My Genealogy

I have a remarkable collection of famous rabbis all the way along the branches of my family tree, though most of them are reached through my father's mother. Among them are the Rizhiner Rav, who was descended from the Maggid of Mezrich, and you can trace back from him to the Baal Shem Tov, who's credited with the creation of Hassidism (this was in the 18th century). There's also the Maharal of Prague who wrote a number of notable texts on Kabbalah (as in proper Kabbalah, the not-allowed-to-touch-it- until-you're-over-40-and- know-the-whole- Talmud-backwards version, not the Los-Angeles-celebs- and-Madonna-wearing -red-threads-and -drinking-"Kabbalah water" version) but is most famous for his starring role in the story of the Golem of Prague, supposedly created to guard Prague's Jews from the many antisemitic attacks and blood libels of the day. So I'm proud to be descended from the original roboticist and the original Hassid, even though they are likely both doing 78RPM in their graves when looking at me.

Closer to home, my father and mother were both born in England, though my father's father is the only one of my grandparents with that distinction. Further back all the lines go to Eastern Europe - Germany, Austria, Poland and Russia. (I'm totally Ashkenazi - none of that Sephardi ululating for me, alas.) My father's father's family are bakers. My father's mother's family were well-off and lived in Austria until the Nazi menace gathered; on the eve of the war my grandfather wandered in and out of Nazi-controlled Vienna to grab the family's entire wealth (which had been consolidated into a single necklace) and then, to avoid detection, came back through Germany . My mother's father was on the last Kindertransport out of Berlin as a teen, and helped run the camp that had been set up in Wales for young survivors. That's where he met my grandmother, who had come through Auschwitz.