News About Jewish Genealogy, Jewish History, and Jewish Culture
Editor: Phil Goldfarb, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
- MyHeritage DNA Kits are now on sale for $29.00! This is the lowest price that they have ever offered. This is a great opportunity for anyone who hasn’t tested yet to discover the power of DNA. To read more: DNA Test Kit – Uncover Your Ethnic Origins & Ancestry – MyHeritage
- Are You Using Or Want To Try Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Genealogy? Chat GPT 5 just came out. The 7 best new GPT-5 features to try right away | Mashable Some differences between Chat GPT 4 verses 5: GPT-5 vs GPT-4: I tested both with 7 prompts — here’s which one gave better answers | Tom’s Guide
- FamilySearch New Free Historical Records: August 2025 Update. FamilySearch recently expanded its free online collections with more than 13 million new historical records from 6 countries. Some exciting additions include nearly 6 million more civil registrations (birth, marriage, and death records) from Italy, 2 million new records from the United States. Read more in the FamilySearch Newsroom.
- Library of Congress Unveils Major Upgrades to Chronicling America Website. The Library of Congress has launched a significant upgrade to its Chronicling America website, the nation’s leading free resource for historical U.S. newspapers. Read more from their website: PREVIEW Introduction – Chronicling America: A Guide for Researchers – Research Guides at Library of Congress
- Ukraine Research Division Reaches 4 Million Record Mark! New Records Added: 100,691 historical records (birth, marriage, death, census) from 1815-1920 Towns included: Kamenka, Kerch, Yalta, Simferopol, Korostishev, Romni, Lutsk, Orekhov and more. See what has been added since 2022: Cumulative Ukraine Research Report – Google Sheets
- LitvakSIG announces that batch 27 of the Vilnius household registers is now available to qualified contributors. After about 18 months, batch 27 will be added to LitvakSIG’s free, searchable, All Lithuania Database. Batches 1-20, over 100,000 records, are already in the ALD. The registers were created between 1919 and 1940 when Wilno (Vilnius) city and Wilno voivodeship were part of Poland. More information about the Vilnius household registers can be found on the VHR home page, https:com/VHR-Home
- Jacobi Papers: Individual Family Chapters Available For First Time. The International Institute for Jewish Genealogy (IIJG) and Paul Jacobi Center are offering the entire corpus of the encyclopedic four volume set of Jacobi Papers as individual family chapter e-books, which can be read and kept on any device. To guide genealogists, there is a freely available, comprehensive surname index for the four volumes. Surname-Index-and-the-Short-Index.pdf They are available on Amazon.
- How to Find an Obituary for a Specific Person. If you need to find an obituary for a specific person, there is a good chance that you can find it online. In this post, learn how to find obituaries. From Who are You Made Of: How to Find an Obituary for a Specific Person – Who are You Made Of?
- The Mysterious Jews of Elephantine Island. On a fortress in the middle of the Nile, an ancient Jewish community navigated the crosscurrents of tradition and assimilation. Beginning in the 6th or 5th century BCE, Jewish soldiers lived on Elephantine as part of the Persian military garrison. Read more from Aish: The Mysterious Jews of Elephantine Island | Aish
- Tattooed Together in Auschwitz. Two brothers clung to faith, hope, and each other—through ghettos, death marches, and decades of separation. Read their story from Aish: Tattooed Together in Auschwitz | Aish
- Relatives of Nazi victims and sympathizers join forces for powerful new exhibit on looted property. Property today worth at least £135 billion was looted from Jews in Europe between 1938 and 1945. Descendants of Nazi sympathizers and victims of the Nazi era have worked together to platform the past in an extraordinary new exhibition at the Wiener Holocaust Library. Read more from Jewish News UK: Relatives of Nazi victims and sympathisers join forces for powerful new exhibit on looted property – Jewish News
- The Jewish Boxing Champion Who Took On The Nazis. From the ring to the battlefield to the depths of addiction, Barney Ross never forgot what he was fighting for. Born Dov-Ber Rasofsky in 1909, Barney Ross grew up on the rough streets of Chicago, the son of a Torah-observant immigrant family. His father, a gentle and scholarly rabbi, ran a small grocery store. Read the story from Aish: The Jewish Boxing Champion Who Took On The Nazis | Aish
- The Meaning Behind Different Jewish Hats. Kippah, Streimel, Fez and more — a guide to Jewish headgear. Traditionally, Jewish men have covered their heads for centuries as a sign of reverence and respect for God’s presence above. The origins of Jewish head covering practices are not entirely clear. The Torah says that Aaron, the first high priest, wore a head covering as part of his ceremonial garb. Read more from My Jewish Learning: The Meaning Behind Different Jewish Hats | My Jewish Learning
- Kissing and telling! When did lovers start kissing in ancient Israel? A new study looks to the Bible for clues. Research based on textual analysis traces the rise of ancient Israelites’ snogging to post-exilic times, likely influenced by Babylonian culture. Intimate kissing only became prevalent in Ancient Israel after the Babylonian exile, or in the 6th century BCE. Read the story from The Times of Israel: When did lovers start kissing in ancient Israel? A new study looks to the Bible for clues | The Times of Israel
- Israel Archaeology Quiz: Test Your Knowledge. From lion mosaics in ancient synagogues to 2,000-year-old desert shoes, this fun quiz will challenge your inner Indiana Jones! Take the quiz from Aish: Israel Archaeology Quiz: Test Your Knowledge | Aish
- Talmudic sages participated in ancient Mediterranean wine culture. During the third and fourth centuries C.E., wine production was a major economic driver in the Land of Israel and a key component of local and regional commerce. Read more from JNS: Talmudic sages participated in ancient Mediterranean wine culture – JNS.org
- Rare coin from Year Four of the Great Jewish Revolt discovered in Jerusalem. Archaeologists have discovered a rare 2,000 year old bronze coin minted by Jews in Jerusalem during the final year of rebellion against the Romans before the destruction of the Second Temple. Read more from Jewish News UK: Rare coin from Year Four of the Great Jewish Revolt discovered in Jerusalem – Jewish News
- ‘Abba of Naburya has perished’: Unique 1,900-year-old inscription found in Dead Sea cave. Four-line Aramaic text, one of the few legible inscriptions from the era, may be tied to the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Romans in the 2nd century CE. The words were spotted only inches away from hidden Roman swords. Read the story from The Times of Israel: ‘Abba of Naburya has perished’: Unique 1,900-year-old inscription found in Dead Sea cave | The Times of Israel
- The goal of this NYC Shabbat dinner? Break a world record. Slated for Nov. 21 at The Javits Center, The Big Shabbat aims to put New York’s Jewish community in the Guinness Book of World Records. The current record was set in 2015 in Berlin when 2,322 people gathered. Read more from New York Jewish Week: The goal of this NYC Shabbat dinner? Break a world record. – New York Jewish Week
- Inside one man’s quixotic quest to preserve 200,000 Israeli tchotchkes. Boris Gorbis spent a lifetime scouring garage sales, thrift shops and eBay for discarded souvenirs. Now, he’s determined to secure their future. Read his story from The Forward: Inside one man’s quixotic quest to preserve 200,000 Israeli tchotchkes – The Forward
- In a first-of-its-kind museum, mezuzahs keep memories of pre-war Poland alive. Aleksander Prugar and Helena Czernek collect old imprints of mezuzahs to uncover Jewish history. In 2024, they opened a museum in Warsaw to share what they’ve discovered with the public. Read their story from The Forward: How a mezuzah museum keep memories of pre-war Poland alive – The Forward
- Superman comes home: Cleveland unveils long-awaited Man of Steel tribute plaza. Of course, the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were both Jewish. Read more from Cleveland.com: Superman comes home: Cleveland unveils long-awaited Man of Steel tribute plaza (photos) – cleveland.com
- How a Jewish mother from Flatbush became America’s most recognizable Italian on TV. For Levy’s Rye and Alka-Seltzer, you didn’t have to be Italian to play Italian — and Fran Lopate definitely wasn’t. Read a great cultural story from The Forward: How Philip and Leonard Lopate’s mother became an Italian TV star – The Forward
- Jscreen, Manischewitz launch ‘Deli in DNA’ to raise awareness on genetic diseases and cancers. Timed for back-to-school and Tay-Sachs Awareness Month, the campaign highlights the importance of genetic screening in the Jewish community. The initiative highlights the risks specific to Jewish genetics and how genetic testing can help save lives. Read more from JNS: Jscreen, Manischewitz launch ‘Deli in DNA’ to raise awareness on genetic diseases and cancers – JNS.org
- The new Borscht Belt? More Jewish professionals are making the Berkshires a summer home. A new Chabad house is the latest sign of a metamorphosis in western Massachusetts as Jews are increasingly drawn to this modern, highbrow version of the Catskills. Actor Zero Mostel is said to have called the Catskills the “circumcised Berkshires.” For the generation that still remembers the Catskill resorts and bungalow colonies, the Berkshires have become the Borscht Belt with a graduate degree. Read the story from The Times of Israel: The new Borscht Belt? More Jewish professionals are making the Berkshires a summer home | The Times of Israel
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About The Weekly News Nosh
The Weekly News Nosh contains news about Jewish Genealogy, Jewish History and Jewish Culture. The Nosh is published on Sundays and distributed by the L’Dor V’Dor Foundation on its website and social media platforms. “A Family Without The Understanding Of Their Past History, Foundation And Ethnicity Is Like A Tree Without Roots.” Subscribe to receive future announcements.