2025 IAJGS Conference Banner

Join the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) and the Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society August 10-14, 2025 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for an exceptional and unique Conference experience!

Why Fort Wayne?
About Our Program
Conference Venue
Meet Your Hosts
The Genealogy Center
Our Apple Cookbook
And We Settled Here
Media Collection

2025 Conference Themes have been announced.   See our Program section for more information.

Want more information?  There are several options to ask questions and to find out more.

For questions about this 2025 Conference website, contact webmaster@iajgs2025.org.

Why Fort Wayne?

In prior years, the conference was held in costlier, big cities, such as London, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. This is the first conference to be held in a more affordable, yet dynamic, smaller city.  Fort Wayne is known for its exceptional genealogical capability through the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, and national recognition of the host venue, the Grand Wayne Convention Center.   Fort Wayne is among the fastest-growing cities in the Midwest, with major recent development in its downtown area, including The Landing, Electric Works, and riverfront activities.  And Parkview Field, rated no.1 in all of minor league baseball, is right across the street!

For more information, check out the page created for us by Visit Fort Wayne!

Want more information?  There are several options to ask questions and to find out more.

For questions about this 2025 Conference website, contact webmaster@iajgs2025.org.

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Our Conference Venues

The most significant difference from previous conferences is the use of the Grand Wayne Convention Center as the site for the majority of presentations, lectures and activities. The GWCC has public spaces for impromptu conversation, ballroom spaces for exhibitors and meals, and, of course, free wi-fi throughout. Our hotel, the Hilton Fort Wayne connects directly to the Convention Center. There is a restaurant and a full service Starbucks in the hotel.  Kosher food will be available for conference attendees.  The Convention Center is located a block from the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center and within a short walk of dozens of restaurants and local attractions.

 

Want more information?  There are several options to ask questions and to find out more.

For questions about this 2025 Conference website, contact webmaster@iajgs2025.org.

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Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

The Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center is among the largest family history research centers in the world.  The collection of more than 1.2 million physical items is completely open and available to researchers, and visitors can access a large number of genealogical databases on-site.  Resources of interest to Jewish researchers include:

  • Holocaust-related materials, including a large collection of Yizkor books
  • Temple and synagogue histories
  • Jewish genealogy research guidebooks
  • Jewish periodicals
  • Jewish diaries and personal memoirs
  • The “Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954” database from the American Jewish Historical Society

Curt B. Witcher, Director of Special Collections and the Genealogy Center Manager, has created a virtual presentation, "Making the Genealogy Center Your Research Assistant with an Emphasis on Jewish Genealogical Research."  He will make this presentation available to JGS's and other organizations in advance of our conference.   Upcoming dates include:

For additional information:

Want more information?  There are several options to ask questions and to find out more.

For questions about this 2025 Conference website, contact webmaster@iajgs2025.org.

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And We Settled Here

Chances are good that somewhere in your family tree, an ancestor or relative passed through the Midwestern United States, or even northeast Indiana.    Jews have been recorded in northeast Indiana for 200 years, since John Jacob Hayes arrived in Fort Wayne as an Indian agent in 1820.   German immigrants began arriving as early as 1830, establishing stores throughout the area.   In the 19th century, many small towns in the area were homes for Jewish merchants, including Ligonier, Kendallville, Columbia City, Wabash, Decatur, South Whitley, Goshen, and others.   Congregation Achduth Vesholom, Indiana’s first Jewish congregation, was established in Fort Wayne in 1848 by German Jews.   Ahavath Sholom was formed in Ligonier in the 1860s.

In the late 1800s, immigrants began arriving in the Midwest from Eastern Europe.   Many worked in the scrap metal industry or established businesses in various towns and cities.

If your family has a Midwest connection, you can find resources at the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.   Their collection holds thousands of titles from Indiana alone!

Want more information?  There are several options to ask questions and to find out more.

For questions about this 2025 Conference website, contact webmaster@iajgs2025.org.

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Our Program

Our Conference Theme, "And We Settled Here... The Jewish Journey," will be reflected in our program themes.  The Call for Papers will not be open for another few weeks but meanwhile, here are the themes to give prospective speakers ideas for their IAJGS 2025 Conference presentations.   For details about the selected themes, download the full list here. 

  • Journeys to the Midwest and Beyond
  • Wide World of Experience
  • Citizenship
  • Cultural Heritage
  • Methodology and Archives
  • Tools and Technology
  • Starters

The 2025 International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies Film Festival will feature over thirty rare and historically significant Jewish-themed films, shorts, and television programs spanning the very first films of the early 20th century to the modern era.  Fiction, documentary, and experimental selections represent the breadth and diversity of the Jewish experience cutting across major themes of immigration, the Holocaust, and North American westward expansion. A highlight of the festival will feature a screening of the 4K restoration of Joan Micklin Silver’s 1975 Hester Street, celebrating the 50th anniversary of this landmark in feminist and American independent filmmaking.  You can watch a trailer for the movie here.  The Festival is being curated by Steve Carr, Director of the Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Purdue University Fort Wayne.

We also plan to highlight the renowned Lincoln Collection at the Allen County Public Library with experts and special programming.

Hester Street poster

Want more information?  There are several options to ask questions and to find out more.

For questions about this 2025 Conference website, contact webmaster@iajgs2025.org.

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Meet Your Hosts

The Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society was founded in 2018 and has grown from three founding members to 65 in 2024.  They hold quarterly, public programs to discuss and promote Jewish genealogy, as well as several more intimate events just for our members. The purpose of the group is to present educational programs relevant to Jewish genealogy, to support members in their pursuit of their family histories, to collaborate with other organizations on areas of Jewish genealogical interests, and to protect, preserve and share Jewish genealogical records from the region of Northeast Indiana.

Those planning the 2025 conference include:

For more information about the Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society, visit their website at www.NEIndianaJGS.org.

Thanks to our generous donors!

  • Leona Z. Rosenberg Charitable Trust
  • Dr. Harry W. Salon Foundation
  • Board members of the Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society
  • Goldenberg Family Endowment
  • NEIJGS member, Jody Tzucker
NEIJGS tree logo

Want more information?  There are several options to ask questions and to find out more.

For questions about this 2025 Conference website, contact webmaster@iajgs2025.org.

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Jewish Heritage Apple Cookbook

basket of apples

The 2025 IAJGS Conference will be releasing a Heritage Apple Cookbook to be available for conference attendees.  Why apples?  Fort Wayne, Indiana is known as the final resting place for Johnny Appleseed.  Johnny Appleseed, also known as Johnathan Chapman, was an American pioneer who introduced apple trees to areas of the US Midwest and Canada.

How can I participate?   If you have a family recipe containing apples then submit your recipe to our team for review.   It MUST contain apples!  Possibilities include cakes, pies, tarts, sauce, salad, stuffing, pancakes, muffins, strudel, cobbler, brown betty, pudding, kugel, tart, turnover, dumpling…..

Questions?  Contact recipes@iajgs2025.org.

Submit a Recipe

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Media Collection

We would love to have your help publicizing the 2025 Conference!   To that end, we've collected a variety of blurbs, videos, and graphics that can be used in newsletters, on social media, and more.   If you don't find what you're looking for, please contact info@iajgs2025.org.   We would be happy to provide any information that might be of help.

Blurbs

Graphics

Videos

 

Want more information?  There are several options to ask questions and to find out more.

For questions about this 2025 Conference website, contact webmaster@iajgs2025.org.

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