Mission Statement

The Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA) is focused on genealogy – helping people with their family research and making available to the public a wide variety of material from the Ottoman period through the early years of Israeli Statehood, as well as additional material about Jews from the Diaspora located in Israeli archives. We work with people of many nationalities and provide resources on countries from around the world. 

We strive to:

  • Prepare databases from records and materials available in Israel; the Mediterranean Basin and relating to the places our relatives lived before coming to Israel to be accessible on our website. 
  • Develop a website with a sophisticated bilingual search engine allowing people to easily search the databases for specific names, see the information and images of the original documents (when permitted).
  • Provide material on the website to assist people with their research such as articles, recorded lectures, Resource Guides and other relevant material.
  • Develop and broadcast webinars at a variety of levels to aid people in their research –and to make recordings of the webinars available for viewing on our website.
  • Provide opportunities for genealogical discovery and learning through mentoring, hands-on visits to archives, in-person and Zoom meetings and seminars.
  • Foster cooperation with other organizations and archives with a connection to genealogy.