Officers & Additional Leadership: July 2025 - June 2026
Click on a person's name to send them email.
Ellen Beller - President (acting)
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Ellen was born and raised on the Jersey Shore. She came to Denver in 1973 to attend the University of Denver. Graduating with a BSBA in Finance she became the first woman sales person for Samsonite Luggage. At 34 she went back to school to get a design degree as she had been painting since grammar school. She now works in glass. Having lost her mother as a child she knew very little about her family. Her parents were only children so there was no one to ask. A lover of history and a voracious reader researching her genealogy was a natural progression.
Ellen is researching Throne, Lithuania • Claster/ Klajstor, Panevezys Lithuania • Beller, Kolbuszowa and Krakow Poland • Rabinowicz, Krakow Poland • Rozli/ Reki Szyja • Janczalek, Krakow • Bendytz, Krakow Adelung, Krakow • Lipman Adelung, Krakow • Eschelbach, Bavaria • Weckert, Bavaria • Herschfeld, Germany • Borchard, Prussia • Perel/Morel, Krakow • Arndt, Baden-Wurttemberg Germany • Stein, Baden • Steinhardt, Flonheim Rhineland Palatine German • Levi, Herrnsheim Rhineland Palatinate German • Sanders, Germany • Levy, Germany • Hirsch, Mandel Germany • Marx, Zeltingen Rachtig • Baer/Baehr, Wiesbaden Germany • Samuel, Bad Kreuznach Germany • Gumbel, Wiesbaden Germany, and Loewy, Germany |
Bonnee Oderberg - Membership VP
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Bonnee
Shafner Oderberg began her professional career 50 years ago at the
Colorado Department of Health, Office of Tuberculosis Control. She
tracked active TB patients by county, ensured their treatment, and
compiled the annual statistical publication. For the past 19 years, she
has served as a practice manager in geriatric primary care. Bonnee is
passionate about research, especially all things medical or Jewish
genealogy-related. She volunteers monthly at the DU Beck Archives,
inputting data for genealogical research of patients who resided at the
JCRS TB sanitarium during the early 1900s. |
Jill Weinstein - Programming VP
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Jill was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. After graduating
the University of Michigan with a Natural Resources degree, she worked
as an environmental consultant helping industry comply with
environmental laws and regulations. Jill has also worked as a technical
editor of chemical databases used by poison control centers and
hazardous waste response teams. Once retired, Jill began doing genealogy
research of her family and has located many cousins she wasn't aware of
while growing up. She also volunteers with the JGSCO at DU Beck
Archives, helping to digitize patient records of the Jewish Consumptive
Relief Society to aid others in their genealogy research. |
Loren Ginsburg - Secretary
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I am almost a third generation Denverite (though I grew up in Lakewood.) My grandparents all came to Denver as children or young adults. Except for college and Law School, I have lived here my whole life. I have spent 40 years as a lawyer in private general practice. Besides general volunteering, my involvement with Jewish Communal life includes terms on the boards of the RMJHS and Temple Sinai. I also taught religious school at Temple Sinai for 15 years. |
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Randy has been researching his family on and off for 20 years, kick-started by a relative who was able to collate over 1000 family members before information was available on the Internet into a 2-inch binder of printed pages. Randy is working hard to understand his family's "vertical genealogy" (ancestors) as well as "horizontal genealogy" (living relatives). The latter has led to many new relationships around the world in both his and his wife's families. |
Elliot Cohen - Director at Large
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Dr. Elliot Cohen has practiced general psychiatry in Colorado Springs for forty years and recently has retired. He was born in Brrooklyn Jewish hospital and raised in Silver Spring Maryland. He matriculated at the University of Maryland for his undergraduate degree in psychology, and his medical degree at the Baltimore campus of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. After medical school and an internship in Honolulu, Hawaii he served as a general medical officer in the U.S. Navy for six years, followed by seven years as a psychiatrist in the U.S. Army which brought him to Ft. Carson in Colorado. His passion for genealogy began in 1977, while serving in Europe, he visited his ancestral village in Checiny, Poland. In addition, he has supported the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. for twenty five years, in memory of the mother tongue of his ancestors. |
Gail Marcus - Past President
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Gail Marcus is a second generation Coloradan who traces her maternal family to the Cotopaxi Colony and her paternal family to JCRS. She served as President of JGSCO from 2013 - 2015 and continues to serve on the board as a past president. Gail is a retired French teacher who sits on the North Side High School Alumni Association Board as vice-president and is a precinct organizer for the Denver Democrats. |
Open - Mentoring Requests
Open - Carpools
Ellen Beller - Communications
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Ellen was born and raised on the Jersey Shore. She came to Denver in 1973 to attend the University of Denver. Graduating with a BSBA in Finance she became the first woman sales person for Samsonite Luggage. At 34 she went back to school to get a design degree as she had been painting since grammar school. She now works in glass. Having lost her mother as a child she knew very little about her family. Her parents were only children so there was no one to ask. A lover of history and a voracious reader researching her genealogy was a natural progression.
Ellen is researching Throne, Lithuania • Claster/ Klajstor, Panevezys Lithuania • Beller, Kolbuszowa and Krakow Poland • Rabinowicz, Krakow Poland • Rozli/ Reki Szyja • Janczalek, Krakow • Bendytz, Krakow Adelung, Krakow • Lipman Adelung, Krakow • Eschelbach, Bavaria • Weckert, Bavaria • Herschfeld, Germany • Borchard, Prussia • Perel/Morel, Krakow • Arndt, Baden-Wurttemberg Germany • Stein, Baden • Steinhardt, Flonheim Rhineland Palatine German • Levi, Herrnsheim Rhineland Palatinate German • Sanders, Germany • Levy, Germany • Hirsch, Mandel Germany • Marx, Zeltingen Rachtig • Baer/Baehr, Wiesbaden Germany • Samuel, Bad Kreuznach Germany • Gumbel, Wiesbaden Germany, and Loewy, Germany |
Glenn Ginsburg - Webmaster
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Glenn was born and raised in the Greater Boston area. He graduated
from Bentley University in Waltham, MA. with a Bachelor of Science
Degree in Accounting. Glenn upon graduation worked for Peat, Marwick
& Mitchell one of the largest international CPA firms. Since leaving
Peat, Marwick and Mitchell, he has worked in various accounting
positions both in the for-profit and not for profit companies. In 1983,
he was honored to be listed In Marquis’s Who’s Who in Business and
Finance. He has served in local, state, regional, and national positions
within professional organizations. Glenn changed career in 1996 and
founded A Delta Realty of Naples, Inc. Realizing the opportunity the
Internet presented he expanded his previous computer programming
experiences to the various programming languages and techniques needed
to succeed on the Internet. Glenn’s interest in Genealogy started with
family stories about his great grandmother killed during a pogrom, and
he wanted to discover if there any relatives he is not aware of, died
during the Shoah or a survivor of the Holocaust. |
For general information about JGSCO, please email the general mailbox
JOIN USThe Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado (JGSCO) is a leader in education, research, information exchange forums, and resources for Jewish genealogy. | Mailing AddressJewish Genealogical Society of Colorado Email: info@jgsco.org |
