Jewish Genealogy Toronto: January 2012

Jan 29, 2012

Topics For A Genealogy Blog

CLICK HERE FOR FULL LIST

2. Ask people to write about their family members: dead and living.

3. Spotlight a current member

4. Write a tribute to a dead member.

6. List all volunteer positions available.

7. Offer a sneak peek at the newsletter for outsiders.

We can actually post articles from old newsletters. We had a full collection that we were trying to give away. It wd be good for the blog now.

Attending the IAJGS Conference in Paris

I would like to get a count of our members who intend to travel to Paris for the IAJGS Conference, July 15-18th.

Please email me at president@jgstoronto.ca so that I can pass on the information to Merle Kastner of Montreal JGS. She is organizing the Canadian BOF.

Please send in the Letter of Support for Jewish Heritage Month

M.P.P. Mike Colle has introduced a Bill in the Ontario Legislature to recognize May as Jewish Heritage Month. Bill 17 will be debated on February 23, and we need your support to make sure it passes and becomes law. You can help by sending emails or short letters of encouragement for the initiative to MPP Colle (mcolle.mpp@liberal.ola.org), the co-sponsors of the Bill (MPP Cheri DiNovo & MPP Peter Sherman), or your local MPP.

Jewish Heritage Month would provide the opportunity to honour the significant achievements of Jewish Canadians across Ontario. Groups are already planning ways to celebrate in May, including bringing guest speakers into schools, featuring special collections in public libraries, and organizing community celebrations and special events from Kenora to Cornwall. All organizations, synagogues, and families are invited to help plan and participate in these activities.

The Jewish Heritage Month Bill is supported by a wide range of community organizations, and the list is growing every week. All MPPs need to hear that you support the Bill and want to see it passed. Send an email today to share why you support Bill 17, and why Jewish Heritage Month matters to you.

You can send your email to MPP Colle (mcolle.mpp@liberal.ola.org), and if you include your postal code he will share it with your local MPP.

You can also send messages to the Bill co-sponsors, MPP DiNovo (dinovoc-qp@ndp.on.ca) and MPP Sherman (peter.sherman@pc.ola.org).

To find your local MPP’s email address, click here.

Jewish Affairs in Ukraine

Monday, Feb 6, 2012. 7:30 PM
Beth Tzedec Congregation, 1700 Bathurst St Toronto, 416 781-3511

Speakers:
Meylakh Sheykhet is the Director of the Union of Councils for Jews of the Former Soviet Union in Ukraine. He is a leading force in the struggle to restore and preserve cemeteries; mark the mass graves in the Galicia region of Western Ukraine, where most of the mass executions occurred during the Holocaust; and preserve the Jewish cultural sites there.

Mark Freiman is a Canadian human rights lawyer. He is the immediate past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Mark wants to commemorate the burial ground in Sambir, Ukraine, where his parents once lived.

Topics:
• The hundreds of cemetaries threatened with disappearance.
• The difficulty in erecting memorial plaques.
• The financial and political obstacles.

Info: Janet Kerekes, Director, The Synagogue Project 416-654-0691, director@synagogueproject.org

Jan 26, 2012

JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry

On Wed Jan 25, 2012, member, Allen Halberstadt, presented an Introduction to JOWBR (pronounced JoBar)

That's the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry.

It's a database of names, photos and other into gathered from Jewish cemeteries.

Here are some good links for it:

What is JOWBR
JOWBR Cemetary Inventory

Search JOWBR on JewishGen
Why Submit Burial Records to JOWBR.

JOWBR Basics - How to use JOWBR to find graves.

Other cemetery resources:
JewishData.com - CemeteryScribes.com - MountOfOlives.co.il - DeathIndexes.com

www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/ontario-on/toronto.html

Jan 23, 2012

Henry Wellisch: The Mauritian Shekel and Atlantic Adrift

A few years ago I went to the Toronto Film Festival with one of our members, Henry Wellisch, and his wife to see a documentary called Atlantic Adrift.

It was about refugees from Central Europe who were trying to escape the Nazis during World War 2 by travelling to Palestine on 3 boats on the Danube.

Henry was on one of those boats and he was one of people around whom the film revolved.

The film was very impressive on a big screen at the Uptown Theatre. We showed it on a small, uneven screen at one of our meetings and the experience just wasn't the same.

After the movie, Henry, his wife and I went to Starbucks with the director. It was a beautiful September afternoon and he was a great guy. So, it was lots of fun; a really memorable experience.

I have been unable to find any trace of this movie online but if you get a chance to see it it's very good.

This story is told, as well, in a book called The Mauritian Shekel. Parts can be read for free on Google Books. It can also be purchased there and on many book sites online.

Back in the 90s we had Karl Skorecki speak at our society.

Here is an article about him (edited) - From: National Post - Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Former University of Toronto professor, Karl Skorecki, became world famous for finding evidence to support traditional claims that modern-day Jewish priests, Cohanim, are descended from a single common male ancestor -- biblically said to be Aaron, the older brother of Moses.

Among the findings:

40% of Ashkenazi Jews can trace their descent to 4 "founding mothers" who lived in Europe 1,000 years ago
evidence that all Jewish communities share a common paternal origin in the Near East
genetic evidence supporting claims southern Africa's Lemba tribe may be Africa's "Black Jews"

How To Remove A Label

Click on picture to enlarge

All postings on this blog have labels attached.
A label is the name of the topic the posting is about.
Sometimes you want to delete a label. Here's how.

Box.net File Storage and Sharing

Store and Share Big Files – Quickly and Easily

Box.net is a storage site online. You can get a personal account for free.

You can put big files there like large videos or Power Point presentations.

MPP Mike Colle's Private Members Bill

JGS Toronto supports Mike Colle's initiative to enshrine the month of May as Jewish Heritage Month in Ontario.

Members are encouraged to write emails and letters of support to their MPP so as to encourage acceptance at Queens Park.

More information: www.mikecolle.com.

Jan 20, 2012

Bill Gladstone Lecture

From the Ward to Spadina Avenue: The Jews of Old Toronto
Toronto author, genealogist and CJN columnist Bill Gladstone traces the growth of our community after 1900.

His focus is the old Ward neighbourhood downtown and the shift to the Spadina corridor, which thrived as our Main Street into the 1950s.

His research includes the synagogues, landsmanschaft societies, rabbis and community figures, as well as the charitable institutions, that defined early-mid 20th century Jewish Toronto.

MONDAY FEBRUARY 6, 1:30 P.M.
Beth Tzedec Synagogue, in the boardroom.

Cost: $4.00 and light refreshments will be served.
For information, contact Dorion Liebgott at 416-781-3514, ext. 232 or museum@beth-tzedec.org.

BILL GLADSTONE
Visit my websites

www.billgladstone.ca (writing, genealogy)

www.nowandthenbookstoronto.com (publishing)

Jan 18, 2012

Where Our Members Are Speaking

May 1
Beth Tzedec Synagogue Sisterhood Presentation - 7:30 pm
Elaine Cheskes: "Unlocking 50 Years of Secret Documents: The Brest Ghetto Passport Archive"

May 3
The Miles Nadal Centre - 2:00 pm
Henry Wellisch on "Tracing Family History, Creating a Family Tree"

May 29
Temple Har Zion
Karen Lasky will speak at the 'Lunch & Learn'

Computer Jewish Genealogy Course

Course: - 5 Sessions - for people at all levels of experience

Place: Bernard Betel Centre
Instructor: Bill Gladstone

Time: Mondays 7 to 9 pm
Dates: Jan 23 to Feb 27, 2012 | no session Feb 20

For info: Dianne Erdos-Rush - dianneer@betelcentre.org - 416-225-2112.

Bill Gladstone led the same workshop at the Betel in the Fall, where many of the participants made exciting research breakthroughs.

Hungarian-English Dictionary

From: The Hungarian Studies Assoc

Daphna Kedar Kelman created a set of free Hungarian Dictionaries online. Here's the link.

Hungary’s secret Jewish documents

Hungary is hiding a big cache of Jewish documents.

Because the papers throw light on Hungary’s Nazi period, during which two out of three Jews perished, Hungarian officials supposedly want to keep them buried.

“All of these archives are political archives because of the Holocaust and because of communism,” said Dr Bar-Shaked . “In many cases, they are very hard to open up. But I’m sure that we are going to do it.”

Read the rest on BillGladstone.ca

History of the Jewish Community of London Ontario

Topic: History of the Jewish Community of London Ontario
Speaker: Bill Gladstone

Sponsors: The London and Middlesex County Historical Society. The Jewish Community of London, Ontario.

Place: The Old Courthouse, 399 Ridout Street North, London
Date: Wed Jan 18, 2012 -- Time: 8 pm

Everyone is welcome!

London Free Press: Book heralds city's Jewish roots.
The Londoner

Bill has two sites:

BillGladstone.ca (writing, genealogy)
NowAndThenBooksToronto.com (publishing)

Jan 16, 2012

How To Write On This Blog

This blog is built using the Blogger.com software.

There is a new version of the software and an old version. They are both the same. They just look different.

Here is how you write on this blog.

1. Get a gmail address.

2. Email us for a permission to contribute to the blog

3. When you are approved, go to Blogger.com. Sign in.

4. Click on Jewish Genealogy Toronto

5. Click on New Post.

If you are looking at the new version of Blogger, you will see an orange square with a white pencil inside it. Click that to create a new posting.

This pamphlet contains up to date lessons on how to blog using Blogger.com - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/75188418/blogger-for-beginners-pdf-version.pdf

THIS VIDEO will tell you how to write on this blog. Note that it uses the older version of the software. WATCH IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT

Here is another video with instructions below it. Note that it uses the new version of the Blogger software.

Here is another good video.

Here are 2 blogs about How to Use Blogger
1. http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.ca/
2. http://www.bloggertipsandtricks.com/

The Editor

Almost everything takes place in the editor. You can call it a word processor. It works just like Microsoft Word.

Here is a picture of the blog's word processor. This is the new version of the software. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

If you have typed on a computer, you know how to use this.

Below is the older version of the editor. You can use that too if you like. (Click on the image to enlarge).

If you have a question just go to Google and do a search on the topic. Or search YouTube. There is a HUGE amount of info online.

Note About Videos: If you find a video, it is better to post a link to its location online than it is to embed it in the blog posting. Here's why: embedding seems to slow down the rate at which the blog loads onto your computer.

Note About Labels: A label here means the name of the topic the blog posting is about. Every blog posting has labels attached to it.

If it the blog posting is about a book, the label is Books. If it is about a book about the Holocaust you assign 2 labels: Books, Holocaust (separated by a comma).

Notice that labels are general. If your posting is about the 25th anniversary of the XYZ Society don't make a label called 25th Anniversary. It goes under EVENTS.

All blog postings should have labels attached. You can create a new label if necessary but first see if we already have one that suits your posting.

If you can't figure this out yourself, download TeamViewer and / or Join.me These programs are free. They allow us to see and take control of your computer -- so we can help you without coming to your home.

Does letting us take control of your computer sound scary? It isn't. You open the computer to us and then you lock us out. We can't invade your computer after we help you.

Click here to send us an email

The editors reserve the right to change your posting.
a. if there is a technical problem in your posting - like large gaps between lines.
b. if the writing is horrible
c. if the topic is irrelevant

We will inform you of a problem and the changes. And you will have a chance to dispute our views but before we come to blows you can merely create your own blog and post whatever you want there. We will help you do this and we will link to your blog from this one.

Create Your Own Blog

If you want your own blog - we will help you create one. It's not hard. START HERE.

Here is a brief article. Here's a video.

Here is an article about topics for genealogy blogging.

Here are 2 blogs about How to Use Blogger
1. http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.ca/
2. http://www.bloggertipsandtricks.com/

Jan 15, 2012

Our Facebook Page

Today - January 15, 2012 - I received an email from the society informing the membership of the existence of this blog and our Facebook page.

Here is the Facebook page. It was created by Neil Richler.

If you want to send someone to the blog here is an easy-to-remember address: Jewish Genealogy Toronto.com

What is Following a Blog

Generational Recipes

Chris Brogan is a famous social media consultant. On Google+ he shared his grandmother's recipe for Tourtiere which his family called Touchee Pie.

Then he invited the people in his online community to share a handed-down recipe. But he wanted them to talk about more than the ingredients. He wanted them to talk about how this food fit into their families.

And we can actually do the same here. If you would like to contribute this blog and you're not sure what you can say, it might be interesting to give us a handed-down recipe that has an extended lineage. You would also tell us, of course, how you came by this information.

If a recipe comes from your grandmother who lived upstairs, it's not much of a story. But if the recipe came from your great-great grandmother who was born in the 1830s, that's getting interesting - because when we research our ancestors we want to know more than their Birth, Marriage and Death dates. We want to know who they were and how they lived. And, perhaps, even what they ate.

Workshop - World War 1 Ancestors

Download The Poster

SATURDAY, 31 March 2012

Finding Your Great War Ancestors

A full day with some of the top Great War experts on the planet

Ontario Genealogical Society Webinars

Webinar - a seminar on the world wide web (internet)

You can watch it (and participate) in your pajamas from your own home.

The OGS is presenting 4 Webinars about using Technology.

Workshop --- Writing Ancestor Biographies and Memoirs

March 04, 2012 - Sunday

Facilitator: Lil Blume

Registration Required (see below)

Time: 1:00 p.m. – 4.30 p.m.

Cost: Society Members: $10.
Non-Members $25.

Location: Edithvale Community Centre - Gibson Room (2nd Floor) - Click for map

Adjust the Letter Size on the Screen

The letters on some web sites are very small and difficult to read - but you can adjust the size easily.

Hold down the Control key in the lower left or lower right corner of your keyboard. At the same time press the plus or minus sign.

If you want to increase the size of the letters press Control Plus-Sign. If you want decrease the size of the letters you press Control Minus-Sign.

To return to the default size, you press Control and 0 (zero) at the same time.

Stan Zeidenberg's Bar Mitzvah

I found this on MulticulturalCanada.ca

It's a page from The Canadian Jewish Review of May 15, 1959.

You will find thumbnails of all of the pages in the paper below the image that is enlarged.

Below that you will find a full transcription of the page into regular text.

Here's a big ad for Morgan's.

Our Society's Anthology of Family Stories

Genealogy-related stories preserve family histories
Bill Gladstone, Special to The CJN, Thursday, November 10, 2011

To mark its 25th anniversary, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada (Toronto) has published a book of 44 genealogy-related stories written by its members.

The stories in Tracing Our Roots, Telling Our Stories are diverse and range freely over geography and time, encompassing both the Old World and the New from a couple of centuries ago to the present.

The settings include Galicia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Israel; one ranges as far off the beaten path as Barbados, another the island of Mauritius. Canadian locales include Melfort, Sask., St. John’s, Nfld., the northern town of Waubaushene, Ont., and downtown Toronto.

The Virtual Shtetl

The Museum of The History of Polish Jews is under construction on the site of the Warsaw ghetto and is due to open in April 2013 on the 70th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
It is supported by The North American Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews a US-based non-profit organization.
On June 17, 2009 the museum launched a website called the Virtual Shtetl listing 1240 towns with maps, statistics and picture galleries.
The site allows users to contribute information and eyewitness testimony.
The goal is to make the site the greatest source of information about Jewish life in Poland prior to the war.

History of the Jews in Poland

From Wikipedia

From 1025 to 1569, Poland was the most tolerant country in Europe. It was a shelter for persecuted Jews.
By the middle of the 16th century perhaps 3/4 of all Jews lived in Poland.
Poland’s traditional tolerance began to wane in the 17th century.
After the partition of Poland in 1795, Polish Jews were subject to Russia, Austro-Hungary and Prussia.
When Poland gained independence after World War I it was the center of the European Jewish world with one of world's largest Jewish communities of over 3 million.

Read the rest.

Jan 6, 2012

Genealogy on PBS

Title: Finding Your Roots

Host: Henry Gates - Remember the Beer Summit? That's him.

Start Date: March 25, 2012

Where: WNED

Format: Each 1 hour episode features 2 celebs.

Stars: Barbara Walters, Martha Stewart, Kevin Bacon etc
via Eastman Online Genealogy newsletter

Jan 5, 2012

Genealogy Radio

You can find an online radio show for genealogists here

The January 6, 2012 show will include a 20 minute live interview with Jan Meisels Allen.

She is the Vice President of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAGS) and a managing member of the Records Access and Preservation Committee (RPAC).

Christopher Browning Video

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Christopher Browning is an American historian of the Holocaust.

How The Holocaust Happened

Neal Ascherson The Observer, Sunday 23 May 2004 Article history
The Origins of the Final Solution - by Christopher Browning

The Children of Holocaust Survivors

Do they feel our pain?

Veronique Mistiaen - The Guardian, Monday 31 May 2004

Margaret Thatcher and Nicholas Winton

The Power of Good is a documentary about Nicholas Winton, an Englishman (whose family was once Jewish) who transported endangered children from Czechoslovakia and found them homes in England just before the war.

Joe Scheslinger, a well-known Canadian journalist, was one of those children.

I first saw The Power of Good at an event put on at the University of Toronto by the Czech consulate. They gave awards to 3 Jewish journalists - Schlesinger, Hana Gartner and Peter Newman - all of whom came to Canada from Czechoslovakia.

As soon as the movie started, the man beside me started to cry and by the end everyone was crying.

This is not really a genealogical story but on October 27, 2010, we presented the movie at one of our meetings and, on November 23, 2010, as part of Holocaust Education Week, Joe Schlesinger, himself, came to speak.

Here is the climax of the documentary. And here is a report Schlesinger presented about his experience on the CBC. And, here, is an interesting story about Margaret Thatcher.

I Survived.org

ISurvived.org has a list of Holocaust resources here.

Please note that I don't know anything about this site yet. For instance who owns it and what they say. I'm just posting the list of resources.

The Politics of Genocide

The Politics of Genocide by Randolph Braham is the definitive study of the Holocaust in Hungary. You can see bits of it on Google Books.

It is available at the Toronto Public Library.

I have it in 2 volumes but I see that there is a condensed edition as well.

The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary, Condensed Edition is an abbreviated version of this work first published in 1981 and revised and expanded in 1994.

The book explains the factors that contributed to this tragedy when the leaders of the world, including the national and Jewish leaders of Hungary, were already familiar with the secrets of Auschwitz.

Toronto Public Library

I searched Jewish Genealogy on the Toronto Public Library site. I got 165 results. You can see them here

Neil Rosenstein

My father comes from a small town in north-eastern Hungary called Hajdudorog.

I knew that a rabbi with (allegedly) special powers had lived there during his grandfather's time.

I found some good information about him in The Unbroken Chain.

This book traces the family tree of a rabbi from the 13th century to the 20th century.

The scope is very impressive. It includes footnotes about people in Toronto and, as I said, a small town in Hungary.

I used the copy at the Toronto Reference Library Our past-president, Bill Gladstone has written an article about Rosenstein and here is an index of his work..

Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora

Read parts of the Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora on Google Books for free.

Editorial Review - Library Journal vol. 134 iss. 3 p. 129 (c) 02/15/2009

Edited by a professor of Judaic studies at the Centre of Judaic and Inter-Religious Studies of Shandong University in the People's Republic of China, this work presents 265 articles by 168 international experts.