Quincy Jones a descendant of Amelia Lanier
Jaron Lanier’s mother was a Holocaust survivor from Vienna. His father’s family went through the pogroms and in an effort to get the heck away from the Jews his father took the name Lanier, after the 19th century American musician Sidney Lanier.
It turns out that Sidney Lanier in fact was a descendant of the Amelia (Emilia) Bassano Lanier who was the first published woman poet in the English language, she was also a contemporary of William Shakspere, they say she was his neighbor. Her father Baptiste (note the name as in Marrano) Bassano was a Sephardic musician from the Venetian Ghetto and then Baptiste Bassano went on to be a musician to the English court.
Amelia Lanier is identified as the Jewish “Dark Lady” of the Shakspere’s sonnets and in the crazy game of Shakespeare’s authorship some claim that Amelia Bassano Lanier really wrote all Shakespeare’s sonnets or even everything (considering that Amelia Bassano was a daughter of a musician allegedly growing up in the Venetian Ghetto, this would really finally explain the “favorable” portrayal of the Venetian banker Shylock).
What follows is the very recent hour-long presentation by Jaron Lanier in the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. He speaks about this at the 6:25 mark.
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Thank you, Ben. I enjoyed this very much! He’s fascinating.
Unfortunately, there’s no proof whatsoever that Lanier was Jewish. First of all, her mother was not a Jew, which according to our matrilineal culture means that she wasn’t. As for her father, the latest research comes up with no definite proof that he was a hidden Jew. It’s a lovely fairy tale, story, but the facts don’t add up about that or her a”authorship” of Shakespeare’s plays. Why can’t people write about her and give her her props without turning her into more than she was?
http://www.bibliobuffet.com/book-brunch-columns-322/1304-anyone-but-shakespeare-062010
Lev, my theme here is Jaron really. Alas, when it comes to Jews he is out of his element. I was really paraphrasing what hew said in that lecture and it is worth looking into. The information you provide is helpful in this regard.