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| New York State Psychiatric Institute |
| Kandel Honored at Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards |
| Date : - 22/06/2009 |
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Comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Nobel laureate Dr. Eric Kandel were among five notables honored last week at the eighth annual Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards.
Waiting in the historic Great Hall of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Seinfeld cracked, “We got the immigrants’ experience just by sitting on these wooden benches.”
The awards are presented by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation to outstanding immigrants and their descendants.
Seinfeld’s maternal grandmother, Salha Hasseni, came from Aleppo, Syria. Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Massapequa, L.I., and lives in Manhattan with his wife and three children.
Candice Bergen, who hosted the program, said that Seinfeld once described Massapequa as “a Native Indian word for ‘close to the mall.’”
born in Vienna where his father owned a toy store. After Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938, life became precarious.
“I am a Jew,” Kandel said. “A kid from my school told me, ‘My father said not to talk to you again.’ No one from my class ever talked to me again.”
On Nov. 9, 1938, two days after his ninth birthday, Kristallnacht scorched Jewish life. That spelled the end of life in Vienna for the family.
The next year Kandel was sent to New York ahead of his parents. He got a scholarship at the Yeshivah of Flatbush, graduated from Erasmus High School and went to Harvard on a scholarship to study history and literature.
“I was interested in history because I wanted to understand how a highly civilized nation could one day turn to kill Jews.”
He wanted to switch to a career in psychoanalysis but his wife, Denise Burstyn, convinced him to pursue brain research. “You don’t have money, I don’t have money,” he protested.
“Money is of no significance,” his wife, said.
“She never uttered those words again,” Kandel said, smiling broadly.
At New York University Medical School, Kandel immersed himself in the biology of the mind. His research in the molecular basis of memory storage earned him a share of the 2000 Nobel Prize in medicine. Currently he’s a professor at Columbia University.
Kandel told me how he grew up in a “modified” Orthodox home where his parents kept kosher. Today he belongs to the Conservative Synagogue of Riverdale. His daughter Minouche, a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, is a public interest lawyer in San Francisco, working with abused women.
“Minouche and her husband Rick are committed to Judaism,” Kandel said. “They keep a kosher home and send their two kids to Brandeis parochial school.”
Kandel’s son Paul, a portfolio manager, and daughter-in-law Emily, are members of Kol Ami Temple in Scarsdale, where their two daughters attended Hebrew school and had their bat mitzvahs.
Media superstar Joe Namath, who led the underdog New York Jets to a legendary upset in Super Bowl III, was also honored. His father, Janos Nemet emigrated from Hungary in 1920.
After the rise of Fidel Castro, 2-year-old Gloria Fajardo and her family escaped to Miami. Emilio Estefan, 13, left Cuba for Madrid and then Miami. At age 18 Fajardo started to work for Estefan, fronting his Miami Sound Machine. They married after she graduated from the University of Miami.
Estefan rocketed his wife to superstardom in the music world, with 24 albums and seven Grammy Awards to her credit. He has written and produced for such other stars as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Ricky Martin.
“No matter where our forefathers came from,” Gloria Estefan said, “they were running away from something. We came to the only country where we can realize our dreams.”
Kandel was amused that during the ceremony Gloria Estefan spoke much longer than her husband.
“You let her do all the talking,” Kandel said, “but you take care of all the checks.”
“No,” Emilio Estefan shot back. “She takes care of all the checks too.” |
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| Reference : - www.nyspi.org/ |
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