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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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 Joseph Tarshish has been engaged in genealogy for ten years and is a member of JewishGen, LitvakSIG and the Jewish Genealogical & Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia. A Certified Internal Auditor as well as a Certified Information Systems Auditor, Joseph has served as CFO of a publicly listed financial services startup. He brings to the Board a strong focus on financial discipline and accomplishing objectives with a limited budget. |
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 Ed Donakey is a converted business technologist serving as the Vice President of Strategic Relations and Deputy Chief Genealogical Officer at FamilySearch International. He works with genealogical societies and others to identify partnerships, development opportunities, and to develop solutions to make critical genealogical data available. Currently a member of the NGS board of directors and Chair of the Audit Committee, he is the past FGS Vice President of Development and board member, responsible for fundraising and partnerships. A professional strategist and past CEO, he also provides business and technology support to genealogical societies, non-profits, and emerging businesses. Ed’s genealogical interests keep him the Deep South, Ireland, and Scotland as he researches his ancestors daily. Ed’s undergraduate and graduate studies were in philosophy and political philosophy respectively at Brigham Young University. |
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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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