shalom

finally, an explanation for why everyone always thinks i'm jewish...here's the real story, as told by my great-aunt to my sister in an email she forwarded to me today:

"Not much is known about your great grandfather Harry Arron as he passed on little history to your grandfather Bill or Bill's brother, my dad, Joe. After much research and locating in Atlanta, Birmingham, Baltimore, Boston, and Cape Cod, we still don't know much, because...as the story goes...

Harry, an only son with four sisters, was told by his folks to become a rabbi and Harry objected, ran away from home, never spoke about his family, and his family never spoke about the brother that dishonored his parent's request. So the children of the four sisters never knew there was an Uncle Harry. And Harry never spoke of his sisters. Now, none of the sisters are alive, their children are also gone, leaving only the third generation (mine) and at least one widow, the wife of Herman, Esta, around 90, in Baltimore. Esta told Joan and I of the four sisters and 'lost' brother, Harry. Esta thought the came from Lithuania. Harry told me once he was born in Silesia, a province in either Poland, Austria, Prussia, or the Czech Republic, depending on which country won the last war. As Harry was born in Europe in 1881, immigrated through Savannah, Georgia, we assumed the family migrated in the 1880s, and we checked the immigration office in Savannah and found no reference to the. So not much info is available.

What always intrigues me is why Harry ran from being a Rabbi. He told me that the entrance exam for Rabbinical school had a true/false question, "The Jewish people are God's chosen people." Harry answered 'false' and noted the true God would have no chosen people, but is the God for all people. So Harry 'failed' the exam, never returned home, and his name was never again mentioned by his parents or sisters. He had courage. Good luck on your project, sorry we have so little information."

so my jewish roots are cool jewish roots. niiiiiiice.