Israel 2015 Conference Summary

The 35th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy was held in Jerusalem, Israel on 6-10 July 2015 at the Ramada Hotel. The conference hosting was assisted by IGRA, Family Roots Forum, and IGS, and was in cooperation with MyHeritage.

2015 screencapThe conference featured a Shabbaton from Friday afternoon Saturday evening which included a tour of Machane Yehuda, Shabbat services and dinner, a walking tour of Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, a guided tour of the Israel Museum, and lectures from Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin about "Jewish Autobiographies as a Source for Jewish History" and Dvora Netzer about King Herod in Israel".

Exploration Sunday afforded conference attendees a variety of tours of parts of Israel including Yad Vashem, the Central Archives of the History of the Jewish People and the National Library of Israel, the Old City of Jerusalem, Masada and the Dead Sea, and others.

The opening session featured Rabbi Israel Meir Lau speaking about "Connecting to Jewish Heritage through Jewish Genealogy" and the Banquet featured Dick Eastman as the speaker.

Two lecture halls included simultaneous translations to Hebrew, or from Hebrew to English. Those halls were also available On-Demand so attendees could watch from home, including the keynote and the banquet.

The conference was sponsored by...
Platinum: Harvey Krueger, New York City; Ancestry; and FamilySearch
Gold: Yad Vashem
Silver: JewishGen
Bronze: Ruderman Family Foundation, Blumbergs, International Institute for Jewish Genealogy and Paul Jacobi Center, FamilyTreeDNA

Exhibitors included Ancestry, Yad Vashem, Beit Hatfutsot, Estee Art, FamilyTreeDNA, Jewish Family Search, Plashet Services, Founder Populations, Genealogy from the Hart, MyHeritage and Geni, JewishGen, IGRA, National Library of Israel, Roots Family Mementos, the Shapell Manuscript Foundation, and Avotaynu Online.

The Conference Schedule is available online. The Conference Website can be visited on the Live Site or in our Conference Archive. Please remember that both the archive and the live site will not be completely functional; they may have missing images, broken links, and any forms or search options may no longer be functional.