Editing Theodore Hall (section)

==Early life==
Theodore Alvin Holtzberg was born in [[Far Rockaway, Queens|Far Rockaway]], [[New York City]] to a devout [[Jewish]] couple, Barnett Holtzberg and Rose Moskowitz. His father was a [[furrier]] who had emigrated to America to escape [[antisemitism|antisemitic]] [[pogrom]]s in the [[Russian Empire]].<ref name="AlbrightKunstel">{{cite news |last1=Albright |first1=Joseph |last2=Kunstel |first2=Marcia |date=April 9, 1997 |title=The Boy Who Gave Away the Atomic Bomb |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/14/magazine/the-boy-who-gave-away-the-bomb.html |work=The New York Times Magazine |access-date=November 22, 2019 }}</ref> His mother was the American-born daughter of Eastern European Jewish immigrants.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ridenour |first1=Ron |title=Ted Hall Deserves a Nobel Peace Prize For Helping to Prevent a Nuclear Holocaust in the 1950s |url=https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/10/23/ted-hall-deserves-a-nobel-peace-prize-for-helping-to-prevent-a-nuclear-holocaust-in-the-1950s/ |website=Covertactionmagazine |access-date=12 March 2025}}</ref> She  died while Theodore was a teenager and a student at Harvard University. The [[Great Depression]] hurt Barnett's business significantly; when it was no longer able to support the household, the family moved to [[Washington Heights, Manhattan|Washington Heights]] in [[Upper Manhattan]].<ref name=Albright />

Even at a young age, Theodore showed an impressive aptitude for mathematics and science, mostly being tutored by his elder brother Edward, who was 11 years his senior. After skipping three grades at Public School 173 in Washington Heights, in the fall of 1937, Hall entered the [[Townsend Harris High School]] for gifted boys.<ref name=Albright /> He attended the [[1939 New York World's Fair]] and was deeply impressed by the Soviet pavilion and a copy of the [[Mayakovskaya (Moscow Metro)|Mayakovskaya Metro station]]. After graduation from high school, he was accepted into [[Queens College, City University of New York|Queens College]] at the age of 14 in 1940, and transferred to [[Harvard University]] in 1942 as junior physics major, where he graduated at the age of 18 in 1944.<ref name=Goodrow>{{cite journal|last=Goodrow|first=Genevieve|author2=Richard Hopkin |title=Who was .... Theodore Hall?|journal=Biologist|date=December 2003|volume=50|issue=6|pages=282–283}}</ref><ref name=Sulick />

In the fall of 1936, despite the protests of their parents, Edward, his brother, legally changed both his and Theodore's last name to Hall in an effort to avoid antisemitic hiring practices he was experiencing that were prevalent at the time.<ref name=Albright /><ref name=Sulick>{{cite book|last=Sulick|first=Michael|title=Spying in America: Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War|year=2012|publisher=Georgetown University Press|location=Washington DC|isbn=978-1-58901-926-3|pages=243–251}}</ref>