The IAJGS Board of Directors consists of four elected officers, six elected directors, and the immediate past president. Elections are held at the general meeting, which takes place in conjunction with the annual International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.
Officers
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President Jane Berenbeim, an independent development consultant, brings to the Board more than 30 years of experience in non-profit fundraising and management. Past professional positions included serving as Development Officer or Director for a variety of NYC social service, educational, health care and cultural organizations, among them Columbia University, Mount Sinai Medical Center, and Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services. An amateur genealogist for more than 20 years, Jane has recently served as Vice President of the IAJGS, is a longstanding member of the Executive Council of the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc. (JGS, Inc.) (New York), and is its immediate past President. She holds an undergraduate degree from Vassar College, and graduate degrees from Harvard and Brandeis Universities. |
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Vice President Dick spent half of his career as an innovative high-tech entrepreneur and executive. The other half he served as a professional in the Jewish community working as a youth advisor, educator, administrator, camp director, community leader, and consultant. He has been an avid genealogist since age 11 when he started asking probing questions at a family Seder. Each answer led to a new question, and they have never stopped! Dick served on the Board of JGS Maryland for over 25 years and was elected President on two separate occasions. He taught genealogy courses for five years as adjunct faculty in Maryland and at the JCC in Florida. He also lectures extensively, including at numerous IAJGS and LDS conferences, and serves JRI-Poland as the Town Leader for Kutno, Poland. He currently is the Membership Chairperson for IAJGS and is the President of the Genealogy Club at Valencia Lakes in Florida as well as a leader in its Jewish Heritage Club. |
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Secretary Ron has an eclectic background. He’s a former high-tech marketing executive, an expert on researching criminals, a data visualization maven, and author of three genealogy-oriented books (The Jews of Sing Sing, WANTED! U.S. Criminal Records, and Mind Maps for Genealogy). He’s also had an article published in peer-reviewed journal The American Genealogist. Ron won a Hackman Research Grant Award from the New York State Archives and also appeared on the PBS series, The Jewish Americans. Having spent more than twenty years researching his family, Ron has traced his roots back to Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Lithuania, and England. Ron has given more than 500 presentations across the country and internationally. He earned a B.S. in Engineering from Princeton and an MBA from the University of Chicago. |
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Treasurer Doug has 40+ years of financial experience, including serving as an independent consulting chief financial officer having been the CFO of four different Boston-area public and private companies. Doug has also served as the long-time treasurer of Temple Isaiah in Lexington, MA, and was the treasurer of JGS of Greater Boston. He has been researching his family for over 15 years. Doug holds an MBA degree from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree from Harvard College. He also received a Masters degree in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College. |
Immediate Past President
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Past President Marlis brings experience in strategic planning, marketing, technology, and non-profit board governance to the IAJGS. She is President of the Florida State Genealogical Society (FSGS) and recipient of the FSGS 2014 Distinguished Service Award. Marlis is a member of the JewishGen Board of Governors. She was Co-Chair of the IAJGS Boston 2013 conference. She is the founder of myAncestories and a member of the APG, FGS, NGS, ISFHWE and the GSG. Marlis holds a MS Management of Technology and a BA Russian Language. |
Directors
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Director Crista Cowan has been involved in family history research for more than 25 years and has been a professional genealogist since 2002. She specializes in descendancy research, Jewish immigration, and sharing family history with the genealogically challenged. Crista regularly teaches at conferences and genealogy societies around the country. She has been employed at Ancestry.com since 2004 and is known as The Barefoot Genealogist. She uploads a new episode of her show to the Ancestry YouTube channel (almost) every Tuesday morning. |
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Director Mel Fishman is the Past President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto, where he has been an active member for 15 years. Mel has also served in many positions at the Toronto JGS, including Membership Director and SIG Coordinator. Previously, Mel was co-founder of the JGS of Southern Alberta. From 2000 to 2006 Mel served as the webmaster of JewishGen’s Ukraine SIG (now Ukraine Research Division). He was trained in technology and has broad working experience in marketing and sales. Mel was also employed as Executive Director with Shaar Shalom Synagogue (2010–2015) in Markham, Ontario, and volunteered thereafter as Executive Director with the Song Shul in Toronto, Ontario. He currently serves on the rules committee of Toronto Hebrew Memorial Parks and is an accredited travel professional who continues to serve his clients with their individual, family, and group requirements specializing in genealogical and Jewish history tours. |
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Director An archaeologist by training (B.A. and M.A.), Emily Garber has been researching her Jewish family heritage since 2007 and holds a certificate from Boston University’s Genealogical Research program. She is a family history researcher, writer. and speaker and owns Extra Yad Genealogical Services. She blogs at extrayad.blogspot.com and has written two books and several articles on genealogical research. She serves as chair of the Phoenix Jewish Genealogy Group and board member of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society. Emily has spoken at eight IAJGS conferences and coordinated Introduction to Jewish Genealogy, a seminar at the 2020 Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh. |
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Director Eli Rabinowitz has researched his family’s genealogy and associated Jewish cultural history for over 30 years. A South-African-born Australian, Eli has travelled extensively, writing about Jewish life, travel, and education on his website, Tangential Travel and Jewish Life (elirab.me). Eli writes and manages 87 JewishGen KehilaLinks and more than 750 WordPress posts. His articles have appeared in numerous publications. Eli has lectured internationally at educational institutions, commemorative events, at IAJGS and other conferences, and online. |
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Director Jarrett Ross began researching his own family history in 2009 while finishing his undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh. Since then he has built his own personal tree with more than 7000 people, successfully connecting with thousands of relatives all over the world and has helped build hundreds of trees for people of varying ancestral backgrounds. Jarrett has found multiple specialties including genetic genealogy, Sephardic Jewish research with an emphasis on the Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam, the Jewish Agricultural Societies of Southern New Jersey, Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry in Ukraine, and American Jewish history. Jarrett writes a blog called Sephardic Genealogy and he also has a vlog called GeneaVlogger. Jarrett currently works as the lead forensic genealogist at DNA Labs International where he helps solve cold cases. He also volunteers as a Search Angel where he helps people find their biological family, and he volunteers as a curator on Geni.com, home of the World Family Tree. Jarrett currently serves as the vice president of the Triangle JGS in North Carolina and has been involved in the group since 2012. |
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Director Susan Weinberg came out of a multi-faceted career ranging from nonprofit management to finance, concluding her career as treasurer of an investment bank. She holds an MBA in Finance and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Today she focuses her energies on creating artwork, writing, and presenting often around themes of family history and Jewish heritage. She describes the thread that connects these seemingly disparate roles as solving puzzles and telling stories. About 30 years ago she was drawn to family history, traveling to ancestral towns, studying Yiddish in Lithuania and doing research in both US and overseas archives, and writing about these explorations in her blog Layers of the Onion. Over time her personal work evolved into genealogy consulting which feeds her presentations, often on topics of immigration. She has developed several Kehilalinks and published the book We Spoke Jewish: A Legacy in Stories, based on an oral history project with Jewish elders. She is President and a founding member of the Minnesota Jewish Genealogical Society and serves on the board of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest. |
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