Our mission is to preserve Litvak heritage by discovering, collecting, documenting, and disseminating information about the once vibrant Jewish community of Lithuania.
How to Join LitvakSIG
LitvakSIG maintains several web sites.
This is the portal to our Member’s Site. It contains research aids, links to resources, and organizational records. This site is available to all persons who have paid $36 dues for the current calendar year.
If your membership has expired or if it is time to renew your dues, you can pay your dues at our secure website:
http://litvaksig.org/contribute
When you pay your dues, the treasurer will add your name to the member list for this portal. You will receive an invitation from Shutterfly. You will need to register for Shutterfly to access this site.
If you have done all this, you should see tabs on the bar above this message. When you click on a tab, there are a variety of links, article, and data files.
For questions related to your Membership and dues payment status only, please contact the LitvakSIG Treasurer, Eden Joachim at treasurer@litvaksig.com
For questions related to registering for the LitvakSIG Members Website on Shutterfly, please contact the Webmaster@litvaksig.com
LitvakSIG Research Groups
A description of each of our Research Groups is posted on the public web site at:
By contributing to a Research Group at the $100 level you will gain access to the Research Group's web site. Most of these are also Shutterfly sites and can be managed using the same log in and password if you use the same e-mail address.
LitvakSIG Public web site
Our public site is available at: http://litvaksig.org/
or can be accessed from JewishGen.org by following the links to RESEARCH, then SIGS.
LitvakSIG Discussion Group
A free e-mail group(hosted by JewishGen) for people interested in their Lithuanian Jewish genealogy. You can learn the details and subscribe from the LitvakSIG website:
http://www.litvaksig.org/digest
LitvakSIG is entering its 15th year with more than 1 million records translated, predominantly by the District Research Groups, with many more yet to be translated.
Maintaining the current Qualifying Contribution amount, which for most Districts is $100, is no longer sufficient to support the continuing translation work of the District Research Groups. The volume of data translated and made accessible has grown dramatically.
After much discussion, the Board of Directors of LitvakSIG has voted unanimously to institute a new policy for contributors to District Research Groups. This policy is effective January 1, 2012.
The Board has decided that the solution which makes sense will be to limit a contributor's early right of access to the data translated by district research groups to a period of five years from the year in which the qualifying contribution was made. The five year cycles are based on a calendar year, not the date of the contribution.
A qualifying contribution will count for the year in which it is made, regardless of the month in which it is made. Example: A qualifying contribution made on June 1, 2010 will allow access through December 31, 2014. (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 = 5 years)
The qualifying contribution for Telsiai District will be $100 as of January 1, 2012.
The qualifying contribution for Vilnius District will be $100 as of January 1, 2012.
For contributors to district groups with a Shutterfly site: If you have not made contributions totaling $100 since January 1, 2007, you will lose your access to the Shutterfly site effective January 1, 2012. Your access will be reinstated when your contribution level reaches the qualifying amount of $100. As in the past, smaller contributions are still appreciated and encouraged, and they will be viewed cumulatively during that 5 year cycle, in order to reach the qualifying level for access.
There are only two district research groups without Shutterfly sites - Lida and Trakai. Early access to the data for those districts is via email distribution of excel files and the same loss of access will apply.
For contributors to our newest district research groups for Klaipeda (Memel) and Svencionys – this policy change will not affect you until January 1, 2015 at the earliest.
Contributions made after the Yom Kippur holiday, will be considered as made in the following calendar year. If you made a contribution to a district research group since October 8, 2011, it will be considered as a contribution made in calendar year 2012.
The Board of Directors of LitvakSIG, your fellow researchers and I appreciate your financial support of our work in fulfilling our mission statement and guaranteeing that the LitvakSIG website at www.litvaksig.org continues to be the premier source for Litvak family history research.
Thank you for your understanding, cooperation and future philanthropy.
Eden S. Joachim
President
Howard Margol has returned from Lithuania. This year he found new information in the Lithuanian Archives and will be presenting his finds at the 31st IAJGS International Conference
on Jewish Genealogy
in Washington DC, August 14-19, 2011
SEE THE LIST OF NEWLY DISCOVERED RECORDS ON THE RESEARCH PROJECTS PAGE
The nine members of the Board of Directors of the LitvakSIG are elected in overlapping three year terms. The Board determines policies and makes decisions affecting the organization, especially research priorities.
Monthly Board meetings take place via international telephone conferences.
The Nominating Task Force is calling for nominations to the Board to fill the three Board positions that expire this year. Howard Margol, Dorothy Leivers, and Carol Hoffman currently fill these positions. If they seek reelection, they would be considered for new three year terms, along with others who wish to apply. In addition, a 4th Director position is currently vacant, and this term expires in two years.
Any dues paying member in good standing of LitvakSIG is eligible to submit a nomination, either for themselves or for someone else who is a dues paying member in good standing. All nominations to the board must include the nominee's biographical statement emphasizing relevant experience, and a summary of what skills that person can contribute to the Board. This information should be submitted to each of the five members of the Nominating Task Force.
There is no limit as to the number of nominees submitted to the Nominating Task Force; however, no more than four nominees can be recommended.
The report of the Task Force shall include the qualifications and bios of each candidate nominated and will be displayed on our Members' website.
In cases in which a candidate is also willing to serve as an officer (to be elected by the Board), the report of the Nominating Task Force will specify the office in which such candidate is willing to serve and his or her qualifications.
The period for submitting nominations for consideration by the Nominating Task Force will begin today and end as of midnight Eastern Daylight Time, on May 27, 2012. The Nominating Task Force will announce their recommended nominees on or before June 4, 2012, as per Article VIII, Section 2 of the LitvakSIG Bylaws.
In addition to the nominations by the Task Force, our Bylaws provide that any qualified candidates who are not recommended by the Task Force may nominate themselves, after the Nominating Task Force has announced its slate of nominees. Self-nominations can be sent beginning on June 5 through June 25, 2012. Their biographical statements, qualifications, and summary of what skills they can contribute to the Board will be presented along with the other nominees on our Members' web site. All names will be placed on the ballot in alphabetical order. Voting will take place primarily by e-mail during the weeks before the IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy, meeting in Paris, France in July. LitvakSIG members who do not vote before the meeting will be able to vote in person at the Conference at the beginning of the LitvakSIG Annual meeting on Monday, July 16, 2012.
Please submit your nominations to all five members of the Nominating Task
Force:
David B. Hoffman - Chair - dbh12345@aol.com
Judy Baston - jrbaston@aol.com
Sonia Hoffman - soniahoff1@aol.com
Charles B. Nam - charlesbnam@gmail.com
Bill Yoffee - kidsbks@verizon.net
If you have any questions, contact David Hoffman at dbh12345@aol.com.
