While Barack Obama has struggled to capture the Jewish vote, it turns out that one of his wife’s cousins is the country’s most prominent black rabbi ”” a fact that has gone largely unnoticed.
Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic presidential nominee, and Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual leader of a mostly black synagogue on Chicago’s South Side, are first cousins once removed. Funnye’s mother, Verdelle Robinson Funnye (born Verdelle Robinson) and Michelle Obama’s paternal grandfather, Frasier Robinson Jr., were brother and sister.
Funnye (pronounced fuh-NAY) is chief rabbi at the Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in southwest Chicago. He is well-known in Jewish circles for acting as a bridge between mainstream Jewry and the much smaller, and largely separate, world of black Jewish congregations, sometimes known as black Hebrews or Israelites. He has often urged the larger Jewish community to be more accepting of Jews who are not white.
Is a “first cousin once removed” the same thing as a “second cousin”? If so, why not just say “cousin once removed”?
Words Matter, a “first cousin once removed” is not the same as a “second cousin”. It has to do with generations. My mother has one brother, who has 2 children. His children and I are first cousins. My first cousin’s children are my first cousins once removed. In other words, they are one generation removed from the relationship I have with their parents. My children (well, my sister’s children, I don’t have any yet!) and my first cousin’s children are second cousins. In other words, they are the second generation.
My hobby is genealogy and one the hardest things to explain (which you did very well SJT) is the generations of cousins…..as in Eleanor Roosevelt was a 5th cousin once removed to FDR (if my memory serves me wright. Her father was FDR’s 5th cousins. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip are both great, great grandchildren of Queen Victoria. They are third cousins. Elizabeth is a second cousin once removed from Phillip’s mother, a first cousin twice removed from Phillip’s grandmother, and she is a great great niece of Phillip’s gr. grandmother – a daughter of Victoria. Now you know all you need to look up dead people……..and keep them in line……
The way I keep “Xth cousin Y times removed” straight is to remember that X is always defined at a straight-across level of the family tree, and Y counts how many levels you have to move from there to reach the other person.
That’s opaque in words, but I’m thinking of it visually, so try this: imagine the family tree drawn out, and the two people whose relationship you’re trying to define highlighted. Suppose that these people happen to be on the same level (that is, the same generation) of the tree; then you look at their parents. If their respective parents are siblings, the people are first cousins. If their respective parents are first cousins, the people are second cousins; and so on. This defines X.
If the people are not at the same level, then you count how many levels up you have to move from the lower person to reach the same level as the higher person. This defines Y. Then you compute X using the same process as above, working from that level.
(Why yes, I am a computer programmer by profession; how could you tell? 🙂 )
It’s too bad that Michelle isn’t a practicing Jew. That would give her some redeeming qualities.
No doubt Michele’s long attendence at Wright’s church put greater empasis on the “removed” aspect of her cousin. 😉