Ruth's Attitudes

Ruth Liechtenstein is a fictional character of historical origin. She was born out of important and common attitudes and actions of the Twentieth Century. Born into a Jewish family in 1930 Germany, Ruth was destined to be affected by World War II. It was often nearly impossible to actually get a Visa to immigrate to another country as a refugee attempting to escape Germany during this time. Ruth admits this and her family’s luck in successfully leaving to journey to America. Many Jewish immigrants to America came into the country in New York City through Ellis Island, including Ruth. Her family settled in New York in a largely Jewish borough, Brooklyn. Ruth began her high school classes right around the time of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She explains some of the common opinions surrounding this technological innovation made by the United States. She admits that many of her teachers and classmates were optimistic because the war was finally over, and they felt that the bomb was necessary to end the war. This was a very common opinion of the day. Many people recognized that the bomb caused great destruction, but they justified it through the explanation that it saved American soldiers from having to continue in war. Ruth however reflects a common opposing opinion of the day: that the atomic bomb was unjustifiable. She saw the photographs that were released that displayed the vast destruction of the two Japanese cities. This largely impacted Ruth as she decided she wanted to be one who helped others rather than one who did harm. When it was time for Ruth to graduate from high school, she was approaching the age of rebellion. Ruth’s father expressed that she should simply get married and take care of the household. This was a common argument made by adults of the time who were stuck in more conservative ways. However, Ruth embraced the ideas of the growing youth culture that was emerging in the 50s and 60s, and she attended college at Hunter College in New York City, a school that admitted many immigrant women. After Ruth graduates college, she worked with a nonprofit organization that was formed a few years prior. The organization was dedicated to solving a largely unresearched problem: the increase in intellectual disability. Ruth then got married and had a child, who was born with a disease, hypothyroidism, that went unnoticed for some time. This was not uncommon, as medical screening tests for newborns had not been developed. Her child represented a common problem of the 1960s and 70s. 

Written by Leigh Lewis, Computer Science, LMU 2021