Today we are shining a spotlight on native Buffalonian Steven B. Chernoff. Dr. Chernoff has been working closely with Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies and the Cemetery Corporation and will be returning to the community to hold two workshops that teach Jewish community members how to perform Jewish Genealogy Research specific to Buffalo at the introduction level and advanced level. They will be held on Monday, October 16, 2023 from 4:30 – 8:00 pm at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo, Benderson Family Building, 2640 N Forest Rd, Amherst, NY 14068.  Please register HERE.

Founding President of the former Jewish Genealogical Society of Kansas City, Dr. Chernoff holds a graduate degree in Biochemistry, which is now strongly linked to genealogy due to the advent of genetic genealogy.

Dr. Chernoff’s interest in genealogy was greatly influenced by his maternal grandmother’s passion for collecting genealogy artifacts that included old photographs of family members.  His grandmother was an artist and hand-painted a large family tree on the wall of her apartment that featured hung photographs of family members on appropriate branches. Through his research, Dr. Chernoff has identified hundreds of “new” cousins and has visited many of them who live around the world.

While his main interest is Jewish Genealogy, he is not limited to that area of research.  He also enjoys tracing American records back 200 years before the great wave of Jewish immigration to the United States.

In addition, Dr. Chernoff has played an integral role in performing Genealogy research on Jewish community members who settled in the Greater Buffalo-Niagara Region over the span of the last 200 years. 

His research will be especially significant in identifying living descendants of Jewish community members who arrived in Buffalo between 1825 through the early 1900s, and are buried in the Jewish Cemeteries that are located on Buffalo’s East side and Pine Ridge Heritage Boulevard.

Dr. Chernoff’s highly specialized research project has been especially critical in helping the Buffalo Jewish Federation Cemetery Corporation and the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies launch The Stones of Remembrance Campaign.  He is currently identifying donors who are the living descendants of Jewish immigrants who settled in Buffalo between 1825 through the turn of the century to ensure they can help care for and invest in the maintenance of their ancestor’s final resting place.

The living descendants are also being notified about the preservation project that took place during the spring of 2023 that involved repairing 1,000 fallen headstones that belonged to Jewish community members who were buried in the Jewish Cemeteries between the early 1800s through the mid 1900s.

For additional questions about Dr. Steve Chernoff’s Jewish Genealogy Research Workshops, please contact Mandy Weiss.