ABSTRACT
Leonard Bernstein was born 25 August 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts to Samuel Bernstein, a supplier of barber and beauty products, and the former Jenny Resnick. Both parents were first generation Russian:Jewish immigrants. Samuel fled Russia in his mid-teens and lived the American dream, working his way up from cleaning fish in Manhattan to a prosperous business in the Boston area. The couple had two other children: Shirley and Burton, born in 1923 and 1932.
