April 25, 2016

Allan Peiser

Allan Peiser's roots trace back to Germany and South Africa. His great-grandfather was born in Germany and immigrated to South Africa, where he established a successful trading post along the route between Johannesburg and the Cape. Allan's father was born in Germany after his grandmother returned there; his grandfather was killed in the First World War, leaving his father fatherless at age two. Facing growing danger as a young Jewish man in the early 1930s, Allan's father left Germany for South Africa, later volunteering for South African forces in the Second World War. Allan's mother's story was marked by tragedy: separated from her parents in 1938, she immigrated alone to Chicago at 18, and within about a year and a half lost her father, mother, mother-in-law, and young husband, leaving her with two small sons and no means of support.

Allan's mother eventually moved to South Africa in the early 1950s with her two young sons, where she was introduced to and married Allan's father, who adopted her boys. His father worked selling goods to concession stores near the mines before starting his own businesses importing overcoats and later manufacturing sheet metal products such as water tanks and duct work. Allan, the youngest, grew up eleven years behind his oldest brother in the affluent Johannesburg suburb where his family lived. He recalled a wonderful childhood full of good friends, sports, and freedom to move about the neighborhood without fear. The family was supportive of Israel and attended synagogue without being strictly observant; Allan attended Sunday school and, unusually for his peers, continued his Jewish education through his bar mitzvah at his father's insistence.

Having decided as a teenager to become an accountant, Allan came to the United States at 21 to pursue his education, visiting colleges across the country before completing an MBA at New York University. His older brother had already immigrated to Dallas, and Allan joined him there after graduating. He worked in public accounting and later in financial planning and budgeting at Neiman Marcus before starting his own business. Through the Jewish Federation's young executive breakfast forum he met Janice, whom he married in 1986. They raised two daughters, Rebecca and Jackie, both graduates of Solomon Schechter, and continued a family tradition of a secular Shabbat dinner each week. Integrating into the Dallas Jewish community took time, and Allan credited playing softball on a Temple Shalom team as a key to finding common ground. He served in leadership roles with Solomon Schechter and other organizations.

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