Adventures in Jewish Genealogy

April 8th and April 15th, 7:00-8:30 pm Registration Required

In this two-part course, Nina Sitron will provide an overview of Jewish genealogy and Paula Ressler will offer a personal account of her genealogical research. They also will introduce the audience to CBI’s new Genealogy Havurah as well as the Western Massachusetts Jewish Genealogical Society.

April 8th: “Climbing Your Family Tree”

Nina will introduce the audience to what’s possible to discover when exploring one’s family history, including an array of resources available for doing genealogical research, what is unique in the field of Jewish genealogical research, the myths that people believe about researching their families, obstacles people might encounter, and how to break through what might appear to be “brick walls.”

Nina Sitron is President of the Western MA Jewish Genealogical Society. She has actively engaged in researching her family history for over 30 years, and is committed to supporting the research of people who are curious about their families’ histories. As a Genetic Counselor for Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York, Nina helped people use their medical family history to deal with health issues.

April 15th: “Genealogy Matters!”

Paula will present her research about her maternal family, particularly her uncle, a working-class adult who escaped from Vienna to the United States in 1935. Extended family were killed there in 1942. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will be digitizing and archiving the audio tape, Paula’s introduction, and original documents because “they provide a window into the experiences of Austrian Jews who were able to emigrate before the Anschluss.”

Paula Ressler is author of Dramatic Changes: Talking About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity through Drama; and co-author, with Becca Chase, of Meaningful Encounters: Preparing Educators to Teach Holocaust Literature. She is a former director of English Education and associate professor emerita of English, Illinois State University.