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GENEALOGY WORKSHOP A SUCCESS
by Steve Gitomer
Over thirty budding and experienced genealogy enthusiasts attended
the NMJHSís second biennial genealogy workshop on February 21
in the Community Room of the downtown Santa Fe Public Library.
NMJHS members Steve Gitomer, Janice Aasen and Jay Samuels covered
topics including sources for research in the United States and
abroad, genealogical family charting, and computer and internet
usage. The workshop generated lively discussion, lots of questions
relating to familyñspecific issues.
The session served as preparation for the NMJHSís 1998 Memorial
Day Weekend Field Trip to Salt Lake City, where a significant
part of the excursion will include research at the Family History
Center of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). The presenters
stressed the importance for interested NMJHS members and guests
to take advantage of the Mormon genealogy libraries, located
on the sites of Mormon Churches in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las
Cruces, and other communities in the region.
JUDGE ATLAS RECOUNTS HIS EXPERIENCE AT THE
NUREMBERG TRIALS TO RAPT AUDIENCE
by Gunther Aron
Judge Marvin F. Atlas during his talk on
the Nuremberg Trials at Temple Beth Shalom. |
The great Rabbi Isaac Abravanel stood before
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, pleading for the Expulsion
decree to be rescinded offering them a fortune. Ferdinand seemed
to relent, thinking perhaps of his own Jewish grandmother, when
the door of the room burst open. In stormed Tomas de Torquemada,
the Grand Inquisitor, himself of Jewish descent, brandishing a
crucifix and exclaiming, ìJudas sold Jesus out for thirty pieces
of silver. Will you do the same for thirty thousand? Well, if
so barter him!î With that he flung the crucifix on the table in
front of them. So goes the storyótrue or falseówe donít know.
But we do know that the Expulsion Decree
was not rescinded and that Rabbi Abravanel took his little grandson
and led a group of Jews into exile across the Mediterranean
to North Africa, where many settled in the Atlas Mountains.
Over five hundred years after, on Sunday,
the 18th of January, a descendant of that same Isaac Abravanel
mounted the podium of Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe, (formerly
in New Spain.)
Judge Marvin Atlas, a slight elegant
man in his eighties, his name bearing the name of the mountain
range where his ancestors had settled in Africa, gave an account
of another important event in Jewish lifeóthe Nuremberg Trials.
Judge Atlas is uniquely qualified to do so. Born in Brooklyn,
New York before World War I, he graduated from Harvard Law School
before World War II. After serving in the army he was asked,
at Warís end, to join the war crimes commission in Washington,
D.C. Subsequently, he was appointed Assistant Prosecutor at
the newly constituted Nuremberg Trials.
For nearly two hours the judge spoke
about the background, the difficulties and the people who brought
the ìtrialî into existence. He knew many of them wellóhe worked
with themóhe was one of them.
For nearly two hours the filled Temple
was silent, only the cultured voice of the judge could be heard,
giving his erudite account in a clear fashion. When it was over,
there were many questions from the audience, and Stanley Hordes
had to rescue Judge Atlas by sending the crowd to the adjacent
hall, where refreshments were being served. |