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

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.

Ed

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

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.

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.

 

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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