I am sharing this post published by the Israel Genealogy Research Association from today. The world of Sephardic researchers, academics, and genealogists is lessened today by the passing of Mathilde Tagger:It is with great sorrow that I write to inform you that Mathilde A. Tagger passed away this morning.Mathilde Cohen was born August 31, 1933 in Tangier, Morocco. She arrived in Israel with her mother on March 10, 1949 and greeted at the port of Haifa by her father. Mathilde and Rony Tagger were married in 1958. They have three children - Yael, Yigal and Eran - and 10 grandchildren.Mathilde will be remembered for her endless energy and devotion to Sephardic genealogy. Mathilde has had a series of illnesses in recent years but found the strength and interest to continue with projects of databases, editing and has even written several books in the last couple of years.Mathilde was awarded the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 "In recognition of her huge impact on the acvancement of Sephardic Jewish genealogy through her personal research, including translations, transliterations and indexes; through the publication of her book Guidebook for Sepahrdic and Oriental Genealogical Sources in Israel; through her unstinting personal assistance to individual researchers..."In 2014 Mathilde received the IAJGS Program Award for the Montefiore Census Digitization project as part of the team. "In recognition of the exemplary work of Mathilde Tagger, Billie Stein and Rose Feldman as well as the numbeous volunteers from the IGS and IGRA who created the database, transcribed and translated all five 19th century censuses documenting the Jewish population of Eretz Yisrael between 1839 and 1875...."Mathilde received this award in person less than three weeks ago in a ceremony, in Jerusalem, with her family and many friends present. During this event Mathilde gave her lecture describing the process used and the challenges faced by the team working on the Montefiore census digitization. Her lecture is now available on the IGRA website.The world of Jewish genealogy in general and Sephardic Jewish genealogy in specific have lost a special friend and resource.May her memory be for a blessing.Garri RegevPresident, IGRA