Murray Munves
Murray Munves became deeply involved in Dallas Jewish community life through the Jewish Community Center, where he served as president from 1966 to 1968. He recalled that in those years the Center struggled with poor public relations and a constant need for subsidies, and that community leadership was not especially oriented toward it. He described his own limited ties to what he called the old Dallas Jewish aristocracy, noting that he was drawn into leadership largely through his Center work rather than through established social connections.
Serving on the Center board placed Munves automatically on the Federation board, and he remained active there for roughly twelve to fifteen years, becoming campaign chairman around 1970 and Federation president in the early 1970s. He recounted being recruited as campaign chairman by Jake Feldman, whom he described as a kind of godfather figure in the community. Munves was a committed solicitor and fundraiser, tailoring his appeals to each donor's interests, and he recalled the powerful emotional giving of the era, including the community raising about 7.2 million dollars for the 1973 war campaign and his own substantial personal pledges.
Munves traveled to Israel many times, beginning in 1966, and spoke of witnessing the hardships and determination of its people, which shaped his belief in supporting Israel as a homeland. He took special pride in two accomplishments: organizing an Israeli Philharmonic concert in Dallas to fund sending young people to Israel, and helping create the Federation's endowment foundation. Formed around 1972 with 600,000 dollars in reserves and led by Jack Kravitz, the foundation grew to tens of millions of dollars, which Munves considered among the best things he did for the community.
Full Transcript
On January 17, 19, I'm sorry, 2000, Mr. Manavis is a past president of the Jewish Federation, and the conversation is regarding his perceptions of the Federation. The interviewer is Morris and I. You were president of the center in 66 to 68, and then as a result you come on to the board of the Federation. Now one of the things I'm interested in is what were those early, how did the Federation take the center in those early years? That's part one. Part two, you've been involved now in the Federation for over 30 years. How come it's the constituent agencies that get all the attention and it's hard for anybody else to come in on the local level?
First of all, how did the Federation look at the center? You were still a committee of the Federation at that point, right? Really, because the Senate didn't have much, didn't have very good PR in the community. They always needed to be subsidized. The leadership in the community at that time was not very center-oriented. Were they anti-center? They weren't anti-center. The biggest anti-center in the community, I hate to make this public, but the biggest problem was Levi Olin. Yeah, it's in the minutes. No big secret. In fact, I had, I won't mention names, I had a commitment of $300,000 to the center from a family. This is to the original building?
To the... No, to the new building. Oh, to the new building, okay. And because Levi was so adamant about not having it that we lost two of the gift Only one of it was paid Why do you think they were so adamant about having a Jewish community sale He said it was ghettoizing. I'm only quoting his... No, no, no. It's in the minutes. But there was him, there was Mr. Crossman, who spoke up against the UJA. but Morris Jaffe, was it because they were really opposed to the center as a ghettoite, as not nice for the Jews? Personally, I think that Levi Olamanda figured it would draw away from activities, away from the temple, and his whole interest was the temple.
It was, in my opinion, a community man. One of the arguments is maybe they should, when they're discussing about whether to build a building or not, Lewis told me, I think it was Lewis told me, and said, well, Emmanuel is building a new building, is adding on to its building, and Sheriff Israel is building on its new building. Let's see what they do first. And then the argument about that may decide, let them do what they want to do, we're going to do what we need to do. I wasn't involved in all the infighting, and frankly speaking, I had breath, practically. no communication with the old Dallas Jewish aristocracy.
Jaffe did have them. Jaffe did? Yeah, but I didn't. I didn't even have anything to do with it. They didn't even know me and I didn't know them. Okay, so when did you get involved in the Federation? I got involved in the Federation there after being so involved in the Center. Being on the Center Board, you're automatically in the... You're on the Board automatically. Yeah. Then, when you become a campaign chairman, you're on the Board. Well, how did you move in a three or four year period from... How did I move to become President of the Center? No, no, how did you move from becoming a president of the center who didn't know very much about the Federation?
Yeah. Served on the Federation board you say 65 right Yeah By 1970 you were a campaign chairman Yeah How did I become a campaign champion How did it happen so fast Jake Feldman picked on me I wasn looking to be campaign champion He came to see me for lunch with Sal Levine And he told me that I was going to take the campaign. I said, I'm not going to do it. He said, well, we just wanted to, we're not asking you. We came to tell you you're going to take it. And we just want to let you know in advance. And I told him I'd think about it.
They said, well, you can think about it, but you're going to wind up taking it anyhow, so you can think about it. And that's what happened. And having been on the board of the Federation, let's say from... Probably was on the board before 66, but let's say the early 60s, all the way through continuously. I was president in the 70s, in 71 or 72, and then you're on after that. I probably was on the board continuously for 12 to 15 years, one way or another, either ex-officio or because of campaign chairman or because of senator. And I was very active at that time because of all the wars, the 67 war and then the 72.
Okay, tell me, why do you think this community that was, it had a lot of people who were interested in Israel. Yeah. But all kinds of people came out of the woodwork, right? They came out of the woodwork after, I think it was around the 72. More so than in 67? Well, in 67, yeah, but when Levi converted. Yeah, he converted in 67, right? In 67. And at that time, he started to recognize Israel and the need and everything else. That changed the whole picture. So are you saying he kind of gave, in doing that, he kind of gave permission to all of his phasidim?
Yeah They followed him Yeah And in 73 this community for the 73 war which is the 74 campaign this community raised $7,200,000. That's like $14 million to me. Today, no. It's like $30 million. Whatever. It's a lot more money. I'm telling you that $7 million then would be like $30 million today. We never made $7 million too again, you know, in actual dollars, until about 1985. I remember Bert Romberg and I were so happy that we got there. So what was there about the 70s, about the Enkipto War that got everybody so... Well, there was a lot of emotion. people gave from a motion. I made a pledge, must have done, let's say, 72, of $50,000 to the Federation.
That would be like today, $150,000 to $200,000. So why did you do what you did? Why not $25,000? It was emotional. What were you emotional about? Was it because... The needs of Israel. Were you afraid that Israel might be overrun? No, I just thought if I could pay it and they could use it and they needed it. And you have to also understand, I had been to Israel in 66, been to Israel in 68, been to Israel in 70, been to Israel in 72. And I saw, at that time, you could really see the hardships and what they built was as little as what they had.
The first time I went there, I had a driver, not in 66, but I had a driver in 66. Did you go on your own one? Or did you go with the U.K. mission? No, I didn't go on a mission in 66. No, I didn't go on a mission. And I think, but I do think that they gave me a driver for a week. I was there two weeks. And I remember the driver, and they made some kind of remark about it. We went to some architectural work. There was a big, big stone wall and all that. And he said to me, you know, we didn't have any machines.
All those stones you see, we carried them. That's the only way they got there. Because we didn't have bulldozers. And you got a feeling of what they were going through and the hardships and how little they had. And they didn't have much at 66, I'll tell you. No, I was there in six years, right after the Six Day War at first time. No, no, I know. Was there a feeling that this was kind of a... Did it have anything to do with the fact just that these were fellow Jews? Or did it have to do something with the fact of the Holocaust? Or that Israel was going to be the place that was going to protect Jews?
What? All of the above? None of the above? It was the fact that it was a homeland and had to be supported to maintain itself. Just like stay in a business, you know, you have an influx of capital. What's so special, in your mind, about the family service, the community center, and the home, that gives them the kind of leverage that they have with families? Well, the Holm was a favorite child of a reformed community. If you analyze all the presidents, maybe for 30 years, they all came out of a reformed community. I don't know who was the first president. It was not out of reform.
Probably Donsky. I don't know if he was president before Donsky, Robert Glazer. Yeah, Robert Glazer. But I think Robert Glazer was not Sherrod Israel. No, Glazer, when no one was there, it was from Emmanuel. Yeah, so Robert was way, way back, but he was still a reformed community. I think Emil Cornwood was the first check. I don't know if that means anything to you. Anyhow, and they were the favorite child. They didn have anything to do with family service That was for the forjures In those days you have to realize I remember back in Browder Street We only gave the home, that's all he asked for, the Herb Shook, fifty fifty five thousand dollars.
They started out with less. They started out with less, yeah. They were always coming back to the Federation for an adjustment at the end of the year. I don't know how you forecast how much it's going to cost, but they were always going to end. And the community center was always broke. Fifty-five thousand. The numbers, nothing the big, what I would call a big fund. I don't know, their total staff must have been five people. This one there in the building, in the Shep's building already? Yeah. It must be, because in the old building they had one, maybe two people. Yeah. So? Well, the big money doesn't really start until well into the late 60s, early 70s.
And the real big money starts when the new building... Well, the real big money started when they started bringing the Russians in. That's... That's when you had an explosion of the staff. I've never been on the family service before. The family service is the one... Whenever the family service was asked to take in immigrants, and you go through... You know, I can tell the history of the world. It starts with the Hungarian Revolution. It starts with the VPs. Then you got the Hungarian Revolution, the Hungarian Jews are coming, then the Cuban Jews, then the Russian Jews. Okay? It actually starts with some German Jewish refugees before World War II.
But whenever they come to, they always come to the Federation, and they say, Hias has asked us to take so many Jews, you know, we're not, but what should we do? And the answer is always, take them. Now the and for those times it pretty serious money but the money for the center and for the home really doesn start exploding until new buildings come up And I remember you weren very happy about Now, I'm not making any judgment, please. My work isn't going to have any evaluations. It's not a management study. You weren't very happy, for instance, with the last expansion of the home. And I remember you pushing me and pushing Herb to try to get projections.
And the home is pushing the new thing to build. So I'm trying to figure out, was the real issue, as long as the home was helping poor people, was that okay? If the home was just, if the home concentrated on helping poor Jews, would that have been better than going after the middle class? Or was any Jew the issue? I wasn't active in the home for one reason. I was on their board once. I don't know how many years ago. Twenty-five years ago. I don't know when. I didn't like the way Herb ran the show. So I didn't pay attention. I stopped going to the meetings.
When my time was up, that was it. That's all. Why did Jewish education have such a tough time? I remember the first allocation. With Marcus? No, it was before Marcus. They came to the formation of Solomon's Chechnya. Oh, that's way after. Mr. Donsky's coming. Oh, you're talking about Akiva. A key, but yeah, maybe it was a key. I forget, I didn't. That's all right. And Sherman Kaplan made a motion that we give him a grant. The first grant was about $8,000. Yeah, I met with Marcus. $9,000 the first time. It was $8,000, and I was at that meeting. Tell me about that meeting. The minutes are nowhere to be found.
And it was based on the fact that it was going to be so much per head. And that's how we arrived at $8,000. Maybe it was each multiplied by Olin was the guy who really fought against giving money Olin was the man who really fought against giving money right I don't think Olin was at that meeting, I remember. I only remember who made the motion to grant about $8,000. I don't remember who seconded it, but I was seconded it, and that was the first grant for Jewish education that I remember in Dallas, Texas. Okay, then tell me what you remember of the Solomon's chapter deal.
The Solomon's chapter deal? I don't remember too much, to be honest with you, because when did that come about? Sometimes in the early ages, Donsky came in a little bit closer. Well, you know what happens, too? When you're active from 66 all the way to 80, I think sometimes there are periods that But I just backed off from being involved, you know what I mean? And I don't remember Donski. I remember Donski starting it and pushing it and putting a lot of money into it, a lot of effort into it. And it was actually Donski and Willie Walden. Am I right? Yeah. Am I right?
Yeah. But I don't remember. And I think that the Federation followed up with the same format of subsidizing Schecter as they had with Akiba. I'm going to go back to the difference between. Okay. What happens with the Keeb and Schechter is the Federation decides to give them a per capita subsidy based on some form. But with the understanding, with a very clear understanding that the schools are going to go out and do their own fundraising. That was a very clear understanding. Schools had to be open to any child who wanted in. Scholarships had to be given regardless of congregational affiliation. But they have to go out and raise all their extra money.
Originally, and probably up to, yeah, it was still going on when I came. The deal with the center and the family service and the vocational service and the home was, we're going to cover your deficit, but we're going to control your budget as well. So, you know, the good news was that they didn't have to worry about going out to do any extra fundraising. The bad news was that the Federation was going to hold the purse strings. Then you've got to understand, too, there was a strong background here in the original organization that there should be only one fundraising organization, the Federation. It was one of the monopolies.
And they didn't want the home to do separate fundraising. Although, what's his name? He had his private. Herb. Herb Shurer had his private bunch of buddies. They used to give money on the side, and he kept two sets of books. And that was one of the reasons that I stayed out of the home. Well, let me remind you of something else, because I came to town just after it happened. The deal with the defense agencies was that they wouldn't do any fundraising for the ADL and the American Jewish Committee. I think a couple of years before I came, or maybe even the year before I came, ADL breaks ranks.
Do you remember Duke Rudman's $10,000 gift to the ADL and the hell we raised about that? Yeah, well, the Federation had control, actually, of all the fundraisers. And then as these organizations started doing their own, then that continued, and they actually Yeah, and what happened, though, is I'm guessing now, and tell me if I'm guessing right, the money that was required for UJA and for the three constituent agencies became more than what the annual campaign could bear at times, was able to support at times. And so I guess that was another reason about finally giving up on these other agencies. Is that a correct guess?
Pretty much so. Why were the first emergency fund was for Moroccan Jews It the first emergency fund that UJA runs And there a reason why they wanted an emergency fund The reason was they had an agreement with the joint that was still a more powerful organization about how to share the money. But they had a clause in there that allowed them to have emergency funds outside of a formula. So the first emergency fund is in 1956. And I found out this morning, these emergency funds just kept going and going and going until 1980. Every year there was an emergency. And I guess by the time you came on board they were taken for granted, right?
That's just what you did. I remember we had a special campaign for Ethiopians. Yeah, yeah. I remember going to see Marazale. Uh-huh. See that there? Babe Ruth, I got church in that, yeah. I went to see Marazale about Ethiopian Jews. He listened to me. And when I was able to get a commitment, it was charitable. It wasn't interesting. At all. It wouldn't make a commitment to $50. And I saw those signs there. And I said to myself, well, I struck out. I had to go there 7 o'clock in the morning to get to see him. But fortunately, Marzell did a good job on Donnie. Donnie is very, very terrible.
And I've solicited Donnie ever since Jake got out of the picture. If I asked you, who would you name in your years with the Federation as the three most influential people in the Federation? Yeah, the three most influential. In making things happen. I think Donsky was very influential Jake was from behind the scenes Jake didn come to meetings and all that stuff Very rarely And Donsky. What was Jake like in his pride? Why could Jake come to you and say you're going to be campaign chairman? And that was it? That was it, because he was like the godfather in the Jewish community. Did he change the whole culture of the Federation?
Was he the guy? Oh, yeah. In what way? Yeah, because Jake... See, the Federation wouldn't be... If Jake was alive, the Federation wouldn't be what it is today. What would it be? Because he had tunnel vision. Israel? Israel. Now, I would say Tunnel Vision in that area, and there could be one other channel, that's all. Education? Yeah, Jewish education. Period. Period. All the rest of the stuff. Is that why we got situations when we were running special funds? Remember the rule for special funds was that you had to give at least as much as you gave year before and everything over. And I know there were some solicitors who said, give all the extra to the Israel Emergency Fund.
Is that some of Jake's legacy? I don't really remember that, but, you know, it all depends on each individual. No, no, I know what you did. You know, you went to where the customer was interested. Yeah. When I did a lot of soliciting, I would first do a mental deal of what this guy is. If he was 100% pro-Israel, I wouldn't even talk to him about the center and the home and all that. And if I knew that he didn't give a shit about Israel and he'd never been there and wasn't going there, I wouldn't even mention the drill. Jake then was able to bring in a lot of people as well as...
Yeah. I remember a lot of, you know, there's a lot in your group that were very loyal to Jake. Yeah. Oh yeah, he had a cadre. Myself, Sam Wolfson, Sally Levain, Sherman Kaplan. Was Donsky one of them Donsky I know a couple of guys who tried to be in that group I know Martin Huber wanted very much to be there No, he wasn't in that group. I mentioned 2006. There was about three more. Shannon. Yeah, of course. Mickey? Mickey Shannon? Mickey Rubin. Mickey Rubin? I don't know if Mickey Rubin was in that group, to be honest with you. He might have been. Let me see who else.
Was Henry in that group? Henry, yeah. Or was he around the edges? He was around the edges at that time. And Jake, I'll never forget. On a Sunday, one Sunday, I was playing golf. I'm out on the middle of the golf course, and the golf pro comes out in a car, tells me I got a phone call. Phone call? I said, who called? He don't know. I figured, gee, my name of my wife got hit by a truck. Looking for me. I'm back to the pro shop. Jake. He said, what are you doing playing golf? Sunday morning, I'm playing golf. I'm having a meeting in my house at 3 o'clock.
Goodbye. I don't remember seeing candy. Is there anybody in the current, you know, in the last 10 years? that made a difference? Is there anybody that's been in the top ranks in the last ten years that's made a difference? Oh, I think you fellows like Howard Schultz have been a tremendous asset. Excuse me, let me get this. Okay. Howard Schultz has been a tremendous asset. And I think since his retirement, Marcus has been a lot more active. While he was working, he wasn't active at all. Marcus Rosenberg. Marcus Rosenberg. In fact, I I was a young kid to take over the job of the soliciting market when Jake became incapacitated.
And I did it for a number of years. And every year I went, I went with a different person, except another different person with me. I did that for, I'd say anywhere from maybe five or seven years. I remember. What changes have taken place, do you think? How has the Federation changed over these 30 years, or has it changed? Its main business is still... Well, the Federation has gotten broader. You know, in its scope, in its concept, in what it's going to do. It's broad. Because we used to have very small staff. I don't know how many people you had when you came here. I had, I know how many.
I remember downtown we had about five people. We had Kravitz. He had an assistant director like Walter or whoever, and he had Minnie. When Kravitz was in downtown, there was no Walter. That was only with Lady. Oh, that happens, yeah, that happens in the early 50s. I remember that. Oh, when Jack was there, there was a woman. He had a secretary. Huh? He had a secretary, had a lady looking after what would be the family service, social service work, A janitor. We had about five in staff, I'm telling you. No, I had, when I, by the time I left, counting the foundations, you know, all the secretaries, the mail delivery board, the professionals, we had 29, I think.
And you, was Ziona with you? Yeah, Ziona started out with Jack, and then she came along, you know, she was here with me and wasn't with Ava. Well, I made Zayona social worker. Yes, I know. She told me. She used to tell me. You got her to go to school. Yeah. 10 degrees. Sent a letter to the University of Texas. Yeah. And convinced her to become a social worker. Maybe that's the best thing I did in the community. Could be. Could be. You had a very smart lady there. Yeah. I reckon, I could see, you know, that she had it. And, uh, well... Okay anything else you want to tell them No I think that the thing that I Well I did a lot of luck I think that the best thing I did in the community was the foundation Tell me.
It's purely a matter of a combination of luck and ingenuity. I don't know if anybody related the whole story to you, how it came about, but I... But I can't. There's very little in the minutes. I'll tell you how it came about. I must have been president in 72. And Milton Levy at that time was very involved. Bubba. Bubba. Yeah. He'd been an ex-president, I think, in the home. Yeah. And he was in there fighting for Herb Shore to get a bigger pension. And Jack had gotten very sick. And Walter took over. And Jack actually, for about six months, didn't function at all. But even after that, he wasn't well.
Well, it came to a point where they realized they had to place Jack. They started looking at the pension plan, and they were embarrassed, to say the least. The pension was $17,500 a year. They were so embarrassed, they figured, man worked here 33 years, how can your pension have more for $17,000? Well, I don't know who made the suggestion. I don't know if I made it or somebody else made it, but I do know that for years I was pretty friendly with Bernie Shannon, and for years he used to bug me. Prior to my coming president, and while I was president, I used to go to every GA, Bernie.
And he'd come back from the GA and he'd say, How can Indianapolis and Schenectady, and he mentioned Rochester, I don't know, he spilled all three, four names, you know, communities that weren't. They were near the sites. And they have endowment plans, those endowment foundations. And Big D doesn have enough endowment foundations And I never gave it that serious thought But while we were having all these discussions about how to handle Jack we came up, I don't know who made the recommendation, I'll be honest with you. I'm not going to say I did, I don't even remember. You know, you talk about 30 years ago. Decided we had $600,000 in reserves.
Yeah, in reserves, in surplus funds. Yeah, certainly. We decided that we'll form a foundation. And we'll transfer that $600,000 into the foundation. And we'll make Jack Kravitz the executive director, and we'll pay him $17,500. And then he has a bottle of art to show retirement, $35,000 a year, plus the fact, I'm sure, he also had some policy with national pension. That I can't tell you, I remember the specifics, but I remember the specifics of this. We said he would do a good job, even though he wasn't well physically, but he had a lot of respect from the reformed community. He knew every single one. They loved him, they adored him, they respected him.
They would feel that if they put money in and Jack was there, it would be safe. And we made that decision. And nobody at that day and time, including myself, ever even dreamed that it would reach me. Forty million bucks. Fifty million. Fifty million. And so did. Excuse me. Yeah. And honestly, even though I was very active in the center and there was a big job raising of five billion dollars, You know, those days, money was different, you know? Yeah, well, it was. The dollar was worth something. And that's been funny. Yeah, and you know, you told someone about giving you fifty, a hundred thousand dollars.
Like today, you know, you think a quarter million dollars is a lot of money. But that fifty then was... Yeah. I checked the cost... Because? Let me see, this is 2000. It was 70, yeah. Yeah, Jack, yeah. 30 years ago 70 Yeah I moved No 69 I moved my house on George Way to where I presently live Big five-bedroom house to go 5,000 feet. I only paid 100 grand, including the land. Yeah. You can sell a house today for $500,000. No, no, just about that, because it's... No, no, in your area? Yeah. No, that's a primary area. Let's say $500,000. That's five times, right? Yeah.
So $50,000, we just can't. The cost of living from 67 to 98, I mean, Maven on that stuff, has gone up by over 400%. Yeah, because in 1967 I lived on George Way. Okay, this is on the team tour. I've been to Israel for many times. We didn't have any money for the Senate on the teams, Israel and the budget. And I found out one day that the Israeli Philharmonic was coming to Dallas, Texas. And I came up with the idea that the Federation would sponsor Dallas Philharmonic, and we would sell out the theater, the music, the Fair Park, and we would raise at least $20,000.
We would use it to send kids to Israel. Well, we had everything done, we had sold, and the director of the Israeli Philharmonic would be Zubin Mehta. The week before the concert was scheduled to be here, Zubin made the... didn't call me, might have spoken to Jack, who got a telegram with the understanding he said that he understands that the orchestra is not going to get all the receipts. And we said, well, we never made a... That arrangement is a charity deal and we were going to keep all of the seats. He said, well, if that's the case, I'm not coming. This is just about one week in front of...
Didn't you have a fee arrangement with him at all? He didn't get paid. It was free. Oh, is that right? Oh, okay. So we finally made a settlement with him. At that time, the Dallas Symphony was in such bad shape, they couldn't make payroll. So he insisted that we give the symphony $10,000. Well, $10,000 was a lot of money, because they were probably getting $35 from the play. They'd pay a lot of people $10,000. And the orchestra probably only had 70 people, not 105, you know. So we agreed to it. And the arrangement we had, and I remember it because I went to the airport with my wife to pick them up.
And the arrangement we had, and the plan that we had, and what's the name of the co-chairman, We co-chaired the deal to sell all those tickets. The arrangement we weighed was this. We would send the kit to Israel In those days we go was Federation was from the Temple either the Temple or the Shul. And the family had to pay $300. That was the first trip. Where did you get the idea for the team? Where did I get the idea? Yeah. I had been, as I told you, I was there in 66. No, you meant, but it wasn't, was it partly because other communities had started doing it already?
I don't know. I don't remember. All I remember is I thought it would be a wonderful thing. No, what? To send kids there. Yeah, it was. That's the truth. That's the true story. I don't care what everybody tells you. And I have a witness. Okay. Mrs. Mumbus? Because I want to tell you, we were going crazy there for a week. And if you want to check on that story, check with Dovey Cappy. I believe, okay, next time I see Dovey walking at the gallery. Dovey was in the... And Dovey won't forget. You see, because she sold the tickets to the Reform. So you handle the conservative dues, and she handle the Reform dues.
That's it. Yeah. You know, you forget, you know. That's one of the best things that's been done. That's one of the best things, you know. I know, I know, I know. I don't look around the bed half of that squirrel. But I know I did.