CHAIRMEN'S MESSAGE

Dear Friends and Fellow Genealogists,

The Israel Genealogical Society (IGS) is delighted to invite you to the 24th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, which will be held in Jerusalem on July 4 – 9, 2004. The capital of Israel is a treasure trove of unique archival and family history resources unavailable anywhere else in the world! To walk over the very ground where it all began, to visit archeological sites unique to the Bible, to visit areas where your own ancestors might have lived, to meet with your Israeli cousins, is an experience you will not want to miss!

The Organizing Committee has spared no effort to make this event a resounding success. The Conference will provide an ideal stage for exchanging information and ideas regarding the ever-increasing influence and role of genealogical research in our time.

The Israel Genealogical Society, with the cooperation of Yad Vashem and scholars from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has prepared a rich and varied program of about 150 lectures, computer workshops, discussion panels and self-running (PowerPoint) presentations.

Come and take advantage of Jerusalem’s unique collection of repositories such as Yad Vashem, the Jewish National and University Library, the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, and the Central Zionist Archives. During the week of the Conference, most of these archives will be open to the participants for extended hours. Their Chief archivists will introduce you to their treasures. IGS Volunteers will assist you with languages. The GenealogyBus shuttle will get you there and back to the hotel. To prepare for your research, Yad Vashem staff present at the Hotel will identify the relevant items to be looked up in their Archives.

Come take a sneak preview tour of Yad Vashem’s soon to be opened Historical Museum and Hall of Names.

To help locate your Israeli relatives, The Voice of Israel will dedicate its well-known, daily radio program “Searching for your Relatives”, to selected Conference requests! Send us in advance complete details about the individuals or families you are searching for.

Participants will be able to Ask the Experts in short face-to-face consultations. Bookings for these sessions will be done at the hotel on a first-come first-served basis for the following day.

On-line registration is now open! Carefully read the conference information before proceeding to registration. The first 100 full-week registrants will be offered and shipped, free of charge, the Guide To Jewish Genealogical Research In Israel, courtesy of Avotaynu, Inc. (one book per family).

We wish to offer you and your family this unique opportunity to join us in Israel in July 2004. Be sure to check out the pre-Conference tour to the North and the special post-Conference genealogical tour to Safed!
Visit www.ortra.com/jgen2004 as additional details become available. We also recommend that you subscribe to the Jerusalem 2004 Discussion Group.

Sincerely,

The co-chairs

Jean-Pierre Stroweis,
Eitan Shilo,
Professor H. Daniel Wagner,