Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Pikesville Library meeting room
1301 Reisterstown Rd, Pikesville, MD 21208
Speaker: David Brill Title: “Letters from a Judean” Date and Time: Sunday, June 28, 2015, 1:30 p.m. Location: Pikesville Library (meeting room), 1301 Reisterstown Rd, Pikesville, MD Please join the Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland for our next program, when our guest speaker David Brill presents “Letters from a Judean.” In February 1918, an 18-year-old American Jew named William Z. Porter left his home in Philadelphia to join the 39th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers—the Jewish Legion. Over the next several years, as he moved with the 39th from Windsor, Canada, to England, Egypt, and pre-Mandatory Palestine, William corresponded extensively with Brill’s maternal grandmother. Nearly 100 years later, these collected letters, postcards, photographs, and souvenirs form a remarkable record of a young man’s experience fighting with the “Judeans.” They also cast a fascinating light on subjects ranging from relations between Jewish and non-Jewish soldiers, to the vibrant Zionist youth culture of Philadelphia, to ordinary soldiers’ impressions of the Zionist leaders of the day. Brill’s grandmother kept these documents her entire life because she recognized their historic significance. In this presentation, David Brill describes the collection in detail and also discusses how he used JewishGen’s resources to find William’s descendants. David Brill has been researching his own family history in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, and the United States for over 20 years. He is Coordinator of the Russian Interest Group of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia and has been active in transliterating documents, including all existing Jewish and vital records for his ancestral shtetl of Usvyaty, Russia. He also maintains a KehilaLinks page for Tuchin, Ukraine. The program is free for paid members and $5 for non-members (applied to membership fee when a visitor joins JGSMD) after their first meeting. Refreshments will be available. Please check our web site at http://www.jgsmd.org for late updates and for the time, location, and program of future meetings.