Walking the dog, I got into a conversation with a new neighbor who happens to be an obstetrician and Jewish. Still delivering babies though well past the usual retirement age, the joke goes that he's seen half the town naked - because he delivered them. Must say, he is up on genetic testing as well as invitro. He mentioned that he delivered a woman's grandchild, she being the surrogate for her daughter. He also told me - and I had not heard this before - WHY Jewish culture is matriarchal. Simply, "The men were taken away as slaves and the women had to carry on."
Jewish genealogy is extremely popular and there are many cooperative projects. Some of this, I feel, is part of the urge towards Americans finding their roots after forgetting about them for a couple generations, some of it is surely because of the devastating effect of the Holocaust on the Jewish people. DNA is adding an interesting aspect to genealogical research because some people are using it to try to confirm Jewish ancestry just as some are using it to try and confirm Native American ancestry.
My experience is that while some European Jewish records are superior to Christian records, because they give interesting information not found in most Baptismal records, overall there are special challenges. For instance the name of the midwife and/or the name of the Rabbi who did a circumcision, which may indicate the congregation or temple a family belonged to, is listed. This seems to be about a concern that the baby be handled in a kosher way and a certainty of Jewishness.
I once had a student who started the class with a negative attitude, that because her family had all "perished" she could not do genealogy. This is simply not true. Genealogy like history is so niche specific. At the time I was teaching that class there were websites for people to register themselves as survivors similar to the ones that match birth parents with children they gave up for adoption. I showed this woman where she could let the world know she survived and possibly someone would find her.
Today I find the Yad Vashem website to be increasingly comprehensive and a wealth of information.
Truly it seems as if there is more information on Jewish people of the holocaust era than ever.
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