Did you ever hear about the Levin family? They were a hard-working family of Jewish immigrants from Luxembourg and remarkable success story, though not without their share of difficulties. Starting in the mid-19th century, they distinguished themselves with two family traditions of scholarship and entrepreneurship. Family patriarch Baruch Levin owned a small shop in one of the urban pockets of the Gutland region of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, where the majority of Jews were concentrated, while his brother Mordecai was a well-respected rabbi at the local synagogue. Though not of great wealth or fame, they distinguished themselves in their community and passed on the dual traditions of work and religious study through the generations. An interesting detail is that they were one of the earlier families to recognize the promise of the United States as a haven of free religious expression for the persecuted Jewish community. They dreamed of living in America, which they pronounced “Ah-mair-ai-ka,” and always imagined the day that they could move there.

In the years before the beginning of the First World War, that time was getting closer and closer. Though they had been fortunately spared the worst of the persecution, times were getting difficult and the Levins were aware that it would soon be time to leave old Europe for new opportunities across the ocean. In 1912, the siblings Sarah (who now owned the shop, but dreamed of practicing law) and Herschel (in rabbinical training) decided it was now or never, and purchased 2nd-class tickets to the United States on the second voyage of the newly built RMS Titanic, scheduled to sail in June. They Levins were staying in a boarding house in Southampton, England, when they heard the news that the Titanic had sank in one of the greatest disasters the world had ever known. Would they ever get to “Ah-mair-ai-ka” ? Times were getting desperate.

Luckily, the Levins met an English shipping magnate named Albert Simone, whose wife, Nina (no relation to the singer) took pity on their situation and convinced Albert to send them first-class on the RMS Olympic (identical to the Titanic in every way, with the exception being that the Olympic never sank). The trip was wonderful; they’d never seen such luxury, and were so grateful to Madame Simone (whose name they mispronounced “Nai-nah Sai-ma-nee”) that they vowed to always name the eldest daughter in the family after the person who had shown such empathy and care for them. However, because of a stubbornness on the family’s part, they insisted on the mispronunciation, which became its own family tradition. Nina Simone Levin, born in the United States in 1925, became a successful lawyer, and her daughter, born in 1950, became one of the first female rabbis in the world. A truly inspiring story.

Rabbi Levin and her husband, Jacob (himself descended from Ukrainian Jews), were torn when they found out that they were having a daughter. Would they continue this odd tradition of naming a child after a benefactor they had never met? For them, the immigration stories were long past; they were Americans now, and had only the faintest memory of the Yiddish folk songs that had been sung to them by their grandparents, or the pastries and potato pancakes that they had eaten as children but never learned how to make for themselves. Most importantly, how could they continue the embarrassing mispronunciation that the family insisted on? Having to clarify, time and time again, that “Simone” was pronounced like “Simony,” the medieval clerical practice that was broadly critiqued during the Protestant reformation was embarrassing and made the family feel like outsiders. Perhaps it was time for a new tradition. Luckily, fate would intervene. As they drove to the convenience store to buy food for Rabbi Levin’s pregnant hunger cravings, debating over which popular American name for their daughter (they considered Jessica, Ashley, Heather and Amanda in turn) the radio played a song well-remembered by both of them: “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone. This was the song that was playing when they met! It brought the couple back to their college days, the heady times of counterculture, when change was in the air. That was it. It was a sign; they resolved to continue with their odd family tradition, mispronunciation and all.

Moving forward to present day, the daughter of Rabbi Nina Simone Levin was in high school, and though at this point very far removed from her family roots in Luxembourg, was still very hard-working. She was true to her traditions but took the nickname, “Simmy” as a sign of her independence. By her junior year of high school had already worked for two years as a server at the local restaurant, while also volunteering and maintaining a 3.7 grade point average. One of her favorite things to do over the summer was to work at the summer camp she had stayed at when she was in middle school, which combined extensive training in the dramatic arts with outdoor activities. She made so many friends and learned so much about herself there, that she decided to pass it on by working as a camp counselor in high school. The camp was very strict, and maintained firm discipline in both the campers and the employees. Though a very supportive work environment, not doing one’s job was not tolerated and one could be easily fired. It was worth it for Simmy, because she loved helping kids in the way that she was helped, plus it would look great when applying to college.

Simmy loved the outdoors, and the previous year she had been assigned outdoor activities. There were two types of activities, indoor and outdoor, and Simmy was thrilled that she had the chance at an “outside job.” She was so good at it that the director promised she could do the same work the next year, instead of the duller indoor activities that other counselors had to do. She was looking forward to this, and was so excited that when she got her information packet, she didn’t check to see if she was actually assigned to an outside job. She went straight to the mountain climbing station to work, just as she had last year, only to find that somebody else was there! And worse, that she was late for the arts and crafts workshop she was supposed to oversee! She was really in trouble. Was she going to be fired her first day back? She went to the camp director and begged him for a reprieve, but to no effect. She was to pack her bags and leave at once. The other counselors couldn’t help but feel for their friend, as she tearfully got into her parents car to drive back home. Donald Chang, one of Simmy’s best friends at camp, approached the director asking him to make an exception. She was one of the best counselors there; all the kids loved her. Didn’t it seem like an unnecessary application of rules? Was this really in the best interest of the kids? The new director checked his clipboard of counselors and task assignments. He shrugged, as if to imply that the matter was out of his hands, saying “Nina Levin was an inside job.”