Alan Sandler
Alan Sandler's family roots trace to Lithuania and England. His mother's parents both came from Lithuania, and his father's grandfather came from Lithuania while his grandmother came from Sheffield, England. Both sides settled in the early 1900s in Troyville, a small area within Johannesburg, drawn by South African programs encouraging Jewish immigration. His grandfathers worked as a jeweler and in soft goods, and were remembered as very honest men. Alan's parents met at Hebrew school at age eight. He grew up in the Greenside and Emmarentia area, attended public schools, played many sports, and was bar mitzvahed at the Jeppe synagogue, a conservative congregation. He earned his chartered accountant qualification at the University of the Witwatersrand, studying at night while working during the day.
Alan married his first wife, who had grown up nearby, and their oldest son was born in Johannesburg. In 1978, with his wife's family having already left for Israel and then America, the couple immigrated, first living in New Jersey for about three years, where their second son was born. In June 1981, after obtaining papers through a CPA firm, they moved to Dallas. Alan worked as director of financial reporting for a long-distance telephone company, then as CFO for a South African-owned jewelry company called Veralite Gold. After it was sold in 1987, he joined his father-in-law's office supply business and shifted into sales, an industry he remained in with a company called Preferred Business Solutions.
In Dallas the Sandlers integrated easily into both the South African and broader Jewish communities, connecting with many fellow immigrants. Two of his sons attended Akiba for a time, and all three graduated from Greenhill School. The family attended synagogue at Shearith Israel, where his sons were bar mitzvahed, and Alan later became a member of Temple Emanu-El after marrying his second wife, Frada, who came from a prominent Dallas family. He served on the JCC board in the late 1980s and has long been devoted to coaching youth soccer and working with soccer referees. Alan remains close to his mother, brother, and family in South Africa, returns to visit, and keeps his heritage alive through favorite foods such as biltong and South African chocolate. All three of his sons live in the Dallas area.
Full Transcript
good morning morning just so that people know what we're doing today um this is June the 6th n uh 2014 and we're here at the Jewish Community Center interviewing Alan Sandler as part of the roots to boots project for the Dallas Jewish historical society and the way we'd like to start this morning Alan is I'd like to ask you if you could to give us a little bit of history about your family prior to South Africa tell us what you can about your grandparents where they came from and how it was that they made their way to South Africa um my mom's parents were both
from Lithuania um and they went to South Africa when a lot of the Jews left Lithuania and some decided to go to Israel some decided to come to America and at the time South Africa um were trying to get immigrants to come there and were offering them I don't know programs to help them settle in so that's where my uh my mom's parents came from my dad's parents my um my grandmother my dad's side came from Lithuania and my sorry my grandfather came from Lithuania and my grandmother came from Sheffield in England okay what period of time was this on both um early 1900s and
where did they settle they settled in a little town in Johannesburg called troyville which is um a tiny little town you would say if it was if you compare it to Dallas might be like East Dallas did both sides settled there yes yes both sides settled there and uh obviously they had children and my mom um was one of three she was the youngest she had an older sister an older brother and then her my dad had an older brother and it was him and um my mom and dad actually met at uh Hebrew school when they were 8 years old tell me a little
bit about the businesses that your grandparents were involved in my grandfather on my father's side was a um a jeweler and my grandfather on my mother's side was I think in like soft goods business and and um not educated people but uh very very honest people when I uh had met people who knew them both had um they always said what honest people they were so that's uh the history they died um I didn't know my um my mother's father in fact I am named after him um my dad's father um died when I was like four or 5 years old and you see the
name was the name of the town was troyville troyville troyville yeah and how many Jewish families were in the town um there were quite a few I mean when you when you come to think of you know obviously troyville is not a very big uh Little Town um it's part of Johannesburg um there were a few Jewish families cuz uh I think that's where a lot of the immigrants settled in that area I think you find that when people immigrate they sort of go with their own people so there were lots of Russian Jews in that area and did do you remember there being a
synagogue there yes it was called uh the synagogue that they went to was called jeppy synagogue jeppy is also a little town just right next to troyville and that's where they went in fact that's where I had my bomb got and was it an orthodox that um yes it uh you would call it more a conservative more conserv conservative synagogue and what about school were you in a in a Jewish school or were you in a public school no I went to a public school um the Junior School which you you call Primary School there is uh goes from 1 through 7eventh grade actually 1
through 9th grade I'm sorry I get mixed up um and that was a a public school I used to walk to school every day um or ride to school ride the B my bike to school and um we grew up when when I grew up I moved to a little suburb called emara or greenside it was uh one side of the road was amarena one side of the road was greenside and then when I went to high school I ended up in an old boy school but it wasn't a private school it's a public school publico yes was there um was there a feeling of
Zionism in the community in which you live no not not necessarily there were lots of Jews and non-jews and we all got along very very well in fact there was a synagogue across the road from us um we weren't members of that we were members of as I said the Jep synagogue which was a few miles away from us so you didn't have experience of being in any kind of a sist youth group of any kind no there were some but I never participated in that what types of after school activities did you participate in I did all sports I did uh soccer Cricket swimming
tennis track anything that uh prevented me from doing homework I did it sounds like a lot of boys I know yeah okay so um did you go on to education Beyond yes I went to uh I attended uh the univer uh University of the V arst ront which is the big the big university it uh you would say it was maybe like the UT of Johannesburg and um I did my um I became a CA which is a charter accountant and what I did was I um went to work during the day and went to school at night so I did that for 5 years
um and then I worked for a CPA a CA firm um for 5 years then went to another one then became a controller for a soft goods company and then and then then I immigrated to America did you marry before immigrating yes I did uh my first wife actually grew up around the B from me we went to the same school um she was 2 years younger than meh and um my oldest son was born in Johannesburg and when we left in 1978 he left the week before he turned two what was and you left with your first wife yes okay so what was the
reason for leaving South Africa um and what year was that we left in 1978 my wife's parents had left 2 years previously to go live in Israel and um she was alone she didn't have any family there besides her grandparents who lived in Cape Town and they wanted us to come to Israel and I was reluctant to go to Israel um not because of anything but that I'd have to learn another language and um I just decided I didn't want to go and then they came to America and they uh I wouldn't say made us come but they said we should come to America and
so we decided to to immigrate we first came as visitors we didn't have any papers or anything and we came like a lot of people did we came as visitors and just never returned back were they here in Dallas no we lived in New Jersey first for 3 years uh from September of 78 until June of ' 81 and then uh once we got our papers which I got through the CPA firm that I worked for uh we came to Dallas and did you come to work for the same CPA firm or no no I came to work for a telephone company that was the
time that Marbell was breaking up and so the telephone companies were starting to to form and this was a uh telephone company called us telephone which was a long-distance telephone company and so I came to work as the Director of financial reporting here in Dallas in Dallas from 1981 until 1983 mhm and then I joined a group of um South Africans um who had jewelry company and they asked me to come and work for them and what company was that it was called veralite gold and so I worked for them as their CFO and uh that was until 1987 when the company was sold and
the company that purchased our company um brought in their own CFO and so I joined my uh father-in-law at the time in a very small office supply business and uh got involved in sales and gave up being a uh an accountant so they have so are you currently in the sales I'm still in the same industry in the office supply business so what what's Company the company that I'm with now is called preferred uh Business Solutions um it wasn't the company that I joined when that my father in had was uh Johnson ribbon Office Supply Company um and that uh evolved into something else into
something else and that was sold and um but I'm now with a company called preferred Business Solutions now when you first came to Dallas um did you know any other South Africans yes I did yeah in in New Jersey um we had another kid my second son was born in New Jersey 1978 um so when we came to Dallas we had two little boys and um we knew quite a few people in in Dallas um my first wife had a couple cousins in Dallas do can you give me some names we know some of the names mvin sacka and Linda sacka and then uh Malcolm
manter and Jillian man and a guy that I worked for was um Norman oh I can't think of his last name but uh I knew him from South Africa and a few other South Africans and uh you got to meet more every week uh more South Africans were arriving in Dallas and then the South Africans I work with for um Mel Greenberg and AAL Greenberg and basil Cohen and uh Carol Cohen and basil Hyman and do Hyman and uh you know they had family and uh it just grew and grew and grew and you know know a lot of South African so would you say
that the integration into the South African Community was an wasn't easy one for you here in Dallas yeah very easy what about the integration into the general Jewish Community outside of the the South African portion it um what was that like it was pretty easy for us uh we had two young boys at the time and um they both attended akba for a couple years um my oldest son ended up uh leaving when it was time to got a first grade um he went to public school for a year and then to private school my middle son stayed at akba for 3 years and uh
we integrated pretty easily with the uh with the rest of the Jewish population in in Dallas um we still friends with some of the the people that uh um my kids went to school with and then um you know they ended up at private schools we were fortunate enough to send them to private schools um and then we had a third son in 1989 so there was a big uh age difference between my oldest than my youngest and what school did that child go to all my kids graduated from Greenhill from Greenhill yes okay any any reason that you might want to share as to
why they did not continue with the uh the Dual education program with the keyo um no I just you know I didn't grow up like that uh going to a a Jewish Day School which might have been right might have been wrong but um I just felt that uh to be more integrated into society if you want to call it it was good for the kids to go to a not uh a Jewish Day School um I knew lots of kids that went to Jewish Day schools ended up at Green Hill you know because I think at the time Solomon she was then only went
up to 8th grade or yeah finished at 8ighth grade so a lot of the kids went to ended up at Green Hill or um I knew a lot of the you know the kids CU they were some South Africans and um so there was no real reason why we decided not to let them continue at a keba or Solomon sha or something like that and so when you came when you came to this community um did you choose a synagogue to attend yeah we first attended um to feret which uh was a little too Orthodox for me at the time um and so we ended
up at Sheriff MH um all my kids were bment F of sherith um and you know I enjoyed sherith but as I say when um I married my second wife she was a member of Tampa Emanuel and uh that's where we ended up and what is what's your second wife's name her name is frada was frada Levy mhm um fra lean she was a she married a pollock and um her and I got married uh over 10 years ago uhhuh any children in that marriage no no she had three kids of her own mhm um so between the two of us we've got six kids
wonderful wonderful I've got the two oldest she's got the next three and I've got the baby uhhuh and is she a native Dallas side or born and bred in Dallas in fact uh where we live I don't think besides I think she said when she got married the first time I think she lived in Houston for a couple years other than that I think she has lived within 3 or Four Mile radi radius of where she uh she grew up she grew up on yeny oh my well that's right around the corner where I live I live on current okay so that's where she grew
up and her parents had the house I think for 47 years and sold it a few years ago and probably went to the estate fail possibly so um her her family is a a a prominent family in Dallas uh Bernard Levy Bernard and Ruthie Levy very nice so how did you read um my oldest son is a teacher of Greenhill uhhuh and um he one of the things that they do at Green Hill for the upper school when the kids arrive they have to check in and um I was getting divorced and I used to take my younger uh kid to school every day and
then I would go see my older son and the lady that uh he used to check in the students with um knew of my wife they were friends and she was in the throws of getting divorced and so um she said I have a lady for you to meet and she wouldn't give me her name and number until I was divorced and um another couple that I knew from Green Hill G also had the same person for me to meet and uh it took me about a month to call her and uh we went out one night and she's the only person I took out
since I got divorced for sh so uh we went out for a couple years and uh got married two years of we met very ni so so uh aside from your business life and life with your children are you involved in any organizations in the community anything yes I um very involved in soccer I've been coaching soccer for a long time in fact I coach uh soccer at greenh Hill I coached my three boys but now I coach girls soccer um and so I take time off during soccer season I'm very involved with uh the referees in the soccer Community um and in fact I'm
going to be going in August to the MCC I take a I coach the little girl soccer team um so we'll be doing that uh I was on the board at The JCC in the late 80s for a couple years um and other than that I don't really get involved in many organizations do you like to travel yeah love to travel Where Have You Been um I've been home obviously back to South Africa all my family is still back in South Africa the ones that are still alive um my wife and I found a favorite Place uh we got we like to go to Santa
Fe mhm and um so we've been there a few times and then just anywhere just here and there nothing in particular just like to go out even for a weekend or so we like to go around is there a special place in your bucket list that you'd like to go to I'd like to go back to Israel I went there when I came out the arm in 1971 and I haven't been back and I'd like to go back to Isel you'll find it very different I'm sure I will I've heard I've heard that from a lot of people yes yes it's quite it's really changed
it I think you'll like it yeah so that uh I think that's in our plans M to together as well are there any Customs that you brought with you from South Africa that you continue to practice that would be somewhat different from what we normally do here any custom that I'd bring back is um I don't like the American chocolate oh so when I go back home I go with a case with clothes and one empty case and then we come back that case is full of chocolate so what's so different about it just the taste I don't know what it is um I just
prefer the South African chocolate are the beans different or do they put less sugar or I think it's figed out I think it's a mixture of everything um and there are places around the states that do sell South African uh food where do I where do I go in Dallas to get South African there is a little um place on qu Road in fact I just went there um it's called quick stop I think it is or quick shop it's um half a block sou uh south of Frankfurt on KO it's on the West Side there's a little strip shopping center and it's got a
lot of South African candy and I'm GNA have to go because I've heard this thing about the chocolate many times yeah go in there and you'll you'll like it and my wife she couldn't understand it until she tasted it and then she realized that it is different okay so what's your favorite South African food other than the chocolate it's a thing we call Buon uhhuh I'm sure you've heard of that but actually have tasted it yeah we had the young young man who in the community who unfortunately has passed away tragically but he used to make it yeah I used to make oh you used
to make it too why did you start um there were three of us that used to make it and um we used to we used to make it in B we used to sell a lot of it and the last batch that we ever sold the place that we had it in the electricity went off and so we didn't realize it and we had to throw everything up because it went uh went bad and um and then the one of the guys that uh made it he he left Dallas he went to live somewhere else and just stopped making them but uh there's a place
in South Carolina that I get I still get buil up from is it is it kosher no no it's not Kosher no but you could make you could make kosher buong yeah this guy here made it he made kosher buong it was awesome yeah you can you can make it but the place in South Carolina is not K and I wouldn't have any idea how to do it I'd like to find somebody that's actually making it uh very interesting I know I it's a lot of fun we used to have a lot of fun making it uh the three of us would would' make it
and we sell it and we never made money off it it was just whatever we sold it for basically we um we used to put back in how long does it take to make depends on the weather MH um we would uh make it start on say a Sunday and be ready the following Saturday or Sunday to cut it and okay so it's really a longterm longterm process yeah you have how long how big of a kitchen do you need to do it in um we used to do it in the garage oh in the garage oh okay you need like several grills or whatever
well it's not a grill you just um you got to be able to hang the meat you just hang you just hang the meat that's all you do a you got to season it and hang it and things like that I'll in my garage I would love to have some anyway well that if you go to that that that South African store he has some he does he has some oh my goodness that's another reason to go I'm I think I'm going shopping for today he does have it okay so when you left South Africa you say most of your family is still there what
was their reaction to your leaving um obviously they were upset but they realized that you know I was married at the time and my wife wanted to leave and you know for most part I think you know if you're the husband hband follows the wife and um it was hard it was very difficult cuz I was very close to my family but um they realized that that was that was it and you know they couldn't stop me really but you go you say you go back off and yeah I've still got my mom my mom's still alive um my brother my younger brother my dad
passed away a few years ago when I was there actually uh visiting MH and then I had a sister who passed away when she was 48 MH um she was 3 years older than me now is your mom still living in trille or she no no no she lives in a little no when we got um when my mom and dad got married they moved to this little town called greenside oh to greenside I see um so she lives in a town uh called santon which uh is um I would say it's like North Dallas uhhuh um she lives in a little gated community um
she still drives beautiful so she's pretty independent very independent okay um what what kinds of things have I not asked you about that you think would be important for your family to know as a legacy and for us to know you know generally about you as a legacy to the community um I just you know I enjoyed obviously I enjoyed being with my kids even though they are older um my middle son is married he's got uh two two boys so his name is Jason my older son is Darren my middle son is Jason and my younger son is Jared and where are they all
living um actually all three of them are here um it's wonderful Darren is the teacher he teaches a Green Hill MH Jason uh is in the benefits business medical benefits uh and then my younger son is um has just moved back to Dallas he was in a little town called Midland Michigan um on uh he's a sports broadcaster and he's now working for um ESPN radio so he'll be on the radio I think on Sunday he's got his program starting and they're going to put him into different time slids um just you know I think we Tred to do the best we could with our
kids um some of it worked out well well some of it didn't work out so well but uh they uh I think they know that both their mom and dad love them and uh you know that we're always here for them and uh just you know be good be good kids be honest and good kids it's been a real pleasure speaking with you thank you so much I've really enjoyed this it's been fun we've enjoyed it as well and I think your story your story about your family is is truly a legacy and uh you'll get a copy of this when it's edited for your
for your own um family and