About
Names become people, and dates become a story
My name is Shahaf Merhav Horvitz, and I am a researcher of genealogy and Jewish history, focusing on family roots, Eastern European Jewry and Holocaust memory.
My background
My work in genealogy grows out of the belief that history does not live only in books and archives. It lives also in forgotten names, in old photographs, in documents left behind, in stories passed down through a family and in questions that were never answered.
In recent years I have been researching the history of Jewish families and communities in Eastern Europe, with emphasis on the period before the Holocaust, on the destruction of those communities, and on the ways their stories can be reconstructed from historical, archival and family sources. My research combines archival work, locating and analysing documents, cross-referencing sources, and examining personal stories within the wider historical context.
My own family research, and in particular my work on the roots of Lithuanian Jewry, is also a personal journey in the footsteps of people, places and communities that left their mark on family history and on Jewish memory.
I hold an MA in political communication research. My thesis dealt with collective memory and the way the Holocaust is present in the speeches of Israeli prime ministers. Alongside academic research, I bring more than a decade of experience in strategic work, research, content development and making complex knowledge accessible to varied audiences. I am also a guide on trips to Poland, working at the meeting point of places, historical sources and personal stories.
For me, genealogy is much more than a family tree. It is a way to understand where we come from, to know the world of those who lived before us, and to place the family story within the broader history. It makes it possible to return names to stories, to connect pieces of information that at first seemed unrelated, and sometimes to come closer to questions that have stayed open for generations.
In my work I seek to combine curiosity, research precision and sensitivity to the human story. Not to settle for what we think we know, but to ask, to check, to cross-reference sources and to discover what more can be learned.
I believe every family has a history worth knowing — and that even when parts of it have been lost, it is often possible to find new ways of approaching it.
Education and training
The academic and professional training behind the research work.
- MA in Political Communication, Bar-Ilan University — thesis: collective memory and the use of the Holocaust in the speeches of Israeli prime ministers
- BA in Political Science and Jewish History, Tel Aviv University
- Certified guide course for adult heritage trips to Poland, Levinsky-Wingate Academic College
- Enrichment courses in genealogical research — Yad Vashem and the Israel Genealogical Society
Areas of expertise
The regions, periods, languages and types of sources I work with regularly.
Areas of specialisation
- Poland and Lithuania
- The Holocaust period
- Jewish communities in Israel and the Diaspora
- Heritage trips to Poland
Languages and reading documents
- Hebrew — native speaker
- English — very high level
- Reading and interpreting official documents
- Explaining findings in clear language
Types of sources
- State and community archives
- Yad Vashem databases and Pages of Testimony
- Birth, marriage and death records
- Censuses and immigration lists
A note on languages: I read and interpret official documents and explain their contents in clear language. I am not a professional translator, and I do not interpret documents in a source language I am not familiar with.
Research approach
Three principles that guide every project, large or small.
Full documentation of sources
Every fact carries a reference to the original document, so any point can be reviewed and expanded later.
Separating fact from story
What is documented in a source is distinguished from family tradition — and stated explicitly.
Writing that is readable, not only academic
The final report reads as a family story you can share, with an organised appendix of sources.
What you receive at the end
Every project has an output that suits it. Together we define what fits you — a research report, a family diagram, a mapping of branches or another format — according to the goal we set and what emerges along the way.