| Preserving Jewish Heritage | Article - Pro Bono, Israel
| Fall, 2003
JewishGen combines the newest technologies to help preserve one of the oldest cultures: it is an Internet-based genealogical information resource tracking Jewish heritage. In only 15 years, the project has grown from a basic Internet bulletin board for compiling and exchanging Jewish family information and history to become, through a recent agreement, a division of New York City's Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.
On JewishGen, researchers share genealogical information, techniques, research strategies, and case studies. With multiple databases now containing in excess of seven million records, including some material from previous centuries, the website is a forum for the exchange of information about Jewish life and family history, and has enabled thousands of families to connect and re-connect in a way never before possible.
Genesis
Houston partner David Ronn has been involved with JewishGen since its incorporation in 1996. In fact, he advised on the incorporation and has served, pro bono, as its General Counsel ever since. JewishGen was founded in 1987 by Susan E. King, an amateur genealogist using a computer in her Houston home. Today, JewishGen continues to be located in the Houston area, but has moved to a secure facility able to house and monitor the multiple servers required by the extraordinary growth of the organization and its projects.
JewishGen was a pioneering effort both in terms of genealogy and technology. At the outset there were only 150 users, but JewishGen morphed steadily into a major grass roots phenomenon, drawing hundreds of thousands worldwide into an electronic community yearning to rebuild ancestral roots and history.
Although he came to JewishGen through a friend of his wife, David Ronn already had a relatively deep background in Jewish genealogy. It so happened that his brother had a passion for family history. At the age of 12, Michoel Ronn began researching family history as part of a school social studies assignment before Roots hit the airwaves. By his twenties, Michoel had produced a book on his family's genealogy. David accompanied his brother on interviews with relatives in the United States, Europe and Israel. "My brother got started at such an early age that he was able to obtain first-hand accounts from two and three generations back," David recalls. "By editing and typesetting my brother's book, which we published ourselves, the two of us were also brought closer together."
"Genealogy research is much more than just searching for names, dates and places," said Ms. King, founder and now managing director of JewishGen. "Only in the details of Jewish heritage and history do ancestors come to life, the thinking goes. The affiliation with the Museum," King explains, "allows JewishGen to begin to professionalize what has been an all-volunteer effort."
Special Features
Among the special features of JewishGen is the Family Tree of the Jewish People, which contains data on more than two million people. A second feature, The Yizkor Book Translation Project, seeks to translate memorial books containing previously unavailable data on the fate of Jewish communities affected by the Holocaust. Perhaps most significant is the Holocaust Global Registry, a central database of and for Holocaust survivors and their families. The Holocaust Global Registry is credited with re-connecting a number of families after more than 60 years of separation.
"For many Jews, knowledge of their family history perished in the Holocaust," says Dr. David G. Marwell, Museum Director. "JewishGen fills in the missing pieces of the puzzle."
Located on the waterfront of Lower Manhattan in Battery Park City, the Museum is configured on three major themes: Jewish Life a Century Ago, The War Against the Jews, and Jewish Renewal. More than 2,000 photographs, 800 artifacts, and 24 original documentary films are on display. The Museum will open its 82,000 square-foot Robert M. Morgenthau Wing in the fall, and it will contain a theater, classrooms, and special exhibition space. You can access JewishGen at www.jewishgen.org where all programs and projects are provided as a public service.
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