In its efforts to have Jewish genealogy recognised as an academic discipline, the
Institute is primarily engaged in scholarly research.
Between 2006 and 2011, eleven “pure” research projects were launched, each quite
unique in its own way. Most have been successfully completed (final reports posted
on this site), while others are still “works in progress”, at different levels of
maturity.
The research projects are supervised by the Institute’s Academic Committee, headed
by Professor Sergio DellaPergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In its first year, 2006, the Institute launched
2 research projects “in-house”. Both were inter-disciplinary and in the category
of “applied genealogy”.
- A Genealogical Reconstruction of Destroyed Communities,
headed by Dr. Sallyann Sack.
- Sephardic DNA and Migration headed by Alain
Farhi.
In spring 2007, the Institute launched its
first Grants Awards programme for research proposals in a variety of genealogical
fields, including the production of tools and technologies for the advancement of
Jewish genealogy. Only two of the proposals submitted met the Institute’s standard
of academic excellence and thus just two awards were made, both to full professors
with strong credentials in the sphere of Jewish genealogy.
As mentioned, one proposal was in the category of “pure” historical genealogy:
- The Ties that Bind: Jewish Kinship Networks and
Modernization in Darbenai and its Diaspora, carried out by Prof. Eric Goldstein
of Emory University.
The other proposal was an interdisciplinary study combining genealogy with computer
sciences, falling into the “tools and technology” field (under TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES
in the Main Menu, see Strategies for the Integration
of Genealogical Datasets, conducted by Prof. Daniel Wagner of the Weizmann
Institute, with two research collaborators in Poland).
In spring 2008, the Institute announced
its second research competition, this time in six designated research areas. Three
awards were made in June, for studies combining genealogy with social, economic
and geographical history. Two of the grants were made to younger researchers.
- Crossing the Boundaries: Jewish Networks in Early-Modern
Italy between the Mediterranean and the New World (16th – 18 Centuries) proposed
by Dr. Federica Francesconi of the University Bologna.
- A Genealogically Centred Approach to the Historical
Geography of Eretz Yisrael: Case-studies of the Moyal and Chlouche Families in Jaffa
during the late Ottoman and British Mandatory Periods, proposed by Prof.
Ruth Kark of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and Dr. Joseph Glass of Toronto.
- The Notarial Archive of Cervera (Catalonia, Spain),
a source for the study of Jewish Genealogy, Migrations and Life in the Middle Ages,
proposed by Maria Jose Surribas Camps of Barcelona.
In September 2009, the Institute announced
the two successful proposals submitted some months earlier in the framework of the
Institute’s third research competition.
- A Systematic Study of the Riga House Registers
as a Source for Jewish Genealogy in Pre-War Latvia, proposed by a strong
team of experts, headed by Professor Rubin Ferber, Chair of the Center for Judaic
Studies at the University of Latvia in Riga.
- Communal Protocols and the Daily Life of Hungarian
Jews - Proposal for a new [Genealogical] Research Tool to be conducted by
Dr. Howard Lupovitch of the University of Western Ontario.
In September 2010, the Institute announced a single award for:
- Hungarian Jewish Families in the Modern Era - A Prosopographic Study of the Munks and Goldzihers, proposed by Dr. Erzsébet Mislovics of the University of Budapest
In October 2011, the Institute made two further awards for:
- Transfer of Goods – Transfer of Culture Jewish families and the tobacco monopoly in the Habsburg Monarchy, submitted by Dr. Louise Hecht of the Kurt and Ursula Schubert Center for Jewish Studies, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
- Sephardic Origins and Transformations in the Spanish Extremadura, proposed by Prof. Roger L. Martinez, of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Further details on all of these projects and their current status can be found separately on this Website - under RESEARCH on the Main Menu and via relevant links on the Sub-Menu, or directly via the links at the head of this page.
Publications
Several articles have been published about these research projects and their results.
Moreover, a number of scholars associated with the Institute have published articles about their work which in various ways dovetail with the Institute’s research program.
Click here
for bibliographical references to those articles.