Kirk Douglas: 7 Jewish Facts

Kirk Douglas was born with the name Issur Danielovitch. His parents Herschel and Byrna immigrated from Russia to the United States, in part so that Douglas’ father could escape forced servitude in the Czar’s army. The family settled in the small town of Amsterdam in upstate New York, near Albany. Douglas was one of seven children and the only boy, born December 9, 1916. He and his sisters grew up speaking Yiddish at home.
Textile mills were the town’s main employers, but they refused to hire Jews. Douglas’ father worked as a ragman, buying and selling scraps of cloth. “Even on Eagle Street, in the poorest part of town, where all the families were struggling,” Douglas later recalled, “the ragman was on the lowest rung on the ladder… And I was the ragman’s son.”