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attending the conference in Salt Lake City had to make difficult
choices among a great many activities including classes taught by
inspiring and knowledgeable speakers, a game show of Jewish Genealogical
Jeopardy, SIG and BOF luncheons/meetings, watching films, socializing,
and doing research at the Family History Library. Here are a
few highlights:
There was a great photo exhibit called Lives
Remembered: Photographs of a Small Town in Poland 1895-1939, the
work of Zalman Kaplan, photographer in Szczuczyn from 1895-1939.
Paul Shapiro, of USHMM, gave an extremely moving
opening ceremony speech about his years of work that have led to
the opening of the ITS archives at Bad Arolsen.
Dan Rottenberg, author of the first guidebook
on Jewish genealogy research, Finding Our Fathers, spoke
at the banquet and wowed us all by announcing that he was relinquishing
his copyright to the part of his book with the alphabetical list
of family names with information on each entry.
No words can express our thanks to all the
wonderful volunteers under the able direction of conference co-chairs
Michael Brenner and Hal Bookbinder. We had volunteers from the Utah
chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women, the local Utah
Jewish Genealogical Society, and many others.
A sincere thanks to: The Generations Network
for sponsoring for sponsoring the Ancestry.com Resource Room; to
the Family History Library for providing extended hours for attendees,
speakers, and special maps for the resource room; and to Genzyme
for a substantial educational grant and for sending Gary Frohlich
to share important information on Ashkenazi genetic diseases, particularly
Guacher Disease. Thanks also for support from Harvey Krueger, Alan
Rinsler, Rochelle Kaplan, E. Randol and Pamela Schoenberg, Marty
Mazner, Bob Spinner, the Center for Jewish History, the Czech Torah
project, Jossey-Bass publishers, The Jacob Rader Marcus Center,
Congregation Kol Ami of Salt Lake City, JGSs, SIGs, individuals
and many vendors.
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