The late Professor Dov Levin was a renowned authority on Baltic Jews and on Eastern European Jewish communities in general. Born in Kovno Lithuania, he was a member of the Jewish resistance to the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators during World War II. Reached Palestine in 1945 and received his PhD in history at the Hebrew University in 1971. Rising to the rank of professor, retired (1995) as Director of the Oral History Division of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University. Has published 14 books and some 520 articles in Hebrew, Yiddish and English, many of which are of direct interest to Jewish genealogists. Among his English titles are Fighting Back: Lithuanian Jewry’s Armed Resistance to the Nazis, 1941-1945 (1985); Baltic Jews under the Soviets (1994); and The Litvaks: A Short History of the Jews in Lithuania (2000). Has wide genealogical interests, with a specialty in place names and surnames in Lithuania. Took part in several genealogical conferences and published frequently in genealogical reviews.

*Deceased, Jerusalem 2016.