Hilton Israelson
Hilton Israelson was born into a family shaped by immigration from Lithuania to South Africa. His father arrived from a small Lithuanian town before World War Two, following his sister, and his mother came later from another Lithuanian town along with much of her family after an elder sister was able to bring them out. Six of his mother's eight siblings lived in one small South African town, and Hilton recalls a close, warm family life defined by frequent gatherings on Jewish and public holidays and by a strong sense of Jewishness within the wider society.
Inspired by a brother who was a dentist and by a dentist he admired as a boy, Hilton pursued dental training in South Africa, completing five and a half years of study. He met his wife Maureen around his university years, introduced by a dental school classmate. The couple married shortly after his graduation and moved to London, where he practiced for fifteen months. While abroad he applied to graduate programs in periodontics and was accepted at Tufts, and it was during their time in the United States, amid the 1976 unrest in South Africa, that they decided to make America their permanent home.
Hilton came to Dallas for a faculty position at Baylor, arriving with Maureen and two suitcases and building a home in a city he found clean and welcoming. Maureen, who holds a music degree, devoted herself to raising their three children, and the family became involved in synagogue life, joining Shearith and later a smaller congregation that reminded Hilton of home. He became citizens with the help of an immigration attorney who was also a patient. Professionally he rose through organized dentistry, serving as chair of the Dallas County Dental Society, president of state organizations, president of the Texas Dental Association, and eventually a trustee of the American Dental Association, later running for its presidency.
Full Transcript
yeah good afternoon dr. Elson go ahead my name is Hylton is Wilson the date today is May 20th 2015 okay tell us a little bit about your family of origin where do they come from and how do they emigrate to South Africa my parents my father arrived in South African pride in the First World War II arrived from an a little town called Zabel in Lithuania my mother came prior to the Second World War and she arrived from Newtown court rocker chick or say Lithuania my father actually followed his sister who went to South Africa before my mother and her whole family followed the elder sister then moved to
South Africa do they have any particular reason for picking South Africa from Lithuania I don't know well I suppose the reason was because they the siblings had gone before them and they went to join their siblings my father's lost experiences as a kid so he basically went to his sister was my mother her parents and the mother was one of my kids and the seven kids came with appearance after the elder sister was able to bring them out so they just followed her sister okay can you tell us a few things that were memorable your young life growing up in South Africa that you can
recall well the big thing about South Africa was family and what's memorable to me is that how just often the family got together all the time it was a Jewish holiday public holiday Sunday we were all together and of the family of my mother's family six of the eight kids lived in a small town Portwood back that's when we went to so we were always very very close other thing is just the Jewishness of the society how everyone was sorta together even though we were part of the part of the population part of the crew you still had your Jewishness and you're respected for who
you were and what you did at what point in your growing up years did you decide on your given profession well we don't have a college system what we have is we best straight to university we are straight to university you have to or haven't chosen profession I had a brother who was a dentist and growing up I went to a dentist who really impressed me so putting the two together that kind of made the decision for me so how many years schooling did you have for that well training five and a half years training in South Africa and of course I completed my graduate
studies in the United States okay and when did you meet your wife how did that happen I met my wife in Soviet 1917 about that University and a good friend of mine one of my dental school classmates introduced me to that came from the same city okay it's always it love at first sight well for her it was should it work on me ah what at what time along that timeline did you guys decide well when and where did you get married and then how soon after wasn't that you felt like you were ready to leave South Africa well traditionally the South African dentists goes
to London works of time in London and uses that time to basically see the world or see Europe see Great Britain so Maureen and I decided we got married I graduated on a Friday but married the following Sunday we been four days honeymoon in South Africa and then we left for for England for London and we could we completed a honeymoon in in Italy and then we went to London where we loved fifteen months as a dentist we were able to practice it without having to take special bulls and I worked for someone who basically had a National Health practice what was your family your
immediate family's reaction when you decided you were going to move were they supportive or did they well when we went to London we at night we were intentions to go back to South Africa and it's while we're in London that they had these soyita riots in 76 action is before them no actually I was wrong but what happened while in London when I was in dental school always liked periodontics and I would have you studied periodontics so I as I have applied to some schools in this country and was accepted into Tufts so that was our we came to the United States for me to
complete my graduate studies while we were here in 76-thousand and the so in our rights at that point we decided that we could stay it would be to our benefit and the benefit of our future family how did that family feeling so that Fichtner Maureen's family were that they understood because they were also immigrated to Israel at the time said I am the student God was important my mother was not happy about it but she understood to anyone who in that situation understood that it the future was ready for the for the country was bleak did any of your family or close friends end up
moving here as well well the recursions kind of followed us I'd say that's it you know of course we had we have family we have a family you know the left and family who followed us my sister came for a while she had some mishaps that's some problems and they actually went back to South Africa okay so you were at Tufts how did you get to Dallas from there well being at Tufts of the first winter being so long I knew I could stay in the north at that point too I don't know if I want to do going to a full-time teaching position or
for any private practice so I looked at certain schools and you only become self also to find a estate that would allow me to practice when they recognized my degree my foreign degree and I had a choice of Florida and a choice of Georgia and Texas I didn't want to go to the west coast I happen to call up the dental school at Baylor in a position that just opened in their own apartment it was almost about this shift sounds like it wonderful so what were your first to prep well obviously your impressions of Tufts but what were your first impressions of Dallas of being
here in Texas well when I came to interview yeah my first impression was just how clean it was and that remind me of my hometown stand from small town but the town was clean you know so it was like wow and then the people were just so pleasant if it was was good to us I did realize after the first week about and become a cowboy fan I put in loving Texas or living Dallas be kind of a cowboy good good mood what type of adjustments did you and worrying find yourself making once once you were here well we arrived at two suitcases so we
arrived with some debt we knew no one so we're going to start off we really kind of crawl worked just just just to get out get my certificate and in coming down yellow closer to adjust to people to the right people love to to to and being sort of newlyweds and we'd never really set up home so this is where we kind of set up home we also well being in Boston two other kids were born snow we came to Dallas and we kind of tied it right there's beer right m79 they went to sheriff and there were others part of the beginning of Solomon
shelter did Maureen also did she look for work when she came here she did that the decision we've made is that she was gonna be a mother she was another girl for the kids and so she did some she Maureen's a music she has a music degree music and when she did come he actually taught a little bit inventing just spent timing right what cultural either Jewish or otherwise things do you feel you brought over here that you're carrying on from your origins in South Africa well I'll bring the traditions and without any one of my kids that but we try and then that's really
where I try to follow the traditions so what how did you get involved in the Jewish community did you do it right away did you wait a while and what types of things did you get involved in well we knew we were voice involved as far as the show is concerned and when we came yeah we looked and look for a short and it's I Evan that we tried to fear it didn't like it we went to sheriff and we came to cheer on the same time as rabbi finds day and it kind of yeah that's where we joined and then sheriff was way too
big Nebraska arrived in town and we went to visit that little show and that little shorts like being back home so I joined her but now I'm not religious but I do feel so at home and we have not moved up north my involvement in was as a drama Degrassi and I basically bought that show I helped raise the money and the plans together get everything going and you're still involved now basically No so tell us a little bit about professionally what have you gotten involved in and what are you working on in working towards well professionally when I would we came to Dallas I
joined the Dennis Kelly Dillon society and our sort of active member you know at one point was asked to be on the Nominating Committee which I did and why did that not on any committee a major position came up which they needed someone in full in the chair that committee looked at me and said what about you and I kind of responded well what about me so after speaking to Maureen took that position of just chair of the Dallas County Dental Society and your meeting and that was a that was the start of my involvement in organized dentistry so I went from that position to
prisoner that orthodontist Kearny Dental Society after that I moved to Texas for certain the board of directors and 2008-2009 service present for the Texas demos following that I figured well let's go national won an election to become the 15th district trustee which is the trustee for that for Texas and currently serve on the board of trustees of the American Dental Association I am now in the process of running for president of the American Dental Association and I can wave to Washington not only the head offices in Chicago and this will but it's it's a it's about this three people running and it's the vote is
in November good luck that's really so that's your professional life how has your family grown since you've been in in Dallas well we're rocked in Dallas of two little girls in anyone we had our son three kids they all went through well two girls finished ownership after eighth grade and moved to Green Hill they graduated Green Hill one of them went to the New York University to study drama the school issues Tisch School of Drama or whatever it's for my younger daughter Carla my other daughters a lot she went to teach my younger daughter Carla went to the University of Pennsylvania where she got a
degree in English and then she followed a lawyer who moved from New York to LA to pursue her acting career a colorful Adele or not worked for a couple years in LA and then went to law school you know she graduated in a son he lifts on a shift at the end of the seventh grade we took him that because his I'm not two or three boys and he's an arsonist he wasn't happy so he went to the Richardson School District he graduated and in wente University of Texas we got a degree in engineer today my kids are one lives in Toronto Carla who is
a lawyer but cannot practice she'd have to go back to school she has three little boys at this point anxious two through six my other kid Lana lives in Brooklyn she has three little boys ages two through six and right now she's a mother and in my son lives in Brooklyn and he and actually Alana's husband and the third person all have just opened to prove public in the restaurant the restaurant beer business all on the East Coast I guess you're traveling a lot these days we do that [ __ ] have you been back visiting to South Africa that much since you left well when my
mother was alive when she could travel should come yeah every year how would she couldn't travel with I got that gift Maureen had come every second yeah the same [ __ ] go to Israel all the time I'd go if he's second yeah I went back when my mother died there's no reason for me to go back mr. C my sister who actually has a son Lucia so she can I'll see what she comes yes sir I got that for sinfulness and I will read back an awesome order later is there anything at all that you really miss about life in South Africa [Music] not really I suppose unit going to South Africa's God's country it's the most beautiful country in the world and what you miss they are the traditional foods the traditional fruits that's as far as living this consume diversity okay this is my I assume I shouldn't assume did you get citizenship here right in the beginning in the beginning so what
was that process like was it relatively easy well us it was easy I was very lucky we actually when we when I finished my graduate studies at Tufts in Boston they I actually worked on the faculty chair my department put in an application for me to get my green card when I arrived the United States in Dallas after five years the attorney for the Immigration Department became a patient and she kind of helped me made it very easy that's convenient that she helped other people as well she was really a wonderful light effect Joe's Jewish that she just she helped a lot of the significance
if you can put it into words what does it mean to you to have your US citizenship well this is my home so gonna live TF over forty years long Bernard lived in South Africa this is how we love it yeah respect the country and I think it's it's it's just you know we're honored to have it so it's a good move for you yeah perfect absolutely and Alice's couldn't not could not ask for a better city in your own words how as Dale has changed since you first came here well it's grown and it's grown from fried fish to grilled fish when we arrived
you had wonderful fish restaurant we if you I get fish you could get a thing and then we saw the changes just through the restaurants and of course and you look at downtown and you go through the Arts and the doors district and see what's happened there it's it's gone from what Fair Park to the arts district has just been amazing and I think the big thing about Dallas is that the people who live here supported 100% and a lot of big givers not a big healthy just so no regrets and you're happy to be here anything you'd love to add just the end of
our interview no I just I just think that everything is good that I guess science it's been a wonderful experience just living the life yeah it's been one of the experiences watching my kids grow up going you know watching them play sports we certainly miss our kids being in Alice out of the city and we envy all those we have the kids in the city but that's life I just think it's great and we just been fortunate that we could move to the United States and that we could become citizens and Mike Messiah thank you very much