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The Weekly News Nosh – September 1, 2024

Sep 1, 2024 | Nosh

News About Jewish Genealogy, Jewish History, and Jewish Culture

Editor: Phil Goldfarb, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA [email protected] 

  1. Alien Attack: Get Your Relatives’ AR-2s! Many people, especially women, who came to America in the first half of the twentieth century, never naturalized, for a variety of reasons.  If they were still alive and non-citizens in 1940 (or if they weren’t sure if they were citizens), the Alien Registration Act of 1940 compelled them to register their status by filling out a form called the AR-2. Read more from her website and thanks to Lara Diamond for this information: Lara’s Jewnealogy: Alien Attack: Get Your Relatives’ AR-2s! (larasgenealogy.blogspot.com)
  2. Fold 3 Collection Highlight: WWII Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954 If you are researching military personnel who served during WWII, the WWII Hospital Admission Card Files are an often-overlooked resource that can provide details about injuries received during WWII and the Korean War. This collection contains records for some 5.3 million patients, mostly US Army personnel, treated at Army facilities between 1942 and 1954. Read more from their blog: Collection Highlight: WWII Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954 – Fold3 HQFold3 HQ NOTE: The Hospital Admission cards can also be found on Ancestry as well as Fold 3.
  3. New Update for Theory of Family Relativity™ MyHeritage just announced that they have just updated the data for Theory of Family Relativity™, adding millions of new theories to help you uncover how you’re related to your DNA Matches. Theory of Family Relativity™ is a groundbreaking feature that can save you hours of work trying to understand your connection to your DNA Matches. It utilizes the MyHeritage huge database of 49 million family trees and 20.8 billion historical records to provide you with plausible theories about how you and your DNA Matches are related. You can read more about the update in the blog post
  4. FamilyTreeDNA Match Download Files are Back. FamilyTreeDNA has resumed their match file downloads, making FamilyTreeDNA the only major company that provides this important feature. You can now download a file of all of your matches and for autosomal DNA, where they match you on your chromosomes, a critical function for genealogists. Read more from DNA Explained: FamilyTreeDNA Match Download Files are Back! | DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy (dna-explained.com)
  5. New Genealogy Forms for The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). New edition for most forms dated April 1,2024 as USCIS will NO longer accept prior editions of their forms. Genealogy Index Search Request form G-1041 may be found at: https://www.uscis.gov/g-1041 The genealogy request form G-1041A may be found at: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/g-1041a.pdf. See: https://www.uscis.gov/g-1041a Thanks to Jan Meisels Allen Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee for this information.
  6. The Holocaust Reunion Project. Linking Holocaust Survivors with lost family, the newly relaunched Holocaust Reunion Project reconnects families shattered by the Shoah. Offering Free DNA tests and genealogical consultations to the survivor community. Co-Founders and Lead Genealogists Jennifer Mendelsohn and Adina Newman remain committed to providing free DNA testing and consultation to survivors and their children, making use of cutting-edge technology to restore family connections severed by the Holocaust and empowering the Jewish community to reclaim their history through a variety of educational efforts. Read more from their website: Linking Holocaust Survivors with lost family | The Holocaust Reunion Project – The Holocaust Reunion Project (holocaustreunions.org)
  7. In a related story…‘We’re all scarred in different ways’: The next generation of Holocaust testimony. What happens when there are no longer Holocaust survivors to share their first-person testimony? As survivors die, their descendants are finding new ways to keep their stories alive. A recent study estimated that 245,000 survivors are still living, half of them in Israel and 16% in the United States. Their median age is 86. Read more from The Forward: How younger generations tell their family’s Holocaust stories – The Forward
  8. New downloadable brochure guide to Jewish heritage in eastern Slovakia. The 44-page brochure, available in PDF in English and Slovak,  is amply illustrated with photos and drawings and provides information and brief histories of selected synagogues, Jewish cemeteries, memorials, and other sites in more than half a dozen towns and cities.  Read more from Jewish Heritage Europe: https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2024/08/27/slovakia-heritage/
  9. Kahina: The Jewish Warrior-Queen of North Africa. By the late seventh century, the only thing standing between the Arab forces and the Atlantic Ocean was a Jewish warrior-queen. An interesting historical read from Aish: Kahina: The Jewish Warrior-Queen of North Africa – Aish.com
  10. Influential Jewish Women at the Ottoman Court. At the height of the Ottoman Empire, behind the scenes Jewish women yielded great power. Some of the women managed to acquire power and influence over the sultans, to the extent that historians named the time period between 1534 to 1683 the “Women’s Sultanate.” Read more from Aish: Influential Jewish Women at the Ottoman Court – Aish.com
  11. The Great Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902. How a group of Yiddish-speaking women forced monopolists to lower beef prices. Over a century ago, The New York Times cautioned its readers about a “dangerous class” of women who were “very ignorant,” who “mostly speak a foreign language,” and who were stirring up trouble in the city, protesting the status quo. These “dangerous” women were Yiddish-speaking, penniless Jews who lived in cramped tenements in New York’s Lower East Side and other poor quarters. Read the story from Aish: The Great Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902 – Aish.com
  12. Before this famous Polish bakery ‘opened’ in 1944, it belonged to a Jewish family killed by the Nazis. On a quiet corner of Furmańska Street, dawn breaks from the oldest bakery in Lublin, announced by a sign: “Kuźmiuk Bakery since 1944.” But another bakery was there before 1944, when Furmańska Street belonged to a historic Jewish quarter of this Polish city. Before the Kuźmiuk Bakery opened that year, and before the Nazis killed 99% of Lublin’s Jews, the best bakery in town served rye bread and onion rolls from within the same walls. It was run by Mordka and Doba Bajtel and their children, a Jewish family entirely erased from the city. Read more from JTA: Before this famous Polish bakery ‘opened’ in 1944, it belonged to a Jewish family killed by the Nazis – Jewish Telegraphic Agency (jta.org)
  13. Jewish Back to School Traditions for a Sweet School Year. Jewish communities around the world have longed marked the important milestone with their own traditions relating to the start of a school year or for acknowledging the beginning of a young child’s educational experience. Read the story from Kveller: Jewish Back to School Traditions for a Sweet School Year – Kveller
  14. Next steps in restoration of medieval Spanish synagogue that survived 1492 expulsion. Historic shul in Hijar has been used as a church for the past 500 years. The synagogue in the province of Aragon, is one of the very few that survived the expulsion in 1492. The vision is transforming the building into a Sephardi Heritage Centre that will present the culture, history and traditions of the remarkable Spanish Jewish community of that time. As a result of recent archaeological work, ancient decorative wall murals have been discovered that have significantly added to the importance of the site. Read more from Jewish News UK. Next steps in restoration of medieval Spanish synagogue that survived 1492 expulsion – Jewish News
  15. Germany Returns Painting Stolen for Hitler’s Museum to Heirs of Jewish Owner. Germany has restituted a painting that was stolen by the Nazis in 1942 from the family of two Jewish brothers and intended to be used in a museum for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The landscape painting “Valley of Mills near Amalfi” (ca. 1830) by the 19th century German artist Carl Blechen was owned by Arthur and Eugen Goldschmidt, who were also art collectors. Read the story from Algemeiner: Germany Returns Painting Stolen for Hitler’s Museum to Heirs of Jewish Owner – Algemeiner.com Germany Returns Painting Stolen for Hitler’s Museum to Heirs of Jewish Owner
  16. Ancient tombs with vibrant wall paintings open to public in southern Israel. Two nearly 2,000-year-old tombs with magnificent wall paintings will be open to the public for the first time in southern Israel after a painstaking conservation process. Ashkelon, which is located around 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the Gaza Strip, has a rich history of archaeology. In addition to the Romans, the city was also home to Philistines during the early Iron Age, around 3,000 years ago. Read more from AP News: Ancient tombs with vibrant wall paintings open to public in southern Israel | AP News
  17. What Is A Rabbi? The word “rabbi” means “great” or “revered,” and was first used the way some people use titles like “master” or “lord.” The term does not appear until the first century of the common era and is not used in the Hebrew Bible. The concept of the rabbinate—a collective rabbinical body with the power to make decisions and pass decrees—starts in the Second Temple period (350 BCE – 70 CE), with the men of the Great Assembly, and subsequent rabbinical courts. Read the story from Aish: What Is A Rabbi? – Aish.com
  18. The Deeper Meaning of Tallit, the Jewish Prayer Shawl. Exploring the mystical significance of this iconic Jewish emblem. The Jewish prayer shawl, tallit in Hebrew, is one of the most iconic Jewish objects. When we think of Jewish prayer, we think of people praying wrapped in their tallit. Many works of art depict the devout Jew praying and studying, enveloped in it. Many use the tallit as a huppah at their wedding. Read more from Aish: The Deeper Meaning of Tallit, the Jewish Prayer Shawl – Aish.com
  19. The History of Yiddish. Yiddish originated in Germany but was eventually spoken by Jews all over Europe. In its 1,000-plus-year history, the Yiddish language has been called many things, including the tender name mameloshen (mother tongue), the adversarial moniker zhargon (jargon) and the more matter-of-fact Judeo-German. Literally speaking, Yiddish means “Jewish.” Linguistically, it refers to the language spoken by Ashkenazi Jews — Jews from Central and Eastern Europe, and their descendants. Read the story from My Jewish Learning: The History of Yiddish | My Jewish Learning
  20. Speaking of Yiddish…Once a beacon of the Yiddish speaking world, Lithuania’s Jews work to keep it alive. If one city could be said to be the home of Yiddish, the traditional language of Ashkenazi Jewry, many would point to Vilnius, the capital of modern-day Lithuania, where a program hopes to preserve and expand it. Read more from RNS: Once a beacon of the Yiddish speaking world, Lithuania’s Jews work to keep it alive (religionnews.com)
  21. Ancient Seal Featuring Assyrian Demon From First Temple Period Discovered in Jerusalem. A black stone seal-amulet with name ‘LeYehoʼezer ben Hoshʼayahu’ inscribed in paleo-Hebrew shows the cultural influence of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in ancient Judah, archaeologists say. Any seal from that time – about 2,700 years ago – is extremely rare. Read the story from Haaretz: Ancient Seal Featuring Assyrian Demon From First Temple Period Discovered in Jerusalem – Archaeology – Haaretz.com
  22. The Jewish Ukrainian Immigrant who Clothed Elvis, Johnny Cash and Hendrix. Nudie Cohn (originally Nuta Kotlyarenko) was a desperate Jewish immigrant child who fled Ukrainian oppression and made his mark with outlandish rhinestone suits. The list of inspirational Jewish immigrants is a long one. But the improbable story of the Jew who crafted a $10,000 gold lamé jumpsuit for Elvis Presley may be wildest thing you’ll read today. Here is his story from Aish: The Jewish Ukrainian Immigrant who Clothed Elvis, Johnny Cash and Hendrix – Aish.com
  23. Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi sympathies ran deeper than she admitted, a new documentary about the director argues. The Nazi film propagandist Leni Riefenstahl remained a true believer in the party her entire life and may have played an active role in at least one mass slaughter of Jews, according to a new documentary that seeks to upend accepted wisdom about the filmmaker’s complicity in Nazi atrocities. Read more from JTA: Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi sympathies ran deeper than she admitted, a new documentary about the director argues – Jewish Telegraphic Agency (jta.org)
  24. US Postal Service to release ‘Hanukkah Forever’ stamp. A first day-of-issue dedication ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 19 in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the eight-day Jewish “Festival of Lights. It features an ocean-blue background, white hanukkiah and nine floating yellow lights. Read more and see the picture from JNS: US Postal Service to release ‘Hanukkah Forever’ stamp – JNS.org
  25. Americana meets meshuggeneh at a museum exhibit about MAD magazine. ‘What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine’ runs at the Norman Rockwell Museum through October 27, showcasing the periodical’s American satire with Jewish bite. Read the story from The Times of Israel: Americana meets meshuggeneh at a museum exhibit about MAD magazine | The Times of Israel
  26. Finally, Something Different… Inflation in the Lodz Ghetto: An Interactive Experience. Tracing the story of money, and its effects on people, in wartime Lodz. To mark the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto, Tablet is publishing an interactive version of a groundbreaking economic study set inside its gates. This work, by a young scholar named Joshua Blustein, certified the ghetto as one of the 63 examples of hyperinflation in world history. From Tablet magazine, go to: Ghetto Inflation: An Interactive Timeline | Tablet Mag

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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.