(no subject)
I can trace my lineage back six generations on my mom's side. It goes me (Sean Sagan), my mom (Denise Barnett), my grandma(Martha Edelman), her mother(Annie Cytron), her mother (Whose first name was Rebecca) and her mother (whose first name was Hannah). I was born in Boston, my mother in L.A., my grandmother in St. Louis and my great grandmother and her mother/grandmother in Odessa, Ukraine.
I can trace my lineage back four generations on my Dad's side. It goes me, my dad (Keith Sagan), my grandfather (Lester Sagan), and my Great Grandfather for whom I'm named in Hebrew (David Sagan). All members of my fathers side (patrilieally speaking) were from Boston. Before that they were most likely from Krakow Poland. It took some digging to find this out. My grandfather has never been forthcoming with the information, often changing the country of origin. It may be Kiev one day, Minsk another and Moscow another after that. I found out that in truth the Sagan family is from Krakow Poland but was (with the exception of those in America) wiped out in Auschwitz. Krakow was something like 20 miles from the camp. This is probobly why my grandfather won't talk about it even though he himself and his father were not victims/survivors.
Judaism marks lineage in two way. Talmudically speaking the Judiasm itself is passed on through the mothers line. Therefore, since my mother was Jewish, I too am Jewish. Conversly, if my future wife is not Jewish, my children are not Jewish unless they and/or she converts. (However, modern reform and reconstructionist Jews have relaxed that rule somewhat)
That is not to say that the patrilineal line is irrelevant. We claim a "Davidic lineage" through our fathers. That means that should one of us or our children turn out to be the Messiah we should be able to link ourselves back to King David. This is a partial reason for the Hebrew names. (David Gudol Ben Shlomo Ben Nahatan Ben David Ben......David Melech)
Not that I believe in most of this foolishness, though I am proud of it. Rather I want to embark on a writing project of sorts. I want to catalogue a series of short stories detailing certain lives of my ancestors, real and imagined dating from the present, to the old countries to the ancient Kingdom of Israel/Judah. Not that I plan on writing 150 generation (300 stories). I plan rather on a handful to give to my folks on mothers and fathers day respectivily, as a supplementary gift of course.
I can trace my lineage back four generations on my Dad's side. It goes me, my dad (Keith Sagan), my grandfather (Lester Sagan), and my Great Grandfather for whom I'm named in Hebrew (David Sagan). All members of my fathers side (patrilieally speaking) were from Boston. Before that they were most likely from Krakow Poland. It took some digging to find this out. My grandfather has never been forthcoming with the information, often changing the country of origin. It may be Kiev one day, Minsk another and Moscow another after that. I found out that in truth the Sagan family is from Krakow Poland but was (with the exception of those in America) wiped out in Auschwitz. Krakow was something like 20 miles from the camp. This is probobly why my grandfather won't talk about it even though he himself and his father were not victims/survivors.
Judaism marks lineage in two way. Talmudically speaking the Judiasm itself is passed on through the mothers line. Therefore, since my mother was Jewish, I too am Jewish. Conversly, if my future wife is not Jewish, my children are not Jewish unless they and/or she converts. (However, modern reform and reconstructionist Jews have relaxed that rule somewhat)
That is not to say that the patrilineal line is irrelevant. We claim a "Davidic lineage" through our fathers. That means that should one of us or our children turn out to be the Messiah we should be able to link ourselves back to King David. This is a partial reason for the Hebrew names. (David Gudol Ben Shlomo Ben Nahatan Ben David Ben......David Melech)
Not that I believe in most of this foolishness, though I am proud of it. Rather I want to embark on a writing project of sorts. I want to catalogue a series of short stories detailing certain lives of my ancestors, real and imagined dating from the present, to the old countries to the ancient Kingdom of Israel/Judah. Not that I plan on writing 150 generation (300 stories). I plan rather on a handful to give to my folks on mothers and fathers day respectivily, as a supplementary gift of course.