International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies

International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies
Name	International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies
Abbreviation	IAJGS
Formation	1980s
Type	Nonprofit organization
Headquarters	United States
Region served	Worldwide

Contents

International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies

The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies is a global federation of Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain, Jewish Genealogical Society of New York, Society for Jewish Genealogy of Canada, Jewish Genealogical Society of England, Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois and other regional Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles groups that coordinates research, education, and preservation for Jewish people tracing ancestry across Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, and other historical regions such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, and German Empire. Its activities connect scholars and amateurs from cities like New York City, London, Toronto, Jerusalem, Melbourne, Buenos Aires, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow with archival holdings in institutions such as the Yad Vashem, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, National Archives (United Kingdom), and the Bundesarchiv.

History

The organization emerged during the era of expanding genealogical interest linked to events like the release of records after the fall of the Soviet Union and initiatives following the reunification of Germany; early collaborators included leaders from the American Jewish Historical Society, Institute of Jewish Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Columbia University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and community bodies such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Agency for Israel. Influences included exhibitions at the Jewish Museum (New York), conferences at Brandeis University, projects like the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum documentation efforts, and the digitization wave led by organizations such as Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, and the Library of Congress. Over time the federation has navigated issues related to records from the Holocaust, the Pale of Settlement, the Haskalah, and migratory waves following the Six-Day War and the fall of Communism, while engaging with legal and ethical frameworks exemplified by cases in the European Court of Human Rights.

The association’s mission emphasizes support for descendant communities, collaboration with repositories such as YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Leo Baeck Institute, Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and outreach to diasporic centers including Sephardic communities, Mizrahi communities, and institutions like the Sephardic Heritage Museum. Objectives include improving access to vital records housed in archives such as the State Archives of Lithuania, Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine, Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, and national libraries like the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Russian National Library; promoting standards used by projects like the International Tracing Service and collaborating with registries such as the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration.

Governance draws on models used by federations such as the American Library Association, the Royal Society, and consortia like the European Association for Jewish Studies, with an elected board analogous to boards at the Jewish Federations of North America and administrative staff coordinating among member societies from locales including Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Singapore, and São Paulo. Membership categories mirror nonprofit structures in organizations like the Museum Association (UK), allowing affiliate societies, chapters, and individual members with outreach programs akin to those of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Archives and Records Administration.

Programs include educational workshops drawing on methodologies from the Association of Professional Genealogists and digital initiatives similar to Europeana and the Digital Public Library of America, training in paleography referencing guides from the British Library and hands-on sessions using databases from MyHeritage, JRI-Poland, and the LitvakSIG community. Services extend to volunteer-driven index projects modeled after the Canadian Jewish Archives indexing, rescue projects paralleling International Council on Archives activities, and support for memorialization projects connected to the Shoah Foundation and commemoration at sites like the Majdanek State Museum.

Annual international conferences follow traditions established by scholarly gatherings at Princeton University, Harvard University, and the European Association for Jewish Studies, attracting speakers associated with institutions such as the University of Chicago, Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, Columbia University, State University of New York, and community leaders from organizations like the World Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League. These events include presentations on archival access in countries like Poland, Belarus, Romania, Hungary, and Czech Republic and incorporate workshops run in collaboration with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

The federation supports newsletters, conference proceedings, and resource guides comparable to publications from the Jewish Quarterly Review, AJS Review, and the Journal of Modern History, and curates bibliographies referencing works by scholars from the YIVO, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Princeton University Press, Oxford University Press, and authors affiliated with the Leo Baeck Institute. Online resources aggregate datasets, indexes, and translations of documents held at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, the National Library of Israel, and municipal archives in cities such as Kraków, Lviv, Vilnius, Riga, and Bratislava.

Partnerships include collaborations with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, the International Tracing Service, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and academic centers like the Center for Jewish History and European University Institute, fostering projects that influence restitution cases in courts such as the German Federal Court of Justice and cultural recovery efforts coordinated with ministries in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Israel. The association’s impact is evident in improved archival access modeled on initiatives by the International Council on Archives, increased scholarly exchange with the American Historical Association, and contributions to public history programs at institutions like the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Polin Museum.

Category:Jewish genealogy organizations