My father's people

by Louis Decimus Rubin

"Louis Rubin's people on his father's side were odd, inscrutable, and remarkable. In contrast to his mother's family, who were "normal, good people devoid of mystery," the ways of the Rubins both puzzled and attracted him. My Father's People is a searching, sensitive story of Americanization, assimilation, and the displacement - and survival - of a religious heritage.". "Born between 1888 and 1902 in Charleston, South Carolina, their father an immigrant Russian Jew, the Rubin children suffered dire poverty, humiliation, and separation when their parents became incapacitated. Three of the boys were sent to the Hebrew Orphans' Home in Atlanta for several years. Yet the sons all managed to build long, productive, even notable lives and livelihoods, becoming, variously, a newspaper editor, Broadway playwright and Hollywood screenwriter, businessman, and - in the case of Rubin's father - a far-famed long-range weather prognosticator.". "Private people, reticent to discuss their painful earl