Speaker: Jeff Edelstein

On January 23^rd Jeff Edelstein, Digital Initiatives Manager at the JDC Archives, will give a presentation, Czech Records in the JDC Archives Names Index, following Madeline Vadkerty’s featured talk. He will discuss records of Czech Jews recently added to the JDC Archives Names Index. These include an index of Emigration Service Case Files from JDC’s Prague Office, 1945-1950; a set of index cards from JDC’s Vienna Office of Jews who fled Czechoslovakia during the period of the Prague Spring, 1967-1968; and an index of transmigrants from across Eastern Europe who received assistance from JDC in Vienna and Rome during the Cold War era, 1946-1988.

Jeff Edelstein’s responsibilities at the JDC Archives include management of the collections database and website, the digitization of text collections, and the JDC Archives Names Indexing Project. Prior to his arrival at JDC in 2013, he had a long career in academic reference publishing, culminating as project director of The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. He has presented on digital resources of the JDC Archives at numerous conferences and workshops, including the Association of Jewish Libraries, the Association of Jewish Studies, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archivists Conference (MARAC), and the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS). His publications include articles in Jewish Culture and History, Metropolitan Archivist, and the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. Edelstein holds a BA from Amherst College, an MA from Columbia University, and an MS in Library and Information Science from the Pratt Institute.