In order to understand the parts of Louis Black’s life that shaped my family’s values, I am going to interview my grandfather Harold, who is Louis’ son. From what I have been told in preparation for this project, Harold is much like Louis in his work ethic and his way of life. He knows Louis better than anybody and can provide invaluable information about both his and Louis’ life that will help me understand my family’s past. Along with this information, I have done further research by looking for books in the UGA library and searching the Internet for pertinent information. Most importantly, Louis left an auto-biography that documents his entire life. I hope that the combination of the information obtained from these sources will help me better understand my family history and how it relates to the story of Passover as told through the meal of Passover.
The book from which we read the story of Passover, The Haggadah, demands that each Jewish person views him or herself as having personally been a slave and marched out of Egypt. It is hard for me to relate to this because I face very little discrimination based on my religion. By researching the life of Louis, I hope that I can begin to understand how challenging it has been for Jewish people throughout history from ancient Egypt all the way to Savannah, Georgia in the 1930’s.
1) “The Story of Passover.” Jewish Content. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
In order to relate Louis Black’s life to the story of Passover, we will need a basic overview of the story of Passover. The story begins in Genesis 37 with the story of Joseph, who eventually becomes a very powerful man in Egypt. Using his ability to interpret dreams, Joseph helps the Pharaoh avoid a great famine. In subsequent years, Joseph’s offspring multiplied until there were many Jewish people in Egypt. Years later, the new Pharaoh had forgotten what Joseph had done for Egypt and chose to discriminate against the Jews. The Jewish people were made to be slaves and forced to build great structures and cities. The goal of this forced hard labor was to decrease the growing number of Jewish people, but the number kept growing. He decided to take an extreme measure and decree that all newborn Jewish males must be thrown into the Nile River. Moses was born and his mother put him in a basket and sent him down the river to avoid being taken by the Egyptian soldiers. Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses floating down the river and decided to raise him as her own. Yocheved, Moses’ mother, acted like she did not know Moses and was hired as Moses’ nurse. In this role, Yocheved was able to secretly teach him about his Jewish heritage. When the Jewish people’s suffering escalated, G-d communicated to Moses and told him that he would lead the Jewish people out of Egypt. Moses went to Pharaoh and asked him to let the Jewish people go free. Pharaoh did not believe that G-d had talked to Moses and refused to let the Jewish people go. Moses then warns Pharaoh that G-d would begin punishing the Egyptian people until Pharaoh let the Jewish people go.
G-d then sent ten plagues, one after the other. Each time Moses asked Pharaoh if he would change his mind but Pharaoh still refused. The plagues came in this order: Blood, Frogs, Lice, Flies, Livestock Disease, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, and Death of the Firstborn. Pharaoh was not fazed through the first nine plagues, as devastating as they were to his people. Before the last plague, Moses warned all of the Jews to paint lamb’s blood on the doorways to their house so the plague would not affect them. That night, everything from first born animals to Pharaoh’s firstborn child died. Finally Pharaoh changed his mind and told Moses that he could take the Jewish people out of Egypt. Without much time, the Jews gathered their things and left. They were in such a hurry that they did not have time to let the bread rise. This flat bread is what we call Matzos today. Many miracles happened on the trip out of Egypt. During the day a cloud pillar led the way while at night a pillar of fire burned a path for them to travel. Pharaoh, after a couple of days, decided that he regretted his decision and chased after the Jewish people. Pharaoh had almost caught up to the Jewish people when the Jewish people happened upon a sea that they could not cross. Moses lifted his cane and the sea parted for them to cross. The Egyptians tried to stop the Jews and followed them but as soon as the Jewish people reached safety the water collapsed and crushed Pharaoh’s army. For the next forty years, the Jewish people traveled through the desert on their way to the holy land of Canaan.
2) Rabbi Jacobs, Jill. “The Seder Plate.” My Jewish Learning. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
Now we must learn about the symbolic foods that are served at the Passover Seder. Once we learn the symbolism of these foods, we can begin to understand how the Seder offers lessons that can be learned by just looking back at the life of a Jew less than 100 years ago.
Each food on the Passover Seder plate is symbolic in its own way and represents a portion of the Passover story. First, there is the Karpas, or the green vegetable. The Karpas represents a time before Moses in Egypt, when Jews flourished and Joseph was second in command to Pharaoh. This reminds us to never get complacent about how the Jews are viewed by a country or community. Even in the modern age in a country that is accepting, it is always possible that in the future, Jews could be viewed in a negative light. The Karpas is dipped in salt water in order to taste the hope and good times for the Jewish people while also tasting the symbolic tears that the slaves and Egypt cried during their enslavement. Along with the salt water, haroset, or a mixture of fruits, wine, and nuts helps us to remember the times of enslavement by symbolizing the mortar that was used by the Jewish people to construct buildings for Pharaoh. The maror, a bitter herb, is a final reminder of how bitter slavery was in Egypt. The z’roa, a roasted lamb shank bone, represents the lamb that Jews sacrificed as a Passover offering when the Temple stood in Jerusalem. Although we thankfully do not sacrifice animals in modern times, sacrificing animals was a way for past Jews to show G-d how strong their faith was. The beitzah, a roasted egg, through its shape represents the circle of life. It reminds us that no matter how hard times get, we must never lose hope that there will be a positive new beginning. From these items, we can see that the history of the Jewish people can teach us a lot about determination, perseverance, faith, hope, family, and hard work.
3) Iancu, Carol. Jews in Romania 1866–1919: From expulsion to emancipation. Boulder: East European Monographs, 1996. Print.
Before I can reach a full understanding of Louis Black, I have to understand the environment he grew up in. Louis was born in New York in 1906, but had to move back to Romania in order for his sick mother to get the medical attention she needed.
He stayed in Romania until age 19. In his autobiography, Louis talks about Romania as if it is his hell. In his autobiography, he writes a poem titled “My life in Romania” that includes this passage:
“Before I reached the age of seven
The only name I knew
The one my classmates called me
A dirty filthy jew
We moved from place to place
I was beaten black and blue
I was spit and cursed at
Because I am a Jew”
This poem, although tragic, beautifully puts his life growing up in Romania into perspective. In order to delve deeper into researching the lives of Jews in Romania when my grandfather lived there, I searched the UGA library and found a book titled Jews in Romania. This book covers the time period just before my great-grandfather lived in Romania, but it helps to understand the political environment that was forced upon him at such a young age.
When Romania gained its independence in 1881, it became a kingdom and elected a prince. With this change, the whole system of government in Romania changed. Although the frequency of violent attacks against Jews decreased, they were replaced by legal oppression that held back Romanian Jews for many years. The question at that time was the emancipation of Jews. Naturalization was the only way for a Jew to be guaranteed that he or she would not be kicked out of the country. The system that was put in place was individual naturalization, which did not work well for the Jews. This system gave the parliament absolute power over naturalization and encouraged corruption. They extorted money from the Jews by making them pay to fill out naturalization applications and did not accept many of the applications. In fact, from 1879 to 1900, only 85 people were naturalized (Iancu 112). Requests for naturalization could be ignored for twenty to thirty years. A great example of the struggles of even very successful Jews at the time is the story of Professor Lazar Saineanu. Professor Lazar revolutionized Romanian philology and was seen as a scholar in Romania. Professor Lazar submitted his application for naturalization and for twelve years it went through the houses of the government and was eventually denied. This quote by professor Lazar sums up the feelings of Jews in Romania at the time. “And that is how a man of Science, after having devoted all the enthusiasm of his youth and all the stretch of his maturity to Romanian language and literature, finds himself compelled after 40 years to wander in search of a fatherland”(Iancu 114).
Along with regulations on naturalization, military laws were also put in place that affected the Jewish people negatively. In 1876, Jewish members of the army were no longer referred to as Romanian but as “foreigners not of foreign nationality”. Furthermore, Romanians wanted Jewish people out of the army so they could no longer use army service as an argument of obtaining equal rights. Not only were younger Jews denied an opportunity to serve, but they had to sign an agreement saying that they wanted to be exempt from the military. In this agreement, young Jews were signing away their rights to Romanian protection. In 1882, the rule changed once again. Jews were able to serve, but only as “residents”. They could not obtain the title of officer. Military school and military medical schools only accepted students that were Romanian, excluding the Jewish people from even more opportunities.
Schools were also a place of discrimination against the Jewish people. In 1866, all looked good for the Jewish population when all education in the state schools was declared free. In the years following, many Jewish children began attending school and excelling. This scared the nationalists and changed the public view of educating the Jewish population. In 1882, at the Economic Convention at Jassy, the term “The invasion of the schools by the Jews” was coined and this led to many schools stopping the acceptance of Jewish children. Eventually, in 1892, the law was changed for elementary schools, which allowed Romanians to still go to school for free but for foreigners to have to pay a tax in order to attend. This law, although it received much scrutiny, not only from the Jewish people but from some Romanian Liberals, stayed in place for many years to come. Next was the regulation of students past elementary school. In 1898, a law was passed that expanded the law of 1882 to higher education. Jews were excluded from medical, arts and crafts, agriculture, and teaching schools through high taxes and fees that were required in order for them to attend. To circumvent these laws, Jewish private schools began to appear across the country, but these schools were also facing extreme regulation. For example, teaching on Sundays, the traditional Jewish day for Hebrew school was prohibited and the schools were forced to teach on Saturday, the holy day of the Jewish people.
These discriminatory laws did not stop at the educational level but also were present at a professional level, especially in the medical field where Jews had always played a major role. Jewish doctors, beginning in 1874, could not be appointed medical heads of hospitals or districts and could only practice medicine in the cities as veterinarians or midwives. These regulations got worse over time until in 1910 Jews were excluded from working as doctors, midwives, veterinarians, chemists, pharmacists, and nurses except for limited time contracts. These regulations extended to the profession of law. By 1884, Jews were forbidden from practicing law. Jews were eventually excluded from the most basic professions such as simple trade. In 1884, overnight, five thousand families lost their way of providing when they could no longer continue their work as peddlers. This book does a great job at giving real examples of legislation in Romania that went against the Jewish people. By the time Louis moved to Romania, Jews were nationally viewed in a poor light. Louis had to overcome not only a poor financial situation, but he had to overcome the discrimination of almost everybody he knew growing up in Romania. The fact that Louis made it to America and provided for his family is a huge testament to his determination and perseverance.
4) Braham, Randolph L., ed. The Tragedy of Romanian Jewry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Print.
The Tragedy of Romanian Jewry describes the state of Romanian Jews in the times before my great-grandfather was born. Braham states that many scholars, such as Hannah Arendt, believe that Romania was “The most anti-Semitic country in prewar Europe”(Braham 1). When Russia took control of Romania in the early 19th century, they imposed very harsh laws against Jews. In order to create a Christian state, Russia passed constitutional acts that classified Jews as foreigners. Therefore, Jews could were not granted political and civil rights. For a short time period in 1848, after a Romanian revolution and subsequent shift of power, Jews were beginning to be treated better, but conversion to Christianity was still required in order to gain full political and civil rights (Braham 6).
The constitution of 1866 did not lend a helping hand to the Jewish people, but further discriminated against them and set the stage for many other changes that negatively affected the Jewish people. Jews were not only hated by the leaders of Romania, but were hated by the lower class for their involvement in the business side of agriculture. In Romania in the late 19th and early 20th century, this hate grew so strong that in 1907 peasants led an uprising with extremely anti-Semitic undertones. The populists in Romania saw this uprising as a great nationalist feat. Anti-Semitism stayed at a consistently high level from 1866 until the late 1920's when my grandfather fled Romania. This historical recount illustrates how hard it was for Jews in Romania in the early 20th century.
My great-grandfather, in his book, recounts many tales of anti-Semitism from his classmates and teachers. In school, if a Christian student answered a question incorrectly, my great-grandfather would not provide the correct answer for fear that he would embarrass the other student. When he would do things correctly, they would call him a “smart little Jew boy” and told him that if he kept up the good work that he “may survive” the school. This is a small example of how poorly Romanian Jews were treated.
5) Brooks, David. “Lady Gaga and the Life of Passion.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
This article is all about passion, something that my great-grandfather never lacked. In this article, the author states, “I suppose that people who live with passion start out with an especially intense desire to complete themselves. We are the only animals who are naturally unfinished. We have to bring ourselves to fulfillment, to integration and to coherence.” From what I have learned about Louis Black from reading his autobiography, this quote embodies the way he lived his life. Popsy spent his whole life trying to complete himself as a person and make his family proud. Popsy says many times throughout his book that his greatest regret in life is that he did not receive an American education. When he came to America, he tried to get an American education, but the teacher at the night school told him that he was too smart for community college. He could not afford to attend a better school at the time so this was the end of his American education.
This was the way that Popsy chose to live his life. He never stopped trying to improve as a person, a family member, and as a general member of society. No matter what hardships he faced, Popsy always found a way to accomplish his goals. For example, when Popsy was 19, he received a letter from the Romanian government informing him that he must leave Romania in seven days, having only ninety-six dollars to his name, he searched for days for anybody that was willing to let him on their ship to America for that little money. He found somebody that was willing to give him a ride, for ninety-three dollars and he bought food for the trip with the remaining three dollars. He came to America with zero dollars to his name, he did not speak English or know anybody but one aunt. He still found a way to escape Romania and make it to America like he had always dreamed.
The author of this article goes on to say that, “Another trait that marks them is that they have high levels of both vulnerability and courage.” Popsy is obviously a very courageous man, but he is also an extremely vulnerable and sensitive man. When talking to my father about Popsy’s book, we talked a lot about his many poems that he wrote. They are often humorous or just about everyday life, but sometimes can be extremely deep and depressing. He was so dedicated to his family that not being the best husband and father that he could be was a great fear of his. He worked so hard to be successful for his family that it even caused medical problems. Doctors would often release him from the hospital and tell him to take a big vacation or else he might pass away. The fact that Popsy would often work so hard to provide for his family that it would make him sick is a testament to how passionate he truly was.
6) Donath, Jessica. “How to Turn an Inconvenience into a Meaningful Tradition.” Medium. 11 Apr. 2015. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
My whole childhood I dreaded the holiday of Passover. Although it is an intricate and complicated holiday, all I could think about was not eating an bread or corn syrup for an entire week. My dad, although not very spiritual, is deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition and always “encouraged” us to observe Passover. This meant that throughout my childhood, the seven days of Passover were some of my least favorite of the year. Even up until my senior year of high school, I hated having to bring in a sandwich made with matzos to school for lunch everyday. No matter how much I complained during Passover growing up, I cannot remember a time when I did not keep the tradition. Last year, as a freshman in college, instead of making me upset, it gave me great pride that I was able to keep the tradition without the motivation of my father watching over me.
Jessica Donath talks about how to turn her inconvenience of having parents of different religions into a meaningful experience. Although our inconveniences are different, I can relate to her Passover experience. I feel as if I can connect to my family through the tradition of Passover, and I know that Popsy felt the same way. In his auto-biography, he talks about his Jewish faith endlessly. Even growing up in an Anti-Semitic culture such as Romania, his faith in Judaism never faltered. He had every opportunity to give up Jewish traditions in exchange for widespread acceptance, but refused and took pride in his Judaism. Just as Donath and Popsy learned to take pride in their Judaism, I have learned, through experiencing life away from my family, how special Judaism really is to me.
I have my parents to thank for my strong sense of Judaism. They sent me to a Jewish elementary school and a Jewish camp, encouraged me to hang out with my Jewish friends, and allowed me to join a Jewish fraternity. Just as his Judaism shaped Popsy into the respectable, resilient, and hard working man he was; my Judaism has been instrumental in making me the man I am today. Donath talks about a time when a Rabbi asks her what things enslave or hold her back today. She replies, “I’m my own best Pharaoh”. By this, she means that she is the one holding herself back, and that she must let go of the judgment of others in order to succeed. Popsy is a great example of this lesson as he had to ignore years of discrimination in every facet of his life. He had faith in himself, and when events did not transpire as he had planned, he never lost his hope. When interviewing Pop, he talks about how Popsy’s courage inspired him in his life. I found the following article that displays how Popsy taught his children through his actions and words to always keep hope and to never give up on yourself.
7) Lebos, Jessica Leigh. “Dr. Harold Black Talks about the Rotten Tooth in Emory’s History.” Connect Savannah. 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
My great-great-grandmother always told my grandfather, “You need to make the teeth!” Due to her experiences of seeing such bad dental work in Romania, she urged my grandfather to become a dentist in America. In fact, she was encouraging my grandfather to be a dentist from the moment he was born. My grandfather, being the loyal family man that he was raised to be, accomplished what his grandmother had dreamed of and graduated from Emory Dental School.
This journey to become a dentist did not come easy. Pop faced anti-Semitism just as Popsy had in Romania, but this time it was in Atlanta, Georgia. Pop attended Dental school at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in 1955. At the time, Dean John E. Buhler ran the dental school. Buhler’s tenure at Emory was filled with bias and unfair treatment towards the Jewish students. For example, when the class had to make tooth models, my grandfather’s model went “missing” the night before it was due. My grandfather stayed up the entire night carving a new model just to be told the next morning that his old one had reappeared. This is just one instance of the constant anti-Semitism that Pop, along with the other Jewish students at Emory dental school had to face. In fact, from 1948 until 1961, only sixty five percent of the Jewish students graduated. This anti-Semitism went unnoticed because the Jewish students who were flunked were too ashamed to tell anybody.
Recently, One of Pop’s classmates, Perry Brickman, began a journey to reveal the truth behind Buhler’s tenure. He contacted as many classmates as possible and interviewed each one. He turned this into a documentary called “From Silence to Recognition: Confronting Discrimination in Emory’s Dental School History.” Last year, at the age of seventy-nine, my grandfather went to cities all over the country to talk about his experiences at Emory Dental School. I had the pleasure of going to see him speak, and it inspired me tremendously. Although I never had the chance to meet Popsy, I can tell from reading his autobiography that Pop gets a lot of his characteristics from Popsy. Both Popsy and Pop went through so many obstacles in life, but never made excuses. Both Popsy and Pop were extremely passionate family men that put their family before anything else. Both Popsy and Pop were true professionals that took their jobs seriously. Both Popsy and Pop worked as hard as possible to provide for their familys. Both Popsy and Pop expect the best out of their children and push them to be the best they can be. These are some of the same lessons that are taught at the Seder every year. These traits, although shown time and time again by Popsy, have likely been in my family for hundreds of years. I can only hope to grow up and exhibit some of these traits as well as my great-grandfather, grandfather, and father have in their lifetimes.
8) Pike, Albert. Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Prepared for the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree, for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, and Published by Its Authority. Authority of the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree, 1871. Print.
In his autobiography, Popsy refers to this book as a bible. He says, “This is not a book to be read one time and put away.” As a book that was obviously very important to him, I checked it out of the UGA library to research what made Popsy hold this book in such high regards. Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike is a guide for people practicing freemasonry in the south. Free masons are a group of people that join in a club to focus on brotherhood, charity, and a belief in a G-d. Popsy was a very devout freemason and became a 32nd degree freemason, which is called a “Master of The Royal Secret”. This is the highest degree of freemasonry that one can achieve through study. I decided to see if I could find anything in this book that relates to the way Popsy lived his life. I found that Popsy went through his life trying his best to obey the ten commandments of freemasonry. I am going to talk about some of the commandments that seem to embody Popsy’s life the most.
The first commandment is “God is the Eternal, Omnipotent, Immutable WISDOM and Supreme INTELLIGENCE and Exhaustless Love. Thou shalt adore, revere, and love Him! Thou shalt honor Him by practicing the virtues!” Freemasonry does not dictate to its members which religion to follow so Popsy could be a practicing Jew as well as a freemason. Popsy was an extremely religious man. Throughout his book, he recounts many instances of miracles happening. He recognized miracles around him everyday, from finding twenty dollars on the ground when he realized he did not have any money to eat, to being saved from his sinking car by a random bystander when he did not know how to swim. Popsy prayed to G-d everyday and was thankful to G-d for every positive thing in his life.
The second commandment is “Thy religion shall be, to do good because it is a pleasure to thee, and not merely because it is a duty. That thou mayest become the friend of the wise man, thou shalt obey his precepts! Thy soul is immortal! Thou shalt do nothing to degrade it!” Popsy was a charitable man, and he says his mother raised him that way. Popsy wrote a poem that beautifully illustrates how much he respected his mother’s charity work.
“She stood for all that’s good
Today it is a rarety
She was a dear and always doing
Her bid for every charity
We too were poor but not too poor
We had enough to eat
We had a roof over our heads
And shoes to warm our feet
She felt for those who didn’t have
Clothes Medicine or food
And when she couldn’t help them
With heavy heart she’s brood
She is now resting in heaven
We try to do some of her biding
Remembering her Motto was that
It is better to give than receiving”
Even when he was a young man, he and few friends, inspired by the charity work done by his mother, formed an organization called “The Menorah”. By doing any small job they could find around their small Romanian town, they raised money for people to afford food for Passover. Also, this group helped to raise money to get train passes for Russian Jews when the pogroms in Russia began, saving many lives. Popsy did not get anything in return for this charity work; he did it because he has a desire to help the less fortunate. Even when he had close to nothing, Popsy went out of his way to help the less fortunate. He is a great example of altruism and I hope to grow up to be as charitable as he was.
The third commandment is, “Thou shalt unceasingly war against vice! Thou shalt not do unto others that which thou wouldest not wish them to do unto thee! Thou shalt be submissive to thy fortunes, and keep burning the light of wisdom!” Popsy was a man of great morality. He knew good from evil and never strayed from his instincts. For example, when Popsy got into the real estate business, he started doing business with a man by the name of George Altman. This was a great opportunity for Popsy, but he was dissatisfied with the treatment he got from his last partner. Popsy told George that if any discontent arose between them, that he would pack up his things and leave. They were doing very well for themselves, and Popsy went on a vacation. When he arrived back at the office, a man introduced himself as the new salesman of the office. George had agreed to consult Popsy before any changes, and this was a direct violation of that agreement. Popsy said to George that he disagreed with the way that he did business and he left immediately. He says that if he had stayed at that business, George and he could have gotten rich very quickly. This illustrates how much Popsy was rooted in his morals. He turned down what he knew was a solid career and future because his partner had disobeyed a verbal agreement. George even tried to bring back Popsy and apologize, but Popsy refused and wished George the best of luck. This passion has passed down through our family. I have been raised to be strong in my morals and I can thank Popsy for that.
The fifth commandment is, “Thou shalt charish thy wife and thy children! Thou shalt love thy country, and obey its laws!” Popsy was a very romantic person. Popsy said to his parents after his first date with Amma that she was going to be the woman that he married. In order to court Amma, he stood outside of her window and played the violin for her. When interviewing Pop, he told me that Popsy and him had an amazing relationship. He also told me that Popsy was never more proud than the day that Pop walked down the aisle to graduate from Emory dental school. Popsy cared for nothing more than he cared for his children. He was always supportive and took great pride in their accomplishments. Furthermore, Pop told me that he thought my dad, his grandson, was the “greatest person in the whole world.” Popsy put his family before anything else in his life.
The tenth commandment is, “Thou shalt study to know men, that thereby thou mayest learn to know thyself! Thou shalt ever seek after virtue! Thou shalt be just! Thou shalt avoid idleness of thought and deed!” The part of this commandment that sticks out to me is, “avoid idleness of thought and deed”. Not a day went by in Popsy’s life where he did not try to improve himself as a person. Whether it was to be a better family man or to move forward in his business ventures, Popsy never wasted a day. A lot can be learned from Popsy’s way of life about what it means to truly work hard.
The commandment that illustrates the way Popsy lived his life is the great commandment of masonry, which states, “”A New Commandment give I unto Thee; That ye love one another! He That saith he is in the Light, and hateth his brother, remaineth still in the Darkness!” Popsy, more than anything, was a loving man. Whether it was the intense love he had for Amma, the love he had for his children and grandchildren, or the love he had for America; Popsy was always a lover.
Whether you are a freemason or not, a lot can be learned from these commandments. The lessons I have found in these commandments are some of the same lessons that we are taught when hearing the story of Passover as children.
9) Ferguson, Kirby. “Embrace the remix.” TED. June. 2012. Lecture.
In this presentation, Kirby Ferguson says that he believes that everything is a remix. He displays this through music and technology, but this idea can be expanded to many things. For me, while I watched this video, I began to thing of each human as a song. Many songs use samples, which is a portion of a past song that is changed and used in a new song. Even artists that do not directly sample songs are influenced by past artists. How does this translate to humans? Humans are a direct result of their ancestors. Biologically, each human has a little piece of every single one of their ancestors represented in them. Kirby Ferguson might argue that each human is just a remix of their ancestors.
After researching my family history and the general history of the Jewish people, I believe that I can improve myself as a person by “sampling” the lives of my ancestors.
In my life, I have been very fortunate not to have to face the same obstacles that Pop and Popsy had to face during their lives. This does not mean that I cannot learn and emulate the way in which they conquered those obstacles. This does not only extend back to Popsy, but back to the Jewish people in Egypt during the time of the story of Passover.
Just as Popsy faced his challenges head on and seemed to never lose faith in himself, the Jews spent generations enslaved without losing hope of a brighter future. If my ancestors can go through harsh times and keep their work ethic and hope strong, I know I can face any obstacle that comes my way.
As I grow older, I hope to take lessons from my ancestors and remix them into lessons that I can apply in my life.
