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chronicles Journal of the Jewish Genealogical And archival Society of Greater Philadelphia דברי הימים IAJGS conference Issue Chronicles - Volume 37-3 Fall 2020 chronicles Journal of the Jewish Genealogical And Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia JGASGP Membership JGASGP Officers Please make checks payable to JGASGP and mail to the address below. Please include your email address President: and zip+4 / postal code address. Annual Dues (January 1 - Dec. 31) Felicia Mode Alexander - [email protected] Individual............................................................. $25 Vice President (Programming): Family of two, per household...............................$35 Membership Applications / Renewals and payments Mark Halpern - [email protected] to: JGASGP • 1657 The Fairway, #145 Secretary & Membership Jenkintown, PA 19046 or online using PayPal. See the membership applica- Marilyn Mazer Golden - [email protected] tion later in this issue for details. Questions about membership status should be Treasurer: directed to [email protected] Tom Perloff - [email protected] Editorial Contributions Immediate Past President: Submission of articles on genealogy for publication Fred Blum - [email protected] in chronicles is enthusiastically encouraged. The editorial board reserves the right to decide whether to publish an article and to edit all submis- sions. Please keep a copy of your material. Anything JGASGP Directors you want returned should be accompanied by a self- Linda Ewall-Krocker - [email protected] addressed stamped envelope. Evan Fishman - [email protected] While email and other electronic files are highly pre- ferred, the editors will be happy to work with you and Joel Spector - [email protected] your material in any form. If you have an idea, please contact Evan Fishman of the Editorial Board by email: [email protected]. Editorial Board Subscriptions - Address Change Editor - Evan Fishman - [email protected] chronicles (ISSN 0893-2921) is the quarterly Graphic Design Editor - Ed Flax - [email protected] publication of the Jewish Genealogical and Archival So- ciety of Greater Philadelphia. It is free to JGASGP mem- Associate Editors: bers and to JGS’s in the newsletter courtesy-exchange program. Printed and mailed back issues are available at Joe Eichberg - [email protected] $4.00 each in the U.S. and $7.00 outside the U.S. Elaine Ellison - [email protected] Chronicles is distributed electronically in PDF format Stewart Feinberg [email protected] and for an additional fee in print. Please supply the membership chair with your updated email address to ensure timely delivery. Webmaster Copyright © 2020 All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording Jim Meyer - [email protected] or otherwise without the prior written permission of The Jewish Genealogical & Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia. https://www.jgsgp.org/ 2 Chronicles - Volume 37-3 Fall 2020 Table of Contents Reflections from Commentary & Society Information Your Chronicles Team 2 JGASGP Contact Information 3 Reflections from Your Chronicles Team came away from the recent IAJGS con- 4 From the President’s Desk ference rejuvenated and impressed by Felicia Mode Alexander the dedication and enthusiasm exhib- 5 Welcome to New Members I ited by presenters, volunteers, and atten- Stories from the Past / Discoveries dees. Presenters were eager to share their 6 Benjamin Lander and the Lander Family Story knowledge; volunteers have taken it upon Walter Spector themselves to transcribe, translate, and 9 Handwork of Mary Spector index records; over 2300 people from twenty-eight coun- Walter Spector tries attended! Uniting us all was our passion, as Jordan 10 Finding My Argentinian Family Auslander of JGSNY described it, for genealogy research. Marlise Ellis Gross 12 Unexpected Discoveries or “Cheerios in Chocolate” I “attended” sessions every day from 10 am till 7:30 pm Evan Fishman and then watched one of the selected films afterwards. Al- The 2020 IAJGS Conference 14 My (Virtual) IAJGS Conference Experience though this wasn’t an in-person conference, I still found Ed Flax the experience very intense, yet invigorating. I was ex- 16 Review of Two DNA Related IAJGS Presentations tremely moved by the film, “The Children of the Inquisi- Marilyn Mazer Golden tion,” which deftly combined Jewish history with the 20 IAJGS Film Festival: “The Presence of Their Absence” family histories of several of those children. Award win- Felicia Mode Alexander ning filmmaker, Joseph Lovett, interviewed several de- 21 Notes on IAJGS 2020 scendants and revealed their hidden identities. He also Mary-Jane Roth covered present day conversos in the southwest U.S. who 22 Facial Recognition Technology Comes have established their own organization to explore their re- to Jewish Genealogy spective pasts and connect with their newly discovered Jeffrey Albert Jewishness. Brick Walls 23 A Tale of Two Cities (and Three Families); All One of the highlights of the four days for me was the Ge- These Guralnicks are Definitely Related. But How? nealogy Death Match which pitted two accomplished ge- Dan Rottenberg nealogists in our midst, E. Randol Schoenberg and Jarrett Meeting Abstracts Ross, against each other. They were assigned the task of 25 July 8th Meeting “The Nazi Titanic.” tracing up to fifteen (!!) generations of their respective Presenter: Robert Watson, PhD family histories while providing documentary proof. The 25 July 19th Meeting “Haven or Hell, Jews in the Phillipines competition was intense, yet friendly, and Randy and Jar- During World War II.” Presenter: Sandy Lanman rett were amusing combatants. Randy demonstrated the 26 August 2nd Meeting “Finding Your Litvak Family.” panorama of Jewish history as he presented evidence of Presenter: Judy Baston his Austrian, German, and ultimate Sephardic heritage. 26 August 23rd Meeting “Leveraging DNA Analysis in Jarrett showed us the richness of his Sephardic background Genealogy.” Presenter: Martin Schiller, PhD over many generations and several countries—Turkey, 26 September 13th Meeting, “Understanding Jewish Galicia.” Greece, Palestine, etc. Both of them exhibited impressive Presenter: Suzan Wynne, with Mark Halpern research journeys. Judges evaluated their presentations, 27 2020 Membership & Renewal Form and attendees had the opportunity to rate both contestants 28 JGASGP Calendar & Reminders after each round. Kudos to Randy for coming up with this ingenious concept. Is this something we could replicate Cover image collage by Ed Flax from screenshots of selected within JGASGP?? The example set by Randy and Jarrett IAJGS vrtual conference recordings. is certainly worth emulating and inspires us to persist in (See conference articles pp. 14 - 23 our research efforts. Memes courtesy of Stew Feinberg, (p. 21) Our society was honored with the Outstanding Publication Chronicles - Volume 37-3 Fall 2020 3 Award for our quarterly publication, Chronicles. Ed Flax From the President’s and I wish to acknowledge the many accolades we re- ceived, especially from fellow JGASGP members, but we Desk—Felicia Mode can’t overlook the significant contributions made by Alexander everyone who’s submitted original material during the past IAJGS Annual Conference 2020 year and extending back to 2011, when we took over the helm. Thanks also to the associate editors who proofread he International Association of and edit content. Our president, Felicia Mode Alexander, Jewish Genealogical Societies shared the awards committee’s assessment that our publi- Tmet in August for four days. This cation exhibits considerable professionalism, and we will gathering of genealogists meets annually strive to maintain that level of excellence. for lectures, leadership meetings, films, panel discussions and best of all, they ******** hope to discover new leads that could ad- Reading Marlise Gross’s article about finding her Argen- vance their own family research. Some attendees have tinian family resonated with me because I described a sim- been involved in this field of study for decades, while oth- ilar situation when my brother and sister-in-law met our ers are just getting started. All are welcome, and many Buenos Aires area relatives in 2010 (Chronicles, Vol. 31- people connect with old friends and sometimes newly dis- 1, Spring 2014, pp. 12-13). Walt Spector shares some covered family members. Local tours and lectures always memories of various relatives in two heartwarming pieces. include a wide variety of topics including the Jewish his- It would be terrific if other members would write about tory of the host city. Since 2003, I have attended IAJGS their own recollections. We all have memorable family conferences in Cleveland, New York City, Boston, Wash- members who continue to fascinate and influence us. ington D.C., Warsaw, Poland and here in Philadelphia. I have advanced my genealogy research thanks to the fan- Many of us attended and benefited in different ways from tastic speakers at each. I fondly recall my first confer- the recent IAJGS conference Mary Jane Roth appreciates ence, which was in Washington D.C. in 2003. It was an the opportunity to link live sessions with On Demand pre- amazing experience to meet people from all over the sentations to create a more comprehensive understanding world who shared my passion for family history research. of new research developments in the Ukraine Research