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The Whitaker-Rosen Family

The Whitaker-Rosen Family is a Baltimore-based multigenerational Jewish family whose lineage traces, on the maternal side, through Holocaust survival and the rescue of two Deaf Polish Jewish infants by the Żegota network, and whose contemporary configuration centers on the Whitaker-Rosen Family Home in Mt. Washington, Baltimore. The family includes Usher syndrome Type I through two distinct recessive genetic lines, multigenerational ASL and Protactile fluency, sustained Jewish Reform-cultural observance anchored by Friday shabbat dinners, and an ethos of sustained presence and mutual care.

Quick Reference

Whitaker-Rosen Family Tree

Three documented generations of a Baltimore Jewish family whose maternal Rosen line traces through the Żegota rescue of two Deaf Polish Jewish infants. Saul has USH1F; Miri has Type I Usher syndrome caused by a different gene. Their daughter Annie is an unaffected carrier of both variants. Through Annie's marriage to USH1F carrier Robbie Whitaker, USH1F appears in their deafblind son RJ.

graph TD
    saul["Saul Rosen<br/>1944-10-2044-10<br/>Age 100"]
    miri["Miriam &quot;Miri&quot; Rosen (née Goldfarb)<br/>1944-2044-10<br/>Presumed takotsubo cardiomyopathy after acute grief, within 36 hours of Saul"]
    annie["Dr. Annette Miriam Whitaker (née Rosen)<br/>b. 1978-03<br/>Trauma therapist (Loyola College in Maryland Psy.D.), foster-youth specialty"]
    robbie["Robbie Whitaker<br/>b. c. 1975<br/>Architect, accessibility specialty"]
    lindsay["Lindsay Whitaker<br/>b. 2007"]
    leslie["Leslie Whitaker<br/>b. 2007"]
    rj["Robert &quot;RJ&quot; Whitaker Jr.<br/>b. 2012"]
    saul --> annie
    miri --> annie
    annie --> lindsay
    robbie --> lindsay
    annie --> leslie
    robbie --> leslie
    annie --> rj
    robbie --> rj
    saul -.spouse.-> miri
    annie -.spouse.-> robbie
Text equivalent of the family tree (structured nested list)
  • Saul Rosen (1944-10-2044-10, Age 100)
    • Born profoundly Deaf in October 1944 while his Jewish family was in hiding in occupied Warsaw; rescued as an infant with Żegota assistance. USH1F was named only after RJ’s 2012 diagnosis. Married Miri in 1965; 79 years of marriage.
    • Married to Miriam “Miri” Rosen (née Goldfarb) (1944-2044-10, Presumed takotsubo cardiomyopathy after acute grief, within 36 hours of Saul)
      • Born profoundly Deaf while her family was in hiding in Warsaw; reached Boston at about 2.5 and acquired ASL as her first full language from the Deaf Goldfarb family. Type I Usher syndrome from a gene distinct from USH1F.
    • Dr. Annette Miriam Whitaker (née Rosen) (b. 1978-03, Trauma therapist (Loyola College in Maryland Psy.D.), foster-youth specialty)
      • CODA; native ASL. Asymptomatic heterozygous carrier of Saul’s USH1F variant and Miri’s different Usher variant. Married Robbie 2005.
      • Married to Robbie Whitaker (b. c. 1975, Architect, accessibility specialty)
        • Hearing; learned ASL through marriage. USH1F heterozygous carrier (discovered 2012), from his own Ashkenazi line.
      • Lindsay Whitaker (b. 2007)
        • Identical twin to Leslie; unaffected USH1F carrier. ‘The one with the laugh.’
      • Leslie Whitaker (b. 2007)
        • Identical twin to Lindsay; unaffected USH1F carrier. ‘The one with the stare.’
      • Robert “RJ” Whitaker Jr. (b. 2012)
        • Affected; USH1F; deafblind by age 12; Protactile user. His 2012 infant diagnosis named Saul’s condition and prompted testing that identified Miri’s separate Type I gene.

Lineage and Generational Structure

Generation One (Great-Grandparents)

Maternal Line (Rosen, through Saul and Miri):

Both Saul Rosen and Miri Rosen were Polish Jewish infants rescued from occupied Warsaw through wartime and postwar relief networks. Miri was born in spring 1944 while her family was in hiding; she was not born inside the destroyed ghetto. Their biological birth parents were Polish Jews who did not survive the Holocaust. Their parents’ specific names, histories, professions, and exact fates have been lost; they are acknowledged in the family’s cultural memory as the ones who got our parents out but are otherwise absent from family records.

Saul’s hearing adoptive family in America were emotionally closed Polish Jewish immigrants in New York City who had survived the war in America but lost everyone they knew in Poland. Saul was placed with them in 1948 at age three and a half. He acquired his first full language at Fanwood from approximately five. His adoptive father died in 1989.

Miri’s adoptive family in Boston—Hannah and Ira Goldfarb, both Deaf and second-generation American Jewish—specifically requested a Deaf child survivor. Miri reached them at approximately two and a half without a full language. ASL became her first full language, and she was fluent by approximately three and a half. Ira Goldfarb died in 1987; Hannah Goldfarb died in 1994.

Robbie’s paternal and maternal grandparents were hearing American Jews with no recorded disability history before RJ’s diagnosis.

Generation Two (Grandparents)—Born 1944-1945

Saul Rosen (October 1944, Warsaw—October 2044, Mt. Washington, Baltimore; age 100) * Usher Syndrome Type I (USH1F); Deaf from birth; progressive RP * Retired printer (1966-2010; forty-four-year union career in Baltimore) * Co-founder of the Jewish Deaf Society of Baltimore in 1974; longtime participant in its meetings and signed Torah study * Married Miri October 1965

Miriam “Miri” Rosen (née Goldfarb; Spring 1944, Warsaw—October 2044, Mt. Washington, Baltimore; age 100) * Usher Syndrome Type I caused by a gene distinct from USH1F; Deaf from birth; progressive RP * Retired seamstress (Baltimore Jewish tailor shop, 1966-1985) * Longtime participant in the Jewish Deaf Society of Baltimore * Died at home in her sleep within 36 hours of Saul; her physician presumed acute grief-related cardiac failure consistent with Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy

Robbie inherited his USH1F variant through his hearing American Jewish family.

Generation Three (Parents)—Born 1970s

Dr. Annette Miriam Whitaker (née Rosen; born March 1978, Baltimore) * Asymptomatic heterozygous carrier of Saul’s USH1F variant and Miri’s different Usher variant * CODA; native ASL; Protactile learning * Trauma therapist (Loyola College in Maryland Psy.D.); foster youth specialty * Married Robbie September 2005

Robbie Whitaker (born approximately 1975) * USH1F heterozygous carrier (asymptomatic; discovered 2012) * Architect with accessibility specialty (UMD M.Arch) * Hearing; learned ASL through marriage

Generation Four (Current Children)—Born 2007 and 2012

Lindsay Whitaker (2007)—Unaffected USH1F carrier; identical twin to Leslie; “the one with the laugh” Leslie Whitaker (2007)—Unaffected USH1F carrier; identical twin to Lindsay; “the one with the stare” Robert “RJ” Whitaker Jr. (2012)—Affected; Usher Type I; deafblind by age 12; Protactile user

Family-Level Usher Syndrome Architecture

The Whitaker-Rosen family carries Usher syndrome through two distinct recessive genetic lines. Saul is affected by USH1F associated with the PCDH15 c.733C>T (p.Arg245Ter/R245X) Ashkenazi Jewish founder variant, while Miri is affected by Type I Usher syndrome caused by a different gene. Annie inherited one USH1F variant from Saul and one variant in Miri’s separate Usher gene, making her an unaffected heterozygous carrier at both loci. Robbie, from his own family’s unrelated line, is also a heterozygous carrier of the USH1F founder variant; that status was unexpected until the 2012 genetic testing. Robbie and Annie therefore had a 25% per-pregnancy probability of a child affected by USH1F. Their twins were confirmed as unaffected USH1F carriers, while RJ inherited the USH1F variant from each parent and is affected.

Saul and Miri lived for nearly seven decades with clinically similar conditions that their fragmented biological-family histories could not help them name. Their grandson’s 2012 diagnosis identified USH1F in RJ and Saul, while the resulting family testing showed that Miri’s Type I Usher syndrome came from a different gene.

Marriages and Partnerships

  • Saul and Miri—met 1958; married 1965; 79 years of marriage; died 2044 within 36 hours
  • Annie and Robbie—met spring 2000; Robbie met her parents later in 2000; engaged late 2004; married September 2005; ongoing (2024 onward)

Key Family Locations

Cultural and Religious Practice

The family is Reform-observant and culturally Jewish. Friday shabbat dinner was nonnegotiable across Saul and Miri’s seventy-nine-year marriage and continued in Annie and Robbie’s household. The family kept the High Holidays, celebrated the twins’ bat mitzvot and RJ’s Protactile bar mitzvah, and lit yahrzeit candles for deceased relatives. Their Jewish practice included signed blessings, adapted ceremonies, and participation in the Jewish Deaf Society of Baltimore.

Key Historical Events

  • 1944-1945: Żegota rescue of Saul and Miri as infants
  • 1948: Saul arrives in the United States
  • Late 1946: Miri arrives in Boston at about two and a half
  • Fall 1958: Miri transfers from Boston’s Horace Mann School to Fanwood; she and Saul meet during the 1958–1959 school year, both fourteen
  • 1965: Saul and Miri marry
  • 1966: Saul and Miri move to Baltimore; purchase the Mt. Washington rowhouse
  • 1974: Saul co-founds the Jewish Deaf Society of Baltimore; he and Miri become longstanding participants
  • 1978: Annie born
  • 1992: Saul’s trip to Poland to meet Żegota rescuers’ surviving daughter
  • 2000: Annie and Robbie meet at UMD
  • 2005: Annie and Robbie marry
  • 2007: Twins born
  • 2012: RJ born; USH1F diagnosis; retrospective family diagnosis
  • 2033: Annie’s hemorrhagic stroke and the beginning of her eighteen-month recovery
  • 2042: Saul and Miri move into Annie and Robbie’s home
  • October 2044: Saul and Miri die within thirty-six hours
  • October 2044: The Jewish Deaf Society of Baltimore holds a joint memorial attended by approximately three hundred people, with eulogies lasting three hours
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