“Locating Israeli Relatives and Holocaust Survivors: Search Strategies and Integrating Resources” by Rose Lerer Cohen

Sunday, March 30, 2014
Program starts 2:00 p.m

“Locating Israeli Relatives and Holocaust Survivors: Search Strategies and Integrating Resources”

Rose Lerer Cohen, a professional genealogist and probate researcher, writer and lecturer from Israel, will speak on “Locating Israeli Relatives and Holocaust Survivors: Search Strategies and Integrating Resources” at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois meeting on Sunday, March 30, 2014. She will deliver her presentation at 2 p.m. at Temple Beth Israel, 3601 W. Dempster St., Skokie.

She will explain how to find relatives in Israel using resources of the Israel State Archives, Central Zionist Archives and other smaller archives in Israel as well as databases and whether language is indeed a barrier. Dr. Cohen will describe the major databases and depositories of Holocaust materials, including Yad Vashem in Israel, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany.

As part of her presentation, she will also focus on search strategies and integrating resources within the framework of genealogy and history, based on examples brought by herself and on questions from the audience.

Dr. Rose Lerer Cohen, a former South African who now lives in Jerusalem, has pursued research cases in Eastern and Western Europe, Israel, South Africa and the United States.  She coordinates the Lithuanian Holocaust Names Project and the Southern Africa Oral History Project. With Saul Issroff, she co-authored “The Holocaust in Lithuania 1941-1945: A Book of Remembrance” (Gefen: Jerusalem).

She is a board member of the Israel Genealogical Research Association, a committee member of the Association for Oral History and a member of the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy’s Committee for Teaching Genealogy at University Level. She is the former editor of Sharsheret Hadorot, Genealogy Journal, Israel.

The JGSI meeting will take place at Temple Beth Israel, 3601 W. Dempster St., Skokie. The synagogue will open at 12:30 p.m. to accommodate JGSI members who want to use or borrow genealogy library materials, get help with genealogy websites on the Internet, or ask genealogical questions before the main program begins at 2 p.m.