Since the Institute opened in January 2006, it has made considerable progress.

Its strides forward can be summed up in the following headlines:

• September 2006: A well-attended international symposium was held, thus putting the Institute on the academic map.¹

• Prominent scholars have been brought into the Institute’s activities.

• In the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, research grants were awarded for innovative projects in the field of Jewish genealogy, in the form of both “pure” and “applied” research.²

• At present (2012), 15 projects of different kinds are in progress, at various levels of maturity.

• Several final reports on the “pure research” projects have been posted on this Website.

• One of the “applied research” projects has inspired a technological breakthrough in the field of soundexing.³

• Algorithms for the merging of genealogical datasets (burial and civil records) were successfully tested.⁴

• A standard for recording names, dates and places in genealogical databases has been proposed.⁵

• A glossary of genealogical terms in Hebrew is being produced.

• Several academic articles about the Institute’s work and research have been published (and posted on this Website).

• August 2009: A precedent-setting panel, wholly devoted to Jewish genealogy, was sponsored by the Institute at 15t^th Congress of the World Union of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem), thus according a measure of academic recognition to Jewish genealogy as sub-branch of Jewish Studies for the first time.⁶

• July 2010: The Institute sponsored a 2^nd panel on Jewish genealogy at the 9^th Congress of the European Association of Jewish Studies (Ravenna).⁷

• August 2010: a positive “Performance Review”, covering its first four years of operation, was received from a highly-qualified outside observer, Prof. Yona Ettinger, of Jerusalem.

• In November 2010, the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCOJEC) and the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council (GJRC) expressed interest in a demographic and genealogical survey of Scottish Jewry since its inception, as proposed by the Institute ⁸

• April and May 2011: this 3-4 year project, under the name of “Two Centuries of Scottish Jewry – a Demographic and Genealogical Profile” was endorsed by all parties and launched.

• June 2011: “Academic Guidelines” for BA and MA courses in Jewish Genealogy were posted in various formats under “TEACHING/Teaching” on this Website.

• August 2011: a paper entitled “IIJG - 5 Years of Progress” was presented at a Plenary Session of the 31^st Conference of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) in Washington DC.⁹

• September 2011: a report on the Institute and its activities was made at the 7^th International Colloquium of the International Academy of Genealogy in Bologna, Italy. ¹⁰

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¹ For the 2006 International Symposium, see the EVENTS section of this website.
² For the Institute’s ongoing projects, see the RESEARCH section.
³ For the “Phonetic Matching” soundex system (BMPM), see the TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES section.
⁴ For the “Matching Datasets” system, see the TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES section.
⁵ For the proposed “Data Entry” system, see the STANDARDS section.
⁶ For the Institute’s panel at the WUJS Congress, see the EVENTS section.
⁷ For the Institute’s panel at the EAJS Congress, see the EVENTS section.
⁸ Click here for an article by Neville Lamdan on the proposal to SCOJEC and GJRC, published in Four Corners, 28 (December 2010)
⁹ Click here for the 5-Year Progress Report.
¹⁰ Click here for the Report on the Institute and its activities.