CALENDAR
Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland

Judith G. Cetina

Judith G. Cetina, Ph.D., CA, is the Cuyahoga County Archivist 

Daniel Horowitz

Daniel Horowitz is the Chief Genealogist at MyHeritage.com

Susan Hyman

A new database compiled by the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland's Commission on Cemetery Preservation. A dozen volunteers, some of them from the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland, spent about six years compiling some 71,000 records of burials in 14 Jewish cemeteries and in Jewish sections at two other cemeteries.

Joni Mihelich

The Genealogy Specialist at the Fairview Park Branch of the Cuyahoga County Library discussed the genealogy resources available at that library by using a case study.

Cynthia Spikell

Our own Cynthia Spikell exposed some common assumptions, myths, and mistakes in doing Jewish family research and told how to avoid and overcome them.

Roma Baran

Ms. Baran described -- with photos, documents and maps -- how she systematically reconstructed her past over the last year. She focused on the Galizianer side of her family, and included her new research on her father's Warsaw family. She traced her parents' war-time escape from the Przemysl ghetto to Tarnawa, Krakow, and other towns, and their post-war journeys to Israel and Canada. She also examined the emotional consequences of uncovering family secrets of staggering proportions.

Roma Baran, producer, engineer, musician, attorney, grew up in Montreal, and has lived in New York City since 1976. She has produced many albums, in the US, Canada and Europe. For 12 years, she produced most of Laurie Anderson's recorded work, from "O Superman" which shot to the top of the British pop charts, to Grammy-nominated "Strange Angels," and, most recently worked on Anderson's soon-to-be-released "Homeland." With co-producer Vivian Stoll, she has produced two Grammy-nominated albums for artist Rosalie Sorrels, and won 2006 CFMA Best Canadian Folk Album award for a CD with Canadian artist Penny Lang. She has also worked on a number of film soundtracks as composer, sound designer, and music producer, from Lizzie Borden's "Working Girls" to "Jonathan Demme's "Swimming to Cambodia." She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary for producing "Bernard Herrmann: Music for the Movies." As an attorney, she specializes in forensic audio, and has represented many indigent criminal defendants.

Jerry Kliot

Jerry shared his impressions of the convention and gave an overview including highlights of films, live theater, history, research techniques, and writing family history.

Jerry Kliot is a long time member of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland and has served the organization in multiple positions, including Board of Directors. He is an active member of North East Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogical Society (NEOCAG).

Richard Spector

Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland member, Richard Spector, presented "Researching Eastern European Archives". Contrary to common impression, there are huge numbers of family records in archive locations in Eastern Europe. These archives contain more than 100,000,000 names, some going back 300 years. New records useful to genealogists are being discovered every day. Although some of these records are available on the Internet, the majority must be accessed in other ways. This presentation provided an overview of some of the available Eastern European sources of family information, how to research these sources, and what they can contribute to your family tree.

Richard Spector, immediate past president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland, has been pursuing genealogy for over a decade and has a special interest in DNA. He has traced his family tree from c. 1725 to the present, including two lines going back 300 years, making his grandchildren the 11th generation of his tree.

Judge Raymond L. Pianka and Jonathon Holoday

This was a presentation about the community based renovation of the Fir Street Cemetery by the major forces behind the renovation.

Jonathon Holody is Chair of the Lorain to Fir Block Club, a board member of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, and works for the Cuyahoga County Department of Development. He and his family live on Fir Street across from the cemetery and has a keen interest in preservation having restored his own home. He was a leader in the renovation of the Fir Street Cemetery

Jonathan is a Program Officer with the Cuyahoga County Department of Development. In 2009, he joined the department’s Housing Division to assist in the administration of nearly $20 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds. Prior to that he worked in the Economic Development and Brownfield divisions.

He holds a Master of Urban Planning, Design and Development degree from Cleveland State University and a Bachelor of Public Administration degree from Ohio University, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Growth Capital Corporation, Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization and The Peninsula Valley Historic and Education Foundation.

Ray Pianka is the presiding and administrative judge of The Cleveland Municipal Court's Housing Division, and a former City of Cleveland Councilman.  Judge Pianka is committed to the making Cleveland Housing Court serve the community with innovative programs while administrating the fair and impartial justice the law requires.  A lifelong resident of the City of Cleveland, Judge Pianka was educated in the Cleveland public school system and received his Bachelors degree in Political Science from Cleveland State University. He earned his Juris Doctorate from the Cleveland Marshall College of Law.

Prior to taking the bench, Judge Pianka was the first Director of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization for 10 years, founding member of Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition and President for 2 years and he served as councilman of Cleveland’s Ward 17 for ten years.

Judge Pianka began serving as the City’s Housing Court Judge in 1996. During the past fourteen years, Judge Pianka has instituted several innovative programs, including a Selective Intervention Program for first time offenders in the Housing Court, a Warrant Capias Program to eliminate an inherited backlog of outstanding warrants and capiases, and a Placarding Program designed to provide information to neighborhood residents regarding the legal status of vacant and abandoned property. In addition to these programs, the Judge has called for hearing dockets in which corporations served with the process required by law and having failed to appear are tried in absentia.   In 2007, Judge Pianka ran for Housing Court Judge unopposed and was also given an “Excellent” rating by all Bar Associations.

His private interests are historical research, genealogy, and use of DNA for genealogical research.

Maury Feren

Maury is a well known Community Fixture, with a Radio and TV career and expertise in Foods. He is active in many Jewish organizations, and a physical fitness buff. The old neighborhood acame to life during his talk.

Ken Bravo

Ken is President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland, and spoke on how to use basic tools to find the names of your ancestors when they came to the USA, and when those names changed to their current forms. Ken showed examples of cases where he found that the popular theory that clerks at Ellis Island changed names of new immigrants is false.

John Stoika

John is a Past President of the Cuyahoga Valley Genealogical Society(CVGS), a Member of the Computer Assisted Genealogy Group (CAGG), and a Member of the Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS). He gave a presentation on the Family Tree Maker computer database program, and how it, and similar commercially available programs, can assist genealogists in their record keeping.

Richard Spector

Richard is Immediate Past President of Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland

Presented by the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland

Ken Bravo, President Jewish Genealogy Society
and
Cynthia Spikell, Editor of the Kol

This special workshop featured Wi-Fi internet and access to Ancestry.com, which will be available (for the first 20 registrants) if they brought their own Wi-Fi enabled laptop.

The program was free to paid up JGSC members and $15 for non-members. Non-members could have their fee applied to membership but no later than the conclusion of the program.

Daniel Horowitz,

Daniel is the Chief Genealogist and Translation Manager at MyHeritage.com, a Board Member and Webmaster of the Israel Genealogical Society (IGS) and a Member of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS)

Lois Wheeler

Lois is a member of The Lakewood Photographic Society, The Ohio Genealogical Society, the Ashland County Chapter Ohio Genealogical Society, and the East Cuyahoga Genealogical Society.

Sean Martin

Sean is the Associate Curator for Jewish History at the Western Reserve Historical Society

Ken Bravo and Gary Silverstein

Ken is the President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland , and Gary is a past Program Chairman of the Society.

Ken and Gary will discuss what types of "Stone Walls" can cause problems that stop your research, and how to solve those problems by going through, over, around, and under those walls. Members and other attendees should come to the meeting prepared with the challenges that have stopped them from going further in their research, and solutions they have found for past problems.

Cynthia Turk

Cynthia is a member of the Computer Aided Genealogy Group - Cleveland Area, the Ohio Genealogical Society, the Columbiana County Genealogical Society, and the East Cuyahoga County Genealogical Society. She has also served as Chairman of the Lake County Cemetery Inscriptions Project.

Sally Wertheim

Sally will discuss "Remembering: Cleveland's Jewish Voices", which was recently published by KSU Press. Sally was the co-editor of the book, and is also a former President of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. She is Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of the History of Education at John Carroll University. Attendees will have the opportunity to purchase the book the evening of the program.

Steve Luxenberg

Steve is a Washington Post associate editor and award-winning author who has worked for more than 30 years as a newspaper editor and reporter.

His award-winning nonfiction book, Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret, has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and in Parade Magazine. It was named to The Washington Post’s Best Books of 2009 list, and chosen as a Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan. The former president of the National Genealogical Society, Jan Alpert, called Annie’s Ghosts a “great non-fiction read for genealogists.”

Signed copies of his book will be available for purchase at the meeting.

Ellen Cassedy

Ms. Cassedy, who lives in suburban Washington, DC, has explored the world of the Lithuanian Holocaust in the land of her Jewish forebears for ten years. Her work has been published in Hadassah, The Forward, Lilith, and other publications. She is a former columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and the author of two books for working women. Her play, “Beautiful Hills of Brooklyn,” was made into an award-winning film.

Ellen Cassedy

Ms. Cassedy, who lives in suburban Washington, DC, has explored the world of the Lithuanian Holocaust in the land of her Jewish forebears for ten years. Her work has been published in Hadassah, The Forward, Lilith, and other publications. She is a former columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and the author of two books for working women. Her play, “Beautiful Hills of Brooklyn,” was made into an award-winning film.

Her new book is "We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust" (University of Nebraska Press, 2012).

Richard Spector

Richard Spector, a Trustee and past president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland, has been pursuing genealogy for over a decade and has a special interest in DNA. He has traced his family tree from c. 1725 to the present, including two lines going back 300 years, making his grandchildren the 11th generation of his tree.

Ken Bravo

Ken is the Immediate Past President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland.