Last Saturday's music post on Leon Redbone quoted the below passage from his New York Times obituary, which, as I realized upon reflection, includes a historical error:
He was actually born on Aug. 26, 1949, in Cyprus. An authoritative article in The Oxford American this year said his parents had relocated there from the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem after the new Israeli government seized their property. Mr. Redbone’s birth name, the article said, was Dickran Gobalian.
Israel, however, had no control over the Armenian Quarter, or anywhere in the Old City of Jerusalem, before 1967 (all of the Jews having been expelled when the Jordanian army captured the Jewish Quarter in May, 1948). If the Gobalian family's property was confiscated, it would have been by the Jordanians, not the Israelis.
Leon Redbone first and now Dr. John. Very sad.
Posted by: anymouse | June 08, 2019 at 04:04 PM