This past year has been a period of significant growth and activity for our organization, marked by dedicated efforts and exciting advancements. While we celebrate our achievements, we also look to the future with a clear vision for expansion, recognizing the crucial role of community support in realizing our full potential.
Acknowledging Contributions:
We extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who has contributed to our success, both those present today and those who support us from afar. Special thanks were extended to three individuals leaving board positions:
- Rosemary Eshel: Recognized for her instrumental role in answering questions and assisting with genealogy research.
- Jean-Pierre Stroweis: Also thanked for his service on the board.
- Susan Edel: Appreciated for her many years of dedicated service on the Audit Committee, consistently helping us maintain order and clarity.
Rose Feldman, too, deserves special recognition for her multifaceted roles within the organization. As part of the database committee, she has been integral to our growing collection, which now boasts over 3.5 million records. While we are proud of this achievement, we are eager to expand further, believing there is immense potential for even more records.
Key Achievements and Activities:
Our commitment to providing valuable resources to the community is evident in our diverse offerings.
- Database: The organization currently holds over 3.5 million records, and we will keep expanding this further with every month’s release of new records.
- Webinars: We currently host two webinars every month, one in English and one in Hebrew, both offered free of charge to a global audience.
- In-Person Lectures: The organization keeps the meetings in Givatayim and re-opened a venue in Ra’anana, hosting two in-person meetings per month, free of charge for our members, attempting to balance English and Hebrew content.
- Recordings: For those unable to attend live, we diligently record and post both our webinars and in-person lectures on our website. Currently, we have 12 webinar recordings available and a docent more to be released in the next 6 month.
- Activities: Highlights from our activities include epic events at Yad Vashem securing early access to a new exhibit, where IGRA subsidized the visit to its members; and a very well-organized visit to the new building of the National Library, both of which have significantly enhanced our leverage within Israel and with the archives.
- Publications: Our reach extends to publications as well, with one article already published and three more on the cusp of release.
- Website Presence: The impact of our efforts is reflected in our website’s impressive statistics. We consistently attract between 11,000 and 12,000 unique visitors each month, who come to explore our database, view recordings, read articles, and learn about our activities.
- Website Enhancements: The website is constantly update and upgraded, including recent changes to facilitate toggling between English and Hebrew content, and an “Artificial Intelligence Chatbot” that help users navigate our website and answer basic questions immediately.
- Emails and communication: More than 18,000 people receive emails from IGRA, with content tailored to their preferred language and country. The announcements of new content on the website, events and the regular newsletter led to peaks in visitors and registrations. These statistics, compiled with the help of our webmaster Banai Feldstein, offer a clear snapshot of our organization’s current standing.
- Partnerships:
- JewishGen and MyHeritage: These partnerships allow us to expose IGRA to a broader worldwide audience, showing leads of the records available and attracting more visitors, with 2,600 people coming from JewishGen and 670 from MyHeritage, only in the last month.
- FamilySearch: This collaboration involves obtaining records for indexing and making them searchable, as well as hosting lectures and webinars from FamilySearch representatives.
- Donations: We have successfully established a system for tax-deductible donations for our supporters in the United States. While setting up a similar system for Israel has proven more challenging than initially anticipated, we hope to have it in place by the end of the year.
Call for Volunteers:
Despite these remarkable achievements, and a membership of 1,245 by now, I must express a degree of disappointment. With all the wonderful initiatives underway, we possess immense potential to do even more, but the organization is not reaching its full potential due to a lack of volunteers. We are all human, with limitations on our time and capacity. However, if each of you could contribute just a couple of hours a month, it would significantly accelerate our growth and enhance our impact. More help is needed for tasks such as working on databases, technology, as well as social media and JewishGen announcements.
Our aspiration is to propel IGRA to the next level, and with your help, we are confident this will happen by next year.
