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Jewish Genealogy Society
of Cleveland

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We research and support programs by renowned genealogy experts and offer free monthly educational programs. We meet on Zoom (and occasionally in-person following COVID regulations) typically on the first Wednesday of the month at 7 pm ET.  Advance registration is required for all programs and must be posted by noon on the day of the program.  Please contact our Vice President for Programming to discuss speaker opportunities and program ideas.

You can also check out the IAJGS Calendar for a listing of Jewish Genealogy Events.



Upcoming events

    • 03/29/2023
    • 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
    • Zoom


    • 04/05/2023
    • 04/13/2023

    Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, and ends after sundown on April 13, 2023.

    • 04/22/2023

    NEOGRT Series with

    Daniel Horowitz, Genealogy Expert, MyHeritage


    Saturday, April 22, 9 - 11 AM EDT ----------

    Location:  Porter Room, Westlake Porter Public Library, 27333 Center Ridge Rd, Westlake, OH 44145 and on Zoom

    Registration Required

    Register Westlake In-Person        Register Westlake Zoom

    1.     If I Only Knew Then What I Know Now! Doing Genealogy, The Right Way

    2.     What, Who, Why, Where, When and How Genealogy - The Anthropology of Genealogy


    Saturday, April 22, 2 - 4 PM EDT ----------

    Location:  Willow Room, Independence Civic Center, 6363 Selig Blvd, Independence, OH 44131 and on Zoom

    Registration Required

    3.     Where There's a Will There's a Way ... To Research Your Family

    4.     Don't Believe Everything You Read


    Speaker:  Daniel Horowitz is an internationally renowned genealogy expert and educator who has worked with MyHeritage since 2006.  His current responsibilities include interacting with genealogy societies, bloggers, and media, as well as lecturing and attending conferences around the world.  Dedicated to genealogy since 1986, Daniel was the teacher and study guide editor of the family history project Searching for My Roots in Venezuela for 15 years.  After ten years on the board of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Daniel turned his attention to crowdsource digitization and transcription projects and holds a board-level position at the Israel Genealogy Research Association.

    The Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland is working in partnership with the North East Ohio Genealogy Round Table (an undertaking of the Ohio Genealogical Society); the Cuyahoga West Chapter, OGS; and the Cuyahoga Valley Chapter, OGS

    Click here for Sunday event details and registration


    Questions about the Saturday arrangements and registration?  Email neogrt23@gmail.com or go to https://neogrt.org/Daniel.html

    • 04/23/2023
    • 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
    • Adelstein Room A/B, Orange Branch, Cuyahoga County Public Library, 31975 Chagrin Blvd, Pepper Pike, OH 44124 and on Zoom
    Register

    Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland Kicks Off 40th Anniversary

    NEOGRT Series with

    Daniel Horowitz, Genealogy Expert, MyHeritage


    Sunday, April 23, 2 - 4 PM EDT ----------

    Location:  Adelstein Room A/B, Orange Branch, Cuyahoga County Public Library, 31975 Chagrin Blvd, Pepper Pike, OH 44124 and on Zoom

    Free Registration: Registration required and open now.


    Session A)   Reuniting Holocaust Survivors ... Not Mission Impossible

    Thousands of people think all their family members died in the Holocaust and there is no one left, all was lost, and no records survived.  Today is has been proved this is not the case and people and records did survive.  Based on real success stories of families being reunited, come to discover the vast world of Holocaust resources available to find your relatives.


    Session B)   Research Israel Genealogical Resources from Your Couch

    Looking for ancestors who lived in, passed through, or died in Israel?  The Internet contains many rich repositories where you can learn about them — and these resources, which can be searched in English and in Hebrew, are growing each day.  In this session, you’ll learn how to access these resources and receive the tools you need to make the most of them.

    Speaker:  Daniel Horowitz is an internationally renowned genealogy expert and educator who has worked with MyHeritage since 2006.  His current responsibilities include interacting with genealogy societies, bloggers, and media, as well as lecturing and attending conferences around the world.  Dedicated to genealogy since 1986, Daniel was the teacher and study guide editor of the family history project Searching for My Roots in Venezuela for 15 years.  After ten years on the board of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Daniel turned his attention to crowdsource digitization and transcription projects and holds a board-level position at the Israel Genealogy Research Association.

    The Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland is working in partnership with the North East Ohio Genealogy Round Table (an undertaking of the Ohio Genealogical Society); the Cuyahoga West Chapter, OGS; and the Cuyahoga Valley Chapter, OGS.


    Click here for Saturday, April 22nd event details and registration


    Questions?  Email info@jgscleveland.org

    • 04/26/2023
    • 04/29/2023
    • Kalahari Resort and Convention Center, Sandusky, Ohio

    The Ohio Genealogy Society will hold its 2023 Conference, "What Brought Them Here," with national and international speakers presenting sessions for the beginner to the more advanced researcher.  This conference is recognized for being innovative and for embracing diversity among the speakers and sessions.

    See Conference Details

    • 05/03/2023
    • 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
    • Zoom

    Moving Your Family Memories from Nostalgia to History with Samuel Gruber, PhD

    Date & Time:  May 3, 2023 at 7:00 - 8:30 PM ET

    Location:  Zoom

    Program:  Once we have populated our family tree, filled in the names and dates, what have we learned? What does it mean to know an ancestor’s name but not much more? What makes genealogy different from lepidoptery or philately (collecting butterflies or stamps)?

    Genealogy is only a doorway to begin an investigation of the past. We can do this by collecting and circulating legends, hearsay, stereotypes, and biases, OR we can combine these and other tools to dig deeper to make useful history. We can frame questions and use our genealogical research as the beginning of larger explorations about Jews and Judaism, immigration and America, economic and social castes and hierarchies, and about a wide range of cultural and social expression.

    In this talk – and discussion – Dr. Gruber will review ways Jewish genealogy and family history can be expanded beyond the strictly personal. He’ll draw on his own experience helping American Jews reconnect with places of their family origin and discuss his own ongoing research using family history sources – memoirs, letter, scrapbooks, photos, etc. – to better understand his own family histories, and how these fit in the broader immigrant and American experience. He’ll discuss how personal stories can be used to recast older narratives to have relevancy today.

    Speaker:  Samuel D. Gruber is an internationally recognized expert on Jewish art, architecture and the historic preservation of Jewish sites and monuments and has been a leader in the documentation, protection, and preservation of historic Jewish sites worldwide for thirty years. He is president of the not-for-profit International Survey of Jewish Monuments.

    Sam received his BA in Medieval Studies from Princeton University, his Ph.D. in Art and Architectural History from Columbia University and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Rome, where he won the prestigious Rome Prize in Art History. He has lived in Syracuse, NY since 1993, and has taught part-time at Syracuse University in the Jewish Studies Program, and Departments of Religion and History of Art since 1994. During the pandemic, he has been sorting, cataloguing, transcribing, and otherwise considering family papers and memories.

    Dr. Gruber is an expert in synagogue architecture about which he writes and lectures frequently. He is author of American Synagogues: A Century of Architecture and Jewish Community (2003) and Synagogues (1999) and scores of published reports and articles. Since 2008, he has written the blog Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art and Monuments. During the pandemic, Sam has curated two on-line exhibitions: Romaniote Memories for Queens College under the auspices of the Government of Greece, and Synagogues of the South for the College of Charleston, for which he previously curated Life of the Synagogue. Beginning in 2021, Sam is a planner and lead researcher on the Holocaust Memorial Monument Database project based at the Canter for Jewish Art at Hebrew University which is supported by the Claims Conference.

    Sam was founding director of the Jewish Heritage Program of World Monuments Fund, has consulted on cultural heritage projects for numerous organizations and institutions around the world. He served as Research Director of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad from 1998 through 2008 for which he organized and published over a dozen countrywide surveys of historic sites and monuments of Jewish and other ethnic and religious minorities in Europe.

    • 05/21/2023
    • Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery (Ridge Rd #1), 3740 Ridge Road, Cleveland, OH 44144

    Volunteers needed for the cemetery cleanup.  Time and details to be announced.

    • 06/18/2023
    • 06/23/2023
    • Zoom

    Genealogists of all levels will find the GRIP week-long courses to be of interest whether novice, intermediate, advanced, or professional.

    WANT TO LEARN MORE about SCHOLARSHIPS? The various opportunities described need you to apply this year for awards for next year. Do not delay – Deadline for the Donn Devine Memorial Scholarship is January 30!

    GRIP TO BE HELD June 18-23, 2023, on Zoom and July 9-14, 2023, in-person! To see the title of the courses offered each week, download the 2023 GRIP Flyer.

    Registration for the institute opens on February 22nd.


    • 07/09/2023
    • 07/14/2023
    • LaRoche University, Pittsburgh, PA

    Genealogists of all levels will find the GRIP week-long courses to be of interest whether novice, intermediate, advanced, or professional.

    WANT TO LEARN MORE about SCHOLARSHIPS? The various opportunities described need you to apply this year for awards for next year. Do not delay – Deadline for the Donn Devine Memorial Scholarship is January 30!

    GRIP TO BE HELD June 18-23, 2023, on Zoom and July 9-14, 2023, in-person! To see the title of the courses offered each week, download the 2023 GRIP Flyer.

    Registration for the institute opens on February 22nd.


    • 07/30/2023
    • (BST)
    • 08/03/2023
    • (BST)
    • London, England

    The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies regulates the annual conferences on Jewish Genealogy, and the ever-increasing quality of these meetings has proven to be a boon to those researching their Jewish heritage by bringing together those interested in Jewish Genealogy to learn, to research, and most importantly, to share.  Visit the conference website for more information on the 2023 IAJGS Annual Conference scheduled in London, England.

Copyright 2023.  The Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland, Inc. (JGSC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization (EIN: 34-1648203).  All Rights Reserved.