Jews of the United States umbrella project

Thanks Randy, great idea.

I joined http://www.geni.com/projects/Jews-of-Louisiana/16870 as a collaborator, added "tags" to make the project come up for me quickly in "search," and "related" the project to a couple (not many) for easier navigation.

I'll add resources for research as a start.

Thanks. Remember also to add a representative photo to the state projects you join.

A challenge: to find the first Jew born in each of our states. Still searching...

I'm assuming they don't have to be born there to be counted.

No limitations on these projects. I'll be happy if we can get some volunteers to finish setting each of them up.

http://www.geni.com/projects/Jews-of-Illinois/16865 is looking great.

When you say "representative photo" what do you mean - of whom ? And how do you add one ????

Hi Rick -

You upload an image or document to a project the same way as a profile.

First - you need to join as a collaborator to the state(s) of interest.
Then you use the "Photos and documents" link (upper right hand corner)

I would think any attractive, meaningful, relevant and tasteful image is fine, and there can always be more or a change -- just like you can have multiple images for a profile.

What kind of images would you like to see? Do you want profile photos, state maps or flags, etc ????

maybe one of the Goldwater in AZ but they did nt practice being a Jew
http://swja.arizona.edu/content/goldwaters

- I wouldn't go with state flags or seals; that's not "Jewish"
- an image of "earliest known born / arrived" is nice but may be hard go find or figure out
- earliest synagogue would be great

For Louisiana I went with the logo used for the Mardi GRAS parade group --

http://www.geni.com/projects/Jews-of-Louisiana/16870

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_synagogues_in_the_U...

Can you maybe share some of your thinking regarding what you hope to achieve with each of these projects. I mean is your goal to get every Jewish person from the state of NY in the NY project or are you more looking for a historical story of the Jewish history of each state? Just trying to understand the point.

Randy Schoenberg Please see post above.

Thank you Randy Schoenberg. I have added my Frankel (Peoria) and my Rubenstein (Rock Island and then Alton) relatives who immigrated to the Midwest and settled in Illinois in the 1870s - 1890s. I have another project about Jews from Volhynia who settled in the Midwest that i will link, if you don't mind.

We should have projects for North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiania, Texas, and Iowa. I can contribute to early immigration information for these also.

Thank you Erica! You read my mind. Of course it's really the Mississippi Delta :)

Jeffrey Alan Hart Do you think we could make the oldest generation of Levys of Mississippi and Louisiana and the Israels of Louisiana public profiles? They can't be added to projects as private profiles.

Wendi, I think it is up to each collaborator what he/she wants to do with the state project. Each one can be different. i definitely think there should at least be some information on the early Jewish pioneers. But you could also have subprojects on synagogue presidents and things like that. Or people could just tag anyone who lived in the state. I don't care too much how it goes, but wanted to set up the format so that people could experiment with it. I hope it takes off. New York is going to be a tough one, but there I would suggest starting sub-projects, so it doesn't get overwhelming. Probably not as necessary for North Dakota.

There was an exhibit sometime ago about the 50 states and their Jewish communities. I know because my cousin's family portrait was chosen to represent the Jews of North Carolina. That might be an interesting source for early history and material, if I can find the reference.

I know there is a great source for early history in South Carolina since I own that book and used it extensively and I also used an early source on the Jews of Iowa. Google Books has some of the early accounts of Jewish immigration to various states.

Thanks for the info Randy Schoenberg I always feel at a bit of a loss re projects, which is why I haven't gotten overly involved in any despite occasional efforts.

The earliest arrivers to the US in my family we Jewish in NYC in the 1850's. I'll see what if anything I can contribute of interest.

Wendi I have been thinking about Jews of NY - all 6 million of us - :). It's going to need specific sub projects. So perhaps a "sweep" (broad strokes) narrative for the State page, and then setup "related" project (s) for a focus area (micro history). A micro history could even be about a building - the one I grew up in would be great, and I'll probably get it going.

Erica Howton There could be literally hundreds of sub-projects depending on how detail oriented you want to get. A micro-history sounds interesting. Where did you grow up? I'll follow your lead as I'm at a bit of a loss. I'm a good researcher, but my brain doesn't wrap itself well around "projects" so I tend to stay in the background.

Wendi - start by adding your "earliest known" NY ancestor to the Jews of NY project. Then I'll take a look & brainstorm "related projects" with you. Sound good?

Private User tagging ... :)

In reading more and more about the projects on Geni I get the feeling
that this is turning more and more into a research site, and maybe taking too many twists and turns at once.

genealogy can encompass that Joyce I like the stuff I am seeing on here its fascinating and You cant get bored by any of this... I see the big picture with all of this. I have so much more work to do its a never ending job....

It is fun to have the variety of projects and to help create the framework to which others can add as they see fit. No need for perfection here.

I really enjoy projects (although that blank page is daunting!). I've found they've added to the context of understanding family history by looking at profiles in different ways than the traditional tree.

Ohio project is looking gorgeous! Thanks Ann Fuller (c)
http://www.geni.com/projects/Jews-of-Ohio/16888