Editing Irving Berlin (section)

====Life in Russia====
Berlin was born '''Israel Beilin'''<ref>{{cite web| title=Irving Berlin| url=https://www.irvingberlin.com/| website=Irving Berlin| language=en-US| access-date=June 2, 2020}}</ref> on May 11, 1888, in the [[Russian Empire]].<ref name="FuriaWood1998">{{cite book| first1=Philip| last1=Furia| first2=Graham |last2=Wood |title=Irving Berlin: A Life in Song |url= https://archive.org/details/irvingberlinlife00furi |url-access=registration |year=1998 |publisher=Schirmer Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-02-864815-6}}</ref> Although his family came from the ''[[shtetl]]'' of [[Tolochin]], Berlin later learned that he was probably born in [[Tyumen]], Siberia, where his father, an itinerant [[Hazzan|cantor]], had taken his family.<ref name="FuriaWood1998"/> He was one of eight children of Moses (1848–1901) and Lena Lipkin Beilin (1850–1922).

From Tyumen, the family returned to Tolochin, and from there, they travelled to [[Antwerp]] and left the old continent aboard the [[SS Rhynland|SS ''Rhynland'']] from the [[Red Star Line]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bello |first=Grace |date=November 27, 2013 |title=Red Star Line Museum Recalls the Ships That Brought Einstein and Irving Berlin to America |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/red-star-line-museum-antwerp |access-date=September 28, 2022 |website=Tablet Magazine}}</ref> On September 14, 1893,<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/russianarrivalsimmigrationdatafile/?name=_Beilin&arrival=1893-9&arrival_x=0-0-0&count=50&name_x=_1| website=Ancestry.com| title=Passenger list of the Beilin family| url-access=subscription}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> the family arrived at [[Ellis Island]] in New York City. When they arrived, Israel was put in a pen with his brother and five sisters until immigration officials declared them fit to be allowed into the city.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C-rR_ihoOw&t=1m39s "Irving Berlin - The Voice of the City"], BBC Bristol and A&E network's 1988 broadcast</ref> After the family's [[naturalization]], the name "Beilin" was changed to "Baline".

According to biographer [[Laurence Bergreen]], as an adult Berlin admitted to no memories of his first five years in Russia except for one: "he was lying on a blanket by the side of a road, watching his house burn to the ground. By daylight the house was in ashes."<ref name=Bergreen>{{cite book| last=Bergreen| first=Laurence| title=As Thousands Cheer| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZgJu3UKRfIC&q=as+thousands+cheer| edition=reprint| publisher=Hachette Books| date=March 22, 1996| isbn=978-0306806759}}</ref>{{rp|10}} As an adult, Berlin said he was unaware of being raised in abject poverty since he had known no other life.<ref name=Whitcomb>{{cite book| last=Whitcomb| first=Ian| title=Irving Berlin and Ragtime America| publisher=Century| year=1987| isbn=9780712616645}}</ref>{{rp|19}}

The Berlins were one of hundreds of thousands of Jewish families who emigrated to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century, escaping discrimination, poverty and brutal [[pogrom]]s. Other such families included those of [[George Gershwin|George]] and [[Ira Gershwin]], [[Al Jolson]], [[Sophie Tucker]], [[L. Wolfe Gilbert]], [[Jack Yellen]], [[Louis B. Mayer]] (of [[MGM]]), and the [[Warner Bros.|Warner brothers]].<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|14}}