Next Zoom Meeting: Wed. March 4th @ 7pm

Ralph Cilevitz traces the arc of South African Jewish history - from the small shtetls of the Pale of Settlement in Eastern Europe to the dorps and cities at the southern tip of Africa.

We follow three lives across 125 years: Joseph, the boy who stepped off the ship with nothing but a name and a small suitcase; David, the man who built a Jewish home under a tin roof; and Ralph, who came of age during apartheid and saw his world shift. Through them, we uncover not only one family’s story, but the quiet transformation of an entire community.

Ralph Cilevitz was born in South Africa and studied electronic and mechanical engineering before emigrating to Canada in 1979. He has had a career spanning 40 years as an industrial inventor/developer in the high tech and packaging industries. Based in Toronto, he is a board member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto.

This meeting is open to the Public

Non-Members of the JGSBC - Please REGISTER to receive the Zoom link

Note the start time of 7pm. People should join the link 5-10 min before that.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of British Columbia (JGSBC), a non-profit organization, brings together people who are interested in pursuing their Jewish ancestry or family history. Together with the Jewish Museum and Archives of BC we try to restore the history and family links that time has erased.

While there are many resources available on the internet, their use does require some skill and training. Many traps await the unwary: name changes, spelling errors, the same name for two different people, the many vagaries of census takers, clerks and other takers of record. The difficult task of digitizing the records has led to other errors creeping in. We will help you to avoid those pitfalls and develop an accurate and descriptive family tree. If you are interested in joining us, you can pay for a yearly membership here. Any questions? – send us an email.

This site also has links to resources (including Jewish newspaper archives) that we have found useful in our research.

JGSBC is a member of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies