Theodore Neusbaum
Neusbaum was born in 1910 in a small German village that had once held a large Jewish population, with a synagogue, a mikveh, and a Jewish cemetery, though only seven Jewish families remained during his childhood. His family kept a kosher home and were conservative in their observance, often hosting Polish and Russian Jewish peddlers over Shabbos when there were not enough men for a minyan. His father was a cattle dealer, and his brother Max worked in the business. A goalkeeper on a regional soccer team, Teddy was celebrated when his team won a championship, but after a Hitler speech reached his area, his neighbors began to shun him. Realizing there was no future for a German Jew, he resolved to leave the country his family had lived in since the 1600s.
Neusbaum applied for and received a visa, departing from Bremen and arriving in New York City, where he went to live with his mother's brother. He worked in a delicatessen restaurant by day and attended school at night until illness forced him to stop. With his uncle he expanded the delicatessen in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, adding a dining room and a bar to create a large business known as the Unity Restaurant, across from the Unity Club. He later moved into catering, serving clients such as the Brooklyn Medical Society and events for the UJA. Working through a sympathetic bank manager who lent him the funds needed to show support, he obtained visas that brought his parents, brothers, sisters, and other relatives to America, including his stubborn brother Max, who narrowly escaped arrest.
Neusbaum married Dorothy, whom he met in the store, in a civil ceremony after she chose not to convert, and they raised their son Paul, who chose to become Jewish and later went through the mikvah before his bar mitzvah, and another son who had a bar mitzvah at a Reform temple. Teddy served in the Army during the war. Though he described himself as not the most observant Jew, he joined and supported synagogues once he understood their needs, and after retiring to Tamarac, Florida, he became a founder of a local synagogue. Later living in a Jewish retirement community, he continued attending services and Seders and remained active on the bima. Reflecting on assimilation, antisemitism, and his family's mixed marriages, he affirmed that he would always be a Jew and hoped his children would remember they are Jewish too.
Full Transcript
According to his father, your name, sir? Yeah, Teddy. Teddy, Miss Baum. And tell us about your growing up and the city you were from in Germany. I was in the city. I was born in a village. Small village. But once upon a time it must have been, must have had a great Jewish population. Of course we had our synagogue, there was a mikveh, and a cemetery. A Jewish cemetery, which you don't have in every village. So there must have been at one time a great amount of Jews living there. When I lived there, there were only seven families left. And I went to school, to high school, in a town called Schlichten, which is about three-quarters of an hour from where I was born.
I played soccer. I belonged to the, what would you call it, the Christ, the whole area. I was a goalkeeper. In the year, we won the championship. And I was the only one from my high school. that belonged to that team. So they honored me and closed the school for a day, because I put that school on the map. And that was in 1925, beginning of 26. Hitler already had I made his speech in 23, but he didn't sink in. Certainly not as fast as the Jews were concerned But in 26 right after I was honored by the school he made a speech in our area.
I think it was in Frankfurt, I mind. And today, everybody looked up at me, and the next day they avoided me. Why? There could only be one reason. Because I was a Jew and for the first time they looked at me not as a German but as a Jew. And I used to say to myself how can it be Germany the land of the culture how can anybody listen to this? but the more contact I had with people the more I realized they wanted to absent themselves from me so you see it was always in the back of their mind every German People just couldn't understand that they would let something like that go on.
But I said, if they can do that to me, they're certainly going to do it to everybody else. And then what happened? When I came home from school that day, something special must have happened. Somebody must have made a remark. I said to my mother and father, I'm going to America. What for? You know, look at what's going on. They're wonderful. They're doing good. There is no future for a German Jew. What is your statement? Go ahead. Well naturally they didn believe it because since the year 1600 somebody in our family lived in the same town But I just had that gut feeling No way did I stay in Germany I, who considered myself a German, before I considered myself a Jew, realized in their eyes I was a Jew, not a German.
And believe it or not, after a while I felt the same way. I said, I'm Jewish, I'm not German. There's a difference. I never realized that. I was only a kid. My friends were all non-Jews. And I was reading like just one of them. And that day I realized I'm not like them. I'm not the same. And things were getting... So that I figured... I just can't explain. that I did not feel right in Germany anymore. So I applied for a visa. I got the visa, and in 1926, I left Germany. I worked here in a delicatessen restaurant. And now things slowly came out how they treated the Jews in Germany.
Where did you land? Where did you leave from in Germany? In Germany I left from Bremen. And where did the boat come to? New York City. It was a port of entry? Okay. Port of entry. I did not go to Elisabeth. At that time they didn't go to Elisabeth. We were interviewed on the deck, I imagine. We were directly released to relatives. Did you have relatives Yes In fact my mother brother was here and I went to live with him I went to school at night and things weren't so good anymore in America. I didn't care as far as money. All I wanted is to be able to go to school at night.
I would have done in the daytime, but I had to work. I went to school at night, and a year later I got sick. And the doctor told me, I have to give up weight. Go and give up school, it's too much for you. You're trying too hard to fast. So I had to give up school. And I worked in the delicatessen. After a while, I worked with my uncle. We expanded the delicatessen and made a dining room on the next, took the next door. And when profession was left, we took the corner store and made a bar out of it. So we had a very big business.
Where was this in New York? Brooklyn. Bedford Stuyvesant and Bedford Avenue in Dean Street was called Grand Square. Opposite from our store was the Unity Club, probably the biggest Jewish club in Brooklyn. Our place was called the Unity Restaurant. is... Then, like I say, I worked, tried to learn English as good as I could. I spoke English to a certain extent, the school English that you learn. And then I was there to... Oh. I met my wife in the store. She was not huge. I had my, my mother always asked me, my mother and father, then they came over, they lived in New York City with my oldest sister.
Got an apartment for them. Her husband went to work. So my sister stayed home, took care of my father, and all the children, brothers and sisters, we worked and we put a certain amount towards my parents upkeep. So my mother always wanted to know, why don't you bring your girlfriend on the seat? Every Friday I went up to see her. So believe it or not, this girl used to introduce me to a Jewish girl, and I took her up. My mother was much too small. She says, I mean your girlfriend. So I brought my daughter, that's her name, I brought her up. My mother didn't speak English, she didn't speak German, but somehow, you know, they conversed with me, the interpreter.
I have to tell you a funny thing. On the way home, Dorothy is very quiet. She doesn't talk to me. So I said, what's wrong? And she says to me, if you think I would do what your mother did, forget about it. What did she do? She says, she put the milk in the coffee, she put the sugar in the coffee, she stirred the coffee up for you. I wouldn't do that. I didn't realize that. I was so used to this. The boys were taken care of in our family. So I left and says don worry about it You won have to do it But you know what After a while anyhow I said to my mother then, Mother, what do you think?
What would you think if I married Daddy? She says, you make your bet and you lie in it. I wouldn't tell you to marry her, I wouldn't tell you not to marry her, because you are going to marry her, and why should I be the bad one? Mother got us through and never came out again. She died the same day. That was about six months before we decided to get married. I spoke once to a rabbi. Not that I was going to be married by a rabbi. Because I didn't... I didn't feel... Unless she wanted to convert, she would convert. She really didn't believe in any religion.
So the rabbi says, well, you know, you should never postpone a happy occasion. We got married by a justice piece. A couple of months later, I lived in the Army. And when I came out, we lived in Brooklyn, we were still in the store, but it wasn't big I went into catering business. The first client I had was the Brooklyn Medical Society. Their building was two blocks away from my store. And at least once or twice a week they had a dinner for a different society search and GYN How is it you brought your brothers and sisters and your parents over? Well, there's a story in itself.
You've got to have a certain amount of money to get a visa. One day there was a manager of a bank on Fulton Street, a notes in there, and it used to be a customer. He says, dear Teddy, you're always so happy. What's going on? Something on your mind. I told him I'd like to bring my people over I need the money and I haven't got it not that I need it I have to show that there will not become a burden the next day he says to me I tell you what I do you have to have a copy of the deposit of the money that you happen to pay.
I did put money in but you can't touch it. And the strength of that every time I needed to put money in. So I used to get the visa but then the others already were established. Slowly, we got me, not all at once. And luckily, they were all here, including my mother and father, including some of my nieces and nephews by then already. And they all got jobs. They all worked, like I say, my mother stayed with my old assistant, and we each contribute a few dollars a week. You had said earlier, before we started taping, that one of your brothers felt it had been a daitya-shay, didn't want to come.
Well that was my oldest brother Yes I really didn know why he didn want to go but he said he was a volunteer in the German army He had a lot of medals. He considered himself a poor German. How were you able to convince him to come? What happened? He had no choice. By the way, he was the last one. One day, now this is only from what he told me. In what year? After he came here. No, yes, when did he leave Germany? 35, 36. I'm sorry, go ahead. it seems a couple of fellows came looking for him and went to the mayor of the town the burgomaster he says you got a Jew here we want you and this man was our we were friends from the beginning you know, we lived together.
In fact, he and I played soccer together. He says, you go and get a search permit or something, permit for the arrest, and I'll find it for you. So that night, in the meantime, my brother had hidden in his house. So he said to Max, you have to get out tonight. That's how he finally got out of the little town and I think he went to Hambrick. He and his wife, they had a child. I think it was one of the best ones to come up here. Had you already gotten them a visa? Oh, go ahead, I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. Naturally, I had a visa for them all.
And when they came here... They took whatever they took to get a job, no matter what. Most of my sisters went in the garment district and worked. My brother Max, he was in the cafeteria. He started out as a dishwasher. and he became a cook. I forgot to tell you, my parents, my father was a cattle handler, a cattle dealer, and my brother Max was with me. He was a business. And you know, then it came a time the German mark wasn't worth it anymore. So my brother Maxwell was not stupid. On Saturday night, I remember packing a suitcase with money, because today the dollar was worth a thousand marks, a million marks.
So we had that suitcase packed with money. he'd go to Eastern Europe, that a big farm store. He bought up beef, cattle, and he shipped it home, and he said to my father, give it to the farmers around there. Tell them they can use the milk and weigh them, and whatever poundage they gain, we'll pay them for them. So he was smart in that way. But my father says, as fast as my brother shipped the cattle in, he put it in the market and sold it. Which is not the smartest thing. He just thought differently. But anyhow, thank God, they're all here. Did you have a shul in your community before the 20s A shul A shul Or did you have to go to another No, that's what I told you.
There must have been, years ago, a big Jewish following in our little village. When you were still there? No, no, no. Had they left before then? Because there was a synagogue there. Aha. And there was a Jewish cemetery there. Yes. So there must have been a big Jewish community. But you said there were only seven families? Right by the time I was there there were only seven families. How come the people had left before then? Do you know? Not because they were Jews. They went to the cities. Ah. They didn't leave, you know, Germany. They went to cities, like my father's brother was the high school teacher.
He's another one who, me, he wouldn't leave. He and his oldest daughter wouldn't leave. And the only one of the immediate family that died in the concentration camp, because he was too stubborn. And again, I just couldn't understand, don't you see what's going on? Don't you know what's going on? And you know, there was quite a lot of assimilation already before, and they thought they were, you know, safe. There were no more safe than anybody else. At the beginning when Hitler started against the Jews, he didn't start against the German Jews. That's where the people were misled. He says the Russian and the Polish Jews came in after World War One and they took over were all the big business, they became the big businessmen, and believe it or not, German Jews supported them.
They were jealous of them. Like the Jews were jealous of, the Germans were jealous of the Jews the Jews were jealous of them And they couldn see it I was the smartest man but I sure knew something is not kosher yet Get out It luck with that They got a mullet And they were all over here, they got married. And another story I used to tell them, they used to say, you know, as far as the Jews are concerned, they got to thank Hitler. Because one more generation in Germany, and there wouldn't be any Jews. They'd be all assimilated. Reform Judaism started in Germany. And more and more, the Jews didn't want to be Jews, they wanted to be Germans.
Again, this is my way of thinking. that actually the German Jews would have been assimilated. They considered themselves so German that they almost like, say, hated the Polish and Russian Jews who came to Germany as peddlers. I never knew there was such a thing as Yiddish. When I heard them talk, and I said, they speak a bit German. And the most surprising thing, when I came to this country and I heard Yiddish, then I found out that there is such a thing as Yiddish, which is when the Spanish Inquisition, when they were driven out of Spain, when they traveled up towards France, Germany, Italy, how they got to Poland and Russia.
And somehow or other, German became the most predominant part of the Yiddish. And I thought they speak a bad German. I was surprised when they came here and this is about Yiddish. So you see, I always thought then, you know, I was German, I don't know. And what's the difference? You have the same thing here now. You have the in Israel and Palestine You know these rulers of the Palestinians they don want to educate their children They want to keep them, because they might ask questions. How come this little country all of a sudden becomes prosperous? They have money, they have industry. We have nothing.
Why? And they want to keep them down. I said that years ago. If these people would have educated their children to become, you know, to get into the 20th century or the 21st century, they wouldn't have that. They wanted to keep them down to them. Instead of teaching them to get into the modern world, they taught them how to keep the Jews. Let's go back to your early years in Germany when you were young. Had your family assimilated? Where were they? Were they traditional? Well, I would say conservative. We kept the kosher home. We went every Friday night and Saturday to the temple because, like I said, there were never enough people for a minion.
So many a times these Polish and Russian peddlers, they stayed over the weekend, over Shabbos. We had to put them up. It was the duty of a Jew never to let a Jew go home. They think they ate at the table with us. Like I say, if Hitler let the Jews alone, because the German Jew was as proud as the German and he wanted to be a German, they assimilated faster than anybody else. see Fulda. We belong to the Rabbi in Fulda who was The rabbi for the whole district. I tell you, when my mother got married, she refused to wear a shailh. And again, because my mother, you know, we were a little prominent in the area, the rabbi came to our house.
I didn't see him because my mother got married in 1896 I was born in 10 and he told my mother why don't you wear a shadow he says I don't believe in it you're supposed to wear a shadow to make yourself unattractive to other people she said I want to be attractive to my husband and then other people ok you were saying that your mother felt in a place. She didn't believe in her. She was religious in her way. But she think that was unnecessary. Believe it or not, that's the last time. It's not all, but 90% of the people, not just in that little town, but all in the area.
Because people went all around. So in Usbaum, it's not wear the shadow. They didn't wear them. So see, in a way she was a smartness. Like I said, when she said to me, you're going to marry her anyhow, so why should I say no? She was a very smart woman. I said, like, the only girl, the only one I had trouble with was my sister made her because she had a heart condition when they took her to Ellis Island. I went over and was to sign the same day that we came back with the boat. And another, it's like with everything else, not what you know, who you know.
The custom inspector on that boat was a mason. I became a Mason. He was the master of my lodge. So when I told him every time a group came he says make sure you be there And I be there and I sure that my group He says, okay, tell them to open. I have to inspect one bag, and then take the bag over there. And then he told me, they all brought, you remember these cameras, Leicas? Sure. They all had lycas and they said, tell them to take them all. You're not supposed to bring all that. One sister came in with all her furniture. That had to be, that was naturally like in a big van, which was brought to a bonded warehouse.
I don't know, stamps already inspected, which, after the bondage warehouse, all we had to do is go and get the stuff out. So we were lucky. America treated me pretty good. The only thing I, like I say, why were the Jews hated? Because there was always the industrious, and the other people are jealous, and jealousy is a terrible thing. As long as the economy is fine and everybody's working and has got money, they leave them alone. But as soon as something goes wrong, the Jew became the scapegoat. I'm talking about modern times over here now. I don't think it'll ever change. As much as we think, like we thought that Germany was cured, right?
No, not yet. It's still there. It will always be there. All right. Let's come back to the United States and working in the delicatessen business. What happened after, in the 30s, and how did that go, and what was going on with your family? Like I said they all worked The girls worked in the Garmin District How was the observance When you got here how did they Well I was not the best Jew as far as religion was concerned You see, I went on Yom Kippur, and wanted to go to synagogue. Like I say, by then I was probably seventeen. Well, I didn't have a ticket and I couldn't go.
And they said, what are they doing? You know, I'm a Jew. Why can't I go into the house of worship? I didn't realize it cost money to run a synagogue. Once I realized it, believe it or not, I joined the synagogue synagogue, because I realized they had expenses. And when I retired, oh, let's put the first duty. When Paul was born, when Dali and I were married, I went in the army, didn't want any children till I came out at the service. When Paul was born, Dali and I Dali and I had talked about having children. How are we going to bring them up? I was not an observant Jew, and Dorothy didn't believe in religion that much.
She says, be good. That's all you do. He was, he went to public school and his, oh, I said, religion, the environment will bring out the religion. If by any chance all our friends become Christian and we hang out with them and he wants to be them because his friends are that fine. If, on the other hand, our friends happen to be Jewish, and his friends are Jewish, and he wants to be Jewish, we agreed. Well, he wasn't, we moved in with Mrs. Gross. That was the mother of Dottie girlfriend and she owned a house and we rented an apartment there And she became grandma gross.
And on Pesach we were up there, the kids had their wine and fell asleep while the rest of us. So, now he wants to go to Hebrew school, because he's got to go in order to be bar mitzvah. So I took him. I came home from work that night and told him, I said, you just started English. You know, learn English. We'll see maybe next year. I figure by then the year was over, I got to go to Hebrew school because I got to go five years before I could come back. I said to him, I said, you know, once you start, there's no back and out, you go five days and you got to go Saturday morning to Shul, because that was a very religious temple.
wants to go because his friends are. So I said to her, I said, go register. She registers him. And it so happens the rabbi was there. And he said, Mrs. Nussbaum, are you Jewish? She says, no, but my husband is. He says, well, let me talk about it. She couldn't register. And he came home, he wants to know why he can't go. He says, no, don't worry about it. And he passed over. I happened to, at that time, catering business, catered for the UJA whenever they had their dinners. The head of this particular group, his brother was Silvan. District Attorney in New York. So what happens?
I told him, you know, that they wouldn't take my son. One day I get a call from the rabbi. He wants to see me. What do you want to see me about? He says to me, who are you? When you're talking about me. He says, I had more phone calls than I ever want to have again, bawling me out. I should be proud if somebody wants to become a Jew, not to stand in his way. He says, tell your wife to bring, oh no, I want to come to your house. I says, Rabbi, if my wife wanted to be converted out of her own free will, she would have done it years ago.
To convert a full room, you do me a favor, that doesn't make it Jewish. As far as I'm concerned, she's more Jewish than any of her friends who are all not Jews. But don't even ask it. Well, I won't ask. She asked me, she used to say, no. My husband didn't ask me. Well, anyhow, they took him. Did he go through the conversion process on his own? So, about three months before, I said, the rabbi called again. He would like to see me. And I went to see him, and I says, before you say anything, you have my permission to take me to the mikvah.
How did you know? I said, I didn't like that, rabbi. I said, because I told him once, you know, You know, you say, God move over, I'm here. I said you have been a mensch And he said I take him in but before he he gets a Mitzvah I have to take him to a Mikva So, he says, you have my permission. He wanted to be Jewish, let him be Jewish. So he went to the Mikva. He became a Jew. He had, there were three boys that were by Mitsubishi, that day, weren't they? You were by Mitsubishi, do you remember? One of them was the son of the president of the Shun.
Well, anyhow. One of them was now a congressman from one side of the bat and a friend of the bat. Oh, really? Yeah. If you were four, Jerry and his twin brother, and then this fellow, he did. Four or three. I thought it was four. Four of us all together. He was the last one, you know. That's like in Sing Sing, the strongest one. They had four bar mitzvahs in the same morning? In the same day, yeah. And it was hot. There was no air conditioning in that temple. But naturally before he gets called, I get called to the Torah for the breakfast. and he hands me lead, and I folded it, and I gave it back to him, because I knew it.
And he got told me. I always said he was an actor. So after it's over, the wrap thing, the president made a speech. He says, maybe the first three put you to sleep, but the fourth one will give up. Which is wrong as it can be. That night he was not present anymore. So my other one, oh yes, we said, we give the first one the choice. He wants to be a Jew or wants to be this. If we have more children, they follow. Peter couldn't care less. His only remark was, if I can have a Mitzvah and get the presents, do I go on to the temple, is that all right?
No So I took him to a reform temple in Brooklyn I told a rabbi Rabbi Suskin one of the finest men that I've ever met, told him the story. He says, I'll be only to proud to have him join us. He was a mitzvah in a little moment. Did he go to the Miksvah? No. He didn't have to. He's actually, according to the old tradition, he's not Jewish. But today, they say it doesn't matter. If the father's Jewish, the mother is not Jewish, whatever they want to be, as long as one of them is Jewish. See, they change. What year was that? What year? When my brother was bar mitzvah.
Well, when you were bar mitzvah and your brother both did. I was bar mitzvah in 1960, and he had 1965. Okay. I don't remember the dates. That's okay, you're entitled. Okay, 65, yes. Okay. And he not only had a... The day after the Ibar Mitzvah was the end of the shoot for them, you know. The other one had to go two more years for graduation. What about today now? Where does the other one go? The other one went to the... That's Emmet was the Reformed Temple in Brooklyn, one of the... The nicest temples you want to. And you also go to the temple? Or do you?
I think he's more Jewish now than he was at the moment. And Christmas, we always, you know, we had a menorah, and we also had a Christmas tree, because like I say, I respected my wife, you know. What about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? There's another story, a very funny story. I told you I was in the catering business. Yes. I took a job. It was for the veterans of foreign wars that were having an installation and in a dance. And I booked it six months in advance maybe even more And I go to my book and I see it Yom Kippur We don't have to work on Yom Kippur-eef, you know.
So I went to them and I said, I made a mistake, I can't even see if you get somebody else. Well, you know, there were thousands of people. It's not so easy to put together. I didn't ever take it to a temple anymore. I cared. When I came home that night, my wife says, you better speak to your oldest one. because he said, how come my father isn't here to take me to Shule to be honest? So I said, all right, I'll talk to him in a moment. I said, Paul, I'm sorry. I couldn't take you to Shule. I had, you know, took a contract and I couldn't get out of it.
He says, oh, that's all right, Daddy. I says, whatever your father does is all right as far as you're concerned. I remember that. I said, but you said to your mother, oh, I know why. I says, what do you know? Naturally, right away we figured. Now comes the ending. I know, Daddy, you were born in Germany. Do you remember those things? You said to me, I know, Daddy, you were born in Germany. He didn't connect that time, you know, that he be a Jew born in Germany. So like I say, when I moved to, when we retired, we moved to Tamarac. Of course also just being built, and you know, when three Jews get together, now when two Get together, they built a synagogue.
When three Jews get together, they built another one because they couldn't agree on it. We built a synagogue and I was one of the founders of the synagogue. If I found this, I gave it. And I was there until I moved to the retirement home. And I couldn't drive at night anymore and I couldn't go to the synagogue. We are now being taken to the synagogue from a place, but they wouldn't take us through Tamarai. Where are you now? The Sunrise Jewish Temple. And where is that location? From... From where you live? Where do you live now? minutes from their retirement. It's also... It's not orthodox.
It's not reform. It's something in between. Conservative, maybe? More or less? conservative and it's a lovely conservative and whereas because we drive on Friday night they all drive on Friday night you know the host and the whole show less for one hour but before that we went to Temple Emmanuel that's a We liked very much there. We had a good rabbi and a good chasen there. But the chasen gave a concert, and we asked our place to give us a bus to take us there. We would buy tickets because it's ten dollars for tickets, and we would, you know, to show our gratitude to the temple.
Also, every Friday night when I went to the temple, because it's reform, you know, you can handle the money, I put a dollar or two and it's a dollar. Well they couldn give us a temple They couldn give us a bus stop They wouldn give us a bus And we were stupid You know when you get old there were only two men mostly women We could have lied about them We just didn't think. We didn't go. And the rabbi was very upset, and he called us Schnurr's. So then the home of the year, they wouldn't give a bus on a Friday night to take us there.
They took us to a different synagogue. Where we are going now, they more than welcome us because the attendance is not too great. On Yom Kippur, on Rosh Hashanah, we have a rabbi, we have a synagogue, we built like a bima, we have a Taurus there. And all of a sudden I became very busy, you know, and I met the rabbi on the bima. Maybe it's because I have a few more senses than the others to get, you know, to get my own. Is this near Tamarack still? Yes, it's in Tamarack. It's in Inverary Boulevard. It's in Inverary. It's within 10 minutes, the whole area is within 10 minutes.
We have Pesah, we have a rabbi come in, and if he can read Hebrew, each one who volunteers gets something to read, either in English or in Hebrew. And this is at the Seder? Now this is at the Seder you're talking about? Yes, they have Seder. Saturday night and Sunday night. Yes, this year it's a... Every year. And they have a rabbi who comes on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, he also conducts the seders there. He's a retired rabbi. He makes a few extra dollars and he comes, you know. And I tell you on Pesach Yes want you to make tables of ten and twelve not two people They want it more like a Seder, like a family.
Now, I'm here the first night of Seder, but I'm flying back the next morning. So I'm only going to be there for the second night. And the girl that takes care of me said to me, what are you going to do? I said, I don't know if I get back in time for the second night because I'm going to Dallas. So I'll be back. You can have me for Rosh Hashanah. I get a call from the office. And I told some of my friends, we will be back. Hopefully we will be back the second night and we will sit with them on the table. She calls up and says, Mr.
Nussbaum, I have you on the second night, but I don't have you on the first night. Why aren't you here? They try very hard. Is this a Jewish older residence? Well, it's a non-religious, but it's 99%. It's a beautiful place, 78 acres. Naturally, I didn't want to go there. I didn't. I owned my house. But when I had the third heart attack, and they had to bring me back, and Paul and my wife said, no more. They can't handle it. That's when they put me in their home. They're scared. They're concerned. Yes, yes, he's one in a million. He is one in a million I have a son married an Italian girl I tell you His grandson married He Jewish She that the mother is not Jewish.
This is the next family. He was married Jewish. He has two boys. But the daughter, which was from the second wife, is not Jewish. In fact, they're coming to them. So, when his mother was very upset, the mother of his first wife. And Ross, that's his name, and Heather, when they called me up, he says, My mother gives me a lot of trouble, alienates Heather and her parents. It's up to you. You can be a good human no matter what you do. So they had a marriage which upset the family, including me. Her mother is very strong with it. And my granddaughter, my daughter-in-law, the mother of the boy, is also strong with But that doesn't help the children.
Let them find their own. So, it's the first time I saw him since the wedding. It's the first time you've seen Paul? No, no. brother? Grandsons, parents, granddaughters. Like I say, he has two boys and his first wife are Jewish and this one is five plus. I think we all have to give a little. As far as I'm concerned, I always will be a Jew. And I certainly want my children to remember they are Jewish. The only thing when you're Jewish and you start giving to an organization, It doesn't end. It just doesn't end. When you're retired, you know. But I suppose they sell that list.
Now, I'll tell you about my wife. When we got married, we moved in that area.