Isaiah Berlin was a Russo-British Jewish social and political theorist and a historian of ideas. He was born June 6, 1909 in Riga, Latvia. He was the son of a successful timber merchant and land owner. His family moved to St. Petersburg where he was an eyewitness to the Russian Revolution. His family then emigrated in 1921 to London where the family had business interests. As a young boy, Isaiah was known as Shaya and had his bar mitzah. In his high school years he attended St. Paul’s in London although he wanted to go to Westminster school. He did very well in school although he never was ranked #1 in his class. He was always very close though coming in at 2nd his last year. He moved to NYC during World War II and worked for the British Information
