It has been two years since we published our last newsletter:
not a sign that we have had nothing to say, but rather that we have
been too busy to step back and say it!
Most of the major activities of the CJCCC National Archives over
the past two years have been associated with the creation of the Canadian Jewish Heritage Network, a
database and website which CJCCCNA is developing in partnership
with the Jewish Public Library Archives of Montreal, sponsored by
the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation. The CJHN has been
designed as a gateway site to our collection descriptions and as a
platform for both individual and partnered displays. Other sections
of the website are intended to help teachers and Jewish community
record keepers. Long term goals for the CJHN project involve the
addition of additional partners to this platform, looking towards
making the site a true gateway for the use of Canadian Jewish
archives on a national level.
Getting our portion of the CJHN database online involved the
conversion of thousands of our internal database records into a
format compatible with the field structure used by the Archives
Online program developed by Andornot, a format already in use at
the JPL-A. Assisted by a succession of student intern assistants
(Kim Thompson, Jennifer Azimov, Loredana Caputo, and Shawna Satz)
we have prepared thousands of images and record descriptions for
the web, and hundreds of additional photographs and documents have
been scanned.
Meanwhile, thanks to a generous donation by Penny Rubinoff, we
were able to have an external company digitize two major sources of
genealogical information; 1) the 97,000 index cards created by JIAS
(Jewish Immigrant Aid Services) to keep track of all their clients
who passed through Montreal or contacted the Montreal office
between 1920 and 1988, and 2) almost 4000 forms describing the
situations of Jewish immigrants settled by the JCA on farms in
Western Canada and Quebec between 1906 and 1988.
Still with the help of the Rubinoff donation, we then
commissioned Andornot to design a separate genealogy-specific
database in order to permit the public to search these and other
name-related sources of information to the extent permitted by
Canada's Privacy Laws. This Family History search interface can be
found at http://www.cjhn.ca/en/family-history.aspx
While all this was going on, we continued to help the usual
volume and variety of on-site researchers and information seekers
from remote locations. We received several notable collections,
seizing upon some of them with alacrity as candidates for immediate
digitization. We weeded, catalogued, and interpreted documents from
commemorative pins to ledger books, with the help of our loyal
volunteers Willie Glaser, Shirley Sibalis, Naomi Caruso (before her
migration to Vancouver), and Aaron Krishtalka.
On June 2, 2010, CJCCCNA hosted the first ever face-to-face
meeting of the ACJAM, the Association of Canadian Jewish Archives
and Museums. This informal group, founded in 2003, includes the
heads of Jewish community archival repositories across Canada, as
well as several Jewish museums. Beginning with a dinner the night
before, the group met for a full day of sessions in CJCCCNA's
building, the Samuel Bronfman House. Appropriate to the venue, this
conference was also sponsored by the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman
Family Foundation.
During the morning session, each out-of-town participant was
asked to present a summary of the current state of their archives
or museum, with an emphasis on how information about their holdings
are organized in-house and disseminated via the internet. The
afternoon sessions focused on efforts to bring Montreal Jewish
archives online.
Attendance at the ACJAM conference added up to a total of 17
participants and 3 observers. Six of the participants were also
presenters at a session at the Association of Canadian Jewish
Studies annual conference, which was held on the previous day. This
"Archives Out Loud" panel session was organized by CJCCCNA's Janice
Rosen and the JPL-A's Shannon Hodge, and featured a montage of
illustrated readings from archival repositories across Canada.
Our next project is the official launch of the CJHN website,
scheduled for June 6, 2011. For further information about this or
any other item above, please contact us.