The Impact of Kindness

Milton Rubenfeld

Always asking why is my mantra, so it was no different when I learned of the death of Paul Ruebens, Pee Wee Herman to many of us. The "why" for me was why was his death so jarring for me. I actually shed tears and didn't realize why at that moment. 

In the ensuing time my reflection has brought a flood of memories of a time in the 80's when my life was evolving into who I really was on the inside. Many of these memories are long ago and locked in a vault. 

After countless years of attempting to persuade my parents (grandparents) of my need to be accepted as the male I was and their (mostly my grandmother) attempts at conversion therapy, verbal ridicule, arguments that went nowhere, I shed my family ties (ultimatum that I couldn't come to their house unless I remained in permanent gender limbo and celibate, but I digress).  

Finally, after 4 long years of seeking a competent psychiatrist (yes that was and still is the gatekeeping method of absolute control) I was started on hormones in 1985 when "What Sex Am I?" (documentary by Lee Grant) was released on HBO. I spent some of my student loan money on a subscription so I could watch this first broadcast of something that was positive and about us. Trans men. I would not meet another trans man like myself for 10 years after watching this program. So, this and Phil Donahue was my first glimpse of anyone like me. I had lived this life 0-25 on my own without any support or guidance, so alone was something I was used to, but never allowed me to not be hyperaware of exposure and lack of support. A toll I still try to heal from. Anyone who knew me throughout my youth new I was not comfortable as a girl, nor believable as one. I only share this to give you an idea of the impact that awaited me. 

 

Prior to the children's version of Pee Wee's Playhouse was an HBO special from 1981 "The Pee-Wee Herman Show Live from the Sunset Strip's Roxy Theater", a very adult play version of what would transpire into Pee Wee's Playhouse on Saturday on a major network. I saw this aired prior to the Playhouse release in 1986 and was hooked. I had little glimpses of hope and being able to watch a kids show and be silly was instrumental for my actual survival. I was going through male puberty without knowing how that worked for a 25 year old.

Pee Wee's Playhouse had a large part in my joy during this difficult time. Paul Rueben made being different normal and desirable to be around. I will be forever grateful to Paul Rubenfeldt for that gift.

Yes, Paul Ruebens was actually Paul Rubenfeld(t) grandson of Jewish Polish/Austrian immigrants to NYC (1909) then to the town of Peekskill in upstate New York where Paul’s grandmother owned a Bar/Restaurant where his father and siblings worked before Paul’s father moved the family to Sarasota, Florida when Paul was young. Paul’s father Milton (Milt) worked at the restaurant/bar as well as his siblings on 699 Central Ave (1940 & 1950 census records) owned by his widowed mother Gussie, with a number of lodgers. Records show that Paul’s maternal grandparents were from Galicia, Austrian Empire (Presently, Poland). Now you know why the episode of 30 Rock where he plays an Austrian prince must have been so fun for him to do! Paul’s grandparents are buried in Peekskill, Winchester Co. NY not too far from me. If I’m ever in the area I may visit the Hebrew Cemetery where they are buried.

His father, Milt was quite the decorated hero if what is on https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151330737/milton-rubenfeld is true. There are several genealogies of this family on-line that differ in the town in Poland//Austria that Louis Rubenfeldt and his family came, but right now I haven't the time to investigate further, maybe at a later date.

World War II Victory Medal
RAF 1942
US Army Air Force 1943-45
Israel Air Force 1948

At the age of 84.
Born in Peekskill. NY In his high school years in Peekskill, NY Milton was an Eagle Scout. He was also a lifeguard who saved lives. He went to college at both NYU and the University of New Mexico to study art. In New Mexico he hunted rattle-snakes.
He wanted to fight in World War Two before the U.S. entered the war so he joined the Royal Air Force, leaving there to join the United States Air Force when the U.S. involvement started.
In 1948 he and a small group of Americans helped establish the State of Israel and founded the nascent Israeli Air Force. Milton flew the Messerschmitt 109 as a member of the 101st. Squadron

In 1951 he fell in love and married his wife of 52 years, Judy (Rosen). They owned a Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Oneonta New York. In the basement of their house he built a stage for his son Paul and a boat for his daughter. He always disliked shoveling snow and dreamed of moving to Florida and living on the water. In 1960 he moved his family, which now included a second son, to Sarasota.
He is the father of three children-Paul, Abby and Luke. Paul is the actor better known as Pee-wee Herman. Abby is a prominent civil rights attorney and mother to his two grandchildren, Lily and Sarah.
Milton had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh and be funny. He was a very modest man who did not like to talk about his many accomplishments. In the 1980’s he was honored in Israel for his heroism and lead-ership during the very earliest beginnings of the Israeli Air Force-his plane has been preserved and is displayed outside the airport in Tel Aviv with a plaque bearing his name.
He was rarely seen without a cigar. He never took “no” for an answer and lived his life with great gusto and swagger.

The story is told that on the 2nd day of the airforce May 29,1948 Milton was shot down on his mission in 1948 the Israeli Air Force had not only been a secret to the Egyptians—it had also been a secret to Israeli citizens. Swimming ashore after parachuting out of his damaged plane , the moshavniks of Kfar Vitkin assumed that Rubenfeld was an Arab pilot. Rubenfeld knew no Hebrew, and knew very little Yiddish, so in order to convince them he was Jewish, he reportedly shouted the only thing he could remember: "Shabbos, gefilte fish! Shabbos, gefilte fish!"

So this is my heartfelt thanks, Paul Rueben! It was apparent that your life was devoted to kindness regardless of human missteps. I'm sure you have no idea how many lives you touched. Cheers!!

Vincent’s 167th Birthday: The van Gogh Family Lineage through Tragedy and Service to Humanity

I’m revamping my 2-year-old story in celebration of the 167th birthday of Vincent van Gogh with additional links and information. Let’s celebrate this great artist while we quarantine during the coronavirus! What you don’t know about the descendants of Vincent van Gogh is amazing and relevant!
March 30th marks the birth of the great artist, Vincent Willem van Gogh¹. I own prints of many of his paintings that hang on walls in my home. Many years have been spent in admiration and trying to understand a deeply moving man. When I was very young, one of my favorite songs was Vincent by Don McLean (famous for his song American Pie). While others were into heavy metal, I turned the other way and found kinship in folk pop-singer songwriters. Rhapsodizing about Vincent’s life and struggles can be left to reading Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith (highly recommended).
Vincent meandered from a young age trying to discover what his passion and service would be. It wasn’t until he turned 27 that he began to become an artist, and by the age of 37 he was dead. Vincent was self-taught for the most part, copying his mother’s sketches while young, transpiring into putting out 10 years’ worth of amazing work that never sold during his lifetime. NOT one painting! I could go on…..instead, I’ll leave you with a story on the man who consistently sees into my soul and inspires me to follow my heart. Bear with me through the facts while the tragedy transpires.
You can find basic details of Vincent’s life on-line easily. Vincent(¹) was born 30 Mar 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands, and died 29 July 1890 at the Ravoux’s Inn in Auvers, France with no issue (for non-genealogist this means no children). What isn’t as easy to find are the details of his ancestry, much of which is covered in The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh¹, 3 volumes first published in 1958 (I own the third edition collection, 2000, pictured above). His sister-in-law provided a memoir of Vincent outlining the family lineage, referencing Annales Genealogiques by Arnold Buchelius which states “Jacob van Gogh (16th c. family already established in Holland) lived at the time in Utrecht…. Jan, Jacob’s son, sold wine and books….”. The family lineage had generations of connections to art and literature. The name van Gogh is believed to be derived from the small-town Gogh on the German frontier.²
I will discuss some of his descendants through his brother Theo who had only one child. Vincent was the oldest of six children, three boys and three girls. The first born boy was stillborn leaving 5 siblings, Anna Cornelia (two daughters), Theodorus-Theo (one son), Elisabeth Huberta-Lies (5 children), Willemina Jacoba-Wil (no issue), Cornelious Vincent-Cor (no issue). Today I will focus on Theo’s only child Vincent, hopefully later I will have more time to dig into the other offspring of his siblings.  Cor died (age 33) volunteering for the Anglo-Boer War, either in action or as a suicide was later suspected.³
Bare with me as we trudge through the countless Theos and Vincents!! Our Vincent van Gogh’s brother Theo(¹) had one child…. Vincent Willem van Gogh(²) (named after his love of his brother). Vincent(²) was born in Paris, 31 Jan 1890, the same year as Vincent’s(¹) death, with his own father, Theo(¹) dying 6 months after Vincent(¹) at the age of 33! This gives you an idea of Theo’s(¹) devotion to Vincent(¹), leaving his wife and 6-month-old to rush to Vincent’s side as he died in Auvers, probably in poor health himself.
**Not much is mentioned of Johanna Bonger vanGogh, the widow of Theo, except that she and her son worked their whole lives to honor and preserve Vincent’s(²) legacy.  That changed recently with the new biography, Everything for Vincent: The Life of Jo van Gogh-Bonger, by Hans Luijten, senior researcher at the Van Gogh Museum.4 I’m looking forward to the English translation later this year finding more about this woman who was able to sustain herself and son as a widow in the 19^th century!
Vincent(²), Theo’s son, called “the Engineer” was born 31 Jan 1890 in Paris, and died 28 Jan 1978, in Laren, North Holland, Netherlands. This Vincent(2) continued his mother’s devotion to the legacy of van Gogh by establishing the Van Gogh Foundation in the 1960’s where van Gogh’s collection was transferred. In 1973 the State of the Netherlands designed the Van Gogh Museum where the collection now resides. This family’s devotion is why we have the amazing amount of his work.
This Vincent(²) , son of Theo(¹)who died at the age of 33, had two boys and a girl….yes, you guessed it, one son was named Theo(²). This Theo(²) was born 5 Nov 1920 in Amsterdam. My heart skipped a beat when I learned of his execution by the Nazis at the age of 24, 8 Mar 1945. He was a member of the resistance movement. Vincent’s(²) oldest son Johan, born in 1922 and died 21 Feb, 2019 had a prolific live in the Dutch secret service.5
Johan’s son, yes…another Theo(³), was a film director, producer, and actor who was brutally murdered in 2004 by a Dutch Moroccan who was not happy about his outspoken views on Islamic woman’s rights. Yes, there is a book about this murder and its meaning, Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance by Ian Burma. Theo’s(3) last film was “06” about the murder (ironically) of an outspoken gay libertarian, Pim Fortuyn. Theo(³) created a short film (2004), before his assassination, with now controversial activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, called Submission. Theo was murdered for making this political film, written by Ali, about how many women are treated by men under the Koran teachings6
.
Can I say, “What the…?” This family history would make an amazing mini-series beyond focusing on Vincent the painter!

Theo’s(³) son, Lieuwe van Gogh, grandson of Johan, great grandson of Vincent the engineer, and great great grandson of Theo, brother of our Vincent van Gogh, is an ARTIST! Born in 1992 in the Netherlands and is on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/lieuwe.vangogh   He was only 12 years old when his father was murdered. I can’t imagine….
To learn more, please click on the many highlighted references!! Go visit the Fogg Museum in Cambridge, MA, or the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, or any other place that has a van Gogh painting on exhibit. A picture never does his work justice. My most moving moment, for me, was at the Boston MFA in 2000 when the exhibit Face to Face, the Portraits (book in picture above) came to Boston. The iconic self-portrait, front and center, and getting very close and seeing the thick strokes of paint then walking slowly further away to see the painting evolve.
Happy Birthday, Vincent! Cheers!
Vincent and Theo at rest together again.
Descendants of the Van Gogh line
¹The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Bulfinch Press: Little, Brown and Company, Boston, New York, London, third edition, 2000, xv.
²Ibid.
³The Unknown Van Gogh: the life of Cornelis van Gogh, from the Netherlands to South Afrika, Chris Schoeman, Cape Town, Zebra Press, 2015.
⁴Due to be released in English in later 2020. Published in Dutch Sep 2019. https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/news-and-press/press-releases/book-launch-all-for-vincent-the-life-of-jo-van-gogh-bonger Review: The Art Newspaper, Martin Bailey 18 Septemper 2019, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/amp/review/van-gogh-s-sister-in-law, Diaries of Johanna Bonger  https://bongerdiaries.org/dagboek_jo_1
5 https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/the-astonishing-life-of-johan-van-gogh
6Submission https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGtQvGGY4S4 **warning this video is an adult topic and can be disturbing to some.

A Career destroyed? A Movement diluted? What can we learn....

This is all a hot mess, but I find stories like Joseph M. Pierce's authenticate the harm being done by rigidity within populations that should embrace the complexities of heritage and identity, especially to the vast population who are products of non traditional relationships that carry a heavy burden, stigma of legitimacy of worth as human. I was told recently that I should shut up because I'm not a "practicing native".  No one cares what I have to say.  It's amazing how people will use a culture to culture shame another person. Hmmmm...

We need to be careful who we drag along with Elizabeth Warren's condemnation besides her, which is unacceptable and vicious, in my view. Discovering MORE about the past, who we are, what courses through our blood is important for many reasons regardless of whether "you" personally care or not. Many people don't care about the past and that's ok, but it is not ok to condemn others that do and not realize it is why we have historical dialog in the first place.  It also represents a white dominate past that many cannot see, viewed through white eyes, as anything but racist, with a valid point.

Yes, there are reasons to fight this past, but it is there and cannot be erased.  I am not a racist purely decided because I have predominantly Irish and British heritage, BUT there are many things I have been allowed to be oblivious of because of my whiteness and privilege. There were many white people much more privileged than I as well.  My immigrants were poor Irish, Scottish, not so poor-not so rich British, German, Swiss, etc...

Many families, including mine and my wife's were a huge melting pot of culture, and suppressed culture.  My step-dad from the age of 6 on was Mexican, my twin sisters 1/2 Mexican, my wife 1/2 Vietnamese, born in Vietnam. My nephews 1/2 black, 1/4 Vietnamese.  Who the hell are we all??  Does my embrace of bloodline discoveries demonize other "legitimate" populations?  Why?  These are valid questions that don't have definitive answers.

You can judge me on my authenticity more by my actions and ability to change. You will get nowhere by telling me my whiteness means I don't have a clue before you know anything about me.  Who is the judge and jury?  No one seems to care that what is genuine is Elizabeth Warren's family story.  She distances herself from tribal councils probably because it will be viewed as her attempt to claim something she doesn't want to do because how it will look.  What the hell is she supposed to do when everyone has a different opinion about what is the right thing to do?

What defines families for better or worse through many generations is what we are talking about.  It's a huge mucky mess, but we should talk about it.  As a genealogist it's a double edged sword.  Oral histories are wonderful starting points that many times turn out to be not what they seem.  Misconstrued information by just common error, or downright made up to 

hide other unpleasant events, or a variety of scenarios many times leading to having to change the "oral history" documentation to match real documents.  This doesn't mean there is not a purpose for oral history, without it the indigenous population is left with a scarce history. 

Sally Hemmings had children with Thomas Jefferson proven through extensive research, AND DNA. That is important to history. Documentation aided by DNA testing can be very important tools.  Diluting this by trying to say her descendants can't claim blackness or whiteness is a silly argument. Elizabeth Warren will probably be able to find the exact grandfather or mother, in time, who was full blood indigenous, it may prove to be Mexican indigenous, Cherokee indigenous or many of the other tribes that were forced into Oklahoma by white settlers, but not all whites. It's a messed up stew to make huge generalities.  What is White?  That term is a slippery slop.

How much blood is enough? DNA is a starting point to lead to more documentation, not a diffinitive test like all the testing sites claim it to be.  They were in the business of selling kits with bad marketing ideas. We are all paying for this greed.

How much blood is enough can never be answered, but yet we all seem to have an opinion on that. Why is the Dawes Roll, which was a government controlled census, used to determine authentic Cherokee admittance to the Cherokee Nation when history tells us how many people rejected this "white man's" census and were not counted? Why is this the gauge for purity? How do we all understand and parcel out heritage and culture?  Are they definitively separate and un-mutable?  Much of this is taken out of historical context.  Much of this is about helping a deeply depressed population have access to more opportunities.

How do we meld all the good intentions together without demagoguing individuals with good intentions?  I have lots of questions, while everyone around me seems to have deep opinions that don't answer these questions.  At least, not in ways that speak to a large swath of the population that is trying to understand this and not loose more connections to people.

I understand we are dealing with a hugely, enormous problem with a disparaged indigenous population that is on reservations. We are also dealing with people who want to use ethnic cleansing using this info for harm. I'm not going to say "so and so" is an expert on all of this, because quite frankly it could not be more complicated for experts as well.  But, we do need to listen.  All we have that is genuine and human is intent. Does a person intend harm with claiming a heritage ever so distant?  We can call a person on their mistakes and ask for a dialog about what this brings up. BUT, what has happened here is the ugliest form of tribalism from all sides. I hate joining clubs, religions, social groups.

I have many reasons based on "heritage" to belong to soldier groups from the most prestigious to common ones among big wars.  I come from a long line of warrior patriots that were very white.  I don't need to join an exclusive club to honor them because they had 

other attributes I'm not so proud of.  BUT, that is not why I don't join.  It's a huge complicated mess for me that causes me anxiety. I'm uncomfortable with people wanting to join the Mayflower Society.  But, I don't see why people can't celebrate this heritage, even though it is white, represents people who clashed with the native population.  I think people would join the Iroquois Confederacy Society if they could prove lineage, and it existed.  You can honor the past and see it's horrors as well.  It's when used as a weapon to suppress people that we have an issue.  BUT, for some damn reason we can't seem to parcel out the differences.  We judge...it's our damn nature.

What we need is MORE space to be authentic to our experiences, not less.

Thank you, Joseph, for sharing your experiences.  I'm hoping to spread your authenticity a little further.  Cheers!

Joseph M. Pierce"In the end, I am writing this to attempt to be authentic 

to my experience of self in the face of this unknowing but also this new

knowledge. It seems to me that to deny this legacy, this heritage, however 

distant and bureaucratic it has been, is to participate in the erasure of the 

Indian populations of the Americas. It is to continue to silence that history. 

It is inauthentic. My choice is not to do that. So I do say now that I am 

Indian. But I say those words with humility. I say those words knowing that 

they are part of a circuitous path toward Indigeneity. I say those words 

knowing that I do not speak Cherokee, knowing that I do not know so 

much about what it means to be Cherokee. But I also say those words 

knowing that not having access to our oral history is an authentic 

Indian experience."

On the anniversary of the Hamilton/Burr duel let's look at the little known tragedy in Burr's life

Aaron Burr.  The name still makes people uneasy even though he was exonerated of any wrong doing in a supposed plot to overthrow the government, and went on to live a long life riddled with tragedy. 

I've read both Ron Chernow's book on Hamilton and Susan Isenberg's book on Burr and have concluded that both Burr and Hamilton were just as complex characters as Thomas Jefferson.  Hamilton, well know for his duel challenges, and Burr well know for his aversion to dueling.  Yet, there they were in Weehawken, NJ doing what irrational men do when their history of conflict reaches a boiling point. 


We can debate many aspects of Hamilton and Burr, but I would like to focus on Aaron Burr's relationship with his only child, Theodosia, and the tragedy of her very short life. 

One thing I found fascinating about Burr and his relationship with his young daughter was their practice of writing daily letters to each other.  Regardless of whether they were apart or together.  I have been using this practice with my son.  I have to say it has been a tremendous bonding experience that I hope to continue as long as possible.
Say what you will about Aaron Burr, but his devotion to making sure his daughter had every educational opportunity available to her was surprising for the time.  Not only that, Burr opened his home to foreign struggling artists and guests of all varieties, including Mohawk chief Joseph Brant¹, giving Theodosia an upbringing many woman would have cherished for it's progressive atmosphere.  Not to mention the family background of philosophical and religious thought.  Aaron Burr was the son of a minister who was a president of Princeton.  His maternal grandfather was the famed Rev Jonathan Edwards. 
With this ready made lineage it's not a wonder why Alexander Hamilton may have felt defensive of his rocky family lineage and foreign birth, possibly feeling he had to work ten times harder than those of privilege.  Not an excuse, but a possible window into his "chip on the shoulder" attitude that had him challenging several individuals to duels, including the father-in-law of Albert Gallatin, Commodore James Nicholson.  Hamilton was a Federalist in the New York City area surrounded by up and coming Jeffersonian Republicans such as Gallatin, Nicholson, and Burr, with Clinton and Livingston seeing less influence in NY politics.  It's easy to imagine Hamilton seeing a connected vision to unseat Federalist, and against him.
The irony of Theodosia's upbringing cannot be more devastating than when, at age 17, she chose to marry a rich older man, whom by most counts she didn't really love or hardly knew, all to save her father from massive debt. Theodosia married Joseph Alston from South Carolina who was a wealthy plantation owner.  Add to that the sale of her family estate to John Jacob Astor who parceled off the land, sold it for a huge profit establishing his rags to riches climb from fur trapper to entrepreneur, all under the eyes of Aaron Burr and his loss of status throughout his life².
His beloved Theodosia died at sea, age 29.  While the duel with Alexander Hamilton started his downward spiral, it's hard to image surviving the loss of a beloved wife (1794), [remember the duel was in 1804] the trial for treason 1807, his daughter's death 1813, and his living until 1836, thus losing his entire past. 
I'm reminded when studying history that people are just as complex as I, sometimes much more so, but it is up to us to dig deep enough for a true glimpse into human beings, their flaws and their strengths.

                   Below picture is public domain painted by artist John Vaderlyn

¹Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr, Nancy Isenberg, Penguin Books, 2007.  This is a very readable, in-depth study of Burr's life and is highly recommended.  The new work of Burr, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy, James E. Lewis, Jr., Princeton University Press, 2017, would be great additional reading on the trial.

²Albert Gallatin: Jeffersonain Financier and Diplomat, Raymond Walters, Jr., University of Pittsburg Press, 1957.  The Life of Aaron Burr, Nancy Isenberg, Penguin Books, 2007.

Planetary alignment and the meaning of July 4th

I know...astrology? really?.  Hear me out...

I'm not one that sees the world through the generic astrological charts of time, yet I do pay attention to the phenomenon that is astrology.  Something that many people do not realize, astrology is the intricate mathematical study of planetary alignments. You can ignore it completely and live a very full life.  I chose to learn from everything life has to offer.  For me, I find specifics in astrology that are hard to deny.  Generalities abound when you know very little about astrology.  Your sun sign is that generality, and you will find that definitions are way too misleading. You actually have many aspects to your chart that have significant influence, melded together giving you an interesting picture of planetary influence.

Most of July is the month of Cancer, the crab, the tribal self.  The planetary alignment of our country, if you use the event, July 4, 1776, 12 Midnight in Philadelphia, gives you 13 planetary alignments through a time continuum.  As a planet with many water signs we are a sensitive, tribal nation that the world sees as petulant, immature, and spoiled. So, let's look at the chart.

No surprise is the sun sign of Cancer, but also the strength of finding Mercury, Venus and Jupiter also in the house of Cancer.  Lots of water signs that represent feminine energy within, tribal, familial energy, and a hard shell to protect that sensitive, loyal self that can be stubborn.  I'm no expert, by any means, but I've learned a lot over the years by speaking to experts in the field, being surprised to find many that are very grounded, analytical, and more mathematician than spiritualist.

Something that is not talked about, in generic zodiac sun sign horoscopes, is the rising sign, which is how you are perceived to be, many times not reflecting your true inner self.  For the United States of America, our birth of July 4, 1776, we are an Aries rising, fitting perfectly into how we are perceived as petulant, immature, and spoiled by the world, yet courageous and impulsive.

On this important celebration day of Liberty, and the deaths of two of our most important founders, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, let us remind ourselves,of our true inner sovereignty that reflects our collective human family that is unlike any other country.  Let us celebrate our feminine wisdom at our core.  We will prevail against the tyranny we face and rise above our history of inner struggles for liberty, equality, and responsibility to life and the pursuit of happiness.

Happy 4th America!
Robin Williams and the flag

The death of a Great Historian leads me to ask "Where did he come from? What was his muse?"

"[B]inary opposites fit nicely the formulation of history as written, but they do little to capture the messy, inchoate reality of history as lived." - Ira Berlin

We recently learned of the death of an iconic American historian, Ira Berlin.  I would like to delve into what you don't know.

The recent article in the Washington Post gives you a nice review of his groundbreaking work, as well as in the AP, New York Times, etc. Yet, I see history through a different lens.  I wanted to know more about the man and his early development.

Unfortunately, the web doesn’t give much background on the man himself, focusing on his illustrious work alone.  That’s too bad!  There is SO much left out!

Ira Berlin born May 27, 1941 in New York was the son of Louis Berlin and Sylvia Toby (Lebwohl).  Louis Berlin, Ira's father, was born in Russia in 1914 just prior to the Russia Revolution in 1917. Ira's grandfather, Morris, immigrated to New York in 1912 and the family followed in 1917.  There's a story there, but I could find no immediate immigration records (for a latter project).  The influx of Russian Jewish immigration to America around this time came from the Pale Settlement. This was western Russia in current day Latvia,Lithuania, and Poland. Not enough study of Russian history, especially Jewish Russian history is taught in our schools. It is important, and even more so today, to understand our own large Jewish American population. Interesting enough, you can learn a lot from another scholarly Berlin on philosophy, Russian history, and British/American alliances during WWII, Sir Isaiah Berlin. His history is worthy of another article!  He is a scholar amongst scholars!

But, most interesting...

Ira Berlin's youth was honed and developed at an illustrious high school in the Bronx, New York, DeWitt Clinton High.  If you are not familiar with this school you are really missing out.  The alumni of DeWitt Clinton is a litmus test for success and progressive thought, spanning the depth of black and Jewish activism of the 1930's on throughout the 1970's (makes me want to dig into the show "The Americans").  Alumni of DeWitt Clinton included James Baldwin, Baldwin's collaborator Richard Alvedon, Stan Lee, teacher Robert Meeropol (composer of "Strange Fruit"/Baldwin and others were his students), Norman Lear, Ralph Lauren, Burt Lancaster, Gary Marshall, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jerry Moss of A & M records, Edward Lewis (Essence magazine co-founder) just to name a few. Professor Berlin's mother was Ralph Lauren's accountant.  Ira Berlin graduated in the 1959 class at DeWitt Clinton High School, and Ralph Lauren graduated in 1957, so obviously they were well acquainted.  

Progressive socialist movements were well instanced in this area of New York dating as early as the 1930's.  The famous Rosenberg trial began in 1951, ending with the couples execution in 1953.  Their connection to Robert Meeropol (link above on Meeropol's name to my previous article) and W.E.B. Dubois leds to intriguing assumptions, I wish Professor Berlin were alive, to discuss.  The entire black and Jewish population in New York City and it's suburbs had to have been under great tensions during this McCarthy era time.

The school publication "the Magpie" was critically acclaimed throughout their illustrious history.  It's easy to see where one might be influenced to study African American history considering the surroundings of a young Ira Berlin.

I, for one, intend to study more of Ira Berlin's work and lectures/talks via the internet.  How about you?

Good reference for overall history of Russia:  A History of Russia, Nicholas W. Riasanovsky (student of Sir Isaiah Berlin at Oxford), various editions (1st edition, 1963, I have the 1969 second edition, most recently on it's 9th edition, 2000), Oxford University Press, London.

Addendum to Michener post

I love it when  you have a writing remembrance of place and time that gives you other gifts.  In my previous post, on my early readings of historical fiction, I discussed the influence James Michener had on me. Connections to Historical Fiction  Every morning I have my ritual dog walk along the ocean and Michener tapped me hard on the shoulder and presented me with something I have forgotten about for years. 

I have always been drawn to the ocean and have chosen to live as close by as possible.  While living in the Boston area I lived between the ocean and a marsh.  I now live between an ocean and a marsh... go figure.  Michener was a lover of the environment and ended his book the Chesapeake with the migration of Canadian geese.  I have had a relationship with Canadian Geese ever since reading that book.  In Boston, where I lived, the return and leaving of the seasons meant "the Canadians", as I called them collectively, would return to me to say there hellos before going on their journey.  

After some turbulent years of massive changes in my life I lost track of "my Canadians".  They may have been there, but I wasn't noticing.  After publishing my previous post to the world, I had my ritual dog walk.  The video is above.  "My Canadians!"  They came back to me with a message from Michener.  I chose to interpret the message to be, "keep writing, keep valuing your feelings, and stop and see the glories before you".  

Thanks, James Michener!

Connections to Historical Fiction in my Youth

Recently, a discussion came up about how I became interested in the study of history.  My focus is on knowing as much about history as possible to inform genealogical research more deeply, and an obsession with studying slavery and race in particular.  I believe it is our duty as humans to learn as much as possible about what our passions are, how they mold us, and how we can use our knowledge to serve the betterment of society.  The difficulty with this type of journey is following this passion while providing enough to live a life unencumbered by worry about how to pay bills, emergencies, healthcare, etc.  We all are challenged by what we love and what we do.  When the two can meet harmoniously, you have a blessed life, indeed.  I'm not there yet, but it's my dream.

So, in thinking about who influenced my love of history, the first name that came up for me was James Michener.  His style of historical fiction spoke to me and has informed how I look at the world in many ways.  This connection may run more deeply within my DNA than I could have ever imagined.

I consistently get taken aback when serendipitous events coincide. My favorite Michener book was Chesapeake.  Spending a bit of time asking myself why this book specifically amongst his many, I found genealogical and historical answers.  Chesapeake, like all of Michener's books, begins with a place, city, state, or country.  While this sounds simple, Michener proceeds to teach you the history, through the eyes of fictitious and historical characters, of a place from it's beginnings to the present.  This book begins in 1500's Virginia along the Chesapeake Bay area with the native population.  If you have read any of my previous posts on my 7th great grandfather (William Taptico lineage), who was the last "chief" (Americanized name) of the Wicocomico tribe (which ceased to exist after Taptico's death in 1719), you know Michener was writing about the very region of my family heritage, that I knew nothing about when reading this book.  I traveled, back in 2003, to the specific area where my ancestors lived, not far from the Pawmunkey Reservation of today.  Mostly open fields, undeveloped, I walked silently and wept.  I don't know why I'm such a sap, but I have learned to own it over the years and not be ashamed.

I had a similar experience in Lisbon at a monastery and feel I need to delve into that research because I have suspicions there is a connection to the two.  Yes, I'm crazy!  We're not quite there DNA wise, but I did have a Iberian peninsula connection which makes sense with all of the probable invasions to the Chesapeake area from early Spanish and Portuguese ships.  My test proved the Taptico lineage by matching the exact chromosome at the exact location on that chromosome to many of the male direct descendant alive today and silenced all the controversy that permeated a long fight within the Tapp family.  A large contingency, wanting desperately to be descended from British white ancestors. And, believe me, historians of the past used documents within early VA records to try and fit Taptico into being a British man given an honorary "king" title from the Wicocomico tribe. Believe it or not, some still refuse to acknowledge the native lineage even with the striking DNA before them.  But...I digress...

Back to wondering about Michener's genealogy.  Wow!  James Michener was adopted and never knew who were his parents.  No one knows, as far as I can ascertain....hmmm...

In 2000, my journey into genealogical research began to devour my thoughts most relevantly when my grandmother was dying.  I became consumed with longing for who I was and whose lives and histories came before me.  Couple this with my life long pull towards historical study and you get a meaningful lifelong passion personified.  When I analyze my other historical fiction author, John Jakes, I continue to find not only genealogical parallels, but historical pulls as well.  John Jakes mythological character, Phillipe Kent, has a family genealogy that is followed throughout many volumes, who is a bastard of a poor French woman and an English Lord.  I am a bastard and this story melded my fantasies of a similar story for myself as I knew nothing about the father that abandoned me.  Phillipe begins his journey by searching out his father, just as mine did in 2000.  Phillipe was disappointed in what he found and because of the chaos that ensues jumps on a ship to Boston.  In 1989, I left the south behind and moved to Boston to start a new life.  Phillipe ends up having his life, and the lives of his lineage, entwined with American history.  The characters in american history that touch the fictitious

What led me to Michener, after Jakes, was Jakes treatment in his verse of gays, slaves, and lower class citizens in, what I viewed as, a very prejudice manner, but at least he had these characters.  Jakes first volume was published in 1974 (I didn't read them until later).  Michener wrote better and seemed to be far advanced for his views on progressive ideas, yet avoided the characterization pitfalls I found in Jakes works as far as I can remember.  They were products of their times for sure.

In the midst of all of this came Roots!  My southern history classes bored me to tears when discussing the Civil War era.  Why?  Dates, battles, generals, deaths, statistics was the focus.  Seeing the mini-series Roots changed everything.  I avoided the period and focused on American history before 1850.  Roots made me loathe any study of the Civil War because it was fake to me!  No one wanted to talk about slavery, then lynching, then human rights.  But, you could talk about the history of the "Civil War".  Last year changed everything for me.  I went to a conference on...."slavery and abolition", yes, not the Civil War.  That conference impacted me just the way reading Michener and seeing Roots did.

Historians of this period are doing profound work today!  I can't say that enough!  It's an exciting time, but it's also a difficult time.  Why?  It will require acknowledgement that this country has done horrible things for all the wrong reasons, but it is our history and we must acknowledge it, learn from it, and make sure we move forward with reverence for what that knowledge has taught us, AND continues to teach us.  Never forget!

While the historical field is exploding, so is the time for the genealogical field to walk hand in hand.  There is so much to learn from one another.  Slavery made genealogy difficult.  Genealogy relies heavily on documentation, but always searches for the oral histories, which take work to meld into source material.  This is the time to record those histories in the black community.  There are still people who are alive that have stories to share about their parents or grandparents who were slaves.  There is another part of history that is not discussed much that I would like to see more focus on, culture shaming.  In the early stages of immigration in the very late 1800's on through to today, it was the norm to withhold pride of your heritage.  Many first generation families who grew up in the 50's through the 80's were led to believe their heritage was un-American (there is a resurgence of this happening today and it must be resisted).  Languages were not passed down, traditions, if passed down, were kept within the family, feeling shame at sharing their traditions with outsiders, etc..  We all loose, heavily, with this lack of reverence for heritage and history.

I know this post is turning preachy, I'm sorry, but this is how I write posts, going with the flow of feelings.  We are at a point where we can follow a path of admiring, recording, and documenting truth in all its dimensions.  THAT is exciting to me, but it is frightening to those who are entrenched in deception.  This is what happens in regimes.  We have a choice:  we can embrace the difficulty of the past, reshape the future, and follow the difficult, bumpy road of uncertainty OR we can allow our voices to be silenced, chose not to get involved, chose to look the other way, WHICH is so much easier.  What shall we do?  For now, I'm going to study history, even if I can't make money doing it, and seek truth.

So, back to Michener's genealogy.  Without exhuming his grave, I must.....find....his....parents!
My musings for the day!