Before I read "The Color of Water," by James McBride, I saw his
             appearance on 20/20, discussing his quest to discover the background of
             his mysterious, marvelous mother. McBride said he didn't even know his
             mother's maiden name, much less about her Orthodox Jewish background,
             until he prodded it from her because he needed it for school records.
             "Shilsky," she told him, impatiently, offering no further details.
             McBride, who is now about 42 years old, said he asked no more questions
             of her, but added when he was "bonding" in Black Pride with his college
             friends, playing bongo drums and jazz music, he'd think: "Shilsky. Shilsky.
             Something's funny here...".
             Watching him on television, such a fascinating, articulate and yet
             entertaining man, made me want to know more about his amazing mother. I
             received a copy of the book as a gift.
             None of Ruth McBride's 12 children knew anything of substance about her
             background. When they asked what color she was, she would answer, "I
             am no color" and say that God is "the color of water."
             Ruth Shilsky, whose father was an abusive Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, treated
             her and her mother extremely cruelly when she was a young girl in Suffolk,
             Virginia. Jews were discriminated against second only to blacks. But Ruth
             fell in love with a young black man, became pregnant by him, and was sent
             to live with an aunt in New York city. She never went home again. She felt
             much more at home in 1940s Harlem, ...