Stanley Diamond from Montreal has been awarded the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal for his work in documenting Jewish genealogy and particularly for establishing and directing the Jewish Records Indexing-Poland (JRI-Poland) project. He is also the founder and president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal.
Stanley Diamond, founder and president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal and founder and executive director of Jewish Records Indexing – Poland. Photo: Owen Egan.
Dr. George F. MacDonald, director of the Bill Reid Centre for Northwest Coast Art Studies in Vancouver, nominated Mr. Diamond for the award.
Dr. McDonald said, “Information from JRI-Poland’s efforts has been used to help reunite families torn by the ravages of World War II, has made it possible to quickly identify previously unknown family members who might be potential matches for those urgently needing bone marrow or tissue transplants, and has facilitated significant connections between the Polish and Jewish peoples.”
JRI-Poland was launched in 1995 and is the largest fully searchable database of indexes to Jewish vital records accessible online. The project was created to provide an online index of all surviving Jewish vital records from Poland. To date, five million records from more than 550 Polish towns have been indexed or fully extracted. More are added every few months.
The Meritorious Service Medal recognizes outstanding accomplishments that set an example for others to follow and bring benefit to Canada.
A presentation ceremony will be held in the new year.
Related story: Montreal genealogist played key role in case of oldest man.
