Stein was an
Ashkenazi Jew, although he rejected his religious upbringing in early adulthood. His father, Ralph Stein, was born Raphael Eisenstein in Dvinsk, Russia (now Daugavpils, Latvia) in 1897; his surname was shortened to Stein at some point during his childhood after emigrating to the U.S. in 1906, in order to assimilate. His mother, Jeanette Weiss, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants, was born in New York City in 1903. He had one sibling, a sister named Marilyn, two years his junior. He married singer Shae Bevan in 1957; they divorced in 1977, and he did not remarry. They had three children: Greg (b. 1957), Jennie (b. 1959), and Naomi (b. 1968). All three have followed in his footsteps as artists and educators. He had three grandchildren, two of whom were born after he died. He was still active teaching and performing until just a few months before his death from lung cancer at age 79. ==Discography==