arts & entertainment
Becoming Eileen
A member of the famed Rockefeller family finds
her voice — and a love of Jewish traditions.
I
Suzanne Chessler
ER: I like that I managed to be true to my
voice as well as my family and my stories.
I love that my siblings have each seen their
own chapters and given me the green light.
Some of my favorite stories are in the chap-
ter, "Time for Being:' which describes Paul's
background and how we blended his Jewish
traditions with my Rockefeller ones.
Contributing Writer
E
ileen Rockefeller hopes that her
presentation at the JCC Jewish
Book Fair will include her hus-
band, Paul Growald, who grew up in
Kalamazoo and introduced her to the
Jewish traditions important to their family.
The presentation, on the morning of
Nov. 14, will expand on her new book:
Being a Rockefeller, Becoming Myself: A
Memoir (Blue Rider Press).
"Paul and I have spoken together for the
Jewish Funders Network:' Rockefeller says
in a phone conversation from her Vermont
home. "Given the theme of my upcoming
talk — that strong families create strong
societies — I believe it will be a more
impactful discussion and more useful to
people if Paul is able to partner with me:'
The author, the daughter of David and
the late Peggy Rockefeller, writes about
growing up as the youngest of six children
in a celebrated family and then finding her
own path through education, friendships
and causes she deems important.
One anecdote recalls a student project
focusing on Hudson River pollution. It
impelled her to pursue meaningful correc-
tive measures by showing the problem to
her influential uncles: Nelson, then gover-
nor of New York, and Laurence, a longtime
conservationist.
Rockefeller, 61, whose text also delves
into her parents' backgrounds and is
complemented with photos, comfortably
answers questions about her experiences
and priorities:
Jews
Nate Bloom
Talk - Show Beat
42 Bravo's Inside the Actor's Studio
returns on Thursday, Nov. 7, at 8 p.m
GI with
an interview with the principal
cast of Arrested Development. Detroit-
C D born-and-raised host James Lipton,
•I
87, has strong ties to the TV series,
having played the
recurring charac-
ter Warden Stefan
Gentles in 2004 and
2005, and, again,
when the series was
revived for Netflix
last May. Appearing
with Lipton are show
Lipton
November 7 • 2013
I visited John Fetzer at the Fetzer
Institute there because he became the first
funder of my founding of the Institute
for the Advancement of Health, and we
became great friends.
JN: Have any other members of the
Rockefeller family married into Jewish
families?
ER: Not all the marriages have lasted,
but many of my relatives are married to
Jewish people.
JN: Have your relatives joined in the
religious celebrations you have had?
ER: Many of them came to our sons' bar
mitzvahs. Adam, 27, works at a strategic
branding and design company; Danny, 25,
works for an entrepreneur to help scale
businesses in technology, communication
and sustainability.
Some of my relatives participated in the
bar and bat mitzvahs of their [stepchil-
dren]. My sons were the only ones born
into the Rockefeller family as the mar-
riage sustained, and they were the only
Rockefeller children to have a bar, or bat,
mitzvah.
JN: How do you feel about living in
Vermont, which has the highest use of
state-grown agricultural and livestock
products?
ER: My husband and I eat exclusively
from our garden. We have an organic
garden and grow all of our food with the
help of several people who work for us.
We freeze and can our foods so that we are
literally self-sustaining.
Eileen on page 69
Special to the Jewish News
64
Even to grow into oneself
requires a community of sup-
port because family, our first community,
is one that mirrors us but often through
distorted lenses. The writing of my book
was a process of sorting out which reflec-
tions were accurate and which were not.
JN: What are you
IN: Was there
going to include in
one incident
110a efell er
your presentation?
i emi 172/f
Bco
that was the
ER: I'm definitely
final inspiration
going to include
1
for you to write
how my husband
the book?
Paul and I blended
ER: The first
the Rockefeller and
inspiration
Jewish traditions
was when our
in raising our chil-
Eileen Rockefeller
sons went off
dren as Jews, how
to college and
I [brought Jewish rituals into our home]
suddenly I was
and how that has affected me personally as
faced with the empty nest. Having cre-
well as the raising of our two sons.
ated so much of my identity as a mother,
I sat down to write stories of my favorite
JN: How do you react to the experi-
memories with them.
ence of being in the public eye?
I wrote enough for a book, but it turned
ER: I have grown enough into my own
out those stories were too close to their
self that I feel as much a Rockefeller as
childhood to publish. That's when I chose
I do Eileen, and therefore I'm happy to
to go deeper to the origins of my own
share both aspects of myself in whatever
childhood.
ways can make a difference to others in
finding and becoming themselves.
IN: Did you learn anything new about
yourself just from the experience of
JN: What has been your connection
writing?
to Michigan in light of your husband's
ER: I learned many new things. One
years in Kalamazoo?
ER: I have not spent much time in
humbling admission was that I couldn't
Michigan except for visiting Kalamazoo
possibly have done it by myself. I think
in 1984 [when my in-laws no longer lived
it's probably true, as I look back on my
life, that anything a person wishes to grow
there]. At that time, Paul showed me
or create that's larger than the person
where he had lived in Kalamazoo, and that
requires a community of support.
was great fun.
IN: What do you like about the book?
I-
'1°4-
Paul Growald and Eileen Rockefeller at their 1981
wedding in Seal Harbor, Maine
JN
creator Mitch Hurwitz, 50, as well as
cast members Jessica Walter, 72, and
Jeffrey Tambor, 69.
Nov. 3 saw the return of a new sea-
son of OWN's Oprah Winfrey-hosted
show Where Are They Now? It is cur-
rently available for viewing on the OWN
website, with guests Soleil Moon Frye,
37; singer Michael Bolton, 60; and
actress Lynda (Wonder Woman) Carter.
Frye, whose mother is Jewish,
is best known for playing the title
role in the hit '80s TV series Punky
Brewster. She wed film producer
Jason Goldberg, 40, in a Jewish cer-
emony in 1998. The couple have two
children, ages 5 and 8, and are now
expecting a third child. Frye hosts the
OWN D-I-Y show, Home Simple.
Bolton had a string of "blue-eyed
soul" hits in the '80s and '90s. The
62-year-old Carter, who isn't Jewish,
has been married since 1984 to media
company exec Robert Altman, 65; their
now-adult son and daughter were bar/
bat mitzvah.
The episode airing at 10 p.m. Sunday,
Nov.10, includes professional celebrity
Tori Spelling, 40. Spelling recently talk-
ed to USA Today about the big reveal
in her new memoir, now in bookstores:
She is almost broke, and her husband
(they have four kids) cannot even afford
to get a vasectomy.
She claims her late father, mega-TV
producer Aaron Spelling, left her "only"
800K. Her mother, Candy, told the
paper, "It was much, much, more."
50 Years Later
The National Geographic Channel
joins many other media outlets in
marking the 50th anniversary of the
death of President John F. Kennedy
with an original film, Killing Kennedy.
It airs at 10 p.m. Sunday, Nov.10.
Rob Lowe plays JFK. Ginnifer
Goodwin, 35, plays Jacqueline Kennedy.
Michelle Tractenberg, 28, plays
Oswald's Russian-
born wife, Marina.
The actress, whose
parents are Jewish
immigrants from the
former Soviet Union,
speaks fluent Russian,
which she uses in her
film role.
Trachtenberg
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