Ruth's Past in "The Color of Water" Why do you think Ruth was so elusive about her past?

Ruth's past was very
painful to her, and she wanted to forget about it. She was born to a family of Orthodox Jews in
Poland, but when she left Virginia to marry her husband, a Christian black man, her family
mourned her as if she were dead. That is how they reacted to her marriage outside of the Jewish
religion.

Her father was also abusive to her mother, as he had only used his
wife to get to America. Tateh, as her father was known, also cheated on his wife and treated his
children abusively. Ruth was therefore very motivated to forget about her past. She was elusive
speaking about it with her children, in part because she wanted to forget it. In addition,
perhaps she feared that the African American community around her would not accept her fully (or
her children) if she told them that she was white and was not born Christian.