From: "David Simon Bendory" To: "Schelly Dardashti" References: <3BA6F255.9531BE13@barak-online.net> <02aa01c14167$7307ea20$64fa1dc7@david> <3BAA07FB.243E1F60@barak-online.net> Subject: Re: Your siddur Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 22:56:12 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4807.1700 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4807.1700 On my family's assimilation, here is another posting to JewishGen. It isn't the Kohn's but it is the same story on that side... My great-grandfather & great-grandmother, Leib and Ruchel SCHWARTZ, were clearly religious when they came from Romania with their children, my grandfather Avraham and his brother Itzchok, in 1902. Like many turn of the century immigrants, they worked to assimilate into their new country, throwing off much of their Jewish identity in the process. Their children (my grandfather's generation) married Jews and rarely went to synagogue; their children (my parent's generation) married Jews and transmitted little beyond "Jewish values" to their children; and their children (my generation) entirely intermarried. Except me. I am the first observant Jew in 4 generations on both sides of my family. As an observant Jew, it has troubled me for years that my parents never gave me a Hebrew name and didn't name me after anyone. So as an adult, I took on the Hebrew name "Dovid" to go with my English name "David", and I have gone by the Hebrew version for years. Today (Sept 16, 2001) is the one day this year when the historic Grove Street Cemetery in Newark is safe to visit -- there are plenty of police out, and mostly old people go before the holidays to visit their parents or grandparents' grave. As a genealogist, I ventured out to see my great-grandparents on both sides of the family to see what I could learn. As a Jew, I went to pay appropriate respect before the holidays. Imagine my surprise and joy to find Leib's Hebrew name on his tombstone: "Leib ben Dovid". In their efforts to assimilate, to give their son a nice American Jewish name, unknown to anyone alive, after 4 generations, my parents gave me the name of my great-great-grandfather. I will no longer say I was not named after anyone. God works in mysterious ways. Shanah tovah to all, David Simon Bendory