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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’s defining characteristics include the intergenerational presence of 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 a specific ethos of sustained presence and mutual care that has shaped every generation of the family.

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 (Johns Hopkins PsyD), 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)
    • Dr. Annette Miriam Whitaker (née Rosen) (b. 1978-03, Trauma therapist (Johns Hopkins PsyD), 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)
      • 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 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. 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) * Longtime participant in the Jewish Deaf Society of Baltimore * 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 (Johns Hopkins PsyD); 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 is the Faultlines series’ primary example of multigenerational Usher syndrome inheritance within a specifically Ashkenazi Jewish lineage. Saul is affected by the USH1F founder mutation (PCDH15 R245X), 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 USH1F carrier; that status was unexpected until the 2012 genetic testing and reflects the elevated founder-mutation carrier frequency in Ashkenazi populations. 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 a USH1F variant from each parent and is affected.

The retrospective-naming dimension of the family’s Usher history is narratively and emotionally load-bearing. Saul and Miri lived for nearly seven decades with clinically similar conditions their families’ histories—fragmented by Holocaust-driven loss of extended family medical memory—could not 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 2000; married September 2005; ongoing (2024 onward)

Key Family Locations

Cultural and Religious Practice

The family is Reform-observant and culturally Jewish. Friday shabbat dinner is nonnegotiable (seventy-nine years of Saul and Miri’s marriage; continuing in Annie and Robbie’s household through the present and anticipated forward). High holidays kept. Bat/bar mitzvot celebrated for the twins and RJ (RJ’s conducted in Protactile). Yahrzeit candles lit for the deceased members across generations. The family’s specific Jewish practice is inflected by Deaf culture (signed blessings; adapted ceremonies; Jewish Deaf Society of Baltimore participation).

Key Historical Events

  • 1944-1945: Żegota rescue of Saul and Miri as infants
  • 1948: Saul arrives in the United States
  • 1946-1948: Miri arrives in the United States (via Boston)
  • 1958: Saul and Miri meet at Fanwood
  • 1965: Saul and Miri marry
  • 1966: Saul and Miri move to Baltimore; purchase the Mt. Washington rowhouse
  • Saul and Miri participate in the Jewish Deaf Society of Baltimore
  • 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
  • 2026-2028: Annie’s stroke (during Everything Loud and Tender)
  • 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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