Sunday 21 April 2013

Golden Quotebook: Roger Cohen on being called Cohen...





When my father was about to emigrate from South Africa to England in the 1950s, a friend of the family suggested that a change of name was in order because it would be unwise to pursue his career in Britain while called “Cohen.”
My Dad, a young doctor, said he would think it over. A few days later he announced to the friend that he had decided to make the change.
“To what?” she asked with satisfaction.
“Einstein,” he deadpanned.

[Roger Cohen, A Jew in England, IHT 30 November 2009]


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