Harry Houdini a boarding house on East 79th Street. He was joined by the rest of the family once Rabbi Weiss found permanent housing. As a child, Ehrich Weiss took several jobs, making his public début as a 9-year-old trapeze artist, calling himself "Ehrich, the Prince of the Air". He was also a champion cross country runner in his youth. When Weiss became a professional magician he began calling himself "Harry Houdini", after the French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, after reading Robert-Houdin's autobiography in 1890. Weiss incorrectly believed that an "i" at the end of a name meant "like" in French. In
David Weiss Halivni Vizhnitzer Rebbes. They had 3 children: Baruch (formally known as Bernard), Ephraim, and Yeshiahu. He has six grandchildren, all of whom are scholars as well; Avidan, Hadar, Daniel, Rebecca, Benjamin, and Eliana. Weiss later changed his name to "Halivni," a Hebrew translation for "weiss" or "white." He originally wanted to abandon the surname Weiss because that was the name of a guard in the concentration camp in which he was interned. He was initially considering changing his name to Halivni; however, out of respect for this grandfather/teacher Yeshayahu Weiss, he maintained a memory of the family name, using the compound