Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw www.jhi.pl/genealogia 2013 year-end report Welcome to the Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center Thanks to your support we help people around the Warsaw, come over and say hello. We’re always glad to world to reconnect with their families’ heritage. This meet our friends and supporters. report will introduce you to who we are and what we Based in Warsaw, the Genealogy Center is a de- do. For more information simply go to partment of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Histor- www.jhi.pl/genealogia ical Institute (JHI), which holds the world’s largest collection of archival and other ma- terials about Poland’s Jewish history. Here we provide our services through expert advice, research, attentive dis- cussions with our clients, and the careful reading and interpretation of old and more recent documents from Poland’s centuries-long Jewish presence. Yale J. Reisner and Anna Przy- byszewska Drozd are assisted by Aleksandra Dybkowska and Szymon CO-DIRECTOR ANNA PRZYBYSZEWSKA DROZD (FOREGROUND) AND Gebert in genealogical research and ALEKSANDRA DYBKOWSKA (BACKGROUND) ASSIST SOME OF THE THOUSAND- consultations; Aleksandra Sajdak is PLUS VISITORS PER YEAR WHO COME IN PERSON TO THE OFFICES OF THE our Facebook manager. GENEALOGY CENTER. What We Do Helping Jews discover their Polish We answer all kinds of genealogy-related questions roots and Poles discover their from people in Poland and across the globe. Most of Jewish roots. them contact us by email or phone, while others visit us in person. Can we help a young Polish woman re- cover her newly discovered Jewish background? Yes, 2013 has been a year full of new experiences resulting certainly. Can we provide a speaker for a tour group from going virtual. In addition to answering your re- soon to arrive in Warsaw? We can do that, too. Can quests by email and on the spot, we tried to meet your we help long-lost relatives from different parts of the expectations for useful articles on genealogy-related world reunite after decades of separation? From time subjects. However, we will always keep the human to time, we do. How can we assist local and interna- touch and continue to provide personal services in tional Jewish communal organizations seeking fam- person and by email. Should you happen to be in ily-related information? We can locate and analyze page 2 documents for them and point them in the most pro- plications from ductive directions. And we are always available to offer Collegium Civitas Not only have you helped _______________________ friendly, expert assistance in person, by email, or by for internship pro- me learn about my _______________________ phone. grams for this family's past, but you’ve _______________________ coming summer. led me to the discovery of We also initi- _______________________ a vast family that is still Internships ated a cooperative _______________________ alive and thriving in Last year we accepted three interns: Adam Gelman working relation- _______________________ was an exceptional one; we first met him when he Poland today. Without ship with the _______________________ showed up to search for family roots. At that time he your assistance, this Synapsis Founda- _______________________ was interning at the Galicia Jewish Museum in tion project, would never have been _______________________ aimed at offering possible. My grandmother _______________________ professional work- went to her grave _______________________ place activities to thinking the entire family persons with _______________________ in Poland had been autism. Our first _______________________ killed. intern through _______________________ —Corinne that program was _______________________ Oskar, who stud- _______________________ ies History at Warsaw University, and his successful internship at our Center resulted in us signing a part-time contract with him for archiving tasks. INTERN ADAM GELMAN (LEFT) AND STAFF MEMBER ALEKSANDRA DYBKOWSKA (STANDING) HELP GUESTS Archiving RESEARCH THEIR FAMILIES. Archiving of our resources became one of our prior- Kraków. Once he noticed how effective and impor- ities. Because we document each research result, visit, tant our work was, he decided to stay for a month. and all correspondence, there are dozens of boxes Being a young genealogist himself, Adam consulted filled with thousands of papers dating back to 1995, with some of our clients both via email and in the of- which need to be organized, catalogued, and scanned. fice. Back at Brandeis University, Adam continues All these types of information on Polish Jewish fami- working with us. Currently he is writing an article lies need to be integrated into our database to make about American genealogical records. our research more comprehensive and effective. Oskar Thanks to Warsaw’s Collegium Civitas we were — our archiving technician—began organizing, pag- able to work cooperatively with another intern, inating, cataloging, and digitizing these records. Stephanie, a Carroll College graduate fascinated with This year the process will continue but on a much Jewish history in Poland. We have accepted new ap- more comprehensive scale. page 3 perience in using Thank you again for Website and Facebook Facebook, learn- _______________________ The statistics provided by our IT specialists show a opening my eyes to the ing how to create _______________________ growing interest in our website from both new and Polish heritage of my posts that can re- _______________________ returning visitors. The first year of activity showed sult in a dialogue. family. After talking with _______________________ that www.jhi.pl/genealogia is a popular link for peo- Recently, a visit- you yesterday, and after ple interested in their Jewish genealogy, especially, _______________________ ing Israeli man exploring the Genealogy those looking for their Jewish roots in Poland. Our _______________________ sang for us a fa- section of the Jewish site helps users interact with us in a productive way mous partisan _______________________ Historical Institute’s once they have learned the basics found in our articles, song he remem- _______________________ website this morning, I such as “Searching for Roots” at www.jhi.pl/en/ge- bered from ele- _______________________ begin to understand the nealogy/genealogy_stories/6. These articles impart mentary school in _______________________ general knowledge about genealogical research and, scope of your mission. Poland. We im- _______________________ through carefully chosen stories, help searchers un- mediately posted —Rosalyn, Los Angeles _______________________ derstand that each case requires a unique approach. this on our Face- Additionally, we have started presenting unfinished book page, which stories, in which searches are in progress. By present- resulted in a cascade of shares, likes, and comments. ing these stories through our website and especially Also, through Facebook we can post photos of our our Facebook page, we increase our chances of find- guests along with the names of families and towns ing even more specific clues and connections. they are searching for, which builds up an additional For the past 12 months we have been gaining ex- database searchable via Google. Highlights We constantly keep our eyes out for opportunities that we sense can turn into helpful discoveries or create new liaisons. For example, this past year we: • Began cooperation with the Min- istry of Interior and the Department of Foreigners aimed at preparing a guidebook on citizenship matters, which concern many of our clients. • Started offering our clients help in requesting records from the IN ONE OF OUR NEW INITIATIVES, WE CONDUCTED A GENEALOGY WORKSHOP archives in exchange for their dona- WITH KINDERGARTENERS AT LAUDER MORASHA SCHOOL IN WARSAW. tions. page 4 A 2013 VISIT FROM THE BALTIMORE AREA HILLEL. • Developed a very successful genealogy workshop • Opened preliminary discussions with the Inter- for the Jewish kindergarten of the Lauder Morasha national Jewish Genealogical Conference on organiz- School in Warsaw. These workshops may be contin- ing their 2018 Conference in Warsaw, in cooperation ued in cooperation with the new Museum of the His- with the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life tory of Polish Jews. in Poland. Who Walks In? And from Where? Visitors to our Warsaw Office, 2013 Poland . .302 The Netherlands . .6 USA . .296 Belarus . .2 Israel . .249 Columbia . .2 Canada . .69 Russia . .2 Australia . .43 Spain . .2 France . .34 Belgium . .1 South Africa . .24 Ecuador . .1 Germany . .20 Hungary . .1 Sweden . .18 Ireland . .1 United Kingdom . .15 Switzerland . .1 Argentina . .15 Ukraine . .1 Austria . .8 Mexico . .7 TOTAL . .1,120 COUNTING OUR GUESTS, MARCH-JULY 2013 page 5 Common Question: Am I a Russian Jew or a Polish Jew? Most Jews worldwide who understand themselves to have come from Russia have roots in the large Eastern region of the Pol- ish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that was annexed by Russia during the Polish parti- tions. The Russian Empire itself had always banned Jewish settlement. Except for a mi- nority of merchant families granted special privileges to live in St. Petersburg or Moscow, Russian Jews were from histori- cally Polish lands and were originally wel- comed to live on these lands as a result of the unique political and economic struc- ture and climate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, not of Russia. When Catherine the Great acquired the eastern lands