Weekly Kibbitz
Israeli Teen Performs with Coldplay
During Brussels Concert
Screenshot. Source: Coldplay/Instagram
If you will it, it is no dream: That is what Israeli 15-year-old Gili Torres learned
when Coldplay’s frontman invited her onstage to perform the song “Green
Eyes” with the band on her guitar during their concert in Brussels, Belgium.

The band shared footage of the scene on their Instagram account. Singer
and multi-instrumentalist Chris Martin, pointing out Torres’ sign requesting
to play with the band, asked her if she meant it. “Do you really want to play
‘Green Eyes’ with us, for real?” he playfully challenged. When she indicated
that she was serious, he told the crowd: “Please welcome Gili like a rock
star.” Outfitted with headphones — she appeared to come prepared with her
own acoustic guitar — she accompanied Martin with a few members of his
band while he crooned along.

How did she do? “That was [expletive] awesome, Gili,” Martin pronounced.

Torres later posted a short video of the performance on her Instagram
Stories with the caption “my wish came true.”
— Rachel Kohn
The Jewish Federation’s
IsII s rae e l 7 75
Misii s s io n
May 14-21, 2023
Celebrate the 75
anniversary of the Jewish
State’s founding by experiencing Israel your way! Join
the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia on a
meaningful eight-day mission to our Jewish homeland.

Personalize your journey by selecting a customized
track that speaks to your passions, interests, and how
you want to hear, feel, see, smell, and taste Israel.

th WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Join us for a information session to find out details about the mission,
including the itinerary, specialized tracks and more.

Virtual Info Sessions
Wednesday, August 24, 2022 | 7:30 p.m.

Hosted by Beth Sholom for the Old York Road community
Sunday, September 18, 2022 | 10:00 a.m.

Monday, October 24, 2022 | 7:00 p.m.

Tracks include:
- Adventure
- Food, Wine & Culture
- Tech & Business
- People, Places & Politics
Joining the Mission as RABBI-IN-RESIDENCE:
Eric Yanoff of Adath Israel
4 AUGUST 18, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
REGISTER for an info session or the mission today
jewishphilly.org/israel75mission



local
Philadelphia to ‘Host’ Virtual International
Jewish Genealogy Conference
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
B ack in the day — the distant
past of the 1980s and ’90s —
amateur genealogists had to
trek to their local city archives and
pore over pages and pages of ledgers or
hundreds of microfilm images to have
any hope of finding information about
their family.

The International Association of
Jewish Genealogical Societies 2022
Virtual International Conference, set
for Aug. 21-25, shows how much things
have changed.

The five-day conference, co-hosted by
the Jewish Genealogical and Archival
Society of Greater Philadelphia, will
feature 60 livestreaming presentations,
100 prerecorded presentations and 40
group meetings for the conference’s
600-700 guests from 13 time zones
and countries including South Africa,
Australia, Israel and across the United
States. Provided that COVID is not an
issue next year, Philadelphia will likely
host the 2023 IAJGS conference,
The conference’s virtual format is
only one way in which genealogy has
adapted to the age of technology, a
common thread of many of the confer-
ence’s topics.

“You can literally do genealogy from
the comfort of your own home,” JGASGP
President Felicia Alexander said.

For American Jews, the genealogy
journey is a complicated and winding
one. Unlike populations with descen-
dants from the Mayflower, Jews must
often search deeper for bits and pieces
of their history, making the growing
use of DNA analysis and technolo-
gies all the more useful, believes Judi
Missel, IAJGS conference co-chair.

“It is much easier to sit at your home
computer and go down the rabbit hole
for three hours than it would be to go to
the archives in Europe,” she said.

IAJGS welcomes genealogists with
a variety of experience levels, includ-
ing amateur genealogists just getting
started. Sharon Taylor, a Philadelphia-area
presenter at the conference, will hold
Sharon Taylor’s grandmother Fannie (left) with aunt Dora and Dora’s daughter
Tillie in 1913, shortly after Fannie and Tillie immigrated to the U.S.

Courtesy of Sharon Taylor
a talk for beginners titled “Gangster
Grandma: Organized Crime in Early
Twentieth Century Philadelphia.”
Taylor grew up with little informa-
tion about her family history, as both
sets of grandparents had died by the
time she was 9.

“As a child, I never had anyone to
ask questions of,” she said. “My par-
ents were the children of recent immi-
grants, and they just weren’t really
interested in life in the old country, and
they didn’t ask a lot of the questions
that were to become important to me.”
Despite the lack of knowledge of the
details of Taylor’s family history, she
did learn one thing from her mother
growing up: that her aunt Dora, sis-
ter to her grandmother Fannie, had
financed the family’s immigration to
the U.S. from 1913-1920 by working at
a brothel.

After connecting with cousins in
Philadelphia and learning more about
her family history, Taylor gained a
broader interest in Jewish criminal
activity in the area.

Though the nature of Dora’s job
meant she likely had ties to the mob
in addition to engaging in illegal sex
work, Taylor does not begrudge her
aunt for her criminal past.

“She was a product of her time. I
appreciate the legacy that she left for
me,” Taylor said. “She made my life in
America possible.”
More broadly, learning about her
family’s past gave Taylor a greater
appreciation of how she and her family
fit into a greater story.

“It gives you a connection,” Taylor
said of genealogy. “Understanding
your people puts you in history.”
Taylor’s history is part of a larger
picture of Philadelphia’s rich Jewish
history that made the city a good can-
didate to “host” this year’s conference.

The last time Philadelphia hosted was
in 2009.

Philadelphia saw a large influx of
Sephardic immigrants from the Iberian
Peninsula after the Spanish Inquisition
of the late 15th century. Because of
their longtime presence in the area,
Jews helped provide financial backing
to the Continental Army, Alexander
explained. “I had no idea growing up that it was
not only such a rich history but a fas-
cinating history,” she said. “We’ve got
all these great universities and so many
synagogues in the Greater Philadelphia
area, but like other cities, it started out
with the central community of Jewish
people living in Center City, and then
migrating out.”
JGASGP also has a large network of
more than 400 members, according to
past President Fred Blum, which helps
make Philadelphia an apt host for the
conference. JGASGP spent the past few
years collecting records from various
Jewish cemeteries in Atlantic City and
at Har Nebo Cemetery and is working
with Har Yehuda in Upper Darby to
do the same. The goal is to make these
records accessible to members.

“We’re constantly learning,” Blum
said. “It’s a constant learning process.”
For additional information about the
conference, visit iajgs2022.org. JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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