International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Conference 2024

It's never to early to prepare for the annual conference of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Socities (IAJGS). This years conference, the 44th will take place in Philadelphia, from the 18th to the 22nd of August, 2024. This should be an incredible conference, held in one of the greatest cities in the world. There are multiple ways to get more information, including the following;

1. International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conference site iajgs2024.org
2. Jewish Genealogical and Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia jgasgp.org
3. Conference Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/731063418430848/

 I hope to see everyone there.

IAJGS 2022 Philadelphia

 

The dates and location of the IAJGS annual conference have been announced. 

Colonel Nathan Herschel Mazer

Over the past many months we have been remembering the beginning of World War I. A big part of that is paying tribute to those who risked so much to protect those they never knew. In my own family I have very few examples of those who served during that war. One, my father's step-brother, died in battle off the coast of Constantinople.

Maybe it is because of having so few examples in my own family, but I often find myself looking for these great people in every cemetery I visit. Often, I am surprised by what I can find in unexpected places. Recently, on a visit from my grandson, we decided to visit the Hill Air Force Base Museum in Ogden, Utah (www.hill.af.mil/library/museum/). I must admit that I had never been there before even though it is less than a 10 minute drive from my home. It was there that I was made aware of a great man, Colonel Nathan Herschel Mazer, whose picture is shown here.

He was born on 11 March 1911 in Philadelphia to Harry and Fanny Mazer. His parents, both born in Russia, made their living by keeping a grocery store. The image below is the family in the 1920 United States Census.

On 5 March 1935, he married Frances Kalmanovitz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She herself, was born in Russia. On 26 July 1941 he was inducted into the Army, and that service was then extended indefinitely by the attack on Pearl Harbor. he served in the 13th Bomb Group, flying 50 missions as a bombardier over the North Atlantic between February and August of 1942. At that point he was commissioned as an officer and ordered to the 8th Air Force's 384th Bomb Group in England.
During his time in England he flew many combat missions over Europe as the lead tail gunner. While he was authorized to be on many of these missions, there were some he was not. This lead his commander, Maj. General Dale O. Smith to comment, "He never got caught flying, he was the greatest stowaway in the history of the 8th Air Force". In August of 1944 he was promoted to Captain and in November of 1945 he was discharged. He was recalled into the Air Force in June of 1946 and served honorably until finally retiring as a Colonel in June of 1964. Col. Mazer was recognized for his service and received many medals, including the Bronze Star for Valor.

It is often said that behind any great man you will find a great woman,
and this is certainly the case with Col. Mazer. His lovely bride Frances was no doubt concerned for her husband, but instead of staying home and worrying, she herself did something I consider heroic, she joined the Women's Army Corp in 1943.
Col. Mazer served his country all over the world and earned the right to enjoy a nice quiet retirement. However, not one to sit and watch, he, with his wife at his side, spent his retirement serving the Air Force and the State of Utah. In addition to serving as a Director of many groups he was the driving force behind the Hill Air Force Base Museum. His efforts both during the war and after leave us all with an incredible example to service and commitment.

Col. Mazer died in 2006, just over 6 years after his wife. In honor of their service to the country, they both have been buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Washington D.C.  (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/).  

The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Philadelphia

Perhaps the finest center for information regarding any kind of ethnic research with the United States is the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Named for John Balch, who came to America in 1658 from Somerset, England, the first of the family to arrive. Over 250 years after his arrival, Emily Swift Balch (1835-1917) in her will stipulated that in the event that her boys not provide heirs,  the family estate be used to create a library in the city of Philadelphia. Her dream came true when in 1976, the 200th anniversary of the United States, the Balch Institute opened its doors to the public.
With the opening of the institute, people had a high quality place to not only compile the records of our immigrants ancestors, but a place to research and find out more about those who risked so much for us.  In January of 2002 the Balch Institute merged with and became part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (www.hsp.org). The collections of the 2 societies are very important for those with immigrants from all over Europe, and the records of the Jews of Philadelphia from those collections are amazing records. Amongst them are:

•  Jewish petition cards to bring relatives to the United States, 1923-1935. (FHL Film #1570326 item 3).  When naturalized citizens petitioned to have their families brought to America, they filled out these cards. Not only do the give the name, address, and naturalization date of the petition but then all vital information about those wishing to come over. This can include, names, dates and places of birth, and most incredibly a listing of all places the person has lived before. What a great way to track your family as they travelled through Europe. Many of these also document people who travelled to the US through South America and the Caribbean. The record below is  the petition of Flora Widupsky Ackerman, who wants to bring her parents from Germany.    

•   Nursery Case Files, 1904-1950 (FHL Film #1571687-1572027). Before 1918, the Young Women;s Union was established to provide a nursery and temporary shelter for those Jewish immigrant families that needed help. In 1918, it was incorporated as the Neighborhood Centre and these 28 rolls of microfilm are the copies of those original records. The information provided includes names, dates of birth, marriages, deaths, occupations and an incredible amount of family relationships. The two documents below show part of the file of the Greenfield family. In the first the information on the family is shown and on the second a list with addresses of the relatives. As these records are from the Census years, this is a wonderful way to verify families.

•  Jewish immigrant aid societies' records of Jewish arrivals, 1913-1947 (FHL Film #'s 1570140-1570251). These microfilms are an alphabetical listing of the Jewish arrivals into various ports, but mostly the Port of Philadelphia. families are listed together which makes this appear just like a census record. There are over 100,000 people listed in this collection.

These three collections, as well as the others in the Family History Library Catalog generally are from the same time frame, 1880-1940. This enables the researcher to find multiple records of the families and then find them in other records such as the United States Federal Census. The easiest way to locate the records in the collection of the library is to do a keyword search in the catalog for Balch Institute. This search will show all 26 records, Jewish and non-Jewish, available through the Family History Library.