OUR SOCIETY'S LIFE _______________________________________________________ FAMILIES Daniel Vangheluwe shows the « Wealth of French, Belgian and US sources for immigrants to and through France ». The first part of his paper describes the specificities and quality of the various sources he has exploited over time, while at the beginning he had started with information from his relatives only. The examples he provides to illustrate his description originate in Eastern Europe, but the method he describes has a wider scope. The location of the repositories and how to peruse the data is provided. The article updates the relevant sections of Basile Ginger’s handbook on Jewish genealogy in France, Basile Ginger cooperating with the author. The second part, to be published in the next issue of Revue will show the genealogical discoveries made by the author on the Smietan, Tcherkoski and Gerson families.
Jean-Paul NETTER has met the former Olympic fencing champion Claude Netter, which has prompted his researching the Netter family from Gérardmer and its history. The author recalls the life of the most significant individuals. A descendent list assists in understanding the family relations.
_______________________________________________________ MISCELLANEOUS Laurent KASSEL and Jean-Pierre KLEITZ have co-operated in publishing the list of 16 first- born boys (1756 - 1868) who have been redeemed according to Jewish Law. The list is part of a Hebrew manuscript which the French National Library has recently acquired. The authors explain this redemption mitzwah which is documented for the first time in Exodus III, 1, thus just after the Hebrews fled from Egypt. The list has been set up by two successive Cohanim. The first is Jacob Kahn, easily identified. Finding the second Cohen proves more difficult but succeeds, thanks to the authors’ competence.
Eliane ROOS-SCHUHL recalls L. Blum, who operated a Jewish library in Paris from 1860 to 1889 and also published ritual books, which he might have translated or even written himself. As his full given name appears nowhere, there has been no clue yet to show that he is the same as the “teacher” Leopold Blum from the 1850 census. Eliane ROOS-SCHUHL discovers in one of his books his full name in Hebrew and confirms the identity ; she reconstructs his genealogy and the family’s history. Ernest KALLMANN publishes the third part of his article “The racist obsession of the National-Socialists and its impact on German-Jewish genealogy”. He provides the identification of the sources and their repositories, while showing that additional documents can be found and that research is not limited. Renato MINERBO has excerpted and translated an article by Abrahao GITELMAN in “Arquivo Historico Judaico Brasileiro” about the Jews from Alsace-Lorraine emigrated to Brazil from 1844 onward. After their native provinces had been annexed by Germany in 1871, they had to choose whether to remain French or become German (option de nationalité). A list of 49 individuals having chosen France is published (surname, given name, year of immigration, place of residence, département of origin).
_______________________________________________________ RECENT EVENTS Danièle FAREAU on her return from the International conference on Jewish genealogy in Jerusalem (July 2004) compliments the Israeli organizations and societies for the huge computerization of data bases available now. A list of these bases and their Internet addresses complements the article. Georges GRANER, webmaster of Cercle de Généalogie Juive announces the availability of a “Member’s corner” on its website. It contains information accessible to subscribed members only and requires a password. He also mentions a website of the well-known Rodrigues-Henriques family, a “Portuguese” Jewish family traced back to the 17th century in Bordeaux.
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