Bernard Levy
Bernard Levy's father was born in Poland, where his own father was a blacksmith who trained his five sons in the trade. The oldest son remained in Poland, and that branch of the family was lost in the Holocaust except for a few descendants now in Israel. Bernard's father and one brother came to Dallas in 1906, drawn by an aunt and uncle already living there. His uncle, Wolf Goodstein, served as the shamus of Congregation Shearith Israel. Bernard's mother was born in Houston around 1895 and met his father through a sister who had married into a Dallas family. Bernard was born in 1926 and had one sister, Ruth Strauss.
Finding no need for blacksmiths, Bernard's father and his brother learned the plumbing trade and in 1910 opened Levy Brothers Plumbing. After a falling out, the brothers split, with Bernard's father continuing as Bill and B. Levy Plumbing and his uncle Morris Levy running Levy Plumbing Company. Bernard grew up in South Dallas, in a duplex his father built behind the shop at Irvine and Sanger. He attended Colonial Elementary and Forest High School, then Texas A&M, graduating in mechanical engineering in February 1945 at age eighteen with the highest grade point average in his class. After working for General Electric and studying at Purdue, he returned to Dallas when his mother became ill and, reluctantly at first, joined his father's plumbing business, eventually coming to love the work.
The family belonged to Congregation Shearith Israel from 1912, and Bernard served as its president from 1981 to 1983. Deeply committed to Jewish education from his years at the Dallas Hebrew School, he helped found a Jewish day school, later the Levine Academy, alongside others in the congregation. He married Ruth in 1949 and they raised three children, Arnold, Frada, and Hope, with seven grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. A lifelong lover of music, he learned piano and clarinet as a boy and took up the flute at age sixty, later joining the New Horizons Band for older musicians. At the time of the interview he was eighty-eight and living at The Bonaventure among many old friends.
Full Transcript
I am interviewing Bernard Levy today today is um May 27th 2014 and we are in the uh I I still call it the chefs we are at the Jewish Community Center hi hi um tell us let's go before the beginning where were your parents born here in Dallas no my uh my mother was born in Houston in uh around 1895 or thereabouts and uh my father my father was born in po and uh came came to Dallas in uh 1906 uh in in the Old Country his his father was a blacksmith and Chay trained all of his sons with one exception uh in the blacksmith
tray in the shop how many sons there were five he had five sons and one daughter the uh the oldest son who was old the oldest son uh was already married and had his own blacksmith's shop and never came to the United States all of the others came uh left Poland and came to the United States the ones that remained there uh were were wiped out they were gone that whole family is gone with the exception of uh a couple of descendants who are in Israel that we're in contact with all the time uh at any rate my father came uh into Dallas in 1906
along with another one of his brothers and uh they went into the they they found that there was no need for blacksmiths in Dallas at that time but they knew uh about medals and how to handle medals and so on and and they drifted into the plumbing trade they worked for u local plumbers and learned Plumbing trade and in 1910 my father and that brother went into business under the name of Levy Brothers Plumbing uh that lasted for several months they had a uh some sort of uh falling out and they split up uh my father continued to operate under the name built and B
leevy Plumbing uh my uncle the other brother uh was known as Levy plumbing company and uh in in the split up uh he arranged that my father could not use the word company and from that day until this we don't use we don't use the word company in our business milon's brother's name was moris Ley moris uh do you know the name U uh oh his daughter was um my cousin I can't get her name out uh wolf uh Lois Lois no she died just a few years ago she was U well known very philanthropic orene Orin wolf was my cousin and she was the
daughter of that other brother um my after that split up uh my father and that brother didn't speak to each other for many many years growing up I never spoke to my uncle my mother would point out on the holidays there's there's your uncle Mars and that's all I knew of him uh what one of the other brothers who was not raised in the blacksmith shop came to Dallas and became a doctor a well-known uh surgeon and doctor in Dallas Dr Harry Levy uh the last of the four brothers who came over settled in Detroit was there for a long time um finally wound up
uh with his family in Dallas as well what got you why Dallas why not they had an aunt they had an uncle and an aunt who lived in Dallas now how they got here I don't know but my uncle's name was uh wolf goodstein and he was the he was the Shamus of the of sherith Israel uh he lived on a a Street near near uh where sherith Israel was Sher Israel uh was located on Park and aen for many many years and uh uh my aunt and uncle lived close to that near there and he would walk to and from the show and so
forth did all of his duties where where did you live growing up paron me where did you live growing up uh we lived in South Dallas uhhuh uh in uh in 1926 which was the year I was born my father built a a small building on the corner of irvy and Sanger in in Dallas which is about a mile and a half south of the immediate downtown area south of downtown just south of downtown right and um in addition to the shop behind the shop uh he he built a uh twostory frame duplex we live downstairs and uh uh my my mother had a sister
and her family lived upstairs in that duplex and we lived there for for many years um that's that's where I grew up until what what school did you go to went uh to Colonial School Colonial Elementary School and to Forest High School what was your childhood like was it a religious household was it a was it what what what was your childhood like as far as were you in a religious household were you um well you have friends in the area we were we were uh fairly religious my my father was religious but not uh not 100% uh-huh but uh he he he knew uh
what was required he knew uh all of the holidays and the Mitzvah and uh so forth and insisted that that I was going to learn uh all of it uh and um went went to uh Sunday school at sh Israel and then to Hebrew school beginning when I was about uh seven years old and went to the uh Dallas Hebrew school until I was 15 and uh I my mother kept a scrapbook and that's what I brought here this is all personal stuff about me starting from when I was very very young uh all the way through college do you have brothers and sisters have
one sister her name is uh Ruth Strauss MH U she's 94 years old uh she at this time she's she's single and her health uh comes and goes she's got health problems but uh usually seems to to bounce back and she and her daughter uh now right now live in Prosper which which is north oh yes north of U what's the next town up there north of Allen Way north of Allen yeah um before you get to I can't think of the city I know where it is um your on your mother's side you said she was born in the United States she was she
was born in Houston mhm uh she later um she met my father through one of her Sis one of her sisters had married uh Mr G in Dallas who was in the uh La laundry and tailor supply business and through through that sister she met uh my father met her husband M and and were married what she didn't know was that at the time she married him he had he had not yet become a citizen but she lost her citizenship and didn't know it until World War II and she real she found out that she was no longer a citizen she had to go through
um the process of regaining her citizenship huh things have changed um were did you live in South Dallas the entire time growing up pretty much we uh we lived in that house until about N I was born in 19266 we lived there until 1939 I was 13 years old had a terrible fire and the the uh upper part of the house was completely burned up the the lower part was Salvage later but we moved out and we we lived U across the street on irvy Street there was a 4unit brick building that was owned by uh the glaciers mhm uh Mr uh no Max Glazer's
parents lived in that house and we rented one of those one of those apartments and lived there for a number of years um and while there I I I finished high school and then went on to college and so on um where did you go to college went to Texas A&M my my mother had insisted and I clearly remember it that uh uh she didn't want me to be a plumber so uh at any rate I uh I did very well in high school and U Went to went to Texas A&M and this was during the war um uh I was not drafted didn't have
to go into the service that's another long story but rate I finished at &m uh and had the uh the highest grade point average in the graduating class when I graduated I graduated in February of uh 1945 and at that I I I I graduated just about a week before my 19th birthday I was 18 years old so you must have skipped a lot of mechanical engineering after that uh during the war there was really no there were no uh uh openings for new Engineers so I went to uh uh went to work for a general electric in SKC New York and was there for
about a year and a half or two and after that I went to uh I decided I wanted to go further in school and possibly to teach and so on so I uh uh I applied in in several places and uh got an appointment at Purdue University and uh intended to get a PhD I was there for about a year and a half my mother had very serious uh kid any problems uh and they the family imposed on me to come back home so I came home and uh she did pass away a year or so after that uh came to Dallas uh I went
to work for a Consulting engineer for Herman Bloom who was a Consulting engineer in Dallas and uh worked for him for a couple of years and my father father finally imposed on me to come into the into his business which very reluctantly I did MH and uh had a pretty hard time of it for a number of years but uh I finally learned what it was all about and because it didn't interest you because it didn't interest you or because pardon me because it the business didn't interest you or because you promised your mother you wouldn't well I didn't promise anything but that's what I
that's what I that's where I well how did you like it after you got used to it well finally about five years later I I learned to like it uhuh but uh it took me took me a number of years to get to that point backtracking a minute then we'll catch up here did you um did you meet with any anti-Semitism growing up in South South Dallas a little but not very much in those days uh we we really didn't see it I mean we we we uh Forest High School uh had a pretty large uh Jewish population I'd say probably at least a third
if not more of the students at Forest High School were Jewish M so that was not a problem and uh the non-jewish I just don't remember any really overt or serious um anti-Semitism most of your friends though were Jewish because yes yeah uh so your family belonged to sherith Israel from the very beginning until now until my father had joined uh uh in 1912 and he was only just over 20 years old and he joined sherith Isel at that time and we we remained uh members of sherith Isel uh ever since um I I was President of sherith Israel in 198 81 to 883 and
uh because I had a very from the Hebrew school which was exceptionally good we we really were deeply immersed in Judaism uh learned Hebrew I'm fairly fluent in Hebrew and uh I I I think I I know quite a bit uh and because of that education uh I I had a uh uh a deep feeling for Jewish Education and while I was president at sherith Israel along with u a couple of other people such as uh uh Willie Walman and uh irin donsky and and a few other people we uh uh we founded the the shal day school which today is the LaVine Academy have
your children and grandchildren and maybe great grandchild kept up the tradition of members of Sher not uh not as much as I'd like forarm toh some more than others but uh yeah I I wish that it that it was more but they're they're all good kids yeah I have uh uh we have five no we have seven grandchildren and uh now one great granddaughter and how many children did you have three three children yeah girls boys have one son who's in the business business and and he these days he he mostly runs the business M uh he doesn't know it but I'm I'm still there
but at any rate uh and then two daughters uh one daughter here in Dallas uh who was married to uh Lonnie Pollock part of the Pollock family and then divorced and now she's remarried uh to very fine young man uh not so young anymore uh from South Africa uh and uh she's she's in in real estate and doing pretty well and then the last daughter uh lives in Houston and she and her husband uh have a uh a flooring business they do tile and uh Stone um what what are their starting with the oldest what are their names your the children uhhuh uhhuh my son's
name is Arnold Arnold mhm and the girl's uh the next daughter is frada uh her name is fraa uh we wanted to name her after my mother my mother's name was Fanny but she always told us that she didn't like the name Fanny and her Yiddish name was fraa so when this girl little girl was born we just named her fraa and she loves it she you know she's one of a kind and the last daughter is uh her name is Hope H how did you meet Ruth how did you meet your wife well through through friends [Music] um one one of my friends was
um uh Bennett Goodman and his wife uh my mind's wonderful except I can't remember yeah tell me about it it gets worse uh Pat Patricia they they were good friends Pat in particular was the friend was one of Ruth's friends and Bennett uh was my roommate at A&M for a period of time at any rate they introduced me to Ruthie and another friend uh was uh Melvin and MIM arof and MIM was uh was one of Ruth's very good friends so from those friends I met her and we went out and so forth whence did you get married before you went North for a few
years or it was after I after I came back and settled down in in Dallas we were married in 1949 which was about the time that I went into the uh plumbing shop I see I see are there any particular stories or adventur you had there that you you've had that you'd like to share with us just anything that marked your life in one way or another it's a hard question well of course it's a it's been a long time and there been a lot of things I can remember you know I was thinking one of the things that I remember among so many uh
as a little boy occasionally uh my dad would take me out on a Saturday or even a Sunday to to a job or uh to something related to his business and one of the places that I remember very distinctly was uh to go to uh to the grocery store on Pearl Street I I remember it very very well there there was a uh one the part of the creek that ran by it and I always remember that the name and what was the name of this grocery store the an Andress Andrew grocery store I remember Mr Andrew and Mrs Andrew yeah very very well yeah
and their son David and sure good family um who who have been your role models in your life do you do you have some yeah I have um I I had a cousin uh well part of the family that lived in the upstairs where we were on Sanger Avenue MH uh barel their name was light mhm and uh one of the sons was barel light MH and he went to A&M and uh he was one of my he was probably the reason that I wound up at that I wanted to wind up at A&M uh aside from the fact that it was not very expensive
and U then you know had had a lot of other things going for it do um did you have do you still keep in touch with the same people that you grew up with in the community here with with with all of them that are that are left Cu uh I'm I'm 88 years old so uh too many of my friends are not here anymore but of of those that are left yes we but you kept close our our closest friends are all of these same people and and uh others of the group who you have some names other than the andress's and the uh
well another uh another one of our friends is uh well Charley and Marvin Gardner oh um uh Marilyn uh Harold and Marilyn sweet from the sweet family oh um you know I live I live we live at The Bonaventure and it's it's full of friends it's full of people that that uh I went to high school with with or uh was close to for some other reason that's a city down there yeah U stories huh oh someone's nudging me to say we want more stories of you growing up and some of your adventures that um that are in your memory well um uh associated with
the Hebrew school I we had a Boy Scout Troop and I was in the Boy Scouts MH and U became an eagle scout M and was uh uh can't remember the title but um well I I had a title that in the TR Scout leader or something uh did all that I uh I've always loved music as uh when I was very small again these upstairs cousins one of them was a very very accomplish pianist uh oelle light and she was in her day was probably the finest uh piano teacher in Dallas at any rate uh as as real little fellow uh I started to
learn piano from her and worked at that for a couple of years in high school another one of the light boys was Sydney light who uh who was the uh the head of the band at Forest High School M and he played the clarinet so I had to play the clarinet so we went to went to to take clarinet lessons uh but my dad couldn't afford to buy me a CL a clarinet so we rented the clarinet for I think it was like 50 cents a week or or something like that and I learned to play the clarinet was in the band at high school
uh I always uh like the flute and and I kept saying to myself one day I'm going to learn how to play the flute and time went on and didn't learn how to play the flute until I was 60 years old and I said uh I I still like the flute and I'm going to learn how to play it so I I searched around I looked for a flute teacher and in my search I I wound up talking to uh Philip winr who was a very good violinist and and a musician and asked for his uh uh his help and and I said I I
want to learn how to play either play the flute or the violin he says well forget about the violin it'll take you 20 years to make one good note but he found me a good uh uh a gentleman who was in Dallas Symphony at that time uh and I started to learn to play the flute and I did uh played it for a while put it aside for a while and then uh stumbled onto a thing called the New Horizon's band uh which is a wind band for older people you had to be at least 50 years old to be in it the average age
of the people in the band is probably 75 or more at any rate I join that band and I'm still in it oh and and we uh practice once a week and we play concerts from time to time uh when there's somebody that uh needs for us to do it and what's the name of this group New Horizon's band New Horizon band this uh this New Horizons thing exists all over the country and they're in in practically every city city in the country in Dallas uh there are about uh 60 people in this band very large gosh when I went in there was only what
like 20 or less but that's been a hobby and so so you picked up the flute at 60 were you um between your your teenage years and 60 did you play the piano much or no while I was in high school I was playing the clarinet in the band uhhuh but but after high school I didn't own clarinet and I wasn't that good anyway and I put it put it aside but I I've always liked music I've been interested in and uh Love Of Music your children are they interested in music no not really uh we always at home we always had a piano and
I finally ended up uh giving the piano to the daughter in Houston because uh she she had two had has two children we thought that the children are going to learn to play the piano and they tried but they didn't stay with it so nobody's ever really uh stayed with it uh I've I've given instructions I own my my flute is a pretty good one uh pretty expensive and and a a good instrument and I've left instructions that if if uh any of my children grandchildren great grandchildren or or any any of them have an inclination or show any uh aptitude or desire for that
flute to give it to them otherwise uh I I I want going to uh maybe a a student at SMU or somewhere who needs a good instrument well I think we've covered it have I left anything out that you would want to add not really i' I've brought all kinds of stuff in here I know and I want to see and I don't know whether you have time or any interest in any of it but well but but there's one one thing the the main thing that I'm meant to bring here and I ran out in a hurry and didn't do it I started to
tell you about it as we walked down the hall in 1980 I had a call from a lady with the uh uh Dallas Public Library that they wanted to uh they were going to write somebody there or a group of them were going to write a book and include in it several uh of the local business local family businesses that have been in business through at least three generations and they wanted if wanted to know if we if we were interested in interviewing and uh being included in this thing so I thought that would be good and we did M and um they came out
a number of times they interviewed my father uh this was about two years before he passed away my father and then me and then my son and there are different sections in this book about each one of us it's very interesting along with about four other families M and I meant to uh if you want it I'll I'll give you a copy of it well I'm interested in what's in there but I'm thinking should we stop the camera and let L out the things then continue yeah okay here is ready here is a scrapbook uh that my mother kept almost from the time that I
was born and she kept just many different things uh that I was involved in or accomplished and so on