I found this biography while researching Helen Menken and her background. I don't think she was Jewish. I've learned a bit about her father, Fred Meinken, who graduated from the New York Instution for the Deaf, otherwise known as Fanwood, and had a good career as a printer. His wife, Mary Madden, was from Ireland. She was also deaf. But I see absolutely no evidence that Mary converted to Judaism or that Helen and her sister Grace maintained any connection with the Jewish community. It was long common for deaf Jews to have mixed marriages, especially when they graduated from schools for the deaf and may have had no real Jewish education.
I found this biography while researching Helen Menken and her background. I don't think she was Jewish. I've learned a bit about her father, Fred Meinken, who graduated from the New York Instution for the Deaf, otherwise known as Fanwood, and had a good career as a printer. His wife, Mary Madden, was from Ireland. She was also deaf. But I see absolutely no evidence that Mary converted to Judaism or that Helen and her sister Grace maintained any connection with the Jewish community. It was long common for deaf Jews to have mixed marriages, especially when they graduated from schools for the deaf and may have had no real Jewish education.