Full Transcript
I'm Jam Garten berg and today is the 2nd of June 2015 hey Jan can you tell us where was your family from your relatives or whoever your parents your grandparents if you know where they came from my grandfather my grandparents both are from Poland Germany and Lithuania they were actually my grandfather came over from Lithuania from the I think Isabella and don't exactly remember where my where my parents met my grandparents met but my gran but my brother sorry my father's parents were from Germany and I didn't meet them because they died when he was 15 and when he was 13 and 21 years old
his because his mother died and then a week later he has permits but it was very sudden my parents were born in the Bronx and that's where they were raised and in fact today's my mother's birthday thank you and then they father was in the service and Navy and they moved to Hawaii from New York City where they had their first two children and that's my brother Brad who's and it's currently a conservative rabbi my brother Philip his family lives in Jerusalem in Israel then they moved to Southern California Fontana where I was born in 1957 and then to near San Francisco where my younger
brother was born and then back to Los Angeles raised in Redlands the city of Redlands and then moved to Los Angeles in 1972 a year after my bar mitzvah yeah tell me a little bit about your childhood what do you remember what were the things that you enjoy doing or any hobbies that you might have had well I love to draw in fact that's where my first career took me it took me to my first career graphic design and drawing I had a lot of friends when I was a kid I've never a lot of Astra back-to-school activities a lot of crafts that we used
to do as kids I also love to read when I was a kid I loved truth my parents made sure that I had a lot of reading material around me I also loved to teach our brothers were you a good student I was registered in Vegas dude and have a lot of memories of special teachers and special classes I also played excuse me I played the violin and I played the piano I hated practicing I hated practice and if I had if I had liked it or I could have gone forward with it my teacher said that I was I could have been a concert
pianist the same experience so in high school did you already have an idea direction in mind of where you'd like to go what you'd like to do with your life we had a good friend who my daughter of a friends of ours who lived about a half an hour 45 minutes away we spend every Thanksgiving with them and sometimes in the summers and birthdays with them as well and their daughter Peggy was going into when she was in school at San Luis Obispo which is 200 miles north of Los Angeles and she was studying to be a graphic designer but I decided that I wanted
to do the same I cut out some I learned how to do calligraphy and I also I just had an eye for this type of thing and I I went to the same school as she did she graduated and then she kind of paved the way for me to go to San Luis Obispo and I was there for five years I started school started a college in 76 and it finished in 81 I lived away from home I was one of the first of my friends who lived away from that I lay away from home I always saw that as a mark of achievement it
was a good school and it was a good experience I had my own business for a while as well 14 years besides work what other what affiliations did you have Jewish why's our Civic why's that you were maybe involved in I was involved with the temple in Culver City where I was raised as a camp counselor and a teacher but also a teacher's assistant for a while I also worked one of the summers during the college I worked as a CIT advisor at a camp called alanine which is part of the Brandeis Bardeen camp in Simi Valley I had also gone to Brandeis merdeen for
a year for a summer and that was a very eye-opening experience really helping me up to my Judaism but a lot of camp a lot of camp experience also into Cub Scout camp and then my father wanted me to become a karate he wanted me to got to get involved to protect myself so I did a little karate too so you're a graphic designer for a number of years and then what what happened after that well I took the graphic design with me to my business to Albuquerque where Donald I lived from 94 to 96 and mid year 95 I said to myself I don't
want to do the same I don't want to do I didn't want to be stuck behind a computer desk I've had started graphic design before the computers came in to me and then I did a lot of work with my computer doing designs for people and then notice that they were doing the same things that I was doing in their computers so I said I went to the robot I said I need something else I needed work with people and he kind of kicked me in the butt and said get to nursery school and so I started nursing school of 95 moved here in 96
and finished school in 99 why did you transfer care what school again Texas Woman's University great school there was it was a great experience I went through a four-year program I'm very glad I did I have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and I knew that I was always wanted to do hospice work so I went through the oncology and then hospice work which I'm currently doing yeah you said you always knew but how did you know well a lot of a lot of friends are dying I have seen a lot of friends die of cancers and I said there's got to be a way
I could give back and that can help I volunteered with a hospice organization when I was in college but said some tired like to do what well actually back then I didn't know because I was I was that's when I was in graphic design school but I had volunteered with the hospice back then so the seeds were planted very early on but at that time I was there for graphic design so I through that process I saw friends die of leukemia friends to have brain cancer also parents friends of my parents who were very ill and decided that was work I'd like to do what
company were you with originally originally a hospice company I was with a company at the time called st. Paul hospice which is down Community Hospice also worked with meet us for a while and then I went to work for six and a half years with an oncologist here at Texas Health Care Health Resources Presbyterian at Texas oncology and that I worked at faith hospice and then Vista care and on with Silverado so all total how many years have you been doing this five five or six yeah all right can you tell me a little bit about what was Dallas like when you got here and what's it like now what are the differences and changes that you've seen well if I can say so
I didn't want to come here I definitely did not want to come here dog My partner was a cantor is a cantor and it was looking for he was placed he was looking for placement and another synagogue a larger synagogue then we had a have occurred and he got this position in Dallas I was looking at this position of Dallas and I said absolutely not I'm not going to Dallas I refused to go to Dallas if you want to go you go on staying here well I didn't stay there I just remember for the interview weekend I had a terrible sinus infection so my my
memories of Dallas early I got her sick and it gave me a headache and sinus infection the Arts in Dallas have blossomed I was very active in our public radio station and got some arts programming placed in our public radio station that's still on there and our love of theater has been well satisfied here more and more we belong to many theaters we have season season subscription tickets to many theaters here in town and we're always used to be we used to be movie goers love the movies but now it's theater when everyone else says have you seen this movie or that movie we're not
time enough too much theater to go to then we'll say have you seen this show which I never heard early so it's our it's our joy do you have anybody that you could say would be your role model through the years or currently it doesn't matter whatever yes yes there are two one it's a teacher that I studied with I'm in my nursing I was in nursing at Texas Woman's University her name is Rita Martin she's retired now listen pilot point and she's become a very dear friend she is someone I sat down with what I was in school and helped you out before relate
what I would do professionally and she remains a good friend and we get to see each other socially once in a while as well in another role model is a very good friend of mine lives in Chicago she mentored me when I was first doing hospice work here when she lived here actually she said she was passing through here she used to live here but she was working for a hospice in San Diego on her way to moved to to Chicago and she and I talked and said every two to three weeks and she's she's also been a mentor for me she's quite a wonderful
person what achievement are you the most proud of so far or what thing what would in any area what are you proud of I'm proud of the work that I do I'm also proud of the work I did as a graphic designer I used to do a lot of good to us but Hebrew in English calligraphy was very good and I'm very proud of what I produced I'm proud of my home I'm proud of the relationship that I'm in I think that it's been a it's a it's a very successful and warm relationship that I'm part and I'm thrilled that I could I could contribute
to it as much as thank you and in closing so overall was it a good move to come here yes because we've built a really strong community we have an endless number of friends we were given when we moved here we were handed a community it wasn't as if we moved here had to find people to befriend we befriended the congregation the congregation befriended us and from that we have made more and more connections in the city a very very positive and glad to be here we're glad you're here thank you you
