Area Events: FREE "Jews in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Polish Republics" - February 16, 2012

This message is being shared for our friends at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles. For more information, please contact Pamela Weisberger, Program Chair, JGSLA, pweisberger@gmail.com

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles invites you to join us for "The Jews in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Polish Republics: Discontinuity and Reinvention” with speaker: Konstanty Gebert

Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Skirball Cultural Center ~ Magnin Auditorium
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90049

For much of contemporary history, Poland, home to the world's, and then Europe's, largest Jewish population, did not exist as an independent country. The two periods of foreign occupation separate what is known as the three Polish republics. In each republic the Jews perceived themselves, and were treated, very differently: as an indigenous social caste, as an alien ethno-religious minority, and as equal citizens. The republics, too, were fundamentally different countries, in terms of political system, demography and borders. Furthermore, developments in the periods of foreign occupation (the onset of modernity, the Shoah) were crucial for Polish Jewry. In this sense one can say that, as Poland periodically had to reinvent itself, so did Polish Jews: with fundamental consequences for Jewish identity and fate.

Konstanty Gebert is board member of the Taube Centre for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland and an international reporter and columnist at “Gazeta Wyborcza”, Poland’s biggest daily. He was a democratic opposition activist in the Seventies, when he was also an organizer of the Jewish Flying University, and an underground journalist in the Eighties under martial law. He is the founder of the Polish Jewish intellectual monthly Midrasz, and board member of Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. He has taught in Poland, Israel and the US and has written books on the Polish democratic transformation and on French policy toward Poland, the Yugoslav wars and the wars of Israel, Torah commentary and post-war Polish Jewry.

Mr. Gebert will be introduced by the Honorable Joanna Kozińska-Frybes, Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles.

Co-sponsored by UCLA’s Center for Jewish Studies & the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles. Free to all. Traveling Library opens at 7:00 PM.

For more program details and directions go to http://jgsla.org/meetings/upcoming/february-16-2012-jews-in-the-1st-2nd-and-3rd-polish-republics-discontinuity-and-reinvention

Pamela Weisberger
Program Chair, JGSLA
pweisberger@gmail.com

Area Event: JGSCV Assisted Research at LA Family History Library

Our good friend, Schelly Dardsashti, posted a notice about the Jewish Genealogical Society of Conejo Valley's "assisted research" event on Sunday, March 6, at the Los Angeles Family History Library.

According to the post, this special program runs from 1-5pm, at the library, 10741 Santa Monica Blvd. West Los Angeles. Parking is free. It is open only to current paid JGSCV members, although anyone may join or renew memberships at the door.

Experienced JGSCV members and Family History Library volunteers will be available to help attendees get the most out of the library's resources, including computer assistance with popular genealogical databases including Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, Heritage Quest, World Vital Records, Godfrey Memorial Library on-line resources and more.

For more information, visit the JGSCV website.

FREE Microfilm Readers Available

We received this email from our friends at the Jewish Genealogy Society of Los Angeles, which is hosting this year's International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies. The conference will be held July 11-16 at the brand-new JW Marriott in downtown Los Angeles.

"My name is Barbara Algaze and I am a member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles. We have obtained about 10 microfilm readers from the Laguna Nigel branch of the National Archives when they moved to their new location. We will be using the readers during our upcoming conference at the LA Live, JW Marriot Hotel July 11th through July 16th. However, when the conference is over, we will no longer need these machines.

They will be available at no cost - they just need to be picked up at the hotel on Friday, July 16th."

Please contact Barbara directly if you are interested.

Barbara Algaze
IAJGS Conference Resource Room chair
Algaze3@gmail.com