Understanding the historical context of Jewish migration in the 18th and 19th centuries is key to researching your Ashkenazi Jewish ancestors.
Exploring the history of Ashkenazi Jews in the 18th and 19th centuries across Western and Eastern Europe, we find that they are repeatedly driven eastward towards Russia. The largest population of the Jewish faith lived in what today is Poland, until that country ceased to exist for all of the 19th century. Catherine the Great of Russia carved out the Pale of Settlement for the Jews from a vast tract of land primarily across Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine. We’ll explore the forced migration of the Jews across these countries into their chosen shtetls pre-WWII, as well as resources for family historians who are researching their Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. Presented by local genealogist Suzanne Hoffman.
This program is part of the library's "Stories of Exile" series taking place this fall. This series is the result of a grant awarded to Wilmette Public Library and twenty-seven other libraries around the country by the Yiddish Book Center. The Yiddish Book Center is a nonprofit organization working to recover, celebrate, and regenerate Yiddish and modern Jewish literature and culture. With this series, the Center hopes to use Yiddish literature as a lens to reflect upon the experience of exile, displacement, and migration shared across cultures and throughout history.
From the south: Go north on Green Bay Road. Turn left on Wilmette Ave. Turn right on Park Ave. Library is located on the corner of Wilmette Ave. and Park Ave. Parking lot is on the north side of the building.
From the north: Go south on Green Bay Road. Turn right on Wilmette Ave. Turn right on Park Ave. Library is located on the corner of Wilmette Ave. and Park Ave. Parking lot is on the north side of the building.
From I-94 (Edens Expressway):from the South - exit at Lake Ave. East. Go east on Lake Ave. a little over 2 miles. Turn right on Park Ave. • from the North - exit at Rt. 41/Skokie Blvd. Turn left (east) on Lake Ave. Go east on Lake Ave. a little over 2 miles. Turn right on Park Ave.
Mass transit options include CTA, Metra, and Pace.
