The new US Secretary of State was Anthony Blinken, who even during the presentation of candidates for positions from Biden’s headquarters said that his ancestors emigrated to the US from Ukraine. What is known about the family of the new American high-ranking official?
“Meir Blinken was born in the city of Pereyaslav, in the Kyiv region, in 1879,” says Nadiya Lipes, an expert in Jewish genealogy. — His family was registered in Zolotonosh under the surname Blinkin. Later, one letter was changed in the surname. This can be explained by the fact that Blinken sounded somewhat better than Blinkin.”
Meir Blinken was orphaned at the age of 8. “It is still unknown how he moved from Pereyaslav to Kyiv. Most likely, he passed the exam for some craft profession. This practice was widespread at the time (in a similar way, the father of the ex-prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir, received the right to live in Kyiv). Also, the right to reside in Kyiv could be obtained if a person was a merchant of the first or second guild. But Blinken was definitely not a merchant,” the researcher notes.
According to Nadia Lipes, already in Kyiv in February 1898, Meir Blinken married Hanne-Mahle Turovska. The wedding was held in the Choral Synagogue in Podil. And in 1900, the couple had a first-born son, who was named Moses (he later changed his name to Maurice in the USA). Meir Blinken went to the USA with his son Moses in 1904.
“At that time, no one left Kyiv voluntarily,” says the researcher. — There was no sense in doing this for the Blinkens, whose roots had at least a 300-year history on Ukrainian lands. But in this way they escaped from Jewish pogroms.”
At that time, no one left Kyiv voluntarily. It didn’t make sense to do it either for the Blinkens, whose roots had at least a 300-year history on Ukrainian lands. But in this way they escaped from Jewish pogroms.
And two years later, his wife and another son, Solomon, moved in with him. In the USA, the couple had a boy, Donald.
“Meir Blinken started writing books abroad. In particular, in one of his works he described the life of prostitutes in New York, says Nadia Lipes. “However, soon, in 1915, Meir died of a cerebral abscess at the age of 38.”
According to Nadia Lipes, the eldest son of the Blinkens — Maurice — graduated as a lawyer and founded the American Institute for Palestine Studies. And the youngest – Donald – is the father of the current Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. However, he divorced his wife, and Anthony Blinken was raised by his stepfather Samuel Pizarro. The latter was a well-known international lawyer, human rights activist, UNESCO Honorary Ambassador and Special Envoy for Holocaust Education. But the Secretary of State said about his father that he served in the US Air Force during the Second World War and was the ambassador to Hungary during the first presidency of Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1998.
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Nadiya Lipes says that even now in Ukraine you can meet people with the surname Blinken. They live in Gadyach, Kharkiv, Pyryatin, Kyiv. “Probably, all these Blinkens are relatives of the current US Secretary of State,” the researcher concludes
Newsessentials Blog 
Posted on June 20, 2024
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