My middle-class parents — Attorney and Musician Harry Jay Rubin and Margaret Cohen Rubin — MSW, were faithfully married for 59 years.
My parents were not wealthy.
However — they gave me strong family values — and core values.
While my middle-class Jewish parents — and grandparents — were open-minded about politics and culture:
They led self-discipline lives — and they raised their children — to also be self-disciplined.
They were devoted, married couples — for better or worse — for richer or poorer — in sickness and in health.
They raised me to have the same uncompromising core values.
No one in my family cheats on others — or in life.
My parents had a relentless work ethic and expected the same from us.
I worked in a bookstore and waited tables while I was a
Columbia University undergraduate.
While completing my MFA at CalArts I taught myself digital design software — so that I could work as a digital designer at ad agencies — rather than continue to wait tables to support my fine art career.
After completing the
Whitney Museum of American Art ISP — I freelanced at midtown advertising agencies — created my own portfolio of ad campaigns — and was hired as the full-time Art Director at McCabe & Company. Simultaneously, I was also recommended to teach at School of Visual Arts — where I taught "Media Communications" in the late 1990s and curated an exhibition of my students' art in the main SVA building on East 23rd Street.
I soon became a Creative Director at another midtown ad agency. Based on the results I consistently brought — I was then contacted to be the in-house Creative Director at a FinTech start-up and launched my own ad agency:
TOTALVIEW Global.
Every step of the way — I advanced — on the basis of my own talent — work ethic — competing fairly.
My family did
not set me up in business.
My family
never told me what to do as an Artist or Creative Director.
Due to my overly humble, middle-class parents' — work and contributions —
which they never narcissistically publicized: They had a network of friends in political and cultural arenas.
However — no one — from my parents' network — was ever contacted to help me.
And I never asked.
On the contrary —
I avoided that topic.
In some cases — I did not even know who was part of that network — or even what some of my own relatives had accomplished in life — due to my parents' understated style.
At the same time — I should be able to share history and facts about my overly humble, moral, and not wealthy Jewish-American Family.
Many people share family history.
A member of The Cohen and Rubin Families of York and Brownsville, PA should be able to do so as well —
without hearing anti-Semitic hate stereotypes, tropes, and hate speech.
My Family is My Team
In South Central Pennsylvania — where anti-Semitism is a daily part of life — my extended and immediate family were a tight-knit group.
My — law-abiding — resilient — and open-minded Jewish-American Family — is my team.
My family — The Rubins and The Cohens — is the team to whom I am always loyal.
My family comes first.
