This is your opportunity to ask one of our Jewish genealogy experts a question to assist you in your ancestor search. Each maven will have their own breakout room. After a brief introduction, participants will proceed to their online breakout room. You can switch rooms at any time during the meeting. Please submit your questions to Gary Pokrassa at programming@jgsli.org by November 9. Below are some of the areas of expertise for our mavens:

* Rhoda Miller – LitvakSIG and Organizing your Genealogy

* Gary Pokrassa – Poland and Ukraine (especially the Alex Krakovsy files)

* Steve Turner – Galicia, Poland

* Chuck Weinstein – Ukraine and choosing genealogy software

All Mavens can answer questions on general genealogy and Jewish genealogy so these will be evenly distributed. We are requesting all questions in advance, so the mavens have an opportunity to conduct research and provide a quality answer. Please make your questions as specific as possible. The maven’s role is to direct you in your research, not conduct the research for you. We will take in-person questions after we exhaust all the questions submitted in advance.

Dr. Rhoda Miller -- Rhoda Miller, Ed.D., CG® has been a Certified Genealogist since 1998 specializing in Jewish research and Holocaust studies. Rhoda is a Past President of the JGSLI and currently serves on the Liaison Committee of the IAJGS. With JGSLI, she led the award-winning project of publishing Jewish Community of Long Island. She is a past board member of LitvakSIG and is currently the Coordinator for the Svencionys Research District. Rhoda retired as a Genealogist Researcher for Ancestry ProGenealogists. Gary Pokrassa -- Gary is the Data Acquisition Director for the Ukraine Research Division of JewishGen and Project leader for downloading scans made from Alex Krakovsky’s wiki pages and Ukraine Archive websites. He is the town leader for Zolotonosha and for Derazhnya UKR. He completed the Book of Sorrows Project (Holocaust based) for JewishGen as project leader on behalf of the USHMM, and contributed data to the JOWBR (Jewish On Line Worldwide Burial Registry.). He is a Board member and VP of Programming of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island, as well as a Board member of Jewish Records JRI-Poland. Dr. Steve Turner -- Steve is the President of Gesher Galicia. He is the founder of the Nadwórna Shtetl Research Group and is an active member of the Rohatyn and Sędziszów Małopolski Research Groups. Steven is quite devoted to preserving Jewish heritage and culture in the former lands of Galicia and partnered with the ESJF European Cemeteries Initiative to clean up, fence and now maintain the Nadworna Jewish Cemetery. He is a member of the board of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Long Island as well as being a member of the JGS of NY. Steven does research on Ashkenazi DNA and is the project administrator of several Jewish DNA projects on FamilyTreeDNA. He is also a town leader for JRI-Poland. Chuck Weinstein -- is on the Advisory Council of the Ukraine Research Division of JewishGen and the recipient of the JewishGen Susan E. King Volunteer of the Year award in 2019 Chuck was chair of the IAJGS conference in London in 2023. He is a past president of JGSLI in 2007, 2008 and 2011.