It's been a heavy couple of weeks on the Jewish calendar – Passover, Yom Hashoa, Israel's Memorial Day, and of course the 60th Independence Day celebration (we're not going to forget that one anytime soon!). From Passover, with its celebration of ancient traditions to Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the nation's modern-day tremendum, to this week's reflection on the sacrifices made by our soldiers and the showcasing of how far we've come in a mere six decades, we've reviewed and at least partially experienced thousands of years of Jewish life. It all leaves you feeling sort of  inspired – like you want something you can take with you to the future, in order to better preserve the past.

 

 

You set up your family page, enter your information, personal stories, upload photos, etc., and the site checks its database to see if any other family trees include information in your tree – like if a relative of yours is also a relative of someone else. If a match is found, the site will contact both parties, giving them the opportunity to connect with each other and share their information.  According to the Jworld/Famillion people, “if only 2% of us built our family trees, we would all be connected,” since that would give its database enough of a sample to work with in order to discover who's related to whom.  Until then, you can check out the meaning of many Jewish surnames and read general histories of Jewish communities.