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• Inside America's Alligator Family: The David Crystal Story

  • When
    October 29, 2023
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

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  • 

    Inside America's Alligator Family:  The David Crystal Story
    
    

  • Join us in-person for two information-packed programs rolled into one!

    Stories behind IZOD-Lacoste and The Family That Made The Alligator Logo a Cultural Phenomenon

  •     

    Speaker Ellen Kowitt 

    Sunday October 29, 2023 

    10:00 AM to 12:00 PM Mountain Time

    Location:  BMH/BJ 

    Main Foyer to Synagogue 

    560 S Monaco Parkway, Denver, CO 80224

    Refreshments during schmooze time at 9:30

     Bagels and Babka 

    • • • 
          

          Learn about the immigrant orphan David Crystal from Jedwabne, Russian Empire (now Poland) and his garment district success manufacturing clothing for seven decades.  You’ve heard about and maybe worn alligator-logo polo shirts, but The David Crystal Companies were trendsetting in so many ways!  As visible participants in New York City’s Jewish social scene, behind-the scenes drama within this family-run business will entertain and inform how secrets, silence, and storytelling can alter the narrative depending on who’s telling it.

          PLUS:  Tips from the Trenches:  Researching, Writing and Producing a Family History 

          Ellen’s story producing a family history book that involved extensive research, narrative writing, and production.  Learn how she pulled all elements together to identify themes and built a very large family tree through interviews with extended family and business employees, utilizing  Ancestry.com, newspapers, JewishGen, JRI-Poland, the Polish State Archives, Historical Vital Records NYC, professional genealogists in Poland and Canada, Russian-language translators, a citation expert, a production partner to assist with proofreading, layout, design, cleaning up images, generating an idea, and more!

          
          

          Bio:  Ellen Kowitt is a past president of JGSCO and current volunteer Director of the JewishGen USA Research Division.  She publishes articles in Family Tree Magazine, lectures Frequently, and condo t professional genealogy work.  As founder and principal genealogist at Sole Searching Genealogy & Historical Research, Ellen specializes in American records and Jewish ancestry.  She received her B.A. from Alfred University and spent twenty-five years working in marketing management and communications before transitioning into full-time research.  Ellen has completed ProGen and several genealogical institutes and she i a member of the Colorado Chapter of Association of Professional Genealogists.  Originally from New York, Ellen rises in Erie, Colorado with her Israeli-born husband and two teenage daughter.  For more information, visit  www.EllenKowitt.com

           
          

        This event is open to everyone at no charge 
        

        Everyone must register at JGSCO.org

  This event will not be recorded 

  
  

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• The Jewish Auraria Tour

  • When
    November 16, 2023
  •  
    11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    The Gold Meir House

  Register

  
  

  

  
  

  The Jewish Auraria Tour

  Thursday November 16, 2023

  11:00 AM In Person 

  Non Members are invited

  
  

  Join the Jewish Geneology Society and Lena Fishman, Executive Director of the Golda Meir House, for a unique Jewish Auraria 1 hour walking tour. The tour will include engaging stories about the Jewish pioneers who helped to establish the Town of Auraria, the history of the congregation from one of Denver’s oldest synagogues, and interesting connections between the Denver skyline and the Yom Kippur War. This area is now the oldest restored residential area in the city of Denver.

  
  

  Driving Directions: 
  

  Use ‘800 Curtis’ in Google/Apple Maps to find Holly Lot on 7^th and Curtis. Park in Holly Lot and make sure to pay for parking.

  The museum is located on the North-East Corner of Holly Lot next to the large historic Catholic Church. (DO NOT LEAVE THE PARKING LOT TO FIND GOLDA … THE SITS ON THE PARKING LOT!)

  Do not try to get the Golda Museum via 9^th st! Cars are not able to drive on 9th st!)

  Call with questions: 303-475-9964

  Golda’s Jewish Auraria Tour – Meet on the back courtyard of the Golda Museum.  

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• Researching Your Lithuanian Roots With Barry Halpern

  • When
    December 17, 2023
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    ZOOM

  Register

  
  

  
  

   Researching Your Lithuanian Roots
  

  

  With Barry Halpern 

  Sunday December 17th 2023 

  Program 10 AM to 12 PM Mountain Time
  

  9:30 AM to 10 AM Schmear, Schmooze, and Share

  On ZOOM 

  There are several primary sources for Litvak genealogy research.  LitvakSIG is the primary source with more than 2.5 million Lithuanian  Jewish record translations freely available.  Barry Halpern will offeran overview of the LitvakSIG (Special Interest Group) database andwebsite including the "All Lithuania Database", as well as otherimportant sources. The presentation will detail the best ways to use Litvak databases to achieve optimum results and to enhance yourknowledge of your Litvak family information. It will also include tipsfor determining what records are available, for understanding searchresults, and for accessing information in search results. Thepresentation will also cover other resources such as JewishGen, the USHolocaust Memorial Museum, MyHeritage, etc.

  
  Bio:
  Barry Halpern first began seriously researching his family's genealogy
  when he retired to Boulder, Colorado in 2008.  With his four Litvak
  grandparents and his Lithuanian born father, he became heavily
  involved with the JGSCO and with LitvakSIG.  He has served on the
  board of LitvakSIG's as well as the JGSCO and currently runs the
  LitvakSIG website.  For the JGSCO, he produced the monthly newsletter
  for about 10 years.  Barry has written two books about his parents,
  the first being "The Three Lives of my Father", published in 2011;
  more recently Barry published a biography of his mother:  "Minnie:
  Stories of My Mother's Life".  Barry and his wife Ellie live full-time
  in Sarasota, Florida, but both were born and raised in the Boston
  area, have  moved dozens of times from state to state and country to
  country.  Their three children and four grandchildren all live in the
  Colorado in the Boulder-Denver area.

  All members and Guests must register!
  

  Members Free

  Guests $5

  Register at JGSCO.org 

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• “What was it like to be a Jewish soldier in Lincoln’s Armies?” Speaker: Adam D. Mendelsohn

  • When
    February 04, 2024
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    ZOOM

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  “What was it like to be a Jewish soldier in Lincoln’s Armies?

  Speaker:  Adam D. Mendelsohn 

  
  

  
  

  Sunday February 4, 2024 
  

  Program 10 AM to 12 PM Mountain Time

  9:30 AM to 10 AM Schmear, Schmooze, and Share

  On ZOOM 

  
  

  Program:  

  The Union army was as diverse as the nation it sought to preserve—a mix of ethnicities and identities—but less accommodating to religious outsiders. This talk will explore the everyday experience of Jewish soldiers in the Union army with a particular focus on their efforts to create community within the ranks. We will also discuss the Shapell Roster, a new database essential for anyone conducting genealogical research into Jewish soldiers during the Civil War.

  Bio

  Adam D. Mendelsohn is Director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Associate Professor and Head of the Department of History at the University of Cape Town. He is the author of Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army (2022).

   

  There will be no handout for this program 

  
  

  All members and Guests must register!

  Members at no charge 

  Guests $5

  Everyone attending must register at JGSCO.org 

  
  

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• Canadian Resources for Jewish Genealogy Speaker Gary Perlman

  • When
    March 03, 2024
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    ZOOM

  Register

   

  

  Presents 

   Canadian Resources for Jewish Genealogy Speaker Gary Perlman
  

  
  

  Sunday March 3, 2024 

  Program 10 AM to 12 PM Mountain Time
  

  9:30 AM to 10 AM Schmear, Schmooze, and Share

  On ZOOM 

  
  

   JGS-Montreal.org Genealogy Dashboard was created to assist searching the most commonly used resourcesfor Jewish genealogy in Montrea It started as a list of resources and is now a tool that lets researchers explore over 50 databaseswith one click per database.This presentation will include a demonstrationof the dashboard and in so doing, introduce many resources for from Canadian Jewish genealogy.

  Bio: Gary Perlman is the JGS-Montreal webmaster and chair of its cemetery committee.He has taken over 100,000 photographs of gravestonesand has helped index about 80,000 records for JOWBR, the JewishGen.org burial registry.  He was the 2020 IAJGS volunteer of the year.

  All members and Guests must register!

  Members at no charge 

  Guests $5

  Everyone attending must register at JGSCO.org 

  
  

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• Unveiling a Hidden Legacy: The Politzer Saga - a Jewish Hungarian story

  • When
    April 07, 2024
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    ZOOM

  Register

  
  

  

  Unveiling a Hidden Legacy:
  

  The  Politzer Saga - a Jewish Hungarian story 

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Author and Speaker Linda Ambrus Broenniman

  Sunday April 7, 2024

  Program 10 AM to 12 PM Mountain Time

  9:30 AM to 10 AM Schmear, Schmooze, and Share

  On ZOOM

  
  

  Program:  A house fire in 2011. The contents of a box that survives become the catalyst for a quest whose seeds were planted in 1983 - the day Linda Ambrus Broenniman learned that her Catholic father was Jewish and what little family history she knew was a lie.

  Searching for truth, Linda pieces together the astonishing story of her Jewish ancestors -- the Politzer family--their remarkable lives lost to her father's secrets. From the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1700s to modern day Hungary and America, she finds her family: doctors and lawyers, entrepreneurs and industrialists, writers and musicians, artists and art collectors. She learns of their resilience in surviving religious persecution, wars, epidemics, and economic upheavals. Finding her roots brings Linda a new sense of who she is and a peace that now she can honor the memories of her family.

  In helping Linda find her family, András Gyekiczki wrote, “I hardly know any non-fiction sagas to better exemplify Hungarian Jewish fate of the past 300 years as this Politzer story.”

  Illuminating the destructive power of hatred, dehumanization, and injustice, this powerful story encompasses issues that still echo today. 

  The Politzer Saga is the subject of an Exhibition at the Rumbach Synagogue, Budapest, Hungary.

  
  

  BIo:  Linda Ambrus Broenniman

  Linda grew up in Buffalo, New York. She is the middle child of seven born to Hungarian physicians who survived World War II and started their new life in the U.S. in 1949.

  Linda graduated from Swarthmore College with a BA in psychology and went on to get an MBA from Carnegie Mellon. Several years after graduation, she left mainstream corporate America to follow her path as an entrepreneur. She let her passion for uncovering hidden potential in unexpected places guide her.

  And she allowed this passion to fuel the search for her hidden family.

  Linda lives in Great Falls, Virginia with her husband of 28 years and their dog, Juno.

  All members and Guests must register!

  Members at no charge 

  Guests $5

  Everyone attending must register at JGSCO.org 

  
  

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