updates/archive/2010

The Museum of Family History
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JANUARY 2010

To see any late additions to the December 2009 Updates page, please visit the 2009 Updates page to see what you've missed.

Please sign up to receive the Museum's blog updates, as those who do are the first to learn what's new at the Museum. You can sign up to receive either the RSS feed or you can subscribe by email. If you do the latter, be sure to respond to the verification email sent my FeedBurner immediately after you sign up, or you will not receive any updates.

CEMETERY PROJECT:

--Unique surname lists: You can now view unique surname lists for the following society plots at Beth Moses Cemetery in Pinelawn, New York. The plots are listed here solely by the name of the town that is associated with the plot. You can access the links to these lists at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/cp-townlist.htm:

Bitola/Monastir, Macedonia

Budanov, Ukraine

Divin, Belarus

Khoshchevatoye, Ukraine

Lokachi, Ukraine

Novogrudok, Belarus

Pomoryany, Ukraine

Pukhovichi, Belarus

Raygorodok, Ukraine

Shargorod, Ukraine

Shumskoye, Ukraine

Stavishche, Ukraine

Voynilov, Ukraine

EXHIBITIONS:

Landsmanshaftn in America:
--Poland, Augustow: 1919 and 1925 Calendars produced by the Yagustower Progressive Association (Workmen's Circle no. 77). www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/lndsmn-augustow-01.htm.

Postcards from Home:
--Poland: Ozarow, Sandomierz and Stopnica.
--Ukraine: Busk.

Synagogues of Europe: Past and Present:
--Turkey (European Side): Istanbul.

--World Holocaust Memorials:
   --Holocaust Memorials of New York and New Jersey:
      --The Museum has located a single stone monument erected in September 2006 by the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization at Beth Moses Cemetery in Pinelawn, New York. You can see the photo at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/hm-warszawa-bm.htm.
     --Holocaust Memorials of Europe:
        --Belarus: Dolhinov (Doginovo).

MOFH FILM SERIES:

Many of the world's museums offer their visitors various programs in order to enhance their experience while visiting their museum. They may offer lectures, films, guided and non-guided tours and an occasional symposium. Though the Museum of Family History is a virtual museum, i.e. it exists only in cyberspace, there is no reason why it cannot do the same.

In that light, the Museum now offers the occasional short film, generally lasting no longer than fifteen minutes each. Each film shown will be made available to you for viewing for only a limited time, i.e. from one day to one or two weeks. This is a departure from its normal policy, as all material previously exhibited at the Museum has remained online and available to the public. So please do check out the MOFH Film Series offerings, the listings given for two months at a time.

The initial offerings are three and you can see the listings at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mfh-films.htm. Please be forewarned that some of the clips are very large and may take two minutes or longer to download.

Until February 6th, you may view the short film created by the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, which will have its official opening sometime in the Fall of 2010.

Also, with the cooperation of the International Al Jolson Society, the Museum will present the "Al Jolson Film Festival," a series of short films that in some way, large or small, feature Jolson. Perhaps you will also see some of your favorite stars or personalities from yesteryear as you view these short films. You will also see trailers from some of Jolson's old films. Definitely a look back at the past! Please be patient as the short film downloads. It may take under two minutes if you use a hi-speed Internet connection, and longer if you don't. You may not want to try if you use your phone line for your Internet connection. Also, most of these clips will be in an mp4 format, so again if your computer has the capability of viewing mp4s you will have no problem. Otherwise, you will have to find a program that will allow you to view these clips. Additionally, the clips are best played using Internet Explorer.
I would suggest you try to view these clips and see how it goes!!
If you haven't already viewed the Museum's wonderful Al Jolson exhibition, please do so at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ajolson.htm.

You can also view and listen to a short film clip taken before World War II in Mukacheve, Hungary, of a couple of hundred Jewish children singing the wonderful anthem "Hatikvah."

NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES:
--There are now over one hundred articles available for your perusal. Please visit the archives at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/archive-newspaper.htm to see what might be of interest to you.

FEBRUARY 2010

To see any late additions to the January 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

CEMETERY PROJECT:

--The grounds map for New Mt. Lebanon Cemetery in New Jersey has been replaced, as the cemetery as opened up some new sections.

EXHIBITIONS:

--The Jewish Ghetto:
--A list of almost 1400 names of Jews who were buried in the Lodz Ghetto Cemetery; includes name, date of death, father's name and more. www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/ghetto/lodz-ghetto-cemetery.htm. An advanced peek at this expanded exhibition due later this year.

--Landsmanshaftn in America:
--Augustow, Poland: Two calendars from the Yagustower Progressive Association (Workmen's Circle, Branch no. 77).

--Wizna, Poland: Society pin and society burial gate photos.

--Never Forget: Visions of the Nazi Camps:
--A look at the instructions imprinted on letter cards used by inmates at a number of concentration camps, i.e. what and how you can send materials, money, food, etc. Interesting. www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/cc/cc-instructions.htm . An advanced peek at this expanded exhibition due later this year.

--Postcards from Home:
--Czech Republic: Brno, Decin and Teplice.
--England: London.
--Ukraine: Velyikyiy Bychkiv and Vonigovo (Vinif).

--World Holocaust Memorials:
--Europe: Ukraine, Borshchiv.

MOFH FILM SERIES:

**Visit the Film Series page to see late additions, showing from February 20 to March 7!!

The link is www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mfh-films.htm.

Until February 6th, you may view the short film created by the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, which will have its official opening sometime in the Fall of 2010.

You can also view and listen to a short film clip taken before World War II in Mukacheve, Hungary, of a couple of hundred Jewish children singing the wonderful anthem "Hatikvah."

Beginning on February 6, for two weeks, you can see yet another Mukacheve video clip, along with short films about the Coney Island of the 1940s, immigration and yet another short film produced by Adolph Zukor about Manhattan's Broadway, "The Great White Way."

NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES:
--There are now over one hundred articles available for your perusal. Please visit the archives at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/archive-newspaper.htm to see what might be of interest to you.

SCREENING ROOM:
--The Warsaw Ghetto 1940-1943 is documentary project that features three films. The main film is 912 Days of the Warsaw Ghetto (37 min.), and the two short ones are Children in the Ghetto and Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. These films were created for the Jewish Historical Institute as part of its permanent exhibit on the fate of Warsaw's Jews during the period from 1939 to 1945. They present the daily lives and deaths of those imprisoned in the ghetto, their hopes and efforts to survive, their armed resistance and struggle, and finally their total extermination. Unique Polish and German archival materials were used in the preparation of these films.
To see the film preview, simply use the link for film no. 24 that can be found within the main Screening Room page by clicking here.

--Paint What You Remember: Mayer Kirshenblatt left Poland for Canada in 1934. Fifty-six years later, at age seventy-three Mayer began to paint his childhood memories of prewar life in Opatów. Before Second World War Opatów (or Apt in Yiddish) had ten thousand inhabitants, more than half of them Jewish. Nowadays, little is remembered of the shtetl character of the town and of its Jewish population wiped out entirely by the Holocaust.

In this film the audience is taken on a journey through a world, which existed seventy and eighty years ago, and back to today's world. We witness how the local population in Opatów interacts with perhaps the first Jew they ever meet – a person who represents a heritage so central in the history of the place, and yet so obscure to the people who live there today. Just as the people of contemporary Opatów, the viewer are introduced to a rich and vibrant world of Jewish rituals, celebrations and sorrows, holidays and funerals, trade and poverty – all this told and painted by an eye-witness, one of the very few remaining descendants of a lost civilization.

Sadly, Mayer passed away this past year, but his life and his passion for recreating the shtetl life that once existed in Opatów lives on in not only the aforementioned film of his work, but also within two exhibitions the Museum has created. Please visit both the Museum's main Kirshenblatt exhibition, as well as his work relating to the Jewish holidays.

--Tell Me Why: What one thing that is most difficult to discuss, and which happens to only so few of us... love. We dream of it, we struggle to find it... and want to believe that if we only do, the world will become a better place. But what if love comes to us at a time we ought to forget? What happens when love is intimately linked with tragedy?

A Polish Jew, Jurek Kamieniecki was just shy of 20 when the Second World War broke out in Poland. Together with his wife Stella they managed to survive the first year of the German occupation with the help of their Polish friend Janusz Malinowski. Janusz helped Jurek enter the Polish Home Army (AK) resistance and provided him and his family with false IDs. Thanks to this, in early 1940 Stella found asylum in the territories occupied by the Soviet Red Army. Though Jurek managed to illegally cross the border to see his wife, he chose to go back to the Polish partisan troops and continue resisting Nazi occupation.

To read more of the film's synopsis and see the film clip, please visit www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/sr-27-tell-me-why.htm.

--The Last Witness: The documentary spins a tale of Samuel Willenberg's life. He was twenty at the outbreak of the armed revolt on August 2nd of 1943 in the death camp of Treblinka in Poland. As a result of the revolt four hundred out of a thousand inmates managed to escape Treblinka. Sixty-seven of them survived the war. The narrative, however, is here and now, against the background of today's Poland and Israel.

There were only three armed mutinies in the history of Nazi death camps. The first one was in Treblinka, the second one in Sobibór on October 1943 and the third was in Birkenau (Brzezinka) in October 1944. The mutinies were caused by the world's indifference towards the Holocaust. Claude Lanzman told the Sobibór revolt story in his "Sobibor". The ‘Last Witness’ is the first film to tell the story of the Treblinka revolt. www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/sr-28-last-witness.htm.

YIDDISH VINKL BOOKSTORE:
--There is a new and very interesting book about Czernowitz now released to the public. With the Museum's Yiddish Vinkl bookstore, you can now read the synopsis and preface to the book by Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer titled "Ghosts of Home: The Afterlife of Czernowitz in Jewish Memory." Please visit the bookstore at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yiddish-vinkl.htm and follow the link at the end of the synopsis in order to read the preface.

MARCH 2010

To see any late additions to the February 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

EDUCATION AND RESEARCH CENTER:

Lecture Series:
--"The Development of Yiddish Literature Since the Czernowitz Conference": This lecture was given by Boris Sandler, Editor-in-Chief of the Forverts newspaper at the October 2008 International Association of Yiddish Clubs conference in La Jolla, California.

EXHIBITIONS:

Rites of Passage:
The life of a Jew is often filled with rituals that mark a significant change in his or her life or social status. These rites of passage may take many forms but each is deeply woven into the Jewish tradition and culture. These rites may be ceremonies that surround seminal events in a Jew's life, such as childbirth, when he or she becomes a bar- or bat-mitzvah, gets married, to the day when he or she inevitably passes away.

In this exhibition, the religious and secular significance of each event is discussed, stories are told, often through the words of those who experienced these events, or perhaps through their progeny.

What is a mohel? What is the significance of becoming a bar mitzvah? In "Rites of Passage" you can read about what a Polish Jewish wedding was like in the very early 1900s and see an early ketubah as well as a wedding invitation. Even though divorce is not a rite of passage, a page is devoted to the description of Jewish divorce in early 20th century Poland.

Then, what of death? Here you can read about how Jews in Poland buried their dead in the early 20th century, read about the Chevra Kadisha, the significance of the Jewish burial, mourning period, unveiling and the family cemetery visit. You will see, for instance, a photo of Solomon and Ester Rabinovitch at Ester's mother's gravesite. Solomon was the builder of the Great Synagogue of Bialystok which was tragically destroyed during the war. Coincidentally, this photo was taken just a day before the Germans marched into Bialystok in September of 1939.

As is the goal of the Museum, a number of personal stories as told by those who lived in Eastern Europe before the Second World War are interspersed within this exhibition, with the occasional story of Jewish life within the United States.

You can visit this informative and interesting exhibition by clicking here.

MOFH FILM SERIES:

**Please visit the Film Series page to see late additions, showing from February 20 through mid-March.

You can see the listings for March and April at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mfh-films.htm. Check back periodically as more short films and film clips will be added over time. Please be forewarned that some of the clips are very large and may take two minutes or longer to download, and some might require the viewer to use Internet Explorer.

With the cooperation of the International Al Jolson Society, the Museum presents to you the next installments of the "Al Jolson Film Festival," a series of short films that in some way, large or small, feature Jolson. Perhaps you will also see some of your favorite stars or personalities from yesteryear as you view these short films. You will also see trailers from some of Jolson's old films. Definitely a look back at the past! Please be patient as the short film downloads. It may take under two minutes if you use a hi-speed Internet connection, and longer if you don't. You may not want to try if you use your phone line for your Internet connection. Also, most of these clips will be in an mp4 format, so again if your computer has the capability of viewing mp4s you will have no problem. Otherwise, you will have to find a program that will allow you to view these clips. Additionally, the clips will be best played using Internet Explorer.
I would suggest you try to view these clips and see how it goes!!
If you haven't already viewed the Museum's wonderful Al Jolson exhibition, please do so at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ajolson.htm.

From March 16 through April 4:

The Al Jolson Film Festival - Jolson sings "Mammy" in "The Jolson Story" (3:27):

In 1946, Columbia pictures released "The Jolson Story," a highly fictionalized musical biography of Al Jolson. The film starred Larry Parks as Al Jolson, Evelyn Keyes as Julie Benson (based on Jolson's third wife Ruby Keeler), William Demarest (who played his manager), Ludwig Donath and Tamara Shayne (who played Jolson's parents), and Scotty Beckett, who played the young Jolson (though Beckett did not actually sing in the film, nor did he do young Jolson's whistling.)

"The Jolson Story" was highly successful and did much to revive Jolson's career which had been sagging during the years previous to the film's release. The film won numerous Academy Awards, i.e. for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture, and Best Sound Recording. Larry Parks was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and William Demarest was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Color and Film Editing. The great success of "The Jolson Story" spawned a sequel "Jolson Sings Again" just three years later--also successful, but not as much as the first film.

"The Jolson Story" introduced the talents of Al Jolson to a new generation. From YouTube.

Friday, March 19 to Sunday, April 4:

World War II and the Holocaust - Deportations

"Deportation to the Death Camps" (8:24):

A powerful and at times eerie short film. You may or may not want to watch this with the soundtrack.

From YouTube: "A collection of film showing deportations to death camps taken by Nazi cameramen. The first film shows what I believe to be a village in Galicia in which case the inhabitants would have ended up in Belzec. However they may be in the process of being taken to a ghetto.

In another part of the film we see the Nazis collecting valuables from the condemned who meekly hand them over.

Finally we can see the deportation of the Jewish population of Lodz. The station is recognizable [ Radegast]. I think that this film is from August 1944 and so the people would have been taken to Auschwitz where nearly all of them perished.

[Maybe you'll recognize family members being deported from the Lodz Ghetto.....]

The soundtrack appears to have been added at a later date.

The originals of these films are in the Film Archives in ul. Chelmska, Warsaw."

"Deportation to the Krakow Ghetto" (3:39):

"In May 1940, the Nazi occupation authority announced that Kraków should become the 'cleanest' city in the General Government, an occupied, but unannexed part of Poland. Massive deportation of Jews from the city were ordered. Of the more than 68,000 Jews in Kraków when the Germans invaded, only 15,000 workers and their families were permitted to remain. All other Jews were ordered out of the city, to be resettled into surrounding rural areas.

The Kraków Ghetto was formally established on 3 March 1941 in the Podgórze district, not in the Jewish district of Kazimierz. Displaced Polish families from Podgórze took up residences in the former Jewish dwellings outside the newly established Ghetto. Meanwhile, 15,000 Jews were crammed into an area previously inhabited by 3,000 people who used to live in a district consisting of 30 streets, 320 residential buildings, and 3,167 rooms. As a result, one apartment was allocated to every four Jewish families, and many less fortunate lived on the street.

The Ghetto was surrounded by walls that kept it separated from the rest of the city. All windows and doors that gave onto the 'Aryan' side were ordered bricked up. Only four guarded entrances allowed traffic to pass through. In a grim foreshadowing of the near future, these walls contained panels in the shape of tombstones. Small sections of the wall still remain today.

Young peole of the Akiva youth movement, who had undertaken the publication of an underground newsletter, HeHaluc HaLohem ('The Fighting Pioneer'), joined forces with other Zionists to form a local branch of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB, Polish: Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa), and organize resistance in the ghetto, supported by the Polish underground Armia Krajowa. The group carried out a variety of resistance activities including the bombing of the Cyganeria cafe, a gathering place of Nazi officers. Unlike in Warsaw, their efforts did not lead to a general uprising before the ghetto was liquidated.

From 30 May 1942 the Nazis deported people to the death camp at Belzec. On 13 - 14 March 1943 the final 'liquidation' of the ghetto was carried out under the command of SS-Untersturmführer Amon Göth. Eight thousand Jews deemed able to work were transported to the Plaszow labor camp. Others were either murdered in the ghetto or transported to Auschwitz where they were killed." -- From YouTube.

"Glimpses of Yiddish Czernowitz" (2:23):

From Forverts, YouTube:
"Bukovina—land of the beech tree spreading its branches across the Carpathian Mountains with its turbulent rivers and rushing streams. More than one generation of forest merchants and cattle drivers in partnership with the local peasantry drew their livelihood from the land. Czernowitz was blessed with resonant names—the Big City, Little Vienna, Jerusalem on the Prut, Jerusalem of Bukovina.

Short, but abundant visually, this filmic essay expresses critical historical moments of Jewish life in the city and region, from the first Jewish language conference to the torment of the Transnistrian deportation and subsequent decline of Jewish life in the post War period. Featuring contemporary interviews alongside original archival images, the film presents Czernowitz through native personalities such as fabulist and pedagogue Eliezer Steinbarg, beloved actress Sidi Tal, drama critic Moyshe Loyev, writer Josef Burg, poet Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, and linguist Prof. Wolf Moskovich.

Glimpses of Yiddish Czernowitz is a visual tale of an all but lost Jewish community. The film awakens our longing and calls us back to seek out the traces of that city of our dreams—the Jerusalem on the Prut."

NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES:
-- "Zola Backs Up the Jews" in an 1896 article that appeared in the New York Sun newspaper via Le Figaro, backs up the "brotherhood of man" and defends the Jews. An interesting read from someone who staunchly defended Captain Dreyfus. You can read the article at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mfh-zola-01.htm .

--"Jewish Welfare Board Cares for 100,000 Fighting Men": This 1918 article begins with:|
"The Jewish Welfare Board is a win-the-war organization that is helping the United States government to build up the morale of more than 100,000 Jewish men in the army and navy. It is a national body cooperating with and under the supervision of the War Department Commission on Training Camp Activities.

The board was created by the joint action of representatives from some ten or twelve national Jewish organizations to meet the emergencies precipitated by the war. The organizations represented in its councils are: Agudath Ha-Rabbonim, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Council of Y.M.H. and kindred associations, Independent Order B'rith Abraham, Jewish Publication Society of America, Council of Jewish Women, Independent Order B’nai B’rith, Jewish Chautauqua Society, Independent Order B'rith Sholom, United Synagogues of America, National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, New York Board of Jewish Ministers, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations."

--Wily Marriage Makers of the East Side: There were some good schatchens that operated on the East Side at the turn of the 20th Century, but there were others...... www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/les-marriage-makers.htm .

--There are now one hundred and twenty articles available for your perusal. Please visit the archives at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/archive-newspaper.htm to see what might be of interest to you.

SCREENING ROOM:
--Four Seasons Lodge: From the darkness of Hitler’s Europe to the lush mountains of New York’s Catskills, Four Seasons Lodge follows a community of Holocaust survivors who come together each summer at their beloved bungalow colony to dance, cook, fight, flirt and celebrate their survival.

Beautifully photographed by a team of cinematographers led by Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens) and Justin Schein (No Impact Man) this unexpectedly funny film confronts sobering topics like aging, loss and the legacy of the Holocaust, capturing the Lodgers’ intoxicating passion for life as the fate of their colony hangs in the balance.

In an inspiring and startling documentary, a remarkable tribe whose members are fast disappearing come together for one final summer in the Catskill Mountains - they’re Holocaust Survivors with a captivating joie de vivre and a bracing sense of humor.
Four Seasons Lodge is a counterintuitive film tied to the Holocaust, one that captures the Lodgers' intoxicating passion for living, in bracing contrast to lives harrowed by loss. The documentary is about tightly bonded friendships and the quest for peace in spite of haunting memories, as experienced through compelling people and the richness of their intensely close lives.

This vivid, inspiring, and unexpectedly funny portrait reveals the indomitable spirit of a singular community.
“This is our revenge,” one camper explains. “To live this long, this well, is a victory.”

You can see the film preview at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/sr-29-four-seasons-lodge.htm . The link is also available on the Museum's Screening Room page.

APRIL 2010

To see any late additions to the March 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

MOFH FILM SERIES:

Monday , April 5 to Sunday, April 18

The Al Jolson Film Festival - Jolson stars in and sings in "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (3:15):

The film trailer.

"The picture, some persons may be glad to hear, has no "Mammy" song. It is Mr. Jolson's best film and well it might be, for that clever director, Lewis Milestone, guided its destiny, and the supporting cast includes Frank Morgan, the beautiful Madge Evans, the pathetically comic Harry Langdon and that veteran of Keystone days, Chester Conklin. It is a combination of fun, melody and romance, with a dash of satire, all of which make for an ingratiating entertainment..."-- From the New York Times, Feb. 9, 1933.

Don't forget to visit the Museum's large Al Jolson exhibition titled "The Immortal Al Jolson" (and see and hear many more videos, not to mention more than forty sound clips) at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ajolson.htm .

World War II and the Holocaust:

"The Jews of Krakow's Kazimierz District" (3:26):

Archival film from 1936 showing the Jewish district of Kazimierz in Krakow. Most of these buildings can be visited today and are in a similar condition - only the people who walked those streets are long since gone.

The original [version] of this film is in the Polish film archives in ul. Chelmska in Warsaw. -- From Alan Heath, YouTube.

Note that there is another version of this film on YouTube that states the film is of
Kazimierz in 1938-9, not 1936.

From the exhibition "The Jewish Ghetto," coming to you sometime in 2010:

"The Ghettos of Dąbrowa Górnicza and Będzin" (10:51):

A film in two parts, shot in the ghettos of Dąbrowa Górnicza and Będzin, probably at the beginning of the ghettos.

Dabrowa Górnicza is part of the Katowice conurbation. Jews settled in Dąbrowa Górnicza
in the middle of the 19th century. There were 4,304 Jews living in Dąbrowa Górnicza
according to the 1921 census (11% of the total population).

The German army captured Dąbrowa Górnicza on 3 September 1939. In the fall of 1940 several hundred young Jewish men were deported to slave labor camps in Germany. Several hundred more were deported in the course of 1941. At the end of that year a ghetto was established. On 5 May 1942, the first deportation took place in which 630 Jews were taken to Auschwitz and exterminated. In the second deportation, conducted on 12 August 1942, another few hundred Jews were sent to their death in Auschwitz. On 26 June 1943, the ghetto in Dąbrowa Górnicza

was liquidated and all its inmates were transferred to the ghetto in Srodula (a suburb of Sosnowiec), the only ghetto still existing in Upper Silesia. It too was liquidated and all its inhabitants, including the Jews from Dąbrowa Górnicza, deported to Auschwitz and killed.

According to the 1921 census, there were 17,298 Jews in Będzin or 62.1 percent of its total population. By 1938, the number of Jews had increased to about 22,500.

Situated close to the border, Będzin was quickly captured by the Wehrmacht. On 7 September, persecution of the Jews began, with the instituting of economic sanctions. On 8 September, the Będzin synagogue was burned, and the first massacre of local Jews took place.

The ghetto was founded in May 1942 but deportations had started as early as October 1940. Despite cooperation with the occupiers as is shown in this film, several large deportations took place in 1942. The last major deportations took place in 1943: 5,000 were deported on 22 June 1943 and 8,000 around 13 August 1943. About 1,000 remaining Jews were deported in the subsequent months. A rising took place in August 1943 which was put down and the ghetto was eliminated.

This film is held in the Polish film archive in ul. Chelmska, Warsaw. -- From Alan Heath, YouTube.

From Saturday, April 17 through Sunday, May 9

You can find links to these film clips at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mfh-films.htm .

World War II and the Holocaust:

Nazi Death Camps (5 mins, 3 secs):

In April 1945, U.S. and British troops entered the Nazi death camps and filmed the horrors they found there. For decades the film was stored at the Imperial War Museum in London. This documentary was unfinished and was missing soundtracks. The directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, had developed a script to go with the pictures. Frontline, a British television program, presented this documentary unedited. It was a film the British Government deemed too grisly for release after World War II. The film has received its public debut on British television. Fifteen minutes of the black-and- white film, which was shot by the armed forces after the war. From YouTube.

Nazi Murder Mills (8 mins, 16 secs):

First actual newsreel pictures of atrocities in Nazi murder camps. Helpless prisoners tortured to death by a bestial enemy...Here Is "The Truth" (Real-life horror pictures revealing the unbelievable atrocities committed by the Nazis in their murder camps.)

Grasleben: Wounded and emaciated Yanks, captured in von Runstedt's Bulge attack of last winter, are fed and given medical care by the Yank armies of liberation.

Hadamar: Protected by gas masks, grave diggers open reeking graves at this converted insane asylum. They discover that 35,000 political prisoners had been slain here, largely by poisoning.

Camp Ohrdruf : General Eisenhower, General Patton and General Bradley can hardly believe their eyes when they view torture-gallows, heaps of charred human bodies and lime pits filled with corpses. From You Tube.

POSTCARDS FROM HOME:

--Poland: Warszawa.
--Ukraine: Kiev.

MAY 2010

To see any late additions to the April 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

EXHIBITIONS:

--"Walk in My Shoes: Collected Memories of the Holocaust":
--Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania: Ed (Ephraim) Gruzin was born in 1927 in Kaunas (Kovno) and is a survivor of the Kovno Ghetto and Kaufering concentration camp number one near Landsberg, Germany. He written a biography of his life and has graciously given permission to the Museum to make his story available to all Museum "visitors." You can read his story, as well as see some of his family photographs, by clicking here.

This is the Museum's first WIMS entry for Lithuania. More such stories are welcome, no matter from what country the Survivor comes from.

The Films of Tomek Wisniewski:

You can now see forty very interesting short films created by Tomek Wisniewski, a native of Białystok, Poland. These are not part of the Museum's Film Series per se, as are currently available to you, the Museum visitor, indefinitely.

His films mostly concern various towns and cities within Poland, i.e. the Poland of today and of pre-World War II Poland, but there are others about towns in today's Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania.

More of Tomek's films will be added in the future. You can find the links to all of his films that are being shown at the Museum at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/tomek/films.htm .

WORLD HOLOCAUST MEMORIALS:

--A photo has been sent to the Museum of a memorial to the martyred 6,000,000 Jews that stands at Beth Israel Cemetery in Woodbridge, New Jersey at Beth Israel Cemetery.

JUN 2010

To see any late additions to the May 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

The Films of Tomek Wisniewski:

You can now view forty-seven short films created by Bialystok-native Tomek Wisniewski. More films have been added over this past month, including films about Bialystok's Biala River (past and present), Bransk, Piaski and Szczuczyn. Please see the complete listing of films at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/tomek/films.htm. More films will be added to this series as they are produced and placed online.

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS:

The Synagogues of Europe: Past and Present:

Many more photographs of the synagogues of Europe, both from sometime before WWII and of the recent
past, can now be found within this exhibition. "Synagogues of Europe..." has arguably the largest number of synagogue photos from Europe online. More photographs will be added along the way as I have time. Recent photos added to this collection are of Polish synagogues from: Przeymyl, Slupsk, Bydgoszcz, Bielsko Biala, Wlodawa, Lesko, Krakow, Szydlow, Inowroclaw, Pinczow, Kielce, Ostrow Wielkopolski, Gliwice, Wroclaw, Konskie, Lodz, Lublin, Lowicz, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Porozow and Opole. Also from the Ukraine: Berehove,
Uzhhorod, Mukacheve, Vylok; also of a synagogue in Sveksna in Lithuania, Budapest and Szeged in Hungary and Subotica in today's Serbia. You can now also see new webpages created for synagogues in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia and Portugal. The main page for this exhibition can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/s/mfh-syn-europe.htm. More synagogue photos are always welcome.

Further update as of June 21: New synagogue photos taken within the last number of years by Shmuel ben Eliezer of synagogues located in the following Polish towns:
--Nowy Sacz, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Bobowa, Cieszanow, Dabie, Jaroslaw, Kazimierz-Dolny, Lodz, Oswieciem, Poznan, Rzeszow, Wielkie Oczy, and Wroclaw.

The Synagogues of Asia:

--China, Harbin: Thanks to MOFH supporter Joel Goldschmidt, you can now view a number of photographs of the Jewish New Synagogue of Harbin, China. It used to be the largest synagogue in Northeast China, but it hasn't be used as such since the Jews left Harbin in the 1950s. Built in 1921, it served both as a synagogue and library and has within the last number of years been renovatetd. Harbin used to have the largest Jewish population in the Far East.

The Harbin photos can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/jasia/jasia-02c-china-harbin.htm.

The Jewish Ghetto: Lodz:

More names have been added to the list of those buried in the Jewish Ghetto Cemetery of Lodz, Poland, now totaling more than 3,400 burials. More will be added, but not until 2011. Not only does this list contain the names of the deceased and date and age of death, but also grave location, Hebrew name of the deceased and father and more.

The lists are displayed in two different ways, i.e. by cemetery section and alphabetically. One must also scroll across the screen the see the many columns of information available.

You can also see the map of the Jewish Lodz Cemetery here and note the section number that corresponds to the individual sectional lists provided to you.

To select your preferred method of search, go to www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/ghetto/lodz-ghetto-cemetery.htm and use the links provided.

Each webpage contains a photo of the cemetery, cir 1940-1944 that you might not have seen before.
This burial list is part of an upcoming online Museum exhibition entitled "The Jewish Ghetto" which will go online sometime this summer.

Postcards from Home:

Belarus: Dzyatlava (aka Zhetel; Dyatlovo).

World Jewish Communities: Zambrow, Poland:

More English translation of the Zambrow Yizkor Book, originally published in Hebrew and Yiddish, is now
available online for your viewing. Some of the new material deals with WWII, transport, the concentration camps, etc. The translation can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/z/zyb-01.htm. The newly translated section can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/z/zyb-04.htm .

JUL 2010

To see any late additions to the Jun 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

CEMETERY PROJECT:

--Cemetery Maps:
--California: Hillside Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA.
--Massachusetts: Sharon Memorial Park, Sharon, MA.

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS:

How We Worked:

-Poland, Bialystok: The Shoe Workshop of I. Baran.

The Jewish Soldier in History:

--In 1990, two memorial plaques, Honor Rolls of those British Jewish soldiers and personnel who perished during World War I, were transferred to the Waltham Abbey Cemetery in Essex, England, UK. You can see the plaque, as well as read the many names of those inscribed on it, by clicking here.

Postcards from Home:

--Belarus: Pinsk.
--Poland: Warszawa.
--Ukraine: Odessa.

More pre-war family photos from Europe are always welcome.

The Synagogues of Europe: Past and Present:

New synagogue photos can be found from:
--Austria: Kobersdorf (Kabold).
--Croatia: Varazdin.
--Germany: Dresden.
--Hungary: Esztergom, Gyongyos, Gyor, Gyula, Hajdúböszörmény, Keszthely, Kisvarda, Mad, Mako, Miskolc, Nyiregyhaza, Pecs, Siklos, Sopron, Tapolca, Tata, Tiszafured and Zalaegerszeg.
--Poland: Krakow, Tarnogrod, Tarnow and Wrzesnia.
--Romania: Targu-Mures.
--Slovakia: Samorin.|
--Ukraine: Brody, Kamyanka Buzka and Vylok.

The exhibition can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/s/mfh-syn-europe.htm. More synagogue photos are always welcome.

You can also see a photo of a synagogue (cir 1930s) from Maputo, Mozambique by clicking here.

World Holocaust Memorials:

--Memorials of Eastern Europe: You can now find memorial photos associated with the following locations:

    --Hungary: Budapest and Kunmadaras.

    --Poland: Deblin, Kielce, Kozienice, Krakow, Lodz, Opole, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Przemysl, Radomsko, Rzeszow, Sochaczew, Tarnow, Warszawa and Wrzesnia.

    --Ukraine: Rogatyn.

--A page for Great Britain memorial photographs has been added and can be found by clicking here.

More such photographs of Holocaust memorials from throughout the world are always welcome.

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The Films of Tomek Wisniewski:

Now you can see the three more of Tomek's films to appear at the Museum.

The first one is entitled "Over the Rooftops" and is a nearly thirty-minute series of views of Bialystok, often from a "birds-eye" view. You can find the film at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/tomek/bialystok-12.htm .
The second film is also about Bialystok, is more than thirty minutes long, and is entitled "Bialystok: Yesterday and Today, From the Heavens and the Earth." The link is www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/tomek/bialystok-13.htm .
The third film is about the Taibl Pomerantz Jewish nursery school of Grajewo, 1926. The film is basically a seven minute scan of a student group photo with the frequent zooming in of the faces of the young children. www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/tomek/grajewo-01.htm .

AUG 2010

To see any late additions to the Jul 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS:

--Landsmanshaftn in America:
--Illinois, Chicago: The Vishnevets Society. A partial list of society members, cir 1930s; includes the home addresses of its members. Forty-five names with hopefully many more in the future.
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/lndsmn-vishnevets-01.htm

The Synagogues of Europe: Past and Present:
--Hungary: Budapest (Dohany Synagogue) and Nyiregyhaza.
--Slovakia: Huncovce (formerly in Hungary).

--World Holocaust Memorials:
--Australia: Perth (can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/whm-morememorials.htm.)

The Films of Tomek Wisniewski:

Now you can see the six more of Tomek's films to appear at the Museum, some of which include film clips taken during WWII. The towns/cities represented in these films include Bialystok, Lodz, Szczuczyn, Kolno, Wizna, Lomza and Warszawa. You can find the links to these films --organized according to the town/city name--at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/tomek/films.htm .

THE SCREENING ROOM:

The Museum's thirty-first film clip now available for viewing, "A Film Unfinished" about the Warsaw Ghetto.

At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film, having sat undisturbed in an East German archive, was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply "Ghetto," this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. However, the later discovery of a long-missing reel complicated earlier readings of the footage. A FILM UNFINISHED presents the raw footage in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences (including a staged dinner party) falsely showing "the good life" enjoyed by Jewish urbanites, and probes deep into the making of a now-infamous Nazi propaganda film.

The link to the film preview is www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/sr-31-film-unfinished.htm

The Museum also welcomes the film "Martin: The Story of Dr. Martin Kieselstein" which is a companion piece to the exhibition of Holocaust art already on display at the Museum at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/kieselstein/mk.htm. Here you will have the opportunity to learn more about Martin, his work and what motivates him to create such fascinating and moving artwork. The film can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/sr-32-martin.htm.

SEP 2010

To see any late additions to the Aug 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS:

--Postcards from Home:
--Middlesbrough, England: The Silverston-Intract Wedding, 1933.
--Lodz, Poland: The Galas family portraits.

--World Holocaust Memorials:
--Canada: New photographs from landsmanshaftn plots at Baron De Hirsch Cemetery in Montreal.
The new societies/European towns that are now represented are:
--Koluszki and Brzeziny, Poland
--United Hebrew Cemeteries
--Adath Israel Congregation
--Ozarow, Poland
--Yishitza

THE FILMS OF TOMEK WISNIEWSKI:

--Belarus: Druja: A Forgotten Town.
--Latvia: The Holocaust in Riga.
--Poland:
    --Czestochowa: The Czestochowa Ghetto, 1939-1942.
    --Kazimierz nad Wisłą, Puławy & Dęblin, Poland, cir 1940.
    --Końskie: Poles and Jews Together for the Very Last Time, 1939-1942.
    --Lubycza Krolewska: The Most Destroyed City in Poland: Lubycza 1941.
    --Mlawa: Mlawa 1941 (color film of the ghetto!)
    --Pulawy, Poland: Pulawy, 1926.
    --Warszawa: From Warsaw to Treblinka, 1942-3.
--Ukraine:
   --Chortkiv: A City Tour of Pre-War Chortkiv (Chortkov).
   --Vinnytsya: Winnica Winnnitza 1942.

THE YIDDISH WORLD:

--Maurice Schwartz and his Yiddish Art Theatre: For more than sixty years Yiddish acting great Maurice Schwartz has directed and performed in more than one hundred plays both domestically and abroad. His dedication to performing plays of the highest quality exemplifies the artistry that occurred within the Yiddish Theatre in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. The Yiddish Theatre, in all its glory, was at its zenith on the Lower East Side of New York City, especially in the area on or about Second Avenue.

For those of you whose interest lies in Yiddish theatre, you will enjoy perusing the more than twenty pages found within this exhibition. You can not only read about Maurice Schwartz the man (a link to an unpublished biography of Schwartz can be found within this exhibition), but also the actor. You can also see photographs of many of his productions and learn a bit about many of the Yiddish Art Theatre productions themselves, i.e. not only the plays his troupe performed, but also those who worked behind the scenes as well and the playwrights themselves. You will also learn a bit about Schwartz's acting troupe itself and the myriad of talented actors and actresses that once graced the Yiddish stage.

For those of you who do research about the Yiddish theatre, you will find not only a listing of most all his YAT productions, but also a page that lists in greater detail more than one hundred of his productions. This is
especially interesting because of information these listings contain, e.g. full cast listing of the majority of those productions listed. You willtypically find the title of the production, the playwright's name, the location and name of the theatre in which the YAT performed this production at, and the month and year the production opened. I am still missing information on many of these listings as well as complete information on other YAT productions, so if anyone has information that isn't available on this webpage, please contact me.

Though some of the material found within this exhibition has previously been presented by this online Museum, there is much new to be seen. To see this exhibition, please visit www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yat.htm. The
aforementioned page listing the more than one hundred YAT productions with casts of characters can be found at
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yat-D.htm. You can also find a listing with links to most of the Yiddish Theatre
material at the Museum of Family History's Yiddish World at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mfh-backstage-main.htm .

Lastly, for those of you who wish to hear and read in Yiddish (and English) some poetry written by Itzik Manger and Peretz Miransky, please visit the Museum's Yiddish Vinkl Poetry Corner at
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yiddish-vinkl-poetry-01.htm .

OCT 2010

To see any late additions to the Sep 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

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CEMETERY PROJECT:

Two new searchable cemetery databases!

It seems that the organization that runs Montefiore Cemetery (St. Albans/Springfield Gardens, Queens County, NY) has redone their website which now includes a searchable database. It has done the same for its sister cemetery in Pinelawn, Suffolk County, NY. Just use the links below and click on the "Locator" link at the top of the page to begin searching.

The searchable fields include first name and last name, month and year of death. The search results include first name, last name, age and date of death, grave location and society name.

Here are the links:
Montefiore Cemetery: www.montefiores.com/Montefiore/jewish-cemeteries-new-york/index.html
New Montefiore Cemetery: www.montefiores.com/newMontefiore/jewish-cemeteries-new-york/index.html

It should be noted that the folks who run these two cemeteries are not affiliated with the group who created the other six or seven Queens, NY cemetery databases, so the form of the cemetery databases are different.
These two new databases are imperfect and are no doubt missing some burials, etc., but having access to them should make for some 'happy hunting.'

So have a go at it and good luck!

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS:

Stage and Screen: Jews in the Entertainment Industry:

The Museum of Family History is pleased to present to you the story of yet another Jewish actor, now as part of the Museum's exhibition "Stage and Screen: Jews in the Entertainment Industry." You may not know his name, but if you were a fan of the old "Superman" television series with George Reeves, you will recognize him (though the photo of him included here is of a young Ben.)

Ben Welden (aka Ben Weinblatt) was born June 12, 1901 in a small house on 14th Street in Toledo Ohio, and je attended Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) to become an engineer. He also played violin. Half way through his degree in engineering, he was talked into taking a part in a school play. He instantly fell in love with acting. After college, he acted on stage in England (their version of Broadway) and became rather famous. When he became famous, he was told to change his name. At that time, one could not use a traditional Jewish name. He changed it from Weinblatt to Welden. Ben even married royalty (an actual duchess), while living in England. After the duchess took one long look at Ben’s family in a poor section of Toledo (OH), she divorced him.

Shortly after his divorce, Ben was asked to come to Hollywood, where some of his friends were creating the American film industry. Ben instantly became a character actor – a gangster. About 235 films, 75 TV shows and 65 years later, Ben retired. He died in 1997, at age 96. Ben has his own Wiki page and a long list of movie credits that would make any actor salivate. He worked with Humphrey Bogart, Betty Davis, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, James Stewart and many, many famous actors. He appeared on almost every episode of Superman and he was a staple on I Love Lucy, Batman, The Three Stooges, Ma & Pa Kettle and too many more to mention here.

To see photos of Ben and to read a tribute to him by his nephew Charles S. Weinblatt (author of "Jacob's Courage"--see below), please click here.

Synagogues of Europe: Past and Present:

--Austria: Salzburg.
--Germany: Frankfurt.
--Greece: Chania (Hania), Crete.

World War II and the Holocaust:

Now on display at the Museum are three new online exhibitions about World War II and the Holocaust, namely "Persecution and Flight: The Nazi Campaign Against the Jews," "The Jewish Ghetto," and "Never Forget: Visions of the Nazi Camps." These exhibitions combine the use of period photographs, video and audio interviews, as well as dozens of pieces of postal artifacts, to form a compelling and impactful view of a most terrible period in modern
Jewish history.

The first exhibition, "Persecution and Flight...," presents more than twenty pieces of postal evidence of the Holocaust, each piece a testimony to what the "experience" was in Europe for countless numbers of Jews before World War II. Each piece of mail presented within these three exhibitions comes from an original exhibition entitled "The Nazi Scourge: Postal Evidence of the Holocaust and Devastation of Europe," the contents of which is now in the possession of the Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation, which has graciously permitted me to use their materials within the aforementioned exhibitions.

This exhibition first begins with a January 1934 postcard from Germany, commemorating the Nazi seizure of power, a postcard with Hitler and Hindenburg in the stamp imprint indicium and a small photograph of a
torchlight parade. There are many pieces of post in its various forms that give evidence of the persecution that Jews had to face, as well as for those who were fortunate enough, their flight away from Nazi Germany.

The second exhibition, entitled "The Jewish Ghetto," also contains such evidence, along with personal testimony in its various forms, i.e. written, audio and video. Take a tour through these two dozen ghettos in Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Hungary and Latvia and hear from those who lived in these ghettos and survived.

Lastly, the third exhibition, entitled "Never Forget..." is an important exhibition that must be seen. Here, there are many photographs, as well as more pieces of postal evidence of the Holocaust, more pieces than the previous two exhibitions combined. You will also find various pieces of testimony in both written, audio and video form that represent nearly fifty camps, i.e. transit, labor and concentration camps.

Postcards from Home:
--Ukraine: Verbovets. The Aronzon Family.

Synagogues of Europe: Past and Present:
--Ukraine: Verbovets.

THE FILMS OF TOMEK WISNIEWSKI:
From September through October:

--Belarus: Druja: A Forgotten Town.
--Latvia: The Holocaust in Riga.
--Poland:
    --The Partitioning and End of Poland 1939: Archival Film of Hitler, Stalin, Molotov and Ribentrop; Hitler in Warsaw October 1939.
    --Czestochowa: The Czestochowa Ghetto, 1939-1942.
    --Gwoździec: The Synagogue of Gwoździec.
    --Kazimierz nad Wisłą, Puławy & Dęblin, Poland, cir 1940.
    --Końskie: Poles and Jews Together for the Very Last Time, 1939-1942.
    --Lublin: The Lublin Ghetto: Destruction and Deportation.
    --Lubycza Krolewska: The Most Destroyed City in Poland: Lubycza 1941.
    --Mlawa: Mlawa 1941 (color film of the ghetto!)
    --Pulawy, Poland: Pulawy, 1926.
    --Warszawa: From Warsaw to Treblinka, 1942-3.
--Ukraine:
   --Chortkiv: A City Tour of Pre-War Chortkiv (Chortkov).
   --Vinnytsya: Winnica Winnnitza 1942.

Not necessarily a film created by Tomek, he has placed on Vimeo the German language film documentary entitled "Holokaust," fifty minutes long, filled with unique archival footage and interviews with survivors of the many ghettos that once stood as a blight on the European landscape.

You can see this film by clicking here. This film will be available here at the Museum most likely until the last day of October.

LINKS:

--Thanks to Terry and Paula Lasky, a searchable cemetery database now exists for Mt. Nebo Memorial Park in Aurora, Colorado. This should be useful to those who have ancestors or relatives that once lived in the Denver, Colorado area. The link is http://www.mountnebocemetery.com/plot-locator.

YIDDISH VINKL BOOKSTORE:

--Jacob's Courage: A Holocaust Love Story, by Charles S. Weinblatt
How would you feel if, at age seventeen, the government removed you from school, evicted you from your home, looted your bank account and took all of your family's possessions? How would you feel if ruthless police prevented your parents from working and then deported you and your loved ones to a prison camp run by brutal taskmasters? How would you feel if you suddenly lost contact with everyone that you know and love? How would you feel if you were sent to the most frightening place in history, and then forced to perform unspeakable acts of horror in order to remain alive?

To read the rest of the synopsis or to read the book itself, click here.

NOV 2010

To see any late additions to the Oct 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

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CEMETERY PROJECT:

Two new searchable cemetery databases!

It seems that the organization that runs Montefiore Cemetery (St. Albans/Springfield Gardens, Queens County, NY) has redone their website which now includes a searchable database. It has done the same for its sister cemetery in Pinelawn, Suffolk County, NY. Just use the links below and click on the "Locator" link at the top of the page to begin searching.

The searchable fields include first name and last name, month and year of death. The search results include first name, last name, age and date of death, grave location and society name.

Here are the links:
Montefiore Cemetery: www.montefiores.com/Montefiore/jewish-cemeteries-new-york/index.html
New Montefiore Cemetery: www.montefiores.com/newMontefiore/jewish-cemeteries-new-york/index.html
Burial count per year for both cemeteries, as found within their databases (as of Nov. 1, 2010):
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/montefiores.htm.

It should be noted that the folks who run these two cemeteries are not affiliated with the group who created the other six or seven Queens, NY cemetery databases, so the form of the cemetery databases are different.
These two new databases are imperfect and are no doubt missing some burials, etc., but having access to them should make for some 'happy hunting.'

So have a go at it and good luck!

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS:

The Synagogues of Europe: Past and Present:
--Portugal: Belmonte.

World Holocaust Memorials:
--United States, Nebraska: Nebraska State Holocaust Memorial.

World War II and the Holocaust:

THE FILMS OF TOMEK WISNIEWSKI:
--Poland: Grajewo, Lubaczow.

LINKS:
--Documenting Maine Jewish History; also Maine Jewish Cemetery Database.

NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES:
--An article from a 1914 edition of Philadelphia's Evening Ledger about how Jewish soldiers, on both sides of the battlefield, took time out during their fighting, just as the soldiers did during the Franco-Prussian War, to hold religious services for Rosh Hashanah. You can find the article here.

DEC 2010

To see any late additions to the Nov 2010 Updates page, please visit the 2010 Updates page to see what you've missed.

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CEMETERY PROJECT:
--A searchable database has been found for Beth El Cemetery in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Please check the Museum's Links page for the hyperlink to the database.

--The Museum is considering photographing all three dozen Odessa, Ukraine society plots in New York and New Jersey. Volunteers are needed for photography and data entry. Please contact Steve at steve@museumoffamilyhistory.com if you are interesting in helping out.

THE FILMS OF TOMEK WISNIEWSKI:
--Poland: Zolkiew (now Zhovkva, Ukraine); Zborow (now Zborov, Ukraine); Rymanow, Trzebinia; Stanislawow (now Ivano-Frankovsk, Ukraine)--These are all former Galician towns. Also, there are new films about Zelechow and Staporkow, Poland. Now there are eighty-one Tomek Wisniewski films available for viewing at the Museum of Family History.

POSTCARDS FROM HOME:
--Poland: Ryki.
--Ukraine: Sarny.

THE SYNAGOGUES OF AFRICA:
--Egypt: Alexandria and Cairo.

THE SYNAGOGUES OF EUROPE: PAST AND PRESENT:
--Ukraine: Uman.