Hannah Goldstein
Hannah Goldstein was born April 12, 1914, in Odessa, Russia, though her family lived in the small town of Proskura. Her father, Herman, died before she was born, and she was named after him. Fleeing pogroms, she came to the United States in 1922 at about seven and a half years old, along with her mother and a younger sister. The family settled in New York City, living with her mother's sister while her mother worked as a draper in a dress factory. Hannah attended public school during the week and the Arbeter Ring school on weekends in Harlem, where she learned Yiddish and, she felt, developed her lifelong commitment to social action.
Hannah earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the College of the City of New York, where she was among the first women to attend the downtown campus, played on the girls basketball team, and enjoyed studying German. She married Bernie in New York, and the couple moved to Dallas when Bernie, a social worker who had worked for HIAS, was offered the position of director of Jewish Family Service. Bernie came in 1951 and Hannah followed in early 1952. They lived in South Dallas, Lakewood, and on Colgate before settling in their longtime home on Mimosa Street, and they raised two sons, Martin and David.
In Dallas, Hannah worked for about 30 years managing an office for a furniture company. She and her family joined Temple Emanu-El, where both sons were bar mitzvahed and confirmed, and she remained active in the sisterhood. She was involved with Hadassah, Pioneer Women, and the National Council of Jewish Women, and helped organize a chavurah at Temple Emanu-El that worked with residents of a home for mentally challenged adults. In the wider community, she volunteered with the interfaith Shared Ministries and the Shepherd Centers, serving as president and arranging speakers on history and religion. A lifelong Democrat and admirer of Eleanor Roosevelt, she visited Israel twice and loved to travel.
Full Transcript
Today is May 5th, 1999. I'm Ruth Andress interviewing Hannah Goldstein at her home on Mimosa Street in Dallas, Texas. Good morning, Hannah. Good morning, Ruth. Tell us, where were you born and when? I was born April 12, 1914 in Odessa, Russia. Although my mother lived in a small town, she had gone to Odessa to work and stayed there and gave birth there. But then I went back with her to the little town, Proskura. And that's where we lived until we came to the United States. And when did you come? What age were you? I came in 1922. So you were how old? Over seven, seven and a half.
Did you have brothers and sisters? I have one sister who was three years younger than I am. And where to in the United States? Came to New York City. And when did you come to Dallas? Came to Dallas in 1951. Bernie came in 51. I came early 52. So you met your husband here? No. We were married in New York City. Oh, he just came a different time. Yeah, he came to work. Well, when you came, why did you come? We had all the programs and we had family in New York that wanted to get us out as quickly as possible so they arranged it and we came out.
Why did you come to Dallas? Bernie came. Bernie worked in New York and he was offered his job in Dallas. He was offered a job in Dallas and one in the state of Washington and that sounded too far away. I don't know whether Dallas was any closer, but he chose Dallas. He had met with Jack Kravitz, and Jack sort of convinced him to come to Dallas. Is this when he became the head of the Jewish Family Service? Yes. Was he the first head? Yes. They had some temporary, they had a woman who was the social worker. Who here? Well, first we lived in South Dallas until we could find a place to live, and then in Lakewood and then we were on Colgate for a while until we bought the house here which I think we been here about 30 years What were your neighbors like Well on Colgate we had of course Gentile neighbors and they also had children so it was quite nice for the children to have boys, but there were boys in both houses.
You had how many boys? Two. Two boys. Did your family attend a synagogue? Oh, yes. Which one? Well, in New York we intended a conservative because that's where our family lived. And when we came here, it was a toss-up between the conservative and the reform. And after much discussion, we decided on the reform. And were you involved in the temple? How about your children? Well, they were both confirmed and they both had a bar mitzvah here. Which temple? Temple Emanuel. First, the older one had his down in South Dallas, and David's was at... Hillcrest, Temple Emanuel. And well, how were you as the parent involved other than parent activities?
Well, as soon as I came, I joined the sisterhood and have been with sisterhood ever since, doing one job or another. I know you've been very active in the Jewish community. What were some of those jobs? Well, I worked with Hadassah. First I joined Pioneer Women when it was Pioneer Women. And then I've been with Hadassah and the Council of Jewish Women. What's your involvement now in the Jewish organizations? Well, I'm still with Hadassah. I do book reviews once a month for our Hadassah chapter. I'm not that involved with the Council of Jewish Women very much now because I'm more active in the community. What about Golden Acres?
I don't think I ever did it. I walked off or something. I don't think I did much at Golden Acres. I volunteer there at Christmas time. I do the work there. And, um, but I don't think I did much in Golden Acres while I was, because I was working most of the time. Tell us about what your job was. I was in charge of an office for a furniture company and I was there for about 30 years Westing Company Weston Still keep in touch How is what was your involvement in the Gentile community Well, I've been with the Shared Ministries for, oh, about 12 years, and now I've been involved, now I'm very much involved with the Shepherd Centers, which is an interfaith group of seniors.
It's a national group. And we started, there was one group here in Lakewood, and we started the North Dallas Shepherd Singers. And I've been very active. I've been president. My main job is getting speakers on history and religion, which takes up a lot of time. and with the community rather than the Jewish organizations at the moment. The Shared Ministries, you said, is interfaith, so do you have much Jewish participation besides yours? Yes, in both of those organizations. Shared Ministries is an organization the temple supports, and so we have quite a few. I don't know the exact amount, but we have quite a few people working there.
And in the Shepherd Centers, since Temple is involved, we have over 15 people in the organization that I know of. What is the difference between you? Well, one of them is a relief organization. A shared ministry is food. We give food and rent and advice and get jobs from people who need it. Modest. And the Shepherd Center is to have older people learn, continue learning, going out instead of staying home. And it's really a wonderful organization. There are about 100 chapters of that organization throughout the country. Is it seniors only? Yeah, 55 and a half. That sounds young. Well, that's specifically for seniors. Right. Back a minute as you're bringing up your children, the boys, what holidays did you celebrate and how?
Well we always did Passover which everybody does We always had a Seder and we always did go to Temple on Friday nights The children didn always go to Temple on Friday nights but Bernie and I did most Friday nights And of course, Rosh Hashemi and Kip Sukkot, things like that. Tell us something about Bernie's history as Jewish Family Service. Well, he was really a math major in college, and it was during the Depression, and so he wasn't getting jobs that easily. He went to social work school and first worked for the HIAS, and then after that came down here to work for Jewish Family Services, their director.
He worked there for 25 years. What changes have you seen in, say, Jewish Family Service since the time he began and now? Well, originally it was mainly to get the people who came over, help them get settled. But now it's a much more faceted agency. They do so much more. They have jobs. They have classes. They have just all kinds of things. It has grown tremendously. And the new director, I think, is very, very good. Did the Jewish Family Service then resettle refugees? Yes, that was their main job, really. Because they are continuing. What changes do you see in Dallas? Certainly, it's much bigger. And the influx of, of course, I'm with the Jewish community most of the time, but the The influx of Asians, Spanish, Mexican actually, I think has done a great deal for the city.
It's made it a really international kind of city. Could you tell us some role model in the community that you follow? Well, I'm trying to think. Of course, the rabbi, Rabbi Zimmerman and Rabbi Stern, and Rabbi Robbins have been role models, although she says that I'm her role model. Very possibly so. I really don't know. I mean, I haven't thought of that. I haven't thought that question. I was thinking like when you grew up. Oh, when I grew up, well I grew up in New York and, um, of course, Eleanor Roosevelt I thought was the best thing that ever happened to the United States. What are you most proud of in your life?
Well, I would say Bernie, my family. We have a very close family. I have family in New York and I have family in California, so I go to the coasts, both coasts to keep up with them. I'm proud of the way Bernie became what he had done with Jewish Family Service and I'm proud of what I have been able to do. I worked and then have become very active in the community. So I guess those are the two things I'm proud of. I'm proud of being a Jew. Wonderful. Well, speaking of what did you Did you ever encounter any anti-Semitism in Dallas when you were here?
As you were getting involved? I don't think so. I have quite a few non-Jewish friends, and I have been able to mix. I don't really recall any case of anti-Semitism at all. I'm sure people have, but I guess I've been. What about your boys? Did they ever have any situations? I don't, not that I know of. Now, Martin, my oldest, most of his friends were non-Jews, whereas David had a mixed group, I mean he belonged to whatever you call it, Jewish, or what do you call it? AZA? AZA. And so he spent, and of course going to school at Hillcrest, there were so many Jewish, so I don't know, When David graduated and someone gave a party, they had all these parties and he was invited to the non-Jewish.
Is either boy involved in Jewish activities today? Not Martin, he isn't. David is involved in his synagogue In Dallas No in Auburn Michigan And he was on the board for I don really know right now but he was on the board of his temple in Ann Auburn Who do you think you have made the most impression on as a social activist, let's say, in this community? Well, I don't know. They'd have to tell me. But I think in the Shepherd Center, I have been given quite a lot of compliments. Just last week, we had a speaker. I try to involve Jewish and non-Jewish people and the people I choose from classes.
and last week we had someone from SMU who talked about the Dead Sea Scrolls and he made it very interesting and several non-Jews came up and told me how wonderful the program was and just yesterday we had a speaker, a Baptist speaker and somebody slipped a note in my purse and said why don't you get one of the rabbis to give us that which I have done before Rabbi Stern has spoken and Nancy Caston has spoken to us and Rabbi Berg is going to speak so I try to be even handed to him but we get all religions so we've had everything from Muslim to Catholic to Greek Orthodox all of them Sounds very ecumenical Very ecumenical Hannah where did you go to school?
Well, I went to school in New York. We came in 1922, I guess it was, and we lived with an aunt of ours, my mother's sister, because my mother had to go to work. My father had died even before I was born, and I was named after him. His name was Herman, and my name became Hannah. It became Hannah. and my mother worked in a dress factory. She was a draper. I don't know if anybody knows what that is anymore Tell us Somebody they did very fancy clothes and the clothes were put on a dummy and she draped it to fit properly before it was finished She was a very good operator I think She belonged to the Abba Dering, and so my sister and I both went to the Abba Dering school, and that's where we learned our Yiddish.
Because when we came, we spoke Russian, and we had to learn English, and then we learned the Yiddish at the Abba Dering school. Tell us about the Arbiturine School. What is it? It is a school where you learn Yiddish, but you also learn a lot of other things, a lot of social action. I think that was probably where I got my social action from. It was small. They're small schools, and the teachers were really very good. And it was sort of almost like a little community. Although it wasn't near my house, we had to travel to get there. We went every Sunday, I guess, Saturday and Sunday.
And I guess, too, I'm not a television person. I'd rather read than watch television. Were you in public school during the week? You said Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, we went to public school during the week. and then Saturday and Sunday we traveled down to, the school was in Harlem at the time. We lived in Washington Heights, so it was a trip to go down there, but we did go and we enjoyed it, both of us. When you came to Dallas, was the Arbiterine still existing? No. Because there was one in Dallas. I know. It wasn't here anymore. It's too bad because nobody can speak British anymore.
What organizations did your mother belong to besides the Arbaturine? Well, she belonged to the Burial Society. The family had a burial society, and every year we would go, and towards the fall we would go and say prayers for those that are... My mother had a grave there, but since she died in Dallas, she was buried in Dallas. When did she come to Dallas? When did you bring her? About seven or eight years after we were here she was still living in New York and we decided that she belonged here with the children What kind of activities were you active in as a teenager? Just the organizations there were involved with the synagogue.
I did go to camp. Since I've been here, I was active in organizing a Le Chavarán at Temple Emmanuel, and our Chavarán group, unfortunately so many of them have passed away, undertook to go to High House, which is the residential part where the people who are, how do you say it now, mentally challenged. They're mentally challenged. Adults. Adults. And we became very friendly with them. As a matter of fact, Bernie had one of them who was almost 50 years old that had never had a bar mitzvah, and he wanted very much to have one. So Bernie studied with him, and we did have a bar mitzvah at Sherith Israel.
And he was so proud that he had accomplished that. And to this day, when he sees me, he talks about Bernie. What's his name? David. David Frum. Another thing that I enjoy here was meeting Rachel Andrus. She was the one person I could speak Uthish to. And I enjoyed reading her poetry. Too bad that the Arbiterine School had closed, but I guess there isn't much call for it now. People are more interested in learning foreign languages than they are in their monolition. As I understand, she was a founder of that school. Oh, I didn't know that. Well, I don't even know how large a school it was or anything, because it was already over when I got here.
What kind of experiences or interaction with classmates did you have in your college group? Well, I went to the College of the City of New York, and I was one of the first women, because it had been an all-male school, I was one of the first class to go to the downtown campus and there were just lots of, there were some black people and all kinds, you know, all people because this is a state school, which I think is a city school. And I got a degree, a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and my favorite subject there was German And because I did so well, I think my Jewish background helped me with German.
My instructor asked me to help one of the basketball players who was black who had an awful lot of difficulty saying, And so I would tutor him and get him to say, And he did graduate with me, which was nice. The school was downtown, town, and so we got to travel every day. It was on 23rd Street, and I lived in Washington Heights, so it was quite a trip every day. As little as I am, I was on the basketball team the girls basketball team and we did that We also formed a small group a Jewish group just so that in a big school like that you just felt you needed some of your friends around I have continued to do, when I did go to work, I did continue to do what I learned.
I mean, did bookkeeping and other things in an office. Was that group a social group? More or less, uh-huh. We played bridge. And we did see them outside of school too. Did you have any political interests? When did yours begin and what is it? Well, through the obituring, we did learn a lot about politics. And when there were May Day parades or anything to do with even Israel or anything, we participated. My whole family did. What's been your participation with the State of Israel? Well, I went there twice. and would love to go again. Have you been a member of ZOA earlier? No, I've never been a Zionist.
Well, I did join the ARZA, which is the American Reform Jewish Association. But Israel has always been close to my heart. What about government politics? Well I been a Democrat all my life and so far I see no reasons change Have you been active at all Just then, honey. We did have a precinct here with a precinct chair, and we used to have meetings, but that seems to have died down. I don't know why. They had quite a large Jewish, well, there were not only Jewish people in the precinct, but the precinct chair was not Jewish. But lately there doesn't seem to be any precinct activity.
So I just send my money to the Democratic Party and I vote. If there was anything you could change in your life today, what would it be? I think I'd be a kinder person, although I don't think I'm kind. I guess I would have gotten a CPA. I did study for it, but it came down here and the children were, and I was working, so there was really no time. But that's probably the one thing I'm sorry for, not that it would have made a lot of difference, but it looks nice next to your name. What would you say would be, in retrospect, your most favorite, favorite activity or situation?
Well, my favorite activity is really I love to travel. Bernie and I both skimped on a lot so that he would have money to travel, and we did travel a great deal. And enjoyed meeting people over every Did you travel with any Jewish history in mind? Well, at first, most of the groups we would go with would be Jewish groups. I went to Israel with a Jewish group the first time, which actually the trip was a gift to Bernie and me from our friends on our 25th wedding anniversary. And so that started us on traveling. After that, we did go with some Jewish groups, but later on we just went with travel groups and met all kinds of people.
And my last trip last year was to France with a group that I didn't know anything about and made some good friends from Jews. Actually, my seat partner was a nun, and we got very friendly and spent a lot of time together. I think it's better not to go with a Jewish group because then you just sort of stick to the Jewish history, And I think we need to learn all kinds of history. I've been to every church in Europe, I think. But I enjoy that. I enjoy seeing them as works of art anyway. Well, Hannah, thank you very much. You have a very interesting life, and we're glad that you're here in Dallas and the mark you have made.
And thank you.