Bob Olinsky- Weather or not---A Trenton voice familiar all over Israel
As many of you know, this blog began less than a year ago and really started as an offshoot of an Adult Education Class that I organized at Adath Israel in early March 2011. One of the first things that I did when I set up the blog was to post pictures that I scanned at the Trenton Public Library. The first batch was of people who there weren’t any ID’s for. The second batch was of tax photos from the City of Trenton taken between 1938 and 1958. I encouraged (and still encourage people) to look at those pictures and if they stir memories or you can ID anyone in the pictures to note the Photo # and send me an e-mail so that I can add these ID’s to the Archives of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Trenton.
I started the blog on February 17th and on March 14th, I received the first of many e-mails from Bob Olinsky, a former Trentonian, who now lives in Israel. In the past year, Bob has retired after 40 years of working for the Israeli Weather Service. Last week, I got a chance to sit down and talk with Bob about the Trenton he remembers, how he wound up in Israel, and how he became perhaps the most recognizable voice on Israeli radio. We did this interview on Skype and my hope was to have video and audio of Bob, but the connection wasn’t good enough on Bob’s end to support the video, so I’ve tried to add visuals where it was appropriate.
What follows is part one of the conversation. We started with Bob’s recollections of Trenton. (Editor’s note: The first picture of Bob is the only recent one that he could find. It was taken in Italy in 2005. Bob and his wife are living in an apartment, preparing to move next year and most of their photos are in storage).
Bob mentions Sol in the interview. Sol is Sol Weinstein lived for a short time at 61 Union Street. After speaking with Bob last week, I also spoke with Sol, who told me that he thought his uncles were the bootleggers. They might have been, but apparently they weren’t the only ones. This is part one of the interview. In subsequent weeks, we’ll have more from Bob.
I’ve been asked a number of times in the past 10 months, why I, a non-Trentonian, am doing this blog. There are many reasons, but one of them is that I have had a wonderful time listening to the stories, filled with passion about old Trenton. It also has been an education for me about how powerful the Internet is as a tool for bringing people together. I’ve served as a conduit for a number of people who have fallen out of touch with old friends. To help facilitate that, we’ve set up a Facebook Group page, (search Trenton Jewish Project on Facebook) where you can register and send e-mail directly to one another. In the coming months, I hope to add other layers of Social Media to this project. One thing Social Media can’t replace is face-to-face interaction. On January 29th, I’ll be speaking at Adath Israel in Lawrenceville. In addition to showing some video from interviews that I’ve done in the past year with Trentonians, I’m hoping to put together a panel which can speak about how Trenton’s Jewish population transformed over the years. It should be a fascinating morning. Mark the date on your calendars. As plans come together, I’ll keep you updated.
Thanks,
Ed
Showing posts with label Tal Brody. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tal Brody. Show all posts
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
A Memory of Ben Olinsky
Ten years ago, I had no idea what a blog was. If I had, I'm sure I would have published this at the time. This Monday morning, October 31, 2011, I was cleaning up in my office and came upon a CD on which I had archived old documents from a computer that had long ago been recycled. I had been on the lookout for years for a copy of a story that I had written in November of 2001. It was on this disc. If there was a point when the groundwork had been laid for putting together the Trenton Jewish Project, this was probably the it. I've done just a little editing, changing some present tense sentences to past tense and updating the information about my kids. But 99% of what you about to read was written a decade ago.
It was a sad time, for 9/11 had happened just two months earlier and there was much uncertainty. The weather was changing. Another winter was approaching and with it, an inevitable case of Seasonal Affect Disorder. I had also just gotten some very bad news. Someone who I had met only once, but made a lasting impression on me had just passed away.
If life is a game, then the measure of your accomplishments should be able to be totaled up shortly after your death. The final buzzer sounds and the score is up there on the big board for all to see. The tally includes all the people who you touch along the way and the impact that you have on them and your community. This is the story of a man who won big. He gave and touched and he deserves to be remembered.
I didn’t meet Ben Olinsky until he was 82 years old. By then, he was having trouble walking. I only met him once. We spoke for a little over an hour. Almost a year to the day later, I attended his funeral.
I first became aware of Benjamin C. Olinsky while doing a community service project at the Jewish Community Center of the Delaware Valley. Both of my sons had attended Ring Nursery School at the Center and my oldest, age 8 at the time, was intensely proud of the 12 trophies he earned through the sports programs that were run year round. After years of walking past yellowing and faded photos stapled to a bulletin board, I decided that these pictures needed to be preserved. There were 226 of them. They spanned the decades, beginning in the 19-teens with activities from the Trenton YMHA (Young Man’s Hebrew Association) and ending in the 80’s. Most were black and white, many were ripped, almost all had neatly typed captions with names of people who had played basketball, wrestled, swam, played baseball, organized dances, supported soldiers, taught children how to play sports and be good sports. It was a collection that demanded attention.
As I removed the staples and faithfully made piles for the different decades to which the photographs belonged, I couldn’t help but wonder who these people were. One face kept staring back at me. I first noticed it in a 1933 picture of a basketball team. There, in the center of the back row, was a handsome, skinny man, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a very faint smile. “Wait a minute,” I said to myself. “I’ve seen that face before.”
I rifled back through the 1930’s pile, then the 40’s pile. The skinny kid had put on some muscle and before I got to the end of the 1940’s, it was clear that Ben Olinsky was some kind of a gym rat. He must have lived at the Y.
At the top of the 1950’s pile I started seeing pictures of Ben Olinsky, not as a player, but as a coach.
And then I came upon a photo from 1955, there was a picture of five women who were members of the Dance Committee. On the far right, the caption identified a Muriel Olinsky. She didn’t look like a sister, but maybe a wife.
It turns out that in the late 1940’s a woman named Muriel came to Rider College. She played basketball and found her way down to the Y. The athletic director of the Y at the time, a Scotty Mosovich, worked with Muriel on her free throws and happened to introduce Muriel to the gym rat. An 82-year old Ben Olinsky described it as “the worst decision that Scotty ever made.” The mating ritual was far from typical, but what else could you expect. Ben challenged Muriel to a free throw shooting contest. She won. “I beat him at his game and he had to marry me,” remembers Muriel. The match lasted 54 years.
The 1950’s pile also provided me a more personal link to this mystery man, Mr. Olinsky. From 1954, there was a picture of a an adult handing a basketball to a couple of boys who looked to be 7 or 8 years old. The caption said one of the two kids was named Tal Brody.
It was a name that I knew from my teenage years. I went to Israel in 1973 for six weeks with the summer camp I attended. We went to the opening ceremonies of the Maccabiah games (The Jewish Olympics). At my aunt’s apartment in Jerusalem, four of my friends and I watched as this same Tal Brody led the Israeli team to a spirited win over the United States team in the gold medal game. Now, I held in my hand another picture. One that made this public service project even more compelling. Tal Brody, who grew up in Trenton, became a star at Trenton High, was an All-American at the University of Illinois, played on the U.S., then Israeli national teams, was a member of the ill-fated 1972 Israeli Olympic games and later became a national hero in Israel, and Ben Olinsky had crossed paths. The photo brought a flood of my own memories of that summer of 1973. We played many a basketball game that ended with one of us hitting a jumper from beyond the three point line (ABA rules, back then) as time ran out and another of us screaming…”Tal Brody at the buzzer…it’s good!!!”
By the bottom of the 1950’s pile, my man Ben was the guy giving out the trophies to the kids.
He had started a program called the Biddy League, and he was now its president. The Biddy League was the place where hundreds of kids, starting at the ripe age of 7, got their first chance to learn about and play the game of basketball. One of the rules of the Biddy League was that everyone played at least a half. When I finally met Ben in November of 2000, that rule was one of the facts he made sure to tell me. “Everybody got to play at least a half. Whether they were good or bad.” Tears actually started to well up in the eyes of this strong man who could swear like a sailor (he was one—Navy 1940’s) when he told me, “That was what I was the proudest of, I felt noches (yiddish for pride) when I saw the kids learning how to play.” Tal Brody was one of those kids. By the time I met Ben, Brody was a middle-aged insurance executive. The man who is still considered Israel’s Mr. Basketball has lived a charmed life because of basketball. I found Tal Brody's telephone number and interviewed him in 2000. Brody told me, “I started playing basketball at the Y in the Biddy League, that was really where I got my start.”
Brody isn’t the only one with fond memories of the man and the program. To this day, many of them still keep in touch with each other, sharing a link they forged as kids on the basketball court. One was a weatherman in Israel and another a stock analyst for Robertson Stephens in San Francisco. There’s a lawyer in Lawrenceville and a Rabbi in Jerusalem. In fact, there are hundreds of people whose lives were touched by Ben Olinksy. And I guess that’s the point. Even though you won’t read about someone like Ben Olinsky in the pages of People Magazine or see his story on a TV magazine show, he was a man who gave of his time and volunteered so that future generations would have a positive experience and a love of sports. So, I really wasn’t surprised on that bright and sunny day in November 2001 when the chapel at the funeral home was packed and more than 100 people came to say goodbye to Ben.
I didn’t meet Ben Olinsky until he was 82 years old. In November 2000, we sat and talked with a video camera rolling for a little more than an hour. In the middle of the interview, a client called and I had to rush off to a meeting. We didn’t get a chance to talk again. Almost a year to the day later, I ran into his wife at the local supermarket. I asked how Ben was doing. “He was hanging in,” Muriel said, but knee problems were hobbling him physically and Alzheimer's was robbing him of his mental agility. I promised to get her a copy of the interview. It would be ready on the following Monday when Muriel would be at the Golden Age meeting at the JCC. My wife dropped in to give her the tape as promised. Muriel wasn’t there. One of her best friends informed my wife that Ben had passed away on Sunday, four days after I ran into Muriel.
Ben Olinsky was 83 at the end of regulation. I met him almost a year to the day before he died. The seats were full at his funeral. There might as well have been a big scoreboard at the end of the chapel where the rabbi spoke. His friends and at least one acquaintance had come to celebrate a life that was a lopsided victory.
A side note---Last week, I included a color picture of the Saperstein brothers sitting on a bench. One of our readers, Mary Lou Byer recognized the setting instantly as Ahavath Israel. Not only that, but Mary Lou knew that the bench had made the trek from Ewing to Lawrenceville when Ahavath and Adath merged earlier this year. Well, a little bit of detective work uncovered the wherabouts of that bench and a matching one. In the synagogue offices at Adath, the benches have a home. The benches are inscribed with a plaque commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Albert & Anne Hirsch. Case solved.
It was a sad time, for 9/11 had happened just two months earlier and there was much uncertainty. The weather was changing. Another winter was approaching and with it, an inevitable case of Seasonal Affect Disorder. I had also just gotten some very bad news. Someone who I had met only once, but made a lasting impression on me had just passed away.
A MEMORY OF BEN OLINSKY
By Ed Alpern
If life is a game, then the measure of your accomplishments should be able to be totaled up shortly after your death. The final buzzer sounds and the score is up there on the big board for all to see. The tally includes all the people who you touch along the way and the impact that you have on them and your community. This is the story of a man who won big. He gave and touched and he deserves to be remembered.
I didn’t meet Ben Olinsky until he was 82 years old. By then, he was having trouble walking. I only met him once. We spoke for a little over an hour. Almost a year to the day later, I attended his funeral.
I first became aware of Benjamin C. Olinsky while doing a community service project at the Jewish Community Center of the Delaware Valley. Both of my sons had attended Ring Nursery School at the Center and my oldest, age 8 at the time, was intensely proud of the 12 trophies he earned through the sports programs that were run year round. After years of walking past yellowing and faded photos stapled to a bulletin board, I decided that these pictures needed to be preserved. There were 226 of them. They spanned the decades, beginning in the 19-teens with activities from the Trenton YMHA (Young Man’s Hebrew Association) and ending in the 80’s. Most were black and white, many were ripped, almost all had neatly typed captions with names of people who had played basketball, wrestled, swam, played baseball, organized dances, supported soldiers, taught children how to play sports and be good sports. It was a collection that demanded attention.
As I removed the staples and faithfully made piles for the different decades to which the photographs belonged, I couldn’t help but wonder who these people were. One face kept staring back at me. I first noticed it in a 1933 picture of a basketball team. There, in the center of the back row, was a handsome, skinny man, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a very faint smile. “Wait a minute,” I said to myself. “I’ve seen that face before.”
At the top of the 1950’s pile I started seeing pictures of Ben Olinsky, not as a player, but as a coach.
 |
| Muriel Olinsky on the far left. |
The 1950’s pile also provided me a more personal link to this mystery man, Mr. Olinsky. From 1954, there was a picture of a an adult handing a basketball to a couple of boys who looked to be 7 or 8 years old. The caption said one of the two kids was named Tal Brody.
Brody isn’t the only one with fond memories of the man and the program. To this day, many of them still keep in touch with each other, sharing a link they forged as kids on the basketball court. One was a weatherman in Israel and another a stock analyst for Robertson Stephens in San Francisco. There’s a lawyer in Lawrenceville and a Rabbi in Jerusalem. In fact, there are hundreds of people whose lives were touched by Ben Olinksy. And I guess that’s the point. Even though you won’t read about someone like Ben Olinsky in the pages of People Magazine or see his story on a TV magazine show, he was a man who gave of his time and volunteered so that future generations would have a positive experience and a love of sports. So, I really wasn’t surprised on that bright and sunny day in November 2001 when the chapel at the funeral home was packed and more than 100 people came to say goodbye to Ben.
I didn’t meet Ben Olinsky until he was 82 years old. In November 2000, we sat and talked with a video camera rolling for a little more than an hour. In the middle of the interview, a client called and I had to rush off to a meeting. We didn’t get a chance to talk again. Almost a year to the day later, I ran into his wife at the local supermarket. I asked how Ben was doing. “He was hanging in,” Muriel said, but knee problems were hobbling him physically and Alzheimer's was robbing him of his mental agility. I promised to get her a copy of the interview. It would be ready on the following Monday when Muriel would be at the Golden Age meeting at the JCC. My wife dropped in to give her the tape as promised. Muriel wasn’t there. One of her best friends informed my wife that Ben had passed away on Sunday, four days after I ran into Muriel.
Ben Olinsky was 83 at the end of regulation. I met him almost a year to the day before he died. The seats were full at his funeral. There might as well have been a big scoreboard at the end of the chapel where the rabbi spoke. His friends and at least one acquaintance had come to celebrate a life that was a lopsided victory.
A side note---Last week, I included a color picture of the Saperstein brothers sitting on a bench. One of our readers, Mary Lou Byer recognized the setting instantly as Ahavath Israel. Not only that, but Mary Lou knew that the bench had made the trek from Ewing to Lawrenceville when Ahavath and Adath merged earlier this year. Well, a little bit of detective work uncovered the wherabouts of that bench and a matching one. In the synagogue offices at Adath, the benches have a home. The benches are inscribed with a plaque commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Albert & Anne Hirsch. Case solved.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Rotating the tires, taking stock
It’s Erev Yom Kippur and I’m sitting at Sam’s Club, getting the tires rotated on our van. I guess it’s more than a coincidence that I find myself taking care of this maintenance issue on the eve of the Day of Atonement. Rotating your tires every 7500 miles is what the manufacturer recommends. 10 days to take stock of where you are each year is the Jewish equivalent. And as the odometer of life rolls over to another year it’s time to look back at the things that were done well this year and the things that we’ll work hard at doing better next year.
For me, writing this blog and working on the Trenton Jewish Project has been a tremendously positive influence in my life this year. Our statistics show that in the next week we’ll have our 5,000th page view, which is remarkable. But numbers only tell a small part of the story.
The best part of writing in cyberspace has been the human interaction that has been the byproduct of blogging. I’ve met so many people in the past nine months through this endeavor and they’ve all been fascinating and they’ve all had their own stories of what Trenton was like.
I met almost 70 of you at the event at Adath Israel in March and thanks to that core of people, I’ve talked with David and Sol Weinstein in New Zealand and traded e-mails with daughter Judee in LA, traded e-mails wtih Carol Angstreich Zimmerman in Alabama, met Tal Brody at Abrams Day School, interviewed the Gordons in Lawrenceville, been encouraged by Rabbi Grossman at Adath Israel, had lunch wtih Arthur Finkle, gotten picture identifications from Ron Warren, heard from Lou Gordon in Los Angeles, had the pleasure of meeting Tony Siegle in San Francisco and last week meeting his 96 year old mother at Greenwood House. And Dave Hodes and Bob Gross have spread word of the blog to friends far and wide. I've even facilitated reunions after 50 year hiatuses. These are just a few of the interactions that I’ve had doing this blog. I apologize to those I haven't mentioned.
I have learned about a Trenton that everyone tells me was a safe, wonderful place to grow up while I’ve been reading in the newspapers about a modern-day Trenton that is moving father away from that place.
I’ve heard from those who lived in the Broad and Market area, and those who lived in the Hiltonia section and only went downtown to go to shop, the people who spent their teen years at the YMHA and those whose parents didn’t want them going anywhere near the place. I’ve heard about the big shul, the middle shul and the little shul. It’s all been fascinating.
Barry Weiner has encouraged me to take a tour of the Jewish cemeteries to get a real history of the Jews of Trenton. But most of all, every week the payoff for me has been the stream of e-mails that come from you, the readers, with more stories, more insight into Jewish Trenton.
Last time, I asked for memories of High Holidays past in Trenton and Lynn Diamond Aronson took me up on that one.
As a teenager in the 50's, I have great memories of walking from my house off of West State Street, up Parkside Ave., and joining my friends, to continue the walk up to Bellevue Ave. to attend high holiday services. We would be part of the "Jr. Congregation". After services, we would all stand outside and socialize, until our parents were finished with their service in the main sanctuary.
I attended the Sunday School and Hebrew School, from age 5 until 14 yrs. of age, when I was confirmed with my class. Eventually I taught Sunday School there as well.
That last entry also talked about the Butchers of Trenton and Barry Weiner added this;
Fred Hafetz , son of one of the Hafetz brothers, is one of the most noted defense lawyers in NYC! Very big time defense council who has been involved with some of the biggest trials in NYC!
The number of doctors,lawyers, dentists,CPAs, pharmacistswho came out "Jewtown" is huge! education was way out of the "ghetto"!
The Yiddish speaking black man who worked for Hafetz had a few brothers who also worked for other kosher butchers. His brother , Peyton Roberts, worked for my father Philip Wiener at Liberty Kosher meat Mkt.from the age of 16 until he retired! Eddie's Yiddish was perfect! He could even write Yiddish!
You cannot tell stories of old Jewish Trenton without telling the story of the famous Trenton Six Case! Trenton Jews testified for the defense and the prosecution. Google it and you will learn a lot about the character of the Jews who lived through this trial period , in fact , both trials!
Old Jewish Trenton had many memorable characters!You have only scratched the surface! It a time and age that truly deserves a TV series!
I also challenged Debbie Hafetz Babashack to take up Myron Hafetz’s challenge and tell more about the role that the Hafetz’s played in bringing Irv Weinstein to Trenton. Here’s what Debbie contributed.
“I just read the article about butchers in the Trenton area and an excerpt from my cousin who supplied some information on the Hafetz brothers – Frank and Joe. Frank, my father, passed away in 1956 and I was only ten at the time so my memories, although some are very vivid, most are a bit sketchy. I do remember that we had a store on Market Street where Weinstein’s eventually moved into. Our store then moved across the street to #54 Market. I remember Eddie who worked in the butcher shop across the street and I was as amazed as everyone that he spoke fluent Yiddish. We had a driver who worked for us by the name of Josh Kelly – he was a sweetheart too. I used to remember people saying how beautifully my father would cut the meat because he had the blood of an artist and was skillful with his hands – wordworking – and meat too. When he became seriously ill, my mother hired a butcher to help her run the store and he remained for a number of years, helping my mother – although she did a pretty good job of filling meat orders also. When Weinstein’s moved out to Hermitage Avenue, my mother rented the store with an option to buy to Alexander’s Pharmacy. Eventually, my mother could no longer handle being a butcher and closed the store, along with many fond memories of the area. There will never be anything like that anywhere and I consider myself fortunate to have been able to experience those days.”
I also would be remiss to not mention the note I got from “Another Sugie”. Anita Ellis has been living in Jerusalem for the past 36 years, but spent 1950-1975 in Trenton.
“My father-in-law used to go to Foxie's delicatessen on Market St. I remember Mr. & Mrs. Fox and their sons, as lovely people.
Sylvia Olinsky was everyone's favorite manicurist and her old customers will smile when I remind them that it was woe to he who was late for an appointment. I once had to take my son, Rob, with me and found out that children weren't her favorite people. I remember Irwin and Herbie Spiegel used to make her crazy with their pranks.”
I would love to hear more about Waldman’s and would love to find a picture or pictures of the place. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the 7 minute video that I’ve put together about the Trenton Jewish project, you can click here. It is part of the blog entry from April 5, 2011 and it talks about both Waldman's Barbershop and Benny Hock's. (about halfway down the page)
So, the tires are rotated, the year has been recapped and I’m ready for the next 7500 miles of 7500 page views, whichever comes first.
Have a Happy and Healthy New Year and keep those e-mails coming. I might be slow to respond, but I promise I will do a better job in 5772.
Ed
For me, writing this blog and working on the Trenton Jewish Project has been a tremendously positive influence in my life this year. Our statistics show that in the next week we’ll have our 5,000th page view, which is remarkable. But numbers only tell a small part of the story.
The best part of writing in cyberspace has been the human interaction that has been the byproduct of blogging. I’ve met so many people in the past nine months through this endeavor and they’ve all been fascinating and they’ve all had their own stories of what Trenton was like.
I met almost 70 of you at the event at Adath Israel in March and thanks to that core of people, I’ve talked with David and Sol Weinstein in New Zealand and traded e-mails with daughter Judee in LA, traded e-mails wtih Carol Angstreich Zimmerman in Alabama, met Tal Brody at Abrams Day School, interviewed the Gordons in Lawrenceville, been encouraged by Rabbi Grossman at Adath Israel, had lunch wtih Arthur Finkle, gotten picture identifications from Ron Warren, heard from Lou Gordon in Los Angeles, had the pleasure of meeting Tony Siegle in San Francisco and last week meeting his 96 year old mother at Greenwood House. And Dave Hodes and Bob Gross have spread word of the blog to friends far and wide. I've even facilitated reunions after 50 year hiatuses. These are just a few of the interactions that I’ve had doing this blog. I apologize to those I haven't mentioned.
I have learned about a Trenton that everyone tells me was a safe, wonderful place to grow up while I’ve been reading in the newspapers about a modern-day Trenton that is moving father away from that place.
I’ve heard from those who lived in the Broad and Market area, and those who lived in the Hiltonia section and only went downtown to go to shop, the people who spent their teen years at the YMHA and those whose parents didn’t want them going anywhere near the place. I’ve heard about the big shul, the middle shul and the little shul. It’s all been fascinating.
Barry Weiner has encouraged me to take a tour of the Jewish cemeteries to get a real history of the Jews of Trenton. But most of all, every week the payoff for me has been the stream of e-mails that come from you, the readers, with more stories, more insight into Jewish Trenton.
Last time, I asked for memories of High Holidays past in Trenton and Lynn Diamond Aronson took me up on that one.
As a teenager in the 50's, I have great memories of walking from my house off of West State Street, up Parkside Ave., and joining my friends, to continue the walk up to Bellevue Ave. to attend high holiday services. We would be part of the "Jr. Congregation". After services, we would all stand outside and socialize, until our parents were finished with their service in the main sanctuary.
I attended the Sunday School and Hebrew School, from age 5 until 14 yrs. of age, when I was confirmed with my class. Eventually I taught Sunday School there as well.
That last entry also talked about the Butchers of Trenton and Barry Weiner added this;
Fred Hafetz , son of one of the Hafetz brothers, is one of the most noted defense lawyers in NYC! Very big time defense council who has been involved with some of the biggest trials in NYC!
The number of doctors,lawyers, dentists,CPAs, pharmacistswho came out "Jewtown" is huge! education was way out of the "ghetto"!
The Yiddish speaking black man who worked for Hafetz had a few brothers who also worked for other kosher butchers. His brother , Peyton Roberts, worked for my father Philip Wiener at Liberty Kosher meat Mkt.from the age of 16 until he retired! Eddie's Yiddish was perfect! He could even write Yiddish!
You cannot tell stories of old Jewish Trenton without telling the story of the famous Trenton Six Case! Trenton Jews testified for the defense and the prosecution. Google it and you will learn a lot about the character of the Jews who lived through this trial period , in fact , both trials!
Old Jewish Trenton had many memorable characters!You have only scratched the surface! It a time and age that truly deserves a TV series!
I also challenged Debbie Hafetz Babashack to take up Myron Hafetz’s challenge and tell more about the role that the Hafetz’s played in bringing Irv Weinstein to Trenton. Here’s what Debbie contributed.
“I just read the article about butchers in the Trenton area and an excerpt from my cousin who supplied some information on the Hafetz brothers – Frank and Joe. Frank, my father, passed away in 1956 and I was only ten at the time so my memories, although some are very vivid, most are a bit sketchy. I do remember that we had a store on Market Street where Weinstein’s eventually moved into. Our store then moved across the street to #54 Market. I remember Eddie who worked in the butcher shop across the street and I was as amazed as everyone that he spoke fluent Yiddish. We had a driver who worked for us by the name of Josh Kelly – he was a sweetheart too. I used to remember people saying how beautifully my father would cut the meat because he had the blood of an artist and was skillful with his hands – wordworking – and meat too. When he became seriously ill, my mother hired a butcher to help her run the store and he remained for a number of years, helping my mother – although she did a pretty good job of filling meat orders also. When Weinstein’s moved out to Hermitage Avenue, my mother rented the store with an option to buy to Alexander’s Pharmacy. Eventually, my mother could no longer handle being a butcher and closed the store, along with many fond memories of the area. There will never be anything like that anywhere and I consider myself fortunate to have been able to experience those days.”
I also would be remiss to not mention the note I got from “Another Sugie”. Anita Ellis has been living in Jerusalem for the past 36 years, but spent 1950-1975 in Trenton.
“My father-in-law used to go to Foxie's delicatessen on Market St. I remember Mr. & Mrs. Fox and their sons, as lovely people.
Sylvia Olinsky was everyone's favorite manicurist and her old customers will smile when I remind them that it was woe to he who was late for an appointment. I once had to take my son, Rob, with me and found out that children weren't her favorite people. I remember Irwin and Herbie Spiegel used to make her crazy with their pranks.”
I would love to hear more about Waldman’s and would love to find a picture or pictures of the place. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the 7 minute video that I’ve put together about the Trenton Jewish project, you can click here. It is part of the blog entry from April 5, 2011 and it talks about both Waldman's Barbershop and Benny Hock's. (about halfway down the page)
So, the tires are rotated, the year has been recapped and I’m ready for the next 7500 miles of 7500 page views, whichever comes first.
Have a Happy and Healthy New Year and keep those e-mails coming. I might be slow to respond, but I promise I will do a better job in 5772.
Ed
Monday, April 11, 2011
Trenton Jewish Project update
Greetings all.
I am not a numbers person, but I am totally astounded by the power of the Internet. I met with the Adath Israel Adult Education committee in late February to discuss plans for the March 13th meeting at which Professor Rockland and I spoke. The committee suggested that I set up a website and print up some cards, so that people coming to the meeting could follow up with me. I took their advice and set up the blog you are reading now. I've always been intrigued by the idea of a blog, but had never done anything like this before.
Well, the response has been incredible. The blog you are reading now got over 500 page views in the first month of its existence. I have been receiving e-mails from people who were at the meeting, as well as people who have been contacted by people who came to the meeting. I've gotten messages all the way from Israel to Alabama and they keep on coming.
Carol (Angstreich) Zimmerman who lives in Fairhope, Alabama has sent me some newspaper clippings and personal photos from 1946, 1947, and some from the early 1950's, which I have added to this online album.
Please take a look and write comments below the pictures.
In an amazing coincidence, I found out from Adath Israel Rabbi Daniel Grossman that Tal Brody, who was the subject of a blog posting two weeks ago, was in the area last week. I found out Tuesday evening and was able to meet up with him at Abrams Hebrew Academy in Yardley on Wednesday. He came to speak to the children about his career, starting out playing Biddy Basketball at the old YMHA on Stockton Street. I showed him some of the JCC pictures that I included in the 2000 interview that I posted. In fact, he asked me to send those photos to him, which I did. I shot some video of him and hope to upload it to the blog in the coming weeks. He spoke fondly of his days at the JCC and in Trenton. Probably the neatest moment came when he explained how after leading Tel Aviv-Maccabi Elite to its first European League Championship in 1977, a reporter put a microphone in his face and he said, to paraphrase, that the victory, "put Israel on the map, not only in basketball, but in everything." A group of Israeli teachers started singing a song based on those very words, which have become part of the pop culture of Israel.
Please keep telling your friends what we are doing and direct them to this website. Keep those e-mails coming.
Thanks,
Ed
I am not a numbers person, but I am totally astounded by the power of the Internet. I met with the Adath Israel Adult Education committee in late February to discuss plans for the March 13th meeting at which Professor Rockland and I spoke. The committee suggested that I set up a website and print up some cards, so that people coming to the meeting could follow up with me. I took their advice and set up the blog you are reading now. I've always been intrigued by the idea of a blog, but had never done anything like this before.
Well, the response has been incredible. The blog you are reading now got over 500 page views in the first month of its existence. I have been receiving e-mails from people who were at the meeting, as well as people who have been contacted by people who came to the meeting. I've gotten messages all the way from Israel to Alabama and they keep on coming.
Carol (Angstreich) Zimmerman who lives in Fairhope, Alabama has sent me some newspaper clippings and personal photos from 1946, 1947, and some from the early 1950's, which I have added to this online album.
Please take a look and write comments below the pictures.
In an amazing coincidence, I found out from Adath Israel Rabbi Daniel Grossman that Tal Brody, who was the subject of a blog posting two weeks ago, was in the area last week. I found out Tuesday evening and was able to meet up with him at Abrams Hebrew Academy in Yardley on Wednesday. He came to speak to the children about his career, starting out playing Biddy Basketball at the old YMHA on Stockton Street. I showed him some of the JCC pictures that I included in the 2000 interview that I posted. In fact, he asked me to send those photos to him, which I did. I shot some video of him and hope to upload it to the blog in the coming weeks. He spoke fondly of his days at the JCC and in Trenton. Probably the neatest moment came when he explained how after leading Tel Aviv-Maccabi Elite to its first European League Championship in 1977, a reporter put a microphone in his face and he said, to paraphrase, that the victory, "put Israel on the map, not only in basketball, but in everything." A group of Israeli teachers started singing a song based on those very words, which have become part of the pop culture of Israel.
Please keep telling your friends what we are doing and direct them to this website. Keep those e-mails coming.
Thanks,
Ed
Friday, April 1, 2011
Tal Brody, Trenton's gift to Israeli basketball
Tal Brody Interview, circa 2000 from Ed Alpern on Vimeo.
In 2000, I took down all of the pictures that were displayed in the hallway at the JCC in Ewing and scanned them. They spanned decades of activities that were held at the JCC and the YMHA on Stockton Street before that. Thousands of kids played basketball at the JCC from the 1910's-2000. None of them were better than Tal Brody, who got his start at the JCC and went on to star at Trenton High School, then at the University of Illinois, the US Maccabiah team, Maccabi Tel Aviv and to this day is still revered in Israel as "Mr. Basketball". I did this interview over the phone with Tal Brody after seeing his name on a captioned photo.
On a personal note, when I was in Israel in the summer of 1973, Tal Brody led the Israeli Maccabi team against the US team. Four of my fellow Ramah campers came to my Aunt's apartment in Jerusalem to watch the game. My memories of that game are that we were bowing in front of the TV, chanting "We're not worthy!" after watching him play.
What a feeling when I found the photos at the JCC!
P.S. Most of the photos at the JCC were donated by Ben Olinsky, who ran the biddy basketball program from the 1940's-the 1970's.
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