Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto

UKRAINE Special Interest Group (SIG) Meeting open to JGS members and to the public

Jewish Life in Ukraine: A selected history from 800 to 1914

Speaker: Marla Waltman

VIRTUAL MEETING: Join from Home

Monday, 25 October at 7:30 p.m.

The JGS Toronto Ukraine Special Interest Group (SIG) provides an opportunity for members and registered guests to focus on subjects of interest for those with ancestors from Ukraine.

This presentation, “Jewish Life in Ukraine: A selected history from 800 to 1914”, will provide an introduction to the history of Ukraine as it pertains to Jewish settlement, from early recorded records, through the years of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian Empire, to 1914 and the start of the First World War. Given the length of the period covered, the presentation will examine the major political events and economic realities that had an impact on Jews and their neighbours. Its emphasis will be on the lands now part of modern Ukraine that were annexed by Catherine II (known as Catherine the Great by Russians) for the Russian Empire in 1772, and known as the Pale of Settlement.

Marla Waltman, a former President of JGS Toronto and current Board member, was born in Toronto. Her paternal grandparents emigrated to Canada from Ukraine in the 1920s following other family members who arrived as early as 1905. Marla received a B.A. in History and Anthropology from York University and an M.A. in History from Queen’s University. Over a 32 year career, she worked in Ottawa as an archivist at Library and Archives Canada, policy advisor on heritage institutions and the Canadian music industry at Canadian Heritage, policy chief at the Canadian Literacy Secretariat, and Chief of the Culture Statistics Program at Statistics Canada. Her passion is genealogical research and sharing what she has learned with others.

As the Ukraine SIG is always looking for topics of interest to genealogists with Ukrainian roots, members are encouraged to propose topics, and/or give a presentation on a topic of interest to those with an interest in Ukraine. Please contact Marla Waltman with proposed topics for future meetings: mwaltman@jgstoronto.ca.

To register, please go to the link https://jgstoronto.ca/register/. You will then receive an immediate acknowledgement plus the link to access the event .

The presentation will be recorded. It will be available only to JGS Toronto members in the “Members Only” section of the Society website, a few days after the event. It will also be available to non-member registrants for one week after the event in the “Registration” location.

To our guests, consider joining our membership for only $40.00 per year by going to the link
https://jgstoronto.ca/membership/ or consider a donation by going to the link
https://jgstoronto.ca/donate/ to assist us in continuing our mission providing a forum for the exchange of genealogical knowledge and information. (Canadians receive a CRA tax receipt.)