guide to the jewplexed


EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Has Rebecca Rubin Turned to the Left?


rebecca rubinA lot can happen to a doll in three years, just ask Rebecca Rubin, American Girl's three-year-old entry into the character doll market.

For an historically themed doll like Rebecca, who is the star character in several accompanying books, not only can hair and clothing styles change, but political outlooks as well.

I wondered, as we entered the Chanukah toy giving season, after all the initial press attention, how were things going with the Rebecca and the family Rubin? Had the father of the 18 inch high Jewish doll with reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes been able to keep his store open? Or, was Rebecca now selling bagels from a pushcart to help make ends meet? Was she picking up radical political ideas from reading Forverts (The Jewish Daily Forward)?

Originally, Rebecca debuted in 2009 as a nine-year-old of Russian Jewish heritage growing up in 1914 with her family on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Now her tag line identifies her as "A lively girl with dramatic flair, growing up in New York City." In contemporary terms, did that mean she had shortened her name to Becca and run off to the East Village?

Looking for answers, I found Rebecca ensconced in her home: A glassed-in display area which showcased her clothes and accessories on the top floor of the busy American Girl store in Los Angeles. Here she posed, not far from Hollywood, attired in various outfits, including a Hanukkah number, "A purple jacquard-striped dress with a faux-layered georgette blouse and fancy scalloped trim." Nearby, there were tiny Shabbat candlesticks, shiny Chanukah gelt, even a samovar.

Flipping through a couple of her books filled me in as to what had happened to Rebecca since she was introduced. I read that she had Russian cousin, a regular greenhorn, who she had helped introduce to American ways, and that she even had a bit part in a silent picture. I also found that she had challenged her teacher over a class Christmas assignment.

She also apparently had become a leftie. Did that explain her new "Red" outfit? In one book, during a trip to a factory where her cousin and his father worked, Rebecca had become "Horrified" at the working conditions, and was ready to join a march on their behalf.

Yasher koach! (May you have strength.)

Looking at the surrounding doll furniture reminded me of old family photos I had seen. My own grandmother, a real life Rebecca who was from Russia and spoke very little English, was a seamstress living in New York City at about this time. She and her husband, Joseph, a delicatessen counterman, could have been the Rubin's Bronx cousins.

Continuing my visit, I found hanging on a nearby display, designed, I suppose, to help a child enter Rebecca's world, real girl-sized outfits that matched the ones in Rebecca's wardrobe.

Getting totally into the spirit of this environment, I imagined the samovar scaled up to life size, and always looking for an exclusive interview-- Rebecca pouring me a glass of tea as well.

"A lot of Jewish kids look up to you, is it hard being a role model?" I asked Rebecca, sipping my tea.

Shoulders square, she just smiled.

"I understand that your grandfather reads Forverts (I had seen a picture in one of the books) Is that were you get your political ideas?" I asked.

Eyes wide open; she just looked off into the distance.

Seeing that this line of questioning wasn't getting a response, I tried digging for some good old doll gossip. "Do you have any conflicts with the blond haired blue eyed Caroline doll who was on cover of the American Girl's November catalog?" I inquired.

My question was met with a quiet, cold stare--not the first one ever received by this reporter.

Before I could ask another question, though, I was bumped back to reality by two women searching through boxes of doll clothes. 

Too bad. I had wanted to ask Rebecca if she ever had met my grandparents.

Edmon J. Rodman has written about making his own matzah for JTA, Jewish love music for the Jerusalem Post, yiddisheh legerdemain for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, a Bernie Madoff Halloween mask for the Forward, and what really gets stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits for the Los Angeles Times. He has edited several Jewish population studies, and is one of the founders of the Movable Minyan, an over twenty-year-old chavura-size, independent congregation. He once designed a pop-up seder plate. In 2011 Rodman received a First Place Simon Rockower Award for "Excellence in Feature Writing" from the American Jewish Press Association."