Archive for the 'family' Category

Family History, Communist Show Trials, and How I Almost Didn’t Exist

Published September 8, 2009 family , Politics 5 Comments
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As some of you know, I’ve been in the process of researching the life of my grandfather, John Santo, whom I’ve written about before on the blog.  As I engage in this process I’m getting a unique opportunity to experience history in an a new and somewhat more personal lens, and recently had the opportunity to reflect on how personally impactful events that happened years ago can be when taken in the small context of a small family’s history.

In short, my grandfather was an Hungarian American Communist who was one of the founders of the Transport Workers Union, became a high level official in the Hungarian Communist Government, and eventually defected from said government for a host of reasons not least of which was total disillusionment with Communism as it manifested in its brutal and paranoid form in cold war Hungary.

As I conducted initial research about his life, one of the key books that I found was called In Transit, a great read that documents the history of the TWU.  It’s by a labor historian, Josh Freeman, who teaches here in New York at the City University of New York Graduate Center.  I figured that since he was so close, literally blocks from my office, I’d try to contact him and see if we could meet to chat and possibly fill in some blanks I had in the story of my grandfather’s life.  Luckily, Josh is a really wonderful man and sat down with me for a long conversation where he was able to give me some historical context within which I could better understand what I’m coming to realize is an even more fascinating and complex political and personal history than I imagined. Continue reading ‘Family History, Communist Show Trials, and How I Almost Didn’t Exist’

Don’t Divorce Us.

Published March 17, 2009 family , Politics 2 Comments
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I came across this amazing video via a friend of mine, and just wanted to/had to share it. It breaks my heart to live in a country where people are able to vote to take away the rights of others, to oppress fellow citizens and deny them the liberties they’re granted based on our constitution. Regardless of religious or personal views, the law here is to me clearer than day. Please, don’t divorce my moms. Don’t divorce my sister and sister in law. Help by signing your name to a letter asking the supreme court to overturn prop 8 here.

Taniel Yonah Sheintoch, and planting my elbows firmly on the table

Published January 28, 2009 family 3 Comments
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When I was growing up, I have this distinct memory of being around the dinner table with my siblings and parents. In a moment of laziness or boredom, I’d put my elbows on the table and lean my head on my hands. “Elbows off the table”, my father would remind me, “you’re not an aunt or an uncle.” I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I think that all dads have their own little dad-isms, and this was one of his. So it’s with enormous joy that I share with you today that I can officially put my elbows on the table during dinner without fear of recrimination. Eight days ago, my older sister Shuvi and her partner Debbie gave birth to Taniel Yonah Sheintoch, who had his bris (circumcision) and naming ceremony today.

Continue reading ‘Taniel Yonah Sheintoch, and planting my elbows firmly on the table’

A Dramatic Memory on the Eve of Obama’s Election

Published January 10, 2009 family , Politics 1 Comment
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Recently on our family listserve, my grandfather Irving shared an essay memoir he wrote to the Obama campaign.  It’s a moving recollection and reflection on his own involvement in the civil rights movement, something I’ve been meaning to write about for a while.  After asking to see if he’d be ok with it, I’m now happy to share it with you.  Enjoy!

A Dramatic Memory on the Eve of Obama’s Election

Irving M. Levine

One month after the dramatic election of Barack Obama, I celebrated my 79th birthday with renewed hope and considerable glee.  The day, December 7th, always evokes vivid memories of my 12th birthday in 1941. There wasn’t much to celebrate, of course, as I sat by the radio, hour-after-hour, hoping and praying that despite massive losses at Pearl Harbor, we might still prevail as a nation. Thank god that we had chosen FDR as our President. His indomitable spirit, inspirational character, and transformational leadership rallied us to victory against truly evil forces seeking to dominate the world.

From those times of dark shadows to today, my life’s journey has been a good and lucky one. Born into poverty, two months after the stock market crash of 1929, I grew up in a neighborhood largely populated by Jews, Blacks, and small enclaves of Italian and Polish families. We lived in the heart of Brownsville, Brooklyn—home to Murder Incorporated—and our fates were up for grabs.  For my three brothers and me, poverty and high-crime would not prove to be a knockout blow. A close family, mutual aid, the WPA, and our parents’ good character got us through the worst of times. But for many of my street-corner buddies, their lives went the wrong way.   Dozens ended “up the river” or died of drug and gang activities.

Continue reading ‘A Dramatic Memory on the Eve of Obama’s Election’

Rediscovering Family History and Heritage via the Interwebs

Published December 29, 2008 family , Politics 4 Comments
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I remember in the late ’90s when I first figured out that the internet could be used for research, I tried looking up both of my grandfathers to learn more about their civic and political lives. I’ve grown up with my maternal grandfather telling me for years about the work that he did in the civil rights movement, and hearing about my paternal grandfather’s political involvement secondhand. My dad’s father particularly intrigued me, as I never really knew him, but had heard a lot of interesting (and sometimes conflicting) snippets about his political involvement.

But when I looked them up, I came up with scant results. For my maternal grandfather, Irving Levine, this wasn’t really as big a deal, as I was able to go to him directly and hear it from the horse’s mouth. But for my dad’s father, John Santo Sr., the few things I was able to find just brought more questions.

The short story I’d always been told about him was that he was a powerful labor organizer in the US who ended up working for the Hungarian Communist government, and eventually defected from said government after seeing the levels of corruption that existed there. This was the short version, and I’d finally decided that I wanted to look into the long one.

I would search every year or so, and for a long time the only items of interest that came up were websites about L. Ron Hubbard’s FBI files being finally available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act. (For those that don’t know, L. Ron Hubbard is known somewhat infamously for being the father of Scientology.)

The sites had lists of all the recent FBI files with of people with last names starting with H that were released under FOIA sometime in the late ’90s. Obviously, my grandfather’s name had been John Santo, but I’d heard from my family that he had a number of aliases, and it seemed that one of them was Desideriu Hammer, which was listed on these pages. Given the amount I knew about my grandfather, I wasn’t exactly surprised that the FBI had files on him.
Continue reading ‘Rediscovering Family History and Heritage via the Interwebs’

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If you're reading this, then you've reached the web log of Rafi Santo. This is my little slice of the internet where I can share my passion (or whatever) with the world.

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