Past Programs - 2012

The following programs and workshops were held in 2012; they are shown here so that you may view the range of activities of JGSGW.

Click here for a list of links to key Polish research sites.

Beginner's Workshop

3:00 PM

This workshop will be led by JGSGW Past Presidents, Arline Sachs and Faith Klein.

After finding out what the people are doing or know now, we will talk briefly about writing down what you already know or think you know and then interviewing as these are the first steps. There will be a discussion about the handout.

Faith will lead the group to the Jack Klein Memorial Library and Faith will explain the genealogy materials there. Jack Klein was the second President of JGSGW.

Attendees will receive a copy of 7th edition of “Jump-Start Your Jewish Genealogy Research: A Beginner’s Guide.”

The workshop is open to JGSGW members only. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Email registration requests to

Dr. Stone’s talk will focus on the themes of his recent book, “The Chosen Folks: Jews on the Frontiers of Texas.” By addressing specific topics such as the transient sixteenth-century Sephardim who may have been the first Jews in the state, the establishment of permanent Jewish communities in Texas, and later immigrations such as the Galveston Movement, Stone explains the intricacies of Texas-Jewish identity. The ways that Texas Jews defined themselves in opposition to others with whom they shared their state — and in opposition to Jews elsewhere — provide insights into how Jews construct and maintain their distinctive identity in places where they are an extreme minority. As such, the historical insights of The Chosen Folks are relevant to Jewish communities across the United States.

June

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Annual Meeting          Note: This meeting is for members only.
 Annual Luncheon and Membership Appreciation Meeting

Potomac Community Center, Potomac, MD

This presentation will use examples drawn from naturalization case and correspondence files to introduce researchers to the Bureau of Naturalization file series that is part of the records of INS now stored at the National Archives in Washington, DC. The records, which document the years 1906-1944, contain thousands of case correspondence files for aliens and citizens who had questions or concerns about nationality and citizenship. A newly available name index makes these previously under-utilized records accessible to Genealogists. The presentation focuses on Bureau of Naturalization file but will include examples of a wide array of early 20th century immigration and nationality records.

There were two handouts at this meeting: one for INS Subject & Policy Records, the other for the Name Index to Bureau of Naturalization Correspondence Files, 1906-1946. They have been combined into one PDF file - click here. Note that these are the description of the records, not the records themselves.

Zack Wilske is a historian with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). His research interests include the history of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the uses of INS records for genealogists and historians. He has presented regularly at the National Archives and several genealogy conferences, including the 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Washington, DC in 2011. 

JGSGW Members only. Advance registration required - send email to

A specially arranged guided tour of the new exhibit “Attachments: Faces and Stories from America's Gates” led by the Archives senior curator. “Attachments” tells the stories of 31 men, women, and children who found themselves at the gateways to America between 1880 and the end of World War II. Their stories are told through original documents and photographs that were “attached” to government forms, and draw from a few of the millions of immigration case files at the National Archives.

The exhibition explores both physical and emotional “attachments” -- the attachment of immigrants to family and community, and the attachment of Americans to their beliefs about immigrants and citizenship.

Susannah E. Brooks explains where one might find place of birth in National Archives records, which is essential for additional research at the local and state level in the U.S. and abroad.

Susannah E. Brooks has been a volunteer genealogy staff aide at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC for 14 years and is the corresponding secretary of the Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society (MAGS). She specializes in German, 19th and 20th C. general US research.

This program was arranged exclusively for JGSGW Members.

Miriam Kleiman will speak about Jewish and Holocaust-related records at the National Archives. She will discuss finding aids to these materials and efforts by the National Archives to make these records more widely available via microfilm and online. She will also provide a "walk through" of the National Archives Public Vaults permanent exhibition, highlighting records relating to the Jewish experience in America.

Workshops are open to JGSGW members only. Non-members may join on the day of the workshop. NO advance registration is required.

The focus of this workshop will be to show the sorts of records that can be researched to trace people who came through the UK and who may have stayed there for a while and permanently. Mark will also cover the ports of entry, records of immigration (or rather the lack of them), places that people lived in, and general living conditions.

Mark Nicholls will give his presentation from his home in England and time will be provided for Q&A.

    NOTE: What is a webinar?
The term webinar is short for Web-based Seminar, a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the Web, specifically a portmanteau of web & seminar, to describe a specific type of web conference.

At 1 PM we will have our usual Schmooze, followed by a brief meeting conducted by President Jeff Malka.

When the meeting is over, we will break into the SIG Sessions. SIG Hosts will do a presentation on a project, new resource or other item of interest to the assembled group. At that point, the floor is open to Q&A. Questions that require research will be recorded and answers sent to members of the group. The session will last 45 minutes and then by voice vote, we will decide whether people want to continue with their current session OR switch to another group. We will do one or the other, but not both.

The SIG Sessions that are planned are as follows:

SIG	Host
Suwalki-Lomza	Harvey Kabaker & Michael Richman
Galicia	Milt Goldsamt
Litvak	Bill Yoffee
Beginners	Harris Weinstein

In 2009 Esther and her oldest son went to Ukraine to visit the shtetlach her parents came from. They wanted to walk the ground her ancestors had walked on. Esther wrote, "In fact, we found much more than we expected. Even 70 years after the Holocaust it is still possible to go back and find new information."

3:00 - 5:00 PM

This workshop will be led by Vera Finberg, JGSGW Librarian and Faith Klein, JGSGW Past President.

Jewish family history does not have to be a mystery. This workshop will explain how to organize the information you know, where to conduct searches and how to use Internet resources to get started doing Jewish genealogy.

Faith will lead the group on a tour of the Jack Klein Memorial Library and explain the genealogy materials there. Jack Klein was the second president of the JGSGW.

Class size is limited to 20. Participation is limited to members only. Advance registration is required at

In New York, Baltimore, and other American cities, the delicatessen was the lifeblood and the linchpin of the Jewish community. The "soul food" and atmosphere it dished up became a quintessential part of American culture for Jews and non-Jews alike.  But as Jews moved into the suburban middle class, the deli lost its bite, giving way to other ethnic restaurants and cuisines. Can the deli be resurrected?

Merwin, an assistant professor of religion and Judaic studies at Dickinson College, will show how the deli, which originated in Germany and Eastern Europe, developed in this country into a neighborhood institution on par with the synagogue. He will also discuss how the deli became an icon of both television shows and films about the Jewish experience, ranging from "When Harry Met Sally" to "The Larry David Sandwich" episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.