Weltfish, Gene (07 August 1902–02 August 1980), anthropologist and human rights advocate, was born Regina Weltfish in New York City, the daughter of Abraham Weltfish, a lawyer involved in Tammany Hall politics, and Eve Furman. Weltfish spent the first ten years of her life with several other relatives in the apartment of her maternal grandparents. As the first grandchild of a successful Jewish immigrant couple, she was the focus of their attentions and hopes for much of her early life. Her grandfather hired a German governess to teach her German (her first language). Weltfish was bilingual as a child, switching from German to English with ease, acquiring French sometime later. Weltfish’s family moved to a home of their own when she was ten years old. Her father died unexpectedly three years later without leaving a will. Her mother, a business-college graduate, was unable to make enough money to support them. Weltfish started working as a clerical assistant when she was fourteen, but she continued her education by attending night school, graduating from high school in 1919....
