Jake Feldman
Jacob Feldman was born in Sebastopol, Russia, a fortress and army town where his father sold leather boots to the army and navy. His father was also a committed Zionist who had served as secretary of the Zionist youth movement in Russia and had received a rich Hebrew education from a local rabbi, learning the prophets by heart. Fleeing the pogroms, the family immigrated to America at the end of 1906, coming first to Fort Worth because Feldman's mother's sister lived there, the only relative the family had in the country. His father later brought over the grandparents, who lived nearby and spoke Yiddish, giving Feldman a Yiddish-speaking upbringing he considered fortunate.
The Feldman family moved from Fort Worth to Dallas at the beginning of 1915, drawn by the larger city's greater opportunities. Feldman attended Royal Street School, later renamed for its longtime principal, and finished grammar school in 1919 before going on to Forest Avenue High School and then SMU, where he graduated in 1927 with a major in commerce, accounting, and finance. Over the years the family lived in many Dallas neighborhoods, beginning in South Dallas and moving through areas including Pocahontas Street near the old community center, Forest Avenue, and Maple Terrace, eventually settling in Highland Park and other neighborhoods. He married in 1934, and his family followed the general movement pattern of the Dallas Jewish community.
Feldman built his career in the scrap iron business, becoming known for its international side and shipping what he recalled as the first boatload of scrap iron out of Miami in 1926, though the worldwide Depression struck his trade hard. His deepest commitments were to Israel and Jewish education. He was active with the United Israel Appeal, the American-Palestine trading board since the late 1940s, the American Friends of the Hebrew University, and the Jewish National Fund, and he supported archaeological digs and projects in Jerusalem. Nationally he worked with the United Jewish Appeal, serving under chairmen such as Joe Meyerhoff and Max Fisher, and became an honorary national chairman. Locally he served on the boards of Akiba Academy and the Hebrew School of Dallas, and supported the Dallas Symphony and opera. He fondly recalled Chaim Weizmann's 1921 visit, when his father welcomed him in Hebrew, and studying privately with Rabbi Gold.
Full Transcript
I'm with Mr. Jacob Feldman. And how long have you lived here in the Dallas area, Mr. Feldman? Since the beginning of 1915. Did you come straight to Dallas, or were you born, or where were you born? Born in Sebastopol, Russia. I came to Fort Worth originally. How did you happen to come to Fort Worth? Mother's sister lived in Fort Worth, and this is the only relative that she had in this country. Um, and when your father, when you came, what was your father's occupation? What did he do in Europe? In Europe, he was in the leather business. Did he tan the hides and make materials from it?
No, he just sold leather. Sebastopol was a fortress. They had a big, it was a big army setter, and he used to sell boots to the Army and the Navy people there in Sebastopol, leather boots. Did he do the thing when he came to Fort Worth, or what did he do? No, when he went to Fort Worth, I think he started out in the leather business, didn't do well, and went into the scrap business. Was it by accident that he went into the scrap business? I really don't know. Did you say you don't know how it happened and stuff? Then how did he come to Dallas, or...?
Well, the opportunities in Dallas were greater than Fort Worth, and he decided to move over. It was a much larger city. Was he... How did he acclimatize himself from the city to the... Well, in Fort Worth, of course, he was very active in the synagogue, and he was a staunch Zionist. He was involved in Zionism in Russia. He was a secretary of the Zionist youth movement. and his interests were the same when he came before Worth. And he was the... He became chairman of the of the Karen I saw and became state chairman and he was here when Weizmann came in into Dallas in 21 and he welcomed Weizmann in Hebrew How did he receive his Hebrew education?
Well, he was a bright student, a very quick learner, and the rabbi in the community Sebastian Sebastian Poo taught him. He only took, or I only taught two students, his own son and my father. And that is how he got his Hebrew education. He taught himself a great deal too. He was a good, quick, very, well, he was very much interested, and I imagine that is the reason he took so quickly. He loved the Hebrew language and he used to learn the prophets by heart. His grandfather used to give him one cup of gift for every page that he learned. And he could recite chapter and verse of most of the prophets.
How was it that Dr. Weizmann came here to Dallas? Well, this was in the interest of the Zionist movement. And he, they needed money in those days too. And it was that was the reason he came to Dallas What about your own Jewish education? Well, we were, we went to school in Fort Worth at the Talmud Torah there, at the synagogue's Talmud Torah, the Gidlava Shalom. And then we took private lessons. We were taught by Rabbi Bumenthal, and one of our good teachers in Fort Worth was Mr. And I believe we learned more from private instruction than we did from the Talmud Torah. Yeah, this was then between the years of 1907 and 1915, when you were in Fort Worth.
Yeah. When you came here, was there a Hebrew school established? There was a congregational Sunday school, and we used to take private instructions. Mr. Resnick used to come from Fort Worth to Dallas to teach us. And he'd come over twice or three times a week, and he'd teach all four kids. Apparently the Hebrew school leader was not good enough to give us the type of instruction that we needed. else we were so used to Mr Resnick teaching us that we uh that our parents wanted him to come to visit us and teach us twice or three times a week How long did you study with him?
I don't know. I imagine we must have studied with him. Between Fort Worth and Dallas, maybe seven, eight years. Did you study Torah? Did you study conversational subjects? Did you study, you know, in context or... Both. Primarily, we studied Tana, we studied grammar, dig-duk. We covered both. This was after school, was that? The evening, the afternoon? What about your secular education? Well, I went to the first two grades in Fort Worth. First two or three, and then when we moved to Dallas, I went to Royal Street School on Eckerd and Royal. I think I was in the-I started in the Low Fourth and finished grammar school there.
I finished grammar school in 1919. And now the name of the school was changed to Lila P. Coward, who was the principal for many, many years. She was an old Confederate soldier. She used to come to school in her horse and buggy with her intro driver driving her. Did she have personal experience of the Civil War? Yes, she remembered Arthur. She was 16 years old when she met our General Robert E. Lee. Where did you go to high school? Forest Avenue High School. And then to college? SMU. Finished SMU in 1927. What did you major in? I majored in the School of Commerce and accounting and finance.
Then have you had the same occupation, you know, all throughout? Have you always been involved in the middle? Yes. What about your synagogue affiliation? Well, let's go back. What about observances as far as, would you classify yourself orthodox or conservative or reform? Well, we originally came from an orthodox background. I think we'd classify our appearance as conservative. We followed the pattern of the synagogue that we were affiliated with. One in Fort Worth was Orthodox, and our grandparents were strictly Orthodox. So we were much more observant in Fort Worth than we were in Dallas. The synagogue in Dallas was traditional but not as orthodox as the one in Fort Worth Did any of your grandparents live with you My father brought them over after we came and we lived very close to where they lived We didn't live with them, but very close to where they lived.
Was it just the immediate family that lived, you know, in the dwelling, or did you have any relatives at any period? relatives at any period of time that lived with them. I don't remember any relatives living with us. Has your observance, or have your observances changed over the years, or have you remained as observant as you were since the time you've been in Amos? I think as the years went by, we followed the pattern of the Synagogue that we were affiliated with, as far as observance. I wouldn't say that we keep a strictly kosher home, but we buy kosher meat and the thing that I'm sure is that our dishes are mixed up and not-so, I would say that as the years went by, we've-we have been less observant as far as Kushrith is concerned.
I think that the love of our people was handed down from our parents and I think they more than anyone else were responsible for our carrying on and trying to be helpful to our people helpful to Jewish education We always had plenty of Jewish books around the house. My father was a lover of books and an ardent collector of books, so books were always part of our house, even if we didn't use them as often as we should. What about observance of holidays? Do you feel you are observant of the holidays as you were through the years, or have been through the years? Has there been change?
Well... Well... I would say that we don't keep the Sabbath like we used to when our father was living, but we still live the holidays. What about the Jewish organization affiliated now, or affiliation now? Of course you've done a great deal as far as contributing to Jewish institutions all along, but as far as activity and affiliation in organizations. I been uh of course more wrapped up in organizations affiliated with Israel than And I have organizations affiliated to the local Jewish community. Even though I haven't been active in the Zionist movement here in Dallas, I've been very active in many areas, in Jewish organizations. So, I've been a member of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, and I've I've been more or less associated with the Jewish National Fund, and I would say that I would say that most of the universities in Israel, I'm interested in that, have been helpful in special projects for the city of Jerusalem, such as the archaeological digs.
but I'll say that I've been active with the United Israel Appeal, which of course was a former I've been a member of this for 13, 14 years. And I've been active with the United Jewish Appeal on the national level. That was one of the, of the National Chairman that was, that worked under, I went through to Joe Meyerhoff and Max Fisher and Eddie Ginsberg. And now I'm an honorary national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal. I would say that most of my interests had been directed towards Israel. And before Israel became a state, I was involved in Palestine, involved with the American-Palestine trading till today I was on this board since, I think, 1947 or 1948.
What about civic and cultural affiliations? I used to be on the board of the American Association of Jewish Education and have been on the board of the National Foundation of Jewish Culture have been interested in financing and working with Jewish education on a national level. Have your interests changed over the years, or have they stayed the same? I think they pretty well stayed the same. I'm on the board of the Akiba Academy and have been for a number of years and have supported the academy. And I was on the board of the old United Hebrew School when it was the- Hebrew School of Dallas? Hebrew School of Dallas.
I've been a supporter of the Dallas Symphony and the opera. I've been one of the sponsors of the opera. I've been helping them take care of their deficits every year. Now, as far as living in different areas in Dallas, do you remember where you lived when you first came to Dallas? Yes we lived on St Louis Street corner of St Louis and Akron in South Dallas Were there a lot of Jewish people in that neighborhood? Yes, that was the area where the Jews lived, and I presume that's the reason my parents decided to live there. I lived there. How long did you live there? Do you remember that when, what year it was?
No, I don't. I know we moved from there to... U Circle. And U Circle we moved to Pocahontas Street right across City Park. Was that near where the old center was? Yes, very close to the old community center, which used to be the Elks Club. And from there? From there we moved to Forest Avenue, very close to the high school. And from there we moved to Maple Terrace where we lived 13 or 14 years in Maple Terrace Apartments on Maple Avenue. And from Maple Terrace? Maple Terrace. I was married and we lived at Stoneley Court for a while and then had an apartment on Westway.
And then? And then we brought a little home on Lorraine. Now that Howling Park Yes Howling Park mm About what year was that then when you lived on Lorraine when you moved to Holland Park Probably around the-we were married in 1934, so it must have been-we probably moved moved into Westway in 1937, and moved to Lorraine probably 1940. And we moved Belfort Place probably in 1947, Forty-six. Forty-six. And how long have you lived here on Averill? About nine years. Was that from Belfort when you moved here? Belfort, yeah. But now, wasn't Westway on Highland Park also? Yes, yeah, Westway. Would you say that the general Jewish community moved in the same pattern that you did?
Yes, I would say. Can we go back to, you mentioned that the old Jewish Community Center on Pocahontas had been the Elks Club before it had been the Community Center. Would you have any memories of where the Community Center was before then, or did they have a building? I don't remember. What about the YMHA? Or was it after the YMHA became the community center? I really have no memories of the whole YMHA. I played tennis at the city park, and tennis was a sport I went out for. Um, as far as, um, what about the Sheriff Israel? He was on Jackson when you were youngster, wasn't he?
Yes, when he moved from Fort Worth to... The synagogue was on Jackson Street. Do you remember anything about the service in New York Times? I know it's a long time ago. I remember the first rabbi was Rabbi Postig. And he left us and went to New York. I remember my study school teacher was Milton Drebren's mother, Mrs. Drebren. She was a daughter of Mr. Goodstein. Is that Mrs. Bertha Drebren? Yeah, I think so. I think she's still in the Golden Age Club today. She is. Now, I remember you telling me about your father having addressed the congregation during Yom Kippur, I believe you said it was.
Yes, he delivered the sermon. How is it that he hadn't been delivered the sermon? Well, they had no rabbi at the time. My father was a man with a very rich Jewish and Hebrew background. He was well qualified to deliver a sermon. He spoke in Yiddish Was this the usual at the time Was the sermon generally delivered in Yiddish Well, I think that sometimes it was delivered in English and sometimes in Yiddish. What about English in the service? Was there much English in the service at that time, do you remember? I don't think it was near as much in those days as there are now.
What about some of the traditions and some of the things as far as the shul is concerned and the shul service? Do you remember if it were longer than it is today, for example, on the high hall of the high hall? Yes, it used to be very long. We used to have services on Rosh Hashanah until around 2.30. Maybe ever before 2 or 2.30. What about other services such as PESA and Shrill? Were they also longer? I think in general the services were longer. I think we'd probably get out PESA a little earlier than 2.30 or 2 o'clock, but it is still much longer than today service what about Simchat Torah now we remember when they used to pass out flags and of course they don't do that anymore everybody used to march with flags around was there any other type of celebration or observance?
Did they do it another way? Long ago? I think it was much the same. Do you remember any other procedure? I think it was much the same. It was primarily a very happy holiday in which the kids were involved and the kids all had aliyahs. It was a very, very joyous holiday. I remember the custom was to visit the rabbi on Simplestore in his home And we used to do that My father used to take me and we Simchastorah was honoring the Torah, which meant honoring the rabbi who represented the Torah. I don't do that anymore but I remember that as a custom of my father was it the usual did many of the yes what about walking to show on the holidays did they ride carriages or rather they were I imagine cars already you know many of Yes.
I think that in the early days we used to walk, but gradually we started using the automobile and distances became much longer. What about Purim? Well, the kids always looked forward to it because it was the holiday with the dreidel and our arch enemy, Mr. Heyman, was really stampeding me. As a child, I remember that the complete Megillah was read to the children as well in the evening, and there was a large-it must have been an electric grotter. Was there anything like that in-well, this must have been about 1940. I don't remember anything like that. I remember the ordinary trade luck that the kids had, and the stomping of the feet when his name was mentioned.
Did the kids also participate in any other way? Was there costume or masquerade or anything of that nature? I don't remember anything like that. What about politics Has the politics or your own feelings of politics how you know have you voted in elections have you participated, and has it changed over the years? I voted in the elections, but I've never been directly involved in politics. So, not too familiar on that subject. What about some of the things as far as the community has been concerned over the years, of the things that really stand out as far as your memory is concerned, both in Jewish matters and Jews in the city itself are participating in community.
Well, I think that the... I think the visit of Dr. Weissman was certainly one of the highlights of Dallas's Jewish history. We also had visits here of Jabotinsky. I also think that the rabbis had Great influence on Dallas life. I remember Rabbi Wernie, who was here in the early 20s. He and his two sons were highly educated and were very helpful. and building up a tradition of learning. Just the other day, Rabbi Wernie's son came to visit us. He must be close to 70 years old, but he's still very active and one of the best labor lawyers in the country. He studied for the rabbinate, got his degree, and spent 11 years in the rabbinate, but still studied law all the time.
He was in the Rabinath and finally left the Rabinath for law. But we were fortunate in having some brilliant people here, Rabbi Gold. And we, I think we're lucky in having, I think, Rabbi Epstein. I don't remember him, but From what I hear, others say that he was a very able man. So I think these rabbis had a very strong influence. You mentioned Rabbi Gold. What are some of the things that you remember about him? I understand that he was well he was very learned and I understand that he went on got his MD and practiced psychiatry later He used to have private classes which were open to everybody but which were not too well attended.
He was a very brilliant person and he was a great teacher. He had enthusiasm in the background to really give you inspirational lectures. I also remember for a while going to his house every Saturday for lunch for about a year, in which he would give me private instruction after lunch, would get me interested in the Bible, in the Bible and would get me interested in Bialik and some of the other famous Jewish personalities. Was this in your adult years or was this in your young teenage years? This was, when he was here, this was 19, I guess. He was here from 20 to 30-no, to 43, I think.
Yeah, this must have been, now, let's see, six. This must have been in 1931, or- I made a mistake. Wasn't he here 13 years? wouldn that have been from about 1930 to 1943 Yeah I think so You probably heard it earlier than that But this must have been when I was about 23 or 24 years old. What about bar mitzvahs when you were a child? Were you bar mitzvah? No, I wasn't bar mitzvah. Just at the time I was supposed to, my father took care of, went to Mayo Brothers and was operated on, and my bar mitzvah was, uh, didn't take place. What about bar mitzvahs in those days?
Did they have any elaborateness to them, or were they... the service? Well, I think that the... service was... probably a little bit more Hebrew in it than they have today. I remember my brother's Burmesef in Fort Worth. He spoke in Hebrew. Were all of your children active? Your brother and your sisters were all of you? I know, Of course, Panny is very active. Yes. Would you say that all of you were as active in the community? Did it have all the same effect? Well, I remember my brother teaching Sunday school. He was a teacher for a while, but, of course, when he-I told him, of course, he wasn't wasn't too active in Jewish life after that.
But my older sister was active, and she headed the drive, the women division in Dallas and was active in Jewish life Would you say the schooling had as much effect as your home life or do you think the home made the real made the difference Yes, I think the home made the difference. Do you remember some of the er-do you remember when the Hebrew School of Dallas was started? Do you have any work of Lexington? No, I don't. I remember one time when we didn't have a Hebrew school that my father and Harry Segal bought a house on Pocahontas and brought Rabbi Blumenthal over. They had a Hebrew school at that time.
Did a lot. Did they have a pretty good attendance? Well, I think the attendance was fairly good. I don't remember how many. Where was Rabbi Blumenthal at that time? Was he in Fort Worth or in Lincoln? Or other parts? I don't remember where he came from. He was in Fort Worth and then he was in Waco. But he probably came out of Waco. I understand he was also in Shreveport. Yeah. Yeah. His son could give you a pretty good background, his father. What about Jewish social life? Was there much of a Jewish social life during the period of time, you know, when you were a child and through the twenties?
I don't know too much about Jewish social life. They had the Glendon Club on Erie Street before they moved out to White Robb. I was never too active in social life. What about youth groups? Were there any Zionist youth groups, for example? Were there any cultural Jewish youth groups? I don't... I wasn't... associated with the groups. I don't remember any of the groups. What about the kids, like the kids that went to Temple at that time, or the kids that went to Ferreth, Israel at that time, or from Cherith, Israel? Did they all intermingle? You know, did they all get together under, you know, outside of their religious settings, or did they just stay within their own circles of those settings?
I think they were pretty much confined to their own and synagogues and temples. Was there the system of confirmation at that time? Yes, I was confirmed. I remember there were only three or four in our confirmation class. Tom Kleinman and Isidore Sarovitz, and someone else. I'd forgotten him. About when was that? Do you remember? No, I don't remember. It must have been in about 1920, 21. I was about 14 years old. Did they have any post-conformation program at the time? Yes. And I attended the-I think at about that time, I was Rabbi Gold I don remember too much about the post classes I remember teaching a post class of all girls And I think Miriam Zesmer was one of my students.
But I didn't do it for too long, I think for about a year. Did most of the kids go ahead and teach after they finished the religious school? A lot of them did. Was this their main source of teachers? Yes. What about pay? Did they do this professionally or could the shill afford it at the time? They couldn't afford it. So the pay was nominal. But they did receive salary? Yes. Would you say that there was a a greater percentage of attendance of kids at that time than you see today? I really didn't know how to answer that. Because I just don't know. Do you think the parents were more involved?
Or do you have any overall impression as far as the parents, you know, their attitudes and how they felt about the religious training? I really have no feeling of it. Did many of the girls get Hebrew instructions? No. Not too many when I was growing up. We're very fortunate in our family that the girls were given the same private instruction that the boys were from the same teachers, so the girls got roughly the same education that the boys got What about Yiddish Our grandparents didn speak English so we had to speak Yiddish I think it was very fortunate for us that we did. We grew up in a Yiddish-speaking home because our grandparents always lived very close to us in Fort Worth, I got that Yiddish-talking background, which has been very helpful.
Was this also true of your contemporaries, the kids you went to school with? I think it's true of a good many of them. Do you happen to remember the Arbarte Ring Shola? Not too familiar with it. I certainly remember the name and knew that they were active. I don't remember too much about them. Would you remember if they had much of an impact on the community? Of course they had some impact. I don't know how great the impact was. Do you remember any of the plays that the Yiddish Theatre put on? No, I really don't. I wonder if that was a limited group in itself, you know, or if the whole community came and participated.
I think it was probably a limited group. What about the Colombian club in those days? Was it an extremely exclusive club? Was it made up of mostly temple lights, or was it both the sheriff Israel, or all factions as far as affiliation is concerned? I don't remember too much about the Colombian club. If I were guessing, I would guess that it was much more exclusive in the beginning and much more confined to people from Temple Emanuel Would you say or of course this was in the same era I guess there were a lot of Jewish people from Russia, Russia, Poland and stuff. Did they come about the same time, early 20s, or maybe say from 1915 to 20s?
I think there were different ways of immigration from Russia and Poland. We came in 1906, the end of 1906, because of pogroms. And I think from the end of 1906 onward to 1914, 1915, there were ways of Jewish immigration because the Jewish people in Russia were certainly not happy with the treatment they received. Was it true for the Jew, as far as general American history is concerned, where they felt that America was the golden in Medina? Or as far as opportunity, was it strictly a matter of, well, was it harder to go, say, to someplace like Israel? Was it because it was less developed at that time?
Do you have any ideas? Well, I think the fact that most of the relatives lived here, naturally they came where their relatives were. And this country was free, and they did have relatives living here, so it was natural for them to want to come here. At that time, Palestine was in the hands of the Turks and the British. It wasn't too easy to go into Palestine. What about the Depression years? How did it hit the Jewish community, or did it hit it as much as the- Well, I think it hit it hard. I think it hit it just as hard as any other part of the community.
And we were affected by it, and certainly- Went through very, very difficult times. You mentioned before that you had started shipping as early as the late 20s overseas. Yes, we started shipping overseas. I think we shipped the first boatload of scrap iron out of the Port of Miami in 1926. And I guess we were more internationally minded than most people in our trade. We more or less specialized in the international phase of it. Did that aspect help you at all during the Depression? No, because the Depression was worldwide. Material was worth just as little overseas as it was here, so it was a worldwide Depression.
No escape, huh? Yeah. Were a good many of the Jewish population in businesses here, or were they affected because they worked for others in the businesses that had a hard time? I think they were affected both ways. They had their own business where they worked for others. I think they were really affected and things were really rough and depression well let's see we're similar can you well some of the things interesting highlights that happened in your own experience that you can share with us I don't know when notable people came or I don't know I mentioned another little pouring balls many times and I don't know how old the institution is you know was there anything like that on a community-wide basis that was really Oh, the effect of the complete community.
I don't remember too much about the pouring balls. Of course, the highlight of our life was the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. and the victories in 56 and 67, the struggles that still goes on.