1. Letter from the Staff Dear JewishGenners,

It is said that Passover was first celebrated some 3,300 years ago, on the first anniversary of the rescue and redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt. Since that time, this holiday, particularly the Seder ritual, has become a mainstay of the Jewish people, and something that brings families together in unique ways.

At its core, the Seder stresses the importance of family, and helps preserve Jewish history for future generations – which is what JewishGen is dedicated to doing each and every day.

With this in mind, we created the “JewishGen Passover Companion,” a collection of historical and inspirational vignettes about Passover that are contained throughout JewishGen.

We hope that anyone who read this material gained a better, deeper and more personal understanding of the lives our ancestors lived, and that this will, in turn, help ensure that our own children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, will likewise feel connected and inspired by the great history of their ancestors – the entirety of the Jewish people.

In case you missed it, there are two ways to read the JewishGen Passover Companion:

1. You can download it as a PDF here. 2. You can read it online here.

We hope everyone had a happy Passover! The JewishGen Team

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Donor Update JewishGen

1. LETTER FROM THE STAFF 2. VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT 3. DATABASE SPOTLIGHT 4. KEHILALINKS SPOTLIGHT 5. SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH 6. RESEARCH ADVICE

7. DATA/PROJECT UPDATES 8. KNOWLEDGE BASE 9. TREE OF LIFE SOCIETY 10. IN THE NEWS 11. EDUCATION

IN THIS ISSUE:

MAY 2016

2. Volunteer Spotlight This month, we thank Ann Rabinowitz.

If you read the JewishGen Facebook page (and if you don't, you should!), you are probably already a fan of Ann Rabinowitz’s writings and contributions to JewishGen and Jewish genealogy in general. Ann is one of our research experts, frequently submitting articles covering a vast array of topics that are interesting and helpful to those researching their Jewish family history. Her postings involve extensive research and a willingness to explore the complexity of her subject matter. Ann has been personally responsible for connecting families across several continents as a result of her writing on the Facebook page and elsewhere.

Through her writings, Ann plays an important role in formulating strategic direction for JewishGen and increasing the number of contributors. As her posts generally receive a lot of feedback, she often devotes considerable time to answering queries from readers in the comments section or via email.

In addition to her postings, Ann has served on the Board of the Litvak SIG and is one of the American coordinators for the Southern Africa SIG as well as being a member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County and the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York. Apart from genealogy, she has authored many short stories, works of poetry, and articles on food anthropology and ethnic foods; she is also an avid gardener.

Ann is a native of Manchester, England, where her mother’s family (originally from Boryslaw and Drohobycz, Ukraine) settled. She is a graduate of Florida State University and did further course work there as well as at Emory University and the University of Maryland. Currently, she lives in South Florida and works as an office manager in a local government information technology department. JewishGen is grateful to have such a prolific and talented member among its roster of volunteers. Thanks for all your great contributions, Ann.

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Quote of the Month JewishGen has been a daily part of my life for nearly 20 years. Keep up your

wonderful work. It provides verification of our ancestry, our history, our very existence. - David A., Chicago, IL

Ann Rabinowitz, handing gifts of Judaica from Kupishokers worldwide, to Genadij Kofmann, head of Panevezys Jewish Community

3. Database Spotlight DUMA VOTER LISTS — BELARUS This database contains the names of over 35,000 men of Minsk Gubernia who were eligible to vote in the Russian parliamentary elections in 1906 and 1907.

These voter lists were published in the local Russian government newspaper Gubernski Vedomosti. The Gubernskie Vedomosti were Czarist-era government newspapers, published in each gubernia between 1838 and 1917. These newspapers included official government notices, including these voters’ lists for the elections for the Russian parliament (Duma) that were held (or were supposed to be held) in 1906, 1907, and 1912.

Minsk gubernia was a province of the Russian Empire until 1917. It was comprised of nine districts (uyezds): Bobruisk, Borisov, Igumen, Minsk, Mozyr, Novogrudok, Pinsk, Rechitsa and Slutsk. Between the two world wars, the western third of former Minsk Gubernia was in Poland (southern Nowogródek and northeastern Polesie uyezds), and the eastern two-thirds was in the Soviet Union. Today, the vast majority of former Minsk gubernia is in south-central Belarus; small portions of southern Pinsk and Mozyr uyezds are in modern Ukraine.

For more information on this database, please visit: http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Belarus/DumaVoterLists.htm

4. KehilaLinks Spotlight WOJNILOW (NOW VOYNILOV), UKRAINE Each month, we highlight a KehilaLinks page. This month features Wojnilow (Voynilov), a small town in western Ukraine that was located in Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to World War I. In 1900, its Jewish population was 1,115. The Jews of Wojnilow did not survive the Holocaust. The last known Jewish burial at the town’s cemetery was in 1940.

The website includes links to a researched history of Wojnilow, and to maps, photos, and documents. It features the story of Samuel Drach who was born there in 1884, and who immigrated to New York City in 1904. There are also links to the journal and photographs of Roman Zakharii, an historian who documented the history of the town from medieval times to the Holocaust. Zakharii sought out what remained of the cemetery, photographed the stones with visible inscriptions, and wrote movingly, “It made me think, when walking back, of the Jewish tragedy that still continues and why it is so still? Why the cemetery is grazing land for cows; why the road to the cemetery is a cattle road and why the poisonous plant (called kropyva in Ukrainian, kropiwa in Polish) grows around the remaining grave stones; the plant that when you touch the skin gets burnt. For me it was not a coincidence…”

The Kehilalinks site can be found at http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/voynilov/Voynilov.html

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5. Success Story of the Month THE BLECHER BOYS OF BESSARABIA BECOME BARBERS: FROM SOROKI TO CHICAGO 1909-1914

By Marla Raucher Osborn, Paris, France

One boy, per boat, per year, beginning in 1909.

From ports like Bremen, Glasgow, Hamburg, and Liverpool one Blecher boy each year would board a steamship bound for a major American port—Baltimore, Boston, New York—all with the same final destination: Chicago. One by one, beginning in 1909 and ending in mid-1914, all six Blecher boys would leave Soroki, Bessarabia, and make their way to Chicago. The later arrivals would join the earlier ones. They would share lodgings. They would each apply for American citizenship, sometimes together. They would bear witness for each other on

marriage certificates and army enlistments.

By May 1914, the Blecher boys of Chicago would welcome the arrival of their parents and only sister, Mollie, my grandmother.

Mollie (known as Malke) was the youngest of seven children born to Jacob (Yankel) and Ida (Chaike) Blecher.

Her six older brothers were: Meyer, (Meier), Sam (Simche), Sol (Shaike), Joe(Josel), Marty (Mottel), and Arthur (Alter).

All seven Blecher children were born in Soroki, Bessarabia (then, Russia, today Moldova), between 1887 and 1908.

By the 1940s, four of the six Blecher boys owned a very successful barber shop in Chicago. Of the other two brothers, one became a tailor and the other pursued an exemplary career in the military (both navy and army) from 1922 through WWII. One brother

returned to Russia—for reasons unknown—and found himself in Slavuta in April 1926 applying for a Russian passport, valid for one-year, before returning to Chicago. After graduating from Medill High School, Mollie marred in 1930 and then left Chicago

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Blecher Boys – Marty, Joe and Sam, c. 1915

1907 Bessarabia Duma Voters List Showing Yankel Blecher (note that the website has been updated since this posting!)

for Los Angeles, California. She remained—until her death in 1968—the baby, the protected, the favorite of each of her six Blecher brothers.

In my genealogical research for my Blecher family, I have been both fortunate and unfortunate.

Fortunate, because Cook County (Chicago) has an excellent online resource. Because the Blechers landed, settled, and largely stayed in Chicago over multiple generations, I was able to find through this website dozens of birth, marriage, death, and naturalization records. From these I could then turn my research attention toward obtaining passenger lists, census records, and even voter registration records (Los Angeles County), with great success.

Unfortunate, because Blecher seems to have had dozens of spelling variations—in addition to the usual (and expected) typographical and transliteration mistakes genealogists expect—making it quite the research challenge.

Here are some of the surname variations for Blecher, not only in the transcribed databases but in the original records themselves: Blekher, Blakher, Blaker, Bleker, Bleecher, and Blyakher. (And that's before explaining that every Blecher family member changed the family surname at some point to Heller, usually in connection with naturalization.)

Given names for the Blechers also produced great spelling variations. As was common, all the Blecher given names were “Americanized” once on American soil. This meant that database searches and records might have original ethnic or diminutive given names, or their closest American counterpart.

Marty, for example, produced, in addition to Martin, the following variations: Mordechai, Mottel, Moudle, Motke.

Sol, in addition to Solomon and Saul, appeared as Shaike, Shake, Chaike, and even Chaie.

My personal favorite: the 1914 Boston passenger manifest for my grandmother Mollie and her parents listed her father's name as “Zeide Blaker”.

Even the Bessarbian town of Soroki produced huge variations in spelling, some quite amusing and unexpected: Soroka, Soroca, and Sowka, plus, my favorite: Sriculia.

The moral of this story for the researching genealogist: be sure to have a very, very open mind and experiment liberally with spelling when searching.

In 1929, Jacob Blecher died in Chicago. He was around 80 years old, though he looked older with his white hair and beard. The family buried Jacob at nearby Waldheim Cemetery. Meyer and Marty's sons

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Jacob Blecher, c. 1910

recounted to me years later how Jacob always carried candy in the pockets of his long black coat for the children of their Chicago neighborhood. He loved children.

Less than a year after Jacob's death, his widow, Ida, was tragically hit by a truck and killed while crossing the street in front of their brownstone apartment at 3804 W. 16th Street. Alerted by the commotion, several Blecher boys quickly arrived on the scene and severely beat the truck driver. Chicago police arrived. Ida died on the street of severe trauma and shock. Two days later she was buried beside Jacob at Waldheim.

Eighty years passed and Ida's rose gold locket (seen in a 1915 photo of her) passed down to another generation—the second American-born generation. My generation. That the family surname of Heller had once been Blecher was by then only a fading but persistent family rumor.

I felt compelled to prove that the rumor was true.

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Blechers’ Central Park Barbershop, Chicago, c. mid-1940s

6. Research Advice THE AMERICAN JEW WHO FOUGHT FOR THE BOERS DURING THE SECOND BOER WAR (1899-1902) By Ann Rabinowitz

This story ends on December 11, 1899, with an American, the first Jewish casualty on the Boer side, killed needlessly on the field of battle during a night attack of Surprise Hill, at the siege of Ladysmith, South Africa. However, it begins fortuitously enough with a German Jewish boy, Harry Spanier, who came to America with his siblings Joseph and Pauline as part of the mid-19th Century German Jewish migration to America.

The Spanier siblings were barely teenagers when they arrived and strove to integrate into the American melting pot. Siblings Joseph and Pauline, settled in post Gold Rush era San Francisco, California, and Harry took to the east coast, New York, and then Columbus in mid-western Ohio.

According to Harry’s passport application, he was the son of Abraham Spanier of Wandsbek, Germany. He had two passports with varying

birth dates, one in 1840 and one in 1853. Records are never accurate it seems, even on important documents such as a passport.

Later, Harry Spanier became a grocer, a fish market owner, and a speculator in America. He was someone who looked for the main chance, a good idea, a way to make his mark. He was eager to make his first million like he had heard it was possible to do in America, the land of opportunity. The streets were paved with gold were they not?

To others, he appeared to be a fine figure of a man, attractive with blue eyes and light hair, hardly with the look of a Jew about him. He fit in everywhere. He must have been a persuasive talker, as he gained the attention of many a prominent businessman, belonged to civic organizations and lodges, and had many devoted friends.

At some point, he met the lively, ebullient and social Frances Emma Vagnier, the daughter of Bartholomew and Frances Vagnier, who were French Catholics and early settlers of Lancaster, Ohio, a small town not too far from Columbus, Ohio. She was young, much younger than he was, and eager to see the world and he was a worldly man intent on making things happen. She was smitten despite the difference in their ages and their religions.

However, she took her religion seriously, seriously enough to require that their forthcoming children would be brought up Catholic.

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Harry Spanier, Lancaster, Ohio

So, they were married in approximately 1884. Intermarriage or marrying out, whilst frowned upon, occurred frequently in those days where Jews were located in areas where there were few other Jews. Many of these early German Jewish settlers were of the reform persuasion and also may have become much less observant in the less restrictive confines of America.

The Spanier’s had their first child, Joseph, immediately, and two more, Clara Belle and Lewis J., followed. However, their first son Joseph died in 1890, as did Harry’s brother Joseph. It was a terrible year, but Harry carried on.

It was difficult trying to make something of one’s self and raise a family too. However, Harry was a hustler and always eager to find his niche. He kept up with current affairs and what was going on in the world. Eventually, he concocted the idea that he should become involved in South African-related commerce. South Africa was teeming with possibilities as they had many natural resources such as diamonds, and gold, but few standardized or commercially mass-produced products such as carriages, railroad cars, mining machinery, and explosives.

His first successful venture was to represent a combine of New Yorkers in the shipping of mules to South Africa. Since mules were not naturally raised in South Africa and were stronger and more long-lasting than horses, there was a great desire for them, especially in mining where twenty mule teams pulled ore from the mines as well as equipment. They also were most important in military operations such as carting food, guns, and equipment, as had been found in the First Boer War (1880-1881).

The major companies in Columbus, OH, The Columbus Buggy Company, Inc. and Kilbourne and Jacobs Manufacturing Company were intent on providing items related to mining, transportation, and other similar areas. Harry established connections for selling their products overseas in far-off South Africa. A group of the companies hired Harry to go directly to South Africa and negotiate contracts with the government for many diverse items. This was his chance at making it rich. His ambitious plan was to spend a year or two in South Africa, make his fortune and bring his family out to join him.

In 1896, and he bid good-bye to his devoted wife and two young children, and left on a ship to South Africa. After he arrived at his destination, Harry immediately set about making connections, so he could consummate some deals. He was widely accepted in the halls of government in Pretoria where many other speculators competed with him for the lucrative government contracts. His friends were other Americans, who hung out at certain social clubs, but also the Boers officials who he had to deal with. He was a fresh face who represented companies that had a worldwide reputation which boded well for his future success in closing some deals.

He began to have some successes and American products from Columbus, Ohio, flowed to the Boer Republic in significant amounts. Despite this, he recognized that the big money was going to come from the provision of the railroad cars and lines for new main and branch rail lines being constructed as well as other related machinery for the mines.

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Frances Emma Spanier, Columbus, OH

In 1898, he represented a group of companies in the following undertaking:

“An American syndicate, which has practically secured the contract for the Vryheid-Dundee line, has submitted a proposal to the Government offering to construct all the new branch lines at an average rate of £8,000 per mile, to be paid in State debentures bearing four percent interest. The proposal will have to be submitted to the Volksraad.”

This was an important arterial rail line which was scheduled to connect the Richards Bay coal line with the Durban-Gauteng main line. The initial section of 11km was built in 1896 from Glencoe to Talana. Because of the Second Boer War, the line was not extended to Vryheid until 1903.

The South Africa that Harry saw was wild and full of possibilities. He continued to write glowing letters to his wife about what he could accomplish. Meanwhile, his letters added that he was terribly homesick and missed his family. Three years later, in 1899, Harry had not managed to go home yet. Things were still on the cusp of succeeding for him.

He wrote to his wife that if things did not work out he would come home, but he wanted to stay until he had tried every means of succeeding on a special project he was working on. He told his wife that if he did succeed he would be a millionaire many times over. She wrote back and agreed that he should stay until he reached his goal or his opportunities ran out.

At some point, Harry became a burgher of the ZAR and joined the Boer commandos. He, along with many others from Pretoria, left to defend Ladysmith. It is quite strange that Harry, a man who was considered elderly by most accounts as he was about 59-60, should have done so.

What prompted him to take this life-changing and subsequently fatal move which risked everything he had or hoped to accomplish? This is the missing link in Harry’s story. There is nothing to tell us what caused him to end up on a battlefield at Surprise Hill in the dark early hours of December 11, 1899.

One of the unique bits of necrology following Harry’s death was the letter written to Harry’s wife by a Catholic priest, the Rev. Father A. Baudry, who had shared a tent with him on the battlefield.

12.12.1899Hoofdlager

Madam,

It is my sad duty to ----to you news which will grieve you very much. As you know your husband joined the Boers forces here near Ladysmith. For a couple of weeks he shared the tent where I was… We parted about a week hence; he was going to join the Pretoria Commando.

Our eyes were full of tears when we last shook hands to see each other no more. Yesterday morning at about two o’cl his picket was attacked by the English; heavy firing commenced and continued for about an hour.

The English were repulsed, but not until they had blown up one gun with a charge of dynamite. On the Boers side there were 2 killed and 14 wounded. Your husband was among the last. He was

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mortally shot in the stomach… He died in the ambulance wagon on his way to the ambulance train, which was to carry him to Johannesburg.

Your husband told me he sent you £400 just before this breaking out of hostilities. He also mentioned something about his affairs in Johannesburg but entered into no details. Your husband was well acquainted with the American Consul in Pretoria and Acting Consul in Johannesburg. They must know the state of his affairs…

The unusual nature of Harry’s passing, as he had been shot by his own side, the Boers, and then bayoneted by the other side, the British, and the fact that he was a foreign soldier, a Jew, at that, and was a person well-known in the halls of power in the Boer Republic, caused his funeral to gain a magnitude that might not have been felt for a regular soldier.

The government report of what took place in Pretoria on December 13, 1899 showed President Paul Kruger in attendance, and that the artillery fired the salute of honor.

The certified burial certificate for Harry was attested to by S. [Sigmund] Wolfson, of The Pretoria Jewish Helping Hand and Burial Society, on January 1, 1901. It states that Harry was buried in the Jewish Burial Ground, Block B, Grave #3, Pretoria, SA, on December 10, 1899. It was slightly off a few days from the correct date of December 13, 1899, but still of interest.

As a closing remark, it appears that poor Harry Spanier not only was killed twice, but according to the above letter, he was buried before his death! In addition, he was never able to consummate any of the deals that were in the works before his death which had kept him in South Africa for three long years, away from his beloved family. On top of it, he joined the losing side in the War and got himself killed almost as soon as he was deployed in battle.

All I can say is that unlike the popular Yiddish song “Wie Nemt Men A Bissele Mazel, Harry, poor fellow, had no mazel whatsoever!

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7. Data/Project Updates A. YIZKOR BOOKS SPOTLIGHT At the end of each week, we offer a brief spotlight from a Yizkor Book that JewishGen has translated. Excerpts are posted each Friday morning, at 7:00 am (EST) on our Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/JewishGen.org). This past month, we focused on excerpts from:

• The Yizkor book of Minsk in Belarus. At the turn of the 20th century, Minsk was home to 47,562 Jews who made up about half the city’s population and was then one of the largest Jewish communities in Russia. The excerpt, “The Home of My Father, the Maggid of Minsk,” describes the array of synagogues in the city and its suburbs, which included ones organized around various professions. Click here for more: https://www.facebook.com/JewishGen.org/posts/1072576232764531:0

• The Memorial book of Nowy-Dwor, a shtetl about 17 miles northwest of Warsaw. In 1900, shortly before this chapter was written, Nowy-Dwor was under Russian rule, but later was part of Poland. In 1897, the Jewish population was 4,737. As in many Jewish communities, there were active political movements, ranging from Zionism to groups advocating social reform and labor rights. This is the 1905 account of Simkhe Waga describing the work of – and the dangers facing – Jewish activists. Click here for more: https://www.facebook.com/JewishGen.org/posts/1080351538653667:0

• The book of Stepan, which had been part of Poland and is now in northwest Ukraine, just south of the border of Belarus. In 1897, its Jewish population was 1,854. Much has been written about Jews who resisted the Nazi occupation or struggled to survive. This is an account by Yonah Rassis, who had been imprisoned in a forced labor camp in Kostopol shortly before the annihilation of the community in 1942, and who, along with hundreds of others, decided to escape. Click here for more: https://www.facebook.com/JewishGen.org/posts/1084018084953679:0

• The book of Rohatyn, now part of Ukraine, about 40 miles south of L’viv. The Jewish population was 3,503 in 1890 when it was still part of Galicia in the Austrian-Hungarian empire, but declined to 2,223 in 1921 after it became part of Poland. In a chapter titled “Within the Town,” Yehoshua Spiegel starts off by describing a typical market day in the shtetl. Click here for more: https://business.facebook.com/JewishGen.org/posts/1087358544619633:0

To view these excerpts, along with links to the original translations, please visit the archives of Yizkor Book spotlights here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/jewishgenorg/yizkor-book-spotlight-archives/925345610820928

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B. YIZKOR BOOKS UPDATE By Lance Ackerfeld

Remarkable is the word that comes to mind when I look back at what has been achieved in the Yizkor Book Project over the previous month. This achievement, of course, could only come about through the contribution of some very dedicated, remarkable people. I would like to mention a few.

The first to be noted are our two devoted htmlers - Jason Hallgarten and Max Heffler - who deserve a huge amount of credit for the incredible number of our web pages they have prepared over a great many years, and continue to prepare. Another person important to note is Ala Gamulka, who recently finished completely translating the Hebrew section of the Bender Yizkor book. Not only has she voluntarily translated from this book but she has also prepared translations from many other books, and we are indebted to her unceasing effort. Thank you to these people and to the many others who are part of the Yizkor Book Project "family".

We are always on the lookout for volunteer assistance to join our "family" and, particularly at the moment, we are looking for editors who are also fluent in Hebrew or Yiddish to go over prepared translations. If you fit this bill and are able to dedicate even a small amount of time to help out, I would be very glad to hear from you. For the most part, the translations of the Yizkor Book are carried out by professional translators who receive their fees from our Translation Funds. These funds are set up for specific books and are supported by donors wishing to gain the knowledge and unique information that the Yizkor books contain about our lost communities. Recently, a number of such funds were set up for the communities of Shums'k, Ukraine and Tykocin, Poland, and the financial support of researchers with interests in these communities will certainly allow us to continue in the sacred task of translating and presenting these books in the Yizkor Book site for all to read.

Another fund that was recently reopened is for the Goniadz, Poland, Yizkor book, as we do require additional funds to complete the translation and allow us to publish it as part of the Yizkor Books in Print Project. For details of how to support these or any of the Translation Funds or learn more about the YBIP Project, please see the links at the end of this message.

During this last month we have added two new books:

Kalvarija, Lithuania (Scroll of Kalvarija)

Tab, Hungary (The Jewish population and the development of Tab from the 1700s to the Holocaust)

We have also added in seven new entries in The Marmaros Book; In Memory of 160 Jewish Communities:

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• Berezovo, Ukraine

• Danylovo, Ukraine

• Iza, Ukraine

• Lysychovo, Ukraine

• Nyzhniy Bystryy, Ukraine

• Viseu de Jos, Romania

• Viseu de Mijloc, Romania

We have continued to update 32 of our existing projects:

• Bender, Moldova (Bendery Community Yizkor Book)

• Biala Podlaska, Poland (Book of Biala Podlaska)

• Bransk, Poland (Brainsk; Book of Memories)

• Brody, Ukraine (An Eternal Light: Brody in Memoriam)

• Chelm, Poland (Commemoration book Chelm)

• Czestochowa, Poland (The Jews of Czestochowa)

• Czyzew-Osada, Poland (Czyzewo Memorial Book)

• Goniadz, Poland (Our hometown Goniondz)

• Kalisz, Poland (The Kalish book)

• Konin (Memorial Book Konin)

• Less than Human

• Lithuania (Lite)

• Miechow, Charsznica & Ksiaz, Poland (Miechov Memorial Book, Charsznica and Ksiaz)

• Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Poland (Mezritsh Book, in Memory of the Martyrs of our City)

• Minsk, Belarus (Minsk, Jewish Mother-City, a memorial anthology)

• Mizoch, Ukraine (Memorial Book of Mizocz)

• Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki, Poland (Memorial book of Nowy-Dwor)

• Pabianice, Poland (The Pabianice Book: A Memorial for a Community)

• Rokiskis, Lithuania (Yizkor book of Rakishok and environs)

• Sambir, Ukraine (The Book of Sambor and Stari Sambor; a Memorial to the Jewish Communities)

• Sarny, Ukraine (Memorial Book of the Community of Sarny)

• Sobrance, Slovakia (The Unlikely Hero of Sobrance)

• Soklowa Podlaski, Poland (Memorial book Sokolow-Podlask)

• Sosnove (Ludvipol), Ukraine (Ludvipol (Wolyn); in memory of the Jewish community)

• Staszow, Poland (The Staszow book)

• Szczebrzeszyn, Poland (The Book of Memory to the Jewish Community of Shebreshin)

• Tarnow, Poland (The life and decline of a Jewish city)

• Tykocin, Poland (Memorial book of Tiktin)

• Vysotsk, Ukraine (Our Shtetl; Vysotsk memorial book)

• Wyszkow, Poland (Wyszkow Book)

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• Zabrze, Poland (Zabrze Yizkor Book)

• Zelechow, Poland (Memorial book of the community of Zelechow) [Polish]

Some important links to note:

• This month's additions and updates are flagged at http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/translations.html to make it easy to find them.

• All you would like to know about the Yizkor Books in Print Project: http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/ybip.html

• Yizkor Book Translation Funds: where your financial support will assist in seeing more translations go online.

C. KEHILALINKS By Susana Leistner Bloch & Barbara Ellman

We are pleased to welcome the following web pages to JewishGen KehilaLinks. We thank the owners and webmasters of these web pages for creating fitting memorials to these Kehilot (Jewish communities) and for providing a valuable resource for future generations of their descendants:

KEHILALINKS WEB PAGES RECENTLY UPDATED:

Barysh (Barysz) (G), Ukraine

Dashev (Dashiev), Ukraine

Muizenberg, South Africa

Seduva (Shadeve), Lithuania

Ukmerge (Vilkomir), Lithuania

If you wish to create a KehilaLinks webpage please contact us at: bloch@mts.net.

Need technical help creating a web page? We have a team of dedicated volunteer webpage designers who will help you to create a webpage.

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Berezne (Berezno, Brezhna), Ukraine Created by Meredith HoffmanWebmaster Richard L. Baum

Hoboken, New Jersey, USA Created by Janet Marcus

Jelgava (Mitau, Mitav), Latvia Created by Eli Rabinowitz

Kaliningrad (Konigsberg, Kenigsberg), Russia Created by Eli Rabinowitz

Ramygala (Remigole), LithuaniaCreated by Alan Nathan

Ziezmariai (Zhezmir), LithuaniaCreated by Eli Rabinowitz

D. BESSARABIA SIG By Yefim Kogan

Here is an update for April for Bessarabia SIG. It was a great month for new additions and projects.

A new section was added to our website: Miriam Weiner Archives and Publications. You can read chapters from her book Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova on Jewish history in Moldova, the Moldavian Archives and towns.

Jewish Cemeteries Updates:

• Updated the list of Jewish cemeteries in Bessarabia and Moldova. We have now 36 cemeteries indexed and/or photographed with total of 40,616 records.

• "A Vanished World" - documentary about Jewish cemeteries in Moldova. Radio Europa Libera.

• Hincesti (Gancheshti, Kotovsk) Jewish Cemetery: 222 records with 160 photographs were sent to JewishGen /JOWBR. See the overview, maps, photos, and access to 12 photos of unknown graves and more at the Hincesti Cemetery Report.

• Besarabeasca (Romanovka, Romanenko, Bessarabka) Jewish Cemetery (New Section): 308 records with 257 photographs were sent to JewishGen /JOWBR. See the overview, maps, photos, and access to 61 photos of unknown graves and more at the Basarabeasca Cemetery (New Section) Report.

If someone would like to get a whole set of records for a town, for the donation of $100 to Bessarabia/Moldova Cemetery project you can get the spreadsheet in advance. Also if you find your ancestors, I will send you photos of the tombstone, if available.

Bessarabia Databases Updates:

Revision List Project: Our Revision Team has finished a number of large sets of records, and they will be available at the JewishGen Upload in June. The two largest sets are completed for Kishinev 1859 and Ataki (more than 11,000 records!) If anyone wants to get a full set of a records for a town, that is possible with a donation of $100 to Bessarabia SIG General fund. There are new sets of records found among revision records: petitions, certificates, guarantor letters, etc. I will write a special message about it.

Kishinev Revision Lists: Until now we had very few Revision Lists for Kishinev. We only had additional Revisions and not the full set. We now have 108,924 records in our Bessarabia Revision List database.

We should finish a full set of Kishinev Revisions for 1859 shortly. The list will include 8046 records of a Middle Class (Meschane). This is going to be one of the largest lists ever prepared by our Revision Team. What is also different for this list is that the whole "first" reading was done by ONE person - Alan Levine. That was a very large and very hard job, and I want to thank Alan for his continued help and support of our projects.

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A few observations from the list: In the 1850s many Jewish boys were conscripted to the Russian Army. Almost every family had a person in the army. Also some Jews were baptized. Usually it was one son/daughter in a family or occasionally the whole family. There are a number of Jews who were “on the run,” sometimes called “unknown leave of absence.” or, in a few cases, “family returned from unknown leave.”

For Kishinev, there are two more full sets of records for 1848 and 1835 which will be translated by the end of the year or in the following years.

The records will be available on the JewishGen Bessarabia Database in June. You can get a full set of these Kishinev Revisions for a donation of $100 to the JewishGen Bessarabia General Fund. You will get a full table, and if you find relatives, I will also send you a copy of the original pages (in Russian).

New addition to our website:

Irina Shikhova’s book, We Will Survive. Jewish History of Moldova in Images, Maps and Pictures, Chisinau, 2015.

E. JEWISHGEN HUNGARIAN SIG By Vivian Kahn

I’m very pleased to announce two recent uploads to the JewishGen Hungary Database:

The Hungarian Other Census Records collection, which includes a wide variety of records from census dating to the last quarter of the 18th century, has been updated to include additional records from Maramaros, Szatmar, and Zemplen counties, increasing the total to 82,600 records. This collection list names and other information about Jews in Hungary drawn from local census, tax lists, and household lists created by the Kingdom of Hungary and the Austrian Empire, in addition to the 1828 Landowner Census [Vagyonösszeirás - 1828], the 1848 Census of Jews [Conscriptio Judaerum 1848] and the 1869 total population of Hungary. Many of these records provided data for calculating the notorious “Tolerance Tax” that was levied against the Jewish communities throughout Hungary.

Thanks to all of the volunteers who have been contributing to this effort and to Coordinator Eric Bloch, who is always on the look-out for new census resources. For more information about this collection go to http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Hungary/CensusOther.htm

Also new to the Hungary database are 217 names from a Holocaust Memorial in present-day Backa Topola, Serbia, formerly Topolya in Bacs-Bodrog megye, Hungary. The names have been added to the Hungarian Holocaust Memorials Database http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Hungary/HolocaustMemorials.htm. The database now includes more than 23,000 martyrs whose names are recorded on Holocaust memorials in 37 communities in present-day Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. This addition was transcribed by Project Coordinator Larry Kohn from a photograph donated by Catherine Adam.

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Watch for other upcoming additions including:

Hungarian Jewish Lawyers—A list of more than 3400 Hungarian Jewish lawyers, many of whom were murdered during the Shoah and whose offices and clients were transferred to non-Jewish lawyers in 1944.

Eastern Slovakia Survivors—The names, birthplaces, and other information about 775 Jews from Eastern Slovakia who were deported and survived or hid during the Holocaust.

Wallenberg Passport List—The list includes names, birthdates and places, and addresses for more than 4,000 Jews who received "protective passports” authorized by the Swedish government and issued by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. The passports identified the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. The list also includes the addresses of the buildings where the individuals were sheltered in Budapest.

Abauj-Torna 1848 Jewish Census Records—New records from the 1848 Jewish Census that were found in the Hungarian National Archives.

Please contact me for information about these and other Hungarian SIG projects and to find out how you can help to grow our resources for those researching their Hungarian Jewish families.

F. JEWISHGEN UKRAINE SIG by Dr. Janette Silverman

As you can imagine, I've been extremely busy for the last several months not only with Ukraine SIG work but also preparing for the very exciting upcoming IAJGS conference in Seattle. To date, about 50% of our spaces for the Tuesday afternoon Ukraine SIG lunch are already spoken for, so if you are planning to join us for the lunch, please register for it very soon. We would hate to turn people away, but once the room is filled, we have no other space to move to. Tuesday will also feature other Ukraine SIG opportunities. Check out the conference schedule at http://www.iajgs.org/

Our lunch will be featuring Eric Goldman who will be speaking about another aspect of immigration from Eastern Europe - the experiences that some of our ancestors might have had when they arrived in New York. Following the luncheon, the movie, "Hester Street" will be shown.

Yes, I know that people arrived at other ports, but most immigrants arriving in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came through Ellis Island. The conference itself will feature many other groups of Jews worldwide, and many other experiences in the United States.

In addition to registering for the conference, making your hotel reservations (rooms are going fast), signing up for the luncheon and the banquet and planning to have a really great time in general, please consider a donation to Ukraine SIG to our Speaker's Fund. This helps the SIG with speaker expenses at this and future conferences.

Looking forward to seeing you in Seattle in August!

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8. Knowledge Base The following query was recently posted on the Ukraine SIG discussion group:

Subject: Why was French used by Turkish Jews?

From: Sandy Canetti <sandy.canetti@gmail.com>

My mother passed away recently and in going through things in my parent's house, I came across my paternal grandparents' wedding invitation. It was written in French, not Ladino as I would expect. My grandmother spoke five languages, but the books she read were in French. I vaguely remember being told French was the language of choice in the school she went to, which makes me wonder: In Turkey, why French? Where would Turkish Jews typically go to school?

Within a week, Sandy had the following responses:

From: Jeff Malka <jeffmalka@sephardicgen.com> The French based Alliance Israelite Universelle had schools throughout the Sephardic world. The teaching was in French. French became the language of the educated and judo-espagnol was considered less so. French words even became interspersed in ladino to demonstrate more sophistication. Look up Alliance Israelite Universelle and its schools.

From: Philip & Laurence Abensur <laurphil@wanadoo.fr>Turkish Jews used to read and write in French because they attended the Alliance Israelite Universelle's schools. They also used Judeo-Spanish in the same time. As you probably know, AIU was founded in Paris in 1860 and the schools were opened in the 1870's in Turkey, as in Izmir, for instance.

From: Anne-Marie Faraggi <amfaraggi@net2000.ch>In Turkey, people spoke French because L'Alliance Israélite Universelle (Universal Jewish Alliance) created schools in 1873 in Salonica, and students learned French there. Only the very poor people didn't go to these schools and spoke only ladino. I suppose it was the same in Istanbul and Canetti is a name from Istanbul rather than Salonica.

For more information about JewishGen Discussion Groups, visit http://www.jewishgen.org/ListManager/members_list.asp

9. Tree of Life Society One of the easiest and most important ways to support JewishGen's future is by naming JewishGen a beneficiary in your will. This is a very meaningful way to let people know how much you value the preservation of our collective Jewish history and heritage. Bequests may be made with a specific dollar amount, asset, or percentage of your estate.

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Please let us know if you have made a provision for JewishGen in your estate plans, so that we may honor you on JewishGen's Tree of Life Society. To submit a no-obligation "Letter of Intent" please Click Here . For more information, please contact Avraham Groll, Senior Director of Business Operations at agroll@JewishGen.org or 646-437-4326.

10. In the News As you may have seen on ABC News, JewishGen played an important role in the reunification - after 77 years - of two families separated as the result of the Holocaust. A family member told us that without JewishGen, this never would have happened. Here is the link: http://abcnews.go.com/US/families-brothers-separated-holocaust-find-77-years/story?id=38840683

11. Education KehilaLinks on JewishGen are member-created web pages for ancestral towns. Perhaps you have wondered how you could create a web page for your ancestral town to honor your ancestors’ journey.

The annual class (starting May 23) is for folks who want to create a town web site on Kehilalinks. All you need to participate is some basic computer skills, a computer, and four to five hours a week for six weeks. By the end of the class, you will have a complete site that you can upload to KehilaLinks and continue to update on your own.

The class is entirely online. Each week the instructor posts one or two lessons for you to do on your own time. Students ask questions through an online discussion forum. In each lesson you will refine your site, adding more and more features. The class uses a free, simple-to-use web page editor program that runs on both PCs (all recent versions of Windows) and Macs (OSX 10.2 or later).

Details about the requirements, the tuition, the instructor and how to enroll are on www.jewishgen.org/education. Go there and just click on the class description for these details. If you have any questions, go to the description and email the instructor, Mark Heckman.

Phyllis Kramer, VP Education

Susana Leistner Bloch, VP KehilaLinks

Mark Heckman, Instructor

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