German SIG

Contact: Jeanette Rosenberg OBE

Are you researching German-speaking ancestors? Would you like to start, but don't know where to begin or have you reached a 'brick wall' or just want to share information?

Novices, intermediate and experienced researchers are all welcome at the German Special Interest Group of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain. Please feel free to contact me if you need assistance with any aspect of your German Jewish Genealogy. I may not always have the answer, but I might just know someone who does!

Jeanette

About this Special Interest Group

Our coverage includes other German-speaking areas such as Austria, parts of Switzerland, Alsace, Lorraine, Austria, Bohemia and Moravia. We also include the areas that our German Speaking families went to, when leaving Europe in WW2.

The JGSGB German Special Interest Group meets quarterly in Edgware, we have over 100 members, with about 10-20 attending each meeting in person, with others attending virtually. While at the meeting the attendees make use of the very large (and ever growing) collection of books on German Jewish genealogy, local histories and general genealogy books in the SIG Convenor's library.

If you would like to find out more about the Group, please get in touch - because new members are always welcome! Remember you don't have to attend meetings or to live in London to be a member!

Whether you want to volunteer or only want to share information, do get in touch.

Places to Visit:

UK

Wiener Holocaust Library

29 Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 5DP - Tel: 020 7636 7247 Please contact them before visiting. For more information visit https://wienerholocaustlibrary.org/

Leo Baeck Institute London Library at Queen Mary University of London (Mile End campus)

For more information, see https://www.leobaeck.co.uk/library/leo-baeck-institute-london-library

Please contact the library before visiting.

German Jewish Collections from The Centre for German-Jewish Studies at the University of Sussex at The Keep, Brighton

Visit https://www.thekeep.info/ for further information.

USA

Center for Jewish History USA 15 West 16 Street, New York, New York, NY 1011 USA www.cjh.org

The Ackman & Ziff Genealogy Institute https://genealogy.cjh.org/ offers a wealth of resources to help explore and discover your family history. You can contact the Genealogy Institute by e-mail or visit in person whilst in New York. The Centre's website contains a virtual exhibit on the genealogical resources, genealogy fact sheets, a section on frequently asked questions and much more. Constituent members of particular interest are:

Leo Baeck Institute USA 15 West 16 Street, New York, New York, NY 1011 USA http://www.lbi.org/ They have also put many of their resources online, see Digibaeck https://www.lbi.org/collections/digibaeck/

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research 15 West 16 Street, New York, New York, NY 1011 USA USA Library and archive of data from Yiddish-speaking lands. https://www.yivo.org/

Kalikow Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, see https://mjhnyc.org/kalikow/

Germany

The Central Archives for Research on the History of the Jews in Germany

Bergheimer Str. 147, Gebäude C, 69115, Heidelberg Germany https://zentralarchiv-juden.de/ Please note that this website is in German.

Israel

Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People now part of the National Library of Israel https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/archives/cahjp

The Archive for the History and Heritage of the German-speaking Jewry in Israel https://hcges.haifa.ac.il/agsji-archive/ is being incorporated into the Haifa Center for German and European Studies (HCGES) https://hcges.haifa.ac.il/ to be named the Archive for the German-speaking Jewry in Israel

Useful Websites

Austria-Czech Research Division http://www.jewishgen.org/AustriaCzech

German Jewish Research Division http://www.jewishgen.org/GerSIG

Genteam (Austria) https://www.genteam.at/en/

Alemannia Judaica https://www.alemannia-judaica.de/

Juedische Gemeinden https://xn--jdische-gemeinden-22b.de/

 

Our meetings are recorded and Society members can view such recordings in the Members Area: