My grandfather's Harvard diploma

 I've been participating in an archives class given at our synagogue.  We are planning to put up a little exhibit on the way to establishing a group or interest "Families of Beth Am."

So it would be easy to pull together something for Maier Zunder.  Especially since the instructor also came from a New Haven family.  Though it seems clear that maybe they didn't intersect.  But I figure there's got to be something.

But, even with my utmost devotion of Mr. Zunder, this has been on my mind.  From my father's side.  Somebody once confronted me how I didn't have much immigration or yiddish influences n my family.  Especially since my father's family had come from eastern Europe in the late 19th century.  But this document is the key.

In Latin and 'signed' by A. L. Lowell, President of Harvard.  My grandfather's diploma from Harvard.  He grew up in a working class family, the son of immigrants in Rochester NY.  But like many Jewish families, his parents wanted them all to go to college.  And they did.  His sisters went to the University of Rochester.  And so did he.  But there was a Harvard Club of Rochester (they do exist, I talked to them a few times, but, alas, no records)  They gave a scholarship to Harvard every year to one student.  And c. 1918, my grandfather, Harold Joseph Ginsurgh, won it.  So he went off to Harvard, graduating as a proud member of the Class of 1920.

From that day on, my grandfather saw himself as a Harvard man; his most important identity.  It colored everything that he did.  He participated in alumni activities, he went to events in Harvard yard.  My grandmother, also the child of an immigrant from eastern Europe (notice how vague I am), grew up in Boston.  Maybe she knew some yiddish, but she would never admit it.  And my grandfather?  Heavens no.  So they lived the landed life in Boston, he was a successful actuary and executive. 

You would never be able to tell that the both of them were children of immigrants.  No trace at all.  They didn't just cover it up, they obliterated it.  None of that yiddishkeit was ever allowed in their home.  

No, they were Harvard people.