A Very Privileged Life

Uncertainty about her Jewish heritage and the liabilities associated with being Jewish in the predominantly Gentile society in which she grew up, during and after world War II, consumed the life and concerns of Mary Louchheim Evangelista who, even married off to a Gentile by her parents eager to remove the stigma, remained insecure and uncertain about who she was and the significance of the labels applied to her. When her grandmother, father and younger sister became Christian Scientists, the religious bubble she inhabited became even more complex.Opened to other worlds by her aunt Florence when she moved to NYC, Mary encountered artists escaping from Nazi Germany and began a career, introducing art works from other countries to the American art scene, including works from Israel and Palestine.A stay-at-home mother to her three children, Mary was determined not to repeat the feelings of abandonment she experienced as a child—both her parents focused on their government careers, her father, Walter Louchheim, founder of the Securities and Exchange commission, her mother, Katie Scofield Louchheim, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs under President Kennedy). This photo-filled bio tells the story of a woman who tried to hide her Jewish background and later came to acknowledge and appreciate it.