Trenton Jewish Project

More with Michael Kuzma, a Memoir of A Bygone Era and A Happy & Healthy New Year

2015-09-04T13:22:00.002-04:00

Happy Labor Day and Happy New Year to all!

Things are fairly slow here and I am doing everything I can to avoid cleaning up my office this morning, so my attention turned back to an interview I did at the end of July with Trenton native and former Trenton resident Michael Kuzma. As I mentioned previously, Mickey is not Jewish, but you would never know that from talking with him. Over the course of two days, I listened to Mickey regale me with stories about what Old Trenton was like. His stories ranged from touching to funny, from heartfelt to slightly embellished. His love of the city in which he grew up was never in doubt and his honesty about what Trenton was and what it means to be from Trenton was apparent. A few weeks ago I posted a short story he told about another former Trentonian, Gussie Siet, who left here and become world famous opera singer Gloria Lane. Today, I pick a short excerpt of our conversation about the old neighborhood and about the company that employed his father, Sokalner Brothers and how the Sokalner family took care of his father and family after a devastating loss.

(double-click video for full screen)

Also, this morning I received an e-mail from Bernice Schwartz (nee Nitzberg), who had written a memoir of her days in Trenton for a writing assignment a few years ago. I share it with you today, hoping that with the long weekend ahead, you have some extra reading time. I publish this without editing. Political comments at the bottom do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this blog.

TRENTON MEMOIR

Bernice Schwartz(nee Nitzberg)

I was relieved that I did not live in Jew Town. As a child, my home was on the top of the Market Street hill, just above Jew Town in Trenton, New Jersey during the 1930’s and ‘40’s. We lived above and behind my parents’ wallpaper store. The boundary between Jew Town and the rest of the city was the four corners where Broad St. crossed Market St. A large bank, the county courthouse, a red brick church, and Stover’s anti-Semitic drug store occupied the corners. As Market St. descended, the character of the hill changed, from a quiet lower middle class community to a bustling noisy market place.

I was often sent there by my mother on errands. Every Friday I bought horseradish for Shabbos. It was ground in front of me on an old wooden, not too clean, grater at Shulman’s store.

Schulman's

I picked up the halvah at Palats deli and also lox (from the belly per my mother’s instructions). Siegel’s deli served me wonderful milk shakes which my parents hoped would fatten me up.

Kunis’ was a thriving vegetable market, run by recently arrived Ashkenazi Jews who, (in my eyes) were dirty and unattractive. The store would have been a joy to today’s subscribers of the organic food movement.

Kunis' and Ben's Del (right)

All offerings were unwashed and unsprayed. Consequently, I did not like eating such items as apples or peaches because I never knew what I would find inside. Jake’s deli served delicious hot pastrami sandwiches which I became allergic to in my thirties. (a Jewish woman!) The fish market had live fish swimming in large tanks which were killed and cleaned in front of me when I bought them. Cohen’s (sic) bakery sold the traditional breads: rye, corn, pumpernickel – never (G-D forbid) white. Kosher meat markets abounded. There was even a Kosher restaurant, Benny Hocks. My father felt that one of the perks of being married was not having to eat there. Jew Town was full of people buying and selling. The streets were unkempt. I can still see the paper and offal lying in the gutter. Most of us knew each other. I was called the Nitzberg girl.

As I grew older, I made friends with other white Jewish girls living in Jew Town or its perimeters. I was hardly aware of the African American community at the bottom of the hill. One street, Parker Street was mostly unpaved with shacks on each side. However, in high school I befriended Juanita Turner, a brilliant, sweet black girl. One evening I visited her home in the area. It was heated by a large coal stove and lit by kerosene lamps and candles. The family was diligently doing homework. Juanita later received a full scholarship to Howard University and later became a professor at Columbia.

The Jewish community’s second generation also produced talented people. Siegel’s deli’s son, Alex, was a famous theater director. Ernie Kovacs was our neighbor. The Fuch boys became psychiatrists. A friend, denied a secretarial job at Roeblings Steel Company because she would not work on Jewish holidays, opened an insurance company and became wealthy. Skippy Rauch, who became a respected mathematician, was on the faculty of Yeshiva University and a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton. Other professionals, too many to name.

Recently I rode through Market Street. Jew Town had disappeared. In its wake were steel and glass government buildings. The streets were empty. My father’s store at the top of the hill was a bodega. The tidy home of the school teacher next door to us was abandoned and boarded up. I remember Miss Clayton sitting on a chair at the top of her stone steps waving and gossiping with those who stopped. My mother would sit outside, in front of our store, and gossip too. Now the neighborhood was in ruins.

I mourn the vibrancy of the streets of my youth. I deeply hope these new immigrants can recapture the spirit of the old town. I wish that they can obtain the skills needed to succeed, as we Jews did. But currently I am saddened by the paralysis that Republicans have visited on the government’s ability to help poor people. Perhaps the USA will wake up.

Finally, for those of you who have asked, if you are trying to find the burial location of a loved one at one of the old Trenton cemeteries--the ones no longer with affiliated institutions--you might have luck by sending an e-mail with specific information to: director@orlandschapel.com. No phone calls, please. They do have maps of some the old cemeteries. If a loved one is buried in a cemetery where the institution is still in existence, start there. Synagogues should still have those records. Again, please respect the no phone calls request.
Our best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year.

"I didn't realize I was Catholic until my first communion"

2015-08-17T15:34:00.002-04:00

A conversation with Michael Kuzma

You were probably wondering if I was ever coming back, right?

Well, thank goodness, I've been extremely busy at work and in life, and I haven't had much time to write. That said, the Trenton Jewish Project has never been too far from my mind.

In every day encounters, I run into people from Trenton and they are all passionate about their hometown and the old neighborhood. Probably the most bizarre moment came when we were having pizza with the family of a friend of my college-aged son in Morrisville. My son's friend's father mentioned that he had family form Trenton and that he didn't know much about them. In about a minute, I was able to produce the picture below that showed a relative of his, standing in front of Stern's Meat Market that I had been given along the way.

While I haven't been writing, I have been doing an occasional interview or two. When the Trenton Jewish Project first started, I got a couple of phone calls (which I don't encourage--please e-mail me instead) and one of them was from a guy who said he grew up in Trenton, but didn't realize he "was Catholic until he took his first Communion. So, why would the Trenton Jewish Project talk to a "goy"? Turns out he was a Shabbos goy and most of his friends were Jewish. His Dad worked for the Sokalner family (who treated his family like their own family). We spoke for what seemed to be hours (much to my wife's chagrin). He had moved to Newport News, Virginia, but came back up north every once in a while. Well, Mike (Mickey) Kuzma came back to town a couple of weeks ago and longtime reader, Herb Spiegel posted a picture of he and Mickey at lunch. I contacted Herb, who put me in touch with Mickey and over the course of two days, he sat down for a couple of hours and told me some wonderful stories about Trenton and growing up in South Trenton.

There is so much material in that interview that I wasn't sure where to start, but here's a little setup to this story.

We were talking about how the boys used to play ball in a lot not far from his house. It also happened to be near the house of a budding opera star. (The clip runs almost 6 minutes, so sit back and enjoy.)

Mickey Kuzma's brother, Robert, was killed in an automobile accident a few weeks after returning from WWII at an intersection off of Rte. 31 North of Pennington. Our interview took place less than 5 miles from that spot.

---

A couple of notes. Wendy Nardi, curator extraordinaire of the Trentoniana room at the Trenton Free Library has retired. Wendy was a great friend and resource, who really knew as much as anyone about the archives of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Trenton that Ozzie Zuckerman gave to the library. Congratulations on your retirement Wendy. Your gain is our loss. Robert Most Clark had been working as an interim curator, but apparently he was not offered the full-time job. According to the library website, a new curator has been hired and while Trentoniana has been closed this summer, it is supposed to reopen next month. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Beverly Rubman is working on a project about the Jewish Free Loan society. Anyone with stories about that institution can send them on to me and I will get them to Beverly.

Art Finkle has been working diligently on his book about the Jews of Trenton. We look forward to seeing the fruits of his labor soon.

I will continue to update this site when I can. I am trying to come up with a way to make this venture sustainable and find a way to continue to collect interviews with those of you who have stories to tell. Send your suggestions to trentonjewishproject@gmail.com. Please don't call, but include your phone number in your email. Also, don't send me any materials by snail mail I really have no place to store things. If there is something that you want to donate to the archives section at Trentoniana, once it re-opens, I'll let you know about procedures for doing that.

2014-06-04T23:03:00.001-04:00

In Memoriam Lewis Katz 1942-2014

If you live in the Delaware Valley, by now you know that Lewis Katz, who had just last Tuesday had won control of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, died in a plane crash in Massachusetts over the weekend.

Katz was born in Camden and while he went on to make a fortune in the parking business and broadcasting (YES Network) he gave away millions of dollars to charities in Camden and throughout South Jersey.

On Wednesday, June 4, a memorial service was held at Temple University to honor one of, if not Temple’s most successful alums. Former President Bill Clinton was there, former Pa. Governor Ed Rendell, who was invited to be on that plane that day was there. So was Bill Cosby, another famous Temple alum, as well as former Philadelphia Phillie Shane Victorino. Here is a link to the Philadelphia Inquirer story about the memorial service.

So, what does this have to do with he Jews of Trenton?   Well, in Cherry Hill, the Jewish Community Center is named the Betty & Milton (His father died when he was one year old) Katz JCC.   Down the shore, in Margate, New Jersey, it’s the Milton & Betty Katz JCC. And in Trenton, Betty was again to take the lead billing at the Betty & Milton Katz Jewish Community Center.   It never opened.

On February 1, 2009, Lewis Katz trudged across a muddy field with his four grandchildren in tow and made a 7 minute speech at the groundbreaking for a building that was ultimately built, but opened last year, not under the banner of the JCC, but as the Windsor Athletic Club. I recorded his speech that day and after I heard about the plane crash, I found the file.

In his speech, Katz talks about fulfilling the lessons of his Heder teachers. He talks about teaching his grandchildren about Tzedakah. He also talked about “sharing the blessings that really aren’t yours, that are given by a higher being to be shared with your community.”

This was a lesson about teaching his grandchildren to know their responsibility “How to respond to people who say “You’ve done this before, What do you think? And to jump at the opportunity to help, to see it, not for yourself but as a privilege, almost a message from G-d.”

He went on to say, “It won’t just be a building. It will be a chance for our brothers and sisters to come together. It’ll be a chance for seniors to be with children. Not to be walled-off from children...and the reverse for children to be with seniors. Something our society never really understood.”

Katz closed by humbly thanking a group of people (Richard Kohn, Drew Staffenberg, Ken Mack, and Ron Berman) who had reached out to him and asked him to donate some of his fortune to the JCC campaign. Imagine!! Thanking people who came to ask you for millions!   It was a simple speech, one that revealed a side of a successful lawyer and businessman that was echoed over and over in the memorial service at Temple University. My favorite quote of the day was from Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, who used Katz’s own words. "It's never a perfect day unless you help someone who can never hope to repay you." On that day 5 years ago, Katz talked about bringing his grandchildren to the Betty and Milton Katz JCC. It’s an opportunity that he never lived to see and unfortunately, it is one that probably won’t happen to us here in Central West Jersey in our lifetimes either.

Thank you Mr. Katz. That day in 2009 really was a perfect day. Little did those of us in attendance realize that we truly couldn’t repay you.

2014-04-07T14:07:00.000-04:00

Herman "Humpsie" Finkle, 1924-2014

I lost a friend yesterday. Herman "Humpsie" Finkle passed away last night. He had turned 90 less than a month ago. I first met Herm in 2010. He was a good friend of Andy Greener, whose grandson played baseball with my son at Hopewell Valley Central High School. Andy coached baseball at Ewing for many years and had been drafted by the Dodgers in the 40's. Sitting and watching baseball games with Andy was always a pleasure, for his insight and understanding. One night, I told him about the Trenton Jewish Project and he told me about his friend, Herm, who had grown up on Lamberton Street and had worked at Ewing High as a guidance counselor. Andy played golf with Humpsie and two other guys on a regular basis. He said we should meet.

On December 20, 2010, I arrived at his apartment and I interviewed him for about an hour. He was thoughtful, funny and just a joy to be around. We met several times after that for lunch. He was an easy person to talk to and he always had a good story to tell.

Maxine, his niece, sent out an e-mail last week, saying that Herm would be moving to a nursing home in Pennington. It was right across the street from my office. I looked forward to going over there for lunches with Herm. He never made it there. He took a turn for the worse and passed away last night.
When I started working on a "trailer" for the video that I would like to produce about "Jewtown", Humpsie was an integral part. His stories were crisp and funny and he was endearing the way he told them. Here's an earlier post of the TJP with the earliest cuts of the documentary, which I still would like to make one day. I am posting a number of excerpts here of the interview I did with Herm. This one is about how he would like to be remembered. Rest In Peace, my friend.

Everyone in Trenton in the day had a nickname and Herm was no different. Many times, the nicknames sounded nefarious, but from what I've come to understand, most came by their monikers innocently enough. That's the case with Herm, who explains where his came from.

Herm talked about his family and about how he came to Trenton.

One of my favorite parts of the interview was when Herm talked about one of the local restaurants, Benny Hock's. I had heard stories about the place from Sylvia Schultz and Mark Litowitz, but Herm's description of the place and the man made me wish I was about 20 years older. I've asked other people about Benny Hock and they all say he was a character. I'd love to find a picture of him and his restaurant. This guy sounded like the Seinfeld's Soup Nazi, way before his time.

Herm's niece, Maxine Valunas tells me that the funeral will be tomorrow, on Tuesday, April 8th ~~at 11am~~ Update--Herman Finkle's funeral will be at Orland's in Ewing on Tuesday at 2pm.

Rest in Peace, my friend.

2014-02-16T19:04:00.002-05:00

The History of the Jews of Trenton and Adath Israel--February 2, 2014--Part 2

This is the third-third of the talk I gave on Febraury 2, 2014 at Adath Israel, looking at the history of the synagogue as we celebrate its 90th Anniversary.

The first-third is already published and available here. The second-third wasn't recorded, as we were forced out of the building by a smell of something burning. It's my goal to post something about that period in a future post. During that portion of my talk, we looked at various documents that I found in two scrapbooks that belonged to the second Rabbi at Har Zion, Rabbi Leon Liebreich, who served from 1927-1945. My guess is that I will take the slides I showed during that part of the talk and create a voice track.

Thanks to everyone who came to The Adath for this event and to those taking the time to watch this movie.

Ed

The History of Adath Israel and the Jews of Trenton--February 2, 2014 Part 1

2014-02-03T07:06:00.001-05:00

After a long layoff, we're back.

On Sunday, February 2, 2014, I spoke to an Adult Education session at Adath Israel. The program focused on the history of Adath Israel, which is celebrating its 90th Anniversary this year and how the History of the Jews of Trenton played into the formation of the synagogue.

I am posting the first third of my talk here and in a few days will post the third-third.

What happened to the second-third?   Well, during my presentation, Adath was evacuated due to a smoky smell in the lobby. The 50 or so people who were in the sanctuary had to go outside. Luckily, the weather was beautiful and we relocated to the picnic tables behind the Bridge Academy and spent about 15 or 20 minutes learning al fresco.   Unfortunately, the video camera never made it outside.   It's a shame, because in those 20 minutes, we really covered the beginning of Adath and I presented some fascinating documents from two scrapbooks which have been donated to the synagogue by Joe Liebreich, son of Rabbi Leon Liebreich, the second Rabbi at Adath (1927-1945).

I am researching the possibility of covering this material in what's called a Google Hangout. A Google hangout is a video call which can be shared live with up to 10 people who have computers with video cameras and can be recorded, archived and later viewed on You Tube.   As I learn about the technical requirements and the feasibility of doing this, I will keep you all updated.   If you have interest in joining me in a Google Hangout in the future, there is one requirement that I know of.   You need to have a g-mail account and upgrade it--for free--to a Google Plus account.   Do that now and you'll be ready when I announce those future plans.   The Google Hangout also gives us a chance to interact as a group in the future, no matter where you are located, so send me your g-mail addresses and we might be able to do some exciting things in the near future.

So, with no further ado...here's part one of my talk at Adath.   Thanks to my wife Marlene for operating the camera, Lisa Snyder and Hedda Morton of Adath for allowing me to present.    I apologize for the audio, which is decent throughout, but the microphone was very directional and it dips when I turn my head.

The slides from this presentation are available online here.

Adath Talk1 from Ed Alpern on Vimeo.

2013-06-20T13:05:00.002-04:00

Just received an e-mail from Richard Ross, who shared this document that comes from L. Marc Zell of Jerusalem, who is a distant cousin of Richard's. The entire document is 26 pages long, but I've copied only the pages that include Richard's part of the family. He notes that there are many familiar names on these pages, including, "Kraut, Saaz, Milner, Urken, etc. Richard notes that there is a mistake in the listings. Richard's father died in 1987, not 1987.

Enjoy.

LINK TO RICHARD ROSS GENEALOGY

Thanks for sharing, Richard.

2013-06-10T13:40:00.002-04:00

TONY(S) KNOW TRENTON

My last blog entry was posted shortly after New Year's and here it is June already. The irises have bloomed, the pollen is thick and thoughts of summer fill the head. In our house, with summer comes baseball and while my hometown team hasn’t been exactly tearing it up in the first two months of the season, one Trentonian is enjoy the fruits of his team’s labor last fall. This picture turned up last night on the Trenton Jewish Project facebook page (this is a closed group-you will need to request access) last week.

Congratulation Tony Siegle. Tony’s caption on this photo was, “A former Trentonian has another Bar Mitzvah, so to speak. My reaction was that I got a couple of sets of bookends for Bar Mitzvah, but they were nowhere near so ornate. As of this writing, the Giants are lurking a few games behind Arizona in the NL West, in good shape heading into the long, hot summer.

About a month ago, Tony sent along this picture.

Tony received his second World Series ring, celebrating the Giants' win last year in the Fall Classic. Tony spent a couple of hours in Trenton last week, on his way back to the West Coast after attending the Major League Baseball amateur draft. Good luck, Tony.

ABOUT THOSE OTHER TONYS

If you watched the Tony Awards on Sunday night, you saw a couple of other Trentonians who have done pretty well for themselves. Richard Kind, who was born in Trenton in 1956, was nominated for the first time for a Tony for his role as Marcus Hoff in The Big Knife. He didn’t win for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play, but it’s another feather in the cap of the Pennsbury High grad.

Another Trentonian, Judith Light, was honored with her second straight Tony, winning the Featured Actress Award for her role in “The Assembled Parties”. Last year she won for “Other Desert Cities”.

Not a bad week for a few people who once called Trenton home.

AND HOW ABOUT A SCOTTY

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting another who fits in that category. Back in 1999, when I first scanned the pictures on the wall at the JCC and really sowed the seeds that have brought me to this point in recalling the history of Trenton, I first heard the name, Scotty Mosovich. Both Muriel and Ben Olinsky mentioned his name. That’s understandable, because they both credited Scotty with introducing them on a basketball court at the old YMHA. Scotty was the Athletic Director at the YMHA in the late 40’s and Muriel was a student at Rider. When Muriel beat Ben at a free throw contest, he knew he had met “The One”. Well, a couple of weeks ago, Scotty’s daughter, Jill, returned to the area for the first time in 25 years. Jill has been follwing the Project on our Facebook page and let me know that she was going to be visiting with her cousin, Ken Mack. I had a limited amount of time but was able to meet Jill, Ken and Michael Goodman, who's family owned Kohn's Bakery on Market Street. Jill showed me some of her family history records and I showed her a picture, which brought back a flood of memories.

Happy New Year

2013-01-21T20:41:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year all. My apologies for the silence on this blog since the obit for Sol Weinstein, but it has been difficult to find time to sit down and write. That doesn't mean that you and the Jews of Trenton haven't been on mind.   In fact, the New Year has given me some time for reflection about the Project and where it is heading. Sol's passing gave me impetus to think about ways to push things forward. Frankly, I am still formulating some ideas and those I have need more fleshing out, but Sol's death has made it clear that time is not a friend to an endeavor such as this.

The Trenton Jewish Project was featured in a recent cover story in the Hopewell Express. In December, I spent a couple of hours with Diccon Hyatt, who wrote the story.   The result was a really nice article.   To access it on line, click here.

A FEW BRIEF UPDATES.

I continue to receive updates from Art Finkle, whose work is progressing on his history of Trenton. Here's a link to Art's blog.    I had lunch with Herm Finkle, who was one of the first people who I interviewed on camera when I started this project.   He has had some recurring health problems, but is one of the most upbeat and inspiring people who I've had the pleasure of meeting. "Humpsey" is looking forward to a warm winter day, in order to get one more round of golf in.\

Maxine Valunas, who is Herm Finkle's niece just posted some new photos to our Facebook page. Click here to check them out. Marc Shenker also has posted some photos of his grandfather, Sam Segal and Mary Segal ouside of Segal's Deli.

I've received e-mails from many of you, introducing yourselves and offering up opportunities to learn more first-hand of Trenton from your parents, Aunts and Uncles. I hope my schedule allows this, but one of the things that I'm thinking of organizing is an event where you can come and I can videotape your reminiscences of Old Trenton. It will take some organizing, but will allow me to get much more accomplished than if I continue to steal away from my real work and try to catch-as-catch can. More on this in the future.

I've also heard from some people who live out of the area with great stories to tell. From Savannah, Dick Hochman sent me some information about the Mayflower Club, a group of 12 couples who played cards together for 50 years. I have yet to get a chance to talk to Dick in person, but hope to soon.

And Leigh Rogoff has contacted me from the Atlanta area. We talked on the phone and today (Jan. 21) he just sent me a long e-mail that I will share soon.

Just a week or so ago, I had lunch with Dr. Horace Shaffer, up in New Hope. Just short of his 90th birthday, Horace was a surgeon at Mercer Hospital and his father, one of the founders of Har Sinai, was a pathologist who set up the first lab at St. Frances. Horace told me that growing up on State Street, he never felt any anti-semitism. Not until he went to Princeton, where the quota was one Jew per hundred. As he recounted, "there were 650 members of my graduating class, so we had 6 1/2 jews. I knew three of them. Never met the half one, though."

Also, a shameless plug. A college buddy of mine, Dan Cohen, has produced a documentary called Mission of Hope, which tells the story about the miniature Torah which traveled from a concentration camp to space onthe ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia, will be airing on PBS on Channel 13 NY on January 31 and on WHYY, Philadelphia on February 1st. Here is a link to the show's website.n It has taken him 7+ years to get this on TV and from the clips I've seen, I highly recommend it.

As I write this, I find myself in Detroit, finishing up my annual trek to the Motor City for the North American International Auto Show.   I've been doing this since either 1992 or 1993. I missed a year in 1999, when my youngest son was less than a month old.

The show is a reminder that a New Year has started. Usually, the show's Press Days are during the first week of the year, but since the holidays fell on Tuesday the show organizers decided to push the event back a week. It wasn't always that way. There were some years when there would be a lot of hung over people arriving at Detroit Metro airport.   Better this way.

Anyway, Detroit is making a comeback, as an auto town and as a city, yet there is a long way to go.   The images of cars driving trough empty streets with steam belching from manhole covers that you see in the Chrysler commercials aren'y the creation of some Madison Avenue director. They are real. And in some ways, it's proof that there is warm blood flowing under the arteries of a city that some counted as dead a decade ago.

In some ways, it is reminiscent of Trenton. Hard by the banks of the St. Clair River, Detroit was devastated by the civil rights riots of 1968, as was Trenton. It's major industry, auto manufacturing abandoned the city in the 80's and any one who had the wherewithal moved out of downtown long ago.   Yet, what remained was the architecture of a time period when buildings had large open public spaces and the little flourishes that aren't seen in many of today's glass and steel soul-less structures.   The good news is that most of these buildings are still standing. The bad news is that a lot of them haven't been inhabited for 15 or 20 years.   In fact, the hotel where we stay for the Auto Show was one such building until about 5 years ago, when it re-opened as the Westin Book Cadillac. A cab driver told me a few years back that there were trees growing in the building after being empty for 15 years.   It reminds me of pictures of the interior of one of the Roebling buildings on Hamilton Street across from the Sun Bank arena with vegetation that had reclaimed the space that humans had abandoned.

So, I guess the upshot here is that when a city is so broke that it can't knock down its eyesores, eventually the laws of economics makes those properties so inexpensive that
they become attractive to investors and get rehabbed. There are some great old buildings in Trenton that are vacant. In Detroit, the catalysts for renewal were some stubborn businesses and the resurgence of the auto business. What will it take to nudge Trenton back?

The Passing of Pumpernickel

2012-11-25T18:27:00.004-05:00

Sad news today from Plimmerton, New Zealand. I woke up to an e-mail from David Weinstein informing me of the passing of Sol Weinstein, less than two weeks after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I never met the man, but talked to him multiple times on the phone. He told jokes, we laughed, he left crank messages for me and he even sang for me. Just a couple of months after I started the blog, in April of 2011, I received an e-mail from David, Sol's son informing me that Sol was living in New Zealand and would love to reminisce about Old Trenton. A Skype interview was set for May 15th and here are links to the edited interviews that I posted to the blog later that month.

http://trentonjewishproject.blogspot.com/2011/05/historical-and-hysterical-its-sol.html

http://trentonjewishproject.blogspot.com/2011/05/conversation-continues-sol-weinstein-pt.html

After talking with Sol, I felt as though I needed to write more about him, based on the interview, materials that he sent me and some Internet reporting.

If you were a consumer of television in the 1970‘s and 1980‘s chances are very good that you laughed at what Sol Weinstein was selling. This native son of New Jersey’s capital city wrote comedy, and jokes were his product. One glance at his filmography and a flood of memories pour over you. Bob Hope Comedy Specials, Dean Martin Roasts, The Love Boat, Three’s Company, The Jeffersons, CPO Sharkey, Chico and the Man, Maude and Barney Miller are among his credits, but there are many, many more. When you look at the accomplishment of Sol Weinstein you have to wonder. What kind of accolades might he have earned had he written serious stuff instead of comedy? Not that he ever would have, mind you.

The Morton House, in a 1958 Tax Photo -Courtesy Trentonia, Trenton Public Library

Born in 1928 in the Jewish section of Trenton, young Solon’s first home was in the Morton House, what was rumored to be a house of ill repute on Union Street.
Sol always looked at the world from a slightly different angle. It would eventually pay off for him.

“I came from a volatile family. My mother was exceedingly quick and funny and witty and sarcastic. And if I’m like that at all, it’s strictly due to my mother. His father ran away from an aristocratic family of lawyers in the Ukraine (“might have lawyered for the Czar”) and found his way to Trenton. He was serious and “dour”, a totally different animal than his mother, who Sol describes as “a wild jokester and who he credits for his slant on life.

Growing up in Trenton, everyone had a nickname. Sol earned his, “Pumpernickel” on one of his early birthdays, although he’s not sure which one. During the Depression, his mother couldn’t afford a cake, “but she had enough money to go over to Kohn’s or Kunis’ Bakery on Market Street, she came back with a round, round pumpernickel, a monstrous thing, a Pechter’s Pumpernickel”(you can actually still buy Pechter’s at Wegman’s--it’s listed on their website). She cut it all up and schmeared a little butter on it, schmaltz maybe, and all the kids in the neighborhood came around and had their piece of pumpernickel. So, Sol became Pumpernickel, or Pumpy, Pumpo, Pumper.” The name stuck.

While in High School, he first worked at Kitty Kelly Shoes and then at National Shoe. His friend Jack Hodes and his younger brother Dave worked there, too. Dave recalls that National Shoe had a really high ceiling in the back, with shoes shelved up to the ceiling and a 12 foot ladder. “You could climb to the top of the ladder and know that Pumpernickel was already there with his jokes printed out on shoe boxes.” Working for penny commissions, Sol was able to keep the his fellow employees in stitches with descriptions of customers who would ask for a plain shoe, with multiple adornments and want it for just $2.99.

He graduated from shoes to news. Sol got a job writing for the Trentonian in the late 1950’s. His first gig was writing obits, which he describes as the prototypical story,”because it has who, what, where, when and why in it.” That slightly akilter view of the world view poked through again in the newsroom, when Sol would send phony obits to the city editor. “Luckily none of them got published”, and he was promoted to sports reporter. The sports editor’s brother, who was already selling jokes to the likes of Jackie Gleason encouraged Sol to try his hand.


Sol and Steve O’Keefe, the Night Editor at the Camden Courier Post, circa 1960’s

His first comedy client was Joe E. Lewis, who’s schtick was playing a drunk. “Dean (Martin) took the whole spirit of Joe E.‘s act, Joe E. would stand up there weaving at the microphone, with a glass in his hand, except in Joey’s case, the booze was real.” Sol says that was a major difference between the two, “Dean was using apple juice. If Dean had ever drunk as much as people said he did, he obviously would have been a basket case.” One of Lewis’s typical jokes was “I don’t drink any more than the man next to me, and the man next to me is Dean Martin.” Lewis passed away in 1971, dying of diabetes. “Diabetics should not fool around with superfluous booze, it’s not good.”, laments Weinstein. The last thing he wrote after 9 years of working for Lewis was a cover of Frank Sinatra’s hit, My Way. Sol still remembers it and recently sang it to me.

“At last, my end is near,
and so I face the final curtain.
Farewell to my career, I’ll leave my broads to Richard Burton.
Oh yes, I drank a lot,
and I threw up on every highway,
I was a souse, and not a louse,
I did it My Way.

For what is a man, without his Scotch,
it’s like Tom Jones, without his crotch,
I shouldn’t drink, the doctor’s say.
My doctor died, just yesterday,
They’re full of bunk, let’s all get drunk
and do it My Way.”

In the early 1950s, British author Ian Fleming wrote his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. Almost a decade later, came the first Bond movie, Dr. No. In 1964, the third Bond film, Goldfinger was released. The Bond character was ripe for parody and the mind of Sol went to work and he knew he needed to strike while the iron was hot.


Loxfinger, the first of four parodies of the James Bond series that Sol wrote between 1965 and 1969. The books gave Sol national exposure and opened doors in literary and Hollywood circles.

The following year, Pocket Books published Loxfinger, a Thrilling Adventure of Hebrew Secret Agent Oy-Oy-7, Israel Bond. Of Fleming, Sol laughs, “I was living in an alternative reality, and so was he.” Some of Weinstein’s reality was rooted in his early days growing up in Trenton. A self-proclaimed marble “shark”, who learned how to shoot with the black kids that he hung out with, his prowess with the aggie seeped into Loxfinger, where the hero is attracted to a woman who won’t give herself physically to him unless he can beat her at marbles. Young Sol could shoot the taw and so could Bond, Israel Bond.   When he finally knuckled down and won his match, he announced, “You’re ready for my kind of love now, because you’ve lost all your marbles.”    Loxfinger would be the first of 4 books in 4 years.   “Matzohball, On the Service of His Majesty, the Queen and You Only Live Until You Die followed, each drawing on Fleming’s spy novels, his own wacky sense of humor and his experiences growing up in Trenton as inspiration. Of his relationship with Fleming, Sol says, “We drew from each other, let’s put it that way.”   When pressed, he admits, he was the one who drew more.   No movie offers followed, but as Sol says, “It’s been done. My take is a special take that applies to our (Jewish) humor, our culture. I knew someone was going to do it, but I was the first to do it, that’s all.” The Bond books are now available online at: http://oy-oy-7.com

     The Israel Bond series established Weinstein as a master of parody and opened doors into the literary world.   In the 1960’s, Playboy Magazine built a reputation for publishing the writings of some of the most acclaimed authors of the day. One of those authors was Ian Fleming, so when the Israel Bond parodies came out, Weinstein’s writing style drew the attention of the Playboy editors.   In May of 1967, the magazine published Sol’s interview with Woody Allen and in November, 1968 his interview with Don Rickles hit the newsstand.

     If you are a Baby Boomer like me, and you look at Weinstein’s filmography at iMDb, you realize that Sol was writing for all of the comedy shows that you probably watched in the mid-70‘s with your parents. They were filled with double entendre and while they were all family entertainment, some of them probably had a little trouble getting by the network sensors.   They didn’t necessarily push the boundaries, as prudish as they were back then. They kind of did an end-around and wound up on TV.

     Today, with outlets like the Comedy Channel serving up laughs 24 hours a day, the landscape has changed.    In the club setting, with an audience that’s been plied with liquor, a sure-fire way to get laughs is to take it to the toilet. “The comedy today is studied, deliberate outrage. It’s out there to outrage, to break barriers, to get as dirty as you can. Barriers need to be broken, to a certain extent, but it can be overdone, it is being overdone. Shock itself is not a substitute for humor.”   Comedy has also become very much a solo act.   In Sol’s day, there were teams and ensembles. “It’s easier to do a stand-up by yourself, because you’re not constricted in anyway. You don’t have to worry about feeding your partner lines.    And it’s a matter of ego as well.”

     Bob Hope dominated the comedy world of the 20th century, in part because he lived for all but three years of it, dying at age 100 in 2003. Hope started in vaudeville and when he was 76 years old did an NBC Comedy Special paying tribute to the genre’s mecca, New York’s Palace Theater. It opened 10 years after Hope was born and had been transformed into a legitimate theater in 1965.   Sol and his writing partner, Howard Albrecht had already worked on a number of Hope specials before and were brought in to work on this one. Bob Mills was Hope’s script writer and says that “Sol Weinstein was the most talented song writer I ever worked with.”

     And this is where you start to wonder. In the early 1960’s, Weinstein wrote a song called “The Curtain Falls”, which Bobby Darin heard, liked, and added to his repertoire. At about the same time, Darin started to have health problems.   In 1963, he recorded a live album at The Flamingo hotel. He closed the show with “The Curtain Falls”.   The album wasn’t released until 37 years later, 27 years after Darin died.    It’s a classic crooner’s song.   Full of gratitude to the audience.   A signature number. A show ender. It’s serious stuff and an extremely versatile piece. For that Bob Hope special, Weinstein made some slight revisions to “The Curtain Falls” and Hope closed the show with it.   Various artists have performed it since. Two generations after Darin recorded it, the 2004 biopic, Beyond the Sea, starring Kevin Spacey, reprised it.   In his late 70’s at the time of the song’s revival, Sol Weinstein had settled in New Zealand to be near his son’s family. “It’s been a Godsend to me in my latter years because at my age, you don’t get work.   So every once in awhile when a residual check comes in, it’s nice, so I can buy my grandchild a pound of New Zealand popcorn.”

     For a man who sees irony in just about everything, isn’t it ironic that, just as the Palace Theater had, later in life, gone legitimate, so it seems did Sol Weinstein.    A song written almost 50 years ago has garnered its author deserved praise.   A man who reveled in delivering lines for those who played the fool, gave birth to words that turned people into sentimental fools.    Half a century later, The Curtain Falls is still being played, being sung, earning royalties.

     It makes you wonder, but the question is moot. Sol will have none of the speculation. He was born to write comedy, parody, and double entendre and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.   When asked whether Weinstein could have written serious literature, Bob Mills says, “We go toward that which provides the most fun and satisfaction and in those days, TV variety was where it was at. Jeez, we should have been arrested for having that much fun.”   A familiar refrain.   Where have I heard that before?

If I had this to do again
I would spend it with you again...
People say I was made for this
Nothing else would I trade for this and just think I get paid for this...

                                                                      Sol Weinstein
                                                                       "The Curtain Falls" (1962)

Sol Weinstein died on Saturday, November 25th, 2012 at the age of 84.   This is the e-mail that I received from his son David.

Hi friends and people who love Sol.

I’m saddened to tell you that my beloved father Sol Weinstein passed away peacefully early this morning attended by family. Daughter Judee and granddaughter Eleanor Rose have been here from California with Sol through his last days.

A Jewish funeral service will be held on Tuesday 27/11 at Temple Sinai in Wellington at 10.30am followed by burial in the Jewish section at Makara Cemetery.

A memorial service for Sol will be held later this week in Plimmerton - Sol’s home of the past 10 years where he has been a well known and loved character. At the Plimmerton service we will be sharing stories about Sol. I would love to hear a few words from you of an experience from his life that you shared with Sol that encapsulates the wonderful, witty human being Sol was and why we loved him. I would love to read some of your stories at this service if you can contribute one. I’d be happy to send along the text of the eulogy if you like.

Thanks to everyone for being friends to Sol over the years and loving him for the special man he was.

If you wish to make a donation in his honour (no flowers please) please direct them to the Temple Sinai Wellington Progressive Jewish Congregation or the Wellington Free Ambulance.

I never met him, but I feel like I've lost a friend.

HALLOWEEN, HADASSAH AND MORE.

2012-10-31T12:42:00.000-04:00

There's nothing like the storm of the century to free up time to write your blog entry. I hope everyone stays safe and comes through this storm all right.

It's that time of year and we lead off this blog entry with a Golden Oldie from the archives of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Trenton. Wendy Nardi, at the Trenton Free Public Library on Academy Street had this beauty waiting for me when I stopped by recently to do some research. Anybody have any idea when this is from? Where it was taken? And who is in it?

Hit the ADD A COMMENT button at the bottom of the blog entry (it's a long one today, so keep scrolling) and let me know.

The purpose of my most recent visit to the library was to do some research for a speech I gave on October 16th to the Trenton chapter of Hadassah at the Runway Restaurant at the Trenton Mercer County Airport.

During the weeks leading up to the speech I had received a number of phone calls from members who had been at my talks at Adath Israel who were wondering whether I would be covering the same material at the Hadassah meeting. Of course, now, the pressure was on to freshen up my research, so I wound up at Academy Street.

Wendy, the curator extraordinaire, was waiting for me with two volumes of papers, pictures, buttons and memorabilia from 79 year history of the local chapter.

To be honest with you, my prior knowledge of the organization was pretty well limited to Allan Sherman's shout out to the "Ladies of Haddasah" during the multiple repetitions of the chorus of "My Zelda" from his album, "My Son the Folk Singer" album. He also immortalized them in another song, "Westchester Hadassah", sung to the melody of Winchester Cathedral. Music is a great way to warm up an audience, so that's where my talk started. Sherman's song pokes fun at the fundraising prowess of Hadassah, but as I started my research, I found out that Hadassah was, in fact, something a little different when it started 100 years ago.   Henrietta Szold, the founder, studied at the Jewish Theological Society, at the time under the direction of Solomon Schecter. She was allowed to study there as long as she agreed not to press for ordination.

Szold went to pre-Israel Palestine in 1908 and it changed her life for ever. She founded Hadassah in 1912 and the Women's Zionist Organization dedicated itself to providing health services.   It's first mission was to send two nurses to Palestine with pastuerized milk for infants. Eventually Hadassah was instrumental in setting up the Israeli Medical service.   But, the organization was different from other American Zionist organizations.   While searching the Internet for background, I came upon a book called Western Jewry and the Zionist Project by Michael Berkowitz. In addition to positing that had Szold been born a hundred years later, she probably would have been a Rabbi, Berkowitz talks about the tension that Hadassah caused, because it not only raised money to send to Israel, but it made sure to maintain control over how those funds were spent.

Twenty-one years after the organizing of the national organization, a group of women in Trenton started their own chapter. At their first meeting, on March 15, 1933, Mrs. Robert Szold, who became President of Hadassah in 1929 was in attendance and accepted the charter.

Three weeks later, at the home of Mrs. Hyman Peretz, the first board meeting was held and the minutes from that meeting can be found at the library.

There was no initial membership drive, in fact, the decision was made that membership was "open to those women who earnestly desired to join."

The first president of the chapter was Dr. Hannah Seitzick-Robbins, an ob-gyn. At the meeting at which I spoke, one woman proclaimed, "She delivered me!" and another confided that Dr. Seitzick-Robbins was her doctor. As you can see in the minutes above, the first order of business was to set up committees and chairs.

Dr. Seitzick-Robbins served two years as president and a copy of the letter she wrote upon her resignation is also part of the library's collection.

I can only imagine that Dr. Seitzick-Robbins would have been glad to know that, not just 25 years later, but 77 years later, her role as President of Senior Hadassah was being remembered and celebrated.

Also included in the letter were the names of the 16 women who attended that first meeting in 1933.

The archives has many newspaper articles that trumpet events held through the years for Junior and Senior Hadassah, Young Judea and many of the other intiatives undertaken by the Trentonians. One that caught my eye, and which I presented at the meeting caused quite a stir. I selected this picture because this was the contingent that the local chapter sent to the first Hadassah National Convention after the creation of the State of Israel. Two of the women pictured here are the mothers of two of the current members. The then-President of Sr. Hadassah was Mrs. Leon Entin, whose daughter, Bonnie Perlman was ecstatic to see the picture. The current President of the Trenton chapter’s mother, Mrs. Herman Wolfer was also shown.

27 years later, Sayde Entin was still active in the chapter when the Youth Aliyah Dinner featured Marvin Hamlisch. Hadassah really is a lifetime passion for its members.

My last Hadassah photo of the evening was published in 1996. Included in the picture were; Ernestine Urken, who invited me to speak and current member Florence Lipstein.

A wonderful evening.

Also in attendance was Mark Melmed, who has been a frequent contributor to the Trenton Jewish Project’s Facebook page. Mark has a working theory that everyone from Old Jewish Trenton is related to each other through marriage. Even though he is not a Trenton native (his wife is), he has amassed a pretty impressive bit of research to, if not totally support his theory, at least makes the premise plausible. He has been working on a project through geni.com and has linked some 400 Trenton names through the web-based genealogy program.   Here is the list.

Trenton Jewish Genealogy Connected Surnames
Kohn – Urken – Vine – Reichbart - Goldstein
16 Oct 2012 Rev 2
These family trees (Kohn, Urken, Vine, etc.) - which interlock with each other through marriage - also draw in many other Trenton families. In Geni.com, there are about 2,000 Trenton Jews so far. The surnames (including non-Trenton surnames) are:
Abelow, Abrahamson, Abramsohn, Adler, Albert, Alexander, Allison, Alves, Anderson, Anmuth, Archer, Aroniss, Armony, Aronson, Azarchi, Azorsky
Baches, Bakol, Bar, Barone, Bartoo, Bash, Basile, Baum, Belets, Bellick, Benson, Berger, Bergman, Berkman, Berkowitz, Bernfield, Bernstein, Besselate, Binder, Blaise, Blenheim, Block, Blumberg, Bock, Bojecka, Bolan, Bosses, Bowie, Bowling, Bowton, Brock, Brod, Brody, Brodner, Brooks, Brown, Budik, Bunks, Burke, Burnett, Byer, Bynum
Cantor, Caplan, Chester, Chrysler, Clark, Cohen,
Dana, Danzig, Davidovitz, Davis, DeClerq, Delvanthal, Dershowitz, Derweiler, Desey, Devine, Dobin, Donahue, Downey, Dreyer, Drucker, Dubin, Dutrow
Eckhaus, Edwards, Eisenstadt, Englander, Epstein, Estes
Faber, Fabricant, Falkin, Farber, Feigenbaum, Feldman, Fielding, Fieman, Finn, Fischoff, Frank, Frankel, Frankfort, Fried, Friedlander, Friedman, Fromkin
Gamce, Gansky, Garb, Garfing, Gass, Gelfand, Gellard, Gerber, Geronemus, Gershonowitz, Gilinsky, Gillman, Glasser, Glauser, Gleason, Glick, Gluck, Glickman, Goldberg, Golden, Goldfarb, Goldin, Goldman, Goldsmith, Goldstein, Gorson, Gould, Granite, Green, Greenberg, Grossweiner, Gruber, Gunches, Gurney, Gwertsman,
Haas, Habas, Halperin, Hannah, Haranoff, Herlick, Harnick, Herring, Harris, Herst, Hesselson, Heyman, Hinckley, Hirsch, Hitt, Holender, Holland, Homesy, Horwitz, Hume, Hurowitz
Ingall, Iserson
Jacobs, Jacobson, Jacoby, Jeffreys, Jenkins, Johnson, Jones, Josephson, Jucha
Kadesh, Kahr, Kalapas, Kalfin, Kallen, Kamenetzky, Kaminsky, Kamoroff, Kane, Kaplan, Kasher, Katz, Kaufman, Kazen, Kennedy, Kent, Kessler, Kimmelman, Klempner, Knop, Kody, Koenig, Kohn, Komaroff, Koplin, Koslow, Kritzer, Kronick, Kruger, Kuchka, Kuperberg, Kurtin
Lang, Laster, Lavine, Lefkowitz, Leibowitz, Leonard, Lester, Levene, Leventhal, Levi, Levin, Levine, Levinson, Levy, Lewinter, Lichtenfeld, Lidsky, Liebeskind, Linefsky, Lipkin, Lipkowitz, Lipshutz, Litoff, Litowitz, Litvak, Loeb, London, Lowenstein, Lowman, Luben, Lurie
Mallizia, Manes, Maniewicz, Marcus, Markowitz, Marrow, Marshall, Martindale, Matthews, Medved, Meltzer, Mertz, Meselsohn, Meyer, Michaels, Michal, Miller, Millner, Mittleman, Morowitz, Moshnich
Neiman, Nelson, Newman, Nitzberg, Nochumson, Nusblatt Olden, Ogram, Oreland, Orsborne, Oxhandler
Pace, Palay, Passoff, Patinkin, Patricof, Peitzman, Pepper, Pilus, Plotnik, Podlish, Poffenberger, Pollard, Popkin, Porecca, Press, Price, Pristoop
Rabinowitz, Ragsdale, Randelman, Rappaport, Rauch, Reed, Reichal, Reichbart, Rifkin, Ringler, Ritter, Robinson, Rogowsky, Roitman, Rose, Rosen, Rosenberg, Rosenblum, Rosenthal, Ross, Rosenfield, Rossman, Rounds, Ruttenberg
Sable, Sachsman, Salkofsky, Salway, Samuelson, Sanders, Saperstein, Satterwhite, Saul, Saunders, Sawyer, Scheel, Schenkel, Scherr, Schiff, Schinkel, Schriber, Schultz, Schwartz, Scildhorn , Scott, Selesnick, Selsman, Senderov,
Shafer, Shapiro, Sharlin, Sheehy, Shelton, Sherby, Shevelove, Shields, Sholin, Short, Shupe, Siegel, Siegle, Silverlieb, Silverstein, Simon, Singer, Sklar, Slack, Slotnick, Smith, Smock, Sollod, Solomon, Spence, Spiegel
Stailer, Star, Steinglass, Steinmetz, Stern, Stiefel, Stolar, Stoldolsky, Stone, Studley, Stutzer, Sumholz, Sutnick, Swantko
Tanker, Tanzer, Tercy, Tietjens, Toll, Toltzis, Troll, Tucker, Twist Ullman, Unger, Urken
Vandroff, Veghte, Vegotsky, Vine
Wagner, Wallstein, Walov, Watson, Wedeen, Weihe, Wein, Weinberg, Weinstein, Weisberg, Weiss, Weitz, Weney, Werksman, Weston, Whitman, Wiener, Willner, Wineberg, Winkler, Winnard, Wish, Wishnow, Wollin, Wollner, Wones, Worth, Wray
Yamaguchi
Zankel, Zimmerman, Zimmett
All of these families are related through marriage.
1. To view or modify the Urken Tree (Shlomo Zalman) (299 people), go to:
http://www.geni.com/family-tree#6000000014677454786
2. To view or modify the Kohn Tree (Tzvi Mordechai Kohn) (129 People), go to:
http://www.geni.com/family-tree#6000000017000955701
3. To view or modify the Vine/Wein Tree (Orel Wein) (541 People), go to:
http://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000011231467169#6000000015392156825
4. To view or modify the “Trenton Jewish Community” Project), go to:
http://www.geni.com/projects/Trenton-Jewish-Community/9083

I also want to take a moment and let you all know about the work of Arthur Finkle. In my last blog, I included a chapter of Arthur’s research on “Jewtown”. Arthur has been very supportive of my initial research and has really spent a lot of time at the library and researching this subject. His family tree extends back to one of the founders of Isaac Levy, who was the first President of Brothers of Israel. Art has started a blog and has published his book online. You can find it at: http://trentonjewishhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2012/08/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html

Some of you responded with corrections to some of Arthur's information from last week and I want to pass those corrections along.

Shirley Nabutovsky sent this in:

Errors - Dr. Bloom was not a physician. He was a dentist. He was my childhood dentist and I cried every time we passed his building whether I had an appointment or not. He and his "outdated dental tools" really frightened me.
Max Nabotovsky was actually my great uncle - Morris Nabutovsky who owned an auto parts store and I believe was also a known card shark.
Finally - Memorial Day cemetery Video - I bet you shot the Nabutovsky grave stone thinking that it was my parents. Actually it is for Morris' brother Nathan and wife Esther. My parents have individual grave stones and are to the right past the side walk from Great Uncle Nathan and Great Aunt Esther. I also have quite a few other Nabutovsky and Bash family members buried throughout that section of the cemetery.

Mickey Kuzma chimed in:

My memories of "Jew Town where I was born in 1933 and riased till the 60's recall others in your list of "Merchants"
The "Dr. Bloom" you mention, was a dentist, not an MD. Larry Goldman MD for a time had an office in this row along Market St. at the top of the Hill. Larry ultimately moved to another Location just above Broad St. a block before the beloved Dr. Jake Berman MS, who took eggs in lieu of a fee for his service.

The "Jewtown" I recall, began at Market and Broad where Market St. began it's descent into the Valley of the Isrealites" as Harry Berkowitz described it. It extended to the river since many businesses were on Bloomsbury St. From Market St. it extended South to Bridge St. and encompassed all the streets in between; Cooper, Lamberton, Union, Mill, Decature, Fall, New, (no not "Nu") and Water Streets.
Beyond the big Schul where your map stopped, was Steingrob's grocery Store with the huge peanut roaster in the Window. two doors down was Edward's bakery ( who could forget "Fran") directly across Union St. was Frey;s Bakery, and Lavine's Dept. Store run by Sam, who was the consumate merchant. The Short 200 block of Fall St. had yet another fine bakery; Feldman's on the corner of Decature. Directly across was "Sada Hannah's (Mrs. Blank) dry goods and notion store. Other Merchant's on this block were Barney Horowitz butcher, Jules Leahman butcher and often bookmaker, a fruit/produce stand Arthur Finklesteins United Meat market, where Arthur always offered me a fresh hot dog to nosh on when shopping with my Mom. On the corner across from the big Schul ("Worker's of Truth/People of Truth?) was Union meat market run by the Millner's, who along with Jake Dana owned the Delaware Packing Co. just two blocks west on Fall/and Bloomsbury St. across from Scmulkie Berger who you failed to recognize as a "Cattle Dealer" Just beyond Bloomsbury St. at the River Was Sokalner Brother's Hide's and Skins. My dad worked for this wonderful family for 40 years, and they were like family to us. Some of my siblings, including my self were named after members of their family.
Warren St. had "Tomor's Department Store", Bobby Binder's Electrical supply, Urken's hardware, Stan Stern's mish mash shop of drek.
The peddler's you note brings to mind the "Horsenally" situated next to the Princeton Worsted Mills on Bloomsbury St., and running to the River. This is where the peddlers with horse drawn carts would house their mighty steeds each night. We kids would sneak in after dark, take the horses out, and ride lik Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers along the grassy strip besides the Delaware River.
And the most glaring of omissions in your notes was "Ben's Deli" on the corner of Lamberton and Market. This was the reason business bustled in Jewtown. People for miles would travel to our little enclave by the river to enjoy the best corned beef this side of NYC.
Of course this is not what I told Alex Segal of Playhouse 90 fame and whose father had the deli a few doors up Market St. next to Kohn's bakery. During a casting call for a movier made by Alex Segal in Trenton, I yelled out that his father had the best Pastrami in Town.
This got me a two line speaking role in his film "Some most honorable Men" starring Van Heflin, and Peter Fonda.

These are the memories of the little Shabazz Goy.

What wonderful memories of a great neighborhood, and neighbors, where there were never locks on the doors, and all were welcomed!

and he also added...

It was not Bessie Baker who I delivered live Carp for, it was Minnie Binder.
Her "holiday Grocery was in a row house a few doors north of Smitty the Banana Man. There were many other businesses situated beyond Market and Union Sts, and in time we'll talk about them.
Shalom

To everyone- The only way that we get the real story of Old Trenton is if you send in what you know.   Please. This is not a test, there are not right ad wrong answers. There are facts that we want to get right, but there are also points of view, which will always be open to interpretation. In preserving the past, we need both. So, if there are factual errors, please feel free to point them out. If there are differences in opinions, please feel free to refute them, but do it politely.

One final announcement.   This one on behalf of my wife, who is on the publicity committee for the Women’s League Comedy Night and Raffle at Adath Israel on Saturday night, November 17th. 3 NYC stand-up comedians, dessert, beverages. What could be better?   For information, please call Ellen Botwin at the Adath, 609-896-4977.

Finally--

Every time I go to the library, it seems that Wendy has one picture that she hopes we can identify. She has a soft spot in her heart for pictures of soldiers, so here goes.   Does anyone know who this is?

 Let us know. Click on the ADD A COMMENT button below.

Thanks.

Ed

"Jewtown" Revisted

2012-10-04T22:28:00.000-04:00

We're back. I didn't have any designs on taking the summer off from this blog, but things just worked out that way. For those who missed having something to read, I apologize. In my line of work, the summertime is usually slow, but this year was an exception and no one here is complaining. Add to that, launching a high school senior into college orbit and that's where the summer went.

One person who didn't take the summer off was Arthur Finkle, who was one of the earliest followers of these pages. Art was one of the first to come forward when I started writing in early 2011 and has been encouraging all along the way. Art arranged for me to meet Albert Stark in January of this year and drove us to the Brothers of Israel cemetery, pointing out his ancestors who are buried in the oldest part of the graveyard, which was orignally the Har Sinai cemetery.

Art has been doing research at the Tretnon Public Library and is writing extensively about the Jews of Trenton. Months ago, he sent me an outline of chapters that he wanted to write about. In mid-August, he sent me 11 chapters of his manuscript. In this edition of the blog, I share with you excerpts from the chapter that he named ‘Jewtown’.

‘Jewtown’ was located in South Trenton. It housed most of the recent Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Its rents were inexpensive and its proximity to consumers was perfect. It also provided merchants a site to sell their wares. This section was an already existing marketplace and had been for some years.

Photo 1860 of Market St. Facing Greene (Broad) St.

Built as a shtetl, all spoke Yiddish. It counted several kosher meat butchers, a Talmud Torah, synagogues and a Mikveh (ritual bath). It also housed the social welfare societies, such as the Free Home Loan Society, Immigrant’s Aid, Sick Society, etc.

Indeed, a 1908 article in the Times-Advertiser called this section of Trenton a closed community.

"The Russians are very jealous of their own
interests and very unwilling to inform outsiders
of their doings. But then, this Russian colony of
Trenton, in contradiction to the law of economics,
is practically sufficient unto itself. They have
their own factories, their own stores, their own milk
dealers, in fact the whole category of businesses
and trades is represented among them. Those
stores and factories which are located within the
colony employ only Russians and never fail to
observe the Jewish Sabbath, from sunset Friday
to sunset Saturday, and nothing other than a conflicting
city ordinance prevents them from opening Sundays."

This ‘Trenton Colony’ produced several charitable institutions. Among the early ones were Wanderers’ Help and Miles Rescind, a non-denominational poor fund.

In 1929 (there) were approximately 4,100 Jews; some say 7,100 about 3-5% of Trenton ‘s population. Most of this population resided in the area between South Broad and Warren streets, and Market Street and the Delaware-Raritan Canal (Now the Trenton Freeway).

The area benefited from the infrastructure of a growing industrial Trenton. Providing trolley service along Broad St, having sidewalk, water (1859) and sewerage (beginning in 1903), outdoor lighting. Finally furnished with indoor plumbing with its toilet, bathtub and wash area, all ceramics made in Trenton and electricity, this area brimmed with activity.
Further it had bright electric street lights in 1887 (Its first electric lights made their Trenton appearance in 1881). See Harry J. Podmore, Trenton – Old and New, Trenton Historical society, 1929. See 1903 Trenton Ordinance.

Indeed, The City Railway Company was incorporated under the general law in 1875, with an authorized capital of $50,000. In February 1876, Common Council authorized the construction of a horse-car line through Clinton Street, from the city limits to Perry Street, to Broad, terminating at the Chambersburg borough line. The track was to be a double one. At this time the borough of Chambersburg authorized the company to extend its tracks from the canal to the southeasterly borough limits, along South Broad Street, bordering what was to become the Hungarian Jewish area.
Further, the City Railway Company extend(ed) its line from Perry Street to Warren and thence to Ferry Street, up Bridge and into Centre Street down as far as Riverview Cemetery (Jewtown)
In October 1885, an ordinance permitted the company to extend its tracks from South Broad Street along Bridge Street, into Centre as far south as Lalor Street, and along Lalor to the canal.
The next year, The City Railway Company again extended its line along Hamilton Avenue. In this year the borough of Chambersburg extended the City Railway Company’s franchise to Jennie Street, Hudson Street, Elmer Street, Chestnut Avenue, Cummings Avenue and Coleman Street, with a spur through Cummings Avenue to Division Street, to the car sheds and stables.
The Trenton Horse Railroad Company passed into the hands of Colonel Lewis Perrine at about this time. In 1891 he acquired control of the City Railway Company and consolidated the two roads on September 30, 1891, under the name of the Trenton Passenger Railway Company. The very next year, Colonel Perrine had the roads electrified and on May 22, 1891, the first experimental trip by electricity was made.
The Jewish area also utilized the Delaware and Raritan Canal for inexpensive portage. And the Pennsylvania railroad was on three blocks away. The first settlers came to South Trenton because the rents were inexpensive. The area was relatively undeveloped and was not near a major factory.

1881, Jacob Barker came to Trenton with his wife and seven children. In 1888, Joseph Movshovich opened the first bank on Decatur St. There were twelve kosher butchers. In 1895, Harry Alexander opened the first kosher deli. Alex Cohen was a boxing promoter and cut man.
Other early South Trenton residents included Isaac Berman, Solomon Goldstein, David Lavine, Max Feinberg, Harry Haveson, Israel Silverstein, Isaac Levy, Israel Kohn, Gabriel Lavinson, Louis Levy, Solomon Urken, Daniel Levine and Abraham Moskowitz.

Below is a scheme of most of this area with names of occupants and stores.

From the visual map, counted on Market Street were:
3-Deli’s; a Drug Store; a Restaurants; 3-Bakers; a Gas Station, a Physician (Dr. Bloom); 3-Butchers; a Furniture store; a Mikveh (Religious Ritual Bath)
On Union St., were counted: 3-Shuls; a Hotel; a Social Club (Liberty Club); 3- Bakeries; 2-Chicken stores; 2-Fish Markets; 5-Butchers; a Hardware store; 3-Dry Goods Stores; a Tire Store; a Clothing ship; and a Print shop.
The aggregate totals were 6-bakers, 8-butchers, 3 dry goods stores; 3-Deli’s, 3- Dry Goods Stores, 3-shuks, 2 Fish stores, 2-chicken stores. We found one Mikveh (Ritual Bath), Hotel, a saddle shop, a cooperage (barrels) Restaurant, Gas station, Tire Store, Print shop, Hardware store, barber and social club.
Unlike Eastern Europe, these little stores were not monopolized by women. Rather, in fast becoming Americans, they played the role ascribed to them in the ‘new’ country as keepers of the household and their households were large. See Hyman.
Each owner’s family lived atop the store. Another interesting fact was that, although (there) was an enormous presence of potteries (60), rubber manufacturers and wire and cable (Roebling had its plant on more than 35 acres), Jews did not compete with others for these factory jobs.


                                                          Stores in ‘Jewtown’

                                                Bakers

Kohn’s

Kunis’s

Kramer’s
                                          Kosher Butchers

Cattle dealer – Isaac Dohen
Wholesale – Myron Cohen
Cow Dealer – Sharky Rosenthal
Hafetz - David Hafetz passed on his store to his son(s) Joseph and Frank Hafetz
Katzeff and Weiner
Morris Stern
Butcher – Kalman
Horowitz
Liberty Meat Mkt

                                              Produce

Fish and Produce – Solomon Cohen
Grocer – David Cohen
Meat and Produce – Maurice Finkle

                                        Grocery Stores

George Levie
Jacob Levie
Samuel Levin
Feldman’s
Wineberg

                                   Fish (including live carp)

Smitty’s – Sam Smith
Barker’s - Fish Mkt
Chickens
Balitz Chickens
Feigman’s chickens

                                             Tires

United Tires - Irving Cohen
Izzy Richmond

Junk Dealers

Jacob Albert

Phil albert

Harvey Cohen

David and Jack Introlligator

Sam Saperstein

                                         Restaurants

Charles Levie

Benny Hock

Café – Heifel Cohen

                                                Stores

Spiegel’s Furniture

Mercer Paint and Paper Company - Marcus-Nitzburg family, owned
(Milton) Palat’s Furs
Small Department Stores
Normal Department Store – Swamp Angel (Isaac Finkle)
Finkle’s Dry Good’s – Willow and Spring (Sam Finkle)

                                           Store Owners
Klempner’s
Max Nabotovsky
Sadie Cohen
Kravitz

                              Saga of the Jewish Peddler
Many Jews were peddlers because they could celebrate the Sabbath without business pressures. Others were junkyard dealers for the same reason.
In the early days, in fact, ‘Jewtown’ was silent of the Jewish Sabbath because all the stores were closed. They reopened on Sunday with the wink and the nod of the Police Department because Blue Laws prohibited most commerce on Sunday.
Peddlers earned about five dollars a week and rarely grossed a profit, often depending on the wives and children to peddle alongside of them. The peddler lifestyle marked a profound loss of status for many of the immigrants.    Marcus Ravage, a famous writer during the time, couldn’t believe his eyes when he witnessed a man, “who had been the chairman of the hospital committee in Vaslui and a prominent grain merchant . . .dispensing soda-water and selling lollypops on the corner of Essex Street in New York.”

Along with status issues, newly arrived Jews experienced profound culture shock. The new American workday was no longer circumscribed by meals shared with family, prayer, or Jewish holidays and the Sabbath. They agonized about having to abandon the structured and religious traditions of their homogenous village life.

The Eastern European Jewish immigrants may have been poor, but most possessed skills as merchants from the Russian shtetls. Since the Russian government prevented Jews from owning land or raw materials, Eastern European Jews possessed a skill set different from other immigrants. --Ashley L. Koch.

The five Finkle brothers became door-to door peddlers traversing a weekly route from Trenton to Lambertville, to Flemington, to Somerville back to Trenton for the Sabbath. When one earned sufficient money, he sent for the second brother ad seriatim. Eventually, with enough capital, they settled in Trenton and environs to establish dry goods stores. In Lambertville, Finkle’s Hardware Store is still operating, more than 100 years later.

Harry Gerofsky also commented on the coming together of Trenton. It received a charter in 1792 (population 1, 2500). In 1837, its population was 4,000. In 1838, it became the county seat of a new county (Mercer). In 1847, it authorized streets and alleys. In 1851, it annexed the Borough of South Trenton, then known as Mill Hill and Bloomburg (3rd and 4th wards which later would house ‘Jewtown’).

You Never Know What You'll Find Out About Your Family

2012-07-17T19:27:00.000-04:00

Wars have been fought protecting family honor. Stories of valor and tales of adventure have been passed from generation to generation. But many times there is an unknown or unpublicized aspect to these family histories and there is something magical about those moments when you find out, for good or bad, that the true narrative isn't always the way you were told they were.

     In my family, we never really knew why my father's parents moved from the small mining town of Bishop, Pennsylvania (which has long since been absorbed by metropolitan Pittsburgh) to Oklahoma City in the late 1920's. The accepted story was that my paternal grandfather had relatives in California and that was the real destination. My paternal grandmother had family in Oklahoma City and we were told that the reason they stopped in the center of the Dust Bowl was because my grandmother tired of the drive and told my grandpa "No further." A plausible explanation, but no one bothered to explain why they were leaving Pennsylvania in the first place.

     The revelation came at my Uncle's birthday party in St. Louis (75th, I believe). My uncle (8 years my father's senior), Aunt (4 years older) and my Dad were sitting around in the living room and I was videotaping them talking about their lives. Matter-of-factly, my Uncle mentioned that a cross had been burned on my grandfather's front lawn. He had been a successful grocer in the years since he had fled Lithuania, but this was a clear message to leave town. My Dad, who was two at the time never knew the story. My Aunt had vague memories. Whether they had been suppressed or she had been too young to remember, we're not sure. But a new chapter in the Alpern family history had been written.

     So, what does that have to do with Trenton and the Jews of Trenton? It's a jumping off point for a story that passed through my in-box about a couple of months ago. In the age of the Internet, no skeletons are safe in family closets. We live in an age where the methods of discovery, as well as the depth that you can research these kind of things is almost limitless.

     At the beginning of June, I got an e-mail from Mark London. It was in response to the Memorial Day video of the cemeteries on Cedar Lane.

"I've been researching my Barker relatives from Trenton the last couple of years, and would be interested in knowing if any of the very old gravestones in the Har Sinai cemetery are still readable. I.e., there was Wolf Lapinsky who died in 1878 who might be buried there. There's also an infant Charlie Barker, died in Aug 1884, who definitely was buried there, according to the death certificate. Just curious."

     I sent Mark back an e-mail letting him know that I had seen a number of old graves that were still readable, but was not sure if any were his relatives. In his follow-up, Mark filled me in on a little family background. He had been researching his Trenton relatives on genealogybank.com, which lets you research 320 years of newspapers. What he found was fascinating and scandalous. It turns out that Wolf Lapinsky, whose grave he was looking for, was the brother of a character named James Barker, who was also his grandmother's uncle. He was the President of the South Jersey Crockery Company and he disappeared from his home in November of 1914.

Mark sent the Trenton Times write ups that detail his disappearance and subsequent return to Trenton. One of the articles mentions claims made by Morris Rudner, a liquor dealer who loaned Barker $3500 and held a second mortgage on the Barker Home at 311 Bellevue Avenue. The same article mentions that Rudner and Barker had an interest, along with Jonas Fuld of Fuld Brothers, a shoe dealer, in the Crockery Company.

Also weighing in on the police report was Israel Kohn of the firm Urken & Kohn, who apparently had been owed $400 and the day before he disappeared, Barker borrowed another $100 for a new suit. He allegedly also took $300 cash from a widow and had obtained a watch and chain from a jeweler and court interpreter, Bernard Cohen before skipping town.

Barker was arrested in Chicago and he returned to Trenton to face the charges of embezzlement and false pretense.

Before his trial in March of 1915, the company that put up his bond decided he wasn't worth the risk and delivered him back to jail, but by that afternoon had secured another bondsman.

After the whole mess, he wound up being fined $200 and $61 in court costs and was placed on probation.

The outcome of the case was reported in the Times right along with a pair of horse thieves and two men convicted of stealing copper wire from the telephone company. Mark's research showed that he wound up selling the business and he fled the city, but wound up being buried in Trenton. But even more interesting was what happened to his daughter Clara Eunice Barker.

"More tragic, is his daughter's story, Clara Eunice Barker. She was a "party girl", and while her father's business was failing, she lured a millionaire away from his wife and family, to live with her in California. The wife eventually sued my relative for "stealing the love" of her husband, and it became a sensational court case in LA (and of course was heavily written about in the Trenton Times). Clara had acting lessons, and lied her way through several trials, both of which she won, and she came away with lots of money that the millionaire had given to her as gifts. I'm sure the details of the actual trial are more lurid than what the newspapers could print back then. But what they were able to print, is still grand fun to read.

Agreed Mark. Thanks for sharing.

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

2012-05-26T09:21:00.000-04:00

2012-05-18T23:45:00.000-04:00

I drove down Clarksville Road yesterday on my way to a baseball game at West Windsor-Plainsboro South and can report that construction on the new JCC is advancing at an impressive clip. The first phase of the Jewish Community Campus is set to open by the end of this year. Check out the article in the New Jersey Jewish News about the "Topping Off" celebration at the end of March.

One of the contributing factors to the existence of this blog is that in 1999, I scanned all of the pictures that were yellowing and tattered and on display on the walls at the old JCC . It led to me doing some research about some of the faces that I had seen in the old photos. It’s exciting that in just a few months there will be a new Jewish Community Center serving this area. One thing that the group that is working to open the Center realize is that the old YMHA in Trenton and the old Trenton Jewish Community are direct forebears of what they are doing now.

In that light, I invite all of you with memories of the old YMHA on Stockton Street to send me your memories of the Y and what it meant to you as you were growing up. If you have pictures, scan them and send them to me (no originals, please). If you have a video camera, camera on your phone or iPad, record your memories and contact me about uploading them to our blog. From what I’ve learned, it was a special place and a hub of activity.

Zalman King

Passover has come and gone and once again we hosted Sylvia Schultz for the second Seder. Four years ago, Sylvia was a guest and during the meal talk turned to my signature brisket and it brought back memories for Sylvia of the smells, sights and sounds of Old Time Trenton. The excitement with which she spoke of her hometown was really the inspiration for everything that you read on these pages. Sylvia invited me to the library and showed me the treasure trove of pictures and documents that exist in Trentonia now.

This year, Sylvia talked to me at length about her friend, Zalman King Lefkowitz, who passed away in February. Sylvia was best friends with King’s sister and called King her adopted brother. In this video, she talks about the “House of Tomorrow” that King’s family lived in on Bellevue Avenue, across from Cadwalader Park and how King left for Florida, to work on an excursion boat. That led to acting jobs in commercial, then he landed a role in The Young Lawyers, Gunsmoke, and even The Munsters, before going on to direct a number of films, including 9 1/2 Weeks and Wild Orchid and the Red Shoe Diaries, among others.

The last time Sylvia saw King was at his mother’s funeral and when Schultz asked him whether he could be in one of his films, his response was, “Sure, if you take your clothes off.” Sylvia’s comeback line was, that “if she took her clothes off, nobody would come to see the movie”, so the deal was off.

More than once in the interview, Sylvia recalled that despite his fame, King was so humble and such a gentleman and that when he started directing the racier movies, no one cold believe it, because that wasn’t him. Sylvia mentions Charlie Sheen’s message on his Facebook page the day that King passed.

Here is an obit from a site called the avclub, which includes some clips from King’s acting and directing career.

Arnold Ropeik

Arnold Ropeik passed away in April at the age of 90. Although he did not grow up in Trenton, Arnie did marry a Trenton girl, Bertha Levine, and spent almost 70 years in and around Trenton. Unfortunately, I never met Arnold Ropeik when he was alive. I saw him a few times at Adath Israel, but never got a chance to speak with him. Thanks to Sherry Spiezle, I did get a chance to interview Bertha and she told me many stories about him. By the time we did the interview, Arnie was at Greenwood House and he would have good days and bad days. Bertha told me that he was better in the late afternoons, but I was never able to sync schedules. Here are a couple of stories that Bertha told about Arnie . The first is about Arnie’s first job in Trenton, after graduating from Rider in 1947. His first job was with The Trentonian, which had started after a strike at the Trenton Times in 1946.

Here, Bertha talks about how Arnie first met Bertha.

You’ve heard about newspaper wars? Well, in 1946 Trenton there was literally a newspaper war between the Times and the upstart Trentonian. Bertha Ropeik remembers that the old YMHA on Stockton Street was sometimes in the demilitarized zone between the two papers.

For more background information on the beginnings of the Trentonian, here’s an online article.

And finally, Bertha explains how she came to be known as Beloved Spouse in Arnie’s columns. But there were to be no abbreviations.

I also include a great story that Herb Speigel told that Arnie used to tell about Bertha’s father, Albert Levine.

And finally, a shameless plug for a college buddy of mine. Dan Cohen was a year ahead of me at Ithaca College. He worked for years in local news in Orlando and Washington, D.C.. He developed a love for the space program and has produced a documentary that has been shown at film festivals across the country and around the world. The film is called "An Article of Hope" and follows the story of a tiny Holocaust Torah that Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon took with him on the the ill-fated Columbia Space Shuttle which disintegrated on re-entry in 2003. Dan is in the final days of trying to raise $50,000 to have the film broadcast on PBS and has a website on a service called Kickstarter, which helps get word out about worthy projects.

As I write this, there are 7 days left on Dan’s drive and $46,000 has been pledged so far. Please take a look at the trailer and if you see fit, give as little as $1. If he doesn’t reach his goal, your credit card will not be charged. See website for more details.

I know I’ve put a lot of material in here, so thanks for reading and please send me your remembrances of the YMHA.

Car causes damage at Brothers of Israel Cemetery

2012-05-08T22:33:00.003-04:00

I guess it was inevitable. After a year of writing entries for the Trenton Jewish Project blog, I would hit the trifecta of a lot of work, a number of family commitments (all good) and a little writer's block thrown in. All of these things have conspired to slow down the flow of information on this blog to a trickle. It's not for a lack of trying. I've probably started writing this entry 10 times. Each time, it's been the electronic equivalent of wadding up a sheet of yellow lined paper and throwing it in the trash. Over and over again, a dissatisfaction with either the topic or the mindset and suddenly a few months have gone by without a word.

Well, last Friday, the clouds and rain broke for a few hours and I took a ride over to Brothers of Israel Cemetery on Liberty and Vroom Streets in Trenton. On March 30th, Ben Racusin, who I met at the talk I gave at Adath Israel in January, posted to the Trenton Jewish Project Facebook group page that a car had crashed through the fence of the cemetery and that there had been damage to some tombstones. He also reported that the sign above the gates of the cemetery was missing. I was out of town at the time and e-mailed a note to Rabbi Grossman at Adath Israel. Sharon Ettinger Segarra, who works at Brothers of Israel responded on the page that she had let the office know. Jill Mosovich in Florida, who is also a member of the group (which now numbers 96-if you want to join, go to the page and click the button to request joining the group), mentioned that she had family members buried there, too. A little history--- The cemetery, actually started as the Har Sinai Cemetery Association 165 years ago. Brothers of Israel purchased the adjoining lot in 1885. As Albert Stark explained to me in January, there is a hedge that separates the Har Sinai area from the Brothers of Israel land. Brothers expanded the cemetery in 1907 when it purchased an additional lot and eventual bought more land at Cedar Lane. So, needless to say the graves in the Vroom Street location are extremely old. So, when the weather broke last week, I ventured out to look for myself. I must tell you that it was a little eerie, because there was a Trenton Police helicopter circling high overhead as I pulled up. It turns out that there had been a school bus accident in Chambersburg at about the same time and they must have been looking for the person who ran from the scene of the crime.

Here's what I saw when I got to the cemetery. A section of the fencing on Dayton Avenue was missing and another section was damaged. As you can see from the picture above, the gravestones that are adjacent to the missing fence are still standing, but there are two stones next to the damaged fence that are down. I didn't touch the stones, but as you can see, they are right next to one that reads Lillian Davis Mosovich, who passed in 1934. I don't know what names are on the stones, but there are definitely two stones down.

On closer inspection, the stone to the right of Lillian Davis Mosvich's is that of Samson Davis, who died the same year. So, those two stones appear to be the only ones that have fallen due to the most recent auto accident.

I decided to walk around the cemetery for a few more minutes, because a number of people have told me that if you wanted to learn about the history of the Jews of Trenton, you needed to start with the cemeteries. What I found was fairly distressing. By no means were the only toppled stones the ones near the fence on Dayton.

I've taken some pictures to document what I found. In most cases, it's hard to tell whose names are on the stones without picking them up and cleaning them off. Again, I didn't touch any of them, so I don't know who's stones they are.

The one on the left says Sidney, son of Meyer and Amelia Schwab, who apparently died at the age of 4 in 1888. Meyer Schwab was an optician and occulist whose office was at 7 East State Street. There is another small stone in front of it with the inscription face down.

There is another stone that has fallen in front of Simon Cohen's grave. Cohen died in 1903 at age 76, who died on October 29th, I believe the year was 1913, but can't read the engraving well enough to be sure.

In front of the headstone for Avraham and Rivkah Swern is a stone that is tilted backwards. It marks the final resting place of Morris Freedman, who passed away on October 29, 1919. He is listed in the 1900 Trenton City Directory. He was apparently in business with the Vine family with the shirt manufacturer Vine and Freedman. There is a genealogy website that cites Freedman's business dealings here.

The grave to the right of that stone is for Private Samuel Price who was killed in action in 1918. Price's name is commemorated on one of the plaques on the front porch of the Trenton War Memorial.

To his right is the stone for Rebecca Scull, who passed in 1963. Pvt. Price and Mrs. Scull's stones are in good shape.

Joseph Greenberg's headstone has fallen on the footstone of Samuel Lavine. According to the family website at Genealogy.com, Greenberg emigrated to the U.S. in 1894 and in the 1910 census was listed as a builder. In the 1920 census, he was listed as the owner of City Flour. Samuel Lavine died in 1919 at the age of 32. This link takes you to an ancestry.com page that lists some of the public records for Lavine. Although the date of death on the website is listed as October 3 the headstone lists October 4th as the date of death.

My purpose in publishing these pictures is simply to raise awareness that there is a lot of history in the cemeteries in Trenton and that each stone tells a story. It would be a shame if, due to neglect some of this history is lost.

2012-03-26T09:30:00.001-04:00

Bar Mitzvah Memories

The annual Bar/Bat Mitzvah cycle is well underway as the area's temples and synagogues come out of the winter doldrums and the late winter/early spring/pre-Passover circuit heats up. Each week, another 13 year old (or 12 year old) (or two) are called to the Torah. When I was growing up, the joke was "Today, I am a Fountain Pen." My fear when my son took to the bimah a few weeks ago was that he would have done some Internet research and updated that line to "Today, I am an iPad." Fountain pens used to be a traditional gift for the Bar Mitzvah, and young girls rarely were Bat Mitzvah'd, because in many synagogues they weren't allowed to read from the Torah, or even given an honor. Times have surely changed, which is why a few weeks back I asked readers to think about their Bar/Bat Mitzvah experiences and send them to me, in hopes of refreshing people's memories. Well, Lou Posner took me up on the request and here's what he sent me.

I was bar mitzvahed in May of 1956 at Har Sinai Temple on Bellevue Avenue in Trenton. Up until that time no girls had been bat mitzvahed there. My memory is hazy, but a young lady, Tula Schnorbus, younger than I, MIGHT have been the first Bat Mitvah at Har Sinai.

Parties were normally held at the home of the bar mitzvah boy. They were not lavish by any means. As I remember: pretzels and potato chips and cookies and soft drinks and dancing to '50's rock and roll music. Boys wore suits and ties, girls, pretty dresses and hose. Each of the invitees would give a gift to the bar mitvahed boy, sometimes a religious item like a mezzuzah, sometimes a fountain pen or piece of Boy Scout equipment. Never anything elaborate. The parents and perhaps a few friends of the family served as chaperones. Sometimes the party was held in the Bobby Blaugrand (in memory of a lad who had died young)Room of Har Sinai. The folding doors that normally separated two classrooms were opened to accomodate the party.

Being a reformed synagogue, Har Sinai treated females "equally," although back in those days there were no bat mitzahs, no female rabbis or cantors. The sexes were seated together in the sancutary and both girls and boys were eligible to be confirmed at about age 15.

My own bar mitvah was unusual in two respects: I was the first bar mitvah at Har Sinai who ever (perhaps to this day?) translated his Torah portion directly from the scroll: no typed-out English translation. Cantor Marshall Glatzer tutored me in this project, and could never resist a chuckle when we came to the word in my Torah portion, "tachus," meaning "under" but also...

The other unusual event was that the rabbi, Rabbi Joshua O. Haberman, would normally, at a bar mitzvah, say a few nice things about the bar mitzvah and his family and then get on with his weekly sermon. In my case, Rabbi Haberman omitted any sermon and took the time to praise my accomplishment at the bimah and also to praise my parents, Herman and Irene. No sermon.

(ed. note--The first link takes you to a bio of Rabbi Haberman from the Jewish Policy Center and the second to The Congressional Record from February of 1995, when Rabbi Haberman served as the Chaplain of the Senate for a week. He was introduced by Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon.

Far right is Rabbi Haberman from a picture found in the Trentonia collection of the Trenton Public Library. View more photos from the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Trenton by clicking here.

On a personal level there was a third unusual aspect to my bar mitzvah: my grandfather, Samuel "Pop" Brodner, a member of the Brothers of Israel Synagogue vowed that he would wear his yarmulka on the "bimah" during my bar mitzvah. There was no arguing with him. But...on the day of my bar mitzvah, Pop Brodner sat in a beatiful gray suit on the Har Sinai bimah...with no yarmulka. I took this as a sign of high respect from my grandfather, that he would forego his tradition and belief for his grandson's bar mitzvah. (In those days no one ever wore a yarmulka in a Reform Synagogue and no one ever went without one in an Orthodox or Conservative shul: there was no mix-and-match back then.)

Bar Mitzvah was preceded by a number of years of after-school Hebrew School, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for about an hour each day. We studied Hebrew but also our own Torah portions. Some boys who had difficulty with reading Hebrew were helped with vinyl recordings of their portions.

To have held the "yad" in my hand in front of the sacred scroll, to have sung the Torah blessings, to have looked out into the congregation and addressed them in my bar mitzvah speech was a major moment in my life, one that I will, of course, never forget, but one that also inspires me to this day.

Please chime in with your Bar Mitzvah memories. Whether it was Aunt Ida pinching your cheek and saying "Shane Punim" until she drew blood or a moment that was most meaningful to you, please send me your recollections by e-mail, or by clicking the comments button.

Thanks

2012-03-21T09:30:00.000-04:00

Meteorologically, Spring officially started on Tuesday.   The signs of spring have been evident for weeks, thanks to our unseasonably warm weather. If there were any doubts, the free water ice at Rita’s confirmed it’s in the air. For anyone who is a sports fan, though, the season officially begins the first week of February when pitchers and catchers report to spring training.   It’s a ritual as predictable as the return of the swallows to Capistrano and if you’ve ever been to Florida or Arizona and taken in a game or seen a practice, you know that there is nothing like it.

So, what does spring training have to do with the Trenton Jewish Project?   Well, there’s a Trentonian in Scottsdale who’s basking not only in the sun, but in the glory of the San Francisco Giants. Tony Siegle is the special advisor for baseball operations for the Giants and in the many e-mails we’ve exchanged, he has professed his love for spring training, in general, and for Scottsdale, specifically.   He also has warm feelings for Trenton, which he says he defends whenever the topic of his hometown comes up.   Tony found the TJP blog last July and shot me an e-mail.   We had a trip to San Francisco already scheduled for August. The Giants were out of town, but my son and I were lucky enough to stop by AT&T Park and talk with Tony about his days in Trenton.

By the time Tony was growing up, his family had already moved from downtown Trenton to Sanhican Drive.   He remembers that Trenton was a great baseball town in those days, with 5 major league teams (the Yankees, Giants, Dodgers, Phillies and A’s) within a hundred miles. But there was one team that Tony wanted to play for....The Trenton Schroth’s...winners of the 1948 American Legion National Championship.

When Siegle realized he didn’t have the talent to make it on the Schroth’s, much less the major leagues, he had to find a different path.   He joined the Navy and after a tour in the Pacific, he found his way to Houston where he became a recruiter. His first job in baseball came in 1965, running the scoreboard at the Astrodome, which had opened that year.

After working for the Astros, Siegle moved on to the Philadelphia Phillies front office and has worked for many major league teams through the years. He recounts the teams for whom he worked and remembers Trenton Times baseball columnist Bus Saidt.

While doing research at the Trenton Public Library for material for this blog, Wendy Nardi, the curator of the Trentoniana collection mentioned that she and a library board member were trying to figure out where WIllie Mays lived when he played for the Trenton Giants in 1950. I e-mailed Tony from the library and he promised to ask Willie the name of the family with whom he lived.   I got an e-mail on Friday night, letting me know that Willie lived with the Wilson family on Spring Street. I’m sure that Wendy will figure out exactly what the address was. By the way, in 81 games with Trenton in 1950, Mays had 108 hits, and 4 home runs in 306 at-bats for a .51 slugging percentage. He started the next year in Minneapolis and was called up to the majors in May of 1951, and wound up winning the leagues rookie of the year award.

---
On a personal note, thanks for all of the warm wishes for my son and his Bar Mitzvah. It was a wonderful weekend from a spiritual standpoint, but also as a way to reconnect with family and friends. In this age where social interaction is often done through a keyboard, a simcha like a Bar Mitzvah reminds you that facebooking and blogging is a poor replacement for sitting down, face-to-face, with people.

Bar Mitzvahs and a worthwhile cause

2012-02-26T23:59:00.000-05:00

This will probably be my last blog entry until after my son’s Bar Mitzvah in a couple of weeks. Every night has at least one appointment, and some have two, as we get ready for the big day. Details, details, details.

     I thought I might use this opportunity to get our readers involved and thinking about your own experiences.   What do you remember about your Bar/Bat Mitzvah? Was it common for girls to be Bat Mitzvah’ed in your day?   Did the shuls treat women differently? Obviously Brothers of Israel had a Mechitza. How were Bar Mitzvahs celebrated? Were Bat Mitzvahs celebrated on the same scale as Bar Mitzvahs? If the parties weren’t held at the synagogues, was there a hall that hosted them?

Think back to your coming of age and click on the comments button at the end of the blog or e-mail me your thoughts. I will use them in a future blog.

This past Saturday night was the 75th Anniversary Gala of Jewish Children’s and Family Service of Greater Mercer County.   I had the privilege of producing the video that was shown at the party.   Linda Meisel contacted me about producing the video in October and over the ensuing 4 months I gained a firsthand education in what this remarkable agency does.   I interviewed past and present board members, clients who have received services from JFCS and met staff and volunteers who make it all happen. The first step in putting together the video was to go through the JFCS archives and look at the articles that dated back to the beginning.

A history of the agency, written by Judge Sidney Goldmann, for the program for the 40th anniversary in 1977 details many of the predecessors of today’s JFCS.   Although there is no direct link to many of the groups, what they had in common was that they were Jewish groups, dedicated to helping the less fortunate Jews in Trenton.   In the video, I included these organizations in an opening graphic, which include among them, the Chevra Bikur Cholin (1877) the Har Sinai Charity Society (10/1893), the Hebrew Beneficial Society (8/1895), the Hebrew Charitable Association (2/1908), which became the Hebrew Free Loan Association of Trenton in 1930, the Sons of Zion and the Ladies of Zion Aid Society (1900) and the Ladies Hebrew Aid Society of Trenton (1/1909).    The Judge also details the family tree for Greenwood House, with its roots dating back to the Chebruh Buker Cholin (1877) and the South Trenton Ladies Bikoor Chailim Society (6/1921) , which later became the Trenton Ladies Sick Benefit Society in April of 1938. Direct lineage begins with the Ladies Hebrew Aid Society, whose work was “formalized with the incorporation of the Jewish Welfare Bureau in January 1937.” The article talks about the Depression and the increase in the number of families serviced by the Ladies from 10-15 previously to more than 80 when the economy fell apart. A report to the Trenton Council of Social Agencies said “the Bureau cared for 66 families, issued 1,500 food orders, 28 tons of coal and wearing apparel for over 100 children, and it found homes for 4 aged persons and hospitalizations for 5.” In the 1940’s the Bureau was involved in resettling refugees from Germany and by 1944, there were 50 refugee families here. In 1944, the agency hired a professional Executive Director, David Tanenbaum and in 1949 the Bureau changed its name to Jewish Family Service. The history continues and as I moved on to the archived news articles what struck me was that although the clippings were old and yellowed, many of the subjects of the articles were as relevant today as they were when they were written. The names have changed, but the problems that people face are relatively consistent from generation to generation. In the 1950’s, the refugees came from Hungary, in the 1960’s from Egypt, in the 1970’s from Soviet Union, and in the 80’s from Ethiopia. Hunger was and still is an issue and the demand at the Kosher Food Pantry today is at an all-time high.    Counseling on a sliding fee scale has been a hallmark of the agency and for the video, I met a woman who had lost her job in NYC and was able to get counseling through JFCS at a reduced fee and was able to get help “in a Jewish way.”

On a personal note, I first heard about JFCS because my wife has been volunteering at the Kosher Café in Ewing since shortly after we moved to the area in 1996 and my sons have helped out there when school vacations have permitted. (Shameless plug time---The Kosher Café is a phenomenal program that operates Tuesdays through Fridays in the basement at The Woodbrook House in Ewing. Kosher food is provided by Greenwood House. It's a great place for seniors to meet and eat. Reservations are required and transportation can be arranged--call JFCS for more information at 609-987-8100.)

Another personal note-A college buddy of mine was the CEO of the Philadelphia JFCS until last year. When my father fell ill on a visit to Texas in 2008, I called my friend and through a counselor in the Philadelphia office, I found out about a caregiver support group in Dallas, which my sister and mother started attending, reluctantly at first. At the time, my Mom was really struggling with being stuck in Texas (she had lived in Pennsylvania for 42 years) and watching my father's health deteriorate for a 9 month ordeal. Both she and my sister found the group to be a source of strength and made new friends through the group.

Treating the clients with dignity was a phrase that I heard over and over again while doing the many interviews for Saturday’s video and a gentleman named Harry told of how a caregiver support group helped him get through hard times while taking care of his father, keeping a promise to him to have him live out his days at home. In the end, he said the most important thing was that the group helped validate that what he was doing was the right thing for him and his father.

In interviewing the board members, I asked each of them whether they had any idea of what the agency did when they joined the board. They all said, they knew of one or two areas where JFCS made a huge difference, but only through the presentations by staff members at the board meetings did they become aware of all of the facets of life that this remarkable agency touches. They went through a similar learning experience that I went through in producing the video. I also asked, “What would this community be like without a JFCS?” The consensus was “I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like.” Linda told me that last year, the agency touched more than 5,000 people's lives.

JFCS has decided to start a 75th anniversary endowment, in an effort to provide a cushion for bad economic times when their funding from philanthropic organizations and individuals fluctuates due to variables outside of their control.   With the income produced from the new endowment, the plan is to smooth out those rough patches and be able to deliver the kinds of services that they provide so well. With the perspective of all I learned while doing the production, it’s the same kind of foresight that the early Trentonians had when they started all of those charitable groups in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The names have changed, but not the problems.   Jews taking care of their own, in a Jewish way. Good luck Linda and JFCS. For information on how to support JFCS, click on this link.

Thanks for reading.

Ed

2012-02-13T23:26:00.001-05:00

People keep asking me, “Why are you doing this?” “You aren’t even from Trenton.” When I started writing the blog, the most frequent answer was that I just became fascinated by the stories of how wonderful Trenton was in its heyday. But now the question is really, “Why do I keep writing the blog?” What has sustained me has been the opportunity to meet so many interesting people while doing this. It seems as though everyday I meet someone who has heard of, seen or wants to see the blog and it is truly exhilarating. This past week, we surpassed 20,000 page views since this little experiment began and in the past month, we have recorded more than 6,000 of those page views. Thank you for reading and recommending these pages to others.

At the meeting a couple of weeks ago at Adath Israel, many of you introduced and/or re-introduced yourselves to me and there were a number of people who brought their pictures and stories with them.

Today, I want to share some amazingly personal documents that Phyllis Stern brought to “the Adath” (Can someone please tell me why it's The Adath?). Phyllis’ father was Maxwell Stern, who taught for 35 years in the Trenton Public Schools. Her grandfather was Morris Stern, who was one of the Kosher Butchers who had a store at 54 Union Street. In December, I found these pictures in the businesses section of the Trentonia collection at the Trenton Public Library.

I had them in my slide show for the meeting at Adath, but didn’t get a chance to show them. Phyllis wrote a family history, which I have reprinted, with her permission, here. The actual documents can be seen by double-clicking on the image. Digital copies of the documents follow:

TANKLE AND STERN, PERFECT TOGETHER

THIS IS THE STORY OF A LOVELY LADY AND A DAPPER YOUNG MAN...

ROSE AND SAMUEL TANKLE, OWNER OF A TAVERN AND LIQUOR STORE ON PENNINGTON AVE., HAD THREE CHILDREN:   LILLIAN, BEATRICE. AND RoBERT.
CELIA AND MORRIS STERN, A KOSHER BUTCHER ON UNION ST., HAD EIGHT CHILDREN:   HARRY, BEN, HERB, JACK, LILLIAN, MAX, WILLIAM AND CLARA.

AFTER GRADUATING FROM TRENTON HIGH, LILLIAN TANKLE

MET AND FELL IN LOVE WITH MAXWELL STERN.    THEY WERE MARRIED ON DECEMBER 25, 1938 AT THE HOTEL JERSEY. THE CEREMONY
WAS OFFICIATED BY RABBI ISSACHAR LEVIN.

LILLIAN WAS A CARING MOTHER WHO INSTILLED IN HER CHILDREN QUALITIES OF HONESTY AND HARD WORK. LILLIAN WAS PRESIDENT OF THE AHAVATH ISRAEL SISTERHOOD AND A LONG-TIME WORKER AT THE SHUL'S BINGO.
MAXWELL WAS A TEACHER IN THE TRENTON PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM FOR THIRTY-FIVE YEARS.    HIS INNOVATIVE TEACHING STYLE IS STILL REMEMBERED BY HIS DEVOTED STUDENTS.

MAXWELL, BESIDES BEING AN EXEMPLARY TEACHER OF MATHEMATICS, WAS THE DIRECTOR OF OPERETTAS AT JUNIOR FOUR, DIRECTOR OF SHOWS AT JUNIOR THREE AND A FEATURED PERFORMER IN TRENTON EDUCATION ASSOCIATION PRODUCTIONS.    HE WAS PRESIDENT OF THE MEN'S CLUB AT AHAVATH ISRAEL AND WORKED AT THEIR BINGO.

LILLIAN AND MAXWELL HAD TWO CHILDREN:    CHARLES AND PHYLLIS.    CHARLES WAS A SYSTEMS ANALYST.   PHYLLIS IS A RETIRED MATHEMATICS TEACHER AND VOLUNTEERS AS "THE MATH LADY AT THE BURLINGTON COUNTY LIBRARY.    PHYLLIS LIVES IN EDGEWATER PARK, NJ.

MAXWELL STERN DIED ON AUGUST 16,1981.
LILLIAN STERN DIED ON DECEMBER 18,1994.
CHARLES STERN DIED ON APRIL 5, 2007.
MAY THEY REST ETERNALLY IN DIGNITY AND PEACE.

In addition to her family story, Phyllis brought another treasure with her. This was a hand-typed letter that her father had left for her mother.

To My Survivors,
After death the deceased has no chance to tell his family all that is on his mind. I have written this let ter for that purpose.
I know you will be sad a.t my passing just as I have grieved for the loved ones who have gone before me.But do not be disheartened -- with all its trials and tribulations, I have had·a full, rich life.
Three areas have fulfilled my life. My work, which I enjoyed; my synagogue, which helped me through crises; and my family, whom I love.
Teaching to me has been a rewarding experience. The young people whose lives I have touched have always given me a small part of themselves to treasure.     My fellow workers have been kind and considerate.    The reciprocity of learning between us elevated me to a zenith of intellect
ion in my field of endeavor.

My synagogue has given me lifelong friends without whom the many crises of life could not have been met.    I have found solace and comfort within its walls. Any small part I have contributed has been returned to me a thousand fold. I am not setting down instances or names because, invariably,I would omit someone.

To my family I leave memories. Lillian, my wife, has been good, faithful and understanding. Our relationship was something to be admired. My son, Charles, and my daughter, Phyllis, have both inherited or developed qualities of love, charity, character and friendliness. My brothers and sisters, both living and dead, I thank for a happy childhood. Neither wealth nor power will last forever, only
intangible memories. This is what I leave you.

                                                                                                         Forever in Peace,
                                                                                                         Maxwell Stern

At the moment, I really don’t have a safe place to keep any items that you might want to send me. As the project moves forward, there might come a time when items could be donated to a collection that can be displayed somewhere. In the meantime, if you have anything you want to share, I would ask that you either scan it or have it scanned and e-mail it to me.   Keep those stories coming.

 Thanks,
 

Ed

2012-02-03T23:27:00.001-05:00

JANUARY 29th MEETING-PART 2 AND A LITTLE MORE ON ONE OF THE FIRST PROMINENT JEWS IN TRENTON

Thanks so much for all of the nice e-mails reviewing the meeting last Sunday. I am still going through the materials that some of you left with me, but I can promise that we’ll be talking about the Balloon Man of Cadawalder Park, Max Stern, and some of the Jewish-owned businesses of East Trenton in the not-too-distant future.

If you were at The Adath on Sunday, you’ll remember me talking about the earliest Jews of Trenton and mentioning Congregant Harry Naar and Judge David Naar, who bought the True American newspaper in the 1850’s. I also mentioned that I had put in a call to Devin Naar, Harry’s son, who is a history professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. Devin is in the process of planning a wedding and did get back to me after the meeting. Devin wrote an extensive paper on the subject on the Jewish Historical Society of Central New Jersey which can be accessed here. Judge Naar’s family came to the States by way of the Netherlands, Curaçao and St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands and Harry and Devin’s family traces their roots back to Salonika, Greece. Devin's paper explores the possibilities of where the families may have branched off.

Salonika has a fascinating Jewish history of it’s own and I refer you to this website for more information on it.   (Edward Victor is a major stamp collector and according to his website, he donated his collection to the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum) Apparently, the Naar family was not alone there. According to the website, the first Jews date back to the times of Alexander the Great--or more specifically to his brother-in-law, who brought them there because of “their expertise in maritime trade”.   After the Jews were expelled from Spain and then Portugal in 1492-1500, many made their way to Salonika and at the beginning of the 20th Century there were 80,000 Jews there-more than half the city’s population. The city had the largest Jewish population in Greece before the war, but thousands of Jews were deported and gassed at Auschwitz.    In the 1920's Harry’s grandfather came to New Brunswick, and wound up at the Sephardic Orthodox synagogue in Highland Park, Etz Ahaim has a very extensive history of the Jews of Greece and Spain on its website. Here is a link.

Back to Trenton. According to Devin, Judge David Naar was able to prosper and attain his position in pre-Civil War New Jersey because he was a very assimilated Jew for his time.   When he came to the States, he arrived in New York, settled in Elizabeth and became the mayor and president judge of the special court of Elizabeth.

Although I don’t have a date for when the Judge arrived in the United States, his family was established in the printing and publishing business prior to his political career.   According to the Trenton Historical Society’s website, he was the original Deputy Master of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite branch of the Masonic order , Mercer Council, Princes of Jerusalem, which was organized in 1864. He is listed as a founder of Trenton Normal College, which became Trenton State College and is now the College of new Jersey and he was the U.S. Consul at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands from 1845-1848 (where do I sign up for that gig?). He also was the State Treasurer in 1965 and 1866. He died at the age of 79 in 1880, the father of 15 children.

As promised, here’s the second part of the meeting from Sunday. I’ve heard from Israel, California and Arizona and I apologize for the audio.

2012-01-30T16:11:00.003-05:00

MORE THAN 100 ATTEND JANUARY 29TH TRENTON JEWISH PROJECT MEETING

Thank you to the more than 100 people who came to Congregation Adath Israel on Sunday morning, January 29th. I wasn't in the audience, but from where I was standing, it was a fantastic meeting. I hope it was as interesting to you as it was to me.

So many of you came to the meeting with pictures, documents and memories and I certainly have new material to add to the blog. I loved the lively discussions that took place and thank all who participated. Even the ones that I put on the spot.

If I singled out anyone, I would insult those who I don't...so I'm going to be politically correct.

I will make one exception here. If you were at the meeting, you heard me point out a 9th grader at Hopewell Valley Sr. High School who is working on a research project for Har Sinai. His name is Jordan Antebi and the week before the meeting, he contacted me by e-mail and told me about his work. The e-mail was exceptionally well-written. It was so well written that when I showed it to an attorney friend of mine with a son attending the Pennington School. He commented that he wished his son, who was a senior, could write that well.

Jordan's research project is on organized anti-semitism in Mercer County in the 1920's. A particular focus for him are the activities of the Bund and the America First Committee and their plans for the Jews in this area. Sunday night, I did a little Googling and found an article about a KKK rally in Hamilton in 1924, which was fascinating. Here's the link. http://www.capitalcentury.com/1924.html Apparently, the city fathers in Trenton wouldn't allow the Klan to assemble, but Hamilton had no problem with it. They marched right along the Hamilton-Trenton border and wound up at Springdale Park, which is now owned by the Trenton Archdiosece was owned by the KKK at the time. Jordan is looking into the Lindbergh connection and his involvement in anti-semitic activities. If you have any information that might be useful for Jordan, please leave comments on the blog or e-mail me at trentonjewishproject.blogspot.com. I will pass them along.

For those of you who couldn't make it to the event on Sunday, whether it was because you live 4 continents away, on another coast, or whether the meeting was scheduled too early, I am posting the first part of the meeting here. The rest will go up in the coming days. Special thanks to my son Joe, for shooting the video.

So, here you go.

Meeting Sunday at Adath Israel

2012-01-28T14:29:00.000-05:00

MEETING TOMORROW AT CONGREGATION ADATH ISRAEL IN LAWRENCEVILLE.

Pardon the radio silence again. I've been spending all my idle hours working on the presentation for tomorrow's (January 29th) meeting at Adath Israel.   This will be an interactive presentation with video, audio, pictures, some surprises and a chance for you to contribute your memories, too.

If you can make it, I think you'll come away entertained and informed. I hope it will bring back memories and inspire you to record those memories for your children and grandchildren.

This is a brief description of the program...

What happened to the Jews of Trenton?

7,000 Jews lived in Trenton in the 1930's.   Many were concentrated in a small area, bounded by Broad, Market and Warren Street; an area that is now a low income housing complex and the Hughes Justice Center.

Last March, Adath Israel hosted an Adult Education meeting on the Jews of New Jersey. It resulted in an overflow crowd and gave birth to a blog, the Trenton Jewish Project. Now, less than a year and more than 12,000 page views later, Ed Alpern will give us an update on this endeavor.   With readers from New Zealand to Israel and across the country, the Trenton Jewish Project is bringing the dispersed members of a once vibrant community together again. It is rekindling warm memories, opening a dialogue between generations and helping to preserve the history of a pocket of Jewish population that thrived in its time and spread its seeds throughout Central New Jersey and beyond. By combining archival photographs, interviews and social media, the Trenton Jewish Project is an opportunity to add your voice and create a living history of a time and place worth remembering.

Bring your memories, memorabilia and ideas and become part of this exciting project.


Looking forward to it.   Coffee and donuts at 9:30, program starts at 10am.   There is no Sunday school tomorrow at Adath Israel, so we have the place to ourselves.

Spiegel's and the Cemetery

2012-01-16T01:23:00.001-05:00

The Trenton Jewish Project is also the subject of another feature in the current issue of the New Jersey Jewish News. I spoke with reporter Matt Schuman a couple of months ago and suggested that instead of doing a long interview with me, that he should speak with some of our most ardent readers. The story can be found here. Thank you Matt and Managing Editor Abby Kanter.

I hate starting each one of these posts with an apology for how long it has taken to write the most recent post. It reminds me too much of trying to convince my teachers why I didn't have my homework. The past few weeks have been full of legitimate excuses, inclduing a 5 day business trip to Detroit for the Auto Show. While I haven’t been writing, I have been doing a fair bit of research on Old Trenton.

Shortly before the previous post was published, I spent a few hours at the Trenton Public Library in the Trentonia collection. I concentrated on pictures of business in Old Trenton and found a few, including this one of Herman Spiegel’s Furniture store from 1933.

Later that afternoon, I headed up to Lambertville to interview Herb Spiegel. Herb has been in touch numerous times via e-mail, but I had never met him. We spent about an hour talking and there will be future entries with video from that interview. Herb told me stories about the family furniture business as well as giving me some great background on the Trenton in which he grew up. It was fascinating. My knowledge of Old Trenton would fit in a thimble when compared to Herb’s but I was able to give him a little background about the building where his father had started the business. It came from a handwritten note that was attached to the picture that I found in Trentonia. the building was built in 1911 by Louis Cohen. It was located at 33 Market Street, behind the Morton House, which was owned by his Grandfather, Harry Alexander until he lost it during the Depression.

In the year that I’ve been doing this blog, The Morton House, which was a the triangular corner of Union and Market Street has been one of the most talked about locations during my research. Many people had told me that there was a house of ill repute there. One night, Herb watched the interview I had done with Sol “Pumpsie” Weinstein on the Trenton Jewish Project Facebook page, and he added a little insight.

“Pumpsie grew up a block from my family's business and lived in the old Morton House owned by my grandfather Harry Alexander. Harry lost the Morton House during the depression and my father, Herman Spiegel, bought it back.”

When we sat and talked last month, Herb told me that he had no idea what had gone on at the Morton House until much later. He used to eat at the Marrow (?) House, where a waiter by the name of Gus worked. Gus had worked at the Morton House and would tell Herb that “You could always get liquor at the Morton House” during Prohibition. Gus would come back to the table with the next course and say, “You could always get women at the Morton House, too.

That’s when Herb put it together and as he commented on his Facebook posting, “The "rooms" in the building mentioned by Pumpsie, became model rooms for the furniture store.”

The hour flew by and the stories flowed.   I don’t want to give too much away in this entry, but his memories of the town where he grew up are sweet. He spoke of his father’s lessons of business ethics and how his father would keep an eye on his store on Sundays, when it had to be closed due to the state’s blue laws. If he saw someone checking out the store, he would walk up to them and explain that they were closed and that if they came back during the week, he would personally take care of them. He also talked about how his father never used the “float’ when people put down deposits on the furniture they ordered.   The money would be paper clipped to the order and kept in a file cabinet until the furniture arrived. When I asked him what killed Old Trenton, among the reasons he gave was the installation of parking meters in downtown. Having people pay a “tax” to shop didn’t make any sense at all.

When the decision was made to move the downtown store out to Lawrenceville, his father called Mayor Arthur Holland to see if there was anything that could be done to keep him in that location. According to Herb, the mayor didn’t even know that the store was still located downtown. That clinched it, and Spiegel’s moved to Rte. 1 and stayed there for about 20 years.

After the holidays, I had lunch with Arthur Finkle & Albert Stark, who arrived with a folder full of material about his family’s history in Trenton, which was compiled by his Uncle Emil. During lunch, Albert told me that to really get the feel of Old Trenton, that I really needed to go to the cemeteries. It was a suggestion that Barry Weiner had made last May when I spoke with him on the phone. Between bites of a corned beef special, I lamented that I hadn’t had a chance to go and he suggested, “I’ll take you this afternoon.” We finished eating and headed out to the Brothers of Israel cemetery at Vroom and Dayton Street.   In a future story, I’ll tell you about our visit to the second oldest Jewish burial site in Trenton.

Shameless Plug warning!!!

If you want to see video of that visit to the cemetery, please come out to Adath Israel in Lawrenceville on Sunday morning, January 29th at 9:30am-(coffee), 10am start time.   I guess you can call it the second annual meeting of the Trenton Jewish Project.   Last February we had a great crowd for a lecture by Michael Aron Rockland about the Jews of New Jersey and I presented some of my research at the end of the meeting.   This year, I’ll be flying solo and in addition to the videos and interviews that I’ll be showing, I want to make the presentation a chance for many of you to tell your stories. I might even have pictures that correspond with your stories. If there’s a specific place or person that you want to about, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll see if I have any corroborating material.   No guarantees, but let’s make it an interesting morning. Thanks to the Adult Education Committee at Adath--or as everyone who I've interviewed for the blog calls it--"The Adath".

Thanks,   

Ed

2011-12-18T17:17:00.002-05:00

Happy Hannukah. Sorry for the delay in the publishing of this entry. I don't have 8 items here, but hopefully the warm feelings you'll get from reading about Old Trenton will fill the darkest days of the year (in terms of sunlight) with a little more light.

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Bertha Ropeik, who's maiden name was Bertha Levine. The other day, she lent me her husband Arnie's 1947 Rider College yearbook, so I could scan a few pictures in it. She also had an old copy of the February 17, 1947 issue of Life Magazine, in which there was pictorial story about the Rider College fraternity, Phi Sigma Nu, which staged the first of what has become a Christmas Day tradition in the area. A group of college kids decided to re-enact Washington's Crossing of the Delaware and Arnie had done the PR on it, letting the editors of Life know that it was going to happen. At the back of that 1947 yearbook were more pictures of the crossing, which I've included here.

-The Shadow, 1947

In case you missed it, the biggest Trenton story of the past couple of weekw didn't have anything to do with the old jewish community, or maybe it did.   DeLorenzo's is closing their store in Trenton and the repercussions are shaking the earth all the way to San Francisco, where Tony Siegle is mourning the loss.   This arrived in my mailbox the day after the Times' story ran.

"I read in the Trenton Times that DeLorenzos on Hudson St. is closing it's door. That is sad news indeed. I think every Jew who lived in Trenton in the 1950's on went the for "Tomato pies" and it became an institution. I think that now verifies kills the Trenton we knew and loved."

We moved to this area in 1996 and had the privilege of standing outside for about an hour before enjoying the best Tomato Pie I ever ate.   First the hotels, then the movie theaters, the synagogues and now DeLorenzo's. Ouch.

I ran into Elaine Lavine Sunday morning at Adath Israel and started talking about her father's store in Old Tenton, Palat's Dairy. I had my phone with me and showed her a photo of her Uncle Herman's store, Palat's Furs at 17 Cooper Street.   There is a photo of it from the 1958 tax records in the archives.

She told me that her memories of the business was of the trappers from South Jersey coming into the store with their muskrats and having them skinned. Their pelts were stretched out on boards and then used to make coats. Where do the trappers take their muskrats these days? Not to Quakerbridge Mall, I'm sure. Another sign that the times, they are a-changing.

And as promised, here is the second installment of my interview with Robert Olinsky in Israel. In going through some of the old pictures from the YMHA/JCC, I couldn't find a shot of Bob. I did find a shot of his father, Joe and his twin brother Richard. In this section Bob talks about hanging out the at YMHA and his father's cousin, Ben Olinsky, who ran the Biddy League, as well as Ben's wife, Muriel.

Again, Happy Hannukah to all.

Ed