Boston Globe article on more of JK's Jewish heritage - he has Cambridge relatives

[karynnj]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/10/12/ten-years-later-revelation-john-kerry-ancestry-has-new-chapter/89pyoQEfOJs8PqvazCYqHO/story.html

Over the years, Dr. Joan Wheelis has bumped into John F. Kerry a couple of times at a Cambridge tailor shop they both happen to like. The psychiatrist and the then-US senator from Massachusetts said their pleasantries and went on their way, serendipitous moments that seemed to have little lasting meaning.

Then, one day a few weeks ago, Wheelis was contacted by a stranger in Britain. The stranger e-mailed to say he was Wheelis’s cousin. Then he revealed that their mutual relative was none other than Kerry.

snip

Wheelis had had no inkling. She had met John Kerry more than once at the Rizzo Tailor shop in Cambridge, exchanged pleasantries each time, and greatly admired the man who was a US senator when they met and is now the US secretary of state.

Now, fascinated, she pulled out boxes of family mementos. The trove of letters left by her mother, who died in 2012, detailed the struggle that Ilse faced in trying to get her parents out of Vienna. Among the artifacts is a book of photographs of family members, including captions written by Ilse. One photo is of a woman who looks to be in her 60s. Ilse’s caption described her as “a very strict woman who smoked cigars and walked as straight as she was as a person.” There is also a line that, until recently, seemed especially puzzling. It said: “This is my father’s grandmother. Her name was Kerry.”

(The latter seems likely to be an interesting description of JK's (great ?) grandmother! )

[MBS]

1. Interesting!

I bet the tailor shop is Rizzo's on Church St. In a thrilling "almost" moment, I was on my way at a dry cleaner nearby in 2004 when I saw a black SUV stop outside Rizzo's. . only later did I learn (after a fellow customer mentioned it at the cleaner's ) whose black SUV that was!

[karynnj]

2. It is an interesting story and interesting that Cameron has

pursued learning more as well.