Gershon Lehrer

I came today across a very short but interesting documentary film about two dentists in Jaipur, India.
I’d rather go to another dentist, but unfortunately some people cannot afford another bicycle repairer dentist…

(Please click here to go to the explanation for this page)
This is part 2 of 2 with a selection of the complete Yizkor Book on Ustrzyki-Dolne. Click here for part 1.

(Please click here to go to the explanation for this page)
This is part 1 of 2 with a selection of the complete Yizkor Book on Ustrzyki-Dolne. Click here for part 2.
Click here to go directly to the article about family Beer on this page

(Please click here to go to the explanation for this page)
Click here to go directly to the article by Yoshua Kalech a”h on this page

(Please click here to go to the explanation for this page)

(Please click here to go to the explanation for this page)

One of the families which I do descend from, is Kalech.
Other cities of which I do know already that they lived there is: Ustrzyki, Ulucz and apparently also Tarnobrzeg (Dinow).

There are some sources where you can get to the yizkor books, one such source is the yizkor Books Project on JewishGen (http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/). That project’s goal as stated on their site is

Our goal is to facilitate access to Yizkor Books and the information contained in them 

Another great source is the online repository of scanned yizkor books on the website of the Dorot Jewish Division at the New york Public Library: http://yizkor.nypl.org.
The goal of the Dorot Jewish Division as stated on their website is:

The Dorot Jewish Division is responsible for administering, developing and promoting the exploitation of one of the worlda’s great collections of Hebraica and Judaica. Reference and research services are available in a dedicated Jewish studies reading room on the first floor of the Librarya’s landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Contact us.

Primary source materials are especially rich in the following areas: Jews in the United States, especially in New York in the age of immigration; Yiddish theater; Jews in the land of Israel, through 1948; Jews in early modern Europe, especially Jewish-Gentile relations; Christian Hebraism; antisemitism; and world Jewish newspapers and periodicals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

If you are interested in hardcopies of these yizkor books, you can Continue reading →

I’ve recently been asked a couple times to explain how I did manage to receive successfully some files from the Polish archives and how long it took to get these files. Most of the people asking me this question, had some less good experiences. Some of them even never received a response at all from these archives.
My own general observation is that there is barely communication besides the communication relating to ordering the copies. So when I ask them for example if they could translate the file in question, there is almost never a reply (on that question).
Someone last week told me that it could be that if the applicant of the copies lives outside Europe, or if the requests are too complicated, that you may never get a response. I am not sure if it matters whether you are from Europe or not, but the latter possibility is of course something to consider before sending your requests. Therefore you should make sure to keep it as simple as possible. I used for example the order form on this page http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/psa/orderform.htm as my template.
Also make sure not to add any other questions. And if you have any other questions, ask them, but I would separate it and send another mail and may be even consider sending it on different dates.

I put down in a table how long it took to get responses from the archive, where did I send my requests to, etc.

Please share also your experience with the other visitors of this website. You can contact me and I’ll update the table (I hope the table with grow with the time):
[table “16” not found /]

I received the following document on May 27th, 2011 via e-mail from the state archive in Kielce (Archiwum Państwowe w Kielcach).
The document, as written in the mail from the Kielce statearchive, is:

[…]skan dot. Izaka Kalecha z ksiÄ™gi meldunkowej miasta Tarnobrzega

Meaning the following:

[…]a scan with Izak Kalech as reported in the book of the city of Tarnobrzeg

The scan comes from the following collection (Thanks to Mr. Moshe Steinberg [m.steinberg -at- utoronto.ca] for the tip):

Tarnobrzeg PSA Citizen List of delayed Births ,Lwow Wojewodztwa / Rzeszow Province (records in Fond 525 in Kielce Archive Sandomierz Branch)

This is how the contents of the file appear on the website of jri-poland:
[table “17” not found /]

Mr. Witold Wrzosinski (a researcher based in Poland whose website is at http://avanim.pl. He who can be contacted via e-mail: w.wrzosinski-at-avanim.pl) explained me more about this document:
click here to read what Mr. Witold Wrzosinski sent mee»
(Please add your comments below or if you prefer, send me a personal mail via this link):

Transcription: Continue reading →

I received the following document on March 23th, 2010 via post from the State Archive in Rzeszów (Archiwum PaÅ„stwowego w Rzeszowie).
The document as written in the mail from the State Archive is about:

[…]Dawida i Chaji Grunes (zapis na liÅ›cie wyborców do Senatu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1930 r.), odszukany w zasobie naszego Archiwum w Sanoku w Aktach miasta Sanoka 1792-1950.

Meaning the following:

[…]Dawid and Chaji Grunes (recorded on the electoral roll of the Polish Senate 1930 r.), which have been found in the Archives of Sanok in the Acts of the city of Sanok 1792-1950.

There were 5 elections for the Sejm of the Polish Republik from 1922 to 1938. This was for the election of 16 Nov 1930:
[table “3” not found /]

(source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejm_%28Zweite_Republik%29).
See also the following article elsewhere on this website: Translation request Polish – English (Grunes, State Archive in Rzeszów (Poland)
The file with part of the electors list:

Transcription:
ABECADŁOWY SPIS WYBORCOW
do Sejmu / Senatu Rzeczy pospolitej Polskiej
z miejscowoÅ›ci ……………. gminy …………
powiatu …………… obwodu gÅ‚osowania ………….
OkrÄ™gu Nr. ………..
1930
[table “14” not found /]

Translation:
ALPHABETIC LIST OF VOTES
to the Sejm / Senate of Poland
from the village of ……………. municipality …………
County …………… obwodu gÅ‚osowania ………….
District no. ……….
1930
[table “15” not found /]