Roy Greenberg
Roy Greenberg grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, where his family had deep roots. Three of his grandparents came from England, two from the Sunderland area, while one grandparent was born in South Africa. His father, one of three brothers, served in the army during the Second World War and afterward started a wholesale business with his father and brother in 1946. Roy's mother grew up in Durban and later joined the family business. Roy attended King David school and then a boys' high school, went to university, and qualified as a chartered accountant. He and his wife Gillian met on a flight to Israel and married soon after he qualified.
Seeing limited long-term prospects in South Africa, Roy decided to come to the United States, using an MBA as the mechanism to establish himself. He was accepted at Northwestern University near Chicago, and the couple left South Africa around September 1983. After completing his degree, he moved to Dallas in 1985 to join his cousin Mel in the commercial real estate business. Gillian was pregnant with their first child when they arrived. They began building the business in a difficult market that soon crashed, but they persevered, forming partnerships and gradually acquiring properties to establish long-term stability. Over the years the business grew and the family put down roots in Dallas.
Jewish life and tradition were central to Roy, shaped by his traditional upbringing in South Africa. He was determined to send his two sons to Jewish day school and kept them at Schechter, later Levine Academy, serving on its board and executive board for more than 20 years and continuing on committees afterward. He and Gillian have been members of Shearith Israel since arriving in Dallas in 1985. Roy reflects fondly on his outdoor South African childhood and laments how family traditions can fade as children grow. Over time much of his extended family, including his cousin and partner Mel and other relatives, immigrated to Dallas. Roy remains deeply grateful for his decision to come to America.
Full Transcript
hi Roy I'm John Bray Martin lenitra Kusum is helping me and today is November the 4th 2015 we are very happy to be interviewing you in your beautiful new offices they've been at Roy let's talk about your life in South Africa where you came from where your family originally came from before they immigrant we had before the immigration to South Africa and what you can share about their lives and early years in South Africa well my grandparents three of my grandparents came from the England from England two of them were from the Sunderland area I don't know when the third one was but I know
that they they came from England my one other grandparent was born in South Africa rising South Africa they met they I grew up in can we go back a generation your grandparents from England where did their family originally appearance African grandparent any idea where they can do okay okay and tell us a little bit about your own life growing up in South Africa where you lived and your family and your schooling and just any particular memory so I grew up in Jonas burg we stopped a finger inside mute as a baby - Emma Ranger spent virtually my whole life in America went to King David
until ten and five and then moved to pop down boys went to high school in popped em boys then went to university words that they become and that my accountancy qualified as a chartered accountants and soon after we qualified got married when you're living in Upper Halton and within the you've been married live to come to the United States so tell us who you married how you met my wife's maiden name is Gillian - she was from the emerita area how we met was a plane to Israel mother mom mother used to go to the same hairdresser we had met before their time period yeah
the roommate is there I said that I couldn't see the movie on the plane and I wanted to move next to hers I could see the movie and she tells me that I fell asleep during that's right that's how we got married and living in South Africa and when and how did you make a decision to leave South Africa what prompted it so I I was doing accountancy and my family was the family business they started 90 [Music] something started in 1960 1964 no the business started in 1946 right after the Second World War my father suit even read in the army and he's with
any fortieth of the Second World War for a couple of years came back to do what you do say he started this wholesale business with his father his brother so forties for the family business my parents used to travel three months a year okay and they would go one trip to the east one trip to Europe and one trip to the States looking forward to last to bring back to South Africa and sell the merchandise so I told him I was always interested in coming to still be a in the States so our honest thing to buy some books in the States on one of
their trips there and they brought back this nice thick book about MBAs and different programs in the US and I looked at it and it says these are the top ten schools in the US so I said all right I'm gonna plot a bunch of these schools I knew nothing about them and when did they me accepted me and that was the basis on which I came to the site do you remember what year that was that was when I decided that it was like 1981 when we left for South Africa when we leave South Africa it was like September of 83 I took my
wife and she'd never been at the country other than to Israel she had never been out of the country so well this was a major culture shock to her too we first stopped on the way to London and into the States stated that she was leaving she lived a young age 22 but was your decision to come here and do an MBA or to come here and not go back the decision was to come to the states and the MBA was the mechanism to try and get your foot into me into the door into the into the states you know I've heard many times that
the CPA you better off doing an MBA and enhancing your education then trying to get qualified as a CPA in the state so that's the rafter that chose rather than kind of do the conversion to a CPA and what was your fabulous reaction to this decision thank courage my parents were very encouraged about that they they didn't see a long-term future in South Africa as much as they didn't want me to leave South Africa they knew it was the right move for the long term so that airport scene was something you probably remember her saying about your parents have you ever seen either fotolia's said
my parents traveled a lot so in the beginning years they were able to come here Joe's parents on the other hand it wasn't as easy for them unfortunately mother soon after we got here got cancer she died as a young lady she died at age 51 so it was a lot more difficult for so where did you go to do your MBA and have it to beat to death after so I went to Northwestern new Chicago speak two years we basically got the in just in time to go to school me interesting enough my plan was school was starting on Monday they didn't have any
housing for us I was going to arrive on fry they found a house on fry they rental apartment and start school on Monday fortunately good luck happened and right before we about they said they found some student housing for us in the in the remarried complex that housed MBA students we but basically did not even be a graduated on the first day left Chicago on a Friday and started work here on Monday my cousin Mel had what was in Venice and we decided that we want to try and Road there with commercial real estate business and being a push student that there stage it was
like let's get to work so move down to Dallas was at that stage a visa it means spent a good couple of years converting to permanent status so have you visit to Dallas before you came in here I've been down to Dallas once for apartments were down here but Debbie signature and I was totally committed to staying in the state so wherever the job took me that's where I was going because we were cool attitude staying in the states and did you have children but it was Daniel born was pregnant we arrived genjou and what were your first impressions arriving in Dallas and did you
have any challenges adjusting to laughs yeah I mean Jill was pregnant you know a new baby on the way I mean there's always challenges I mean the biggest challenge obviously is that you starting afresh quite honestly we almost came with our suitcases and very little else but you you starting with a clean slate as far as Denis was concerned it was a very welcoming city and the fact that it was suburban for my wife was very important and I think that transition was was critical to her adjusting to Dallas you know for us minus 30 degree search all right so you came here and you
went into the commercial real estate business and what tell us about your work beautiful new offices so basically we started in 95 the market in Dallas had just about Pete it totally crashed for the next four years so we were we came about as bad a time as you can come in terms of a real estate cycle but we persevered with what we had my name's Deere was very challenging to try and get established send your kids I mean one of my goals when I came to the States was to send my kids to a Jewish day school so I was going to do whatever
it takes to make sure they stayed at Schecter during those days and but it was very very challenging fortunately we stayed the course about the end of nineteen the 1989 beginning in 1990 we started to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel that things were what hopefully was starting to change because the third prong were we had this major real estate collapse where the FDR crtc savings and loan crisis basically and the audence properties and we started to in the beginning to acquire real estate with a view to building long term stability real estate restore unfortunately a very dirty word
even circles I mean I opened many doors and the door was slammed in your face because people just said I've been hurt by real estate I have no interest a lot of the deals in the beginning we needed pop we need a fairly substantial partners and it was difficult for us to do everything ourselves because we didn't have that we were thought to to put the equity into the business so we we form some partnerships to get the business going and then touch withers that's grown over the years good so tell us about the Dallas Jewish community how it compared to your experience in South
Africa even though you were young when you left and you didn't have a family and you already said your children went to Jewish the Jewish day school and your involvement in Jewish life from Dennis basically so basically as us because of my breakdown and the one thing that there are ways think back to he is in South Africa even though we would religious per se as a family we were very traditional you observed all the Jewish holidays what a fine sharing jealous of my experience over the years is that the Dennis Jewish community is not as conscious of the Jewish traditions and that's why with
mark background from South Africa I was really very strong about sending the kids to the Jewish high school to continue we're not really I wouldn't classify our family as religious but that certainly said that we traditional in observing the Jewish traditions and so I found that there was a bit of a challenge for us even we you know socialized the miracles they didn't seem to have that same commitment we were men we managed when the kids were younger to control it more but as they got to high school and sports and other activities seem to you know interfere with Friday not Shabbat so as as
we were growing up and the kids were as the kids look right now and they were young you know we were very diligent about having Friday not Shabbat and the stopper thing but as the kids got older they they tended to get more simulate and I find that to be one of the challenges with Jewish life in tennis today that it's becoming more and more difficult to maintain those traditions so I messed out what way have you been involved in the Dallas Jewish community so because of my involvement in the school I've been fairly active solar sector now Levine Academy I was board and executive
board for well over 20 years after your children left interesting well my children graduated in like 2001 and I think I officially retired in 2014 so it was a number of years I still serve on some of the committees at Levine Sheriff what we've been a member since ever since we arrived in Dallas which is 1985 I number of cases and I would like to add that Levine honored you and Gaynor event or your involvement they appreciate what you've done so Roy you talk about the Shabbat and the Jewish holidays so would you say you you've maintained all those South African cultural traditions and we
trying to do that and what do you see your children continuing to follow in those are they as aware of those traditions as you as you are you know unfortunately John honestly not as much as I'd like you to be well for me to a large degree is that as the kids go off to college and they move away from home okay and they don't I mean that's some of the negatives of life in America your kids leave the city where you are they go to a new city and they lose those family traditions to some degree and that's some of the challenges that we
struggle with all the time right how important was Israel to you growing up in South Africa well Israel was always important I mean as I say my parents Joe's parents everyone wanted to to go to Israel was always part the way I say is if someone was in South Africa who are you whether you said I'm Jewish if someone asked you the merit of whether you you say I'm American I think that puts it in perspective of what how we grew up in South Africa so once you were here did you have any other friends or extended family join you anybody come here from the
family well initially Melanie of all my cousins yeah yeah a period of time Mel's sister well first Ryan who's my partner in the using the real estate business with us and who we started a second real estate company with move down after he did his MBA he moved down to Dallas then he's sister came to Dallas and then the brother came to death in ultimately the parents came to so the family has grown a little bit over a period of time from my immediate family all from Joe's immediate fairly me they so you still have family there I still have a brother and you talk
about two children you have how old are they now and where do they live so I my oldest is 30 he's married he married a girl from Dallas and they live in Dallas and he actually works in the real estate business with us my youngest is 28 he left Dennis when he went to college he's lived on the East Coast for 10 years okay so what if anything do you miss about life in South Africa and I know you've been back recently well just we what the things that I miss about life in South Africa is when we grew were growing up as kids okay
I think the only one I ever had in my house for us be home for dinner at 6:30 okay so you go to school you would come home okay you would get on your walk and go to the sports field and there was a pickup soccer game there was a pickup cricket game there was a pickup right weekend you spent your life outdoors unfortunately as much as you like the and your kids you'd like your kids to enjoy the outdoors it's just not that openness that we grew up with in South Africa so I really missed that mistake for for my kids that they didn't
you know I don't remember if you remember the first time we ever saw TV I was 17 years old so we wouldn't know what TV meant you had to find other ways of entertaining yourself okay and so you know it was just a way of laughs today the kids are my kids everyone's kids you know they grow up with TV you that's how they entertain themselves oh I wish they would spend for this more time on computer and TV and more time just outside being kids so really bottom line is we grew up just being kids unfortunately today sometimes I wish the kids would just
learn being kids playing with sand and eat rocks and do all the good things that we did so you converted your your student visa into citizenship I presume you're a citizen yeah when we did that you had to give up yours so their frickin citizenship so we have no choice right and in retrospect are you glad you came here and why absolutely because at the end of the day the reason that you came here was because you didn't see a long time long term future in South Africa and I've been back the number of times over the last 10 to 15 years and I continued
every time I'd get on a plane to come back to the states I say thank God I moved when I moved and I keep on saying to my family in South Africa I sure hope you courage in your kids to immigrate from South Africa because as as much as we had a wonderful childhood in South Africa South Africa today is not what said I think the wars well is anything we didn't cover that you would like to add we all here because we really believe in in America and the future that America was came to offer us and hopefully offers our children well tell us
a little but you didn't really talk about your parents other than then business-wise and your siblings want to tell us a little bit about them well yeah sure my mother was grew up in Durban okay she she was an only child and my father originally was from standardin he had two brothers as I say he served in the Army as a sailor India he came back he started the business my mother joined him even the business they worked together for a number of years my mother basically passed away in 1997 she was 67 years old had colon cancer my father continued in the business the
nature of the business changed substantially over the years they were basically using the wholesale business most businesses didn't eat wholesale businesses so he started the business in 1946 he worked until age 91 he used to go in every single day then he recently stopped with you was because they closed their business he was a very interesting man he had maybe 20% hearing never owned a cell phone and they were under compute in his life because he was so hard of him you know he was of that era when computers were challenging to their era but he left on his own he lived on his own
Anthony he passed away recently and he was 96 swing just 96 and a half when he passed away we we lived a very nice middle-class life you know travel quite a bit with a family around severe freak just a great great childhood unfortunately for my parents I said I had one brother I had two brothers my oldest brother got Hodgkins when he was 10 years old and he passed away when he was 18 so for eight years we could go around and if he had there today it was all right thank you appreciate that thanks for doing this right tell me a little more about
your family cousins and your fathers brothers etc so my father was one of three brothers the oldest brother Jack had three children Jack and his wife and the three children they had hope to the family emigrated to Canada both my uncle and aunt have passed away but they all saw the famous stone and their children the great room all the view toward the middle brother Fred he's he stayed in he's three children oh now immigrated to the States Melvin my cousin and partner for 30 years lives in Dallas his sister Janet her husband and the three children all the Denis and my youngest brother Derek
his two children live in New York and his youngest his little son lives in South Africa and Derek's also in South Africa Derek lives in New York he's just recently become a citizen and made the decision to him a great so that and Derek Jeanette and Mel's mom interesting story she moved to Dallas when she was probably in her late 80s and she stayed here in Live Chat for the last five or seven years they brought a year for vacation one day and forgot to tell her that she wasn't going back to South Africa yeah and she stayed your Peruvian and actually made the most
wonderful adjustment to my new Delos really you joyed lost five eight years in there so that's the relief my dad in his siblings my my mother side her parents passed on basically before I came to the States her mom had a brother who stayed in South Africa and as I said previously my brother my wife's brother still remains to this day okay so you have a nice big Greenberg family growing and that's a nice support that the Jewish for other days it matters not see about the Jewish other days we still get together for the as a family and trying to continue their tradition very
lucky okay thank you you