I am a volunteer curator on Geni, and one of Geni's most active users, managing about 235,000 profiles. I am a board member of JewishGen and the Co-Founder of JewishGen's Austria-Czech Special Interest Group. I founded and moderate the Jewish Genealogy Portal group on Facebook, with over 60,000 members, the largest Jewish genealogy group in existence. I administer the Schoenberg FamilyTree DNA Project, Kolisch Family Tree DNA Project and Zeisel FamilyTree DNA Project. I am also the author of the Beginner's Guide to Austrian-Jewish Genealogy and the co-author of Getting Started with Czech-Jewish Genealogy. I have attended and spoken at numerous genealogy conferences, including the IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy in 1998, 2008, 2010-2021. Professionally, I am an attorney and serve on the boards of various philanthropic, artistic and educational organizations. I am past President of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. A more detailed biography is at the bottom of this page.

See my blog at schoenblog.com

I have authored a number of articles on genealogy:

• Who was the first Ramschak?
• How to use Y-DNA and Geni.com to improve your family tree
• Who is Wolf Slawes? Correcting a very old mistake concerning the family of Rabbi YomTov Lipman Heller
• Finding My Jewish Ancestors in Prague
• A New Genealogy for Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise
• The Bohemian Origins of Justice Louis Brandeis
• Privacy Issues with Online Trees
• My Fifth Grade Family Tree Project
• Is Our Tree Better Than My Tree? The Benefits and Pitfalls of Collaborative Genealogy
• On Certainty in Genealogy
• Is Your Genealogist Certified or Certifiable?
• Geni’s World Family Tree Hits 100 Million Profiles. Why Aren’t You A Part of It?
• Answers to Geni Skeptics
• Geni.com at 10 Years — The Challenges Ahead
• A Nachod Riddle Solved At Last
• News drives genealogy, and vice-versa
• How I discovered my cousin, the Dodger
• How Mixed Was That Mixed Marriage

I have initiated or helped develop a number of important projects on Geni, including:

• Jewish Genealogy Portal
• Jewish Celebrity Birthday Calendar
• Geni Top 10 Lists
• Holocaust: The Final Solution
• Jewish Communities in Bohemia and Moravia
• Prominent Jewish Families of Vienna
• Tolerated Jews of Vienna
• Jewish Families from Prague

I have a very deep and broad family tree.

All 4 grandparents were from Vienna. 15/16 of my gg-grandparents were Jewish, from Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. A list of surnames and cities is below.

I have tried dna testing at familytreedna.com and 23andme.com. I have a relatively unusual y-dna, R-BY16148 and have no close matches other than my father and another Schoenberg (likely a 5th or 6th cousin) from the same village in Hungary (Szécsény). Other than that we are pretty unique. I can trace back for certain only to my gg-grandfather Abraham Schönberg (1812-1871) in Szécsény, Hungary. My mtDNA Haplogroup is R0a2m ending with my 5g-grandmother Elka Hirsch (1761-1816) in Prostejov (Prossnitz), Moravia.

My ancestral surnames are:

ALTSCHUL (Praha/Prague)

AUERBACH (Frankfurt)

AUSCH (Praha/Prague)

AUSTERLITZ (Wien/Vienna)

BACHARACH (Frankfurt)

BEER (Třebíč)

BIEDERMANN (Bratislava, Wien/Vienna)

BITTNER (Břeclav/Lundenburg)

BLOCH (Čkyně)

BÖHMER (Dolni Kounice/Kanitz)

BOPPARD (Frankfurt)

BRANDEIS (Praha/Prague)

BRASCHINSKY/BRASCHITZ (Branky, Usov)

BRAUN (Holešov/Holleschau)

BREITENFELD (Lobkowitz, Rychmburk)

BUCHSBAUM (Frankfurt)

BUNZEL (Praha/Prague)

CHALFON/HALFON/HALPHEN (Mannheim, Metz)

DEUTZ (Frankfurt)

DORHEIM (Frankfurt)

FEITLER/VEIDLER (České Budějovice/Budweis, Kaplice, Kardašova Řečice, Rožmberk nad Vltavou/Rosenberg, Udoli)

FLEISCHER (Prostějov/Prossnitz)

FREISTADT (Bratislava)

FUNK (Prostějov/Prossnitz, Wien/Vienna)

GLASER (Bratislava)

GLASS (Prostějov/Prossnitz)

GOLDSTEIN (Wien/Vienna)

GOLDSTERN (Heřmanův Městec)

GÜNZBURG (Frankfurt)

HAHN (Frankfurt)

HAMBURGER (Prostějov/Prossnitz)

HANAU (Frankfurt)

HARHEIM (Frankfurt)

HERMANN (Třebíč)

HOFFMANN (Břeclav/Lundenburg, Wien/Vienna)

HOROWITZ (Praha/Prague)

JELINEK/JELLINEK (Holešov/Holleschau, Hodonin, Unicov, Wien/Vienna)

JONTOF/JONTOF-HUTTER/JONTOW (Praha/Prague)

KATAN (Eisenstadt, Praha/Prague, Wien/Vienna)

KATSCHER (Branky, Loštice, Slavkov/Austerlitz, Valašské Meziříčí)

[(Praha/Prague) KATZ] (Praha/Prague)

KOHN (Čkyně)

KOLISCH (Hodonin, Korycany, Wien/Vienna)

LÖWENTHAL (Kojetin)

LEWY/LÖWY (Koloděje nad Lužnicí/Kalladay)

LÖWY (Bratislava, Szécsény)

LUCERNA (Wien/Vienna)

MENZELES (Bratislava, Wien/Vienna)

MISLAP (Praha/Prague)

MÜLLER (Kardašova Řečice)

MUNK (Praha/Prague)

NACHOD (Praha/Prague, Wien/Vienna)

NÖRDLINGEN (Frankfurt)

ÖTTINGEN (Frankfurt)

POLLAK/PALLAK (Bratislava)

POLLAK (Prostějov/Prossnitz)

POPPER (Rožmberk nad Vltavou)

PRESSBURG (Bratislava)

RAUSNITZ (Praha/Prague)

REICHMANN (Hlinsko, Pardubice, Raab)

REIF (Uhersky Ostroh, Wien/Vienna)

RHEINBACH (Frankfurt)

RIEMMER (Praha/Prague)

ROSENFELD (Korycany)

SCHEBERLES (Praha/Prague)

SCHIFF (Frankfurt)

SCHOENBERG/SCHÖNBERG (Bratislava, Szécsény, Wien/Vienna)

SCHREIBER (Prostějov/Prossnitz)

SCHWARZ (Bratislava, Pezinok, Wien)

SIMON (Bratislava, Tyrnau)

SIMON (Landau)

SINGER (Kojetin, Prostějov/Prossnitz, Uhersky Ostroh, Valašské Meziříčí)

SINSHEIM/SINZHEIM/SINZHEIMER (Mannheim, Wien/Vienna)

SPITZER (Prostějov/Prossnitz)

STAMPFER (Čkyně, Koloděje nad Lužnicí/Kalladay)

STANGEN (Frankfurt)

STEININGER (Kaplice, Rozmberk nad Vltavou)

STIEFEL (Frankfurt)

TAUSEK/TAUSSIG (Lobkowitz, Rychmburk)

TEOMIM (Padua, Wien/Vienna)

TRITSCH (Praha/Prague)

WEIS (Uhersky Ostroh)

WEISSENBERG (Frankfurt)

WERNER (Korycany)

WILTSCHEK (Bučovice)

WINDECKEN (Frankfurt)

WORMS (Frankfurt)

WORMS (Frankfurt)

ZAK (Frankfurt)

ZAY (Metz)

ZEIMER (Hřešihlavy/Rescholau, Praha/Prague)

ZEISEL/ZEISL/ZEISSEL/ZEISSL (Jevicko, Lednice, Lomnice, Radimer, Rozsochy, Svojanov, Velké Meziříčí/Gross Meseritsch, Wien/Vienna)

ZODEKS/ZODEX (Praha/Prague)

And my non-Jewish 1/16 is

ERTL (Kula)

FINGER (Hradec Králové)

GRÄBNER (Most)

INQUART (Budapest, Wien, Česká Lípa, Prague)

LANGER (Prague)

MOLLER (Kula)

QINTLER (Kula)

RESCH (Budapest, Kula, Pécsvárad)

SONNTAG (Pécsvárad)

STRAZSAI/STRASSER (Kula)

VIGHARD/VICKARDT (Kula)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Randol_Schoenberg

E. Randol Schoenberg was the co-founding partner of Burris, Schoenberg & Walden, LLP, where he handled a number of complex business litigation matters, specializing in cases involving looted art and the recovery of property stolen by the Nazi authorities during the Holocaust. He won the return of five famous Klimt paintings for his client, Maria Altmann.

In 2007, Mr. Schoenberg received the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year award for outstanding achievement in the field of litigation. He also received the 2006 Jurisprudence Award from the Anti-Defamation League and the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award from the American Jewish Congress.

Mr. Schoenberg graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics in 1988 and a certificate in European Cultural Studies. In 1991, he received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California.

His interests include classical music, tennis, skiing, genealogy, art, basketball, law, mathematics, backpacking, philately, German, French, and computers. He serves on the board of the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, Sinai Akiba Academy, Southwest Chamber Music Society, JewishGen, Choral Society of Southern California, and the L.A. Jewish Symphony.

DNA on GedMatch.com

M015511 Barbara Zeisl

M505824 Howard Mayers

M556877 Joseph Schoenberg

M756013 E Randol Schoenberg

M765775 Marlene Mayers

M797644 Dora Schoenberg

M833505 Pamela Schoenberg

M896686 Marlena Fejzo

M920426 E Randol Schoenberg

M967615 Nathan Schoenberg

T405845 Walter Steven Zeisl

T456608 Ronald Schoenberg

GEDCOM Note

{geni:height_2} 7 inches