Throughout Jewish history, Jewish education was at the center of family and community life.  In every community one can find educational centers such as kindergartens, the traditional heder and talmud torah as well as schools, yeshivas and institutions of higher education. Among Jews, literacy was the norm and a high percentage of the population received formal education, certainly more when compared to other nations in the pre-modern world.
Educational institutions produce and preserve various types of lists and registers: registration of students, assignment to classes by age, students' transcripts and other information are recorded in personal files and school reports. Such institutions also manage financial records that reflect the life of the institution and its relationship with the families, the community and with other Jewish institutions. These records hold vast genealogical information that illuminates the lives of the individual and the family.
  
As part of a series of seminars exploring family history, conducted by the Reference Department of the National Library in cooperation with Israel Genealogy Research Association, a seminar will be held at the National Library, focusing on the records of various Jewish educational institutions in Israel and abroad which accessible to the general public. The seminar's purpose is to discuss ways to provide assistance to genealogical research.

The conference will be held on Wednesday, November 11th, 2015 at the National Library, Givat Ram, Jerusalem.

Potential speakers are invited to submit a title and a 100-200 word abstract to Nachum Zitter: [email protected]
Suggestions can be submitted until August 31st, 2015.

For further information, please call 074-7336400 or 054-3270725.