September 22, 1983

William Soltes

William Soltes was born in Austria-Hungary, the youngest of twelve children. He was about five years old when his mother brought several of the children to join his father, who had emigrated to New York in 1897 to escape a country he felt offered no proper schooling for his family. Soltes attended a yeshiva on Henry Street until age ten, then combined public school with evening Jewish study, leaving school around thirteen to work and help support his parents and to allow his brother Mordecai to pursue an education. His family scattered over the years, with siblings living remarkably long lives, and his mother later settled in the Catskills, where he visited her shortly before her death.

In 1916, at age 21 and just after voting for Woodrow Wilson, Soltes traveled three days and nights by train to Dallas, where his sister Jenny Ketch and her husband met him at the Union Depot. He first worked for his brother-in-law at the American Junk Company. In 1917 he volunteered for the Army, serving in the field artillery at Fort Bliss and enduring hearing loss from the guns, but because of his Austrian birth he was not sent overseas and was honorably discharged in 1918. He then worked in the junk business in Wichita Falls, later buying a half interest in a store on Elm Street, which he eventually took over fully and ran until 1946. Afterward he spent 34 years in the federal bonding business, becoming well known to Dallas judges, before retiring at age 80 and dealing in property.

In March 1921, Soltes married Sarah, keeping a strictly kosher home during their sixty years together, and they raised two sons who earned advanced degrees, one becoming a physics professor and the other a physician trained at Harvard. He joined Tiferet Israel in 1921, serving many years including as an officer, and was among the organizers of the Hebrew Free Loan society in 1934. Known for lending money without interest and for aiding those in need, he saw charity as central to his faith. He gave generously to his congregation's Hebrew school in his wife's memory and often spoke out to defend synagogue employees and traditional practice, remaining active in Jewish life throughout his long years in Dallas.

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