Growing up Rabinowitz | GUEST COMMENTARY
Growing up, unlike all the Jennifers, I was usually the only Elana. But it is my surname that has always gotten the most attention — especially now. It is long, it is Jewish, and it cannot go unnoticed: Rabinowitz.
The first time I went to get a library card, I had to bring crib notes. I mean, I was about 5 years old, and, while sharp, I feared I might forget the 10 letters that made up my last name. This had to be correct if I was to obtain my very own card. Elana, I had down pat (although I transposed the N), but Rabinowitz? Not so much. Sometimes I forgot a letter or two. It seems ironic now, when people who are unfamiliar with it, look so lost when attempting to tackle it. It’s phonetical I plead, and slowly sound it out. But then, I knew at the wooden counter of the local branch, that my name was different, if not special. I got that library card, even though I may have glanced at my paper for help.
The first time I heard my name outside the confines of my house was in an episode of the television show “All in the Family,” when the notoriously bigoted character Archie Bunker was desperate to find a good lawyer. After listening to his son “Meathead” read the names of numerous firms, his ears perked up when he heard the name, “Rabinowitz, Rabinowitz, and Rabinowitz” as he knew this would be Jewish firm and that stereotypically Jews made great lawyers. To this, I laughed but still was a little uneasy at the joke. Needless to say, the next day in school I was mocked, but I brushed it off. My name was out there in the world I thought.
A few years ago Rabinowitz was all over the news when Jerry Rabinowitz was murdered in cold blood in the massacre at The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg. He was a doctor, and instinctually ran to help the wounded in need. This made me wonder, could he perhaps be mishpucha — family?
There’s a picture that keeps popping up when I’m on the internet — a black and white sepia photo of a distinguished man in a white shirt proudly posed in front of his store window, which is lined with neatly placed wine bottles. The name on the glass reads: Rabinowitz Delicatessen, with a row of Hebrew letters spelling out the word “kosher.” Sometimes, I imagine the man, Harry Rabinowitz, is perhaps a distant relative.
Years after the photo was taken — which was sometime between 1910 and 1919, according to the New York Public Library — the Rabinowitzes moved on from the deli and into show business. The family changed their name to Robbins (much as in the 1927 film “The Jazz Singer, where a Rabinowitz becomes a Robin) to make it easier to find work. The man’s son Jerome Robbins went on to become a famous director and choreographer for such blockbusters as “West Side Story” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” He created important stories about groups that were divided on stereotypes and wanted to come together. Could Jerome Rabinowitz have risen to such fame? It is hard to say.
As a teacher, I am known more by my last name than my first. In the 22 years I have taught, I rarely make mention of the name’s origin or significance. This year, that too has changed. It is the first time I have proclaimed that I am Jewish, even though some of my students have been raised to hate Jews or Israel. I feel it is important for them to decide for themselves.
After the events of Oct. 7, I wanted to find a way to incorporate my culture into my classroom without proselytizing. With the advice of a teacher, I found a replica of the Western Wall and allowed children a space to place wishes for the world, just as people do in the real one in Jerusalem. There are endless cracks that are filled with small pieces of paper that pray for peace in the world. There are so many of them that it is a person’s job to collect them twice a year. A man and his assistants gather the papers on Rosh Hashanah and Passover and bury them in a Jewish Cemetery. The name of this man is Rabinowitz. We are all related.
Elana Rabinowitz (elanarabinowitz.weebly.com) is a teacher and freelance writer based in Brooklyn, New York.