Have you ever wanted to breathe the air of a shtetl - a small town in Eastern Europe with a large Jewish population prior to the Holocaust - where your ancestors lived?
Sol Sylvan, an experienced voyager to Eastern Europe, will explain what it takes at 12:30 p.m. Sunday in a talk at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road.
His talk, "The Nine Most Important Words You Need to Know Before Making an Ancestral Visit to Eastern Europe," covers advance preparation and research, making travel arrangements, hiring guides and translators and what you will encounter once you arrive.
Included will be a 21-minute video of his visit to Lviv and Lanovtsy and environs (in Ukraine, where Sylvan's father spent the first 23 years of his life).
Sponsored by the Tucson Jewish Genealogy and Oral History Group, the talk will focus on Eastern Europe: Galicia, Poland, the Russian Empire, Ukraine and Volyn.
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Topics will include cemetery research, documentation and preservation, Eastern and Central European research, Holocaust research, Jewish history and culture of the shtetl, travel experiences and advice on interviewing local people.
Sylvan wants to encourage people to visit their roots while there is still time to have contact with Holocaust survivors. Since 1995, he has been involved in family research and helping others online.
Between October 2002 and September 2011, his endeavors led to nine visits to Eastern Europe (including Warsaw, Treblinka and Krakow) and to Western Ukraine. His explorations in Ukraine have centered on Lviv, the Carpathians, Jewish Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk (his mother's home for her first 16 years) and numerous small towns throughout the region.
Retired from a career in building development and management, Sylvan also has done graduate work in anthropology and history. He is involved in maintaining and preserving the Mass Grave Memorial and Cemetery of Lanovtsy. He created a Lanovtsy town web page at kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/lanovtsy/lanovtsy.html and a translation of the town Yizkor Book at www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/Lanovtsy/Lanovtsy.html
Over the past eight years, Sylvan has made presentations to several chapters of the International Association of Jewish Genealogist Societies, including in Las Vegas, New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.
He and his wife, Katherine, are recent arrivals to Tucson; they live at Academy Village on the east side.
About the sponsor
The Tucson Jewish Genealogy and Oral History Group started as a small group of Jewish genealogists who met one another at a Jewish genealogy seminar held at Temple Emanuel about five years ago, according to Andy "Avi" Rosen, the group's coordinator.
The group meets from noon to 3 p.m. the second Sunday of each month at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road.
Each meeting covers a different topic, including exploring family myths, Jewish DNA and documented evidence about relatives escaping Nazi Germany.
Upcoming topics will include the uses of genealogy from medieval Spanish Jews, Rosen said in an email.
Each meeting also includes mentorship sessions for new genealogists.
Because of the community center's kosher food policies, it provides kosher snacks and asks that guests do not bring food.
Non-dues-paying members are requested to give a $5 donation at the door.
For more information, call or email Rosen at arosen2@cox.net or 237-6470.
If you go
• What: "The Nine Most Important Words you Need to Know Before Making an Ancestral Visit to Eastern Europe," a talk by Sol Sylvan
• When: 12:30 p.m. Sunday
• Where: Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road
• Cost: Suggested donation of $5
• Reservations: Call Andy Rosen at 237-6470 or email him at arosen2@cox.net
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