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