SubscribeStuds Terkel’s Jewish roots
Show of hands: how many of you out there knew that Terkel was Jewish? I’m embarrassed to admit I am one of you. So thanks to reader ASC for this link to a 2006 interview Terkel gave to the Los Angeles Jewish Journal.
JJ: Tell us about your Jewish background.
ST: My mother came from Bialystock, near the Russo-Polish border, a very cosmopolitan town decimated by the Nazis. My father came from a suburb [and was] a tailor. Chicago is the biggest Polish population of any city outside of Warsaw.
JJ: Has Judaism influenced you?
ST: Of course it has. That’s a baby’s question. Of course it played a tremendous role. My father voted for [Socialist Party candidate] Eugene V. Debs for president. Of course, there’s anti-Semitism. Of course, there’s anti-everything. There’s always nativism. At the moment, it seems to be more [about] color, than anything else.”
“Baby’s question?” Ouch.
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