ST. LOUIS, Dec. 13, 2006 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The holiday season ushers in a flurry of activity as people ready themselves to re-enact rituals and carry on traditions inherited from parents and grandparents. For some, however, celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah brings up awkward feelings about religion, especially when these observances do not evoke an authentic spiritual link.
The reason? Although America has been praised as a melting pot of cultures and religions, many members of today's society simply do not know where their ancestors came from. The quest to find one's roots has become a fixation for people who want to discover connections and traditions that link them to their forebears.
A new not-for-profit organization, Shlach Amee V'yavdonee, offers free Jewish ancestry research to "lost Jews" through a meticulous process conducted by rabbis and genealogists. Founded by Midwest real estate developer Craig Shapiro, Shlach Amee V'yavdonee (www.shlachamee.org) is dedicated to helping "lost Jews" find their way back to Judaism.
Central to the research is the fact that Judaism is a maternally inherited trait, which means that one may not necessarily look Jewish or have a Jewish sounding name, but because a mother, grandmother or even fifth great-grandmother was Jewish, they too are Jewish. Or, as Washington Post writer Charles Krauthammer points out, "everyone is Jewish until proven otherwise."
Tracing Jewish roots, or knowing they exist, is often difficult because of two main factors. Between 1880-1924, one-third of the Eastern Jewish population emigrated. Among those, 90 percent chose America as home. Upon arrival at Ellis Island, many family names were changed, thus challenging future generations from tracing their roots. The fear of anti-Semitism combined with the desire to blend in with mainstream culture has prompted many Jews of the recent past to suppress or hide their origins completely, sometimes even from family members. But as increasing numbers of people, including various celebrities and politicians, are coming forward to uncover their genealogical past, the reluctance to acknowledge Jewish roots is lessening.
The burning questions for 34-year-old Wendy Armstrong, who was raised Christian, began after a discovery of records dating back to the 1880s. She found documents while on a spiritual quest at St. Vincent's Orphanage in St. Louis that indicated her third great-grandmother had been brought to the Catholic orphanage as an infant. The infant's father, a saloonkeeper who was forced to give up his two children after their mother died, had left a note in shorthand that said, "B'H, Forgive me please my G-d," and "take care of my children." B'H is an acronym used by Jews that stands for "Baruch Hashem," which translated means "Blessed is G-d." This demonstration of Jewish ancestry led Armstrong to the marriage record for the infant's parents which revealed the ceremony was performed by an Orthodox rabbi in 1865.
World-renowned genealogist and publisher Gary Mokotoff, director of research for Shlach Amee, assisted Armstrong and Shapiro in her search. After discovering Armstrong's roots and helping her prove them before a beit din, a Jewish Religious Court, Mokotoff was excited about the results. "It opens the doors for genealogical research to be used as the basis for people who are halachically (legally) Jewish to return to Judaism."
Shlach Amee adviser Rabbi Chaim Mentz also expressed excitement about the test case and the possibility of a major end gathering for Jews. "Twenty or 30 years from now, we could be bringing home hundreds of thousands of Jews. Imagine all the schools and synagogues that might be built as a result of the outgrowth of the community."
For Shapiro, the quest to find and confirm one's Jewish roots is both exciting and rewarding. "Often, it is what is not being said and done that hints at Jewish connectivity. For example, the family that, although devotedly Catholic, never baptized their children. The European grandparent or great-grandparent who never spoke of their childhood years in pre-WWII Europe. The missing pieces often shout louder than anything else that there is a secret waiting to be revealed and a story waiting to be told. It is our mission to help connect those pieces and tell those stories."
Shlach Amee V'yavdonee conducts family tree research for respondents throughout the world who demonstrate a genuine and sustained interest in Judaism. The organization is composed of Jewish genealogists, rabbis and researchers.
For more information about Jewish ancestry, visit www.shlachamee.org.
The Shlach Amee logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3136