Editing George Gershwin (section)

===Ancestors===
Gershwin's parents were both Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His paternal grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, was born in [[Odessa]], [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Ukraine]]), and had served for 25 years as a mechanic for the [[Imperial Russian Army]] to earn the right of free travel and residence as a Jew, finally retiring near [[Saint Petersburg]], Russia. Jakov's teenage son, Moishe, George Gershwin's father, worked as a leather cutter for women's shoes. Moishe's wife-to-be, George's mother-to-be, Roza Bruskina, was born in [[Saint Petersburg]], Russia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Rose-Gershwin/6000000010555836595|title=Rose Gershwin|website=geni_family_tree|year=1875 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://biography.yourdictionary.com/ira-gershwin|title=Ira Gershwin|website=biography.yourdictionary.com}}</ref>

Moishe met Roza in Vilna, Russian Empire (now [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]]), where her father worked as a furrier. She and her family moved to New York because of increasing anti-Jewish sentiment in Russia, changing her first name to Rose. Moishe, faced with compulsory military service if he remained in Russia, moved to America as soon as he could afford to (arrived on August 14, 1890). Once in New York, he changed his first name to Morris. Gershowitz lived with a maternal uncle in Brooklyn, working as a foreman in a women's shoe factory. He married Rose on July 21, 1895, and Gershowitz soon Anglicized his name to Gershwine.{{sfn|Hyland|2003|pp=1–3}}{{sfn|Pollack|2006|p=3}}{{sfn|Jablonski|1987|pp=29–31}} Their first child, [[Ira Gershwin]], was born on December 6, 1896, after which the family moved into a second-floor apartment at 242 Snediker Avenue in the [[East New York]] neighborhood of Brooklyn.