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The Weekly News Nosh – April 27, 2025

Apr 27, 2025 | Nosh

News About Jewish Genealogy, Jewish History, and Jewish Culture

Editor: Phil Goldfarb, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

Because of Yom HaShoah, there are quite a few Holocaust stories this week… Phil Goldfarb

  1. Free access to all Australia & New Zealand records for Anzac Day. MyHeritage is offering free access to all Australian and New Zealand records from April 24–29, 2025. With over 2.3 billion records, including WWI soldier portraits, obituaries, and newspaper archives, you can explore the lives of ancestors who served and the communities they came from. The collections are completely free to search and view during this time. All that’s needed is a free MyHeritage account. To access, go to: Oceania Family History Records – MyHeritage
  2. Have you Heard about Transkribus, a Powerful AI Tool for Genealogists? Dive into the world of automated text recognition with Transkribus, a powerful AI tool for genealogists working with historical documents in key languages which are important to the Jewish community such as Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, and more. Transkribus enables you to automatically recognize text easily, edit seamlessly, collaborate effortlessly, and even train your custom AI for digitizing and interpreting historical documents of any form. The L’Dor V’Dor Foundation is using Transkribus in their groundbreaking work for their DoJR (Documentation of Jewish Records Worldwide) and Building JCat, the world’s most comprehensive catalog of historical documents of Jewish lives. To view, go to: DoJR – L’Dor V’Dor Foundation (LDVDF) Read more about Transkribus and try it yourself: Transkribus – Unlocking the past with AI
  3. Vast searchable database reveals the records sitting in boxes at former USSR archives. For almost two years, a large group of volunteers has been working hard to get the most revealing look at what is available at archives in Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and other areas of the former USSR. After more than 28,000 hours of work that still continues, more than 2.2 million fonds (record sets) can be found listed on the Archives touched upon by the Great Inventory. Read more: Vast searchable database reveals the records sitting in boxes at former USSR archives – Find Lost Russian & Ukrainian Family
  4. What is a Collateral Line in Genealogy? It is a line made of the descendants of your collateral ancestors, and in this post, learn all about these branches of your family tree. Read more from Who Are You Made Of: What is a Collateral Line in Genealogy? – Who are You Made Of?
  5. At 100, YIVO aims to be more global. Founded in 1925 by linguist Max Weinreich, YIVO, the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut, or Jewish Scientific Institute, was created to document and preserve the everyday life, language and culture of Eastern European Jewry. Today, its Manhattan archive holds the world’s largest collection of Eastern European Jewish materials—24 million items, including rare manuscripts, photographs, recordings, and the largest Yiddish-language library in the world. Read more from JNS: At 100, YIVO aims to be more global – JNS.org
  6. 1,250 Jewish gravestones in Belarus returned to their original sites after 80 years. ‘Historic justice’ as final steps taken to honor the devastated Jewish community of Brest-Litovsk. The site was established as a cemetery in 1835. By 1941, more than 35,000 Jews were buried there. Between 1941 and 1944, the Jewish community was decimated by the Nazis and their collaborators. Since its destruction, the site was never marked or acknowledged as a Jewish cemetery—even though the bodies remained. Read the story from Jewish News UK: 1,250 Jewish gravestones in Belarus returned to their original sites after 80 years – Jewish News
  7. Hungarian Jewish Museum outdoor exhibit displays centuries-old Jewish gravestones, with lots of informative signage. The Jewish Museum in Budapest has mounted an exhibition of centuries-old Jewish gravestones that date from the middle ages and the period of Ottoman rule in the Buda district, near the castle (1541-1686). It also includes later stones found in the northern Obuda district, where Jews lived after being persecuted and expelled from Buda when the Habsburgs and Christian Holy League recaptured Buda 1686. The earliest gravestone from Buda dates from 1350 and the latest from 1678. Read the story from Jewish Heritage Europe: Hungary: Hungarian Jewish Museum outdoor exhibit displays centuries-old Jewish gravestones, with lots of informative signage – Jewish Heritage Europe
  8. Secret recordings of Nazis revealed in new documentary. Recording Evil shows unfiltered discussions of the Holocaust between Nazi prisoners of war. Beginning at the onset of the Second World War, British spies bugged estates and prisoner of war camps with hundreds of secret microphones to record some 10,000 captured Nazi soldiers and officers who, unaware that they were being recorded, spoke candidly to each other about what they saw and the actions they carried out during the war. Read more from The Jewish Chronicle: Secret recordings of Nazis revealed in new documentary – The Jewish Chronicle – The Jewish Chronicle
  9. The Holocaust, 80 Years On. NOW STREAMING. Amid rising antisemitism around the world and 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Simon Schama traces the historical road of horror that culminated in the death camps. From Lithuania to Poland, the Netherlands and, finally, Auschwitz, Schama confronts the enormity of the Holocaust as both historian and 80-year-old Jew, to understand how it happened and in the hopes of never again. To view, go to: Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On | PBS
  10. New film shows how escapees from 1st Nazi death camp revealed Final Solution to the world. Screening in NY to mark Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, director Lior Geller’s ‘The World Will Tremble’ tells true story of daring revelation of plan to exterminate world Jewry. Read about the film from The Times of Israel: New film shows how escapees from 1st Nazi death camp revealed Final Solution to the world | The Times of Israel
  11. 104-year-old Warsaw Ghetto survivor in Australia gives vivid testimony of uprising. Some 35,000 survivors made their way down under post-WWII. Berysz Aurbach is a rare firsthand witness of the Jews’ revolt against their Nazi oppressors on Passover of 1943. Read his story from The Times of Israel: 104-year-old Warsaw Ghetto survivor in Australia gives vivid testimony of uprising | The Times of Israel
  12. Geolocated app connects Auschwitz visitors with survivors’ testimonies on horrors in camp. Titled The Last Ones, the application utilizes short interviews with Holocaust survivors to illuminate Nazi murders and torments — at camps and throughout Europe. Read the story from The Times of Israel: Geolocated app connects Auschwitz visitors with survivors’ testimonies on horrors in camp | The Times of Israel
  13. 82 years after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, its last living fighter bear’s witness. Michael Smuss helped smuggle supplies needed during the Jewish resistance against the Nazis; he shares how a series of ‘lucky’ accidents helped him withstand further horrors. Read his story from The Times of Israel: 82 years after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, its last living fighter bears witness | The Times of Israel
  14. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising commemoration highlights women ghetto fighters. Speakers at the event described in gripping detail the heroic acts by women, including young girls, in the resistance. Read their story and see the video from the Forward: VIDEO: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising commemoration highlights women ghetto fighters – The Forward
  15. Rabbi Shimon Huberband & Preserving the Truth About the Holocaust. The relatively unknown martyr who bridged the gap between the religious and non-religious as a member of a clandestine organization who defied odds to record Polish Jewry’s final chapter. Read more from Aish: Rabbi Shimon Huberband & Preserving the Truth About the Holocaust | Aish
  16. The Sephardic Experience During the Holocaust. The Nazis wiped out several major Sephardic population centers and caused the almost complete demise of Ladino culture. Sephardic Jewish communities from France and the Netherlands in the northwest to Yugoslavia and Greece in the southeast almost disappeared. Read more from My Jewish Learning: The Sephardic Experience During the Holocaust | My Jewish Learning
  17. The 2023 documentary film – The Secrets of the Great Synagogue of Vilna, Lithuania – can now be viewed free online. The Great Synagogue was built in the early 1600s in Renaissance-Baroque style. It became the center of Jewish life in Vilnius (Vilna), towering over the Shulhoyf, a teeming complex of alleyways and other Jewish community buildings and institutions including 12 synagogues, ritual baths, the community council, kosher meat stalls, the Strashun library, and other structures and institutions. Read more from Jewish Heritage Europe: Lithuania: The 2023 documentary film – The Secrets of the Great Synagogue of Vilna – can now be viewed free online – Jewish Heritage Europe
  18. Documentary digs up story of Polish village that butchered its Jews after Holocaust ended. It took filmmaker Yoav Potash 10 years to describe the events of once peacefully coexisting Gniewoszów, with the help of residents, survivors and a team of animators. Read more from The Times of Israel: Documentary digs up story of Polish village that butchered its Jews after Holocaust ended | The Times of Israel
  19. Netflix tells tale of 7 siblings who miraculously survived the Holocaust to restart life in US. Now streaming, ‘UnBroken’ illuminates story of the Webers, who lived in hiding on a German farm for two years — only to be cruelly separated upon arrival in America. Read more from The Times of Israel: Netflix tells tale of 7 siblings who miraculously survived the Holocaust to restart life in US | The Times of Israel
  20. Report projects fewer than 100,000 living Holocaust survivors by 2032. Ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Claims Conference predicts that only about 20,000 eyewitnesses to the murder of six million Jews will remain worldwide by 2040. Of an estimated 211,300 Holocaust survivors alive in the world today, almost half will no longer be with us in seven years. Read more from The Times of Israel: Report projects fewer than 100,000 living Holocaust survivors by 2032 | The Times of Israel
  21. Israel’s oldest Holocaust survivor dies at 110 on remembrance day. Nechama Grossman survived Nazi terror, built a family in Israel, and lived to see her great-great-grandchildren thrive. The long-time Arad resident passed away peacefully on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust remembrance day, a poignant end to a life that defied the odds. Read her story from Jewish News UK: Israel’s oldest Holocaust survivor dies at 110 on remembrance day – Jewish News
  22. Hidden in a famous WWII photo, two heroic Jewish stories. The Elbe Day picture captured American and Russian armies uniting against the Nazis — and cemented two Jewish soldiers in history. For the German town of Torgau, the 1945 meeting of American and Russian troops at the Elbe River at the end of World War II is a source of local pride. Every five years, they host a banquet for the veterans and their families and invite politicians to speak in celebration of Elbe Day. Pictures of the troops shaking hands hang in a nearby castle. Read more from The Forward: Hidden in a famous WWII photo, two heroic Jewish stories – The Forward
  23. In Germany, a Jewish family is reunited with a treasured family object — but also a sense of exile. A 17th century kiddish cup, it was skillfully decorated with embossed flowers — lifelike daffodils, poppies and tulips with detailed petals and curling leaves. The bottom is stamped with an “N,” indicating that it was made in Nürnberg, a leading city for silver fabrication. A 1939 law required Jewish families to relinquish their silver (cutlery, candelabras, kiddish cups, and so on) to state-backed pawn shops. Most of it was melted down for the German war effort, some was preserved, and some wound up in museum collections. Read about this from The Forward: In Germany, a Jewish family reunited with a precious heirloom – The Forward
  24. Only in NY: This Bronx high school has its own Holocaust museum. The Bronx High School of Science boasts nine Nobel Prize winners and 10 Pulitzer Prize recipients among its alumni, but there’s another unique aspect of the elite school that is often overlooked: It is likely the only public high school in the United States with a Holocaust museum. Read about the school from New York Jewish Week: Only in NY: This Bronx high school has its own Holocaust museum – New York Jewish Week
  25. Israeli study finds burst of fires 8,000 years ago forced humans to become farmers. Hebrew University researcher says lightning-ignited blazes transformed Levant’s landscape, ending hunter-gatherer lifestyle but creating perfect condition for birth of agriculture. Read more from The Times of Israel: Israeli study finds burst of fires 8,000 years ago forced humans to become farmers | The Times of Israel
  26. Jewish Music 101. Music has been a part of Jewish life since biblical times and remains integral to Jewish religious and cultural experiences. Reade more from My Jewish Learning: Jewish Music 101 | My Jewish Learning
  27. Even the Holocaust could not silence the music of these composers. The recovered voices movement aims to preserve the work of persecuted artists like Viktor Ullmann and Mieczyslaw Weinberg. New York pianist Jeanne Golan has been recording and performing the works of composers persecuted by the Nazis as part of what has come to be known as the recovered voices movement. Read the story from The Forward: Even the Holocaust could not silence the music of these composers – The Forward
  28. And Finally… This NYC pickle crawl is a very big dill. On a rainy recent Saturday, amid the routine hustle and bustle of Penn Station’s Moynihan Train Hall, one thing stood out from the crowd: a massive inflatable pickle. While Jews did not invent pickles, nor the pickling process — we can thank the ancient Mesopotamians for that — the history of the salty snack is nonetheless intertwined with the history of New York Jews, who brought pickles over from Eastern Europe around the turn of the 20th century and helped popularize them in the United States. Read the story with a smile from JTA: This NYC pickle crawl is a very big dill – New York Jewish Week

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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.