A new issue of the Belarus SIG Online Newsletter

This is the fourth issue of the Belarus SIG Online Newsletter. I fear that you will be disappointed! Not because of the contents - but because of the omissions:

The report from the 19th Jewish Genealogical Conference in New York is not yet ready ... But I can tell you this: It was an absolutely wonderful, inspiring, stimulating and exhausting experience! The organizers did an absolutely excellent job and deserves our praise and thanks.
There is no letter from our SIG Coordinator, David M. Fox, this time. He is - as I am sure you all know - on a ShtetlSchleppers trip to Belarus right now.
I hope you have all read his reports in the Belarus SIG Discussion Group about the trip!? I have not reprinted the reports here - I will wait till David Fox comes home, writes a full report that can be illustrated with photos etc.
Remember the next ShtetlSchleppers trip to Belarus is September 23, 1999!

So you will have to wait until the next issue for that!

Being an editor of an online newsletter is wonderful - I don't have to worry about the size and number of illustrations/photos. And there are many wonderful photos this time, too.

In this issue

In it this issue you will find a description of a trip to Baranovichi in 1998, which can be seen as a sort of follow-up on Rubin Kaplan memoirs from Baranovichi in the last issue. And as David Fox is visiting Baranovichi on his trip, there will probably be more information and more photos in the next issue.

There is a letter of remembrance from one man to another about their early life - including memories of the Novogrudok of their youth.

Two other letters tells us what it is like to live today in one of the small villages in Belarus, Kleshchi, situated between Ivonovo and Strelna (population 160). There are so many small villages from which our families once came, and where some of us still have - and others might have (yet unknown!) - relatives.

Then there is the story behind the story of "Bessie's Letters" ... 100 letters from 1913-1935. On one level, the letters themselves relate a family history, the subtext (sometimes between text) of the correspondence illuminates the larger history of Russian Jews as well as the complex emotional dynamic that existed between those who emigrated and those who remained behind. But furthermore the letters themselves have their own story, their own history. It is a tale of how love and luck preserved these letters.

Once again we are being asked to help identify unknown persons on a couple of photos - on one of the photos is Albert Einstein with someone named "GLIKIN" in Palestine in 1924. Who knows that Glikin?

Printouts of the Newsletter

We hope that many of you use the new feature and download the pdf-files (ready to read and print out from Acrobat Reader) and share the newsletters with friends, family and colleagues. We would very much like to get some feedback!

As mentioned in Issue 3 you will need the Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded free of charge, if you want to make use of the pdf-files.

Last but not least: Please send material for the next issue of the Newsletter. Or, if you do not have anything yourself, but know of others with interesting stories, photos, etc., then please ask them to send it to me.

Elsebeth Paikin, Editor

August 1999

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