Story thread. Couple people have asked why at the very end of this segment with @donlemon he signed off by calling me “Eliezer” (cut off at end of this clip). Here’s the story. (1/8)
I’m named after my grandfather who was a Polish Jew who survived the camps in the Holocaust. He met my grandmother (also a Holocaust survivor) as refugees in Sweden after the War. They came to the US in 1949 and settled in Passaic, New Jersey. He passed away in 1960. (2/8)
My parents named me Eliezer but it’s a long name for a little kid so they and everyone else just called me Elie. But as I grew up it was often confused for a girl’s name - I got a girl’s soccer trophy, got put in girl’s bunk at summer camp, etc. (3/8)
So when I was 10 my dad (a lawyer) asked if I wanted to officially change it to Eliott - just to avoid confusion when we signed up for things. I eagerly agreed and we legally changed my name through the court. (4/8)
After I graduated law school years later, I wanted to change back to the original Eliezer, a meaningful family name. So I asked my parents to dig up the old file from when I first changed my name at age 10. They found it and sent it to me including an old affidavit (5/8)
In the worn-out affidavit I had written by hand that I wanted to change my name back not because I was a fugitive or trying to dodge a creditor but for personal reasons. (I was ten at the time - not a fugitive! - my dad told me what to write). (6/8)
I then took the old file & went through the court process and legally changed my name back to the original Eliezer, which is an important family name to us. (When I got married I had to put an “a/k/a” on the certificate because I had legally had another name once) (7/8)
I told @donlemon that story once and he asked if could call me Eliezer on air. I said absolutely. And then, because this is the kind of person he is, he asked: would your parents be ok with it? I told him absolutely, yes. (P.S. my new nephew has the same middle name now). (END)
