JGSGB-Notices Mailing List: 3 Major Programs in November

[JGSGB Notices List (jgsgb-notices]

 

Annual Lecture on Jewish Genealogy

The Scroll and the Cross: Jewish Genealogy in Latin America
Ilan Stavans

Sunday, November 8   2:00 pm
at Hebrew College, 160 Herrick Road, Newton, MA

Co-sponsored by JGSGB and Hebrew College

With a population of close to half a million, the Jews of Latin America are a microcosm of parallel diasporas. A portion dates back to the colonial period and is defined by a converso identity, another traces its roots to the Pale of Settlement, and yet another one is linked to the Ottoman Empire. These disparate family trees result in a rich, astonishingly heterogeneous demographic forest. Distinguished scholar Ilan Stavans, internationally known as the chronicler of Latin American Jewish life, will survey the forest.

Ilan Stavans, born in Mexico, is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College.  He is one of today’s preeminent essayists, cultural critics, and translators. His many notable books include On Borrowed Words, Spanglish, Reclaiming Travel, Latino USA, El Iluminado and the children’s book Golemito. From 2001-2006, he hosted the syndicated PBS show, Conversations with Ilan Stavans. He is also a playwright, actor, novelist, historian and publisher (Restlessbooks.com).

The lecture will be followed by refreshments and a book signing.  A selection of Stavans’ books will be available for purchase.

Free and open to the public. Space is limited and reservations are required.  Click here to register.

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The Lost Society of Polish Jewry
Allan Chernoff

Wednesday, November 18   7:00 pm
at Newton Free Library, 330 Homer Street, Newton, MA

Co-sponsored by JGSGB and the Newton Free Library

Day to day Jewish life in pre-war and wartime Poland is captured in authentic detail by Allan Chernoff in his book, The Tailors of Tomaszow: A Memoir of Polish Jews, co-written with his mother, a Holocaust survivor. Polish Jewry has a deep and distinctive history in Poland. Chernoff will present intimate descriptions of Polish Jewry’s prewar society, including its cultural, social, religious, business and political dimensions. He will also examine myths of the Shoah and explore difficult questions such as why were most Jews poorly prepared to resist the Nazis and how did some survive?

Allan Chernoff is an award-winning veteran of national network TV news reporting.  He served as CNN’s Senior Correspondent for 11 years and has reported for CNBC and NBC News. In addition to The Tailors of Tomaszow, his work has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and many other journals. He wrote The Tailors of Tomaszow with his mother, Rena Margulies Chernoff, a child survivor of Auschwitz and the Holocaust.

Chernoff’s talk will be followed by brief remarks by Heidi Urich on the resources and services offered by the JGSGB for researching family history and by Ginny Audet, librarian, on Holocaust-related books owned by the Newton Free Library.

Copies of The Tailors of Tomaszow will be available for purchase and signing.

Free and open to the public

 

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Planning Your Family Reunion
Sheila Green & Beverley Olsberg

Sunday, November 22   1:30 pm
at Cong Beth El-Atereth Israel, 330 Homer Street, Newton, MA

You’ve now identified members of your extended family through your research, but how do you put all that work to practical use? If you are planning a family reunion or even just thinking about one, this workshop will provide numerous ideas and suggestions to make the planning process easier and lead to a more enjoyable experience for all. JGSGB members, Beverley Olsberg and Sheila Green, will share what they learned when they planned successful family reunions. Beverley will transport you to Zambia, her birthplace and the site of her 1996 family reunion, as well as provide information from her 2015 reunion in Minneapolis. Sheila will share the methods she used for planning her family reunion in Chicago, including the use of recently available technology.


Sheila Green grew up in Chicago, went to high school and college in California, and lived in Anchorage, Alaska before moving to the Boston area. As a result of her relocations, she lost contact with her extended family. After she began her genealogical journey and found most of her first cousins, who had also lost contact with one another, family members asked her to organize a family reunion. The result was a three-day reunion in Chicago attended by over 80 relatives.

Beverley Olsberg was born and raised in Livingstone, Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia). She moved to London when she was 18 and lived there until she and her husband moved to Boston a couple of years ago. She remained in touch with most of her extended family, who, due to unrest in Central Africa, had dispersed across the globe. In 1996, she organized a family reunion at the Victoria Falls that included five generations, with 108 descendants from 8 countries. Last summer, Beverley helped plan a reunion for the other side of her family in Minneapolis.

Admission is free for members, $5 for non-members. Refreshments will be served.

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