COMMUNIQUE
September 7, 1998

For immediate release

Pioneering Research on Sherbrooke Jewish Community Published.

Lennoxville, 2 September 1998. The current issue (Number 12, Spring 1998) of the *Journal of Eastern Townships Studies/Revue d'etudes des Cantons de l'Est* (JETS) contains an article of interest to members of Canadian Jewish genealogical societies. The article, entitled "Ostropol on the St. Francis: The Jewish Community of Sherbrooke," by Michael Benazon, traces the 120-year history of Jewish settlement in Sherbrooke in Quebec's Eastern Townships. In an absorbing and
thoroughly documented narrative, Dr. Benazon presents findings from ground-breaking research conducted in private family papers, synagogue and other archives, and local newspapers, among other sources. He reveals that the Sherbrooke Jewish community was in large part founded by people from Ostropol in the Ukraine who created a prosperous community that today has nevertheless all but disappeared. Today, descendants of the Echenbergs and other Sherbrooke families can be found all over North America.

Dr. Benazon teaches at Champlain Regional College, a community college in Lennoxville, Quebec, and has published and presented papers in the fields of Quebec literature and Jewish studies.

JETS is a mulitdisciplinary journal published twice yearly by the Eastern Townships Research Centre/Centre de recherche des Cantons de l'Est (ETRC), a centre located at Bishop's University (Lennoxville, Quebec) and closely affiliated with it.

Copies of the issue of JETS containing Dr. Benazon's article can be obtained for $12.50 each by communicating with the ETRC as follows:

ETRC
Faculty Box 132
Bishop's University
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7

Tel.: (819) 822-9600, ext. 2647
Fax: (819) 822-9661
E-mail: rkampeas@ubishops.ca