Deborah Berman

Prayer Book Returned to Family of Original Owners Murdered in the Holocaust

In September of 1938 Shmuel Rosenberg of Hajdunanas, Hungary presented his daughter Margitte with a Machzor – a special prayer book for the Jewish High Holidays. Rosenberg, a Melamed - a teacher of Jewish studies, lovingly inscribed the Machzor in poetic Hebrew, as follows: “I purchased this for my remarkable daughter as a reflection of my deep love for her/ to inspire her heart to pray from this finely crafted book/ in her youth, in her father’s home.” In the aftermath of the war torn... Continue reading

His Legacy Lives on – an Encounter at the Museum of Holocaust Art

I am a proud descendant of the Jewish artist Carol Deutsch, my great uncle, who was murdered during the Holocaust. This week I had the honor of accompanying my aunt, Josette Deutsch-Nelson, Carol's niece and her son Philip Nelson on an emotional visit to Yad Vashem’s Museum of Holocaust Art, where Deutsch's works are on display. Josette was only five years old when she and her parents and two brothers fled Antwerp in May 1940, just days after the German invasion. Fleeing to Spain and... Continue reading

Remembering, Discovering, and Connecting at Int'l Jewish Genealogy Conference

This year's annual 35th International Conference on Jewish Genealogy – held in Jerusalem every decade - turned out to provide a remarkable moment for IAJGS participant Susan Edel, a dedicated genealogist from Petah Tikva, Israel. During a lecture she attended given by Dr. Haim Gertner, Director of the Yad Vashem Archives, she was surprised to see an image of the sheet music of her great-great grandfather, the famed Jewish composer I.M Japhet, projected on the screen before the crowded lecture... Continue reading

Daughter of Survivors Learns About the Family She Never Got to Meet

Monique Keppler, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, recently submitted to Yad Vashem some 400 names of her extended family members who were murdered in the Shoah.  Through extensive genealogical research, Keppler traced her family line back several hundreds of years. However, when it came to the Holocaust period, she did not know much. Her parents rarely spoke about their past or about their family story during those dark days. Monique knew that her family were natives of Amsterdam and that... Continue reading