Irving Berlin


On another Christmas note - today's Washington Post op-ed piece by Harold Meyerson talks about the song "White Christmas".

In the context of the current secular vs. Christian tug of war over the holiday's spirit, he points out that the song's author, Irving Berlin, was a Jew who fled to the US from the pogroms of Russia, married an Irish Catholic, and raised his children as nominal Protestants. If one song has defined the mythic American Christmas - idyllic, nostalgic, family - this is it. I'd say his personal story - immigrant, rags-to-riches, crossing religious boundaries, greatness marked by dark complexities - sort of sums up a mythic America.

Posted: Wed - December 21, 2005 at 12:16 PM          

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