history of the Jewish community of Kopcheve. I have tried to share everything I have discovered because I do not want the little we know of their lives to be lost. I started a web page - www.Kapciamiestis.org and following further research and a visit to Lithuania I wrote the book Jews of Kopcheve, published by Avotaynu. I was born in West Berlin in 1949. In 1951, my parents took me to Canada where I was raised and educated. I have lived in England since 1971. |
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