That Thing I wrote

Hey, I wrote this for school one time. It's about my family background. It's decent.

Believe it or not I have two parents. This means I have two stories of how I came to the “great” country of America. I’m ¾ Russian Jew, and the last fourth is my grandma who was born in Poland in an area that is most likely now Russia. On my Dad’s side I have my late grandpa, whose family came over from Russia to escape the communist persecution of Jews and there xenophobic culture. (Against the Jews specifically) This is a major push factor at the fact that they would have been literally pushed out of their homes. The fact that they could live freely in the US was a pull factor, and the economic opportunity was a pull as well. My grandpa was born in Brooklyn New York, where his family settled after moving. There he met my Grandma who was born in Poland in the 1920’s. My Grandma moved in the early 1930’s, with the Nazi party developing to the west, and Stalinist Russia lurking to the east, my grandma and many other Jews fled Europe to the democratic United States. Again, religious persecution was the push factor, and the opportunity to flourish and be free in America was a pull.

        My mother’s mother ‘s parents came from Russia as well; they too avoided the pogroms. My Great Grandpa, known to me as the late Papa Rudy, was just young enough to receive the mercy of another family who hid mine long enough for them to leave Russia. His father had a cousin who gave them work, (pull) in Youngstown, Ohio. When papa Rudy grew up he became a jeweler and moved to Cleveland to find a larger market, (pull). His daughter, my late grandma decided to attend The Ohio State University (The biggest pull there could be) where she met Richard Eli Neustadt my grandfather or Pappy. Pappy’s grandfather was, surprise, from Russia, and he too was pushed by the Pogroms and pulled too the States. He was given the last name Neustadt, which ironically in those times was German, meaning New City. His son developed a Jewish gazette after being pulled for work to the great Columbus, Ohio. There Pappy was born in 1929, and would also go to OSU where he would turn his families blood from just scarlet, to scarlet and grey. He was pulled back when his father died and had to drop out to take over the gazette. After already marrying my Grandmother and having four kids. My grandparents settled in a Jewish neighborhood Bexley, Ohio a suburb of Columbus. Bexley was, and still is, a large Jewish community, which again pulled in my family.  His second child, Carol, would attend Ohio State as well after transferring from American, she would stay in Columbus until she was 48, because she was pulled by family and the homie quality of the area.

         By then my Grandpa on my Dad’s side and my Grandma had had two kids. The older child, Barry, would be taken with them to Long Island. (My Aunt Bev also went with them, but I thought I’d introduce my dad to the story.)  Long Island was also a large safe haven for the Jewish people, and this again pulled my family. The high cost of Brooklyn with two kids must have been a push. My Grandpa Solomon, Sol, Cohen, came from the Ancient Hebrew Priests. Or I assume from the name Cohen, it is possible it was changed when his family moved to Russia. My dad however, went to a high school that sent many kids to a small liberal arts school in Oberlin, Ohio, known as Oberlin College. After graduating and completing law school, like many a Jew before him, he got a job in Columbus where surprise, surprise he met my mom.

Long story short, they had two kids, I think the first son is in Atlanta now, not very interesting, but the highly achieved and celebrated younger son, Jacob (Jake) Louis Cohen, would be the most important part of what came out of this story. However, it was not my choice to move to Potomac when I was 7, when my father lost his job a huge push was created, and when he was offered a job in DC for much more than he had made in Columbus, ( but they say not to talk about money) a pull factor had formed. And on December 31^st of this year it will have been the 11^th anniversary of the Cohen family moving to Maryland.