I am writing this blog to chronicle my experience in finding out more about my ancestors and to connect with others who are engaging in a similar search. At this point, I am focusing mostly on my mother’s family, about whom I know the most. I am calling this blog Zambrow: A Jewish Roots Journey because my mother’s father, my Zaide, lived in this town, located in the northeast section of Poland.

I am not sure why I am so fascinated with discovering more about where my ancestors came from. I suppose I am similar to many others, Jews and non Jews, who are doing genealogical research. I believe that anyone who explores his or her roots does so not only to find out more about the past, but even more so, to understand and enrich one’s own identity.

I am calling this blog a “Jewish” roots journey because there are particular dynamics to finding out more about one’s ancestors when some of them were mercilessly killed by the Germans during the Second World War. Exploring this past necessarily involves coming face to face with the horror of the Holocaust as it pertains to one’s own relatives.

Finally, I believe that a blog is an appropriate genre to present my roots journey, as it offers the opportunity to chronicle the process of discovery, a process that perhaps is as much, if not more, important than the end results.

May the journey begin.