Page 11 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Introduction

roughly 1905 from those who came after (pp. 57-63). AR again
appears marginal, sharing many of the luftmenshn characteristics of the
former and a good dose of the intelligentsia traits of the latter.
There is not, to my knowledge, any work of similar stature
concerning the life of Jews in Los Angeles in the first half of the
twentieth century. AR was evidently atypical for Southern California
in his Zionist leanings and stern moral anticlericalism, but his efforts
to succeed in business and give his children a good education were a
common story. Yet how many Jews tried to operate a farm—and
how many felt as strongly about preserving the Hebrew language?
The lack of corroborative reference material concerning the period
between 1925 and 1950 is a moot point; AR wrote very little about
those years of hard work, economic distress, and the Holocaust. His
carvings of a hobo and a beggar tell us more about the Depression
than his narrative.
The last forty years of AR’s life are, however, documented in the
reminiscences supplied by his family. These fragmentary, anecdotal
glimpses into the man’s character confirm several of his own
occasionally devastating self-analytical observations. It may, however,
come as a surprise to some of us that he was painfully aware of his
social awkwardness and isolation, his inability to express positive
emotions or loving feelings, his gruffness, teasing and frightening
manner that confused and alienated his grandchildren. But people
remembered much more than negatives: the man’s erudition,
strength, skills, and moral fiber are evident in the reminiscences. And
no one was surprised when the philosopher turned his work-
hardened hands to mallet and chisel, and became an artist. In
retrospect, it almost seems inevitable that his personality, thwarted in
so many interpersonal situations, would finally find its freest
expression in the private realms of autobiography and sculpture.
Now, to inferences from the narrative: certain conclusions, not
spelled out by AR in his unsystematic record of events and
relationships, may nevertheless be drawn from what he did explain.
First, in general terms and in a variety of ways, AR repeated in the
United States patterns he learned in Poland. David Israel Rothstein
was a powerful model for his oldest son, whose behavior resembled
his father’s in many ways: failures in business caused by excessive
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