Martha Levinson Lev-Zion (1940-2014), was born in Los Angeles, CA and made aliyah in 1977. She was a historian of modern European intellectual history at the Ben Gurion University, in Be’er Sheva, Israel. She wrote and lectured about the Jews of Franconia and Thüringen [Germany] and Courland [Latvia] in many international conferences.
Martha was founder of the Negev (southern) branch of the Israel Genealogical Society (IGS) and was associated with the Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Latvia. She was a founder of IGRA and served on the Executive Committee for several years. Among other accomplishments, she was a founder of the annual one-day seminar for Jewish Genealogy in Israel and served on that committee for many years. As a research genealogist she helped many searching for their family roots. Her research can be found at the Leo Baeck Institute Archives. Martha was a Director of the IAJGS and President of the JewishGen Latvia SIG.
She authored the book “Taking Tamar” describing her experiences adopting and bringing up, as a single mother, a child with Down syndrome in Israel. The book demonstrates three of her personal attributes: love, warmth and persistence. Martha Lev-Zion died in 2014 after an extended illness.
