I have often hoped to catch a glimpse of director Steven Spielberg’s Cincinnati roots in the course of my research. Today’s Cincinnati Enquirer does a pretty good job of covering this ground and conveniently indicates what I should be looking for if I want to find Spielberg’s Cincinnati forebears.
I know I’d heard that Spielberg’s family belonged to the Adath Israel congregation (Lexington Road Synagogue / Feinberg’s) in the Avondale neighborhood. The article doesn’t mention this, but does indicate that Steven’s family lived on Lexington Ave and so must have been pretty close to the synagogue. I was a little disappointed to learn that although Steven was born in the Queen City in 1946, his family moved to New Jersey in 1949.
The article highlights a 90-minute interview with Spielberg that will be broadcast on TCM (don’t ask me what that stands for …) on Monday night. In the interview, Steven mentions sitting in his grandmother’s house as she taught English to Holocaust survivors and and learning to recognize numbers by studying the tattooed numerals on their arms.
An accompanying article tells how Steven’s dad Arnold grew up on Windham Ave. which he would sled down to Victory Parkway and that, after serving in WWII, he studied electrical engineering at UC. His mom, Leah Posner Spielberg Adler reports that she grew up in a “very educated but very poor” Jewish family, that her father, Philip Posner, sold dry goods, and that she learned to love music by sitting on the back benches when the Cincinnati Opera performed at the zoo. Leah studied for a while at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and her mother's name was Jennie.
Now that I know their names and a little about them, I’ll be on Spielberg/Posner lookout …. woo hoo! I’ll be adding this to the Kevin Youkilis family watch … the Boston Red Sox current first baseman’s extended family, however, was quite active at the Lexington Ave. Synagogue and in the Cincinnati Jewish community for many years, so I’ve had those bases covered for a while ….
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You may want to check your sources about the Spielberg family names. According to my limited knowledge of Mr. Spielberg's kin (and my esteemed Wikipedia research), Steven's mother's name is Leahanni, not simply Leah. I wonder if Leahanni is pronounced like two Hebrew names: LAY-uh CHAH-nee or if it's: Lee-AHA-nee or Lee-ANN-ee with a soft, almost indetectable 'h.' It seems likely, though, that she'd go by Leah for short. Steven did indeed get around New Jersey... he resided in Camden, Montclair, and Haddon Heights. Hope you can find out more about his family's Cincinnati history.
More Spielberg backdates: "Every Friday" of February 7, 1930, notes that Mr. and Mrs. Sam Spielberg of 3576 Van Antwerp Place, will be home from 3 to 11 p.m. on February 16, in honor of the Bar Mitzvah of their son "Arnold M." Arnold, Steven's father, was scheduled to be bar mitzvahed at the Lexington Ave. Synagogue (Traditional / Conservative at that time) on February 15.
After a long pause: another Spielberg update. According to a death notice in "Every Friday" of 10/21/1932, Mrs. Clara Lerman (sister of Mr. Sam P. Spielberg) died 10/17/32). She lived at 641 Forest Ave and Rabbi Louis Feinberg of Adath Israel officiated at her funeral. She had been in the restaurant business for 35 years and was the founder of Lerman restaurant, at 18 E. Seventh St., now (1932) operated by her sons.
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