#3 Father Cecil GINSBERG

Before we start, which Beatle’s most successful Marriages were to Jewish women

Paul McCARTNEY’S first Marriage was to Linda EASTMAN & his third & current is to Nancy SHEVELL both of whom are Jewish. In between he married Heather MILLS, who is a gentile, & the marriage was disastrous. Ringo STARR (aka Richard STARKEY maybe partly Jewish himself (according to our shared Attorney in MONACO) but his second wife Barbara BACH (aka Barbara GOLDBACH) is Jewish. A very talented muscian & probably the most successful Beatle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_MjCqQoLLA

Most gentiles in LEEDS think that all Jews in the city are related, & in this they are not far off the truth. LEEDS as different from other UK cities with a substantial Jewish population, had no history of Jews, before literally 1000’s of Jews arrived from the Pale of Settlement from about 1860 until about 1905.

Secondly the Jews that arrived were mainly from one area in RUSSIA, which today would be the South West of LITHUANIA, & the adjoining North East of POLAND. These Jews were called LITVAKS which is Yiddish for Lithuanian.

It was often the Husband who emigrated first & once settled & earning a living they would then send for their wife & children. Also, he would write back (in Yiddish) to his family & friends & like most people would tell them how well he was doing, which led to others in the SHTETL thinking it was a good idea for them to make the move. The original emigrant would help the newcomer when they arrived by offering them lodging & finding them work (more of this later under ZAGOFSKY & FRIEND) & this in turn became an Immigrant Society which was setup to assist people from the same SHETL come over & settle in LEEDS.

My Father’s Family were all LITVAKS, which explains why they are connected to so many other families in LEEDS, whilst my Mother’s Family who are really GALITZIANERS (Jews from GALICIA) & don’t have any connections with any LEEDS Families. They are from an area over 600 kilometres due south of LITHUANIA, between KRAKOW (the ancient capital of POLAND) & the UKRAINIAN border. They bought tickets for NEW YORK & were duped & arrived on the East Coast of ENGLAND & then started again to get to LIVERPOOL, from where the ships left ENGLAND for NEW YORK. Like many others they got as far as LEEDS, & either had more babies, or ran out of money, or both. This why there are Jewish populations in HULL, LEEDS, SHEFFIELD. MANCHESTER & LIVERPOOL.

In the popular perception, Galitzianers were considered to be more emotional and prayerful than their rivals, the Litvaks, who thought of them as irrational and uneducated. They, in turn, held the Litvaks in disdain, derogatively referring to them as tseylem-kop ("cross heads"), or Jews assimilated to the point of being Christian. This coincides with the fact that Hasidism was most influential in Ukraine and southern Poland but was fiercely resisted in Lithuania (and even the form of Hasidism that took root there, namely Chabad, was more intellectually inclined than the other Hasidic groups).

The two groups diverged in their Yiddish accents and even in their cuisine, separated by the "Gefilte Fish Line." Galitzianers like things sweet, even to the extent of putting sugar in their fish.

GINSBERG, CECIL

Starting with my father,

My Dad Cecil GINSBERG

Cecil GUINNESS in BRIDLINGTON 1953

Cecil GINSBERG. Cecil was Born in LEEDS, the 9th of 11 Children on 6/MAY/1904, Died 1/JUN/1964 Scorton Nr. DARLINGTON Age 60 years old

My father & mother rarely told me about their lives, & my father in particular was very distant, which I blamed him for, for many years, until I realised that my mother made him act that way. Cecil never came to our wedding, & though my mother did, she only came after laying down conditions, where no other of my family members could be invited.

Cecil & Philip GINSBERG

Many years later I found out from Barbara (my Uncle Philip’s Daughter who went to live in CANADA) that whilst working in South Wales my father had a gentile girlfriend. Not only was I told about this but I also have photos. It appears that my father left South Wales to go to work in BLACKPOOL, & stayed in a Jewish Hotel where he met my mother. Six weeks later they were married in LEEDS 10/JUN/1936 at Belgrave Street Synagogue with a reception at the Victory Hotel, which was on Briggate.

As far as I was aware my father had never been employed in the tailoring industry, yet when I looked in the 1921 Census there he was at 17yrs of age & living at home with his parents & employed as a "Tailor Cutter", at Lyons & Cohen. Just to confuse matter he then says he was "Out of Work".

Belgrave Street Synagogue, LEEDS

Victory Hotel, Briggate, LEEDS, UK

Cecil GINSBERG & Girlfriend in South Wales

with Jennie GINSBERG (Phil's Wife)

Before he was married my father worked on the “run-outs” which was mainly worked by men who if not petty criminals, they were certainly people who sailed “close to the wind”. My father was the most honest person I’ve ever known, & though he didn’t leave me a penny, what he did leave me was far more valuable, & that was a good name, which I’ve always tried to keep & to pass onto my children.

My Dad Cecil GINSBERG at Falkland Mount in 1950

I've looked at this photo of my Dad dozens, if not hundreds of times, & all I've seen is my Dad extremely well dressed in a smart double breasted suit, with shirt & tie, & topped off with a snazzy hat worn at a somewhat jaunty angle. No doubt as you go back & look at this photo again yourself, this is what you will see, & probably think as I did that considering this is only a few years after the end of the war, & in the middle of very restricted rationing on clothes as well as food, he looks remarkably prosperous. This could be a photo from a magazine of the period, until one looks at what he's wearing on his feet! Shock horror! he's waring socks together with open toe sandals!! Where have I seen someone else wearing the same type of ensemble?

Apples don't fall far from the tree!!!!!

Anyway back to my Dad, the “run-outs” were usually large stalls often in seaside resorts, such as on the Promenade in BLACKPOOL, where there would be large items for sale. A typical item would be dinner service & the seller would start off offering it at a very high price, which no one was interested in & gradually reduced the price, until a plant in the crowd would shout, “I’ll buy that”. Then everybody would want to buy one at this much reduced price. When they got home, they would sometimes find that the dinner service was a “second” or had some other flaw, which wasn’t apparent when they bought the item.

GINSBERG Speeding

There’s a story which is maybe apocryphal, that when Cecil was working the run-out someone was asked who they could trust, & they said Cecil, but instead of using his name they used a popular advertising theme ‘Guinness is Good for You”, which became his nickname. He changed our family name from GINSBERG to GUINNESS, by Deed Poll in the summer holidays between Talbot Road & Roundhay Secondary Grammar School.

My Mum & Dad Wedding 10/JUN/19336

On 13/MAR/1941 at a time when Britain was still alone fighting Nazi GERMANY my Dad was enlisted in the Royal Artillery 52 A. A. Driver (TRNG.) RA Rank Gunner, Army No. 1782201. He was an Anti-Aircraft Gunner known as "Ack-Ack" (from the spelling alphabet used by the British for voice transmission of "AA"), or Flak from the German, when he was injured by the recoil of the Anti-aircraft Gun. He was given a discharge on 19/SEP/1941 due to the injuries received.

Sometimes in school holidays I used to go with my father to the markets. Some of these were stalls where he just had to stand there & serve customers who actually came up to the stall, but others were where he was allowed “to shout out what he was selling” My father, together with a number of market men would be collected with all their items for sale from home by truck & taken to the market in question. I remember going with him one day in winter to RIPON where the market was held in the square in the centre of town. Once we had erected the stall, my father told me to go & get myself a cup of tea at the nearby café. I asked him if he’d like something to drink, but he said no as he’d brought a flask with him. (I later found out he wouldn’t even have a glass of water, unless it was from a Kosher place) I had my cup of tea, & made my way back to where I thought the stall was. As I got nearer, I came across this crowd of woman who were all listening to this manic fellow shouting the odds & selling stockings. I couldn’t believe this was my father, who at home hardly said a word.

Cecil GUINNESS at CUDWORTH Station on way to BARNSLEY Market

(Algy STATMAN is in the Doorway)

Because my father in the later part of his life sold stockings & I went into the same line, though to supermarkets, rather than on a market stall, people thought I took over from my father; well, nothing could be further from the truth, as I only got involved to help out some people in LONDON, who had contact with HADRIAN Supermarkets in WALLSEND, & they asked me to help out & one thing led to another.

My father who had had three heart attacks, died on his own from his fourth heart attack at the age 60 years old on his way home from working on DARLINGTON Market on 1/JUN/1964. His remains were taken to the “Saint John of God Hospitaller Services” run by a Christian Order. My one consolation is that my father found happiness in the birth of Sean, so at least he had over two years of playing with his grandson, which he never had with me, his son.

Who is the only known Jewish Sultan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd9TlGDZGkI

The Jewish Sultan is Mark KNOPFLER who is the lead vocals & lead guitar, plus the inspiration behind DIRE STRAITS. His Brother David on rhythm guitar & backing vocals plays in his bare feet on this track. Mark is incredibly talented, not only one of the best Rock Guitarist in the world, he really makes his guitar talk, but he writes most of Dire Straits material, he also written the sound track to Movies, & on top of this he's great live performer.