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Biographical and Contact
Information
The following is an alphabetical list of Rav-SIG Board and
Committee Members.
- Rabbi Asher Bar-Zev, Database
Committee, Guide to Rabbinic Research & FAQ
Committee
Palm Beach, Florida,
USA. E-mail
Asher Bar-Zev is a Conservative rabbi with 22 years of experience in congregational pulpits. He holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology and has published research on DNA and RNA synthesis in response to steroid hormones in insect development. He has recently retired as a vice-president of Merrill Lynch after serving in that capacity for 22 years. He has been involved in genealogical research for some 35 years and can trace his ancestry through 31 generations back to Rashi, through the famous Hasidic Rabbi Elimelech of Lezajsk and the MaHaRaM of Padua, Rabbi
Meir Katzenellenbogen. A number of his genealogical articles have been published in
Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish
Genealogy.
- Shirley Rotbein Flaum,
Rav-SIG Coordinator, Steering Committee,
Guide to Rabbinic Research Committee
Chairperson
Houston, Texas, USA. E-mail
Shirley Rotbein Flaum was born in Houston,
Texas, to Holocaust survivors
from Lodz, Poland, and Vilnius, Lithuania. She
has a BA from the University of Texas at Austin. She was a
founding officer of the Holocaust Museum Houston.
She is the Lodz Archive
Coordinator and a Board member of Jewish Records
Indexing-Poland. She is also the founder and
co-coordinator of the Lodz Area Research Group of
JewishGen. Her rabbinic ancestry includes Shlomo Luria (the
MaHaRaShaL), Even HaOzer, Moshe Kharif
(ABD Ulanow), and Rabbi Meir Eisenstadt (Panim Meiroth).
She is related to Rabbi Aaron
Walden of Warsaw (Shem HaGedolim HeKhadash) and
Yechiel Kestenberg, last rabbi of Radom.
- Werner L. Frank, Guide to
Rabbinic Research & FAQ Committee
Calabasas, California, USA. E-mail
Werner L. Frank has been actively
engaged in genealogy since 1996, having amassed
a family database of over 28,000 names. This
research has extended to the 13th century,
achieved by tapping into a rabbinical line. He
is currently writing a book devoted to the
history of his family, including events leading
to his 1937 emigration from Germany to the
U.S.A. Frank is a member of the Jewish
Genealogical Society of Los Angeles and is
affiliated with the French organizations Gen Ami
and Cercle de Genealogie Juive. He participated
in the formation of GerSIG (German Special
Interest Group of JewishGen) and has written for
both Stammbaum and Maajan. He has
given talks at the International Conference on
Jewish Genealogy in Los Angeles (1998), Salt
Lake City (2000), and London (2001). Frank has a
Bachelor and Masters degree in Mathematics. His
professional career has been in computer
software, co-founding Informatics, Inc. in 1962
and ending his career at Sterling Software, Inc.
- Chaim Freedman, Bibliography Committee
Petah Tikva, Israel. E-mail
Chaim Freedman was born in Melbourne, Australia, to parents of Eastern European origins.
He was educated at Mount Scopus College in Melbourne. A noted genealogist,
he has lectured at numerous genealogical and historical
conferences and has published research articles in
Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish
Genealogy, Sharseret Hadorot, Search, and the
Journal of the Australian Jewish Historical
Society. He is the author of several books, including
Eliyahu's Branches: The Descendants of the Vilna Gaon and his
Family, and Beit Rabbanan, and editor of Jewish Personal Names: Their Origin, Derivation and Diminutive
Forms. He possesses an archive and library of genealogical sources and is considered an expert in researching Hebrew sources of Eastern European genealogy.
- Dr. Jacob D. Goldstein,
Discussion Group Committee Chairman
Boston, Massachusetts, USA. E-mail
Jacob D. Goldstein was born in Colombia. He has a BS
in Electrical
Engineering from Universidad de los
Andes, Bogotá, Colombia, and a PhD in Applied
Mathematics from State University of New York at
Stony Brook. He is a scientist specializing in modeling of
random phenomena. His community involvement
includes synagogue leadership, Holocaust education, and Jewish
family education. He is the leader of an Internet-based
discussion group for children of survivors of the Shoah.
- Rabbi Philip Heilbrunn,
Steering Committee
Melbourne, Australia. E-mail
Philip Heilbrunn was ordained in South Africa in 1976.
He is the former Chief
Rabbi of Adelaide, Australia, and has been the President of
the Association of Rabbis in Australia and New
Zealand for the past seven years. He is been the
Rabbi of St Kilda
Synagogue in Melbourne since 1988. He is descended
from Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Kaidanover and Rabbi
Samuel Gershon Steg of Warburg.
- Dr. Robert E. Heyman, Steering
Committee, Database Committee Chairman
Silver Springs, Maryland, USA. E-mail
Robert Heyman has a Ph.D. in Mathematics from
the University of Maryland in College Park. He
is directly descended from Rabbi Haim
David Langfus of Bedzin, and, through him, Rabbi
Mordecai Jaffe HaLevush. He is related to the
Kalish and Super Rabbinical families. Dr.
Heyman's work has been published several times
in the Kielce-Radom SIG Journal.
- Dr. Yehuda Klausner,
Database Committee
Beer-Sheva, Israel. E-mail
Yehuda Klausner is a Civil Engineer with a BSc, CE,
and MA from the
Technion IIT, Haifa, and a PhD from Princeton
University, USA. He served as Professor of Civil
Engineering at Wayne State University, Detroit,
and the Negev Institute for Arid Zone Research,
Beer-Sheva. From 1970 he was a practicing Civil
Engineer specializing in industrial structures
and foundation engineering, consultant in many
projects for governmental, public and private
organizations. He published many professional
papers and a book on Continuum Mechanics of
Soils. In 1982, he became interested in the genealogical studies of his family and his
database currently comprises several families he is
researching, including Rabbinic families.
- Ronald M. "Ron" Landau,
Steering Committee
Huntington Beach, California, USA. E-mail
Ron Landau is a technical writer. He has a MS in
Engineering from Newark
College of Engineering in New Jersey. He is a direct
male descendant of the Admor of Ciechanow, Rebbe
Abraham Dobrzinsky Landau, who was the son of Raphael
Dobrzinsky of Parzeczew and the grandson of Berish
Dobrzinsky of Kutno. He is researching Rebbe
Abraham's descendants Dov Berish Landau (of
Biala), Yakov Yitzack Landau (of Mlawa), and Moshe
Landau (of Leczyca). His work has been
published in Toledot: The Journal of Jewish
Genealogy.
- Philip Cala-Lajzerowicz
(Lazar), Web Site Editor
Illinois, USA. E-mail
Philip Lazar is Senior Editor of Dotsero, Inc.: Relocation
Compass, Relocator's Advocate. He is
a consultant and a professional in speech writing, business policy
formulation, and newsletter hosting. He is a former Senior
Automotive Editor of Runzheimer International:
Fleet Maintenance & Safety, Radiator
Reporter, Brake & Chassis News
and Transportation. He is currently conducting
genealogical research into the Lajzerowicz and
Cala families of Piotrkow Woiwode, Poland.
- Hadassah Lipsius, Bibliography
Committee
Kew Gardens Hills, New York, USA. E-mail
Hadassah Lipsius has a BS and MS in Engineering.
She is Senior Quality Manager at
BAE Systems. She is a board member and Shtetl
CO-OP coordinator of Jewish Records
Indexing-Poland and a board member of the Jewish Genealogical Society,
Inc. (New York). She is also the Database Manager for the
Warszawa Research Group of JewishGen. She traces her family
through several Rabbinic lines in Poland and
Lithuania, including the first Jewish property
owner in Warszawa.
- Rabbi Avrohom Marmorstein,
Advisory Board
New Jersey, USA. E-mail
Avrohom Marmorstein received semicha from Beth Medrash
Govoha of Lakewood, New Jersey. He is a member of the National Council of
Synagogue Rabbis of Agudath Yisrael. He is the author of Halachos
of the Seder, Halachos of Purim, and Bartenura
and co-author of Yad Yoledes.
- Dr. Perets Mett, Steering
Committee, Research Groups Advisory Committee Chairman
London, England. E-mail
Perets Mett received a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics
at the University of Surrey. He is currently engaged in constructing a
descendants' tree for Rabbi Yisroel Rottenberg,
Av Beit Din of Magnuszew and Ger. This tree
includes numerous rabbinic personalities,
including all Gerrer rebbes.
- Moishe Miller, Research
Groups Committee
Brooklyn, New York, USA. E-mail
Moishe Miller was educated at a yeshiva and has
a BS in Computer Science
from Brooklyn College. His family lore claims
paternal descendancy from the tribe of Issachar.
His rabbinical ancestry centers primarily around
the Bnei Yissochur, Rabbi Hersh Mylech Spira
(1783 - 1841), whose offspring intermarried with
many other Chassidic dynasties. A web site at www.langsam.com
contains much of this family's genealogical and
rabbinical information.
- Daniel Polakovic, Bibliography
Committee
Prague, Czech Republic. E-mail
Daniel Polakovic was born in Bratislava (formerly
Pressburg), Slovak Republic. He has a MA in
Jewish and Cuneiform Studies from Charles
University in Prague. He is a historian and bibliographer
of the Jewish Museum in Prague. He publishes mainly
in Judaica Bohemiae (Prague). He is the author of Dov
Chazak, a catalogue of Hebraica and Judaica
books and manuscripts of Bratislava's synagogue
genizah.
- Leslie Reich, Steering
Committee
Manchester, England. E-mail
Leslie Reich is a yeshiva graduate and has a BA in Mathematics.
His maternal
grandmother was a Halberthal from Brody,
Galicia, whose rabbinical ancestry is included
in Neil Rosenstein's The Unbroken Chain
(1990 Ed. p.569). His wife, neé Vera Katz,
has her father's yichus listed in the same work
(p. 302).
- Dr. Neil Rosenstein,
Steering Committee, Advisory Board Chairman,
Research Groups Advisory Committee
Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA. E-mail
Neil Rosenstein was born in Cape Town, South
Africa, in 1944. He studied medicine at the
University of Cape Town and interned in Israel.
He specialized in surgery at the Mt. Sinai
hospitals in Cleveland and New York City, and
the University of Medicine and Dentistry in
Newark, New Jersey. As a result of over four
decades of investigative study of rare books and
manuscripts, trips to libraries and cemeteries,
travel and correspondence, Dr. Rosenstein has
accumulated a vast matrix of material on Jewish
genealogy, especially in the field of rabbinical
dynasties for which he has become world famous.
He founded the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc.
(New York) in 1977, first located in Elizabeth,
New Jersey, and is also the founder and director
of the Computer Center for Jewish Genealogy. Dr.
Rosenstein is the author of many works on Jewish
genealogy, his magnum opus being The Unbroken
Chain, first published as a single volume in
1976. An expanded two-volume second edition was
published in 1990. Other noted works include Avnei
Zikaron (Stones of Remembrance),
which includes a CD-ROM, The Gaon of Vilna
and his Cousinhood, and Latter Day
Leaders, Sages and Scholars. He has produced
a CD-ROM with the indexed obituaries of the
first-ever Hebrew weekly, HaMagid, which
was in print from 1856 to 1903. In addition, he
is a contributor of articles to various Jewish
genealogical publications, including Avotaynu:
The International Review of Jewish Genealogy
and The Jewish
Press. He lectures frequently and has spoken
many times at various Jewish genealogical
societies in the United States and abroad, as
well as at the international seminars for Jewish
genealogy and the annual national summer
seminars. His biography is included in Who's
Who in World Jewry (1987) and is listed in Marquis'
Who's Who in America (from 1997 onwards).
- Rabbi Mordechai Schlanger,
Guide to Rabbinic Research & FAQ
Committee
New York City, New York, USA. E-mail
Mordechai Schlanger has a BA from Brooklyn
College and an MBA in Computer Technology from Baruch
College in New York. He received Rabbinical
Ordination from Mirrer Yeshiva Central Institute
in Brooklyn, New
York. He is a former practicing Rabbi and Talmud
instructor. He is the author of
Talmudic articles and co-author of A Guide to
Practical Halacha, and a translator of Yiddish and
Hebrew Rabbinic works. Currently, he is Vice President,
Systems, of a major financial institution.
- Rabbi David Shapiro, Guide
to Rabbinic Research & FAQ Committee
Jerusalem, Israel. E-mail
David Shapiro was born in New York City, New York.
He attended the
Yeshivos of Zichron Meir (Staten Island), Beis
Medrash Elyon (Monsey), and Kaminetz
(Jerusalem).
He received semicha from Rabbi Moshe Halbershtam of
Jerusalem. His profession is translation, editing,
cataloguing, and publication of all kinds of
Hebrew manuscripts on all rabbinical
subjects. He has done work for
Machon Yerushalayim, Machon Ofeq, Machon Mishneh
Halachoth (Ungvar), and Machon Mishnat Rebbe
Aharon (Lakewood). He is a lecturer and author,
and has published the genealogy of Rabbi Nachman
of Breslav. His personal family
research includes the Brandwein family (Stretin
chassidic dynasty), the Ashkenazy family of
Rozdal (Galicia), and the Shapiros of Panevyz,
Vilkomir and Anykscias (Lithuania).
- Tom Venetianer,
Steering Committee
Sao Paulo, Brazil. E-mail
Tom Venetianer was born in Kosice, Czechoslovakia (now
the Slovak Republic). He is a Shoah survivor and
was an inmate in the concentration camp Terezin
(Theresienstadt). He is an Electronic Engineer
with an MBA in Finance and
Marketing. His family, of Venetian origin, descends from
several rabbis in Slovakia and Hungary (the
Venetianer-Vinazia family, whose yichus is listed by Béla
Kempelen, p. 29, and the Berger and Stark
families). He is related to Lajos (Ludwig) Venetianer,
chief rabbi in Ujpest, (Budapest) and a prominent
historian. He is Rav-SIG's founding web site designer
and webmaster.
- Rabbi Dov Berish Weber, Advisory
Board
Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Dov Berish Weber was born in Brooklyn, New York,
and received a yeshiva education. He has done
extensive rabbinical genealogical research for
various rabbinical families. His research has
been published in Avotaynu: The International
Review of Jewish Genealogy, 1996,
1998 (Bergenfield, NJ), and in the scholarly Hebrew
periodicals Nachlat Tzvi, 1994 (Bnai
Brak), Siftei Tzadikim, 2000 (Bnai Brak),
and Ohr Yisrael, 2002 (Monsey, NY).
Additional
family research has been included in such
published books as Kol Todah, 1999
(Brooklyn), Birkat HaMazon, 2000
(Brooklyn), and Keren Yisrael, 2000
(London, England). He was the co-editor of Avnei Zikaron,
1999. He has done research in New York institutions
such as YIVO, Leo Baeck, Jewish Theological
Seminary, Yeshiva University, and the New York
Public Library. He has highest level of skill in
reading ancient Hebrew manuscripts.
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