all Oral History
August 16, 1989

Adolph Einspruch

Adolph Einspruch was born in 1898 in the city of Pilzno, in Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His family was in the bakery business, and though he was too young to work in it seriously, he helped out and grew up around the trade. He entered the Austrian army in 1918 and served until the army's collapse around 1920. His return home was harrowing, involving a dangerous train journey during which he lashed himself to the outside of a rail car. In the years that followed, under the new Polish regime, he was repeatedly conscripted and pursued, escaping from trains and hiding with sympathetic families. He was married in Krakow by a Jewish senator, Dr. Ozias Thon.

Drawn at one point toward settling in the Land of Israel, Einspruch spent time on a training farm near the Russian border as part of a resettlement movement, but he ultimately decided to go to America instead. He arrived in New York, where he worked as a baker and sought to join the bakers union. Frustrated by the difficulty, he and a handful of others organized their own union, meeting in the back room of a saloon on Norfolk Street. He learned the labor movement under a mentor, wrote about labor issues for a Yiddish publication, and rose to a leadership role, though he faced constant pressure and conflict from Communist rivals.

Einspruch came to Dallas, where he had a sister and other family connections, and with financial help from a friend he established himself in the bakery business. He took over a small bakery on North Akard Street, which he named the Ritz Bakery, in partnership with Max Breitbart. The delicatessen and bakery thrived on the strength of his fresh breads and rolls, drawing customers from the suburbs. When a bank sought his location, he relocated to Browder Street. His wife joined him in 1929, and the couple raised two sons, one a university dean in Miami and one a psychiatrist in Dallas. He sold the business around 1971 but continued baking for restaurants, including establishments tied to the Ricardo and Baccaro families, before finally retiring in 1985.