Schedule of Upcoming Events

Please note: Meeting times, dates, locations and speakers are subject to change.

Information is regularly updated. 

Our meetings will be in-person AND online whenever possible and safe, and for members who do not live near the Philadelphia area.

 

Our events are USUALLY scheduled on the same day and time each month, e.g., first Monday for Everything Genealogy. However, they might be moved to another week to work around Jewish or national holidays or other events. Our presentations/speakers may vary depending on the speaker’s availability.

Sunday, July 26, 2026

1:30 PM (1 PM for Schmoozing and Mentoring)

Zoom Meeting

 

Speaker: Tammy Hepps, Genealogist and Local Historian

 

 

 

Tammy Hepps is a genealogist and local historian who focuses on topics within American Jewish history, especially small towns and synagogues. Her projects combine research techniques from genealogy and history and draw heavily upon her technology expertise to break new ground in data gathering and interpretation. She is best known for her community reconstitution project focusing on the Jewish community of Homestead, PA, available online at HomesteadHebrews.com. Tammy earned her AB in computer science from Harvard.

Topic: The Margarine Moonshiners from Minsk:  A Journey Through Lesser-Known Records

 

Join me for a rollicking genealogical journey tracing a group of brothers and brothers-in-law recently immigrated from Minsk, who landed in Pittsburgh with the goal of selling margarine as butter in defiance of one the stranger pieces of legislation ever passed. Numerous lesser-known historical and genealogical repositories will be discussed as I retrace my multi-year journey to understand why this “crime” landed them all in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary and offer advice for how you can better pursue the fascinating leads in your own tree when you think more broadly about what records are out there.

There will not be a meeting in August

TENTATIVE

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

6 PM

Hybrid Meeting, In person location TBD

Co-hosted by HAMEC (hopefully)

 

Speaker: Robert Watson, Historian and Professor

 

 

Robert Watson is a professor, author, historian, media commentator and community activist. He joined the faculty of Lynn in 2007 after spending 15 years teaching at universities around the country. He has published over 45 books and approximately 200 scholarly articles, essays and chapters on topics in history and politics. His recent books America’s First Crisis, The Nazi Titanic, The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn, George Washington’s Final Battle, Escape, When Washington Burned, and America’s First Plague have received critical acclaim. More at https://www.lynn.edu/campus-directory/people/robert-watson.

 

Topic: The History of Antisemitism

 

Dr. Robert Watson, a distinguished professor of history, explores the long and tragic history of anti-Semitism—one that spans cultures and countries over the millennia— and reveals the underlying sources of hate, how it has endured over time and the “justifications” behind countless horrors.

 

Sunday, October 11, 2026

1:30 PM (1 PM for Schmoozing and Mentoring for in-person attendees)

Hybrid Meeting, In person location Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, PA

 

Speaker: Karen Franklin, Professional Genealogist and Speaker

 

 

Karen S. Franklin is Director of Outreach for JewishGen and Director of Family Research at the Leo Baeck Institute. She is a past president of IAJGS, and has served as chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums, the Memorial Museums committee of the International Council of Museums, and played leadership roles in many other professional organizations.

 

Topic: Researching the Rescuers: The Story of Survival in Southern France

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, November 15, 2026

1:30 PM (1 PM for Schmoozing and Mentoring)

Zoom Meeting

 

Speaker and Topic TBD

 

 

Sunday, December 13, 2026

1:30 PM (1 PM for Schmoozing and Mentoring for in-person attendees)

Hybrid Meeting, In person location Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, PA

 

Speaker: Andrew Zalewski, Gesher Galicia’s Historical Research Advisor

 

 

Dr. Andrew Zalewski is a former professor of medicine at Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He has written two books on Austrian Galicia: Galician Trails: The Forgotten Story of One Family and Galician Portraits: In Search of Jewish Roots, both of which reconstruct the story of his ancestors within a broader historical context. During his term as vice president of Gesher Galicia, a non-profit Jewish genealogy organization, he led archival research on Jewish physicians, Jewish cultural transformation and legal rights in Galicia. Currently, as a research advisor to Gesher Galicia, he coordinates a multi-year project that examines the Jewish experiences in the Soviet-occupied former eastern Galicia. His previous research received support from the National Fund of the Republic of Austria; the Malcolm Stern grant; and contributions of Gesher Galicia members.

 

Topic: NKVD Files: on the Margin of the Holocaust

 

Shortly after the start of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded Poland and annexed its Eastern territories. This talk examines Jewish experiences in former Eastern Galicia (now Western Ukraine), based on the files of the Soviet internal security apparatus (NKVD). Among those arrested by the NKVD were Polish Jews — comprising both pre-war residents of Eastern Polish territories and refugees from areas under German occupation — as well as former Jewish citizens of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Jews from Germany, Hungary and Romania. This presentation aims to illustrate the extensive data available in the NKVD files.

 

JGASGP member Avivah Pinsky will explain the interesting find in the NKVD files of a member of her husband’s family.