Plenty of convenient parking!

This program will be recorded and available on the members’ page.

Program Description:

From the late 1800s through the 1920s, the United States saw a huge influx of Jewish immigrants as they fled the difficult constraints placed upon them in Russia. The Baron de Hirsch played a pivotal role in assisting their immigration from Russia and their subsequent experience in the United States. This talk will trace the genesis of the efforts of Baron de Hirsch and the many ways in which he influenced the lives of our ancestors. We will then explore more in-depth one of his efforts, the Industrial Removal Office, which assisted the movement of Jews out of New York City to other areas in the United States, seeding future Jewish communities. In port cities such as Boston, there were often committees of the Baron de Hirsch Fund which provided additional support. We will take a look at what was offered through these committees and some of the additional efforts supported by the Fund that changed the immigrant experience of our ancestors.

Speaker bio:

Susan Weinberg is the immediate past-president and current treasurer of the Minnesota Jewish Genealogical Society (MNJGS), vice president of our international organization (IAJGS), and vice president of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest (JHSUM). She developed the Jewish Identity and Legacy Project, an oral history project with elders, and authored We Spoke Jewish: A Legacy in Stories. She also created and manages Kehilalinks (on JewishGen) for several ancestral towns. Weinberg, a frequent speaker and writer on genealogy topics, does genealogy research for clients worldwide.