Mickey Hart

<p><img src="/af97ae23-6f1e-5cf8-94f5-3958a8a0d803.png"/></p>

<p>

&nbsp;

"While the aforementioned Hart is the only Jewish member of the band,

a coterie of personnel essential to the musicians’ career have been

Jewish, including managers and business agents Lenny Hart (his

father), Danny Rifkin, Ron Rakow, Hal Kant and, perhaps most

important, concert promoter Bill Graham, whose support in booking them

into the Bay Area venues where they got their start gave a leg up on

their career."

Read more: <a href="http://forward.com/culture/310778/the-secret-jewish-history-of-the-grateful-dead/" target="_blank">http://forward.com/culture/310778/the-secret-jewish-history-of-the-grateful-dead/</a>

As for the significance of Graham's ethnic identity to him, the

following appears in his New York Times obituary:

"Mr. Graham's beginnings were perilous. He was born Wolfgang Grajonca

to Russian Jewish emigrants in Berlin, and two days later his father

was killed in an accident. Eventually, his mother placed Mr. Graham

and one of his sisters in an orphanage.

"As World War II tore through Europe, the two children fled through

France. Mr. Graham made it, but his 13-year-old sister starved to

death along the way, which he said made him feel guilty for the rest

of his life. He later learned that his mother and another sister were

killed in gas chambers in Germany."</p>