Osiris? (or the Archangel Michael?)

I've come of an age where I read the NYTimes obituaries. for whatever reason.
Today, I found two deceased where I couldn't resist playing God. Simplistic? Yes. Judgmental? Of course!

Borrowing from Judaism, whose memory is most truly a blessing? Which one would you be most proud to call "Father"?

You won't get the full effect (even if you think you know Bailey's history) unless you read their whole life stories as the NYTimes presents them.

I'm sure Bailey had done some good deeds and Harris was miscreant in some ways, but overall these two struck me as powerful contrasts in Good vs Bad.

F Lee Bailey , the Pied Piper of Evil-Doers (Fageddabout Patty Hearst)

OTOH it sounds like William B. Harris chose the high road in improving the world at every chance. Even reading about him, lifted me up.

I find myself reflecting on the tremendous importance of the example one leaves, of "fighting the good fight" (and quite apart from whether the individual fight bears fruit!)

Interestingly, both made their marks as brilliant lawyers. (So much for generalizations about that profession!)

He never met a worthy cause he didn't embrace

Wonderful writing on the Bailey obit. I'll read the other one later. Thanks for sharing these--Bailey's is very entertaining!

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Originally posted by piqué:
Wonderful writing on the Bailey obit. I'll read the other one later. Thanks for sharing these--Bailey's is very entertaining!

His really is a remarkable story and beautifully told with artful twists and turns, from one dazzling feat to another. (Where DID he find them?).

OTOH the authors had the advantage of an almost unbelievable subject, capable of what sound like Houdini-esque escapes engineered for the benefit of his nefarious clients.

It sounds like he took them all as challenges, the more improbable the escape, the more fun he had. Everyone is said to be entitled to a fair defense. Sometimes, though, it seems evil geniuses like Harris are in such a class by themselves, they should be disbarred as practitioners of the dark arts.

Read the Harris obit. Truly an impressive man, but both he and his sister changed their last name from a clearly Jewish name to a clearly goyish name? What is up with that?

Amanda I know your dad did the same thing, as did many Jews of that era. What do you think this says about Harris? Was he a self-hating Jew?

My father also changed his last name--but not to try to pass for something he wasn't. He did it because no one can pronounce the real last name (unless you speak Russian), and he deliberately chose an eastern European alternative so that nobody would mistake our family for something we are not.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
Read the Harris obit. Truly an impressive man, but both he and his sister changed their last name from a clearly Jewish name to a clearly goyish name? What is up with that?

Amanda I know your dad did the same thing, as did many Jews of that era. What do you think this says about Harris? Was he a self-hating Jew?

My father also changed his last name--but not to try to pass for something he wasn't. He did it because no one can pronounce the real last name (unless you speak Russian), and he deliberately chose an eastern European alternative so that nobody would mistake our family for something we are not.

Found myself dwelling on your question for much of the day. First I ran down the list I could come up with (of middle-aged and older) Jewish men who changed their surnames from a Yiddish one to a non-Yiddish sounding one. The main conclusion I reached is how varied their apparent reasons were, from the classic Ellis Island accidents (based on sloppy clerks), to those in the entertainment profession wanting to widen their potential for roles, to those like your father who simply wanted to make their names (but not their ethnicity) more accessible. Lastly there were "all the others".

Those were the really interesting ones and where I found the most variety.

Apart from the changes which seem to be mere phonetic simplifications without any apparent sign of alienation from ethnicity or family, they seem to reflect a number of triggers (and possible combinations thereof):
First and foremost, changes reflect a reaction to antiSemitism - environmental or self-protective because of the proximate Holocaust. Sometimes, a whole generation would act in accord to the degree of Madeleine Albright's family. They converted not only their name but their religion. (Anybody remember how she was stunned to discover her Jewish roots, which only came out when she became a public figure?). Less extreme motives seem to reflect a more neutral wish to blend in with the majority.

Harris seems to be in that category. That he changed his name "as a teen" (presumably as soon as he was legally able to, i.e., age 18) says to me, he had been long been incubating the wish. I see He attended Dalton followed by Choate - both highly antiSemitic especially at the time he was there. I am sure that had a major negative effect on him - one he preferred to avoid as he moved on to college. (This is especially true as Harris didn't "look Jewish" in the slightest, so the name was the only clue.)

Dad, by contrast, attended the Ethical Culture School before college (which he began at 15). That interesting school and movement was, as I understand it, pretty much consciously non-theistic, including a deliberately non-religious morphing of Judaism. There would have been many Jewish students (speaking of ethnicity) from similarly progressive families with no Jewish observances to speak of. (He. said they "did nothing Jewish"* until he reached Bar Mitzvah age which coincided with the year Hitler came to power. (Dad reported being given a quicky Bar Mitzvah with no prior observance). Apart from being harassed on his way to school (Dad DID "look Jewish"), I assume he was multiply motivated with pathology being the most important. (This conclusion is not only based on observation, but the ultimate source - his own psychoanalyst! By good chance, I reconnected with him -bin old ageb- about a decade ago. We exchanged confidences (much overdue) about my family and the unhealthy role Jewish identification played in relationships.

Anyhow, apart from my meandering thoughts about Jewish surname changes in that general era, my response to your query about Harris' motives is as stated above. That they were a garden-variety reaction to antiSemitism in childhood and adolescence - less involving any real sense of danger, but the wish to avoid social ostracism. I am guessing too that as with Dad, Harris' family were distanced from Jewish observance, so a "why not?" (change his tell-tale name) response would make sense. Nothing in his history speaks of his family relationships, true. I'm concluding such a neutral motive on Harris' part largely because of my personal bias. I don't think anyone who (seems to have) lived a morally and personally healthy life could have been driven by inter-personal alienation.

*I've noticed that however non or even anti-Jewish an ethnic Jew may become, they always remain culinarily Jewish. (Always remember Dad referring to "Nova Scotia" instead of "lox" )

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*I've noticed that however non or even anti-Jewish an ethnic Jew may become, they always remain culinarily Jewish. (Always remember Dad referring to "Nova Scotia" instead of "lox" Big Grin)

Yes! The last guy I dated before I met Mr. Pique declared himself a "culinary Jew". Jewishness 2as a big part of his identity (as it is mine) but with no religious component whatsoever. And my dad always called it "Novy"