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Is Maurice Sendak Jewish?

Maurice Sendak is Jewish. The famous children's author Maurice Sendak, who died on Tuesday, May 8, 2012, was born to Polish Jewish immigrants. Born in Brooklyn, New York  to Sarah Schindler and Philip Sendak. His father was a dressmaker.


Most of Sendak's extended family perished in The Holocaust. Sendak decided to become an illustrator after seeing Disney's Fantasia at twelve. Sendak's father would tell him tales from the Torah and the young Sendak would embellish these narratives into his own stories. His most famous book was the children's bestseller "Where the Wild Things Are".

Sendak was a gay man and lived with his partner, Eugene Glynn, a psychoanalyst. The couple was together for 50 years before Eugene Glynn’s death in May 2007. Maurice Sendak donated $1 million to the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services to memorialize his life partner Glynn, who had treated young people there.

Sendak died on May 8, 2012 in Danbury, Connecticut, from complications of a stroke.

3 comments:

  1. He was a gay man...that is the introduction to this great man. No, he was a wonderful writer, a wonderful human being that brought many smiles to so many families. He was not great because he was gay but because he was him! I'm not great because I'm black or white or strait or gay, I'm great because I'm who I'm. A human being without labels!

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  2. Let's not gloss over the fact that Gay people are not valued in our society. The morning he died, voters in North Carolina were preparing to amend their Constitution to deny Gay couples their Civil Rights. No, Maurice Sendak was not great because he was Gay or Jewish, but those identities were a part of him and no one should be chastized for saying so. Young Gay people in particular need adult Gay role models. Mr. Sendak was that and much more.

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  3. Besides being a proud Jew, Sendak was also a proud atheist. He said the Holocaust killed any notion of God for him.

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