In the television miniseries “The Kennedys of Massachusetts,” empire-builder Joseph Kennedy Sr. was portrayed as hating the bluebloods, the old-money families of the Boston social register, because he grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and was an Irish Catholic. In Bethlehem, it is likely that Ephrathites were the bluebloods, and the name Elimelech, meaning “God is my King” in Hebrew, may also indicate the upper-class background of his family, since the name’s ending was associated with power.