News Archive

Bessarabian Databases. Updates:

• Revision List set of records were sent to JewishGen in December of 2018. 11,610 records from 2,623 families were transcribed and translated from following towns: Soroki, Rashkov, Ataki, Ismail, Reni, Lyublin, Bolotina, Beltsy, Valya luy Vlad, Faleshty and from villages in Yassy/Beltsy district. See the list. We have an excelent group of translators for the Bessarabia Revision Lists. The total records we completed in 10 years is more then 193,000! Many thanks to our members who participated in this set translation: Alan Levine, Talia Kogan, Claire Stuart, Michael Richman, Ilana Voloshin and Yefim Kogan.

• A new section was created: Town Maps Translated into English. You will find 12 town maps translated from Yiddish, Hebrew, German and Russian, among them maps from Briceni, Dubossary, Leipzig (a German colony in Bessarabia!), etc.
  The new Maps. Thanks a lot to Roberta Jaffer for her hard work and dedication to this project.

Bessarabian Databases. Updates:

• Revision Lists, plan to upload to JewishGen in December of 2018. A number of Revision List sets were completed for town of Beltsy and Yassy/Beltsy uezd (district) see the progress.
  

• We have completed photographing and indexing a Nisporeni Jewish Cemetery. We have sent to JOWBR 173 burial records with 170 images and 264 images of Unknown graves can be viewed at Bessarabia SIG website at Nisporeni Cemetery Report.


• Kishinev Jewish Cemetery events - fall of 2018.
  October 20, 2018. Prime Minister of Republic of Moldova visited the Jewish Cemetery in Kishinev, and demanded a plan to restore the cemetery.
  November 26, 2018. The work begin on the improvement of the Jewish cemetery! See the articles about these events.

• Towns in Bessarabia and in neighboring regions for 200 years. It is table of 8 major towns in Bessarabia and close by area of Bukovina, Podolia, Romania with all countries these towns belong to since 1800 to 2000.
  See the table with Towns and Countries.

Bessarabian Databases. Updates:

• Revision Lists, plan to upload to JewishGen in December of 2018. A number of Revision List sets were completed for town of Beltsy and Yassy/Beltsy uezd (district) see the progress.
  

• The Myth of No Return: Jewish Return.
  Migration to Eastern Europe, 1881-1914
  written by Jonathan D. Sarna.
  Reprinted from American Jewish History, December 1, 1981, vol LXXI I, number 2.
  With the permission of the author the full article is presented.

• We have upgraded the inventory of all cemeteries in Bessarabia/Moldova.
  You can see the list from the cemetery section at the website or directly here.


• We have completed photographing and indexing a large Jewish Cemetery of Bessarabia - Vadul Rashkov. The Phase 1 was done in April of this year, and Phase 2 included more than 1,600 graves, from that we submitted to JOWBR 1,065, and 613 images of Unknown graves can be viewed at Bessarabia SIG website at Vadul Rashkov Cemetery Report.

Bessarabian Databases. Updates:

• Miriam Weiner Archival Database. New 2036 records from 773 families with 277 images were added to the database. You can see now records of Jews from towns of Yedinets, Orgeev, and more.
  Click to get directly to the Miriam Weiner's collection.
  
  A new way to search for records was created:
  The Alphabetical index by Name / Towns.


• Jews involved in public life in Bessarabia. A new set of almost 500 records was completed, and available at Bessarabia SIG website and was sent also to JewishGen, where records will be available soon.
  
  New records are taken from Akkerman Calendar and Kherson Calendar.
  See the whole collection.


• Revision Lists, plan to upload to JewishGen in December of 2018.
  See the progress.
  

• The Myth of No Return: Jewish Return.
  Migration to Eastern Europe, 1881-1914
  written by Jonathan D. Sarna.
  Reprinted from American Jewish History, December 1, 1981, vol LXXI I, number 2.
  See the excerpt.


• The Jewish Kishinev Guide. Compiled by Sarah Shpitalnik. Jewish Library 'Y. Manger', Kishinev, 1995.
  The guide was part of Miriam Weiner Archival Material donated to Bessarabia SIG.
  Read the guide.

Genealogical Conferences. Addition:

• 38 IAJGS Conference in Warsaw, Poland, 5-10 August, 2018. Please find all the slides from the Bessarabia/Moldova related presentations in Warsaw:
  --Jewish Shtetl in Moldova without Jews: How the Jewish Past can be remembered.
  --Jewish Cemeteries in Bessarabia/Moldova: Current Status and Future Projects.
  --Moldovan Archives: What information we can find in addition to Vital records and Revision Lists.
  --Bessarabia SIG Meeting.
  
  You can find the Warsaw conference page at Bessarabia SIG website/Research or directly at this link:
  Warsaw, 2018.

• A Family Story: Shaya, A Family Tale: several episodes written by Alan Levitt, Bessarabia SIG Discussion group director. It is about his grandfather Shaya and the Russian army. This is a good example of a family story which helps to understand the environment in which people, especially Jews used to live in the Russian Empire. You can find this article at Bessarabia SIG website/People or directly at this link:
  Shaya, A Family Tale.