Life

American Girl Doll — or Arsonist

By Alex Suskind June 1, 2009

Step away from your daughter’s doll collection — one of them could be an arsonist. Last month, American Girl revealed that its newest character, Rebecca Rubin, would be based on a young Jewish girl.

Unfortunately, young Rebecca shares the same name with real life fugitive Rebecca J. Rubin, who is currently wanted by the F.B.I. for arson. The similarity was pointed out on Heeb magazine’s blog this past week.

In an article in Monday’s New York Times, Julie Parks, a spokeswoman for American Girl, said, “Rebecca was one of the most popular names for Jewish girls in 1905, when Rebecca would have been born.” Parks added that, according to their research, Rubin was an appropriate name for a Russian-Jewish family during that particular time period

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