"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.

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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.