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you seen the Jewish community in Dallas grow I think it's vibrant and i think it's it's very good i'm very pleased with what i see i am i'm very Jewish i I'm into all sorts of Jewish things I raise money for the Federation etc etc etc and I'm looking and just like today when I pulled into the parking lot it's filled because they're having maccabi here you know and I didn't know what it was but I asked somebody and I'm very very positive feeling and it's one of the reasons I'm glad I'm here you know is there an organization in particular that in particular that
you're really Federation for Asians I'm very active in Federation what are some of the goals of the Federation to create more Jewish lives and of course to raise money for Israel and to appoint people who don't know about Israel about Israel I mean there I think it's really the best umbrella organization and i'm always sad to hear people who are anti-federation I I think it's stupid they they're they're the ones that are researching and giving the money in the right places and I think they do a heck of a job hoid zona 1939 San Antonio Texas let's go back when you're a little girl what
would I remember my grandfather was a husband and what I remember is when I was five years old I was the first grandchild and of course he adored me and I remember going into the synagogue on quincy main and quincy in running up on the pulpit and sitting in his lap he died when I was five so must have been right before he died I was fortunate enough to know all four of my grandparents my grandfather on my mother's side had a store a corset restore in 68th and stony island in Chicago and he was right by the st. Valentine say massacre while members he remembers that he remembered the day and you know spoke spoke to me about it what did he tell you about that he said it was awful it was just awful and in his store was right New there and my grandmother worked in the store with him and my mother my mother told me this story is she was the youngest of three children and of course they had to take her to the store all the time all my grandparents my grandparents from Chicago moved to San Antonio and in the 40s do you know why that was my mother was there
and they want to be with my mother and us and he had he was you know retiring and sold his business he had he had set my uncle's up in business and then left Chicago it was cold in the winter time oh yeah and San Antonio was beautiful my father sold insurance he would hit his own company it was called be Cantor and son that was my grandfather's name and then my father went in with him it was always called decanter and son I really wanted to tell how my grandfather got to san antonio they had come to chicago in fact in a book there's
a picture of my great-grandfather's tobacco store in chicago on the west sides I Rabinowitz tobacco company my grandfather came from Russia he was the youngest of a large family and his sister who was the next to him and by the way she has relatives here in Dallas too we had married a man by the name of Harry Sugarman her name was Eva and he promised her that when she had the first child if it was a boy that he would come down and perform at the bris not to be the moyel but to be the husband to sing and sure enough she had a boy
and he came down and took brought my father it was in the early 1900s and it was so beautiful in January in San Antonio and they were wearing straw hats and and my grandfather just thought that was wonderful and they offered him a job at the synagogue to be the husband so my grandmother was pregnant with the second one she subsequently had four sons also as soon as she had the baby they they moved to San Antonio but you know at that time zone and were not paid very much and so my that's how my grandfather opened up the insurance business because he could be
open five days a week and be closed on shabbos and the Jewish holidays my father was president of the COA in 1945 people were not Zionists at that time my dad was already present very very involved with synagogues and in everything what did you do for fun is a kid we used to play cards go on hikes and would do something with Jewish hands I was always very Jewish Lee involved had fun I had a very nice childhood growing up there wasn't a whole lot of money but it was fun but how did the Depression affect your family my dad never did get over the
depression as far as taking risks he had a lot of good clients that offered him my mother used to be very upset with him because they offered him what she considered will good deals he would never do it he had moose card from the depression he grew up I remember him telling me once his shoes were too small he ripped his shoes because he wanted some new ones and my grandfather was so upset with him he made him wear the shoes so we always had very good shoes yeah because he had terrible feet from that yeah now the world war to affect your family at
all I remember the rationing sams my grandfather subsequent my grandfather on my other side am I on the brown side opened up ladies ready-to-wear storages schmotzer dresses you know that kind of thing I remember on the weight of this to the store to see my grandfather stopping at the grocery store and my mother using it using the rationing stamps and also I remember her going to the meat market and watching the show could kill the animals siling the chickens and stuff I was standing there and you know what watch him I was very perceptive when I was a kid I used to listen and look
a lot I I saw a lot where's you in high school thomas jefferson in san antonio thing what was high school life like for you well by that time I was in bbyo we had a very Jewish crowd you know there were there were that many Jewish people but I did grow up with a good number of them in fact one of my friends was Janis sweet Sally sweet Weinberg now just got married she and I grew up together and I had a lot of connections from bbyo we used to come here to Dallas into houston and Tulsa I knew people everywhere because I you
know and I was very active when you were a kid was there something like an amazing invention or something that you know that your folks really gravitated to her that they really went Wow my dad did tell me once that he thought the greatest invention that was the fax machine you know was before computer he said in his business especially that really you know help help him after high school was a college or was it good work I went to college but I only went for a short time because I met my husband the first week and so I went one semester and then I
was going to go back and finish and we were going to be married in that in this you know early summer when the semester ended very and my mother and father and I went to des moines and and I didn't know it but my mother had a thing and she said I want to meet this family i was young i was 18 i was 17 years old says I want to meet this family and usually the groom's come to go on the bride but she was going so who was a Des Moines though Barry's parents and his family so we went to des moines and
we had a very eventful trip the the snow started coming down and we were in at oak oklahoma and my father said to Barry who he didn't really know that well but listen my wife and daughter and I are stopping here we're not going on and of course Barry said it's fine and I'm experienced he says you can go if you want to we're not going so we got a train that compromise was we left the car and we got a train and we drove from a tote I mean we went rode the train to Kansas City and spent the night in Kansas City and
then we've got another train to go to Des Moines and berries family sent somebody down to get the car that was how we came in to Des Moines so what was it like in Des Moines meeting his family it was very nice they had a very nice family his mother and father were just very nice people and he had a younger sister and a brother and lots of cousins and aunts and uncles and my mother and all had them all over this was before I became engaged and then on the Monday I think that was the first time the jewelry store was open Barry went
and got the ring and then presented it to me and I said yes and then my parents went home I was going to stay a little while longer before I had to go back to school and then he got really sick and luckily the doctor there sent us to Rochester and that's where he was operated on he had a lung removed it was very unusual he had cryptococcus of the lung he's written up in the New England Journal of Medicine he's the first one they ever saw and I never came home until March Heather did not put the engagement announcement in the paper until I
came home I'm he was really sad but thank God everything was okay very fortunate so then where did you guys get married San Antonio so we had about 1,500 people in our wedding my dad of course all his clients and everybody it was at the synagogue and at that time it was a lovely affair doesn't compare to what they do now but it was very lovely show how long of a time treat how long was very him in September and then we were married in June and I got engaged in January but he had been fully recovered at that point he was recovered but that
was some surgery 55 years ago and he he weighed about 140 pounds when I married you guys got married he was still not feeling a hundred percent money weight and we wouldn't we went on honeymoon and he came back and went to work we were in the furniture and appliance business at that time and they worked very hard those people worked very very hard and then eventually his brother came in and you know his father his father died a few years later he was not a well man and we were in the top hundred in the in the country which was something for Des Moines
Iowa know what was that brought you guys to Dallas so my first of all we wanted our children to marry Jewish that was paramount weren't that many Jewish girls in Des Moines I we decided we'd open a store here and we'd send one of our sons and we just kept happening we kept opening stores and and sending our kids and thank God all of our children did marriage you if we're happy about that baby had a deal where our truck would go to Kansas City and the truck from Des Moines would come to Kansas City and they'd switch well when we had that terrible hundred
year flood everything was wiped out and in the warehouse so a 95 when you start over what do you guys do we started over in the high-end electronics business starpower me our son David the third one had this dream of a high end where we were doing media rooms and we weren't just selling TV sets we had four sons and my husband spoke to them at the time and he said look everybody's free to go their own way now if there's ever a time that you wanted to do something different this is the time without hesitation every one of them said no we want to
work together and we want to build something and get back together and that's what they did they work day and night we set up headquarters in our house in our our dining room became the work area they had computers and everything going on our dining room table and extra tables and they worked and they worked and it worked some more and made what they have to excuse your ears we're in the we were in the flooring business before and we started doing business with Fannie Mae we now do business with Fannie Mae all over the country of a very successful business mostly commercial and we
really never advertised what was the happiest time in your life I think right now I think right now I think that that I am very blessed I have you know my our children are all good our grandchildren are all good I think they're I'm very very blessed what was it like being the oldest of and having time like the mother put your brothers I raised my younger brother he said 13 years younger than I am now in your lifetime you've lived through so many momentous occasions in World War two Kennedy assassination here in Dallas something good the moon landing in 69 of course the tragedy
of 911 was there something that really stood out that you took notice of and said boy you know I remember that I know exactly where I was all the things she talked about I remember where I was and what I did and and and how horrified we were about all of it well you in very 56 years four sons nine grandkids what advice does grandma have for those nine grandkids in the next generation well first of all how arm to be all well and healthy and that's something I don't have any control over I want them to get their education and I want them to
marry Jewish I think they'll have better lives married to Jewish people and I want them to be healthy and happy and I want them to be involved in the Jewish community it's very important to me so I bet that's the advice I have for him well thanks for doing this today you did a job now i do want to preserve you know chef and I'm sorry I didn't do more with my with my father when he was you know I younger thank you very much for doing
