Guinness World Records’ recent designation of a 112-year-old Israeli as the world’s oldest living man would not have been possible without the research of Stanley Diamond, the president of the Montreal Jewish Genealogical Society and the executive director of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland (JRI).
The Guinness organization was not convinced by Yisrael Kristal’s claim that he was born on September 15, 1903 in the town of Zarnow, Poland. He did not possess documentation to provide “irrefutable proof.”
Mr. Diamond read about Mr. Kristal in an Israeli newspaper and wanted to help.
According to an article in the latest edition of The Canadian Jewish News, “[Mr. Diamond] knew that if anyone could find that vital missing piece it would be JRI. Diamond founded the non-profit JRI 21 years ago, an outgrowth of his amateur genealogical research into his own Polish Jewish roots sparked by discovering he had a rare genetic condition.”
Mr. Diamond said, “The key thing in all this is to underline that [Jewish] records do survive, that people can follow a paper trail, and that we can help them do that.”
JRI is the largest, fully searchable database of indexes to Jewish vital records accessible online for any country. Five million records from more than 550 Polish towns are now indexed, with more being added on a regular basis.
To learn more about the story and the document Mr. Diamond found to prove Mr. Kristal’s age, read Montreal genealogist had key role in case of oldest man in The Canadian Jewish News.
