LBI Partners with Genealogists to Focus on “Family Matters”

Thus, 76 years after the final issue was published, Jüdische Familienforschung is still serving the purpose for which it was originally envisioned—connecting German-Jewish family researchers. In addition to family histories and genealogical tables, each issue contained a supplement known as a Suchblatt, in which readers were able to circulate their research queries to the entire readership, which often responded with answers published in later issues. Today, GerSIG’s email discussion group functions much the same way.

The editor of Jüdische Familienforschung, the Berlin ophthalmologist Arthur Czellitzer, believed that an understanding of familial lineage was particularly important for the cohesion of the Jewish people. “Today, the family has become the only bond that connects this people—a people without a homeland, without its own language—to its own roots and ties it to Judaism,” Czellitzer wrote in the introduction to the first issue in 1924.

The online journal was introduced by Rosenberg at the 34th Annual convention of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies in Salt Lake City this July, where LBI Executive Director William Weitzer and Family Research Program Director Karen Franklin also spoke about resources available for family research at LBI.

“We are grateful to GerSIG for supporting this project, and we are very excited to partner with one of our most engaged user groups to make the discovery of Jewish community records, family trees, town histories, and other genealogical materials easier,” said Weitzer. At IAJGS, he announced further plans to create a dedicated portal for family research as well as a series of public events across the US that explore German-Jewish genealogy with local family historians.

ONLINE

Jüdische Familienforschung. Periodical, Berlin (1924–1938)

lbi.org/juedische-familienforschung

German-Jewish Special Interest Group at JewishGen

jewishgen.org/gersig