"Immigration History: Laws, Documents and Stories" with Susan Weinberg

This talk presents a perspective on immigration through the lens of laws, documents, and family story. With a focus on the 1900s, we explore the immigration laws that affected entry and often affected the content of the immigration documents that are available to genealogists. Juxtaposed with laws and documents are stories of the Jews of the 1900s who came to America. This multimedia presentation incorporates experiences drawn from an oral history project with Jewish elders. The stories span those who grew up in early immigrant communities, Holocaust survivors who came in the 1940s-50s and immigrants from the former Soviet Union who came in the 1970s-90s. Using video clips from those interviews, Susan will tell a lively story of Jewish immigration to the United States and the life of an immigrant juxtaposed with the documents and laws that framed that experience. This timely topic offers a perspective on immigration through the…