Merrick Brian Garland was born on November 13, 1952, in Chicago.[1] He grew up in the northern Chicago suburb of Lincolnwood.[2][3] His mother Shirley (née Horwitz)[4] was a director of volunteer services at Chicago's Council for Jewish Elderly (now called CJE SeniorLife). His father, Cyril Garland, headed Garland Advertising, a small business run out of the family home.[3][5][6] Garland was raised in Conservative Judaism, the family name having been changed from Garfinkel several generations prior. His grandparents left the Pale of Settlement within the Russian Empire in the early twentieth century, fleeing antisemitic pogroms and seeking a better life for their children in the United States.[6][7]