Learn about the history of the Jews in Lithuania, plus resources for researching Jewish genealogy in the former “Jerusalem of the North.” Ellen Cassedy will cover the seven centuries of Jewish history in Lithuania, including the arrival of the Jews at the invitation of two grand dukes, the daily life of our ancestors in the age of the shtetl, the Vilna Gaon, urbanization, the Holocaust and the Soviet years, and today’s Jewish community. She’ll direct us to resources we can use in further research.

Ellen Cassedy is a frequent speaker on Jewish culture and Yiddish who traces her Jewish roots to the town of Rokiskis in northeast Lithuania. She is the author of We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust (2012) and is a co-translator from Yiddish of Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories by Blume Lempel (2016). Her piece ““Out of the Vilna Ghetto: Dust – and Determination,” was published in the Huffington Post. At the Vilnius Yiddish Institute Summer Program, she has given talks on the history of Jewish Vilna, how Lithuania is encountering the Holocaust today, and Yiddish songs and blessings. The Jewish Roots page on her web site (www.ellencassedy.com) offers information about Lithuanian archives, how to find a tour guide, help with translating Yiddish letters and other treasures, and how to learn Yiddish.

The program is free for paid members and $5 for non-members (applied to membership fee when a visitor joins JGSMD) after their first meeting. Refreshments will be available. Please check our web site at www.jgsmd.org for late updates and for the time, location, and program of future meetings.

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Upcoming Programs

News Tidbits

JGS Maryland has been reconstituted!
JGSMD had its initial meeting on Sunday August 18, 2013 to see if there was interest in the group's reconstituting. The turnout was overwhelming, with 31 people attending with only a few days' notice. Look forward to new programming over the next year!
Some of the attendees: