The Architecture Genius: Frank Goldberg
Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has a wonderful program on PBS (you can find past episodes on Hulu and YouTube) called "Finding Your Roots." It is a genealogical program that explores the family history of three individuals. This week's episode focused on "Visionaries". The are Richard Branson, of Virgin Enterprises, Maya Lin, creator of the Vietnam National Memorial, and Frank Goldberg, or as he is better known, Frank Gehry! The entire episode was interesting; it usually is. But what was interesting was the exploration of Gehry's Jewish past to the "Settlement of the Pale" and a cousin who survived three concentration camps! The DNA profile ( a feature of the program), showed he was 98% Ashkenazi Jew!
Here is a clip: http://www.pbs.org/video/2365656530/
And here is the profile: http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/profiles/frank-gehry/
I don't know when the actual program will be available on YouTube (usually takes a couple of days). But, if you have the PBS app or Hulu, you should be able to view it tomorrow!
"Finding Your Roots" has a past episode titled: Our People, Our Traditions, which explores the Jewish histories of Carole King, Tony Kushner, and Alan Dershowitz. There is a YouTube version, but it is $1.99. Check your PBS app!
As someone currently involved in tracking down Jewish ancestors, let me just say, it is not very easy if your parents, grandparents, or Great-grandparents were not from this country. Many records were destroyed in their native lands (for me Ukraine and Russia), or were lost to the Holocaust, but it is interesting when you stumble across the passenger list of a ship which brought your relatives to the US.
