JewishGen Talks: A Helping Hand for Immigrants: Baron De Hirsch

The Baron de Hirsch, one of the wealthiest people of his time, had ambitious goals to free the Russian Jew from constraints placed upon him in Russia. His solution was to assist them in leaving Russia. Many of those immigrants came to the United States and were assisted by programs proposed and funded by the Baron de Hirsch. Programs spanned agricultural colonies, trade schools, the Industrial Removal Office and the Galveston Plan. Many were focused on moving Jews out of New York and around the country. This talk will explore the circumstances that prompted Russian Jews to flee to America and the programs of Baron de Hirsch that facilitated their experience in America. We will focus more in-depth on such programs as the Industrial Removal Office, which moved immigrants around the country and supported them in finding employment, forming a nucleus that led to many of our Jewish communities of today.

About the Speaker:

Susan Weinberg is an artist, author, researcher, and frequent speaker on genealogy topics. Her creative work often involves storytelling and frequently explores family history themes. Susan came out of a long career in finance, and from that background brings a fondness for spreadsheets as analytic tools in her genealogy research. 
Susan is active in organizations within the world of Jewish genealogy, as president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) immediate past president of the Minnesota Jewish Genealogical Society (MNJGS), and vice president of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest (JHSUM). She is also a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG). 
Susan developed the Jewish Identity and Legacy Project, an oral history project with elders, then authored the book We Spoke Jewish: A Legacy in Stories that includes oral history, artwork, and history on three groups of Jewish immigrants who spanned the 1900s. Susan has created and manages Kehilalinks on the former Jewish communities of several ancestral towns. She writes frequently for publications on genealogy topics and does genealogy research for clients around the world.