Rob Lewin
Rob Lewin's family history spans several continents. His great-grandparents came from Russia, from Riga, leaving during the pogroms. His grandmother's side settled in England and then moved to Africa around 1907 to 1909, while a relative jumped ship in America and became a boxer in New York. His grandmother's family settled in Portuguese East Africa, then Lorenzo Marques, now Maputo, where his great-grandfather cared for the Ashkenazi synagogue and cemetery for many years. His grandfather's side arrived in South Africa, involved in mining, and later moved to Rhodesia. His stepfather, whom he calls the man who truly raised him, was born in 1922 in Poland near Vilna and immigrated to Rhodesia with his family in 1933.
Born in 1954, Rob was the second of five children in a blended family after his stepfather married his mother. His stepfather worked in the furniture business and was deeply involved in the synagogue. Rob married his wife, also from Rhodesia, in 1976, served in the army, and had his eldest son there. As Rhodesia moved toward majority rule, the family faced a wrenching decision to leave. With help from Jewish community services, they were taken in by Israel as refugees, staying five years instead of the planned three. During that time their second son was born, they reunited with his wife's Israeli family, and they endured hardship amid extreme inflation.
In 1983 the family came to Dallas, where Rob's stepfather had already established residency working for a company. Unable to work legally at first, Rob and his relatives, including a doctor and other professionals, took whatever jobs they could, planting trees, cutting lawns, and cleaning houses to survive. Over time he built a career in freight, logistics, and oil and gas, rising to a director role in charge of worldwide transportation for a chemical manufacturing company. The family belonged to a congregation where a rabbi helped ensure his sons could have their bar mitzvahs. Rob and his wife live in Plano, near many family members, and he treasures the family unity, Jewish holidays, and legacy they have built together in Dallas.
Full Transcript
we didn't so that part was different why did we come to America ask myself that quality of Rhodesia wasn't the right thing to do you ask that question all the time it just wasn't right I don't know I got friends who stayed on in Rhodesia who went on to South Africa who've lived phenomenal lives okay from a financial standpoint then you say well what's your criteria what's your motivation or my motivation my kids are my family right would my kids so they're having a great time in South Africa they pretty orig dad being very well but their kids are in Europe and they see them
once a year okay I live in Plano my wife and I live in Plano I have one son who lives in Frisco and once under listen to us well okay those are the two boys that we had those are my family okay this one has four boys so we have four grandchild grandsons okay this one has couldn't have she couldn't have sir my son and his wife adopted Cheers off the doctor she fell pregnant and my granddaughter my grand or the first granddaughter was born Monday of this week that's what's being is all about yeah that family unity that we have and we share it
as I said again we share that enough as we share the the we just share everything that we've ever had shedding a lot of Tears lately with with mom dad and my brother Posse and all that but you know again at the end the day the family that we have we're very you know at one point there was twenty nine of us in Dallas okay my side cuts my father who come here at number of different times but with all I mean there was one thing about us we all got him very well and he in him you know with that dinner put like Thanksgiving
and four of his ex-wives would be there you know type thing and all the kids so we had hot brothers or sisters most sorts of things all over the place but again it was they were we had to make our way that in Israel I felt that we were looked after turn large degree when we got to America we weren't it was very much you're on your own you need to make it happen but big difference in America you have an opportunity to make it happen okay if you work hard if you work intelligently if you have the right value systems you can go a
long way so I have once I have one son this one in Louisville who's a police officer he's been a peace officer for nine years now he was the one who was born that said he'd be in Israel and Israel army say became a copier my oldest son is is with a chemical busybody the fitness people he's a pawn owner of the company now he might read it because there was there was all South Africans in Iran that had one point and then went River passed away Gary the son and the mom and Craig basically took over the company my son together with him so
very successful in different different ways as I said five grandsons now granddaughter and and a very strong nucleus of friends from work and from not lots of yeah I think I've got one South African friend who's been here 40 years so really yeah he was born in South Africa but he was 10 when he arrived here you know what are you doing professionally I work for a chemical philosoph major manufacturing company and I am in charge of worldwide transportation so everything that moves from point A to point B I have responsibility Fred so I finally made it to I'm a director I finally made it
to a very nice position albeit 20 years later in most of my peers because we're arrived you are 30 but you know I just turned 60 and good more years to work but again it's it's a fascinating how you you know the first teams we didn't win a Southfork but you got a Southfork you go to Billy Bob's in Fort Worth my wife's my sorry our son our youngest son's wife is from New York her mom and dad are from New York but ends up before worth now yes it was trying to get educated a little bit on that part of the world and it's
you know Texas took us in in in a lot of ways not every way but in a lot of ways when it came time for bombers for time we belong to bethe Torah at the time and Rabbi Elena jiff Lena was the rabbi and I went and sat with him and I just said hey yeah here's my position I said I can't afford to join this show I said but my sons are gonna be monitored he looked in his house you son and I said well Craig at that point was ten off I was 11 it's kind of late he said but and we talked
a little bit more he said I'll make it happen for you I mean it was sawed dozen right now and he did he made not happen and then both my boys you're going through three bits or Jeff of course is retire or at least they have that sure and so it's been a Peter phenomenal run you know the fact I could share I can't I travel extensively allows me to do have a pretty extensive bucket list so being able to go back to my point with dad you know gained a Vilna no bitterness and seeing where he was born gained oxfords while I was in
that part of the world and walking through that just made some of the things that I've lived come come you know become reality Israel of course was a walk through the Bible that was absolutely real the date see we went back there in May for the first time in 20 no creators we went back to see the family what was there for the families but again cousins and everything else in it sir yeah it's been a long road I mean we I believe we paid our dues in a lot of ways we've made again we've made a lot of good friends we're very close Dave
and I live probably two miles apart from each other you know you'll see by that by the book is she's a phenomenal motivational person what she's done is it's just it's super incredible you know we all lived under and the most beautiful mother we've ever lived with my beautiful mother but she was a Jewish mother and you didn't do certain things and certainly she didn't do certain things and all of a sudden when she had our picture what she calls her opportunity all of a sudden she was doing this and she was you know riding a horse she was on the mountain skiing stuff that
you and she said to mom you know just don't tell mom this is pumpkin knows fine it was coaching but it was some I'm very proud of my roots I'm very proud of my brain I'm very proud to be important Africa I mean we had a tremendous upbringing but at the same time I'm very loyal and thankful to Israel for the five years and even more so to the last 30 in America in Dallas in fact I've never left Dallas and again that was by design you know many times I had off options to go to other jobs which probably would have got me on
the fast track a lot quicker but I was not moving I was not leaving mom and dad I was not leaving my brothers are not leave my sisters it just wasn't an option so we took that role of saying you know what I'll get there eventually and I'll plug along bad when it comes to Rosh Hashanah when it comes to Chanukah when it comes to pace up when it comes to Thanksgiving we're all there it's not a matter of saying yeah so my brother twice lost you know none of that so I think you know family family it took us 12 years from the time
you left Rhodesia to finally reunite in Dallas you know set everybody backs yeah and pretty well with it dirty very well with it so thank you you've got a tremendous story I think if the in fact it is all about family certainly comes through very strongly on your message you've left the one you're leaving a wonderful legacy for your family in the Dallas community yeah we're going to appreciate the time that you've spent with us Oh indeed my pleasure absolutely my place I look forward to the result thank you thank you thanks so much okay well thank you we are here today at the JCC
in Dallas I'm Carol Walla now and I'm interviewing Rob Lewin the purpose of the interview is to talk with Rob about his family history for the roots to boots project for the Dallas Jewish Historical Society I'm going to start out Rob by asking you to tell us what you can about your family history starting in the European or Asian continent where ever they came from before coming into the African continent goes far back as you can tell us about your family history how they came to the African continent and who these people were sure absolutely so was tall if I think with my with my
great grandparents so my great grandparents were born in Russia in Riga and they came out during the program to Europe so they moved over to to England this is on my grandmother's side on my grandfather's side they moved all the way to Africa right away from Russia where they settled in South Africa my aunt saw stared my grandmother's aside for a second so her father set up shopping in England and in 1907 1908 in 1909 they decided Africa was was a that was being expanded there was a tremendous amount of research going on there was plentiful jobs and they decided to pack the kids up
and move what was really interesting was that my grandmother's brother decided not to go with the family to Africa so he jumped on a boat and he went to New York and so he landed in New York were actually landed in Boston probably right around 1909-1910 jump ship at that point in time came in here and was a boxer that was how he made his living in order to survive he then then married a lady from from Ireland and so I have an entire chain of family in New York that were on my grandmother's side granny came out to Portuguese East Africa at the time
which was Mozambique so hidden Papa Raya as we called him was my great-grandfather so him and his wife and their kids my grandmother settled in most beak which was Lorenzo marks at the time it's now known as Maputo and he took on a very big role in the shul at the time and the ashkenazi show where he was basically the caretaker of the shore and was for many many years he would look off the cemetry he would look after the you know all the between the the the uprisings of which there were many he would protect the shul and just make sure that that everything
within it was was safe he stayed on in Portuguese Africa my grandmother came up to him to Rhodesia at the time on a vacation my grandfather and that was it so she never went back at that time she never went back to live she she ended up married my grandfather and they got married let's see so they celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1976 so 1926 they got married and so Papa Riga and his wife and one sister one of my grand sisters my aunt and one uncle stayed behind him in Mozambique and they stayed there right up until the the big uprising by which time
Papa Papa I get passed away has had his wife and so my uncle and aunt came out to Rhodesia juni during the major uprising this is gonna be around 1970 71 my mom in the meantime so my grandmom as I said married my grandfather he was so South Africa she was from from Portuguese East Africa at that time they went back often to see the old folks and during one of those trips granny didn't plan it very well and mum was born in Portuguese Africa she should have be born in Rhodesia but planning was not not the greatest skill back then and so she was
born in peña and came out bullets Rhodesia since you to travel on this was like three months old at that time on my grandfather's side as I said they they arrived in South Africa where they were involved in in mining there was the came from Russia but some came from Riga both families and unknown to each other not to each other it was quite an amazing amazing trip my so you came out to say I forget he was born in Orange Free State in South Africa and in nineteen as he would say 1908 he would come on he came out Rhodesia and he spent his
time out there with in mining he was in I mean grandpa did everything he was in mining he was in Hotel Management he was in bar keeping he loved cambrie it was a grateful to have his back then you know it was it was a different time it was it was really a different time and he went to war in 1939 with the Second World War spent four years overseas and then came back to Rhodesia in 1944 at the end of war and he would he try his hand at all sorts of things granny was very much a [Music] just a good person to the
stout person she didn't work grandpa her dad's and it was the old school of you know she she looked optic kids she bought the kids up she cooked she fed them and grandpa what he'd what the money and that was the way it worked and it worked very very well for 51 years was he with the English well Rhodesia was a British colony okay and they were called up so Rhodesia was called up and he went to war with the with the religion forces okay into Europe we he spent about four years against him in his service and he was a medic so we had
many good laughs off there as I was growing up as far as his medical skills were concerned but back then you know you just did what you did it was a keep in mind that when he arrived Rhodesia it was only nineteen years old okay the country was found in nineteen in 1890 so it was very much a new country it was a fascinating growing up because you're always known as I was either Max's grandson while I was John son I was never wrong you know that was just how we were not I mean it was oh you Mexico yeah yeah I have a name
yeah but it was like okay no we'll go with that it was it was a tough time you know we we lived in an environment there was there was pretty much a war most of its most of its time terrorist war terrorist activities so that was getting grandpa on my pure father's side and I call em as I'd say pure father because really he was he never up brought us up here he threw my mom out and through I think of five so he didn't mom the greatest gift of all the battering her out and the three kids who went with her that dip was
the baby I was second and my elder brother who just passed was was the eldest and she met a man who came from Poland whose lives as well it was my dad he raised me I had him before in my life for about 44 years which was phenomenal until the unti part 10 years ago and you know he came from from a place called villainous filmer in Poland and what was fascinating was he was nine maybe ten and I don't know about other people but I know that sometimes you wish you had and you never did and that's sit in front of a video camera
and talk to him and get his perspective on life you know I mean I know a lot of it he told her told me a lot about it but I never really set in listen to him telling a story right so he came from Vil of us at the time it was because when I tell people I was from villainess Poland they said oh no that's not the way NIA I was like okay yeah well I believe that was so I went there I went there last year on a business trip I happened to be in Warsaw and Krakow so I thought you know what
I'm a better person just find it myself and I found a historian there and you know we looked around and he found with the the loons lived and I took dad's name what was fascinating to buy it was when he grew up in Poland it was Lavigne because there's no W in Polish when he got through DS at the age of nine he went to school and they say write your name on the board and he tried a DWI in and they said what's your name you'd say Levine and I said no that's Lewin and because it was a W in English so it became
fluent we then as a family immigrated here that in a minute and it became a ravine again because again there's no W it's above so he became a Naveen again so raised born in 1954 I was the second son as I said he had dad had two of his own mom had the trees the five of us became a family dad was in the furniture business and very involved in the synagogue very involved with your back then it was there was extra knowledge in Safari because we were two major religion of shoes different woods synagogues and then reform became part of it quite a bit
so said dad as I said he raised us he raised the five kids and 1941 he went to war and he was with what they called the the double RAF okay so the RAF which is the Royal Air Force the double RAF was the region Royal Air Force or the Royal Rhodesian Air Force actually and he spent four years in Cairo in Egypt so so on his side so again as I said born in Poland his father you know and I think back then and I gotta go back to dad was born in 1922 so probably the early turn of the century jobs in Europe
were very difficult to find and his father literally left for years on end you'd come back every so often but he had leave to go find work or find money and he went to South America he spent ten years in South America decided that wasn't for him came back then one day and uncle said come up to Africa you know he was there Radian there Cesar dad came out to Africa dad father excuse me came out to Africa fell in love with it so in 1933 they decided to move and his mother brought the two brothers who's my dad and his uncle and my dad
and his brother at Rhodesia okay and his earliest memories when he talks about that trip and and I think I think about it because you today you're getting an aeroplane in ten hours you're in Germany you're in Europe some ways you know but for him he lived Poland in on day one and they took a train the train came through Germany through into Liverpool the among a bus on a bus on a boat from Liverpool opportunity to Cape Town they're gonna train from Cape Town through Rhodesia so took him almost a month okay and his earliest memory of being on that train was coming and
was right around Chet Hitler coming to the Chancellery was all the black and red swastika flags in here in Germany he remembers that vividly and it was incredible to think he was nine years old you know so yeah he came out and just joined our family as I said and life is event there's a very funny thing you know we a lot of its distant it's a lot of us planned so when you look at the old community my grandmother and grandfather my dad grandmother and grandfather my father's grandmother and grandfather or play cards together okay they're all play caveats will they be playing poker
or whatever was so they all knew each other so my father and arts are differentiate between those trees to my father when he got married to my mom mom my mom's with his first wife my dad was a professional photographer and he took the photographs of my mom's wedding my mom when my dad got married first time was the bridesmaid at his wedding and later to be bride okay so it was just it was it was a very convoluted but a very unique situation when we go back to through the history of this it's like oh my gosh so you sure you we're not related
right we did not relate so and then as soon as we could my father allowed us to take both names both lost he would not allow my dad to adopt us so we took both lost names and as soon as we could have since we came old nothing illegal enough that we all changed so they've never had that problem because she was too young but we went to Lewin my boys on the run etcetera etcetera so in 1976 I got married and my wife is from Rhodesia as well her family grew up in a very very small town her dad was Israeli and her mom
was Rhodesia and so we met we got married in in 1776 I went to the army 77 76 77 and 78 came out of the army Rhodesia that point in time was also oscillates in the country we're gonna go to choose majority rule then I got a black rule it's coming we all knew was coming our son I eldest son was born in Rhodesia and we decided to start looking where we could go what was gonna happen to us granny and Grandpa at that point in time my mom was training my mom's mom and dad my father wanted a deposit when we were pretty young
so but granny and Grandpa were in their late seventies at that point certainly weren't gonna come with us and the decision had to be made do we stay and hang it out and see what happens where did we go with that do we pack it up to remove doing move as a family how do we do that because you know for me I believe my grandparents but for my mom she's leaving her mom and dad all right so huge decision was having to be made and and it took months to set on say okay really what are we doing and why are we doing this
why are we leaving why we we looking for somewhere else the decision was that from my perspective my immediate family my wife my son was there was no future for him so I had to move I didn't have a choice secondly having been in the Army I was at risk as well so with those teams together it was like I gotta move deep at the time decided she was very young and decided she was gonna move my brother decided he was gonna move so it's really mom and dad and mom and dad was saying okay so I got granny and Grandpa on this side and
I got all my kids leaving on this side you know one hellacious decision to make one hellacious decision but mom and dad decided to come with us dinner was like okay so where we gonna go it's all very well we made a decision to leave but what's next where do we go so you start to to realize very quickly and for those of you that live you know lives here in America you realize that very similar to the Cuban crisis and the laws against Cuba that we've had in this country for the last I don't know how many years I guess Cuban crisis in the
sixties you can't get a visa to go to Cuba and Cubans couldn't get a visa to come to America well religion was in that same boat so we were cornered quite a rebel country we declared independence from Britain and America and all the Western countries said no sorry we don't want you can't get visas to get into your country so my mom thought well you know what she's gonna go to England on a trip and get British passports because your mother was born in England got to England and at that time oh sorry it's all men we gotta buy the male sampler family love the
female side my grandfather was born in South Africa so that wasn't gonna work then we thought well we're going to South Africa it's a closest ally it's the only place at that time we thought of going and it was very much on the frying pan into the fire somewhat it was the same situation it was far worse apartheid that they had in South Africa was far worse than anything we ever experienced in Rhodesia but it was still going to be a very similar issue and we got a call from the Jewish community center Jewish community services and the guy said yeah could you come and
talk to the family so you came on Sunday and we sat down he said you guys ever thought about getting Israel yeah no not really it's yeah we've talked about ideas kids we all were part of a tog we're all part of a Zionist Organization I was part of Bnei Akiva so yeah you know we'd had that thought of getting on holiday to Israel to go living it we've not given that a thought and he said well here's the offer right now on the table he said Israel is prepared to take you in as basic as refugees and give you free accommodation for six months
they will give you free accommodation they will teach you the basics of Hebrew which most of us had because of our bombers for days and everything else and they would find this job and the US pocket money for that six months who were there on condition we stayed in Israel for three years and brought our technology our expertise our experiences whatever we had to the table so back to the drawing board saying it was a much further from the situation in Africa probably not a bad idea to take that stepping stone and don't know where it's going in in the end ironically enough as a
sin my wife's dad was wasn't Israeli but he had passed just before we left to come to come to Carroll he passed away but he had a huge family in Israel still so we thought that was gonna make it a little easy for us and they paid for our airline tickets and before you knew it wrong on the plane to Israel I never never never forget so there's my son is a year and a half old my wife and I my mom and dad my brother and Deb and we arrived in ben-gurion airport middle of the night I must spend about two a.m. and the first time we see there was a huge war plaque and it said we didn't never promised you a rose garden and it was thorn bushes of the desert everything I love that's nice and it didn't click as to what they meant or we soon found out but they did they did just they promised they put us up a little pun it was fascinating when you think about going to school with your dad again and your mom you know here we were in Hebrew school and all of us you know learning and my brother my younger brother cribbing my my my notes one day
and him getting him in a market I got yet but but it was just it was just bonding you know it was a tremendous Bonnie's and and you quickly realized that without the family that move would have been hellacious because everybody we shared tears we shed laughter we shed nuts as we shared everything that went on my wife laughs became very ill we both got glandular fever but but and and Craig at that point was just just like - but mom and dad be in the same apartment block we were able to get to them and get them and come and get him you know
and see we shared that that was shared all the way through and when we literally did that for the five years we lived in Israel the way they did that to us have free accommodation everything else's they gave you loans do loves were tied to your to that sword and were also tied to your passport so basically you know you if you were leaving for a trip like I had a couple of business trips off it was the end I'd have to have a return ticket show the return ticket show that guarantees leave the bank guarantees so I wasn't running away from paying the bills
and inflation was running about a thousand percent per annum at that point okay so you'd wake up in the morning and it's as a midnight last night look went up to 50 percent print when I then and then and although all the staple products so the three years that we were planning to stay they ended up to be five the greatest thing that happened for us of course meeting my wife's entire family was phenomenal but also our second son was born and so it was like replacing her dad okay dad pause and so it was it was like replacing him the thing that turned us
down a little bit was the minute he was born and I mean literally he was born the one male nurse said oh another son for the Israeli army yeah okay deep breath you know I'll just come through the army five years prior to that and I wasn't ready to - am i one day one hour old son - to the Israeli army at that given time we made a huge mistake use mistake if we would in our immigration and that was we stayed with southern Africans so we stayed in the same apartment block with all our South African friends yes we all learn to speak
Hebrew but we could have learned a lot more had we totally assimilated and we never did that you know so if I gave advice to anybody after that who were gonna go on alia it was like you know what go live amongst the locals because that's really where you're gonna get the true vibe of the country we stayed there until 1983 by which time back again my father had come to America he worked for CBS he had come to America he's got his residency we came here the business trip I stopped up in Dallas to see him or see my brother actually saw him as
well he was like it's time you guys left Israel you know we can't the the saying in Israel the table was the way to come to make a small fortune was make sure you came with a big one and that was the life we lived right we lived hand-to-mouth and that was that was but that was fine you had a feeling of belonging that I didn't have anywhere else in the world you know you were you Jewish and that's what it was it wasn't a matter of whether you religious or not religious it was just you Jew uses part of the world well I did
find that as we started to assimilate a little bit was the differences that were made between the astronauts Jews the Sephardic Jews or the Jews that came from North Africa versus the Jews that came from Europe and then there was thought no it's a human kind right people people so 83 we went away after this trip and chat a little bit to our brother tell it to my father and he said look we'll bring you guys out if you want to treaty wanna come out come to dance so we packed up at that point Adam was a year and a half Craig was 4 /
5 and we came to America that was it was a long journey to get here taken us a long time to to get our words and and we spent the first year here because none of us could work we have work brothers we were allotted a lot of stay because what happened is we came across on holiday visas the minute we got across because my dad my father was a resident he applied for us to stay well that takes about six to nine to a year in that every parent and you suppose a lot of work example a family to look after and we plant
trees and we cut lawns and we clean toilets and routine houses and we know what a joke to make it happen I always laugh because whether we've got a job one day this was two plants 100 rose bushes in a new hotel that was opening up there 100 rose bushes planted it was an old old house and so that we had a first of all get rid of all the cross the trees and everything and then we'll plant the rose bushes and I had to find a team of players well my step-brother was a motor mechanic but he was a lot of work yet my
cut my first cousin was a doctor and he wasn't out of work yet and it was me who was you know I had a sales management degree and there were the three of us professional guys planting trees right making making something happen to survive in this country it was it was just it was it was phenomenal it was it was hard work and then we then we started to get slowly but surely get caught up my wife was working I was working and again because of the of the family unity we were able to kind of share the the burden of the kids shared the
burden of the of the the illnesses that we some of us had my brother was diabetic you know up until time he passed in August who would share all that that was just just given so the family unit was was just was unbreakable how was the integration into this community different from into the Israeli community did you did you stay with the South Africans or the African community or did you start to try and integrate into the general community in Dallas very much into in the beginning South Africa absolutely we kind of migrated towards it but we also found out this was very interesting once
found out that a lot of and no disrespect meant by any means a lot of the saw that could we Winifred Eva we literally lift with suitcases we were allowed to take out a thousand dollars per family okay which equivalent us about 800 atomic took the texture 600 that was our that was it and our suitcases we left the country when we came here we bought a bit of furniture and stuff like that but we realized very quickly then a lot of South Africans that come here had planned for years and had taken money out of that country out of South Africa so when they
came here there saw the business they were so it was a different financial breed of people and we couldn't keep up with it you know was like well yeah let's go I'm gonna fly over here for the week or we couldn't do that we were literally on the bones treating someone so right away from that perspective we started to migrate towards Texas towards Dallas people towards people that I worked with I was in in a number of different companies freight companies and logistics and oil and gas companies and starting to make a pretty good line of friendship of people within that and realized so we
pretty very quickly unlike where we spent the five years in Israel totally solidified with in South Africa Southern Africa the first viewer here we did the same thing standing off that in a minute and it became a ravine again because again there's no W in Hebrew its above so he became a novena again so raised born in 1954 I was the second son as I said he had Dan had two of his own mom had the trees the five of us became a family dad was in the furniture business and very involved in the synagogue very involved with you know back then it was there
was astronauts in Safari because we have two major religion shoes if you would synagogues and then reform became part of it quite a bit so dad you know as I said he raised us he raised the five kids and 1941 he went to war and he was with what they called the the double RAF okay so the RAF which is the Royal Air Force the double RAF was the region Royal Air Force or the Royal Rhodesian Air Force actually and he spent four years in Cairo in Egypt so so on his side so again as I said born in Poland his father you know and
I think back then and I gotta go back to dad was born in 1922 so probably the early turn of the century jobs in Europe were very come back every so often but he has leave to go find work find money and he went to South America spent ten years in South America decided that wasn't for him came back then one day and uncle said come up to Africa you know he was there Radian there Cesar dad came out to Africa dad father excuse me came out to Africa fell in love with it so in 1933 they decided to move and his mother brought the
two brothers who's my dad and his uncle and my dad and his brother at Rhodesia okay right around [ __ ] Hitler coming to the swastika flags in our in Germany he life this event is a very funny thing lot of its planned so when you look at they're all play caveat so they'd be all knew each other so my father and our top differentiate between those trees to my father when he got married to my mom mama moons with his first wife my dad was a professional photographer and he took the photographs of my mom's wedding my mom when my dad got married first time was
the bridesmaid at his wedding and later to be bride okay so it was just it was it was a very convoluted but a very unique situation when we go back through the history of this it's like oh my gosh so you sure you we're not related right we did not relate so and then as soon as we could both lost names he would not allow my dad to adopt us so we took both lost names and as soon as we could have came old enough and legal enough and we all changed so they've never had that problem because she was too young but we went
to Lewin my boys in the one etcetera etcetera so in 1976 I got married and my wife is from Rhodesia as well town her dad was Israeli and her mom was Rhodesia and so we met we got married in in 1776 I went to the army 77 76 77 and 78 came out of the army Rhodesia that point in time was also lost legs as a country we're gonna go to majority rule then I got a black rule it was coming we all knew was coming Osanai eldest son was born in Rhodesia my father's one we had a past when we were pretty young so
but granny and Grandpa were in their late seventies at that point certainly we're gonna come with us because decisions had to be made do we happens where do we go with that do we know for me I'm leaving my grandparents dad all right so huge decision was having to be made and and it took months to sit on say okay really what are we doing and why are we doing this why are we leaving why we we're looking for somewhere else the decision was that from my perspective my immediate family more I've much my son was there was no teacher for him so I had
to move I didn't have a choice secondly having I got a move Dave at the time decided got one of my kids leaving on this side you know one of Asia's decision to make one hellacious decision but mom and dad decided to come with us the other was like okay so where we gonna go that's all very well we made a decision to leave but what's next where do we go so you start to to realize very quickly and for those of you that live you know live here in America you realized that very similar to the Cuban crisis and the laws against Cuba that
we've had in this many years I guess Cuba crisis in the Cuba and Cubans can get a visa to come to America well Rhodesia was in that same boat so and get British passports cuz your mother was born in England got to England and at that time oh sorry it's all men we go by the male side for well we go to South Africa it's a much on the flying pan into the fire we ever experienced in Rhodesia but it was still gonna be a very similar issue and we got a call from the Jewish Community Center Jewish Community Services and the guy said yeah
could you come and talk to the family so you came one Sunday and we sat down he said you guys ever thought about getting Israel yeah no not really it's yeah we've talked about ideas kids we all were part of a talk or all part of the Zionist Organization I was proud of Bnei Akiva so yeah you know we had that thought of gang on holiday to Israel but to go living it we've not given that a thought and he said well here's the offer right now on the table he said Israel is prepared to take you in as basic as refugees and give you
free accommodation for six months they will give you free accommodation they will teach you the basics of Hebrew which most of us had because of our bombers for days and everything else and they would find this job and the US pocket money for that six months who were there on condition we stayed in Israel for three years and brought our technology our expertise our experiences whatever we add to the table so that good drawing board saying it was a much further from the situation in Africa probably not a bad idea to take that stepping stone and don't know where's go ahead in the end just
before we left to come girl he passed away but he had a huge and before you knew it one on the plane to Israel I never never never forget so there's my son who's a year and a half old my wife and I my mom and dad my brother and Deb and we arrive at Ben Gurion Airport middle of the night I spent about 2:00 a.m. and the first time we see there was a huge war plaque and it said we didn't never promised you a rose garden and it was thorn bushes of in the desert everything I love that's nice it didn't take us to what they meant or we soon found out but they did they did just they promised they put us up a little pun it was fascinating when you think about going to school with your dad again and your mom you know here we were in Hebrew school and all of us you know learning and and my brother my younger brother cribbing my my my notes one
day and him getting a bit of Morgan I got yet but but it was just it was just bonding you know it was a tremendous bodies and you we quickly realized that without the family then we would have been hellacious because everybody nuts us we shared everything that went on my wife life became very ill we both got glandular fever but but and and prayed at that point was just just on - all the way through and when we looked we did there for the five years we lived in Israel the way they did that give us a free accommodation everything else's they gave you
loans you loves were tied to your to that swords and were also like a couple of business trips off it was the end I'd have to have a return ticket show the return ticket seller of guarantees leave the back guarantees so I wasn't running away from paying the bills and inflation was running about a thousand percent per annum at that point okay so you'd wake up in the morning and it's as of midnight last night milk went up to 50% bread when I then and then and although all the staple products so the three years that we were planning to stay they ended up to
be five the greatest thing that happened for us of course meeting my wife's entire family was phenomenal but also our second son was born there and so it was like replacing her dad okay dad passed and so was like replacing him the thing that turned us down a little bit was the minute he was born and I mean literally the minute he was born the one male nurse said oh another son for the Israeli army yeah okay deep breath you know I've just come through wasn't ready to remind one day one hour old son to to the Israeli army at that given time we made
a huge mistake if we would in our immigration and that was we stayed with southern Africans so we stayed in the same apartment block with all our South African friends yes we all learn to speak Hebrew but we could have learned a lot more had we totally assimilated and we never did that you know sir if I gave advice to anybody after that who were gonna go on earlier I was like you know what go live amongst the locals because that's really where you're gonna get the true vibe of the country we stayed there until 1983 by which time back again my father had come
to America he worked for CBS he had come to America he's got his residency we came here on a business trip I stopped off in Dallas to see him or see my brother actually saw him as well and he was like it's time you guys left Israel you know we can't the the saying in Israel the table was the way to come to make a small fortune was make sure you came with a big one and that was the life we lived right we lived hand-to-mouth and that was that was but that was fine you had a feeling of belonging that I didn't have anywhere
else in the world you know you were you Jewish and that's what it was it wasn't a matter of whether you're religious or not religious it was just you jus use as part of the world well I did find that as we started to assimilate a little bit was the differences that were made between the Ashkenazi Jews and the Sephardic Jews or the Jews that came from North Africa versus the Jews that came from Europe and then there was thought that it's a human kind right people are people so 83 we went away after this trip and chat a little bit my brother tell it
to my father and he said look we'll bring you guys out if you want to truly wanna come on come to dance so we packed up at that point Adam was a year-and-a-half Craig was 4 / 5 and we came to America that was it was a long journey to get here taken us a long time to to get our words and and we spent the first year here because none of us could work we'd have work profits we were allotted a lot of stay because what happened is we came across on holiday visas the minute we got across because my dad my father was
a resident he applied for us to stay well that takes about six to nine to a year and then every parent and you suppose a lot of work with example a family to look after and we plant trees and we cut lawns and we clean toilets and retreat houses and what a joke to make it happen always laugh because whether we've got a job one day this was to plant a hundred rose bushes in a new hotels I was opening up their 1/100 rose bushes planted it was an old old house and so that we had to first of all get rid of all the
grass and the trees and everything and then plot the rose bushes he was not a work yet my cut my first work yet and there was me who was yeah I had a sales management degree and there were the three of us professional guys planted trees right making making country it was it was just it was it was kids share the burden of the of the the Tommy pasta in August who would share out this was very interesting was found out that a lot of and notices tricked men by any means a lot of the saw that because women if Rhodesia we literally lift with
suitcases we were allowed to take out a thousand dollars per family okay which equivalent us about eight hundred but time it took the Texas 600 that had come here had planned for years and had taken money out of their country South Africa so when they came here they saw the business they were so it was a different financial breed of people and we couldn't keep up with it you know it was like well yeah let's go I'm gonna fly over here for the week or we people towards people that I've worked with I worked in a number of different companies freight companies and logistics and
oil and gas companies and starting to make a pretty good line of friendship of people within there and realized so we pretty very quickly unlike where we spent the five years in Israel totally solidified with in South Africa Southern Africa the first viewer here we did the same thing and enough that we didn't so that part was different why did we come to America ask myself that quad relief Rhodesia was the right thing to do you ask that question all the time it just wasn't right I don't know I got friends who stayed on in Rhodesia who went on to South Africa who've lived phenomenal
lives okay from a financial standpoint then you say well what's your criteria what's your motivation or my motivation my kids are my family right would my kids so they're having a great time in South Africa they've very rich they're doing very well but their kids are Europe and they see them once a year okay I live in Plano my wife and I live in Plano I have one son who lives in Frisco and once under listen to us well okay those are the two boys that we had those are my family okay this one has four boys so we have four grandchild grandsons okay this
one has couldn't have she couldn't have so my son and his wife adopted cheers after doctor she fell pregnant and my week that's what's being here's all about you know that family unity that we have and we share it we as I said again we shall not not as we share the the we just share everything that we've ever had shedding a lot of tears lately with with mom dad and my brother Posse and all that but you know again at the end of the day the family that we have we're very you know at one point there was twenty nine of us in Dallas
okay my side cost my father who come here in number of different times but with all I mean there was one thing about us we were all gone very well and he in him you know when that dinner put like Thanksgiving and for business wise would be there you know type thing and all their kids so we had hot brother officers there's all again it was they would we had to make our way that in Israel I felt that we were looked after to a large degree when we got to America big difference in America you have enough opportunity to make it happen intelligently if
you have the right value systems you can get a long way so I have once I have one son this one in Louisville who's a police officer he's been a peace officer for nine years now he was the one who was born that said he'd be in Israel and Israel army st. became a copier my oldest son is is with a company called busybody the fitness people he's a pawn owner of the company now he might read it because there was there was all South Africans in there on that at one point and then went River passed away carry the son and the mom and Craig basically took over the company my son together with them so very successful in very strong nucleus of friends from work and from not lots of him I think I've got one South African friend who's been here 40 years so really yeah he was born in South Africa but he was 10
when he arrived here you know what are you doing professional I work for a chemical philosoph we have a major manufacturing company and I am in charge of worldwide in most of my peers because we arrived in our city but yeah I just turned 60 and good more years to work but again it's um it's just fascinating how you know you yeah the first teams we didn't really Southfork South for you go to Billy York but they'd open for worth now yes I on that part of the world and it's it's you know Texas took us in in a lot of Rabbi Elena Jeff Lena
was there was a rabbi and I went to chat with him and I just said can't afford to join the show I said but my sons are gonna be Walter and he looked he told you son and I said well Craig at that point was 10 off or 11 yeah it's kind of late but and we talked a little more he said I'll make it happen for you I need him to start dusting right now and he did he made it happen and then both my boys were going through through Penn Thoreau kidding of course you retire or at least they have that sure and
so it's been a beautiful ama will run you know the fact I can share I cook I travel extensively allows me to do have a pretty extensive bucket list so being able to go back to my point with Dad you know gain the Vilna no bitterness and seeing where he was born gain outfits while I was in that part of the world and walking through that just made some of the things that live come come come reality Israel of course was a walk through the Bible it was absolutely real the date see we went back there in May for the first time in 20 no
creators we went back to see the family what was there for the family so but again cousins and everything else and it's uh yeah it's been a long road I mean we've I believe we paid our dues in a lot of ways we've made again we made a lot of good friends we're very close a pitcher what she calls her opportunity all of a sudden she was doing this and she was you know riding a horse she was on the mountain skiing stuff that you and she said to mom you know just don't tell mom husband knows fine it was coasting but it was some
I'm very proud of my roots I'm very proud of my brain very proud to be a poor life in Africa I mean we had a tremendous upbringing but at the same time I'm very loyal and thankful to Israel for the five years and even more so to the last 30 in America in Dallas in fact I've never left Dallas and again that was by design you know many times I had off options to go to other jobs which probably would have got me on the fast track a lot quicker but I was not moving I was not leaving mom and dad I was not leaving
my brothers I'll not leave my sisters it just wasn't an option so we took that role of saying you know what I'll get there eventually it's not clogged long bad when it comes to Rosh Hashanah when it comes to Chanukah when it comes to pace up when it comes to Thanksgiving we're all there it's not a matter of saying yeah so my brother 12 years from the time you old aphrodesia to finally reunite in Dallas you know set everybody back here and pretty well with it very very well with story I think it the fact that it is all left a one you're leaving a
wonderful community yeah we were going to preciate the time that you've spent with us okay deed my pleasure absolutely my place I thanks so much you