About

I grew up in the small town of Newport Rhode Island. My father arrived in the United States in 1921 with his mother's and sisters from white Russia. At the time it was in Poland, now it is in Belarus, and before WWI it was in Russia. He joined his father and an extended family...in what was virtually a transplanted shtetl. More than 50% of the Jewish community was from the Dokshitz area. I did not really understand this until recently.

I was always interested in history. In the 1990s I because interested in my family history. I sought out my family which had dispersed throughout the United States.   Eventually  relatives were found in Minsk who had no idea about their American cousins. It also led to my assisting in the founding of a non-profit organization. The Friends of Jewish Dokshitsy which helped the Dokshitsy District, Belarus to restore their Jewish cemetery. Along the way I reunited several families  that had been separated by geography, by the war and the holocaust, and the passage of time.

I am also a member of the  Pokross family from Gorodishche, Ukraine and the Karnovsky family from Ignatovka, Ukraine, which is 13 miles from Kiev.

In Newport, I think I was related to much of Jewish Newport. and have created a Jewish Newport Blog. My interest in Jewish Newport has lead to several articles in The Boston Jewish Advocate and in the Rhode Island Voice. I have been to Belarus, the Ukraine, and Israel repeatedly since 2007. What you like to join me on a trip?

  Often your research will lead to a wish to get together with your extended family. I have also been involved in planning several family reunions, and a shtetl reunion. Ihelp you plan a reunion. I can help you write your speech, or even be a speaker.