News Archive

General History, Governments, Maps
Bessarabia Maps. WWII Aerial Topographical Maps covering many Bessarabian towns and shteitlakh.

Towns, Shteitlakh. Lipkany, Moldova
The Lipkani That Was. Video produced by Bat Ami Strul.

History of Jews in Bessarabia
David Goberman. Carved Memories: Jewish Tombstones of the Russian Pale, 2000, Rizzoli International Publications Inc., NY.
David Goberman. Jewish tombstones in the Ukraine, 2001, Iskusstvo - St. Petersburg, Russia.

Holocaust in Bessarabia
Yahad in Unum: Catholics and Jews joins hands for Holocaust victims.

Jewish Cemeteries
A new section was added with following information:

• Photograph Collections.
• List of existing Cemeteries in Bessarabia, currently Republic of Moldova and regions in Ukraine (donated by Arkadiy Verzub, Cleveland, OH).
• Proejct 6. Four town translation/transliteration of Cemetery lists.
  Lipkany 1940-1992 lists are completed and available on site.
  Need transaltors for Brichany, Orgeev and Kishinev lists.
• Project 7. Beltsy cemetery project - photographing and indexing graves. The first Phase of the project be ready in spring of this year.
• Directions to Cemeteries.

Photo Gallery. New additions for towns of:
Kalarash
Izmail
Kiliya
Orgeev

Family Tree. New additions:
Parkansky-Erlijman Family, by Ariel Parkansky.

Family Memoirs, Stories. New additions:
Vaysman family from Kishinev, by Yuliy Vaysman.

History of Jews in Bessarabia:
The Jews of Moldova, by Dr. Clara Jignea, Professor Yakov Kopansky and Semion Shoikhet. The Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation.

Current Research Projects:

3. Towns and Shtetlakh where Jews lived in Bessarabia (Geographical Dictionary). Dictionary was updated on 12/26/2011.

7. Beltsy cemetery project - photographing and indexing graves. Proposal was approved by JewishGen, and the project is among Bessarabia Generosity Projects, where people donating money for the work to be completed.

17. Transliterate Landsmanshaften groups records for towns and districts in Bessarabia. The draft of the table is available at the website.

A new task:
20. Yiddish Theatre biographies. A joined project with Museum of Family History. Translate biographies from 'Lexicon of Yiddish Theatre' by Zalmen Zylbercweig. There are total of 84 actors, writers and others involved in Yiddish Theatre from Bessarabia from towns of Akkerman, Beltz, Bendery, Calarasi, Khotin, Faleshty, Dombroveny, Kiliya, Lipkany, Orgeev, Ataki, Soroki, Teleneshty, Sekureny, Zguritsa, Skuleny, Markuleshty, Kagul, Brichany. 36 biographies are already translated. A biography is a printed article from 1-5 pages long. All 84 biographies will be accessible through Bessarabia SIG website and also from certain KehilaLinks websites.
Please contact Yefim Kogan for more details (yefimk@verizon.net).

Additional Reading: books, articles. New additions:
Vladimir F. Wertsman 'Salute to the Romanian Jews in America and Canada, 1850-2010'.

Photo Gallery. New additions for towns of:
Akkerman
Beltsy
Bricheva
Kishinev
Sokiryany
Soroki
Tiraspol

Family Memoirs, Stories. New additions:
The early years of Joseph Meites, by Mable E. Meites.
Tulchinsky's Family, by Beth Gamulka.
Ida Weinhouse's fluden forms, by Harvey Kabaker.
Meites family by Yuliy Vaysman.

Travel to Bessarabia. New additions:
Travel to Soroca (Soroki), by Marla Raucher Osborn.
Ghosts in Soroca, by Brock D. Bierman.
Crossing the River Prut, by Marcel Glaskie.

Family Tree. New additions:
The Vagman family of Akkerman (Bessarabia), by Vincent Vagman.
Descendant List of YAKOV 'Kopel' Pustilnik, by Stephanie Newman.

This is the website of the recently established JewishGen Bessarabia Special Interest Group. As any new website, it will be evolving, and we encourage readers to visit it periodically and also submit materials, family histories, photos, trip reports, etc for sharing with others who have ancestors from Bessarabia. We are especially interested in hearing your suggestions as to what can improve the site and make it more helpful.