News About Jewish Genealogy, Jewish History, and Jewish Culture
Editor: Phil Goldfarb, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Editor’s Note: This newsletter marks the start of the third year of the Weekly News Nosh. It has always been my intent to keep this newsletter free of charge, fun, educational, unbiased, independent and without interference, non-political, and continue to include information, news, announcements, articles, tidbits, trivia and resources that you can simply “nosh” on what interests you and is gathered from sources around the world.
So…enjoy this week’s Nosh!
- Have You Heard of DoJR…The Documentation of Jewish Records Worldwide? The L’Dor V’Dor Foundation is building JCat, the world’s most comprehensive catalog of historical documents of Jewish lives. Did you know that 77% of people who identify as Jewish have interest in knowing their ancestors? Discovering ancestors and their stories requires finding the records that document their lives. Only 15% of existing records have been identified — fewer still are easily searched. DoJR will discover and inventory in JCat the 85% unknown records, often hidden-in-plain-sight and the majority not labeled Jewish. They have the potential to become one of the great Jewish Genealogy sites in the future and a site that you should be aware of! Read more from their website: DoJR – L’Dor V’Dor Foundation (LDVDF) To subscribe to their updates for free, go to Subscribe – L’Dor V’Dor Foundation (LDVDF).
- MyHeritage Announces New Collaboration with FamilyTreeDNA. This collaboration, which includes integration between the MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA websites, enables FamilyTreeDNA customers to transfer their family trees to MyHeritage, and to continue building them on MyHeritage. Read more from their blog: New Collaboration with FamilyTreeDNA – MyHeritage Blog
- S. National Archives To Have Digital Access to Morning Report of Army Units Final Year of WWII. These will offer descriptions of unit locations, award nominations and soldier personnel movements. All records will be available to the public and were not previously available online. Using the reports, researchers can track a veteran from the date that they joined a particular unit to the date that they left it. Once this round of records is transferred to a digital format, full sets of morning reports from 1944 through 1946 will be available online. Once the process is complete, the records will be available to access through the National Archive website https://www.archives.gov/. Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/history/2024-07-15/army-records-national-archives-morning-reports-14494497.html Thanks to Jan Meisels Allen Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee for this story
- The Genetic Origins of the Jews of Kaifeng, China: Preliminary Findings. The Avotaynu DNA Project announced that its advanced genetic testing of men from the Bukhari and Kurdish Jewish communities has unexpectedly shed light on the origins of the ancient Jewish community of Kaifeng, China. The Jewish community in Kaifeng, greatly diminished by centuries of assimilation, has a unique and fascinating history that has intrigued scholars, historians, and researchers for centuries. Read the story: The Genetic Origins of the Jews of Kaifeng, China: Preliminary Findings (avotaynuonline.com)
- Who Was Josephus? The Controversial Backstory of the Famed Historian. Scholars and students of ancient Israel are heavily indebted to a Jewish historian named Josephus. Born Yosef ben Matityahu to an aristocratic family of Kohanim around the year 37 CE, he lived through one of the most tumultuous centuries in Jewish history, culminating in the disastrous Roman-Jewish war of 66-74 CE and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, events he recorded in his many books in great detail and gripping prose. Read the story from Aish: Who Was Josephus? The Controversial Backstory of the Famed Historian – Aish.com
- Forgotten in a coconut field, an 800-year-old tombstone expands India’s Jewish history. Identified as the oldest Jewish artifact in India, the stone may be evidence of a previously unknown community. Over the centuries, merchant communities of Baghdadi and Sephardic Jews would settle in the subcontinent’s major ports and trading centers. The Sephardic communities became collectively known as Paradesi, meaning foreign Jews. Read the story from Religion News: Forgotten in a coconut field, an 800-year-old tombstone expands India’s Jewish history (religionnews.com)
- Fortifications from biblical Jerusalem unearthed. Archeologists believe they were “intended to protect the city from the north—the only weak point of the City of David slope.” A massive fortification dating back 3,800 years that likely protected the kings of Judah has been uncovered just outside the walled Old City of Jerusalem. Read the story from JNS: Fortifications from biblical Jerusalem unearthed – JNS.org
- Israeli Teen Discovers Ancient Ring Depicting Roman War Goddess While Hiking on Mount Carmel. Experts believes the bronze ring depicts Minerva or Athena and dates back to the Roman period. The settlement on the Carmel forest ridge has been under archaeological investigation for 150 years yet the ring has only now been found. Read the story from Haaretz: Israeli Teen Discovers Ancient Ring Depicting Roman War Goddess While Hiking on Mount Carmel – Archaeology – Haaretz.com
- 3,800-year-old biblical-scarlet textile found in Judean Desert. The color “scarlet worm” is mentioned 25 times in the Bible. One of the ancient world’s most precious dyes, used in the fabrics of the biblical Tabernacle and the priestly garments, has been identified from a textile uncovered in a cave in the Judean Desert. Read the story from JNS: 3,800-year-old biblical-scarlet textile found in Judean Desert – JNS.org
- The Jews of Argentina. Argentina’s Jewish community of more than 200,000 is the largest in Latin America and the seventh largest in the world. But Argentina is also a country where antisemitism is persistent and where the Jewish community has struggled mightily through the economic and political upheavals of the 20th century. Read their story from My Jewish Learning: The Jews of Argentina | My Jewish Learning
- Andorra’s 73 Jews are proud to hold down a tiny community in a tiny country. Wedged between France and Spain is Andorra, where anti-Israel rallies are unheard of, ties with Israel remain strong, and the Jews enjoy prosperous, quiet lives — as long as they don’t officially call their subterranean cultural center a synagogue. Read their story from JTA: Andorra’s 73 Jews are proud to hold down a tiny community in a tiny country – Jewish Telegraphic Agency (jta.org)
- ‘We are proud of the City’s Jewish heritage’: Lord Mayor hosts Kindertransport refugees. Moving event at London’s Mansion House marks 85 years since historic humanitarian rescue mission. Eight Holocaust survivors who found sanctuary in the UK as unaccompanied children, were welcomed to The Lord Mayor’s residence. Read the story from Jewish News UK: ‘We are proud of the City’s Jewish heritage’: Lord Mayor hosts Kindertransport refugees – Jewish News
- Cramped but full of hope: step inside a Jewish flat from 1913. A new Museum of the Home exhibit immerses visitors in the daily life of an East End Jewish family preparing for Shabbos. The main room features Judaica such as candlesticks, a salt-and-pepper set engraved with Hebrew letters, kiddush cups, and a mass-produced Seder plate from the early 1900s. Read more from The Jewish Chronicle: Cramped but full of hope: step inside a Jewish flat from 1913 – The Jewish Chronicle (thejc.com)
- A museum exhibit on Jewish food and humor puts the ‘borscht’ in Borscht Belt. The Catskills, the region in upstate New York flourished as a Jewish getaway from the early 20th century to the 1970s. While the Catskills were about many things, they were also about two big things: food and humor. Both were doled out in abundance: heaps of mostly Ashkenazi cuisine, and gobs of entertainment rooted in Yiddish. Read the story from JTA: A museum exhibit on Jewish food and humor puts the ‘borscht’ in Borscht Belt – New York Jewish Week (jta.org)
- Old Spice. Jews have been using cinnamon since biblical times. Cinnamon is mentioned in several places in the Bible. It was one of the spices that God instructed Moses to use to anoint the Ark of the Covenant and other sacred objects, to signify the holiness of God’s presence. It is also mentioned as one of the gifts that Queen Sheba gave to King Solomon. Read the story from Tablet Magazine: Old Spice – Tablet Magazine
- The Story of “Oy Vey”. Half Hebrew, half Aramaic, this classic lament is all Jewish. Oy vey! also: Oy vavoy! Oy vey iz mir! Oy gevalt! Or quite simply: Oy! is an iconic Jewish expression. The word “oy” (אוי) goes back thousands of years, all the way to the Hebrew Bible. Read more from My Jewish Learning: The Story of “Oy Vey” | My Jewish Learning
- That time Bob Dylan played Elijah the prophet in an underrated western — and did a better job than you might think. Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’ is getting another look with the release of a new DVD box set. Read the story about one of America’s most important and influential Jewish artist from The Forward: That time Bob Dylan played Elijah the prophet in a western – The Forward. Editor Note: Did you know that there is a Bob Dylan Center, and it is truly magnificent: Bob Dylan Center | Tulsa, OK
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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.