{"id":3310,"date":"2011-05-30T22:38:31","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T05:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/216.92.17.21\/?p=3310"},"modified":"2011-05-30T22:41:41","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T05:41:41","slug":"fathers-favorite-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/?p=3310","title":{"rendered":"my father’s favorite boys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fred and Harold and my dad were like the Marx Brothers. Or the Coen Brothers. Or the Brady Bunch. Or. Or. Or maybe there was nothing like them at all. \u00a0A team. A pack. A family. A coven. \u00a0A comedy show. My father loved ‘those boys’ with all his heart, and all his might and all his soul. And they loved him back.<\/p>\n

Finally, I’ve asked Fred<\/a> and Harold<\/a> for copies of the beautiful eulogies that they presented at my dad’s funeral, when I presented mine<\/a>. \u00a0And finally, I have their words right here. \u00a0Another gathering of the sparks.<\/p>\n

So here, finally, we have all three eulogies for my father collected in the same place. \u00a0My father’s boys, and my father’s only daughter.<\/p>\n

Probably I should say, for the record, just how jealous I was of those ‘boys.’ They were both about my own age, and both gave my father intense joy, pleasure, and laughter. \u00a0I never saw my father as happy as when he was with them. \u00a0It was as if they had a secret code, a secret handshake, or maybe their own private language. I think for my dad, Fred and Harold \u2014 more than any of the others \u2014 made up for the fact that my father had no ‘real’ children of his own.<\/p>\n

One daughter was probably enough. He certainly taught me plenty, protected me, and gave me the world. But he had so very many boys who needed him and sought him out. \u00a0Harold’s eulogy speaks in part to this and gives a flavor of how my father ‘saved’ so many lost souls. \u00a0Joe Hoffman’s letter<\/a> speaks to that as well. Fred’s eulogy speaks more of my father’s larger gifts \u2014 the institutions that he influenced, and the creative lives that he transformed.<\/p>\n

I’m still collecting these tales because each perspective brings some new element to bear. \u00a0My father influenced so very many lives. \u00a0Please check out Fred Rosenbaum’s and Harold Lindenthal’s eulogies for my father. They are more than moving. \u00a0They help keep my dad alive. \u00a0 \u00a0\u2014 Mira<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fred and Harold and my dad were like the Marx Brothers. Or the Coen Brothers. Or the Brady Bunch. Or. Or. Or maybe there was nothing like them at all. \u00a0A team. A pack. A family. A coven. \u00a0A comedy show. My father loved ‘those boys’ with all his heart, and all his might and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[250,216,269,222],"tags":[226,44,267,192,259],"class_list":["post-3310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","category-kaddish-in-two-part-harmony","category-seymour-fromer-zl","category-tzaddik-stories","tag-dads","tag-jewish-education","tag-magnes-museum","tag-seymour-fromer","tag-yizkor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3315,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3310\/revisions\/3315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}