14 | MAY 4 • 2023 

I

n Judaism, we often hear the 
expression “may his or her 
memory be a blessing” when 
someone passes away. 
 I don’t recall where I first heard 
it, but someone once told me that 
as long as we continue to 
remember those who have 
since passed on, they remain 
alive. It’s only when we forget, 
that people — and eventually 
memories — begin to slip 
away.
It’s a guiding principle, 
along with the Jewish belief to 
honor the deceased, regardless 
of whether that person lived 20 
or 200 years ago, that fuels my 
passion for genealogy and family 
history. By learning about our 
past — and the names and stories 
behind it — we continue to keep 
these precious memories alive for 
many generations to come.
JewishGen is the world’s 
leading organization in preserving 
this history. As the largest digital 
repository for Jewish family history 
information in the world, this free 
and searchable website houses 
millions of Jewish records from 
countries around the world, some of 
which are hundreds of years old. On 
JewishGen, people can search their 
family history to find ancestors, 
make genealogical trees and even 
discover living relatives.
Now, JewishGen Ukraine 
Research Division — which focuses 
solely on Ukraine records — is on 
a mission to preserve and digitize 

1 million records in Ukraine by 
summer 2023. 
These records, which are some of 
the last remaining documentation of 
hundreds of thousands of Jews who 
lived in the former Russian Empire 
(which included Ukraine), are at risk 
of disappearing forever.
Between an ongoing war with 
Russia and Ukraine, website hacks 
and even archive fires, JewishGen 
staff, volunteers and contractors 
work around the clock to make 
these records available to the public. 
The priceless information housed 
within these records contains birth, 
marriage, divorce, death and census 
data for Jewish ancestors.
It’s one of JewishGen’s largest 
projects to date. JewishGen Ukraine 
Research Division transcribes, 
digitizes and uploads some 
150,000 records each month to the 
searchable JewishGen website to 
meet the massive goal of publishing 
1 million records by summer.
Then, they plan to tackle the 
millions of records that still remain 
in Ukraine archives.
“We take documents as 
fast as we can,” explains 
Phyllis (Gold) Berenson, 
JewishGen’s director 
of Ukrainian Research 
and the Ukraine 
Research Division, who 
is a Detroit native and 
University of Michigan 
graduate. 
“They’re safe on the JewishGen 
server.”

One million Ukraine family history records 
will be available on JewishGen by summer.

 A Race
Against Time

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Phyllis 
Berenson

past — and the names and stories 
behind it — we continue to keep 
these precious memories alive for 
many generations to come.

leading organization in preserving 

TOP TO BOTTOM: A burnt and water-
damaged file from 1862. Badly damaged file 
from 1875. A fire-damaged file from 1811.

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

