Mark Schor
Mark Melvin Schor was born in Brooklyn in 1948 to Julius (Jules) and Ruth Schor, the middle of three children between older brother Larry and younger sister Elizabeth, known as Rusty. The family lived briefly in Teaneck, New Jersey, then moved to Tucson, Arizona, in 1953, where his father worked as a traveling salesman for air distribution products. In Tucson, a childhood football injury left Mark in traction and a body cast for months, inspiring an early dream of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Raised in an observant, kosher home where his mother held the torch of Judaism, he absorbed a strong Jewish identity from an early age.
In 1955 the family moved to Dallas, seeking a more central location for his father's travels. Mark attended Preston Hollow Elementary, Franklin, and Hillcrest, later transferring to W.T. White. He joined Kaplan AZA, forming lifelong friendships and a love of sports. He was double bar mitzvahed at Shearith Israel, where he attended Hebrew school four days a week. As a teenager he witnessed the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination firsthand, and later became active in the civil rights and anti-war movements, attending the 1969 moratorium march in Washington and majoring in government at SMU and the University of Texas.
After college, Schor worked as a VISTA community organizer, traveled through Europe, North Africa, and Israel, and eventually earned a master's and PhD in counseling from North Texas State. Leading teen tours to Israel, he met Ruth Solomon, whom he married in November 1979 at Shearith Israel; together they raised three sons, Julian, and two others. Ruth became a religious school director. Mark built a career in career and executive coaching, becoming a senior vice president at a global firm, and served on many boards including as president of the Dallas Jewish Historical Society. He taught religious school for over twenty years and co-founded the beloved Christmas Day Classic football game, now in its fifth decade.
He credits love and friendship as his guiding values, and names his Jewish identity, family, and lifelong community involvement as the defining themes of his life.
Full Transcript
right my name is Mitchell Myers it is Sunday January 13 2009 teen I have the honor and the privilege to interview dr. Mark Shore thank you for being here it's pleasure so tell me what's your full name I really have to tell you that yeah mark Melvin Shore and tell me why did any nicknames by the way will tell me what they are your play to give them now sure big man male Big Momma Mills or that's just a few you did your parents name young no no I just came about right that was for my friends over the years different stages of life so where were you born I was born in Brooklyn New York may 28th 1948 two weeks after the establishment of the State of
Israel and my parents told me that they were waiting to see who would come first Israel the birth of Israel or the birth of me and so Zionism was really in my DNA it was imbued in from an early age how long did you live in Brooklyn Brooklyn I lived for three years and then we moved across the river I guess the Hudson River to a Teaneck New Jersey right on the other side of the George Washington Bridge for personal business reasons I guess and we lived in New Jersey for two years by the way I had an older brother and my younger sister was
born we live in Teaneck and we lived there for two years and then made a big dramatic change to we moved to Tucson Arizona that was in 1953 that was a huge move I remember that they told me I'd be Siemens I was five years old and all I envisioned was like construction sand hill sand that construction trucks were built I was my vision of a mountain and so that was huge moving my father's sister and her husband and children lived in Tucson they were started kind of starting over my father had some health issues they thought the sunshine the heat in Tucson would be
helpful to him my father got a job with a company a Jewish man who was a Romanian refugee living and - signing at a sheet metal shop and he had started stamping out what they call register and grills air distribution products that air conditioning and heating comes through the walls and ceilings like that up there that ceiling diffuser and my father didn't know much about it but my father was a super salesman and he loaded up his car and a $52 I think it was and just drove across the country calling other air conditioning type companies and he did that and he'd be away for
weeks sometimes at a time so tell me your mom and dad's name Jule Julius one by Jules to you Elias and Ruth Shore and do you have any other memories in Brooklyn New York Tucson very few like revisited they are having I remember I had a young my grandparents my father's parents with their my mother experience lived there and had a great-grandfather we called him old lady and remember when he shook my hand he would take his index finger and kind of tickle my palm that's my birthday and how long did you live in Tucson Tucson we lived for two years so what a kind
of important memory of Tucson for me personally was that on we were an observant Jewish family and kept kosher or strictly kosher and we observed all the holidays so I was in first grade in Tucson and we were out for school for Sukkot no less and but my brother who was six years older than me before our way to synagogue were playing a little football in the front yard of the house we were living in and he tackled me and my femur broke exploded it's a lifelong memory for me and I was in a traction for weeks I was in a body cast for months
and wasn't able to go to school for a long time my mother homeschooled me and my career goal became really like my orthopedic doctor they didn't have to do surgery they did traction and such and I lived I didn't walk for a long time I had to learn to walk all over again and but my early career goal is to become an orthopedic surgeon because of that well that career went astray so tell me your brother's name and yours my brother Larry Shore six years older than me and my sister is Elizabeth Shore goes by rusty her name's now rusty Robertson she's a Hollywood mogul
my brother's a fancy Washington attorney leaving me in the middle here in Dallas Texas they all left I'm the only member my family's so we lived in Tucson for two years had that experience and then because my father was traveling so much we decided to move as a family to a more central location to where he wouldn't be away so much because he was going to the south east and south of the United States mainly where it was hot until we moved to Dallas Texas well tell me about your religious background and I guess Tucson more so you probably remember that more I remember Tucson
because money we born through synagogue I guess it was a conservative synagogue and my brother was bar Mitzvahed there so I remember his Bar Mitzvah day because we had a party in the backyard of our house and I was seven years old I guess six years and there's a legendary story that I went up to the bartender bartender and I ordered a Jim Beam and then I went back to my family crying over to Jim Beam and he only gave me a cook kind of a family legend there are many of those little stories say you maybe Dallas - Dallas my mother we didn't know
anybody and my father had a customer or two here not Jewish and my mother and my father and my older brother went on a scouting trip to Dallas to find a place to live and my mother they went to visit my father's client who lived in troubles field I think they called it who knows where a rock wall or East Dallas or so and my mother says to this lady tell me where did the Jewish people live in Dallas and the Lisa well we don't know Jules is the only Jewish person I've ever met so we decided to find the kosher butcher and from the
butcher was on Lovers Lane and we got our first place of near Lovers Lane in Italy and I we moved their intimate duplex actually on University Boulevard it sounds like a fan but it was actually east of Inwood don't toward left field and we were there for less than a year and then we moved to Portland nice house that part will house a park lane near Hillcrest across from Danny Lipton scheme that became my home and that was from age 30 I started third grade to Preston Hollow elementary and that's when I you know I loved my childhood years the Preston Hollow ago there was
great we were there for six or seven years and then parents built a house on the Lydia Lane just north of forest of precedent we were the first house I'm Malia Lane near no age near no waste drug it was all new neighborhood and I was going into my ninth grade at that time where'd you go to school press them how low then I went to Franklin and then Hillcrest my sophomore year and then they built WT white and I have the option to either stay at Hillcrest to go to white I thought it'd be kind of cool to go to a random high school
but guess what the wasn't so cool for me all my friends are back at Hillcrest had to do over and I probably would stay to Hillcrest so tell us about your friends tell me about the frenzy so like my elementary school friends some of whom I'm still part of are my group Warren Kanan Alvin Miller I knew those guys back in elementary school but my my real deep friendships that I have to this day I met in junior high like ninth grade I think it was really I met Steve Guto I met Ronnie Meyers I met my grossfeld and they brought me into their group
but then we all got into the same Aza chapter Jewish youth group here in Dallas we were all in Kaplan aza we played sports together we had a lot coming out of last and so they became we become a very tight-knit group of friends and we did everything together and a lot of you know fun experiences and real bonding experiences that was through through high school so tell me a little bit about your Bar Mitzvah where you were going to fool or god yes well we came to Dallas and we joined sheriff Israel at the time sheriff Israel was when we moved here in 1955
sure Thoreau was in transition they were building their building but they're located in now at that time they were still building it they had used to have a synagogue in Old South Dallas my our first we moved here Labor Day of 55 Labor Day weekend and then the High Holidays came up and we actually went to my first high holiday service in Dallas was at the Forest Avenue movie theater which is now in the corner of MLK and 45 or wherever that right you know that area right they are blessed and that's where we had our holiday Services believe it or not before they built
the new synagogue and they were I guess they were kind of out of the old one and I started Ebru school in third grade here they didn't ever at an elementary school in the university particle higher elementary that's where I went to Hebrew school after school in third grade and then the next year they opened up share of the drill well they're just go I used to go either Monday Wednesday or Tuesday Thursday and then Saturday for junior congregation and Sunday school so I was in that place four days a week I didn't mind it really good or not I was occasionally you know over
the pain it didn't interfere with wanting to be on football team which I did schools those other Preston Hollow Island and I went then a little bit in junior high but that was a big part of my identity yes there weren't too many kids who are really doing it that intensely as I look back was that something that was instilled in you by your grandparents and your parents yeah my mother particularly probably held the torch of Judaism in the family I mean it was all just it was natural part of who I was I remember two events kind of a kind of interesting for at
one time I saw my friend Warren caiman was eating bread a Passover I freaked out completely was doing it and then we have a I think I was in sixth grade and there was a party after school at a gorgeous home like on de lush with a huge backyard some kid had an Easter it was around Easter an Easter party we were playing games I was having the time of my life running around and then they had I went back and they had a tables from like one wall to the next filled with candies and cakes and cookies and then I just I couldn't look
I just went over there's a tech stuff as well it was Passover and while I was stuffing my mouth with these candied eggs and chocolate rabbits it hit me now I thought I was going to be struck by lightning and died right on that spot for breaking Passover apparently you didn't and now I do now I break it every day follower just was so yeah so just back to your bar mitzva you're leading oh my god it was a earth Israel but then we were double bar mitzvah'd because with so many kids we were baby boomers they didn't have enough chávez's with the kids being
bar Mitzvahed they put two out there at a time sometimes you'd have a real talk in the real short kid I was with a kind of an equal kid Mark Miller was his name somebody I knew but wasn't real friendly with and so he and I were double bar Mitzvahed now I was supposed to be the prodigy I was like this yeshiva boy and our serious great Jewish kid knew everything chanted all that but I really wasn't that great to tell you the dream thing my brother called me speedy haftorah like speedy got up to everything because I sped through my have Terra like too
fast I got started and I couldn't stop myself so after your bar mitzvah but by the way my bar mitzvah party my mother put a lot into it like a wedding party it was at the Statler Hilton Hotel of the party and was off we marched my friends had about 12 friends show up but wasn't like today I just they're all boys I don't think I had one girl of my age look we marched into the Saints when the saints come marching in we were all wearing white tuxedo jackets crazy so talk a little bit about Aza this is after your Bar Mitzvah you're starting
yes you still ignore the Hebrew school or you're gonna be confirmed I was still of course okay but you were in a za you were in this Bonet birth organization yes joined a VA and we played we loved the sports aspect of it which every couple of Kaplan aza and that's where I've made my closest friends to this day to this day and we had a lot of we have rivalries with the other chapters and we had very close group and you actually broke away though at one point we had one for Alvin wanted to have a like a little sub group and we broke
away we had a group called the Playboy Club and then we got in trouble with the adult Advisory Committee of APA which I later sat on their board and they said you think you choose aza or you choose your Playboy Club what'll it be and of course we went back to the ACH object we were kind of the rebellious group the goody-goodies so tell me outside of dows now who are your heroes what are your thoughts about what's going on in the other world outside of you know the aza your friendships like what well we were also political family not extremely so but I was
always interested in politics and we were more liberal than most people coming from New York I guess and you know at that time civil rights movement was emerging and was strong and then we got into the anti-war the Vietnam War era was going on and there was a lot of it we protected you but a very dramatic moment of course maybe one of the most my life with the Kennedy assassination so my friends and I actually actually I will tell you that briefly the day of the Kennedy assassination Kennedy was coming to town over 22nd 1963 to Dallas and my mother or not they were
going to the airport to see him alive I got out of school I was tenth grader I was driving I drove her car back home to get my mom well if you recall you know the history of that day it was a little rainy in the morning and Kennedy arrived eventually it cleared up that's why they took the tough down on the car he was shining I got home and my mother said listen I'm not feeling well I've got a cold a trainee I really I was disappointed but I was at the school so I'd like to be said well we said I sat down
and watched or watching TV you watched him arrive on TV then I turned on to another channel I think it was channel 11 20 Keats work and the slam-bang theater children's and well I would behold and my mother is on the phone I remember this so vividly my mother was on the phone I'm in the den she's in the kitchen the kitchen dining area talking to her friend on the phone and she said I wish he'd get out of here already meaning we all there was a sense of danger in the air in Dallas at the time because of the political climate I was very
right-wing they were stuff in the newspaper there was you know at the very anti Kennedy and extremists and was in Dallas and sure enough a few minutes after that came the news that he was younger and was devastating that was Friday on Sunday a few of my friends and I drove down to the assassination site while we were there a block away we heard Lee Harvey Oswald was shot I was right you know a block away we got in her car and raced down the Parkland Hospital and when we were at parking lot of Portland Hospital and Oswald died so that's pretty close to that
whole historical scene I've always been fascinated by read a lot go to the state for museum once a year though to speak to go to hear speakers there so that was a very dramatic momentous time in my life and it's affected me yeah I think it's been one of those turning points in my life well at that time also and it is impactful let's talk about a little bit about some other things like what music you were into how did that affect your life obviously the Kennedys yes it came about when I was 15 years old the Beatles and the Beatles came to Dallas in
64 now I didn't go but you know who had the person always got her way my sister was there somehow rather she finagled her way she still is and so loved the Beatles I like I was a little different I liked folk music which was coming on then and I was more into the mellow music than the real rock music there's still more of a mellow guy and but you know we again sports was huge we went to games we here's a this was a fun event again friends like Ronnie Meyers Mike Roosevelt Steve Muto is a Heisenberg a few others we would go to
SMU on a Friday morning like 4:00 in the morning and the coach there Bob Pruett you get the early he would hand out programs to the upcoming college game or pro game and like 50 programs each kid would get and then we'd go to the game we would sell the programs and yes program seller you have a ticket thing you go to the game we used to do that and Texas of you was a big event and we used to sell our tickets to go into the game it may have to be sold out our program to make a little extra money so that was
that's a great memory that we still talk about that's a great childhood memories we have a lot of fun you know we did I mention girls very few girls that I we dated a little but I got a Friday night we go to wall I do a recreation center and play basketball we were we were more oriented toward ourselves in a way than than girls and dating that's the way it was eventually most of us got married so during this time in high school talked a little bit about your family and the dynamics and what had changed between you know when you were younger before
your bar mitzva now in high school after the Kennedy assassination ultimately I thought all our whole family was very aligned with politically it turns out my father was probably represented the older generation more and it was very difficult of the belief for him to see to agree with protests against the war you know America you can stand by your country where the generation gap that occurred in the sixties I was right in the middle of that I'm an early baby boomer but right in the middle of that whole generational change that was taking place in the country at that time music changes societal changes drugs
what else you know this politics huge time of disruption kind of similar today but even more active so I'm going even into the later you know when I was not too much in high school when I was in high school I was kind of we were rolling behind the times not a radical or anything like that just trying to get through it I actually went to SMU my first two years of college most of the guys who would go to Texas and went to Texas couple of other people went to other place at the University of Michigan and Washington University into it and I want
to I didn't want to go to Texas I always want to be a little different so I went to doe BTY didn't wonder that every time I decided to do that it was a mistake you wanted to ask me so yeah before we go into the college years that's right now or and I can see it coming along what's going on there and you during high school did you were you able to visit Israel no I did go to real life high school okay once the Israel was 23 years old okay so talk a little bit about at the college it was higher education my
first two years realize I was living at home the world was changing this was 1966 to 68 I realized this was not my place in the world I was like real enamored with what I was reading about and hearing about with music changes and dress changes and a different mentality piece and listen I was not an anti-war yet you know I was I liked Lyndon Johnson I loved what he had done in the civil rights and I believed in him until it became clear that he was misled and then he kept standing up for pride the war and then I didn't become more interested in
the other you know more radical even side of things and there was a professor at UT named Larry Caroline he was a Jewish guy as a philosophy professor but he was like the leading print that wore professor and very grounded he went to the State Capitol and said we need a revolution in this kind and I said I gotta get this guy's class I was real a man he transferred from Israel through differences but most of you to Texas from my junior year so I get to Texas and who do I rim with you know two of my best friends from Dallas who we're not
quite there heads weren't in the same place I was they were more in the fraternity Sammy Jewish fraternity first thing I did they take me to a tailor to get my shirts monogrammed with my initials and my sweaters monogrammed total preppy stuff right and I went along with okay I'm gonna this is the way I'm gonna get girls this is how I get in fraternity getting the mainstream I do it a few weeks later we're walking around campus and we see these hippies sitting on the ball singing folk songs like it so I said oh wow this is awesome and one of my guys disgusting
and I realize I think I'm moving in another direction so that was a turning point tell me about the direction the hippie generated hippies well it was it was a mindset of not going along with the the way things were that led to discrimination you know you know I was really of my heart was always in me with the civil rights movement I was disgusted by racism from an early age there was a laundromat across the street from SMU and the laundromat had a sign it said whites only and I thought it meant white clothes only then I learned it was white for white people
only things that that were right there in front of my eyes and then then of course of the war movement and the anti-war movement that was a big schism so the fraternity life I was not going to fit in there anything longer I was not the only one there were some other people and I did stay I had one foot in one foot out for a while yeah how did I well what do I am didn't marijuana I think they're part of it is this on tape hello huge part of a girl you know the day was in the day and so you know just
the whole there was a lot of appeal to as a young person so let me tell you this my four years at a very important moment in my life three of my friends including someone you lived with in your home growing up Seth Meyers Steve Guto and this girl Vicki bold and I got in Seth's Volkswagen bug in November 1969 when we drove 24 hours straight to Washington DC for a huge what they called a moratorium march against the war and they were like 500,000 maybe a million people there we got there on Friday night for a candlelight march it was awesome and then the
next day was a huge margin Helen Peter Paul and Mary and dr. Spock and you know leaders anti-war movement leaders it was an incredible experience in my life and I have a letter that I wrote my sister I still have it cuz my parents were not happy with me dude they were scared you know people were getting tear gassed this was before Kent State so nobody got shot yet but it was you know a risky it was a little dangerous but I did it I'm so glad I did it it was a great life experience and that things didn't get any better they got worse with the war and then there was an anti-war movement at Texas that
I got very involved with and I helped shut down the campus and I helped we got to your game I got to your guest a couple of times I never did anything violent there threw a rock never broke a window and never set a fire never yelled big at a cop which a lot of people were doing always had my sense of morality in line I wouldn't go over but I was very passionate I was a political hippie as opposed to just a freak you know drugs pot smoking druggie that we just wanted to have khaosan and a donkey I was never an anarchist I
always believed government is there to improve the world prove the country so you were you're centered you've got some profound events that have occurred during your lifetime the Kennedy assassination of war yes be a political science major government I majored in government majored in government so I'm gonna go back to your Jewish identity and during these times how did that play oh it's oh it's I think it had formed my opinions about life always I did you know prophetic Judaism called calls for justice justice just as you Joker said and I saw that as my main theme in life everything I did was towards doing
the right thing and the just thing I saw things that were it just so all these profound moments are happening in the history of this country and you're being you're centered with this Jewish identity in it I think it helped shape you to the person you are today it's probably been my most influential part of me is what usually identity right so now we're gonna we're going to step out of the college here now things are gonna change again right there's so many things have changed now you're walking into your adult life after college what is your next thing there's a fund adult I was
pretty immature but I'm calling for the post Colin 21 years olds and somebody really mad oh so what's some of the jobs that you there so I no idea what I wanted to do except I wanted to get involved and continue the world I was always very good with kids by the way I worked as the teenager in Dallas I worked in the Jewish community senators a day camp counselor I think you might remember that I loved kids love me I look kid I've always oriented toward kids and I said my early career was to be an orthopedic surgeon I realized that wasn't cut out
that way then I played your career I said I'll be a social worker then I got involved with the you know I'd loved history and government so I majored in that and I actually joined out of college my first job was with the government in the anti-poverty program a community as a community organizer for what was called the domestic Peace Corps you've heard of the Peace Corps people where people go overseas well I joined this time volunteers in service to America it was called it was established during the Kennedy years along with the Peace Corps and I was looking forward to going to a place
like Appalachia or some poverty area another part of the country they sent me home on Thomas Coleman it was disappearing the Nixon administration now so there was a lot of support for the Vista for these community organizing programs so I lasted almost a year worked a lot of the kids there mostly african-american communities small out there men community in this town redneck town I should say that there's Osage County Osage Indians lived there but they were wet they did well because they had mineral rights to the land anyway did that and then I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life so I
always had a sense of wanderlust adventurism wanted to see the world and even good gentlemen I my friend in March 1971 we flew to Iceland and then we flew to Luxembourg and I came back from Europe and North Africa in Israel six months later just wondering yeah hitchhiking and sleeping in hospitals and camping out and that was a tremendous life experience and you mentioned Israel so tell me I went to Israel by myself even go there in July I think it was of 1971 I was my first time I took a boat from Piraeus which is the port of Athens slip down the deck it
wasn't a cruise ship and it was like some kind of a working shift there were passengers but it was either you sat like in an airplane seat and I slept and I woke up about 4:00 in the morning and I then I saw as the Sun was coming up I saw on the distance land and it was Israel it was I was thrilled me because I had always had an incredible attachment as real as I said was in the womb and nobody in my family had ever been Israel so I read and I got the area you know first thing I did I really would
early I went down on my knees and kissed the ground - and it was an incredible experience for me and I realize I was the first member of my lineage as far as I knew to have been in Israel you know for 2,000 years so for a month after you came back from Israel and Luxembourg and traveling or yeah and you're back in the States tell me again what's your relationship with your parents and your story seems like anecdotal stories so talk about the generation I told you my father was a little bit represented more of the conservative side always thought he was on he
would talk about things like a liberal way but push comes to shove so my graduation from college may 1970 it was my my brother wasn't data my sister my father my mother and I I'm in my cap and gown we're walking together to the place where you say the graduation underneath the tower and a guy is handing out our bands that says the us out now now this was like two weeks after Kim state where there were shootings and I had slept down on the mall and I was you know really infuriated and passionate about this whole thing it was my life and it was
natural for me to put on this arm band and my father says take that off and I said no I'm not taking this off and we had a bit of on to you and he kind of separated himself and he tells us the guy at age kid you know and caused every it was a terrible night from the father-son standpoint I will give my mother and sister credit they didn't put on armbands and solidarity with making that back but we do give them credit you know but I will say this later I don't know how much longer but my father apologized to me and said
he was wrong we had a very relationship I loved him very much he called me his humanitarian son he had a son a lawyer and then his daughter was this hotshot marketing you know sales girl lady and uh you didn't know what the thing I was not the traditional business oriented you know it didn't follow the path my other siblings did so I'd like to move a little bit into your life now and are you married are you gonna miss a very interesting part of my life here let me just quickly push tell you this okay doing here before we move into my eyes out
here after I came back from Europe I didn't know what I was going to do my parents had moved from Dallas so I didn't have a home and dad was sitting more to go back to when they moved to El Paso my father started a business there and what they'll Paso and to see well what's this going to be like I said man I don't think I want to stay in El Paso and Austin and so I'll go back to school I got real excited about my European trip I said okay here's my goal I'm going to get a degree in educating on to be
a teacher social you know teach government and history and geography because you know I love kids I love all this I've learned about and so but school already starting for that semester so I looked in the newspaper to get a job and I see there's an ad at Hancock mall jets petting zoo it's a UH a pet shop I like be fun I'll work at a pet shop well I go to this mall so where's the pet shop there's no good job here and so once you get to petting zoos we said oh that's a the mall it's outside here in the courtyard a traveling
petting zoo next thing you know I'm sleeping in a semi truck going from city to city with a traveling petting zoo parts of it I didn't I didn't I didn't enjoy sleeping in the back of a in a semi truck was five of them matter I thought of Skid Row but I have with my college degree and you see if my problem was a little concerned about another learning experience I loved being the animals and I love that the kids who would come in kids kids from state schools you know and I helped that I was sweeper that's what you do at a petting zoo
you sweep well I joined in October I think it was Texas oh you weekend actually and we went to one soak it up for these they said we're going to Tucson we're going to Phoenix we're going to Vegas I said Vegas I'm in and then we California San Diego when we went to San Diego you know what I did on my day off what do you think anyway that was through Christmas time through the end of the year but mark sure petting zoo worker traveling petting zoo Audrey the aardvark one of the only travel enjoy parks you know I became close anyway I came back
went back to school took education where he got involved in the Fanthorpe for governor campaign the McGovern campaign I supported a lot of losers over the years to tell you the truth elections went to worked at Mother Earth as a bartender and it was a great time that was really one of the most fun times in 1973 my friends and I made a TV show one of our friends the TV right became a TV writer we made a show called come Jew was come food with the Jewish laughing it was on TV public access TV but we still show that have the tape that that
was a blast I played two roles the Garry Jacobs you know wrote it we had a director butoh than it is he was the lead character Shane I will play the rabbi and hood have you ever seen that so comfy we did that then I moved to death Texas to get by this time I said okay where where my strengths where my talents I decided I was going to go into counseling because I work with kids all those years I know what does a bartender people kept telling me how much they enjoyed talking to me I said mom interesting so I went to a counselor
education program in Denton lived ended up getting my masters and my PhD in counseling and in debt love Denton was there from 73 to 81 they have a lot of great friends friends I'm still very close with that's North Texas North Texas State at the time now the University of North Texas and just really have a great time up there any girlfriends at this time nobody's here he has a couple of Syria well I guess about three girls to marry me better than that nobody see anything let turn down two or three times with the women but you know I had a good time let
me just say had a good time I became a man from Austin that begi for 13 years a great dog very close she's Sheppard collie mix in fact I knew her parents Annie and Jacob and they were Arthur Eisenberg and Vicky Nicole Vicky who went with us to meet her Washington she and their married a guy named Arthur Eisenberg and they had two dogs and I got the pups we kept it all in the family and our very first met so that was all it was all good you know no other real traumatic events my father died 89 team 81 subtly and from a heart
attack and then was he in El Paso at the time he was it was not personal but buried in Dallas yeah so one of the so it might in beliefs I was in this counseling program while I was in the counseling education program I learned that there was a trip to Israel that teenagers went on here in Dallas it was called the teen tour sponsored by the Jewish Federation and that they hired counselors to go on this trip so I applied for it and I was accepted at 1978 to be an advisor a counselor on the team tour the leader was a guy named Jack
Malad who run the rahib Roux school the religious culture of Israel he was an Israeli guy the charismatic guy and I went on this I was one of the leaders there were four of us they were like 65 kids went on this there's a lot of kids all from Dallas after their sophomore year of high school they would go on this trip it was like five and a half week travel online and on that trip that's my second time in Israel because the first time I had gone back in 73 71 this is 78 and I met there was an assist week on this trip
we also had Israeli staff members and one of the Israeli staff members was this young lady named Ruthie and I kind of flipped for thefor and we started after a lot of attempts I finally gained her trust a bit and by the end of the trip I said you know I want us to continue this relationship and we wrote letters back and forth this is before emails this is before a lot of things we have today and even phone calls were so expensive back they thought once I think arranged to do that same trip the next year again to be an account advisor on the
council on the trip and 79 she did too and so we picked up where we left off at the end of the second trip she came back to Dallas to the area with me on a three-month tourist visa and this November we'll have been married for years she's touched town so tell me Ruthie's well her name was Ruth Solomon when I met her she'd never been out of Israel she came to Denton she came to my apartment she started crying she thought it looked like I minded her about living in an Arab village or something because I thought I was cool I was a hippie
had the beaded curtains that I had the Tabas trees hanging I should have taken her to my brother's house or my pen or other people's fancy homes first but that's cool whole story isn't it and since then I have led to other tea I've led tea tours in the 70s the 80s and the 90s three over three decades of late trips to Israel I have known kids in fact our 1979 group is having a 40th reunion in April that group is closed on a report in fact they're like three or four marriages came out of that trip they don't like to do those trips anymore
now that birthright is around that's a 10 day trip and it's free this one cost some money so tell me you when did you get married you got married November 24th 1979 and where did you get the name you were there I got pictures where did you get married sure the drill yeah and did his family coming in we're not our sister said that much of the fam what's in terms of size her sister came and her best friend came so tell us how you how you felt be starting a family and having a wife knowing that you're gonna create this family and about your
family growing up I mean how did that way from that father was natural very natural I mean I was made created to be a father I would say and to be a family person can you tell me some memories that you've had from that time in your life getting married you're married then then we didn't have her first child until for another five years so a lot of it was like Ruth had never been out of Israel so I don't like if you have to learn a lot and but she's very strong person and you know she's been in charge now I'd say for the
last 38 years or so she's run deeper school she's religious school director she's she learned that her skills that she had in Israel you know could translate over here took her a little time she still can't speak English worth a darn but we try to work on that so during these times again you you had gone through some agains difficult times in the country now you're getting married you focus more on your wife and yourself yeah my career getting story but yeah which was so I had a variety of the work I've never that focused on career in truth for the first years that's gonna
be a play therapist but I wasn't that career oriented I wasn't frankly that ambitious to never my goal was never to make as much money as I could it was always kind of do good work they changed the world I realized my skills were more oriented toward working with individuals or small groups than large groups like political systems I was interested in that so I worked in different agencies nonprofit I love working nonprofit organizations worked with every disadvantaged population you can think of the blind mentally challenged anger control groups juvenile delinquents I've worked with all these groups and then my career evolved and I started
I taught at the community college psychology I taught interpersonal relations I taught a course called career and educational planning which I was never into because I never plan my own career but I've got interested in it and my career for the last 20 almost 30 years now as many of the career coaching career consulting field now I do it now at the corporate sector so I work with individuals executives and others who were in have lost their jobs help them get situated and help them figure out what they want to do get help them get there and it's you know I work for a company
doing it so this you got married at these five feet there's five year period you're you're working your Ruth is learning all about the states in the United States and then how they fit in here and you guys are thinking about children and do you have children three sons yeah first one was born in 84 the next one is 89 the last one was in 95 and spread out over 11 years and what it all saddened Julian named after my father Jules Aviv because Ruth wanted an Israeli name it means spring he was born in the spring an income-tax day actually I didn't want to
call them income tax going to be and then Adam came later so here you are now you have a family three kids yeah we love we took a like we've taken trips all over the country and like if I grew up driving that with my family and we replicated that myself as much as possible and my two oldest sons live in California my middle son just got engaged over the Christmas holidays so we're looking forward to a big wedding coming up and then another year the oldest one was in California and Adams finishing up its masters and accounting from UT this everything's great my mother
passed away that in 2001 she and I were very close but you know it's all part of the natural course of things because I've got no complaints about anything that's great so clearly the charmed life so the family you're traveling with your family now just to go back to when you were a kid brother and you're traveling to the other family so it brings back a lot of memories all teaches you how to raise a family as well yeah I think it's some of the same trips I took as a kid when I was we took a fantastic trip when I was 12 years old
to when we went to Mount Rushmore and then I took my kids up there it was so great you know remembered memories of when I was 12 and then we learned this cool place again so what is your profession now what's your job in title and senior vice president of executive services for write management that's a global company that means the senior vice president LOH Gold North Texas region so I offer career coaching executive coaching people help people figure out what they really want to do with their lives I do a lot of listening mentoring and I like it quite a bit what do you
what professional accomplishments are you most proud of well I got the award from Jewish Family Service pro bono award from them a few years ago I've got a servant leadership award from another organization so I think in that regard professionally I think I've developed a very strong relationship in the community for being a decent person who does a good job at what he does and personally would look bored to be served on board of directors and he tell us a little bit about well it's for directors vice president of American Jewish Congress was the chairman of the Jewish the Federation Scholarship Committee president the Dallas
Jewish Historical Society Jewish Family Service our 1-under boar had been on their vocational committee was did a lot of them a lot of as an adult a parent a lot of youth coaching sports coaching for Jewish Community Center YMCA Spring Valley Athletic Association depending on what leagues my kids were and I've always coached my kids and primarily a basketball and baseball state away from the football I'm probably missing a couple of other organizations I was involved with the Oh society then on the professional level there's a young root called Society for information it's a use technical right IT senior IT people I don't even know
what they what they're talking about but another career I'm a member of the organization and they had career on their career committee they have so and there's a couple of other groups out there too that's you know another thing I did I'm very proud of for probably 20 years I was a religious school teacher actually more than twenty years that share with Israel I taught conformation for 15 years and post-confirmation and I've taught in other bet for ah Temple Shalom I've taught in a number of different schools over the years two kids and missing out there but that was a I just got to know
a lot of people because of different generations those kids like took it as teenagers Israel are now in their mid fifties they're all grown up so I would only have a few more questions but I do want to ask you one thing I want to ask you about this I heard this called the Christmas Day classic this is my life you talk about an accomplishment I'd say this is you know it'll probably be one of my great legacies along with my family when we were kids this group of friends I talked about when we were teenagers who I confronted the junior high in in aza
we loved sports and we would we started playing our football game you know which was saying about football we would play every day and we played a Christmas morning in 1964 was our first Christmas morning game probably and because what did you wish kids doing Christmas they don't have Christmas trees to sit around and open presents well let's go play football and we did and then we played the next year and then we played the next year because we were in high school and then we went off to college and we came back for the holidays and we played football on Christmas and we haven't
played this same game now we just had our 54th game in around and now it's been extended not just from the original group of guys to our children and our in-laws that have come around and people who have been you know gotten to know us over the years and we have a party it's we have a party the night before that's very warm and loving and we it's just become a real established thing and it's been written up in the press it's been on the news and for our fiftieth anniversary game I commissioned and produced a movie a documentary movie that was very well received
and it's been shown it Texas theatre and the Angelica theater and I'd like to want to make sure the abuse of Historical Society has it as well and so that's kind of a legacy I think I'll be leaving behind and I would be surprised if it's part of my obituary one of the founders of the Christmas Day class that cannot be and I and my other buddy is he we've kind of held this to make sure that it's continued and I almost say this man asking the questions it's been a huge part of this you know you tell people about this tradition and the movie
isn't just about the game it's about growing up Jewish in Dallas over the years because it's a unique Jewish experience this for our 50th by the way there was a lot of press about it somebody there was articles written we were at a Bar Mitzvah in January or February after our 50th classic where by a Temple Shalom and somebody comes up to my life with a bag and takes it a she or we just came back from Israel they come away from we guy so I'm sitting in my hotel reading The Jerusalem Post and there's an article about this football game in Dallas and he
gives us the paper so was into Jerusalem the world Watts war on land that's the only good publicity we had a good PR guy that year so that's a Christmas fake classic my family that I you know my children my career I put those three in that order of importance in my life number one the classic now there is one downside to my life that's come up in the last few years maybe I shouldn't talk about it but it is part the Jewish experience put it on tape but it's my relationship with my synagogue that went astray over the last few years where I had
a lifelong relationship I was in this place you know four days a week as a kid and I taught there for twenty years and it was my home and we had a parting of the ways and no longer so Philly did with it you and the synagogue could reconnect at some point possibly but I don't see a need for it did other synagogues were becoming more involved with temple Emmanuel which is a vibrant community when I was a kid looked down at it because it was reform and you know but it's fabulous spiritual community life I mean the place is amazing you know I actually
go wherever we get free membership that's for me so I only have two questions and I'm going to turn it over to you we've done all of it so mark what is the one thing you must want people to remember about you I just said it's the cleansing man no no I think remember about me as a loving person counting person a Jewish person yeah but the major themes of my life have been my Judaism Jewish a living Jewish Jewish identity so what advice would you like to leave for the next generation part love love conquers all I'm serious I have a lady you have
a friend who here's another thing let me just say one of our friends who was part of this whole group passed away a couple years ago from ALS Lou Gehrig's disease and Albert Goodman and he and I we were always close that last year of his life I was living near on midnight I was with him two days a week at least there the whole year and you know it made me realize the importance of friendship and and love and then so we actually gave an event for Albert before he died it was a tribute event and you know it's like when people die they
you know they don't get to hear all the wonderful things that people say that the one I did this now while you're still alive and it was a pull that and then have another friend who's not Jewish who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and I said you know I'd like to do that talk to her family as it's like to have an event for Mary you know while she's coaching didn't let people sell I mean because all she said all she's meant to everybody and that was a fabulous Amman and it just struck me that both of those were based on love and the works ago
what went on did those events was all about the love between people and I think that that's the most important thing there isn't life is there anything you would like to add up the sordid parts that's for another interview nothing to sort I don't want to upset you you look like a very innocent person to me so well thank you very much for coming down here it's been in time and sharing your life with us sorry that she was you're cool you did a beautiful job you're a professional interviewer you