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In 1981, Syd Mandelbaum began videotaping the testimony of Holocaust survivors and concentration camp liberators, a project that was continued by Steven Spielberg in 1994. Several years ago, Mandelbaum co-founded the DNA Shoah Project, under the auspices of the University of Arizona, which seeks to reconnect families through the use of a genetic database.

"The project, the DNA Shoah Project, is to connect families that have been separated by the Shoah and we work with all generations of survivors, children of survivors, people who may have lost contact with family and came here right before the war, and up to grandchildren of survivors -- so we can go forward three generations," Mandelbaum told The Jewish State.

On Sunday, Nov. 1, Mandelbaum will speak at Congregation Beth El in Edison about this initiative, where there will also be facilitators available to collect DNA samples to be put into the database.

"In video testimony, it is only survivors that can give a first-person story of their witnessing of what happened to them and their families," Mandelbaum said. "Where the genetic testimony can be done by anyone who is a descendent of the Shoah."

The project sends free kits to any survivor or descendant of a survivor. The kit includes the equipment for a non-intrusive cheek swab, which is sent back to the lab for processing and filing in the database.

Next fall, the project expects to have a large enough sample size to begin comparing individuals' DNA.

"I've talked to people all over the country, and I want them to understand how important it is to continue this, that there is potential for them to find family," Mandelbaum said.

Mandelbaum, who himself is the child of survivors, sees the DNA Shoah Project as a continuation of his work that began in 1981 when he first started videotaping the testimony of survivors.

The genesis of that project came while he and his father were visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem, in an experience that he describes as an "epiphany."

"Something passed between he and I, and I came out of the experience wanting to change the world and he said he would help me do it and I came back and founded the first videotaping of survivors and camp liberators," he explained.

Years later in 2005, he noticed a news story online about human remains uncovered in Germany, while construction workers were seeking to expand the Stuttgart airport.

Mandelbaum became aware through German authorities that these remains were most likely those of Holocaust victims, which prompted him to call his contacts at Yad Vashem in Israel.

Mandelbaum, whose background in genetics included heading the American team that solved the Anastasia case -- in which DNA evidence was for the first time used to solve a historical mystery -- asked if Yad Vashem had a genetic database so as to identify these remains.

"I asked bluntly if you ever thought to set up a DNA database and they said 'no.' And that's when I decided to do it," he said.

Shortly thereafter, Mandelbaum was put in touch with Dr. Michael Hammer at the University of Arizona, whose pioneering research demonstrated that present-day kohanim are descended from a single male ancestor. Together, the two of them along with Howard Cash, president of Gene Code Forensics, Inc. founded the DNA Shoah Project.

Mandelbaum said that his parents have continually served to inspire him in his pursuit of this project and in his previous ones.

"The genesis of [The DNA Shoah Project], as all of my projects, are based on my parents' survival -- had they not survived I wouldn't be here speaking to you," he said. "So I honor my parents every day of my life, try to do righteous things to honor the little extra strength they possessed to continue when all odds were against them surviving."

In addition to the genetic database, the project has also developed a curriculum for teachers.

"The second part of the DNA Shoah Project is the writing of curriculum to teach the next generation about the Holocaust through a brand new discipline -- science," Mandelbaum said.

This approach, while by no means a substitute for the traditional ways of teaching the Holocaust through such texts as "The Diary of Anne Frank" or Eli Wiesel's "Night," can "get to students who might be interested in 'Law & Order,' or 'Cold Case,' or 'CSI' or a litany of other forensic science-based TV programs and allows for the Holocaust to be related in a brand new way," he said.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg, of Congregation Beth El, said that he invited Mandelbaum to speak at the synagogue because of the project's potential for members of the community, many of whom are survivors or children of survivors including himself, to locate family members separated because of the Shoah.

"It's a unique opportunity to find a missing relative, which up until now the science did not exist that would make such a discovery possible," Rosenberg said.

The event will take place on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. and be held at Congregation Beth El, 91 Jefferson Blvd., Edison. RSVP to (732) 985-7272. For more information ask for Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg.