A Personal Tribute to the Indomitable Pamela Weisberger,
z"l
Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D., Vice-Chair, JewishGen Board of
Governors
The unexpected news of the passing of Pamela Weisberger
has hit the world of Jewish genealogy with the force of a California
earthquake. And while Pamela may have
lived in Los Angeles, this particular earthquake has spanned the globe. For wherever you are, if you swim in the
waters of Jewish family history, then you surely have been touched by the
energy, the innovation and the brilliance of Pamela Weisberger. To so many, she was a force of nature, a
driven personality, whose vision has helped to lift the field of Jewish
genealogy to a new plateau.
You did not have to be a close friend of Pamela
Weisberger to know of the legend. The
imprint of her good works were, and are, everywhere to be found. She always was on the move. Getting her attention at a genealogy
conference often was like asking a humming bird to hold still for a photograph
in the middle of a field of flowers. She
was on everyone’s contact list. Life for
Pamela was never dull. There always was
another project to start, an ancestral town to visit, a presentation to deliver
or a new search tool to add to Gesher Galicia’s award-winning web site.
Viewed through her eyes, the world was an endless range
of research challenges, and she was determined to conquer each one of
them. Whether the task was turning the
Gesher Galicia Special Interest Group into a pacesetter among the SIGs,
building L.A.’s Jewish Genealogy Society into one of the premier societies in
the world, or initiating the extraordinary Cadastral Map Project, Pamela always
was on the cutting edge.
If Pamela were able to read the accolades written about
her in the days since her untimely passing, she would have blushed with
pride. For while she was both an indomitable spirit and never one to rest
on her laurels, she also appreciated that her work had meaning beyond our
time. She drew strength, I believe, from
the fact that so many people benefited from her research. Being a leader
is rarely easy, but Pamela made the task of organizing Jews (and Jewish
genealogists can be a finicky lot)… seem effortless. She knew how to
marshal talent, fund projects, and conceive of new initiatives that would not
only have scholarly value, but would seize the public’s imagination.
Pamela did this over and over again. It
was, in every sense, a reflection of not only her love for the craft, but most
of all her love of the Jewish People.
The Jewish genealogical community is made up of many
dedicated individuals, driven and inspired to reclaim a piece of a distant
past. The work of document discovery,
recovery and indexing is a righteous endeavor, and those who undertake this
often selfless task do so out of a sense of personal devotion. This is Pamela’s legacy. Much like a painting heavily damaged by war
and neglect, Pamela painstakingly brought history back to life, returning
color, texture and meaning to the lives of the long departed.
In the world of Jewish family history Pamela was a rock
star. Blessed with an unusual talent for
sleuthing, she also had a natural ability to communicate her findings to an
amateur audience with uncommon enthusiasm and warmth. We will miss
Pamela. Her inspiration touched us all. Her good works, like her
unquenchable spirit, will continue to burn brightly in the hearts and minds of
those who knew and admired her. May she find eternal peace among the
ancestors she rescued from obscurity. I
have no doubt that beyond the mountaintops she surveyed, they have welcomed her
with open arms and with the same love she bestowed on their memories.
With deepest sorrow,
Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D.
Vice-Chair
JewishGen Board of Governors
Potomac, Maryland
