Loren Weinstein
Loren Weinstein was born in 1939 in Denver, Colorado, one of five children, into a family with deep local roots. His paternal grandfather had immigrated from Russia and worked in the plumbing business, while his maternal grandfather, from Lithuania, became a petroleum engineer who lived across the country. His father was a solo-practicing lawyer who put five children through college and gave generously to causes such as the Federation and Jewish War Veterans, instilling in Loren a lasting sense of responsibility. His father served in World War II, and only after his death did Loren learn that he had helped a small group of Denver men gather and send arms to Israel in 1948, a story he had never spoken of. Loren attended East High in Denver, studied at Tufts, and graduated from the Wharton School with a major in accounting.
Loren met Andrea, a member of the large Dallas Waldman family, on a blind date in Denver, and the two maintained a long-distance courtship while she attended SMU and he studied at Penn. They married and settled in Denver while he attended law school, welcoming their first son there. He then worked for four years in the chief counsel's office of the IRS in Washington, DC, an exciting time when he glimpsed many national figures and even attended a presidential inauguration. In 1968 the family moved to Dallas, drawn by Andrea's affectionate family and by greater professional opportunities. They bought their first home nearly sight unseen, raised three sons named Jeffrey, Gregory, and Michael, and eventually built a second house where they have lived ever since.
In Dallas, Loren began as a tax lawyer, working in corporate and securities practice, then spent decades as a transactional attorney drafting documents and structuring businesses and real estate deals. Later in life he moved into the used car finance business with two partners, building a retirement base before a buyout in December of the year before the interview. Both Loren and Andrea became deeply involved in Jewish community life. Loren served on the Federation board for many years and chaired its planning and allocations committee, then rose to become president of the Jewish Community Center. Andrea served as president of the Federation, the Jewish Historical Society, and as national chair of the JCPA. Proud of his six grandchildren, all of whom attended Jewish day schools, Loren reflects warmly on how comfortable younger generations are with their Jewish identity, and offers advice to be responsible and to live by the Golden Rule.
Full Transcript
Lauren talk to me about your involvement with the Jewish Community here in Dallas and and your wife Andrea's involvement my involvement started many many years ago when we first moved to Dallas my father-in-law known as Willie walbin was very popular got a great sense of humor and he was immersed in the Jewish Community primarily the Federation and Andrew and I both came to Dallas and said you know that's great that Dad does that but you know we can't be that immersed we need to have our own lives Etc so that lasted for about 3 months I think that A call came for one of the
two of us to do something and so we uh started remember my father uh being very supportive of the Federation he he was a a solo practicing lawyers he put five kids through college how he did it I don't know he uh did not have a substantial income but he was able to give of his means to things like the veneration Jewish War veterans things like that and was very very very proud of it and he instilled in me that feeling and my wife Andre comes from a similar background so it's ironic that our backgrounds religiously uh and familial were very similar so we both
thought kind of the same so while we were in Washington Washington we were given to the Federation we didn't have wherewithal to really be of a big consequence but it was something important to us so that was there from the beginning so I guess when we came to Dallas that was even though we didn't really strive for that at the outset because we were trying to establish ourselves here and told the family that's nice what Dad my father-in-law did but don't expect us to follow in that path and then of course we did that in spay if you will right uh so it was it
was part of the upbringing I think and it was just part of our DNA I think to feel that that was expected and to feel that it was important to do so uh some of the other proud moments of uh we have as I mentioned six grandchildren uh two of our children are married Jeffrey and Gregory are married M Michael is not Jeffrey and Gregory each have three children and all six of our grandchildren have gone to Jewish Day schools which is something we never well wasn't here for for one thing and we never would have dreamed that that would happen and it's a tribute
to the daughters-in-laws that it has happened because the oldest daughter-in-law was born Jewish but her family was not very connected jewishly right right but she felt that was important and the wives the ones that kind of lead it so my son may have felt that way but the wives have to be part of it our second daughter-in-law is Chinese and she converted to Judaism before they were married and it's something that she did welcomingly it's not a condition of the marriage and very interesting explanation on her part was to why she did something she felt comfortable with she'd been in our home for Jewish uh
activities whether it's Russia shun or Passover they felt very comfortable with it so she wanted that for her children so here we have six grandchildren they all go to Jewish Day schools the oldest of whom went to yava which is a modern Orthodox high school and the second granddaughter Aaron uh reads Torah fluently or easily if you will she has a knack for doing it and so she gets called upon periodically to read Torah wherever she might be right so it's it's just a a comfort Comfort level and I think that that's a Chang from when I grew up uh I don't I didn't sense
anti-semetic feelings when I was in Denver you you kind of knew that was there so maybe it was your you're on guard but you didn't feel that and I I see now that the kids and our grand kids are so much more comfortable with being Jewish that it's just part of life and they're proud of it I think we were proud of it in a different way we wanted to keep it in the closet if you will because you were afraid of what would happen if you let it out in the in the community as a whole and it's really commendable that Dallas has been
open to it I mean you look historically at all the Jewish activities and the leadership politically that has evolved in this city it's great and Denver's done something similar so it's it's a real tribute I think my first involvement was with the Federation uh in a capacity in one or two capacities I can't even remember what now but uh over the years I stayed connected Federation uh and was on the board for many many years I was involved with PNA the planning allocations I chair the PNA um committee if you will of the Federation for several years um to a challenging a challenging uh position
because there's always a greater need than there is a supply of funds and it was to try and go through what those needs were and prioritize them with the group of other people it certainly wasn't a solo job and knowing that funds are always limited we had a big challenge in allocating the dollars to do the most that they could trying to take into consideration as many things as we could so my first involvement was Federation later I became involved with the JCC and I went up the ranks became president so I was President for a couple of years years uh the J is a
one of the central organizations in the community that it's done an outstanding job it's had its U bumps in the road but it has emerged very successfully in the latter years and so I think it's it's a real credit to the community that it's here and I was very happy to be of whatever help I could um we have our all the grandkids participate in the activities at one time or another our daughter-in-law I know has been involved ever since she moved here around 20 years ago in the gymnastics program so she works for the J and it's headed up the gymnastics program for the
last 15 or 20 years and I know it takes great pride in what she's been able to do with the kids because it's part of her attitude is the kids need to have a an opportunity to do what they can without necessarily being judged that the win winning is the only thing it's to help them develop skills and their lives Etc and your wife Andrea was president of the Jewish Historical Society yes she was the the last president but she's been involved in a lot of other things she's been the president of the the Federation number of years ago she was the national chair of
jcpa which is an umbrella organization of the Jewish community relations agencies throughout the country there's around 120 of them uh in the different cities and then there's an umbrella which is J acpa Jewish Council for public affairs it has offices in New York and in Washington and it's involved with public policy of of Jewish nature but not necessarily I mean there concerns about poverty for for everyone and Bill of Rights issues certainly Israel is a important segment of what they do but it's not the only one one let's go back now 1939 Denver Colorado yes I I don't remember much about that at least the
fear first few years but I well come on tell let's let's go back what what can you remember when you were little I can remember uh the second house my parents lived in which is at 764 Claremont Street okay it's a block or two from the general Rose Memorial Hospital my father served in World War II and while he was gone I remember that the hospital was dedicated and Dwight Eisenhower was there wow my mother walked me down an entire block and a half and we witnessed that I don't remember the details of it but I remember going to it and when we lived in
this house in Denver you could look to the East and there was nothing to the east of where we lived for the most part Lowry Air Force Base which was um about four or five miles further east but there was a big gap between where we were and that well that no longer exists the Gap that is it's all fill in Denver was an exciting place to live and my father was born there and uh he he was one of five also uh his father had come there uh was an immigrant from Russia and was in the plumbing business um and then my the the
going through the chain of family members the oldest brother ended up being a doctor of all things then the next one was a plumber like my grandfather then my father was a lawyer then my father had two sisters one of whom remained in Denver she married a plumber the other moved to California and she married somebody who was in a different business so I had a large family in Denver now do you remember your grandmother yes I remember I uh on my mother's side my grandmother on my father's side I never saw she was she killed in a car accident before I was born oh
my gosh sorry but her husband survived uh he used to call me sunny boy he had 16 grandchildren and he couldn't keep their names straight I can well understand that I have six and it's trouble uh but he would call me sunny boy and every birthday we got $5 and he was uh one of the kind very feisty and took great pride in his family and one of the last acts he did that I witnessed was I went to college at tus for a couple years before uh transferring to the University of Pennsylvania and graduating from Wharton but he visited me at toughs and pointed
out something in the place I was staying that be be wary of this uh heater this gas heater that's in your room you have to be conscious that so I tried to be and unfortunately he then drove to Florida and died oh boy and so I I had good memories of him my mother's parents uh lived in California so I saw them periodic Ally but not as regular as my father's father right and I had great memories of them uh they were retired by the time I can remember them but my grandfather on that side it was rather unique he came to this country from
Lithuania mhm and of all things he graduated from Case Western it's Case Western Reserve now but he was a petroleum engineer so can you imagine a Jewish petroleum engineer and he lived throughout the country I know my mother uh lived in Electra Texas when she was 6 years old and we drive to Denver periodically uh so we always vowed that let's stop in electri Texas cuz it's on 287 on the way from here to amarella so we stopped to see what was still there and the street the streets were paved with bricks like you can imagine what it must have been then of course this
the city is deserted and and we tried to check some of the records but we were told they'd all been moved to witto Falls wow check my to see what school my mom went to or something like that yeah yeah now did your dad have any stories for you from World War II well the the biggest uh saddest thing is really the story that my father didn't tell me from World War II uh he went away and I think my the third son the third child was born while he was gone and he he got to Belgium and he ended up with trench feed or
something for being in the mud so he was sent back to Fort Carson which is in car springs I remember going down to visit him while he was recuperating and just seeing various men on stretchers and um recovering from various injuries uh fortunately he didn't have uh serious U injuries from from the war it was only when he died that I found out some things that he did that uh were made me very proud of him and I wish that he would have told me more about it after the war with a group of other men in Denver lawyers a rabbi from the reformed congregation
who went on to things nationally they arranged to raise and gather arms to be sent to Israel uh undetected and it was things they shouldn't have been doing doing obviously was illegal to do that but they felt so strongly that Israel needed support this is in 40 48 and he never talked about he never talked about it and when he died I was given a copy of an article that was published in the Denver Jewish paper talking about these 10 or 12 men and what they had done and I don't I mean I knew several of the other men but that was just uh did
you ever get a chance to ask them about it no because by that time they were gone my my my father lived 1998 so he was 86 and I tried to reach one of them but uh the others had were had all passed away so there was no one to talk to but it was a remarkable story they hid these arms and Munitions and how they transport them to Israel I don't know but you've he other stories of how other people throughout the country tried to do that but my own father something he was very softspoken individual and very supportive of the Jewish Community now
you had three brothers and a sister yes in World War II your dad's off at War right in Belgium how is this for your mom now it was tough but you know at this time I was five or six years old so I can't remember enough about the details were any of your siblings also born during war well the sibling after was born born before my father went and then the third my brother was born well see he's four years younger than myself so he was born in 43 so your your mom did have a few of you at home already oh yeah she had
three children at home now was she working at all or just my mother had been a social worker okay actually my mother went to law school for a year I think my father was a lawyer and he had a solo practice in Denver so when your dad came home from the war he went to law school then no no he he was already practicing before he ever went to the war he was already practicing he was in his mid-30s so he got drafted to to go into the service so he went and he served they left a wife and two and A2 what then became
three children at a home right and he came back and tried to pick up where he left off right where where did you go to high school I went to East High in Denver and what was high school life like it was was interesting it was a large class we had 700 kids in our class probably the larger concentration of Jewish kids in high school but there was probably in my class 20 so it wasn't very many right and I I really enjoyed High School is that when you started thinking about becoming an attorney no I I I I think I must have been on
automatic pilot or something my father was a lawyer I didn't have to think a lot about what I wanted to do later in life you remember your first car yes I my I I got a Pontiac it was a brown color Pontiac a used Pontiac that we bought from some other family that we knew it was a convertible oh wow yeah it was exciting yeah yeah what year is this oh gosh so I was 16 in 1955 and how much you pay for that car I think $600 that was times have changed times have really changed yeah well after high school now what what what's
in it for you I'm went to uh tough's uh University for 2 years and then I transferred to the University of Pennsylvania uh went to the Wharton School and and ended up with a uh major in accounting and met my wife on a blind date in Denver where we had a mutual friend that introduced us uh so was that love at first sight on this point it it seems to been looking back we saw each other three times and then we maintained a long distance courtship she was going to SMU and I was going to school in Philadelphia at Penn we saw each other three
or four more times and got married got married in August of the following year U right after I each of us had graduated college and I went to law school in Denver and we had the the traditional team of um husband in law school and wife teaching uh in she was an English teacher in junior high and where was she originally from she's my wife is from Dallas from Dallas so she's part of the Waldman family a large family in Dallas okay so she's moved to Denver she moved to Denver she was excited about moving to Denver um law school was a great opportunity uh
we uh welcomed our first child our son right and I was uh taking finals and studying in the bathroom because his bris and festivities were going on I still had to study so I uh M would managed to do that and of course I had family in Denver and so did she turns out her uncle was my high school principal wow right which I when I went to pick her up I think on our first or second date I knock on the door and this gentleman opens and it's Mr Walman you know what are you doing here uh so my my relationship with him changed
it used to be Mr walon's Sir and then became Uncle Sam so that was a good story and so that was her father's brother what did he tell your wife about you in high school he he said all the right things so he was an outstanding student he was a great athlete okay and he he he he mixed it up pretty good so he said the right things he said the right things he helped he helped so she her mother had a an aunt there there so we while I was in we were in Denver for law school we maintain a good relationship with both
sides of her family with my family because I still had a number of cousins and aunts and uncles there and then we moved to uh Washington DC where I worked for the chief counsel of the IRS office for four years and what was that like it was a uh very exciting time especially in Washington it is shortly after the assassination of Kennedy but it was at a time when Washington was still relatively open and I met a number of uh individuals and we you know no one had two cars you had one car so you had to find a carpool to get to work so
we lived in Virginia but it's about 8 miles out so we carped with people that I'm friendly with to this day that ended up moving to Dallas so you would drive to work and whoever would drop you off front of the IRS building on 12th Constitution then he would park the car but you would see other government officials being driven to work J Edgar Hoover uh mcera uh oral Freeman you would see them and you'd go to the symphony we would sit in the bleachers up on top and then the presidential box would be on the side well you could spot the empty seats in
the intermission so you go down and sit on the first floor and then now you're looking up the president so right uh JF um you didn't see you didn't see the president there a lot the the biggest encounter I think we had was the time that Hubert Humphrey was holding the door for my wife to go out wow it was very very nice but you would see the all the politicians you know so you're face to face you're relatively a young kid you know relatively yes you 22 years old yeah that's that's a kid are you realizing where you are and what's going on around
you yes well at that time no no no it was an exciting phenomenon because when uh LBJ was sworn in when he was uh reelected we were sitting around watching the television of course it's nice and chilly outside we decided know this is crazy how many times in your life you get to go to inauguration so we turned the TV off we drove down and tried to see how close we could get somebody was coming out of the reviewing St offered us two tickets so there we are wow you know 50 yards away from all the action is and it was very very exciting to
be be there and see these uh activities taking place I mean our oldest son's uh I remember him calling Huntley and Binkley cuz that's who he'd watch on TV Huntley and Brinkley right right but that was his version of it Huntley Binkley so he enjoyed that so we had our first son was born in Denver then the second one Greg was born in DC then our third one Michael was born in Denver excuse me in Dallas when we moved here right now how long did you guys stay in DC we were there four years it was kind of like a u internship if you will
it was a four-year commitment you needed to serve right and that's what most the people did it was a kind of a stopping point or a way to supplement your education uh I was going to be a tax lawyer at that time so working at the IRS was a perfect place the alternative was to go to NYU and get a master's in taxation but I already had one child so I needed to find a way to supplement income right right right so um I got a paid position and was able to still learn about tax La well what brought you back to Dallas then I
mean why Dallas Dallas was uh place that I enjoy having met Andrea and been here a few times and her family was a wonderful family very inviting very easy to be around remember it was always the hugging kissing hugging and kissing cousins and aunts and uncles everyone would always hug each other and kiss them which was kind of foreign it was a little right little closer it was more affectionate way of dealing with people which was very welcoming right right and so uh when the time came from my four-year term to expire we interviewed in Denver and we interviewed in Dallas cuz we thought we
wanted to come to one of these two cities right right and the opportunities in Denver were not very many I think I had one or two and in Dallas I had many more opportunities so I took a job and we bought a house long distance sight unseen almost um and's parents had gone out with other family members and select narrowed it down you let your in-laws pick your house huh yes yes unfortunately they didn't also have to pay pay for it but that was fine they did a good job and so we lived uh in that house for 11 years and then we decided to
build a house and have lived in our second house ever since and what type of law were you in well I started as a tax lawyer so I joined a small firm in Dallas that did primarily corporate type of work so corporate Securities was probably their strong point initial public offerings Etc this was in 68 when I first joined him so the stock market was very good at that point in time and so that's the nature of the practice so I was the tax lawyer so I was brought in to help in that area which uh immediately I think I was needed more to help
on the security side because that's was where the work was so I remember one of the lawyers in The Firm U with a client he had arranged to go to New York to stay with the client in New York for 6 or eight months so I filled one of the voids that was there so I'm traveling around from City to sing City trying to help draft these registration statements that were submitted to the SEC uh and trying to do what tax law I could so that job lasted for a couple years unfortunately the firm didn't last the stock market had been so good turned bad
and so then I kind of wandered for a couple of years in uh a practice here or there and I ended up practicing uh with myself and then another lawyer or two and moved out of downtown moved over north of Presbyterian hospital and practiced there until 1990 primarily doing uh I would say a uh I was viewed as a transactional that's somebody who doesn't do litigation who doesn't know where the courthouse is and probably doesn't want to know where it is uh it's a it's drafting documents of one kind or another setting up businesses corporations partnership uh financings for Real Estate contracts to buy sell
real estate uh notes and deeds of trust and that type of paperwork I maintained that practice until I got wooed or lured to come back downtown with a firm that was trying to be a boutique firm to do a lot of different kinds of thing and they did primarily bankruptcy work in the past and wanted to Branch out and do transactional work as well as litigation so I was viewed as the person who could bring in some transactional type business which worked for several years and unfortunately that firm didn't survive as it was and I then went to work as an in-house lawyer with some
orthopedic surgeons in um this been 1994 I believe and then uh that that was interesting opportunity that two doctors who were entrepreneurs and need a lot of assistance take care of their business activities so I did that and also maintain a client base because that was the rationale was that they needed somebody who had some experience so I had experience but U uh to help compensate me they allowed me to maintain my practice so it was kind of a 50/50 arrangement I work half time for them and half time right so that worked great so one of the doctors became uh disabled and had to
leave full-time medical uh cuz he was a surgeon he his abilities to operate were diminished right so he did other things for a couple years in uh medical Consulting and I officed with him and then um migrated back to a solo practice again by myself that was for about 2 or 3 years and then I had an epiphany in my life there was a gentleman down on the hall who had written a book about taking charge of your life it wasn't such a wonderful book it was the idea that you were in your life to do things and the only person who could change those
things was you right I had uh in done some investing with some um a fell who was in the used car business he needed funds to maintain his business so through him I met two other gentlemen and uh they they uh over a couple couple year period it it evolved where I joined forces with them and went into business because my practice I was in my middle 60s by then MH and the ability to generate new clients uh was harder and plus the fact that as a lawyer my my father basically worked till the time he was no longer able to in his mid 80s
and I had vowed I wasn't going to do that because there was no retirement base if you will because once you stop working the income stopped so I didn't have a retirement base so having had exposure to the car business I saw that what they did they maintained they financed the vehicles themselves so they held a bunch of notes receivable so uh that a relationship emerged and evolved so that I joined forces with the father and the son and the gentleman who I was helping Finance who had an operation in mckenny um he wanted to migrate and do something different so he wanted to let
go of that operation and of course I wanted to try and collect the receivables because I'm the one that had the funds in the business and he introduced me to the father son and they helped collect those notes and after period of time said you know this relationship this this opportunity up here this is this is a great opportunity um so I was thinking to getting out so they encouraged me to stay in so we took over that operation mckenny then after about a year I wasn't I was still practicing law but I was working with them on on the side on that and they
said we we would like a full partner and uh I guess their classic joke was that uh you would be a welcome fit to us because the only lower on a totem pole than used car dealer is a lawyer so um we joke about that so I was involved with them for seven years they had a lot in Dallas over um on Northwest Highway in Garland Road um were gentlemen who I'd never known before but were very honorable and very easy to work with so it was a less stressful environment right right it was a way to build up my retirement if you will right
so after seven years um I had thought about and discussed with them that we need an exit strategy for for me and for each of you as to what you do with this business at some point in time uh when you don't want to continue it so that conversation led to a buyout taking place in December of last year where the son bought the father and myself and the father stayed there and I'm I I have left and I'm in what they call retirement mode so I'm now trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life well in your lifetime you've
lived through so many momentous occasions your young child you know during World War II uh President Kennedy assassination something good the moonlanding in ' 69 the first time and of course the tragedy of 911 on the national scene is there something that really stood out in your lifetime that you notice to notice of well the what's taken place in our country at this point in time is it's it's sad to see I mean it seems if we don't have an ability to function the way that we always were brought up to believe that you could I mean I've enjoyed reading some of the historical uh
books that been out on some leaders in our country presidents I mean there's a book on John Adams on his biography it was an outstanding book and the communication between him and his wife while he was in Washington then there was another book about the founding fathers written by a professor at Brown about what these politicians were able to do then with our politicians can't seem to do now they believe they had a role to help the government they fortunately for them had other activities that would supplement their lives so they were able to devote themselves to serving the country in the true sense of
the word and once that they were through with that they let somebody else take over and it seems as if we're lacking that attitude we've got so polarized and I I personally don't know a way out I can't I wish I could have them all read this book and take a vow um to go back to that take a vow to uh let the government do less but do more effectively where everyone doesn't have their own interest at heart those politicians didn't or at least didn't seem that way when when Washington really didn't want to be president right and and you don't have that now
you have um three sons and six grandkids yes what advice does Granddad want to leave to the Next Generation be responsible uh learn how to take care care of yourself and practice the Golden Rule do unto others what you would have them do unto you that's the easiest advice and I think being responsible is the hardest challenge the kids have now because there's so many opportunities when I grew up the expectation if if you were going to college you were going to either be professional or you weren't whether it's medicine law accounting or something or you were going to go into one of the traits
or you're going to go into a family business or something like that but there are just so many more options that exist now mean my oldest granddaughter uh just graduated from emry college or Emy emry University and she wants to get in the sports broadcasting marketing field very tough but it's something that you wouldn't have thought of you know 20 30 years ago you did a great job man thanks for doing this today well you're welcome