Who We Are

Welcome to the Jewish Genealogical and Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia (JGASGP), formerly the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia (JGSGP).

The JGASGP is a non-profit organization which functions through the voluntary efforts of its members; all of whom are encouraged to participate. The Society is governed by a Board of Directors, in accordance with the By-Laws of JGASGP.

The objectives of the Society are:

  • To collect, preserve and disseminate knowledge and information about Jewish genealogy.
  • To promote interest and encourage interested persons to engage in genealogical research.
  • To stimulate and provide instruction in research methodology, the utilization of resources and adherence to standards of accuracy and thoroughness.
  • To foster careful documentation and to promote scholarly genealogical writing and publication.
  • To promote the preservation of genealogical records and resources.
  • To hold meetings for the instruction and education of its members and the public.
  • To provide continuous assistance and follow up to prospective members and current members.
  • To increase awareness of all the genealogical sources that are available for research.
  • To continue the mission of the former Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center (PJAC)

 

Background

The former JGSGP was founded in 1979 by a small group of individuals interested in researching their Jewish heritage. Since then, the membership of the society has grown to over 400.  While most of the membership resides in the greater Philadelphia area, we also have members from across the USA, Canada, the UK, France, and Israel.

Meetings

General meetings are held monthly on a Sunday, except for July and August.  Please refer to the homepage for start times, topics, and meeting locations.   Our well-attended meetings feature outstanding speakers and recognized experts from all areas of Jewish genealogy.

 

Book Club meetings are held once monthly on the last Wednesday of the month on Zoom. We choose books by Jewish authors or ones that have a Jewish theme.

 

Everything Genealogy (EG) meetings are held on the first Monday of the month on Zoom. We encourage all members to join us, ask brick wall questions, share new finds and offer advice to other members.  We enjoy socializing and encouraging our research potential.

 

Projects

JGASGP is excited to present our 2024 Greater Philadelphia Jewish Genealogical Resource Guide for our membership.  This major work is a freshly researched update to the original directory created for the 2009 IAJGS conference we hosted in Philadelphia.

 Our recently revised  2024 Getting Started with Jewish Genealogy Guide is listed under Publications on our website. 

 We have our own  JGASGP Family Finder  listing ancestral surnames, town names , and countries of our members. You can request the e-mail contact of any member from Marilyn, Membership VP, membership@jgasgp.org.

We are very community focused and our past projects include the collaboration with the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center in which JGASGP members indexed thousands of pages of Passage Order Book records from the Blitzstein, Lipschutz, and Rosenbaum ethnic/immigrant banks.

In 2006, this project was awarded the Outstanding Programming/Project at the 26th IAJGS conference on Jewish Genealogy in New York City.  The indexes are available at JewishGen.org.  Another project, the indexing of the Jewish Exponent Obituaries, can be viewed at JewishGen.org.  These indexes include thousands of records beginning with the year, 1887.

 

The Har Jehuda Project 2024  has digitized over 26,000 burial records. The bulk of this work was completed by a group of 30 volunteers. Data from both Har Nebo and Har Jehuda are currently on our website.   We are currently completing the addition of the Har Hasetim burial records.   We look forward to announcing our completing of these cemetery records before 2027.

 

Publications

Chronicles is the quarterly journal of the JGASGP and has received worldwide acclaim. In 2005, and most recently again in 2020, Chronicles was honored with The Outstanding Publication Award of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies [IAJGS] in recognition of an outstanding journal, newsletter, or other publication by a member organization that furthers Jewish genealogical research. Our members submit scholarly articles that are reviewed by our editorial board.  If chosen, they will be published in our e-mail and our hard copy versions.

 

Library

The JGSGP’s (JGASGP) excellent library contains many of the more important reference and descriptive works in the field of Jewish Genealogy.  The library also contains a large selection of pamphlets, newsletters from other Jewish Genealogical Societies, and a large and varied selection of audio tapes of various lectures about specific aspects of Jewish Genealogy. The JGASGP library collection is housed at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

 Speakers  Bureau 

We currently have 8 speakers who offer a variety of lectures about Jewish Genealogy.  Are you interested in having someone speak about “Jewish Genealogy” for your organization?  For more information, please select each individual and read about their different talks.  If you want to volunteer as a speaker, or want more information, contact Marilyn, Membership VP, membership@jgasgp.org

 

Membership

Membership is open to anyone interested in researching their Jewish roots. To join, please complete the Membership Application Form found on our website and mail it along with your dues or pay online with PayPal. Hard copies of Chronicles are $15 extra per year. 

 

Facebook

We have a Facebook page (Jewish Genealogical and Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia) where information, postings and comments are shared.  You do not have to be a paid subscriber to JGASGP to join this group

 

IAJGS Affiliation

The JGASGP is a member society of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS). The IAJGS is an independent non-profit umbrella organization coordinating the activities and annual conference of more than 75 national and local Jewish genealogical societies around the world. It was formed in the late 1980’s to provide a common voice for issues of significance to its members, to advance our genealogical avocation, and to coordinate items such as the annual Jewish Genealogy Conference.

 

JGASGP co-hosted the IAJGS International Conference in 1989, 2009 and 2024.   We were proud to be the Local Co-hosts of the 44th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy held in Philadelphia from August 18th-August 22nd, 2024. 

 

We are very proud of our accomplishments and hope you consider joining us as we provide continuous assistance and guidance to our members.