IAJGS Achievement Awards 2020

[Return to Main Awards Page]

IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award 2020: Robinn Magid

In recognition of her lifelong commitment to Jewish Genealogy, Robinn Magid has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award. Some of Robinn’s achievements include: Author of the JRI-Poland Step-by-Step guide to extracting a town’s records and their Frequently Asked Questions webpages of the JRI-Poland.org website, officially representing IAJGS and JRI-Poland at the Polish State Archives, Emmanuel Ringleblum Jewish Historical Institute, POLIN Museum, Forum for Dialogue (between Christians and Jews) and the American Jewish Committee in Warsaw—establishing goodwill and negotiating mutual assistance. She served as the Chair of the 2018 Warsaw Conference and established the IAJGS Conference Discussion Facebook Group which she created for the 2018 Warsaw Conference and now administers and moderates. Worked on the committee to update and revise the IAJGS Conference Planning Manual and following the cancelation of the 2020 San Diego Conference she is currently leading and inventing the “New” IAJGS 2020 Virtual Conference.

IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award 2020: Hadassah Lipsius

In recognition of her lifelong commitment to Jewish Genealogy, Hadassah Lipsius has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award. Some of Hadassah’s achievements include: For the JGS Inc. of New York—Member of the Executive Council, Board, Administrator of the JGS, Inc. Facebook Group. For JewishGen—Member of the JewishGen Board of Governors (2009–2016) and Data Manager of JewishGen’s Warszawa Research Group. For JRI-Poland: Board Member (1997–present), Member - JRI-Poland Executive Committee, Data Coordinator, Warsaw Archives Coordinator & Town Leader, Shtetl CO-OP Initiative Coordinator. Finally, for IAJGS—Co-chair - 2006 IAJGS New York Conference, Member - IAJGS Conference Program Committee (2006, 2018, 2020), SIG Coordinator - 1999 NY IAJGS Conference and IAJGS Conference Speaker (1999–present).

IAJGS Volunteer of the Year 2020: Gary Perlman

In recognition of his outstanding support of Jewish Genealogy in Canada, the IAJGS is honored to name Gary Perlman as the 2020 IAJGS Volunteer of the Year. Gary has submitted more than 60,000 records and photos to JewishGen’s JOWBR project, updated more than 2,000 gravestone images on JOWBR from Montreal’s Back River Cemetery and 7000 records to better document broken, leaning, faded or Hebrew-only stones, made more than 10,000 corrections and additions to the Baron De Hirsch Cemetery’s in-house data, photographed and documented Holocaust and War Casualty Memorials while adding Holocaust text to JOWBR records. In addition, Gary has linked supplemental genealogical information directly from JOWBR search results to the JGS-Montreal website and created the Jewish Genealogy Dashboard, a multi-source search engine, publicly available on the JGS Montreal website, enabling users to run a search across some 50 databases from a single webpage. Finally, Gary assisted the Documentation of Jewish Records Worldwide (DoJR) and is a member of the technical team providing expertise related to working with OCLC Online Computer Library Center in the development of WorldCat.

IAJGS Outstanding Project Award 2020: Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston for its Research Sunday Program

In recognition of their outstanding program, the IAJGS is pleased to award the Jewish Genealogical Society of Boston the award for their Research Sunday Program. The JGSGB Research Sunday program has existed in its present form for seven years and has continued to grow and to adapt to meet the needs of our members using up-to date-technology. Research Sunday is a model for other societies to adopt because of its combination of rigorous preparation, implementation and evaluation, its success can be transferred to other JGS groups.

IAJGS Outstanding Publication Award 2020: Chronicles, the Journal of the Jewish Genealogical & Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia

In recognition of their outstanding Journal, the IAJGS is pleased to award the Outstanding Publication 2020 to The Jewish Genealogical and Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia. Chronicles is a quarterly publication with content being primarily original, having been submitted by our members sharing their stories, describing their research and findings, and thereby enabling others to try new sites and techniques to further their own research. The quarterly publication is provided electronically via emails, uploaded to their website, or in a hard copy format available for members who prefer to read it in printed form.

IAJGS Outstanding Publication Award 2020: Alain Nedjar, Gilles Boulu, Liliane Nedjar and Raphael Attias for Ketubbot Registers of the Jewish Nation of Livorno (Leghorn), Genealogies & Family Itineraries, 1626-1890

In recognition of their outstanding book, the IAJGS is pleased to award the 2020 Outstanding Publication Award to Alain Nedjar, Gilles Boulu, Liliane Nedjar, and Raphael Attias. The authors transcribed, translated, and indexed from Hebrew and Aramaic the 6800 marriage records of the Jewish Community of Leghorn since its beginnings in 1626 till the end of 19th century. It allows the reconstruction of genealogies of all the Jewish families of the Jewish Nation of Leghorn, not only the descendants of “Marranos” from Spain and Portugal, but also families from Middle East, South Germany, North Africa and of course native Italians.

IAJGS Future Leader of the Year 2020: Jarrett Ross

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to Jewish Genealogy, Jarrett Ross has been awarded the IAJGS Future Leader of the Year Award for 2020. Jarrett Ross began researching his own family history in 2009 while finishing his undergraduate degree. Since then he has built his own personal tree with over 7000 people, successfully connected with thousands of relatives all over the World and has helped build hundreds of trees for people of varying ancestral backgrounds. Jarrett has found a specialty in Sephardic Jewish research with an emphasis on the Dutch Sephardim. He also specializes in Jewish Agricultural Societies of Southern New Jersey, Ashkenazi Jews, Jews in America, and Jews in the UK. Jarrett writes a blog called “Sephardic Genealogy”, which focuses on his Sephardic genealogy research. He also has a vlog called “GeneaVlogger” where Jarrett talks about his research, gives genealogy tips, interviews other genealogists, and shows different aspects of working in genealogy. He works in a special capacity for GENI and is the lead forensic genealogist at DNA Labs International. Jarrett currently serves as the vice-president of the Triangle JGS.

[Return to Main Awards Page]


[ If you have comments or technical questions about this web page, please write to webmaster ]