Ira Gershwin and a love of Gilbert and Sullivan. He attended the City College of New York but dropped out. The childhood home of Ira and George Gershwin was in the center of the Yiddish Theater District, on the second floor at 91 Second Avenue, between East 5th Street and East 6th Street. They frequented the local Yiddish theaters. While George began composing and "plugging" in Tin Pan Alley from the age of 18, Ira worked as a cashier in his father's Turkish baths. It was not until 1921 that Ira became involved in the music business. Alex Aarons signed Ira to
Ira Chernus Ira Chernus Ira Chernus (born October 29, 1946) is a journalist, author, and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University, specializing in the history of rabbinic Judaism. His academic writing now focuses on the foreign policy of US presidents. He has published books on Dwight Eisenhower and George W. Bush and is currently writing a book on Franklin D. Roosevelt. As a journalist, he has written extensively on peace, war, foreign policy, and nationalism in the United States, as well as the Israel-Palestine conflict and U.S. Middle East