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Jonathan J Goldberg was born 17 September 1938 in Wilmersdorf borough, Berlin, Germany, the son of Frederick “Fritz” Gustav Goldberg and Vera Friedländer Goldberg.[1] His parents intended him to be called Thomas Jacques Georg Goldberg (with middle names honoring his paternal and maternal grandfathers), but the German registrar rejected that name. For an expanded discussion of the complex process by which Jonathan came to use the name "Jonathan J Goldberg" in adulthood, see https://www.wikitree.com/photo/pdf/Goldberg-797.
Less than eight weeks after Jonathan's birth, the Nazis’ infamous “Kristallnacht” pogram against Jews began on 9 November. According to family sources, on that night Jonathan’s father was detained and taken away, leaving his wife Vera alone with their two young children: infant Jonathan and his sister Irene, still only a toddler. [2]
On 21 July 1939, Jonathan Goldberg, “born 17 September 1938 in Berlin, Germany”, departed with his mother Vera and sister Irene from Bremen, Germany, bound for London, England via Southampton aboard the Nordeutscher Lloyd’s S. S. Europa. [3]
On 3 March 1940, Jonathan’s family (by then reunited in England but needing to leave, again, after England declared war against Germany[4]) arrived in Boston, Massachusetts aboard the S. S. Newfoundland, having sailed from Liverpool, England. They were “Fritz” Gustav Goldberg, from Strettin, Germany, age 41, a publisher; Vera Goldberg, from Breslau Germany, housewife, 37; Irene Marianne Goldberg, from Berlin Germany, 2; and Jonathan Goldberg, from Berlin, Germany, 1. The arrival-record transcription includes a note that Käthe Friedländer (Vera’s mother) was the “friend” of these travelers. (She had arrived in New York with her son Wolfgang on 6 April 1939 aboard the S. S. Queen Mary. See Käthe (Kraemer) Friedländer (1880-1964))[5]
The federal census of 1940, listed for Jackson Heights, Queens, Queens County, New York on 23 April, found this family living on 73rd Street: Kate Friedländer (head), a widow, age 60, born in Berlin, Germany; her son Wolfgang Friedländer, 23, born in Berlin, Germany, and employed as a bookkeeper for a loan company; son-in-law Fritz Goldberg, 41, born in Berlin, Germany, with profession of publisher; daughter Vera Goldberg, 37, born in Berlin, Germany, with occupation of secretary; granddaughter Irene, 3, born in Germany; and grandson Jonathan, 1, born in Germany.[6]
The federal census of 1950, listed for Queens, Queens County, New York on 17 April, found this family residing at 154 73rd Street, Apartment 105 : Kate Friedländer (head), a widow, age 69, born in Germany; “lodger” (actually son-in-law – see 1940 census above) Frederick Goldberg, 51, born in Germany, and employed as an office clerk in a retail ladies’ wear business; his wife and Kate’s daughter Vera Goldberg, 46, born in Germany, and employed as a secretary in a doctor’s office; and Frederick and Vera’s children, Irene, 12, born in Germany, and Jonathan, 11, born in Germany. All family members were U. S. citizens.[7]
In 1956, Jonathan graduated from Stuyvesant High School, Manhattan, New York. See a yearbook photo of Jonathan from that class. [8]
He graduated from City College of New York, with honors, presumably about 1960 (see photo), and then obtained the Master of Arts degree from Harvard University and in due course the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English literature from New York University. [9]
He taught for some years, probably around 1962 while still working on the doctorate, in the humanities department at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. [10]
Jonathan’s grandmother Käthe Kraemer Friedländer, who had been a pillar of the family in New York, died 20 March 1964. [11]
His mother Vera Friedländer Goldberg died 21 January 1968. [12]
On 8 June 1968, Jonathan Goldberg married Diana G. in Arkansas. [13]
During one of the next years, the couple and Jonathan's father traveled to Europe for a vacation tour, during which Jonathan struggled with unusual anxiety.[14]
His father Frederick Gustav Goldberg died 22 April 1974. [15]
During these same years, responding to a growing personal interest in the benefits of psychoanalysis, Jonathan undertook formal training, at the C.G. Jung Institute of New York, to become a psychoanalyst.
In May 1974, Jonathan presented a lecture on the Oedipus theme to the Analytical Psychology Club of New York. Later he wrote an article based on that lecture; "Reflections on Oedipus" was published in the winter 1977 issue of the journal Quadrant. See https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/c/c3/Goldberg-797-6.pdf.
By 1975, he was working full-time in his own private practice of psychoanalysis. He resided in an apartment at 340 Cabrini Boulevard, in the Fort Tryon Park neighborhood of upper Manhattan. (See photos of the house, which no longer exists, and of Jonathan sitting on the entrance steps). [16]
Also by 1975, Jonathan had recognized his preference for men as sexual partners, and he and Diana had separated amicably. [17]
Meanwhile, his psychotherapy practice expanded, first in an office on the east side of Manhattan near Mount Sinai Hospital, and later in some different locations on the west side, including several years at 342 W. 85th Street. [18] (In 1993, he was residing there, where he had his office in the lower floor of the duplex condominium apartment for several years.)[19] [20] “Jonathan had a unique capacity to create an environment rich in respect and acceptance for each individual, couple, and group.” [21]
In 1979, he was living at 60 Park Terrace West in the Inwood section of Manhattan. [22]
On 16 May 1980, Jonathan presented a paper “A Jungian Critique of Harry Slochower’s Paper” (https://www.wikitree.com/photo/pdf/Goldberg-797-1) at the spring meeting of the Association for Applied Psychoanalysis. The paper was then published in the spring 1981 issue of American Imago, Vol. 38, Issue #1. [23][24]
In the late 1980’s he met Michael T. Murphy and with him began the main romantic relationship of his life. They made homes together first on W. 85th Street and later in the Inwood section of upper Manhattan.[25] They were married in 2012 in Manhattan, New York County, New York. [26]
In 1993, Jonathan attended a screening of Steven Spielberg's film Jurassic Park. He understood the film as an important fable about human institutions, and he recorded his thoughts in an essay called "The Dinosaurs That Rule Us". See https://www.wikitree.com/photo/pdf/Goldberg-797-2.
Jonathan’s sister Irene died in 1998. [27]
His psychotherapy practice continued well into the twenty-first century, with a few clients persisting, for occasional consultations, after he had otherwise retired. [28]
Jonathan Jacques Goldberg died 9 November 2022 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, with his husband Michael Murphy by his side. He had resided at 261 Seaman Avenue in the Inwood district of Manhattan since 2006.[29]. As Jonathan had directed, there was no funeral service.[30]
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