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William Walsh's avatar

I love everything about this post. The two memories of your Grandmother, the family connections and pics, and the parade detail... I watched it every year as a kid with my Grandfather in the Bronx. I am thankful for your tireless effort to keep us up to speed on what SCOTUS is doing and not doing. Safe and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

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Steven K. Baird's avatar

Thank you for this! To paraphrase your sister, I finally get Steve Vladeck.

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Marjorie Rockman's avatar

This is great, Steve; thank you. I actually had the honor of meeting your grandmother at a luncheon in her honor hosted by 32BJ SEIU back in the early aughts. She was brilliant, inspirational and absolutely charming.

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Jerry Mashaw's avatar

Lovely Steve. You carry on a great family tradition.

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Susan T. Nicholson's avatar

Hilarious, and heartwarming. Thanks for the Thanksgiving post!

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Alice Doyel's avatar

You brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. From an 81 year old Jewish grandma.

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jpickle777's avatar

What a wonderful family. Your pride shines through!

Happy Thanksgiving, Steve, and thank you for all that you do.

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Joe From the Bronx's avatar

Very charming. His strong women kinfolk with legal backgrounds provided a good precedent for KSV.

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christopher o'loughlin's avatar

Steve,

Wow. Thank you for sharing your grandmother's voice, wit, humor and love with all of your readers this Thanksgiving. We are in this together. No Kings. Peace. Christopher and family

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Mark Rubin's avatar

Thanks so much for the great post and your fabulous blog. I greatly appreciate your commitment to making the law accessible to non-lawyers. I passed the 44th anniversary of my being sworn into the State Bar of Arizona last month, and I still find myself focused on explaining "why" and surely going too deep for many of my clients. Lack of knowledge explains much about the fix we are in, though, and we will never get out of it if we don't put the knowledge out there.

My progenitor lawyer was my paternal grandfather, Max Rubin, who practiced law in Manhattan from sometime in the late 1920s until he died young in the mid-1950s. I got the Christianized version of his name, and have always wished my parents had gone for Max.) Regardless, I believe my great-uncle, Arthur Rubin, worked for The Forward as its business or finance manager. Likely late in your great-great grandfather's career.

Finally, I can totally relate to your grandmother's "I passed the bar" message. The worry about my ability to succeed was pervasive.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

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Elizabeth Evans's avatar

It's cool how much you look like your great-grandfather.

When did that side of the family stop being socialists? Or did they?

I have a picture of my grandmother, who organized merchant seamen in the 1930s, with former candidate Norman Thomas in her apartment in the late '50s or '60s. My grandmother was not a socialist herself, but she ran in those circles. We had a little bit of everything, as I suspect many 20th century Jewish families in New York did.

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Lisa Feiner's avatar

I grew up in the amalgamated houses in the Bronx, a nonprofit cooperative formed by the amalgamated clothing workers union. The neighborhoods auditorium was named after Bruce Charney Vladic, a leading figure in the Jewish socialist movement in New York,an editor of the forward newspaper and Steve’s great grandfather. Baru Loic died when he was only 52 and 50,000 people turned out at the Forward building on the lower east side to hear elegies delivered by Senator Wagner and Governor Lehman.

as a kid growing up in the amalgamated, I had no idea who the Vladic auditorium was named after but once I began reading Steve’s incredibly thoughtful articles in his sub stack,

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Jeff Lazar's avatar

A delightful read, thank you.

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Barb Luebke's avatar

Lovely.

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Jonathan Bell's avatar

Re

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Michael's avatar

Lovely post!

Have a Very Happy Thanksgiving!

Peace!

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Neal's avatar

Steve, as a young lawyer I found myself on the opposite side of the "v." from your grandmother and her firm a number of times. Nothing you say about her comes as a surprise. She was exactly what one would want in an opponent: smart, tough, wily, and, above all, principled. As I recall, we took our fair share of lumps in cases against Vladeck Waldman, but I saw each as a learning experience. She and her colleagues set a standard that sadly is too rarely replicated in the bar (especially the labor and employment bar).

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

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