Not looking to get into the whole conversation about Israel/Palestine and whatnot, but my Great Great Grandfather was First Cousins with David Ben Gurion, the founding father, and first prime minister of Israel.
You might imagine that this creates some internal struggle around my Jewish identity, connection to zionism, etc. You would be right.
David Green on the far right is in his 80's or 90's now, but apparently we look a lot alike, and apparently he looks a lot like ben-gurion
Apr 10, 2024
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or, well, "Jackie," on my birth certificate, because my parents thought that was a cool thing for an American boy.
But "Yakov," in Hebrew—Yakov, son of David.
And, well, I'm named after my grandfather, Yaghoub, which is the Farsi form of the name.
So... Yeah, my family is a group of Persian-American Jews who fled Iran around the time of the revolution, so, there you go, four versions of my middle name.
Mar 6, 2024
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When my grandma's sister passed away around the time my mom was 10 (this was 1982), her husband decided to not really speak to my grandma's side of the family even though my mom and grandma had a really good relationship with their kids (my mom's cousins) and they didn't really communicate with each other as much, and two of their kids ended up becoming pretty well known (one is a chef and the other does stuff with MSNBC) so now I have famous relatives who I only met once when I was 5. They live far away from me and I'm pretty sure they have no idea who I am, and my grandma's sister's husband lives in my state like 30 mins away from me and runs a doctor's office but I have never seen him in my life for the reasons mentioned above. So yeah I have a whole side of my family I don't really know at all. It's also crazy how my mom just casually told me this.
Through that grandparent I'm also related to another bunch of well-known people who came from a town/city in Slovakia according to ancestry.com (back when it was called Austria-Hungary) who likely have no idea of my family's existence but that's a whole different story
Jul 7, 2024
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both of my parents are american and from berkeley, california, where i was also born and raised. my mom is black, with a little bit of native american but the cultural aspect of her native american heritage was lost over the years. also an only child. my dad is ukrainian ashkenazi jewish, 3rd generation in the US, so doesn’t speak yiddish. he has 2 sisters and a half sister.
my mom’s family has mostly passed away to this point so 90% of extended family things were with my dad‘s side, and the jewish culture is interesting insofar as everyone is pretty well read & likes to talk politics/world issues. normally like 5 conversations going on there at once especially during meals. if anything, he’s very much an overcommunicator and has a tendency for intellectual removal, partially due to white privilege partially due to who he is as a person
mom’s family, i don’t remember a ton but they mostly don’t talk much, were always nice people though, not cold just quiet. she does not communicate well at all, often assumes other people think the way she does, and doesn’t listen well either.
this leads to basically constant clash and unequal compromise over what i believe to be the core issue of being raised with completely different communication styles and the lack of will from one side to do much work to change that. it’s often a pain in the ass but really interesting to see sometimes when i’m home
Apr 20, 2024
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When hot people are friendly, it makes the people they’re talking to feel hotter about themselves.
Feb 22, 2024
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My goal is to be the happiest old man I can be, and thinking this way also makes me take better care of my body. If I have to make a tough decision, I ask myself what will be a cooler story to tell grandkids, and that seems to steer me in the right direction.
Jan 18, 2024
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true rizz can’t be captured by technology
Aug 18, 2024