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Today is August 28th, 2023. My name is Joshua Furman. I'm the curator of the Joan and Stanford Alexander South Texas Jewish Archives, and I am joined by Linda Freedman Block.

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Linda. Good morning. How are you? I'm great, thanks. How are you? I'm doing fantastic.

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And I am so excited to have this opportunity to chat with you about your family history and your life. So let's start and I'll ask you to tell me about your grandparents, Sam and Esther Freedman.

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Great. Um, my grandmother, Esther Clara Nodler Freedman, was born in Romania. I just learned the other day in Jassy-- Jassy, which I had never heard of before.

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And she came to this country when she was a baby, and I believe it was 1902. And I don't know any of the story of how she came or why, but her parents were Marcus and Hinda Nodler, and they were very, very religious, well respected in the

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community. And she was one of nine brothers and sisters. And then my grandfather, Sam Freedman, came over after, um, about, after World War One. Um, and he came here because his older sister, Lily

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Freedman Lewis, had gotten married to Ben Lewis, and they had come to Houston. They were on their honeymoon. World War One broke out and they could not get back. And after a while they sent money and my grandfather, Sam, was brought over by

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them. Um, I always thought he had come through Galveston and just recently found out that his papers were through Ellis Island. So that was a surprise. And he was born in a shtetl.

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Um, that's been spelled 45 different ways. Siskoletec or shishlovic. I've heard it pronounced so many different ways. And the ironic thing is, my grandfather said he always came from Russia.

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Um, one of some papers said Poland. His sister, one of the sisters said she came from Belarus. One of the brothers said from Lithuania. So they all came from the same area, wherever it was.

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Um, and when he came here, he was already a teenager. And, um, kind of interesting, when he came here, he really didn't have any funds, so to speak. I mean, his sister and brother-in-law, I'm sure, helped him.

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But he started out by peddling potatoes and he had washed the potatoes, and Joe Weingarten, who was a big grocer here, um, saw that the potatoes were washed. And so, um, anyway, he decided to buy him from my grandfather,

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and after that only bought them from my grandfather. And at some point, somebody had asked my grandfather to sell a calf when he went into town. And so he did.

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And he ended up, um, later buying another calf. And he and his good friend Leo Brand decided, one of them said, I'll take the meat. And the other said, I'll take the hide.

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Leo Brand started a hide business, and my grandfather, that's how he started in the meat business, um, years later. So he originally was in business with somebody named Hubble, and then he was on his own with Freedman packing.

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Um, then after the war, when my uncle Harold Freedman and my dad, Milton Freedman, came home from the war, they went into business and started Freedman Brothers Packing. And that was Freedman just bros.

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They never spelled it out. And back then, apparently there was a quota on how many cattle could be slaughtered a week or a day. And so my grandfather had rented space at um, Port

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City Stockyards on Calhoun, which is now part of U of H, University of Houston. And so he had a slaughterhouse, and he would slaughter for himself, and then he could slaughter for other companies.

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So he slaughtered for his son's business. And, um, they shared the Port City stockyards with Siegel and Block. Longtime family friends. Mhm, and Freedman brothers had relationships, as you've already alluded to, with many other

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Jewish businesses in the city and with Jewish families. Can you talk about that a little bit more? Well, the basically there were ten independent slaughterhouses in Houston. Um, there was the other families, I think four of them were Jewish,

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the Schoolers, the Pollys, and, um, I'm trying to think they had blue ribbon and I'm forgetting the other name right now. That's okay. Who had blue ribbon? Uh, the Pollys.

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And, um, anyway, they, after everyone over the years, um, Freedman was the last independent slaughterhouse and we lasted longer than all the national companies when they stopped doing slaughtering and went just directly into the food

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distribution business. And, um, there's a big history with all the Freedman companies, um, that ran into the 80s. Um, so this, you know, the the family was in the meat business from the 20s

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through the 80s. Wow, what an incredible history. Where was Freedman Brothers located? That they were at Calhoun, I think 4905 Calhoun, which is part of Port City

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Stockyards. And I remember as a kid, I used to be make tags. We would take these sharp clips and stick them through these tags, which after a piece of meat was slaughtered, they'd tag it and it would go to whichever grocery or butcher.

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And I think I maybe made $0.50 a box, uh, doing the tags. And we would go out to the packing house with my grandfather and get to go to work and it was a really big deal. And so that was those are some good memories.

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Wow. Fantastic. And I know that, um, Sam and Esther were very charitable. Can you talk about some of the chesed activities that they were involved in? Sure. Um, that it was really something um, basically

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my grandfather was the discretionary fund at Beth Yeshurun. The stories that I heard were so beautiful, the rabbi would call and say, Sam, there's a family with a son getting bar mitzvah. They can't afford to get him a new suit.

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And my grandfather said, I'll take care of it. Or the rabbi would call and say, Sam, we have several families who can't afford kosher for Passover food. And my grandfather said, just tell them to go to whichever store.

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And he said he would take care of it. And the the actual discretionary fund at Beth Yeshurun to this day is the Sam Freedman Memorial Fund that was set up after Papa Sam passed away in 1965.

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And my grandmother, she was very much, um, her life was about the grandkids and her kids. Um, every Friday night she'd have one of the three sons' families for Shabbat, and of course, Passover and holidays were all together.

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But, um, one thing that's that sums up my grandmother perfectly was years later, Dora Freedman Levitt had had a stroke and she was homebound with caregivers in the house. And my grandmother went every single week at 2:00 sharp.

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Um, the the caregiver said they could set their clocks by my grandmother. She would show up either with a homemade cake or with soup every single week for years and years. And that was typical. Her big joy was cooking.

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She used to make food and send it to all the different families, but she sure, sure needed to get the pots back immediately, she said. What were some of Esther's famous recipes? Oh, there's no question: Fricassee. Um, she made a fricassee with these little meatballs

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and chicken necks and I think chicken wings, like you really had to suck the bones. And it was so good. And she she also made matzoh balls, and she made soups. And she made she always made these sugar cookies.

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And all nine grandkids loved them, but they were hard as rocks. And she, um, we always joked about that when we all submitted information about our memories of our grandparents. Every one of us wrote about the cookies, and every one of us included the fact that they

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were hard as rocks. Huh, hmm, do you know anything about how Sam and Esther met? And if and even if you don't tell us about where Sam and Esther lived. So I do not know how they met.

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I asked my mom. I asked my aunt, Sylvia Freedman. That was one of Esther's daughters in law. And anyway, they could not tell me anything.

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My aunt said that somebody took Sam to meet Esther. But that's really all the detail I have. I know they lived on Truxillo on the corner of Truxillo, and I don't know the cross street. And then they lived at the 3300 block of Durness.

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And it was really nice because all three of the kids families were close by. Alfred and Sylvia Freedman lived on Underwood, Harold and Lennie Freedman lived on Tartan Lane, and we lived on Dryden in West University.

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And my grandfather came home every single day. Papa Sam would stop at all three of his son's houses just to say hello and see the grandkids every single day. And it was pretty remarkable.

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He didn't necessarily even get out of the car and come in because he had so many houses to visit, but it was it's a fabulous memory. Wow, that's that's so nice. Um, okay, why don't we talk about the Knobler family now?

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The family of your mother, Betty. Okay, so my grandfather, Isadore Solomon Knobler, Papa Izzy, was a very short guy, and he was born in Poland.

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And he said when he came over, he came through Ellis Island. Not Ellis Island. He came through Galveston and apparently met two other people, and they formed a business.

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And all three were short Jewish men, and they called themselves the Three Little Tailors. I know one of them was Maurice Eskowitz's father. That's Cheryl Eskowitz's grandfather, and I don't know his name, and neither Cheryl nor I could come up with the third name.

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So he came here and he had a skill of tailoring. And, um, anyway, he, uh, my grandmother, Goldie Berger Knobler, and that's k n o b l e r. Not to be confused with my other grandmother's maiden name, Esther Nodler.

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N o d l e r. It was kind of interesting in the community that a Nodler and a Knobler were getting married are connected. Um, anyway, my grandmother has an interesting story.

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She was born in Russia, and, um, the father, the the mother had passed away and the grandmother was raising the children. Um, my grandmother, Goldie, and her younger sister Miki, who's Russian name or Yiddish name was Manya,

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but called became called Miki. She had an older sister named Sarah and an older brother named Meyer. And uh, when the father, after the mother passed away, the father went to the Golden Medina.

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He went to the United States to make a living. And, um. Then he saved enough money to bring the children back. Sarah was so attached to the grandmother, she refused to leave.

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So Meyer and Goldie and Miki all came over. We were told they came over with the family friend, Mr. Brodsky. That's what my grandmother said. And they came.

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And it's interesting because facts get confused. Uh, my grandmother, I thought, told me she had gone to Dallas, where the father was, but I just read something about that she came to Houston, so she came to Texas for sure. And soon after they were here, the father became sick

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and he passed away. So they hardly knew the stepmother, his second wife, and they didn't really speak the language. And so she sent them to the Jewish Children's Orphanage in New Orleans.

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And my grandmother tells it, told it I should say, like a fairy tale. She said the people of New Orleans were incredible. The home was wonderful, the people were loving and caring. And she told me so many stories about the genteel Jewish

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population and how they looked out for the orphans, and she would get picked up on a Saturday by a chauffeur driven car and would, uh, learned how to, you know, how to ring a doorbell, that you don't knock bang on the door, and what to do when the butler would answer, and how to let a butler

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help you remove your coat. And it was so cute. They had calling cards printed and her last name was Berger. But this was New Orleans with a French influence, and the butler would always

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announce, Miss Goldie Berger has arrived. And my grandmother loved that story and she learned manners and culture. She learned how to eat properly, how to have conversation. And it was like, you know, a, um, just a

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whole upbringing with love. She also learned how to play the violin at the home, and she was a big sister to younger kids. And she tells the story with such love and affection.

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And she stayed connected to the orphanage, which later became JCRS, the Jewish Children's Regional Service. She became connected forever. Um, interesting they all learned a skill and she learned stenography and secretarial

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skills. And when she aged out at about 17, they gave her an option of three cities to move to. She had no clue about any of them. And thank God she chose Houston, because who knows if I'd

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be here or if any of us would. So she came to Houston and the Westheimer family,very charitable, uh, took care of a lot of orphans. And the Westheimer family adopted her.

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I can't think of his first name, but she always referred to him as Papa Westheimer. And anyway, she. Papa Westheimer gave my grandmother a wedding and walked her down the aisle and was really, she was part of their family.

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Um, she got married on her 20th birthday, February 15th, I believe 1925. And my grandfather, in the meantime, ended up at some point opening their own menswear shop, Knobler's Menswear on Main Street, 416

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Main Street, and everybody in town knew and went and bought their clothes at Knobler's Menswear. And as a kid we all, my siblings and I, we all got to go to work with Nanny Goldie and Papa Izzy, and we got to help sell and we

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got to do things and even walked the deposit two doors down to the bank on Main Street. But I think I don't know how old I was before I realized that my grandmother was actually ten feet behind me, but they actually let us carry that money bag.

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And, you know, it's a different day. And that was like in the late 50s or early 60s, and it was a different time. Walking down Main Street with a bag of money?

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Well, it wasn't like a big round bag. It was a zipper pouch. I do remember that. Um, anyway, but my my grandparents were had a wonderful social

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life. My grandmother actually used to entertain and have parties for, they called it the XKH, the Ex-Kids home group. Joe Samuels was part of that and a bunch of her friends, and she would always host parties, and they entertained and had Hanukkah parties.

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And we just, we had a wonderful childhood growing up. They lived at 3131 Plum in West University, and we used to spend the night and our friends and cousins would spend the night. It was great.

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Linda, I want to just pivot for a second because I'm very interested in geography and neighborhoods. So was there a significant Jewish presence in West University at that time, because you mentioned that you grew up there for a time, and then your grandparents.

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I don't know if there was, because at the time, when we moved from Dryden to Meyerland, I was seven. So I was totally oblivious to, you know, neighborhoods and, uh, groups and, and I really don't remember that at all.

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I know there were we were the only, maybe there was one other Jewish family, I think, on our block on Dryden. So there were not a lot of Jewish families. I, we went to Roberts Elementary for kindergarten.

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I went for kindergarten and first grade, and I can name the to this day, the 3 or 4 other Jewish kids. So there were not a ton of Jewish kids there. Um, but I think, um, that it just, you know, we

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all happened to move into areas, I don't think they were extraordinarily Jewish neighborhoods by any means. Interesting. I know you have a story about your grandfather's men's store and soldiers coming in for clothes and also later Holocaust survivors.

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So my, this is really sweet. My grandmother told me that after the war, the men who came home were so desperate to get out of uniforms. She said they cleared the shelves.

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They took things that weren't even the right size. If they were too big, they didn't care. They just wanted to get out of the uniforms. And she said they wiped out their inventory.

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And as a result, that really gave my grandparents a really sound financial footing in terms of having a lot of income all of a sudden. Um, anyway, and one of the sweetest stories I heard from Al Marks, who was, uh, an orchestra leader, I believe, and he was a Holocaust

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survivor. And he, he told me this story, I guess, uh, I can't remember how many years ago, but he, as a Holocaust survivor, he ended up in Houston and he went into my grandparents store, and it was such a nice he told me the story.

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Um, he said he bought, you know, I think two suits and clothing and everything, and my grandparents would not let him pay. And that always makes me verklepmt when I think about it. That's so sweet.

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Yeah, but that's typical of the the generous spirit and the giving back. I mean, my grandparents, you know, were in a position to do that. Um, also my grandmother as, as in terms of of helping the community or doing something special, my grandmother volunteered every

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single Saturday afternoon at the Jewish Home for the Aged. This was on Chimney Rock, and I remember the building had a steeple, um, and a little stage. And she would provide entertainment.

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That entertainment might be one of my girlfriends in second grade who could twirl a baton, or one of my sister Judy's friends who could play piano. And we used to pass out candy to all the residents. And I remember one of the residents, Mr.

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Brodsky, and it was he was the man who helped, who brought my grandmother and her sister and brother over to this country and on the ship. And anyway, he used to remember, he used to always hand me a nickel and say, go get

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yourself a soda water. And so we used and we used to always bring him bananas. Anyway, that was just a fun memory. I had to throw in.

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Bananas? He loved bananas. And what can I say? And, um, anyway, coincidentally, his son, Aaron Brodsky, later married my Aunt Mickey, Goldie's sister.

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So they became actually family. Having so much extended family in Houston when you were growing up, where did you spend holidays? Tell me about Passover.

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So Passover was always at Nanny Esther and Papa Sam's, and with all the cousins. There was, my dad, Alfred, and Harold. There were nine first cousins, and we always had such a fabulous time

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together, um, that all the other families did their own thing because we were all so big. Um, the Levitts did their thing. The Aarons the Loftmans, the I mean, everybody just had their own thing

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because we were too big. Um, they did have a cousin's club on the Freedman side. Um, there were 22 first cousins that my dad had, and all of them were married. So 44 first cousins.

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And they had a cousins club. They didn't do holidays together, but they did other activities together. What bout Rosh Hashanah? What would you do then?

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I'm trying to remember. I'm sure that we were at Nanny Esther and Papa Sam's. Nanny Goldie and Papa Izzy Knobler had Hanukkah at their home, and we would do some shabbats there and we would, you know, do other activities with them.

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But the holidays, the other holidays were at Nanny Esther and Papa Sam's house. Very good. Why don't we talk more about your father, Milton of blessed memory? Just give us a sense of his personality. Maybe some of his hobbies, causes that were important to him.

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And also, how did Milton meet your mother, Betty? Okay, so this is a good story. So my mom was actually dating somebody else very seriously. And anyway, this is really funny because my dad came home from the Army,

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and here he had been on the other side of the world in India. And, um, and he had gone out every night since he got home. And I love it because I think he was 23. And basically my grandmother, Nanny Esther, said, you have to stay home

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tonight. And I always think it's funny, like she grounded a 23-year-old man. But, um, anyway, dad was set up to play bridge, uh, with Max and Helen Ruddick, and they needed a fourth. So Helen called her girlfriend Betty Knobler and said, "come play bridge with us." And she

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did. And that's how they met. Um, and they were engaged three months later. But my mom was actually dating somebody pretty seriously. And my dad had gone to Florida, to Milton and Lee

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Levitt's wedding, where I think he was a groomsman. That was dad's first cousin. And dad heard that the other guy was coming in from college to see mom, and he hopped on a plane the next morning, and

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this is in 1947. Came home, went over to my mom's house in the morning, basically and, uh, he said, "let's go to Galveston." And they did, and they got engaged. And that's how fast that happened.

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So we loved bridge because that's what brought them together. And they lived a lifetime of that. My dad's, um, when I think about my dad, it makes me smile because he just he loved family.

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He loved a good joke. He was an avid fisherman. He was a major poker player, um, and a major bridge player. And well respected in both worlds.

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Um, he was an awesome dad and grandfather. Um, he took, you know, he was a little league coach and coached two teams at the same time. One for Donny my oldest and one for Mark at the same time. And Mark's the oldest kid in our family, and then Donny, then Judy, then me.

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And, um, anyway, dad was an ACA advisor to 136 when my sister Judy was sweetheart and he was a chapter dad to Reichman BBG and just a welcoming dad all around. Um, he I just have to throw in one thing at his funeral,

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Rabbi Rosen said the funniest thing everybody knew my dad had a big smile and he said, if you're sitting across the poker table and you'd see Milton's big smile, you didn't know if he was smiling because he liked you or because he had you.

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And so anyway, dad definitely was well known in both worlds, and a major bridge player won a lot of trophies and tournaments, and my mother did, too. My mother was an outstanding bridge player.

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Um, and back in the day in the 60s, when the newspapers would have put your address and everything in the paper, there was a front-page article that said, uh, that said bridge player may not be able to go to tournament because she needs a babysitter.

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And somebody called the stranger and my mother hired her. I said, I can't believe you gave us to a stranger. But back then, people did that. I mean, you didn't, you know, nobody really checked anybody's credentials.

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And references and resumes and whatnot. Yeah, that's a great story. Can you talk a little bit more about Milton's role in the family business? Sure. He he really ran the business.

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Um, my Uncle Harold had kind of a lesser background type of, uh, part in the business. My Uncle Alfred was there until 1963, I believe, uh, when he left to go into work to work with his father-in-law at

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Schumann Auto Supply. Um, and Harold, uh, just wasn't as involved. So my dad really was the guy buying cattle, selling cattle, and running the business for the most part.

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Um, the my brothers went, worked there over the summers and learned how to do things. And I know in when my brother Donny was 19, uh, it was during the summer and it was probably in 69. Yes. 1969.

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My mom had had surgery and was in the hospital. And my dad, they thought he had a heart attack, I think it was gallbladder, and he ended up in the hospital at the same time. And my brother Donnie came home just to start to run things, and he

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ended up staying because he really jumped in and was running the place. Um, my brother Mark was doing something else and and then later came into the business. Um, but dad really was running the business for all those years.

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And Donnie, uh, at his side, so. Very good. Um, you told us about Milton and Betty getting engaged in Galveston. When did they get married? They got married June 15th, 1947,

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and had their first kid, Mark, ten and a half months later, 1948, April the 30th. And then Donnie was born March the 3rd, 1950. And Judy was born in September 11th, 1951.

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And I was born, uh, January 22nd, 1953. So the four of us are less than five years apart and are very close to this day, and a lot of mutual friends cross over and everything. So it's we were really my mom, even though I was the youngest of the four,

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I still often had the youngest mother, um, at, you know, in school, I mean, mom was super busy. She was always the PTO person. She was the my Bluebird leader.

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She was a BBG advisor for Judy. She was, um, active she with B'nai B'rith Women, life member of Hadassah. Um, and so she did a lot of family events, you know, just

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entertaining and, uh, had a big circle of friends, um, but always active with all the kids. G Great. So you mentioned, uh, the family home in West University on Dryden.

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Tell me about, um, moving to Meyerland. So in 1960, we ended up moving to Meyerland. I asked my mom, did you do that because that was where the Jewish community tended to migrate at that point?

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And she said, not really. She said that they just moved. They were ready to move into a bigger home. They were ready to move, and the homes were nice.

00:28:51.710 - 00:29:04.970

And she did have a lot of friends moving out to that area. We ended up in the most fabulous house, and it was the only three car garage house in Meyerland. We had the first swimming pool in Meyerland.

00:29:05.300 - 00:29:19.910

Um, it was just a fabulous place and our home was open to so many people. Um, my, uh, we used to call it like an annex to the JCC. My brother and brothers were in Cyrus Adler Aza.

00:29:20.420 - 00:29:34.520

So friends were over at the house. My sister I mentioned was in Reichman BBG and sweetheart of 136 AZA. So all of those kids were at the house. I was a charter member of Leon Seinfeld BBG, and I was sweetheart of Abe

00:29:34.520 - 00:29:46.610

Silverman AZA. So all of those kids were at the house and our cousin Cindy Freedman actually lived with us. Uh, she and I are the same age, and she lived with us, uh, for her 11th

00:29:46.610 - 00:30:01.910

and 12th grade, and she was in BBG 63, and she was a sweetheart nom for Cyrus Adler. So all of those kids were at the house. Um, the years that my sister was sweetheart, there were so many kids at our house that the

00:30:01.910 - 00:30:19.460

Coca-Cola company delivered to our home directly those big wooden cases of glass bottle Cokes, and it was really just the most open house and so many kids in the city, I'd say kids were all now in our 70s, I guess, um, remembering.

00:30:20.450 - 00:30:32.900

Well, it's still know my mom to this day, but remember what a great house it was and how much fun and how many activities there were. Where was the house? The house is still there on the corner of Glen Meadow and South Rice.

00:30:32.900 - 00:30:44.780

Even the address was fantastic. We lived at 5050 Glen meadow and uh, it was just it was a great location. It was one street away from Kolter Elementary, and we all went to Johnston

00:30:44.780 - 00:31:01.310

Junior High, which was also walking distance, and a mile away from Bellaire High School. We lived close to the Jewish Community Center and close to Beth Yeshurun where we belonged. And so every we were right in the heart of everything you could ever want.

00:31:01.310 - 00:31:13.300

It was a perfect location. There's a story told me before about motorists knocking on your door in the morning. It was hysterical. So first of all, when we moved there, South rice was a two-way street

00:31:13.300 - 00:31:27.860

and then there was the ditch. There wasn't the other side of South Rice, uh, paved yet. And anyway, about, it seems like once a month or every other month, the doorbell, somebody would ring the doorbell at seven in the morning and we were all, you

00:31:27.860 - 00:31:45.080

know, getting ready for school or having breakfast, and somebody would knock on the door, ring the bell, and say they had run out of gas and could they come in and use our phone? And of course, my mother welcomed them total strangers into the house. And then she poured them a cup of coffee while they waited for somebody to show up

00:31:45.080 - 00:31:58.820

with a gas can full of gas. And it just it cracked me up that how many people could leave their house that often not having a half a tank of gas or something? I just thought that was so funny.

00:31:58.820 - 00:32:15.510

Yeah. What a what a great story. What a memory. Um, tell me about the other Jewish families nearby that block of Glen meadow. So we had a lot of them. At the other corner on our side of the street were cousins, the Aarons,

00:32:15.510 - 00:32:26.820

Hilda and Al Aaron. Hilda was a first cousin of my dad's. Across the street and over one house my great aunt and great uncle Joe and Dora Levitt moved in.

00:32:27.180 - 00:32:43.410

Um, there were a lot of other Jewish families, um, the Ricky Stein, uh, his family, Martha Lee and Albert Stein and the Mermills and the Goldsteins. Um, there were just a lot- oh Frieda and Melvin Dow lived three doors down.

00:32:43.410 - 00:32:58.620

Linda Leuchter, her father, was the I believe he was the with the Israel Bonds or the something to do with Israel. Marcus Leuchter and a lot a lot of Jewish families. Gay and Gus Bloch lived on our street.

00:32:58.620 - 00:33:12.060

I used to babysit for their kids. And that kid is now Rabbi Barry Block in San Antonio, and Allison Block is his sister. Anyway, so a lot of Jewish families all over the place, the street, the houses

00:33:12.060 - 00:33:27.000

were, the neighbors were probably 40% Jewish, I bet. Just everywhere. I mean, it was heavily Jewish neighborhood. I went to public, we went to Kolter Elementary, but there were a ton of Jewish

00:33:27.000 - 00:33:45.660

kids, um, in our classes also at Bellaire High School, with 3000 students, at least a third of the school was Jewish, so they used to always have in-service days on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, so that, because the schools got paid by attendance, so they, you know, got

00:33:45.660 - 00:33:56.190

wise and knew that so many students would be gone, they made those in-service days. So you never had a problem with missing school for the High Holidays growing up? Never, never.

00:33:56.280 - 00:34:07.290

Interesting. Very interesting. Tell me a little bit about Beth Yeshurun in those years. It was fabulous. We had, um, uh, Rabbi Malouf was our rabbi, and then

00:34:07.290 - 00:34:24.450

Rabbi Segal came in 1965, and my cousin Cindy lived around the corner, and she and I as as bold 12-year-old kids, we walked around the corner, we knocked on their door and we said we just wanted to meet them and we liked them.

00:34:24.450 - 00:34:32.460

And then they had our approval. And so he was here. Good. He was good to stay, we decided. And that lasted forever until recently.

00:34:32.460 - 00:34:43.530

Rabbi Segal passed away. Toby, thank God, is in good health. And that's been a family, close relationship with our family and theirs since 1965.

00:34:43.530 - 00:34:57.270

But Beth Yeshurun was fabulous. Um, Rafi Arbisser was the education director when I was growing up there, and he was a mentor to me. And one of the main reasons I am personally so connected to Israel because

00:34:57.270 - 00:35:13.890

and he pushed me to go on the Israeli pilgrimage that our federation sponsored, and that absolutely, positively changed my life and the trajectory of my life. So, um, good friends, lots of fun.

00:35:14.190 - 00:35:23.550

Um, Rabbi Segal was just so dynamic. Um, and he made everything fun. And it was just it was a great time. Hebrew school and Sunday school.

00:35:23.730 - 00:35:35.010

Um, I'm not going to say I was the most perfect kid. I definitely misbehaved a little bit. Um, but overall, it was a great time. Fantastic. That's great.

00:35:35.460 - 00:35:48.300

Um, did you ever experience any kind of anti-Semitism growing up in Houston, in Meyerland, at school, with friends? In any kind of context? I did not.

00:35:48.300 - 00:36:00.420

We had the Jewish population was pretty strong and everybody was friends with everybody. I had a lot of non-Jewish friends growing up. We used to spend the night with each other.

00:36:00.420 - 00:36:13.980

They would come to synagogue with us. I would go visit their church with them. Uh, there was never, never any kind of anti-Semitism. Um, I don't I can't even recall any time.

00:36:14.250 - 00:36:31.170

Uh, only, you know, years later, as an adult, I remember seeing some terrible graffiti in our neighborhood, and it was a one-time thing. It was not, uh, anything that I have any recollection about. There was really not a problem.

00:36:31.770 - 00:36:45.600

What about race relations? Obviously. You know, growing up in the 60s, the civil rights movement, integration, um, were there, when did black students start enrolling at Bellaire High School while you were there?

00:36:45.600 - 00:37:00.840

So in 1971 was the year we graduated, and that was the year, I believe it was either 70 or 71 that Bellaire High School was integrated. There were three black students, two females and one one boy.

00:37:00.840 - 00:37:14.160

And, um, the I know I met the two girls and I was friendly with them. And this is kind of a funny story. When our cousin Cindy lived with us and one weekend as normal,

00:37:14.160 - 00:37:24.330

she asked my mom if she could have somebody spend the night. And my mother said, of course. And she didn't ask who. It didn't matter. And anyway, up to the door, the doorbell

00:37:24.330 - 00:37:37.890

rings and my mother opens it and there is a young black teenager. And anyway, it was the friend of Cindy who was coming to spend the night. And so my mother, you know, welcomed her. I think she was definitely a bit surprised.

00:37:38.190 - 00:37:44.820

Um, and she welcomed her. Her name was Nikita Flannel. And, um, anyway. And she spent the night. We all had a great time.

00:37:45.420 - 00:37:57.810

And years later, my mom told me. She said she remembers, she felt, wow, I'm really so liberal. And it was true. She was. Nobody really had had any interaction with black people

00:37:57.810 - 00:38:14.400

other than in a domestic situation, uh, you know, housekeepers and the yardmen and but nobody really interacted socially with anyone. Um, I did have, I want to tell you one other story. That was or two, um, my grandfather Sam Freedman

00:38:15.130 - 00:38:28.240

integrated a small town, Kuleta- Kulata. I need to find out the spelling on that. But my brother Mark said he was 7 or 8, so that would have been in 1955 or 56.

00:38:28.240 - 00:38:44.680

My grandfather, Papa Sam, would take different grandkids with him out to the country, and they would go and he would check on, he had herds of cattle and towns like Big Springs or Big Wells and um, Lolita, I think.

00:38:44.680 - 00:39:01.030

Anyway. And so he would go around to these different places just to check on the cattle. And there was a black man named Preston Smith, who's we all called him Kansas and Kansas worked for the family at the business, and he also did stuff around our homes.

00:39:01.030 - 00:39:16.270

And Kansas drove my grandfather. So they went to and they stopped in this little town, Kulata. And, um, they walked into a diner and my brother said that the owner, he assumes it was the owner, came over and he said, we don't serve

00:39:16.270 - 00:39:30.580

blacks in here. And he said, if you want to have him eat in the kitchen, he could do that. My grandfather said, fine, then we'll all eat in the kitchen. And my grandfather and my brother Mark and Kansas sat down at a table and they

00:39:30.580 - 00:39:48.910

basically integrated, I'm sure, the whole town of Kulata. And then, um, years later, my brother Mark told me another story just the other day, and he said he probably integrated the Green Parrot restaurant because when my brother Mark was about 16, he was

00:39:48.910 - 00:40:04.960

doing a program for Cyrus Adler Aza, and he said he picked up Hattie Mae White, uh, she was the first black woman or black person to be elected to HISD school board to the Houston Independent School District.

00:40:04.960 - 00:40:17.440

She I looked her up and she actually had been on the board since 1958. This was in 1964, and he brought her in as a speaker and nobody said anything.

00:40:17.440 - 00:40:35.170

But he said she was the only black person there, and he felt certain that he had probably been responsible for integrating the Green Parrot restaurant. So that's a few stories about the introduction of some black people into our family areas.

00:40:35.170 - 00:40:43.120

Whatever. These are really important stories. Thank you. Uh, why don't we talk about your, uh, meeting your husband Nelson now and getting married?

00:40:44.540 - 00:40:59.630

Let's see. He's got one version and I have another one. His is a bunch mushier than mine, but I'll just give you the short story. So I actually met Nelson through BBYO. He was, uh, president of Marcus AZA in San Antonio,

00:41:00.530 - 00:41:17.000

and I was the sweetheart of the brother chapter in Houston, Silverman AZA. And Nelson was actually a boyfriend to the sweetheart before me. And so I would hear her talk about him all the time. And I met him, you know, at a BBYO convention.

00:41:18.020 - 00:41:36.320

And we re-met, um, at the friend's wedding, at the wedding of Sarah D Hyman and Mel Wexler. And we re-met, and we ended up dancing the entire night. Um, the other part of the story that's really kind of embarrassing is that he, at

00:41:36.320 - 00:41:44.030

the end of the evening, he said, can I take you home? And I was so naive. It went right over my head. And I was so naive.

00:41:44.030 - 00:41:54.140

I said, oh, that's okay. I came with my parents. And then he said, well, he said, but I, you know, like to take you home. And I said, still not even grasping that he was asking me out.

00:41:54.140 - 00:42:04.310

I said, oh, that's okay. We just moved out to Memorial and it's really far. And then he says, as he tells the story, he hit me over the head with a mallet and said, you are going to be the mother of my children.

00:42:05.030 - 00:42:13.790

I'd like to spend more time with you. And he didn't say that. That's the thought process anyway. And he said, I'd like to spend some more time with you.

00:42:13.790 - 00:42:27.350

And so then I said, oh, okay. And, you know, he took me home that night, and then, um, he was in college and law school at UT Austin, University of Texas, and I was finishing my last semester.

00:42:27.350 - 00:42:39.560

So nice coincidence. We were both headed back to Austin. And that week, uh, I called him and he came over and helped me move into my apartment, and we dated other people.

00:42:39.560 - 00:42:50.990

Or I did that first semester. And after that, we were together. That was 1974, and we got married two years later, August 22nd, 1976.

00:42:50.990 - 00:43:05.570

Wonderful, that's great. And did you live in Houston right after that, or were you other places? Yes. After he graduated law school, his first job was with, um, uh, he was a briefing attorney on the 14th Court of Civil Appeals, which

00:43:05.570 - 00:43:18.680

was a one-year appointment. And then he went to work for Sheinfeld, Maley and Kay, and they disbanded in 2001. And then he went to work at Winstead and was there until he retired a couple of years

00:43:18.680 - 00:43:34.400

ago. And so we've been in Houston our whole married lives. And where was your first home as a married couple? Um, we lived in the Villa de Orleans apartments across the street from Three Brothers Bakery, very fattening location.

00:43:34.400 - 00:43:52.670

And after about a year, we bought a home on Rutherglenn, which was about a mile away from my Glen meadow house where I grew up. And then in, uh, when I'm trying to think when our youngest was three, so in 1989 we moved to 5023

00:43:52.670 - 00:44:05.930

Braesheather, where we are today. And the bigger joke is that is actually five houses away from our 5050 Glen meadow house, so I haven't gone far, but it's still Meyerland is a fabulous neighborhood.

00:44:05.930 - 00:44:23.660

We are in the heart of everything that we do communally. We're very involved with Boy Scouts at Beth Israel, the JCC, the Federation, Israel Bonds, Hadassah office is right there, Beth Yeshurun, where I grew up, and we belonged to United Orthodox

00:44:23.660 - 00:44:33.650

Synagogues. So we are really in the heart of everything that we do within two miles of, we're connected. So it's a fabulous location. We love it.

00:44:33.650 - 00:44:42.140

And there's a there's a story about the Braes Heather House, isn't there? Um. There's this. Which one? Well that you had been in that house.

00:44:42.710 - 00:44:59.360

Oh! It is kind of interesting. So Nelson went to Johns Hopkins undergraduate before law school, and his roommate was Jeff Gates, who he was friends with Jeffrey Gates through BBYO. And when he would come into Houston for BBYO events, he

00:44:59.360 - 00:45:09.980

would stay at Jeffrey Gates' house. And that's who owned our home. And he would stay there because they were good friends and they kept a kosher home, so it was nice and convenient.

00:45:09.980 - 00:45:22.460

And Mrs. Gates loved Nelson. He was very polite, had great manners, and, um, anyway, so we he he had been in that house many times as a kid.

00:45:22.460 - 00:45:37.400

And then years later, when the house was ready to be sold, we walked through it and I knew immediately it was a perfect house for us. Uh, sadly, we had to end up demolishing the house after, uh, Tropical Storm Allison.

00:45:37.400 - 00:45:49.650

We had over a foot of water, that was back in 2001. So we're on the same property and it still was the Gates property before ours. So we have a lot of good connections.

00:45:49.650 - 00:46:04.320

And one other quick story that was fun when we went to the closing, uh, when the house was sold and Doctor Gates, it was so sweet. He. Afterwards he came around and hugged us, and then he said, and here's something I found

00:46:04.320 - 00:46:10.440

when I was cleaning out, and it was a kippah from our wedding. So that was really sweet. Wow. Yeah.

00:46:10.590 - 00:46:22.800

Great story, great story. And why don't you, um, I'll give you a chance now to, um, kvell about your children for a moment. They are three ninjas, I'm really proud of them.

00:46:23.130 - 00:46:36.450

They're just super kids. Um, our oldest, Adam, was born in 1980. Uh, our middle son, Brian, was born three years later in 1983. And Jordan, our youngest, born in 1986.

00:46:38.310 - 00:46:57.270

Um, Adam is married to Jocelyn, and they have four kids and live in Efrat, Israel. And and Brian, uh, well, I'll skip and come down to Jordan. He and his wife Hannah live in Jerusalem with their three kids, and Brian, who introduces himself as the good son, lives about a mile away

00:46:57.270 - 00:47:12.780

from us, one block away from our original Rutherglenn home, and Brian and his wife Theresa have two daughters. So we are super, super blessed with nine grandkids, seven in Israel and two down the street basically.

00:47:13.080 - 00:47:26.040

Wonderful. So nice. Okay, tell us now about Noah's Ark. Okay, so I met Debbie Israel Dubin when I got into BBG.

00:47:26.040 - 00:47:40.740

I did not know her before. She was my BBG advisor and we just really connected. Um, she was a mentor to me, and one of the other reasons that my life is so connected to Israel.

00:47:40.980 - 00:47:57.120

Um, Debbie was a really good influence on me, and after graduation from high school, we were totally in touch. I was actually hired as her mother's helper when I was a senior in high school. And she had Rena, uh, her oldest daughter, and

00:47:58.350 - 00:48:12.660

we just knew we were always connected. And when Nelson and I moved to Houston, um, after both of us had I graduated from UT, and he graduated from law school. And after we were married, Debbie and I said, what can we do together?

00:48:12.660 - 00:48:22.110

We want to do something Jewish. We want to do something fun and we want to make money. And then we said in two out of three ain't bad. Now we did do we did do well.

00:48:22.110 - 00:48:31.290

We started Noah's Ark newspaper. There was nothing like it. It was a total creative process. Debbie and I were a perfect match for this.

00:48:31.290 - 00:48:50.130

She, uh, loved to do all the educational research part and write the biblical or the historical articles, and I love to create fun activities. Debbie used to tell people that the she's the reason the teachers

00:48:50.130 - 00:49:06.330

wanted to buy it, and I was the reason the kids wanted to read it. But we learned how to do everything from layout and design. We both took a course in, um, desktop publishing when it was just coming out. This we started the business in 1978, um, and

00:49:06.330 - 00:49:20.490

we ran it for 16 years. We were a monthly publication to city Jewish newspapers like The Jewish Herald, but we were all over the country. We were in 400 synagogues all over the world on six continents.

00:49:20.490 - 00:49:33.540

And we had so many incredible stories. Um, we used to interview kids who did different mitzvot. And that was in the day when you paid for long distance and nobody had a cell phone.

00:49:33.540 - 00:49:49.230

And but we got fabulous stories from kids in Tokyo, and we had a subscription come in once from, uh, Justice Goldberg's wife for her two grandkids, Angus and Duncan Goldberg in Alaska. I mean, it was just fun.

00:49:49.230 - 00:50:03.630

We had wonderful stories and everything, and it was an educational tool, but it was a fun thing for kids to read. It was a one page, basically four pages when folded, um, newspaper.

00:50:03.630 - 00:50:17.100

And it was monthly, ten times a year. We did it for 16 years until we were totally exhausted, and then we decided to call it quits. Um, we had a circulation, though, of, uh, close to a half

00:50:17.100 - 00:50:28.200

a million at our peak, but that included the Jewish Week in New York with 250,000 circulation. But we were all over the country. We were in 400 synagogues.

00:50:28.350 - 00:50:42.870

Uh, some would order one copy for the library, others would comp order 300, 400 copies, one for every student. Anyway, we both ended up with Noah's Ark collections. And it's just been it was a fabulous thing to do.

00:50:42.870 - 00:50:55.240

And it was, just it was wonderful. We were well known in the education world, the Jewish education world, and it was just a great time. How did you go about getting those subscriptions?

00:50:55.690 - 00:51:06.640

Did you travel? Did you go to conferences? We sent we did two things. We sent samples to all these different newspapers, and we were members of the American Jewish Press Association.

00:51:06.640 - 00:51:19.960

We were probably in at least 20 city newspapers, everything from Los Angeles to Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Denver, Atlanta, um, Florida. And we sent to synagogues. We sent a sample.

00:51:19.960 - 00:51:34.750

And then we were always very active with Cage, the coalition for Alternatives to Jewish Education. We went to those conferences and people saw us, liked us, bought it, and we we had a teacher's guide how to use it, how to implement the

00:51:34.750 - 00:51:49.990

activities. Um, and it was just a wonderful thing. We but we had a pen pal column that was wonderful, and there were some amazing stories there. The cutest one of all, though, is Dori Kornfeld, who is now an adult.

00:51:50.140 - 00:52:03.220

Uh, Dori Kornfeld was 9 or 10 and one day sitting in her room and her mother, Amelia Samet Kornfeld of Blessed Memory, came in and said, what are you doing? And she said, well, I'm going through the letters. And this girl said, she's my cousin.

00:52:03.220 - 00:52:18.250

And Amelia said, what do you mean, who is it? And it was Lisa Aaron. Lisa Aaron, uh, Finkelstein's daughter in Memphis, who wrote to Dori in Houston and said, I'm your cousin because her

00:52:18.250 - 00:52:32.500

mother, Lisa said, why don't you pick a pen pal either from Memphis or Houston? So when we go to visit grandparents, maybe you'll meet them. And so those two girls did not know they were related until Noah's Ark. So we had a great stories.

00:52:32.500 - 00:52:39.700

I mean, just all kind of interesting connections. How did you generate the content for the newspaper? What was your process? It was interesting.

00:52:39.700 - 00:52:50.140

We basically we looked at the holidays that were going to land when the publication would come out. We looked at Torah portions. We wrote some original stories.

00:52:50.410 - 00:53:02.290

Um, I came up with craft projects, some borrowed from other places, some I just created myself. Um, it could be recipes that we made. Um, it could be, you know, puzzles and games.

00:53:03.070 - 00:53:16.780

I mean, I created everything from, you know, now there's an app, and you could just throw in 40 words and say, make a jig, you know, make a crossword puzzle. Well, I did all of that from scratch. I mean, that was all total creativity.

00:53:16.780 - 00:53:30.790

And we I created board games. I did all kind of fun things. Um, but we did everything from Bible stories that could have dictated the type of games I had that we came up with or the stories that Debbie wrote.

00:53:30.970 - 00:53:44.950

Um, and we need to give a credit to the illustrator here, too, don't we? Thank you. Oh my gosh, if I didn't, that would have been terrible. So thank you. Thank you to Nachman, who was Nelson. He was our illustrator, and Jerry Dubin, who was a psychologist.

00:53:44.950 - 00:54:03.010

Debbie's husband, Jerry created all of the mazes, and it really did make us crazy because he absolutely could figure out what people would normally go to, which direction, and he always made the best mazes. So, and we had a fabulous staff, we our circulation staff, we

00:54:03.010 - 00:54:16.900

just hope that they stayed in circulation. It was my grandmother, Nanny Goldie, it was her sister, my aunt Mickey Brodsky and her husband. It was actually a third husband, Saul Greenberg and Debbie's in-laws, Jerry's

00:54:16.900 - 00:54:33.340

parents, Bernard and Ada Dubin. The five of them looked so forward to our mail out day, we did have to handle about 10,000 physical copies, the rest that were parts of newspapers we would send something called a Velox and they would make the

00:54:33.340 - 00:54:43.060

copies when they ran from the Velox. Um, but we had to handle about 10,000 copies. They loved it. It was a fabulous work day for them.

00:54:43.060 - 00:54:53.410

And I say work day. It was a lot of work. They there's no way they would have let us pay them. So we always had a nice lunch, but it was a good social outing and they felt so useful.

00:54:53.410 - 00:55:12.700

And they were I mean, they sat there and counted pile after pile of ten papers and we'd have they'd put the labels on the envelopes, it would say 83 papers and stuff it. We had a that was in the days of the mail Pitney-Bowes mailing machines, and they would have the, um, you know, you'd you'd put in the number on the

00:55:12.700 - 00:55:20.320

postage and print the label. They were very busy. And then we schlepped everything to the post office. Did you have an office?

00:55:21.120 - 00:55:36.450

Interesting question. So we at one point we officed in an area of Jerry Dubins personal office, and then we ended up doing a lot of the work out of our homes. When we started, Debbie's kids were probably

00:55:37.350 - 00:55:53.850

eight and ten when we started something like that, and we used to I used to go there after my full-time job as a tax law librarian at Chamberlain Hrdlicka tax law firm. I would go there at night at 8:00 and we'd work till 11 or 12 at night.

00:55:53.850 - 00:56:12.660

And then years later, when her kids were in school and I started to have kids, Debbie and I would work at our house and in between feedings and whatever, dealing with babies, we worked together during the day at our house, and I would feed the baby and Debbie would burp the baby.

00:56:12.660 - 00:56:23.190

It was a real mom and mom operation. And it was it was just wonderful. That's so great. That is so great. Uh, all right, it's time to ask you about Hadassah.

00:56:23.760 - 00:56:37.290

This could be an interview subject in and of itself. How did you first become involved with Hadassah? And actually, for someone watching this interview who's not familiar with the organization, just say a few words about what Hadassah is and its mission.

00:56:37.290 - 00:56:53.850

Okay. Do we have two days to do this interview? So okay, so Hadassah is the Women's Zionist Organization of America. It was founded in 1912 by Henrietta Szold, who went to Palestine with her mother on a trip after she had a

00:56:53.850 - 00:57:11.190

breakup or a sad ending to a love story. And they saw these people with eye disease. And she came back to America, to New York, and decided with her study group, that they should raise money to send a nurse to

00:57:11.190 - 00:57:26.490

Israel to help take care of these people. Um, they met in March of 1912 is when they, um, they got together and formed the actual organization, Hadassah, which is the Hebrew name for Esther.

00:57:26.490 - 00:57:44.340

They named it that because Esther was the heroine of the Purim story. So fast forward 100 and this is 2023. So 111 years later, Hadassah has 300,000 members and associate members, those are the guys who support Hadassah and

00:57:44.340 - 00:57:59.130

supporters. And what we do is run two hospitals in Israel, in Jerusalem at Mount Scopus and Ein Kerem. We have Youth Aliyah villages. We've had 300,000 kids come through there, and I got involved simply

00:57:59.130 - 00:58:09.000

because two people said, Linda, will you come to a membership party? And I went to a membership party at a clubhouse. I knew a lot of the women there. It was fun. It was Israel.

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I had lived in Israel for a year after high school, I had gone on an international leadership training program sponsored by the Jewish Agency. I was a representative of BBYO, and so I already, you know, I had a tight connection to Israel, and it seemed like a good thing to do.

00:58:27.150 - 00:58:45.690

I joined that night as a life member, became active immediately and have been the group president, Houston chapter president, Greater Southwest Region president, and currently I am the national keepers of the Gate chair. My sister Judy was also very active and still is

00:58:45.690 - 00:59:04.740

involved. Um, and she is a past president of Emma Lazarus Hadassah, like I was, and she is also a past Houston chapter president. Um, and uh, very proud to say everyone in our family, Mark and Twilight, Donny and Martha, Judy and Ronnie Giambra,

00:59:04.740 - 00:59:20.280

myself and Nelson and my dad of blessed memory and my mom currently are all major supporters of Hadassah. And, um, it's just a phenomenal organization. Outstanding. Incredible, intelligent, fabulous, fun

00:59:20.280 - 00:59:39.150

women. I have friends all over the country and a ton in Israel, and it's just such an honor to represent Hadassah, I love it. Tell us some of your favorite Hadassah related stories. Either events that you've done, trips to Israel that you've taken, uh,

00:59:39.150 - 00:59:50.460

how you've seen the impact of the organization that you've done so much for firsthand? Um, boy, that's a hard question because there's so many. But, uh, the impact, I'll tell you.

00:59:50.520 - 01:00:04.890

Um, when I was Houston chapter president, the federation called Barb Bratter at the federation called and said there are funds allocated for children at risk overseas. Could I tell her something about the work that Hadassah does?

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And I just had a quick brainstorm. We had a quota that the chapter needed to raise for Youth Aliyah. And I said, could I come and meet with you and whoever else needs to hear this? I got information from National.

01:00:18.000 - 01:00:33.400

I put together a little cut and paste situation with folders and brochures, and I presented the idea. Um, they had $61,700 that I was told if we get some, we not necessarily would get it all.

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So I came in and sat down and said, how about if Houston Hadassah adds 27,300 and let's make a community gift and leverage our dollars. They loved it.

01:00:45.820 - 01:01:00.640

And that create that partnership that was created is phenomenal. And that's one of the things I'm most proud of. Over the years, we had so many funds come in. We, the federation has donated $1.2 million to

01:01:00.790 - 01:01:16.060

Hadassah over about a 15-year period. Um, and I am so proud of that. Some of it was for emergency campaigns after some wars. Um, some of it was most of it to Youth Aliyah, and I'm super proud of that.

01:01:16.060 - 01:01:31.210

But, um, it's interesting when I'm in Israel, anybody you talk to has a connection to Hadassah. I'm proud to say we have four of our grandchildren who were born at Hadassah Hospital. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever even imagine I would have kids

01:01:31.210 - 01:01:46.120

living in Israel, much less have grandkids born at Hadassah Hospital. But there are so many stories connected to the research. There's, uh, locally. Um, I mean, I know people personally who with MS who

01:01:46.150 - 01:02:01.180

were in Dallas, Malia Littman, who was literally wheelchair bound, she could not walk at all. And she had stem cell research done. And they took her stem cells, put them in a petri dish, did their magic,

01:02:01.180 - 01:02:13.270

re-implanted or re-infused them. And she can walk today. I mean, it's just incredible stories and people I know locally, we had a story as well. Um, but you meet a cab driver.

01:02:13.270 - 01:02:24.310

And by the way, if you ever want to find out anything about somebody, if you just asked your cab driver. So were you born here in Jerusalem? You will get their whole family history.

01:02:24.310 - 01:02:36.160

And I've been invited for Shabbat dinner by some of them. But, um, anyway, one of the cab drivers said, so what are you after? He told me his story and he said, what are you doing here? And I said, I'm a volunteer with Hadassah.

01:02:36.160 - 01:02:45.160

And he I said, you know, about Hadassah? And he had a big smile. And he said, do I know about Hadassah? He said, after the war with Lebanon.

01:02:45.160 - 01:02:57.430

He said, I was hit with shrapnel all over my arms and legs. He said I was in Hadassah Hospital for four months, and after that went every day for physical therapy for four months. And he said, you see this?

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And he shows me his hand. And he said, these are the scars. And I said, okay, but please look at the road. And so he did.

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And afterwards I said, I'm going to tell your story. I said, that's what we do, and your story is wonderful. And I'm going to tell your story to people when I go back to Houston, Texas. And he said, well, we could make a video.

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And I said, well, it's not necessary. He said, my wife would like to be in it. I said, well, that's okay, I'll just take a picture. And anyway, another time I was with my class of region presidents.

01:03:28.210 - 01:03:42.160

We had gone synagogue hopping on Shabbat, and we had a lanyard around our necks that said Hadassah. And after services, a woman comes up to me in Hebrew, speaks and says, what is this to do with Hadassah?

01:03:42.160 - 01:03:56.380

Who are you? And I explained, we were a group of presidents, of leaders in the United States. And and she said, Hadassah saved my, I'll get it verklepmt now, Hadassah saved my granddaughter's life.

01:03:56.380 - 01:04:11.170

And I'm wide eyed and listening. And she said her granddaughter was born premature with a heart problem. And at three months, they did open heart surgery. And the granddaughter is absolutely fine, beautiful and healthy and,

01:04:11.170 - 01:04:25.930

by the way, has down syndrome. And we all were like sobbing, listening to her story and how grateful she was. But this is just everybody on the street has got a story, a connection. And if they haven't been to Hadassah Hospital, then they've got a

01:04:25.930 - 01:04:39.310

relative for sure who has so. It's just amazing to feel like you make an impact on the world. Oh yeah. Take us behind the curtain of, you know, being regional president of Hadassah. What does that what does that entail?

01:04:39.310 - 01:04:53.260

How many hours a week? What kinds of work what what what do regional presidents like yourself do? So not every region president has it the same type of job or responsibility and not ever.

01:04:53.980 - 01:05:04.660

I was able to put in a ton of time and was an incredibly active Region president. I went to every groups meetings. There are 15 groups in Houston.

01:05:04.660 - 01:05:17.560

I went to at least one meeting every year of every group in Houston. I was able to travel to Dallas. I was invited to Dallas and San Antonio and Austin. And I happen to love speaking about Hadassah.

01:05:18.040 - 01:05:31.090

And I get invited a lot. I'm I'm. I'm getting ready to go to Los Angeles in a week to speak at a fundraiser, and I'm going to Austin in the next couple of months. But, um, I was able to really be a very hands-on

01:05:32.380 - 01:05:47.590

president, and that meant hundreds of hours on the phone. I probably put in, I'm guessing 25 to 30 hours a week on Hadassah. Um, some weeks more, some weeks less. Um, I'm a creative person.

01:05:47.590 - 01:06:01.480

My region board meetings were always fun. I had really fun icebreakers, and we did just a lot of fun, creative things. But we got our work done. We, you know, had goals, fundraising goals, membership goals, goals.

01:06:01.480 - 01:06:14.140

And anyway, it's just a real honor to do the job. And I was told I shouldn't use the word job because it sounded like work. And I said, there's no question. There was a lot of work and it was a wonderful job.

01:06:14.140 - 01:06:29.670

So one that I loved. Mhm. That's great. Okay. Um, we talked earlier about how the game of bridge brought your parents together, and there's another game, Mahjong, that's very, very important to you.

01:06:29.700 - 01:06:38.700

Funny you should mention that. Tell us about Mahjong. I love mahjong. I admit, if there was an MJ addicts

01:06:38.700 - 01:06:49.230

group, I should go to that. Um, I could play mahjong every day, and there have been some times where I feel like I have. Um. I heard the tiles in utero.

01:06:49.260 - 01:07:05.100

My mom was an avid mahjong player as well as a bridge player, and I learned in 1983, a group of friends were all learning to play or they invited me. There was a group of 12 or 14 of us and I picked it up that night, which

01:07:05.100 - 01:07:20.190

is was fun and I was just loving it. So I am in a regular Tuesday night group and a Wednesday group, and there's a pickup group that plays on the weekends. I travel to go to national tournaments and very proud to say

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I've actually placed in eight national tournaments, and I just came in first place a couple of weeks ago at a national tournament. I've won a bunch of local tournaments as well, and I actually am the person who brought the concept of a mahjong tournament to Houston.

01:07:36.660 - 01:07:51.570

I'm getting ready to run my 30th annual mahjong tournament benefiting Hadassah, of course, and that's this in October. And I have taught other synagogue Sisterhoods and other Hadassah groups how to run mahjong tournaments.

01:07:52.050 - 01:08:04.470

So there are several in Houston every year that are local tournaments. Best prize ever won first place at the Beth Yeshurun Big Tournament. I won an electric mahjong table. That was a major win.

01:08:04.470 - 01:08:17.790

And anyway. And the other ones, I've won cash and that's fabulous too. But I love it. I also teach and I've been teaching for 30 years, so I've taught at least, uh, I would say 600 people.

01:08:17.790 - 01:08:28.020

And we laugh. I still to this day get phone calls from people. I have no idea about their names anymore because, I mean, I remember a ton, but not everyone.

01:08:28.020 - 01:08:40.470

And I always laughed and said I should have the a rubber bracelet that because everybody always says WWLD. What would Linda do? With my phone number, I should have that WWLD and people could call me with their

01:08:40.470 - 01:08:55.120

mahjong questions. But I totally love it and totally addicted What is it about mahjong? Take us into the game a little bit more. What about mahjong is it that you find so addicting, so appealing as

01:08:55.120 - 01:09:01.960

opposed to any other game? Um. It's. First of all, it's. It's not just about the game. I'm glad you asked that question.

01:09:01.960 - 01:09:18.940

If you are lucky enough to connect with a group of people who become lifelong friends, what a gift. And I am. I have been playing with my Wednesday group with Carol Samet, Debbie Gottesman, Sarah Bram, and Sally Pair for probably 30 years at

01:09:18.940 - 01:09:36.940

least. And I always tell people, if you really get into a good group, you will no longer need any kind of doctors, you will no longer need any kind of guidance to do anything because somebody in the group will have experienced whatever it is you're going through, so you will get all the advice you ever needed, wanted, or did

01:09:36.940 - 01:09:51.290

not want, but that the connection with people, I mean, you said it's social, it's fast. Hopefully if it's not fast, I won't play in that game. But it's fast in terms of it's a new game every 12 to 15

01:09:51.290 - 01:10:04.720

minutes. So it's it's a, you know, it's a quick-thinking game. And um, it's just it's great. It's good for your mind. And anyway, we also so we host every five weeks since there's

01:10:04.720 - 01:10:16.090

five of us in the group, we make a nice lunch. So it's a real social day. And other groups play for two and three hours. We play from 11 to 5 and we serve lunch and my night group on Tuesdays

01:10:16.090 - 01:10:23.950

we play from 630 to 11. We are definitely all hooked. We had to schedule this interview around your mahjong schedule. No joke.

01:10:26.260 - 01:10:37.060

That's really fantastic. Um, well, we're getting near the end now. And, um, what a blessing. What a miracle. Your mother, Betty, is still with us.

01:10:37.060 - 01:10:49.960

Tell us about Betty. Tell us about what how Betty is doing and how she keeps busy. She is doing okay. She's definitely at age 95 now, you know, having some short-term memory issues.

01:10:49.960 - 01:11:04.300

But overall, she's delighted to be with the family. And really, all of her time is spent pretty much with family at this point. She doesn't get out and play bridge at these days. But, um, you know, she's had an incredible life and she knows it.

01:11:04.570 - 01:11:19.900

Um, when she wrote a book. My mom is an excellent writer, has a great sense of humor. And, um, a few years ago, I guess on her 90th birthday. It's so awesome. My nieces, Ilana Freedman and Emily Freedman, they would send

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her a question every week and she would answer it. And so she wrote. And her writing is humorous and she's articulate. It's fabulous. And the book was put together.

01:11:32.350 - 01:11:47.560

There's 50 chapters and tons of pictures from family activities. We've been very blessed to have a lot of family time together. From days when we went to the beach in Galveston every week with tons of

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cousins to Zibolski Beach, which as an adult, I found out there really is no Zibolski beach. They just had a sign that they'd stick in the sand. But um, anyway, we've had a lot of travel, family

01:12:00.730 - 01:12:17.980

trips. Um, and so we've got so many incredible memories. Um, every grandchild, my mother has 13 grandkids, nine are married, so 22 grandkids. Uh, she just had her 23rd great grandchild a couple of months ago.

01:12:17.980 - 01:12:31.870

And, um, it's it's she knows that she's had a very blessed life and very proud. I remember she told me a long time ago, she said she's never had an argument with any family member, and she's just a peacemaker and

01:12:32.650 - 01:12:48.340

warm, open heart. Big heart, and just a fabulous, um, wonderful mom and grandmother and great grandmother and aunt and friend and sister and just all and wife and and, uh, pretty

01:12:48.850 - 01:12:54.910

fabulous person. Great. That's great. Linda, thank you so much. This has been so fun.

01:12:54.910 - 01:13:14.170

I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do this to record your story. Thanks. The, um, one thing I wanted to add, um, I, in researching family information, I just feel so incredibly proud from all of the businesses that our

01:13:14.170 - 01:13:33.430

family has owned or operated from all the Freedman packing, all the meat industry and the Levitt family from Grocer Supply and Fiesta supermarkets and the rice food market and Rothman's Jewelers, Levitz Jewelers,

01:13:33.460 - 01:13:50.530

Nathan Lewis jewelers, we realized that our family, this was pointed out by another cousin, has actually been responsible for the livelihoods of over 10,000 families over the years in Houston. And I'm just really incredibly proud that we've been blessed to

01:13:50.530 - 01:14:06.360

be in a position to provide that kind of livelihoods to people. It's just pretty amazing. I hadn't thought about it until somebody added, you know, a piece of information here and there, and it just added up and just feel pretty darn lucky.

01:14:06.450 - 01:14:09.330

What a legacy. Thank you so much, Linda. Sure.