Bernard Schaenen
Bernard Schaenen came to Dallas in 1934 and became involved in the city's Jewish communal life at a time when organized activity was, as he described it, practically nonexistent. The old building at 1817 Pocahontas Street housed the Federation offices and an aging gym built in the 1920s that had once been home to a strong Jewish basketball and baseball teams made up of boys from South Dallas. He recalled the building falling into disrepair, with a floor that had to be constantly reinforced.
In 1941 Schaenen became the first chairman of the new center, which during World War II operated largely as a USO. Soldiers came in from area camps for Saturday night dances, cots were set up in the gym, and volunteers served breakfast the next morning. As president of the Federation around the mid-1950s, he helped lead the difficult decision to move the center to North Dallas, guiding the community through disagreement over whether to build a Jewish center at all. Property was found on North Haven and purchased by two men who turned it over to the center at cost, and the naming of it for the beloved Julius Schepps helped win unanimous support.
The new center in North Dallas offered a swimming pool, tennis courts, a camp building, and a gathering place for young people who did not belong to country clubs, along with cultural programming. Schaenen recalled clubs such as the Jonathan Club meeting at the center and remembered figures including Federation director Rube Resnick and center director Gene Berlasky, with whom he played tennis. Throughout his years of service he collected many honors and remained, in his own words, always collecting money for the cause.
Full Transcript
Welcome to Bernard Shainan. This is Ginger Jacobs and Mr. Shainan is going to tell me about the Jewish Community Center. The old one? The old one. And the decision to move the center to North Dallas and the acquisition of the property on North Haven in North Dallas. The old center was down on Pocahontas Street. That was originally for years had been used by the boys who now are quite grown old men. And they finally turned it over to the Jewish World War Federation, which we used. I was the first chairman of the new center, but this was during 1941 during the war, and it was used mostly as a USO.
Is that what they call them then? The boys, we used to put cots up, well first they had dances there Saturday night with the soldiers who came in from Camp Shepherd and Mineral Wells from Fort Sill in Arkansas. I don't know any others, like offhand. Camp Walters and Mineral Wells. And there were dancers held for them and then cops were put up in the gym and And then the next morning, Mrs. Aronoff and her girls came down and made breakfast for the board. There was orange juice and bagel and lox with cream cheese and coffee. The building was falling apart, the floor was coming down, and in one of our board meetings, Morton Sanger said we're going to have to move and suggested putting aside $25,000 a year from our campaign so that when property was found, it could be bought.
Do you remember the year that he suggested that? No, I don't. You know, as I told the old folks, when I get old three things happen The first thing is you start to lose your memory and I forgot the other two And so my memory really is not too good I know what happened but I very indistinct on gear Eventually we had to move and the committee found the present property and two of our men bought the property because it was available then and then turned it over to the center at the price that they had paid. Of course, the name of the center came up then, and it wasn't wholly agreeable to the entire community to build a Jewish center.
Many people thought that we could use the YMCA and the YWCA. The boys who were very interested in the center, and I'm not mentioning names, wanted to go ahead anyway. And this was the year that I was president of the Federation. What year? You don't know? I don't know. I have to look at the prize I get. Wait a second. Maybe. Four. All right. So this was 1954 when this was happening, is that correct? No, about that time. About that, okay. I could have called for a vote any time and this group would have won 12 to 11. But I realized or I felt certain that they would not be able to support it or raise the necessary funds.
After several meetings the thought came and a number of people are going to take credit for bringing it up, that we call it the Julius Sheps Community Center. And since no one could argue with Julius, we got 100% vote to go ahead, and we did go ahead. Did you consult Julius Sheps before then, or what was the interaction? I don't think so, because I don't think we asked the Sheps family for any money. We were We were going to do it without, because one of the greatest citizens who ever lived here was Julius Schatz Loved by everybody related to everybody according to him He had cousins in every race even perhaps the black race Everybody called him Cousin Juniors That about all of what he started Well, let's go back a little bit.
Now, you've lived in Dallas since 1934? 1934. 1934, okay. Were you involved with any Jewish community center activity at that point of time, recreational activity? No. Out of that building of 1817, Bocahontas? No, it was practically nonexistent. It was the offices of the Federation. And as you And as you know, the building was falling apart and eventually was taken over by Central Expressway. What about the gym that was used there? There was a gym that was built in the 1920s. It had been used for basketball years before then. Of course, all the Jewish boys who lived in South Dallas had to fight their way in and fight their way out physically.
They never came in alone. They had the crack basketball team, and it's easy to get the names, I mean, but I have to go back and talk to some of the older boys who remember all the names. As Solly Levine might know, because he played there. And they also had a crack basketball, a baseball team. But that's what all it was used for. And as I say, the building was in very bad shape. The floor had to be constantly reinforced, you won't fall in any time. And we got out just in time. Built the building and the pool at North Haven with whatever money we could get.
Now then, the $25,000 that was set aside from the campaign, when they found this property, what... I know there was a... It wasn't 25, it was 25 a year. I think we did it for several years. Oh, okay. Okay. So when you have a nucleus, if they found the property and had to put a deposit down or something, we would have enough money to do it. Okay. Did everybody agree to buying some property for Federation without the center? Was that an issue No no no no This was for the center For the center specifically But hopes that we even thought of building perhaps a large building and have rent some of the space to all the other beneficiaries who might use it when it was spread all over.
But these were all just ideas. And we built the center and we built that camp building at the other end of the school and use of the camp. and a swimming pool and a few tennis courts. We had no inside gym. We didn't have the money for that. Now, did you ask Mr. Sheps if you could use his name? To my knowledge, we might have asked or we might have told him we were using it. But Julius, anything for the good of the city was okay with him. And since we were honoring him, we probably didn't think it was necessary. Now, when you decided, or when they finally agreed that they should move the center, do you remember who was the center director at that point in time?
Was Gene Berlasky still here? Well, Gene was here, but I mostly was here at the beginning. As I told you, my years are hazy. I know he was here because we used to play tennis at our house, and we were there until 1961, from 1951 to 61. So Gene Valazzi played with us, the left-handed tennis player. But the history of the center will have all these dates and people and all the other lectures. They don't? They don't? Well, I'll have to go back and check it. that they... Morris Jaffe, who was president, appointed the Vengeance Board chosen. He said, I want you to take it over.
And so I was the new chairman. Go on, I'm sorry. How was Federation chosen at that point in time? Election. Election? Now, who made up those boards, or how did they determine who was on the board? nominating committees selected them, and then they were voted on. Nine times out of 10, whatever the nominating committee selected were voted, very few. They had the nomination for the fall, but usually none of them were put on. Mm-hmm. Were these people Large supporters of Federation? They were interesting people. I mean, a lot of people who weren't a large supporter but were very interested in helping, working on it, and certainly chosen.
Who was a Federation director when you took over in 1941? Rube Resnick. Yeah, Rube Resnick. He was an interesting character. Was there anything in particular that he accomplished during the time that he was here? here there was very little before that there had been George Levy had been a volunteer director perhaps he was paid something I don't know but he was handling it all in his home who resident was the first really professional what was done a lot of planning because we should we're starting to describe it had really been nothing before. And I don't think any of the volunteers were capable of giving advice, because we had never really had a center there.
Off the record, you know, putting on it. Well, no, and this is not... When did Resnick come do you know did the Jonathan club and T W O club meet at the center at that time yes Yes, they met the... What was it, there was another club they had. FHH FHH was born Jonathan FHH Aota perhaps No I don know I don't know what's that The Johnson Club is a social club I have a world They have around and they're dancing Mmhmm Mmhmm That's why I think That's why I thought, before my mother died, my sister and my cousin, we worked out, we've been back four or five generations, and we realized that if the mother died, there was no possibility that we were just talking.
I didn't know if that picture was right. Do you have any papers? Any written records? Any correspondence? Any pictures? I don't think so. Would you have any letterheads? No pictures I would have. I don't have that. I've got albums called Back to 1920. Okay. What about community activities from when you were here, from the 30s? I mean, I get a prize or I get a medal or I get that was my president. Every year I got something. My office is full of them. What was the thrust of the center when it moved to North Dallas? As a center a place for kids to meet who didn belong to the country life Swimming pool activities they had activities baseball games things like that And you see, at that time, very few people had pools.
The reason I joined the Colombian club in 1935 was because it had a swimming pool. I had been on the swimming pool, and I wanted to swim. And I think the first other pool I was here, it was at Jacobs, where I was at the book, where I always had one pool. And then Al Sussman put one in his home later. And I used to go out there and say, you know, at that time, people put a foot left the city, And so I was alone at home. It was Sunday morning and there was a part I go up to the Columbia Club on Don Quentin's on Garland Road.
And I'd swim lengths at 10 o'clock when people started coming down. I was finished when I went home. But that was the only thing. That was all it was. It was a swimming pool. They had the only air conditioning room. And that's what the center was. That's why I was going to court. You never have to. What about the cultural series? There are things in Federation News which talks about, well, Celia Adler, who was here on the cultural series, and that was a center activity in the early 50s What about some of those things Are the center players They put on amateur shows The Temple put one on I played in I think I got the recordings The tapes we made on the show.
You have the programs? No. It's the city program. When we come back from New York, I have the programs and I throw them out. Okay. We used to... We used to... We used to... The quartet series, and I'm a Scott... Weeber, and I'm a Maple Avenue, that old bit. I'm too bad as you keep in there. I'm sorry if you want to help. I'm sorry, can you help? I mean, I can find out. The same way you can find out, I can go to the record at the Center of the Federation. We gave all our 75 revolution records for the Center. I don't know where they are now.
Some of those are invaluable. I want to get them back. Yeah. Are there anything else you can think about that... Well, I mean, you caught me unaware, so maybe I could have recollected that I probably wrote a good note for myself. But I was always collecting money for it.