00:00:04.700 - 00:00:27.730

My name is Joshua Furman. I'm the curator of the Houston Jewish History Archive at Rice University. Today is August 27th, 2021. And I am joined by Sonia Farb Raizes, all the way in Washington D. C. our nation's capital. Sonia, how are you today? I'm fine. Great.

00:00:27.740 - 00:00:53.510

I'm so excited that you're joining me to talk all about your family's history in Galveston and Texas City and your many, many years here in Houston with your husband Harold, of blessed memory, and your wonderful family. So let's start by talking about

00:00:53.770 - 00:01:14.980

your parents and your childhood. Tell us when you were born and tell us a little bit about your mother and your father and your siblings. I was born in Galveston, Texas: a mother and daddy, A. C. and Celia Farb. Her maiden name was Rubinstein. She was from

00:01:14.980 - 00:01:41.430

Houston originally, and daddy was from born and raised in Galveston, Texas. And uh we lived next door to my grandparents in Galveston, at 1704 Avenue K. And they had the house next door to us and we had a very nice childhood. We didn't have any

00:01:41.430 - 00:02:03.180

money but I didn't know that. And I guess everybody was in the same boat and we all got along fine. And were your parents born and born in Texas? How did they make their way here? Well, mother was born in New York as a little

00:02:03.180 - 00:02:32.390

child but she and my grandparents came to Houston when she was three years old. And daddy was born and raised in Galveston. I think it was in 1896 something like that. And he lived his whole life all his education, he was so sort of the family

00:02:32.400 - 00:02:56.650

spokesman, he was the oldest oldest child. And my grandparents were born in Europe and didn't speak English when they first came here. In fact grandma didn't speak English. I was seven years old, I said grandma, you need to learn how to speak English, quit speaking Yiddish,

00:02:56.660 - 00:03:21.610

you're in America now and you should talk to everybody. And grandpa got her a black tutor. Came up through the alley and taught grandma how to speak English and how to write it, and she did very well. Wow, that's quite the story. Do you know

00:03:21.610 - 00:03:45.940

how your parents met? He met at a ZOA picnic in Dickinson, teas which is a small town between Houston and Galveston. And dad, she was 14 years old, he was seven years older. He said he went home to his mother and he said mother,

00:03:46.200 - 00:04:07.990

I've met the girl I'm gonna marry. I guess he was taken with her and that was it. And when did when did A C and Celia get married? Well it was much later, daddy went off to war. He went to France and served in World War

00:04:07.990 - 00:04:33.100

I. And at that point he wrote her letters. She had these long letters. She kept them all, and they got married when he came back. I think he was 21 and by then she was older. And then she moved to Galveston and she and my grandmother

00:04:33.100 - 00:04:59.030

were very close. In fact, grandma wouldn't buy a hat or anything else unless my mother would go shopping with her. So that was that was a nice marriage. That's wonderful. Um and now tell us um you were born in 1927, is that right? That's correct. March,

00:04:59.040 - 00:05:28.710

March 15, 1927 at St. Mary's Hospital in Galveston. And you had how many siblings? I had three. There was two girls, three girls and my brother was the oldest. He was seven, he was six years older than I was. And then the girls came right after I

00:05:28.710 - 00:05:55.050

was born. And what were their names? Lee, Hortense Leah was the next one and then Devorah. Devorah was the baby. Right? So um your your father had a had a store in Galveston, but the Depression was was very difficult. Was it not? Yes. In fact, when

00:05:55.050 - 00:06:20.790

the Depression came, he lost his drug store. And he lost all his property that he had off of 60th Street. My daddy loved property and he had a lot of property in Galveston and he lost it all. Somewhat later, he went to his brother and ask

00:06:20.790 - 00:06:40.810

him for some money to start a new business. And the brother said he'd give it to him but he never sent it to him. And then daddy finally went to Mr. Hauser, a friend in he in Galveston and he gave loan him the money loaned him

00:06:40.810 - 00:07:06.600

$300. And with that he went to Texas City, which was 14 miles away. It's it's still there. It's a refinery city. And when he got sort of settled there then he brought mother and all all four of the Children there. Yeah, we settled we got

00:07:06.600 - 00:07:29.760

a very small bungalow of a house. I remember going up the steps, was three steps, up onto the ah porch and the whole house shook every time we walked on the steps. But the only good thing it had a lemon tree in the back, and we

00:07:29.760 - 00:07:51.590

had a lot of lemonade. But I loved living. I was 10 years old when we had moved there and we were the only Jewish family. In fact, the other man Mr. um Acree had the other drug store in town and he said I'm gonna take

00:07:51.590 - 00:08:15.680

that Jew and run him out of town. He won't be here very long. But daddy was smart enough. He built his business just a few blocks from the ports of Texas City. And soon when the War War I, World War II, came all the sailors came

00:08:15.680 - 00:08:42.050

to Texas City. And because of the refinery and daddy's business bloomed. And he worked every day, except Sunday, from 7:00 in the morning till 11:00 at night. He used to come home for lunch and he'd stay at home and he'd rest and he'd take mother back to the store

00:08:42.060 - 00:09:05.010

and she would stay there for two hours while he rested in the afternoon. And then he'd go back. We didn't have a vacation for years. And did you work in the store also growing up? Yes. When I got to be 12, he said to me he

00:09:05.010 - 00:09:28.960

needs somebody to run the soda fountain. So that's what I did during the summer. I worked two weeks, running, being the manager and running all day and it was a very busy soda fountain. And then the other two weeks my younger sister worked and I went

00:09:28.960 - 00:09:53.630

to Galveston. I took the bus and went to Galveston and stayed with my grandparents and I stayed on the beach and played with the other kids and had a good time. That worked fine. You know we hated leaving the grandparents, but Texas City was only 14

00:09:53.640 - 00:10:15.740

miles away, which doesn't seem long, but people didn't make a lot of uh car trips back and forth. But every Sunday we went back, stayed with my grandparents, had lunch and then I went to Young Judaea in Galveston on every Sunday. And so that was a

00:10:15.740 - 00:10:35.460

nice day for me. Tell me more about, you know, Sabbath and Jewish holidays growing up. Would you go back to Galveston to spend them with family? Would you celebrate them in Texas City? No, we we were the only Jewish family in Texas City, so we were

00:10:35.460 - 00:11:01.020

all isolated as far as Judaism. We'd go back for every holiday and spend it with grandparents and have dinner and breakfast and lunch with them and enjoyed all the holidays, and we walked to synagogue in Galveston because it was only about six or seven my six

00:11:01.020 - 00:11:26.200

or seven blocks from the synagogue, and so that's what we did. My grandparents were very Orthodox. They never lost their faith. They never lost being Orthodox the whole time. They were in Galveston. And uh my daddy kept the store open on saturday, which surprised me now,

00:11:26.210 - 00:11:48.670

looking back at his Orthodoxy, but I guess that was something he had to do. Tell me about about Beth Jacob in Galveston. What what are your memories of it? Well, it was very fond memories of course all the kids in Galveston congregated there. That was the

00:11:48.670 - 00:12:11.190

thing to do. There was always a few Reform, but mostly we didn't have anything to do with the Jews in the Reform Synag-- Temple and it was Orthodox at the beginning and everything was done in Yiddish until World War II, and the boys started coming back

00:12:11.200 - 00:12:43.180

speaking English and they finally got the rabbi to do his sermon in English. And that was about 1945 or '46 before they spoke English. It was Rabbi Feigon who was there about 40 years. He was a wonderful rabbi. I, I went to Sunday school, I didn't, being

00:12:43.180 - 00:13:07.120

a girl, I didn't go to Hebrew school. My brother went to Hebrew school. He was six years older and I started going there, and then my sisters, as they got older, went to Hebrew school. I went to Sunday school. And did they have confirmation for girls

00:13:07.120 - 00:13:31.480

at that time? It did and I was confirmed with about other girls and boys. That was our group. We had about, must have been about 15 or 18 of us in the class. Mhm. And tell me a little bit more about the Young Judaea group were

00:13:31.480 - 00:13:54.740

active in. What kinds of activities did they? We had a lot of activities outside in the synagogue lot. We used to play foot, watch football and baseball. I never played it. They always let the girls be on the side watching, and the boys played, and we had

00:13:54.740 - 00:14:13.940

dances in the synagogue. In fact, when I got older, I remember we were all at the beach one night and somebody said "Let's go dance." "Where are we gonna dance?" We didn't have any money. "Well let's go to the synagogue. I know how to get in

00:14:13.950 - 00:14:35.010

because the window will be open." So we got one fella, he went through the window and opened it up, opened the front door and we all went in and we had a wonderful time dancing and just socializing and the rabbi finally came. He was so mad

00:14:35.020 - 00:14:55.670

he said, "All you kids go home, I'm gonna call all your family and tell them you broke into the synagogue. That's terrible." And, you know today rabbis will be thrilled if the kids come back and be part of the synagogue. But he was hysterical. I'll never

00:14:55.680 - 00:15:17.500

forget. Wow! Oh my gosh Sonia, what what a story. You know we're coming up on Rosh Hashanah in a couple of days here. I'm curious to just hear some Rosh Hashanah memories from Galveston in Texas City. Well, nothing in Texas City as far as religion, it

00:15:17.500 - 00:15:41.090

was just a place to live and to work and make friends. I had all non-Jewish friends. But everything happened at the synagogue Beth Jacob, in Galveston. And uh I remember my great-grandmother was sitting in the back with the sheitel and uh praying.

00:15:41.100 - 00:16:06.340

It was all the women were upstairs and the men were downstairs. And it was always a very nice service and the kids came to service, sat there all day, and my grandmother would send me home to feed the younger kids, and I'd always find everything in

00:16:06.340 - 00:16:30.020

the refrigerator. And what were, on that note of food, what were some of the dishes that you can recall, you know, growing up around your parents and your grandmother? Well grandma was a wonderful cook of Jewish foods. She wasn't a good cook otherwise, as I remember.

00:16:30.030 - 00:16:54.100

But we always had gefilte fish which she made by hand and started with scratch, and she made teiglach look and she made um she made onion pletzels, which are an onion cookie. I still make it today And my aunt finally watched my grandmother

00:16:54.100 - 00:17:22.660

cook, and she measured everything because grandma didn't measure anything. She threw in everything. And grandma made uh veranikas, which was a wonderful baked uh dough. And inside it was brisket and onions and an egg and she wrapped that up. It was so good. Or else she

00:17:22.660 - 00:17:50.160

made it, uh parve with baked potatoes and onions in the in the middle of the dough and that was wonderful. She whole cabbage and all the Jewish items. She she she made her own noodles. I remember how she made them and cut them and strung

00:17:50.170 - 00:18:11.430

strung them out on the bed on a clean cloth, and then she'd put the noodles on top of it to dry. She she was a good cook. Wow, that's wonderful. Um Changing gears a little bit now. You know, growing up as you did in Texas City,

00:18:11.430 - 00:18:26.430

the only Jewish family you must have, you know gone to school and been the only Jewish child in your grade. What was that like? Did you, I mean did your did your, you know gentile classmates and friends accept you? Did you experience any kind of anti-

00:18:26.430 - 00:18:52.470

Semitism? I really never did. Um there were a lot of Spanish speaking girls in my class, that I if I remember, and they were all friendly and I never had any feeling of anti-Semitic feeling. And my best girlfriend was Adela Weathers. I used to go

00:18:52.470 - 00:19:19.780

there all summer. I had nothing else to do before I started working, and I went to uh religious camp with her at a religious temp, syn-- a church. and I went all the time. My mother knew it and I never became Christian. I guess they probably

00:19:19.790 - 00:19:39.780

just-- and the fact that I, as I got older, I worked at the at the drugstore, and they all used to come in and I'd give them extra dip of ice cream or something, so I was a very special friend of theirs. I never had

00:19:39.790 - 00:20:01.240

any feeling of not being accepted. In fact, when I was in junior high in Texas City, I was voted the most popular girl in the in the class. So, I guess there was no feeling that I was different and I never talked about my religion. I

00:20:01.240 - 00:20:30.070

never went to synagogue. There was no synagogue in Texas City. And when I went it was uh Sunday. You went to Galveston on Sundays for school and and Jewish youth groups and activities like that For everything. What about, I mean, can you tell us about, you

00:20:30.070 - 00:20:53.030

know, Texas in those years and you know, being segregated with you know, separate schools and water fountains and seats on the bus. I mean, is that something that you remember vividly? I do, there was no Blacks in our school, and, in fact, I don't remember there

00:20:53.030 - 00:21:16.500

being many Blacks in the city. There were just a few and they didn't have housing, and my daddy, when he got settled into the drug store, started building small, inexpensive homes for all the Black people. There was a section, back of our drug store, just for

00:21:16.500 - 00:21:41.950

blacks. And Daddy used to build houses and lend them money and, at a very large percentage of interest, as I remember. I used to go with him to collect rent, and Daddy was a very small man, he was only about 5'4" and small, and he'd get

00:21:41.950 - 00:22:01.790

up on the top step and he'd have the Black man, who was always much taller than he, would come down at the bottom of the step and he'd get up on the top step so he'd be eye level. And he always had a good relationship with

00:22:01.790 - 00:22:34.260

all the Black people. Mhm. And they were they were definitely segregated in the community, so I didn't have too much to do with any of them. I didn't go to school with them or no socializing. Um, okay why don't we talk about then? Um, after you

00:22:34.260 - 00:22:57.360

left you left Texas City for school, what happened? Where did you go then? Well my mother selected a very select girls school in Columbia, Missouri, and I went there. I didn't want to go to a girls' school. It was all girls, but my mother sent me

00:22:57.360 - 00:23:19.690

and I went. I used to love to date at a young age. I started dating when I was about 14, and uh the boys didn't have any money, so we just take walks or go on the beach, but, I went to this school and there was

00:23:19.690 - 00:23:47.030

very few boys there because it was during the war and were all off at service. I graduated there with an AA degree. It was a very fine school. I didn't want to go, but I loved it. And I happened to end up with two or 3, 3, 2, 2

00:23:47.100 - 00:24:07.730

and myself was three roommates that were all Jewish and one that was non-Jewish. We all got along famously and had a wonderful time. It was a wonderful school. It had a big lake with all kinds of boats. They had an airplane to teach us how

00:24:07.730 - 00:24:33.770

to fly, if we wanted to. We had a good arithmetic and uh geometry and algebra. I remember I was the president of the algebra class, because I was very good at algebra, and they had a wonderful drama department. It was a very fine finishing school. And

00:24:33.770 - 00:25:02.130

then I went to Texas University in Austin. Right, right. And then how did you, how did you ultimately come back to Texas City after that? Well, when I was in my senior year at Texas University, I became engaged to it dentist in Cleveland, which is where

00:25:02.130 - 00:25:26.910

my, one of my roommates lived. I used to go visit her a lot. I liked her very much and I became engaged, so I went back to Texas City. I didn't graduate college. I had eight more credits that I needed. Before graduating. I went back to Texas

00:25:26.910 - 00:25:51.540

City and got ready to get married and eventually broke my engagement in Jan in January. And uh then I went, I was in Cleveland when I broke my engagement and went back to Texas City where I stayed till April. My mother finally said, "You're not gonna

00:25:51.540 - 00:26:10.830

be able to sit here forever. There's no Jewish boys here. You're gonna have to go to Houston and get a job or find another man to marry." Well, the thought of going to that big city was very frightening to me. So I thought, "Maybe I'd better

00:26:10.830 - 00:26:37.580

start looking." should I get that? It was quick. Um So anyway, I broke my engagement, then I started thinking I'll have to look for a husband in in april was when the ship in the dock at in Texas City burned. The whole ship burned. It had

00:26:37.580 - 00:27:13.600

highly uh some kind of, ah some very explosive material in it. And everybody went down to see what was happening, 600 people, and when they train, the plane that is, exploded. All 600 people were killed. It was a terrible thing. So we didn't go down and

00:27:14.220 - 00:27:37.040

I got up that morning and there was a bomb, a piece of the claim, that the train, that had not the train. This ship that had exploded had gone right through, near my bed. It was just about that far from the bed when it happened, and

00:27:37.040 - 00:27:58.540

it woke me up and I went down and all the windows in the house had exploded out, and I started sweeping it up because mother wasn't home. And she finally came home and daddy picked us up said, "We're going to Galveston." Because that they say that

00:27:58.620 - 00:28:21.360

that ship could this was sitting next to it could explode. And uh we're gonna go to Galveston, not wait for anything terrible. So he picked up my younger sisters. They were at school, and we drove off to Galveston. At that time, my aunt that I had

00:28:21.360 - 00:28:47.200

met Harold at her wedding. She, because her husband was located in Galveston. By that time, they had gone back to Mason City of making um Iowa, Mason, Mason, Mason in City, Iowa. Uh, they had gone back to live and they were best friends with Harold, and

00:28:47.200 - 00:29:07.400

they all called to see if we were ok from the explosion because it was known throughout the United States what had happened. And Harold said, "You know, if your mother let you, uh Sadie and Dick, your aunt and uncle, will come with me and they'll be

00:29:07.400 - 00:29:28.170

the chaperone, and if you'll come and spend a weekend in Chicago." So I asked my mother if I could go and she said "Yes, but I don't want him to send you a plane ticket. I'll pay for it myself. I don't want you to be obligated

00:29:28.180 - 00:29:48.500

to that young man." So I went there, and I, I had met Harold at the wedding, and he had wanted to come to Texas University to see me. I didn't care for him. I said "No, I've got too many things I have to write and I

00:29:48.500 - 00:30:09.490

have a lot of studying to do, and I can't see. I'm too busy." But anyway, that sounded like a lot of fun to go to Chicago. I've never been there. And so I went there for the weekend. We had a wonderful time. Went to all the

00:30:10.260 - 00:30:33.520

um dances at the hotel and everything, and Harold was a good dancer. So we had a very good time. Then, I drove back to Mason City with them in the car, and uh I stayed there about 2.5 months. I dated Harold every night. He came over

00:30:33.520 - 00:30:52.530

to my aunt's to eat or else we went out for dinner or to a movie. There was just one movie house in the city. And finally the last of August I said, "Well, I have to go home now," and I said, "Aren't we going to get

00:30:52.530 - 00:31:15.710

married?" And he said, "Yes." I said, "I just wondered how many children you want." He said, "What are you talking about?" I said, "Well if we get married, we're gonna have to have children." "Well," he said, " as many as you want." So we went back and

00:31:15.710 - 00:31:40.430

told his folks that we were engaged and then he came on down with the ring for me.---to Texas City. He stayed with us in our house. Wow, that's that's wonderful. That was an exciting time. Yeah. No I'm sure. So when when were you & Harold

00:31:40.430 - 00:32:14.970

married? Well, that was September and we got married that November. November 16, 1947. And then I went back to Iowa with Harold after the wedding. The wedding was at the Galvez Hotel. Wow. Did did Rabbi Feigon marry you? Yes, and when we went to see Rabbi, when

00:32:14.970 - 00:32:36.190

Harold was in Texas giving me my ring, we went to see him. He didn't talk anything about keeping Kosher or having a Jewish home. He just talked about his kids and when we left Harold said, "What was that about?" I said, "I don't have any idea."

00:32:37.480 - 00:33:00.530

but it's funny the things that you remember. Yeah, it's funny. So you you made your first married home in Mason City. Tell us a little bit about Mason City about the Jewish community there. It was a very close community. They had a conservative rabbi. They had

00:33:00.530 - 00:33:23.450

a home for him. They had built it, it was a two- story brick home, right next to the synagogue. He was a wonderful man. And there was 125 Jewish people in Mason City, and I didn't have anybody my age. I was 20 when I

00:33:23.450 - 00:33:47.910

got married. Everybody was about 40, so that's what I made my friends. And also Harold had a lot of non-Jewish friends that I made my friends. But mainly it was the Jewish women. And Harold, Harold had a store that he that he owned, that he

00:33:47.910 - 00:34:13.480

worked in. No. His family had a big dry goods place that had all kinds of clothes for farmers, because there was a lot of farm land around Mason City. And they were very successful. In fact they had already opened up a grocery store in conjunction with

00:34:13.480 - 00:34:40.300

the clothes. They had clothing for children and adults, and shoes and clothes, and fabric and everything. And during the war, they sent for Harold. His daddy and mother had retired to Tucson, Arizona because the winters were so bad and he, his brothers were running the store.

00:34:40.310 - 00:35:07.590

Harold was at Arizona University, and they called him to come back because the brothers were called into the service. Uh Leon was called into the Army, and Milton was called into the, I think this into the Air Force. And so Harold came back from, he quit

00:35:07.590 - 00:35:30.760

college and came back, and started running the store. He ran it by himself. In fact, he became the, months later his butcher was called to service, and he became the butcher. And he went, a friend of his had a slaughterhouse in Mason City and he went

00:35:30.760 - 00:35:57.290

there and learned how to cut up everything. And so therefore, he was a wonderful person to carve turkeys and things like that. Sure, So that's what he did. After service, after his brothers came back from war, uh they wanted their jobs back. So they told Harold

00:35:57.290 - 00:36:23.290

to get out. And he and a cousin, we went together, and got the first Lincoln and Mercury, are, are car agency and that was the first Jewish person that Ford ever gave an agency to. And one of the Fords himself called and said, do you know

00:36:23.290 - 00:36:46.060

why you got this so quick?" And Harold said, "I think I do, because your grandfather was so anti-Semitic." He said, "That's right. And so Harold went into the car business. He was in that for 6.5 years. Well he was in it for about two or

00:36:46.060 - 00:37:08.120

three years, and then when we got married, he was in it for 6.5 years when the uncle had a heart attack. And, he lived in Minneapolis and just decided Harold should sell the car agency. I don't, now that I think about it, I guess he didn't

00:37:08.130 - 00:37:30.700

think Harold could run it himself. But he could have. He didn't really want to stay in that cold climate. He was sick of that. He wanted to go somewhere that was warmer and, also by then we had two children. He said he wanted a

00:37:30.710 - 00:37:58.240

good education, Jewish education for the children, for our children. And so with that we moved to Houston. My folks had just retired and moved from Texas City to Houston? So that that started our life in Houston. You would have come down to Houston in what, 1953, 1954

00:37:59.930 - 00:38:23.830

April of '52 I think, '50 It was either '52 or '53. So you've gone from, so you've lived most of your life and you know in small towns, Galveston, Texas City, Mason City, Iowa. Tell us about, you know, moving to moving to Houston. Not that Houston

00:38:23.830 - 00:38:51.560

was, You know, such a big place in 1953, but certainly much bigger than anywhere else you lived. It was 250,000 people and Mason City was 25,000, so it was a small country town. And I had learned how to drive about two years before. My daddy always

00:38:51.560 - 00:39:09.930

said he'd take me anywhere I needed to go. I didn't need to learn how to drive. So, I finally learned how to drive in Mason City. And then, when I got to Houston, I moved in with my mother and daddy, just to see if we liked

00:39:09.930 - 00:39:31.500

it. And I, my mother never drove, and so I started driving her everywhere and I was petrified. Of course it was just two lanes going downtown. And I remember being so scared because every time I drive down, the car would come up on my side and

00:39:31.500 - 00:39:55.440

pass me. I guess I was driving so slow, but mother didn't know the difference. Right, yeah. Where did your, where did your parents have their home in Houston when they retired here? Well, first they lived in a apartment. And then, they finally built a beautiful home

00:39:55.450 - 00:40:24.790

on Parkwood off of Scott Street in Houston. It was it was all white then an all-white neighborhood. And Beth Yeshurun had just built their synagogue on right near off of Scott. And that's where we joined. And my folks belong there too. And Houston was

00:40:24.790 - 00:40:47.240

a very large town. In fact, our neighborhood was very excluded. My mother's neighborhood was very exclusive. The Battelsteins lived on one corner, the Sakowitz on another corner and A.C. Farb on the third corner. And Abe Fink on the fourth corner in this

00:40:47.240 - 00:41:11.570

big circle. And it was beautiful town and wonderful city that she lived in. And we, I was just there a few months when my friend from college --then Harold, we just stayed with my folk about two or three months when we bought a home in Houston.

00:41:11.600 - 00:41:36.060

We bought the home in Knollwood Village. Do you know where that is? Off of Main Street. Yeah. Main street and and and Braeswood. Tell me about Knollwood Village. It was just starting because the Silverman's had just started building. They were wonderful builders. And they

00:41:36.060 - 00:41:59.400

had all the homes for sale. Uh, they had a lot of lots that were empty and we bought one of the homes that they had built there. It was a very small three bedroom bungalow and had two bathrooms. And in fact, many, many, 50 years later

00:41:59.410 - 00:42:27.890

Harold asked me to drive him to Knollwood because we'd already moved by them and the house had the same tile in the bathrooms. But otherwise it was all brought up to date. And they were asking $269,000 for the house that we paid $17,000 or $18,000.

00:42:28.530 - 00:42:48.480

Wow. I think you said it was on Broadmead, right. It was on Broadmead, 3601 Broadmead. Uh and tell me about some of the other young Jewish families who also moved to Knollwood Village at that time. Well Celia and Charles Gaitz lived on the same

00:42:48.480 - 00:43:16.670

block. And Selma and Bernard Leff lived on the same block as we did. And Sophie and Jack Bender lived about three blocks away. Evan and Avrohm Wisenberg lived two or three blocks behind us. The Robinsons lived a couple of blocks down. It was all filled

00:43:16.670 - 00:43:41.840

with Jewish kids, pretty much. It was a lovely neighborhood. It was just off of Main Street. And we still would drive to get there to take the kids to school at Beth Yeshurun which was on offer Scott. Right, right. And and by that time when

00:43:41.840 - 00:44:04.870

you moved into the house on Broadmead, how many children did you have? We had two and then we very soon had the third when Francine was born at Methodist Hospital. And we stayed in the house about six years. And then Harold came home one day

00:44:04.880 - 00:44:28.950

and said, "I think we need to get a bigger home and a nicer house." Um And so we then decided to go to Meyerland. It was just starting as a wonderful new place in Houston. Okay. And then, so how did you go about finding a

00:44:28.950 - 00:44:53.840

home environment? Well, we happened to know a builder, was a friend of ours, Alan Buxbaum. Alan and Toby were good friends and we told him we were looking for a house that was four bedrooms, 3.5 baths and so forth and so on. And he said, "I'm

00:44:53.840 - 00:45:15.050

building." I said, "I'd like-" at that time it was very sociable and um "I'd like a living room that drops down about two steps." He said "I'm building that very house. I'll show it to you tomorrow." So I got my mother to come with me and

00:45:15.050 - 00:45:38.600

we went and looked at the house and Harold went with me. And we loved it and we decided to buy it. Wow. And what what year did you move into into the Meyerland house? 1960. Uh huh. And what was Meyerland like in 1960? I

00:45:38.600 - 00:46:02.190

mean as you said it was a relatively young neighborhood. Was it-- was very young. A lot of the people had a little nicer home there because they built a little extra bedroom or living room or whatever. but we bought one of the houses that was, it was a

00:46:02.190 - 00:46:26.890

model home. It had on the main street, it had six different builders with six different uh kind of homes and they were all very small. I think they were about 1600 feet, something like that maybe less. And your home was on Valkeith, is that right?

00:46:27.540 - 00:46:52.160

That's in Meyer Land, but in broad me yeah and then and then and and a lot of the young couples that had been living in Knollwood Village moved to Meyerland to get a bigger house and a bigger lot kids used to like to play in

00:46:52.160 - 00:47:18.700

the backyard, in the front yard. And so it was still a lot of my friends lived there. Very good. So there was a kind of migration out of the Knollwood village area into Meyerland by the early 1960s. It was. --- The only thing in in

00:47:18.700 - 00:47:38.900

Broadmead is that Evelyn came over one day, it was very exciting. She said would you help me with Hadassah work in the fall? This was during the summer. I said, "Yeah I'd be glad to do that." She just said help her. I thought she

00:47:38.900 - 00:48:04.250

was gonna do some big project. So, when I got to the meeting in September, they introduced me as the new vice president over donor. I was the vice president. So, I was sort of surprised but I accepted it. And started learning how to raise money, what

00:48:04.250 - 00:48:27.680

to do and how to do it. And the Jewish Federation helped me a lot. I became very active in the women's division. And Hilda Rich was in charge of the women's division at that time and she had all of us coming to leadership training on

00:48:27.680 - 00:48:51.950

how to fundraise. We met every Monday for six weeks. And if you didn't show up you couldn't keep the job. She wouldn't let you. So we all showed up and learned how to fundraise. Wow. And what we did, it was the old Jewish Community Center on...

00:48:52.660 - 00:49:21.630

what was that street? I can't remember the name of the street where the Center was. You're talking about the one that was on Hermann Drive? Yes. Sure. That's where we had our fundraising meetings and we used to go there all the time to go swimming and

00:49:21.640 - 00:49:44.680

we live there. At the JCC on Herman Drive. Sure. Used to take the kids there all the time. I had a good time. You'd meet everybody else in the community. They were all getting away from the heat. Ahh. Swimming and they had other things too. Yeah.

00:49:45.250 - 00:50:02.890

What about, do you remember some of the restaurants from that era? Do you remember like Kaplan's delicatessen? Yes, that was also on the same street at that time. It was very good. And Three Brothers were across the street from them. I can't remember the name of

00:50:02.890 - 00:50:28.760

the city, the street, but it was very exciting. There was only one nice restaurant in Houston, and that was called Pier 21. It was a fish place. They had that was open and otherwise it was Alfred delicatessen was in the Village. And then it finally moved

00:50:28.760 - 00:50:58.260

to uh, not Chimney Rock, Stella Link. Yeah, yeah, sure. Good. We loved the deli. Most of the residents, there was a Chinese place on Main Street that we all went to. And uh, went to the deli. It was so good. Yeah, I'm sure it was.

00:50:58.260 - 00:51:14.920

We have, we have an Alfred's menu in the collections here in the archives. So I can see what, what folks would would have been eating at that time. It's something else. I wanna come back to Hadassah a little bit because that, you know, chance conversation that

00:51:14.920 - 00:51:36.120

you had, you know, would you mind helping out? You know, it turned into a lifelong passion of yours and, and you obviously have spent decades fundraising and, and working on behalf of Hadassah um, talk a little bit about why Hadassah is, is so important to

00:51:36.120 - 00:52:00.120

you. Well, I guess first of all, it was my first really experience of being with a lot of Jewish women. Up till then I was in Macon, Georgia. I mean Macon, Iowa and uh, It would just be about 15 people would come to the meeting. It

00:52:00.120 - 00:52:25.550

was a small group of Hadassah women and sisterhood too. And when I got to Houston that was a lot of people and it was a good learning experience. It also had better leadership and more experienced leadership. And as well as all the projects were so

00:52:25.550 - 00:52:52.600

interesting to me. We had a medical center. We had Youth Aliyah Children. We had JNF trees and we had a vocational school for young girls and young boys. And there was a lot of education that was part of Hadassah. They really dwelt on Jewish education. So

00:52:52.610 - 00:53:12.040

I just found a home and I went up in the ladder. I became vice president and um, and I was president of the group, and then, I was president of the chapter. Then years later I became president of the region. And finally, went on the National

00:53:12.040 - 00:53:36.960

board and now I'm on, I was vice president after some years of doing fundraising. I was on the National Board of Hadassh for life, because I've been on it for 15 years. And then they put you on for life. Wow, incredible, incredible. And and so impressive.

00:53:37.580 - 00:54:03.800

I'm wondering if you would share with us some of your fundraising tips or or techniques? How how would you appeal to friends to donors, to community members to support these causes that are important? Well, I had learned how to go see people through Jewish Federation, which

00:54:03.800 - 00:54:27.930

I later became very active in that too. Um, actually, I think what I learned was not to ask for a sum of money from anybody. I would always offer them a piece of equipment or a specific piece of equipment or room or something of that type.

00:54:27.940 - 00:54:47.370

And then when they seemed interested, they'd say, "How much is that piece of equipment?" And then, I tell them it was a certain amount, because I'd already decided that's what I was gonna ask them for. Whether it was a room, or a piece of equipment or

00:54:47.380 - 00:55:14.130

medical equipment, or Youth Aliyah child, or going to vocational school. We just had a lot of things. And I did that with Camp Young Judaea. I got very active. I was on the board 50 years of camp, and I did fundraising for them. And also for

00:55:14.810 - 00:55:37.860

Jewish Federation. I was fundraiser. I was on their executive board for nine years, so I was, now that I think about it, I used to have four meetings every day and night. I don't, I had a lot of energy. That's, that's incredible. Why don't we talk

00:55:37.860 - 00:55:50.780

a little bit more about Camp Young Judaea, which is you know, a place and a cause that I know it's very dear to you and very dear to me as well. I went there as a camper and I worked there as a counselor and it had

00:55:50.780 - 00:56:10.380

a very strong effect on me as well. Tell me about um, you know, camp and and what what camp is meant to you and your family. Well I guess like you said, it has such a wonderful effect on all the children that go there. They sometimes

00:56:10.380 - 00:56:34.960

don't realize they're Jewish and they come out as real Zionist because that's what the camp is for. It used to be run by Hadassah, now it's just by itself. And, Hadassah still raises scholarship for it, but it doesn't own it anymore. And my neighbors kept

00:56:34.960 - 00:56:52.060

after me getting on the board just to get on the board. "I don't have time for that. I'm too busy with the children," and so forth. I finally got on the board. I finally got in. And then I stayed there for 50 years. I did most

00:56:52.060 - 00:57:16.570

of the fundraising, in fact, in 1980, I think it was 1980 the camp burned down. And we had an electrical fire. None of the kids were there. It was in August. The kids had already gone home. And so one of the Eleanor Albert said she would

00:57:16.580 - 00:57:37.710

be chair of the whole committee, if I do the fundraising. I said, "Okay, I'll do it." And I got in my car, because she couldn't fly a plane then to all the little cities in Texas. And would fundraise and asked for people to come, to send

00:57:37.710 - 00:58:02.470

their kids to camp too,. But I did all the fundraising and I raised about $1 million, which took me almost two years to do. And um, we rebuilt the camp. And it's a gorgeous camp now. Eleanor didn't know a thing about building. I said to her,

00:58:02.470 - 00:58:21.170

"You've never built a table, how are you gonna build this camp?" She said, "I'm gonna get a bunch of men who have expertise at building, and I'm gonna get them to be on the committee, and we're gonna build it. And that's what we did. And I'm

00:58:21.170 - 00:58:50.100

still fundraising for camp. Not, not the way I used to. I still fundraise for Hadassah, too. Yeah. So, that always worked, not asking for money, asking for people to buy something at camp or something at Hadassah hospital, piece of medical equipment or something.

00:58:51.240 - 00:59:12.990

And then when I got to camp, we always had a building that we were building. And that's the way it is today. They're still building. Just we're just finishing up a village that's gonna be used for staff and for campers. And when, when camp is in

00:59:12.990 - 00:59:36.370

session. And we'll rent it out the other times. We still make a good deal of money by renting the camp out when it's not in session. The two seasons as you know, we weren't in session last year. But this year we were. Yeah, that must have

00:59:36.370 - 00:59:57.650

been extremely difficult and hoping to have a chance to talk. I tell you, the board went out and got everybody that we're gonna send their kids and we asked them to give part of that to camp to sort of see us over the year. And then

00:59:57.650 - 01:00:24.030

Jewish Federation gave us a lot of money. And so did another camp gave us money. And we made a lot of money that way. So we didn't, we we probably lost about $350,000 not having camp. Just for the staff and everything. And uh we got a

01:00:24.030 - 01:00:48.430

lot of money donated for that and this year we've had over 600 kids at our camp, the most ever. Wow, wow, just incredible. Um I want to shift gears a little bit. Um can I ask you to talk a little bit about Beth Yeshurun? Yes,

01:00:48.880 - 01:01:14.950

we belong there for 38.5 years, when we lived in Houston. We were active, I was very active in the sisterhood. I was vice president and Harold was very active on the board. And it had a wonderful group of people that belonged and felt very devoted to

01:01:14.950 - 01:01:43.050

it. At first it was Rabbi Malev, William Malev. He was a very educated man, and a very fine person. And then we had Rabbi Jack Segal, Jack Segal. And he was a different kind of person. He was a people person. He really was very

01:01:43.050 - 01:02:09.110

close to people. And then we had Rabbi Rosen who was a fine person. They've all retired now. Of course Rabbi Segal and Rosen are still living. Uh the early days were wonderful, we were very active. I was donor chair for the donor at Beth Yeshurun.

01:02:09.120 - 01:02:33.610

And at the same time I was region president for Hadassah. So ,I was a busy woman and took care of the three kids. I had helped at home and so. Right and meanwhile how was how was Harold making a living? He was working, at first, we

01:02:33.620 - 01:02:54.280

got to Houston, he was retired. He had a lot of money and he just thought he retired. He was only about 37 years old. And then he realized how much more expensive it was going to be living in Houston, with days school. We were the first

01:02:54.290 - 01:03:18.580

to put our daughter in the Beth Yeshurun Foundation School. And just everything going to camp and so forth. So one day my daddy and his group, which was made up of Mr. Kaplan and Mr. Rauch, they were looking at property and one of them said,

01:03:18.580 - 01:03:39.120

"You know this piece of property we're gonna buy looks like a bowling alley. Maybe we should start building a bowling alley and let your new son-in-law take that over for us." And so, that's what Harold did. He took over being the bowling chair and

01:03:39.130 - 01:04:06.910

ran that as executive secretary or president, whatever, CEO, whatever they called him. And he did that, then finally later on they bought a bunch of Uh spas. And he ran that too. He finally ended up buying 22 health spas, and 12 different bowling alleys and ran

01:04:06.910 - 01:04:31.560

them all. And he never he never had a secretary. Oh my gosh. Yes bowling alleys. That's a good that's a good combination. I like that very much. Um and at a certain point, I know you became very involved over at United Orthodox and um I would

01:04:31.570 - 01:04:53.530

I would just love to hear about um you know your your happy memories of um USO and and your work to try to beautify the grounds there. Well, we finally left Beth Yeshurun because Cantor Wagner was dating a non-Jewish woman. And I told

01:04:53.530 - 01:05:10.810

Harold to go to the board meeting and tell them how terrible it was for our young children. What was I gonna tell them about not dating anyone that wasn't Jewish. Well, he went to the board meeting and they all laughed about it. They thought it was

01:05:10.810 - 01:05:29.960

funny and it made me so mad that I quit Beth Yeshurun and we went to U.O.S., where my daughter and her husband were. And as soon as I got there, I said to Harold because, I always loved gardening at home. I said, "The

01:05:29.960 - 01:05:51.380

yard is terrible and it's really in a nice neighborhood. It's just got a few oleander bushes and they're all falling apart." I said "Don't look at everything like that Sonia, you're always analyzing everything." Anyway when I got there, I joined the sisterhood. And after a year

01:05:51.380 - 01:06:14.100

or so I got more involved in the sisterhood and I got them to say let's fundraise and raise enough money to where we can get a landscape architect to make plans for a new yard. And that's what Susan Reichenthal help me. And we found a

01:06:14.110 - 01:06:40.970

landscape architect. She charged 20, think $2,000. And we made, she made plans, beautiful plans. And then she wanted to put it in. She was gonna charge us $20,000 to put it in. I said, "We can't afford that." Synagogue doesn't have any money, but we raised enough

01:06:40.970 - 01:07:00.720

money to where my yard man, who was Jewish, said he'd do it. And he took the plans that we had and put in all the yard. And that's the way it was. And then the next year, we put in a sprinkler system and we kept, I took

01:07:00.720 - 01:07:23.680

over the donor for the sisterhood, and we kept raising money. Then one year we raised enough money to have all the trees, that gorgeous trees, 18 of them, had them uh somebody come in and prune them all correctly. So little by little, we had a beautiful

01:07:23.680 - 01:07:46.110

yard. Then the synagogue didn't have any money for the upkeep. And so who did the weeding and feeding of the roses and the garden, but me. I used to go there two or three times a month and I would do all the yard work. They always

01:07:46.110 - 01:08:10.350

had a yard man do the yard, you know, the yard and everything but I used to feed the gardens and weed it, and prune it myself. I loved it. Incredible, so beautiful and and just just perfect Sonia because everything that you, you touched whether it's you know had

01:08:10.350 - 01:08:35.890

Hadassah or synagogue sisterhood, or camp you're just still giving of yourself and that's a legacy of you know investment not just of resources but of time and energy, and, love and all these different you know community organizations. And the good thing is I taught that to my

01:08:35.890 - 01:08:59.030

girls. We had three daughters and I caught them, taught them all to be caring of our community and to care for other people, which I think is so important today. Yeah. No, it's more important than ever, I think you know certainly. So you're you're no longer

01:08:59.030 - 01:09:16.280

in Houston, so you moved out to Washington D. C. Tell us a little bit about that. Well, when I was 90, I decided I came up here for my son-in-law's birthday and I said to my daughter, "Maybe I should look at a place to

01:09:16.280 - 01:09:36.080

live in case, when I want to come up here, I'll have a place to live." So my granddaughter was in real estate. She took me to all the apartments and took me to a bunch of re-uh retirement homes. And I decided if I lived in

01:09:36.080 - 01:09:55.690

an apartment, I'd be by myself and I wasn't gonna drive in Washington. The traffic is horrendous, and I don't know my way around. So, I'd just be sitting in an apartment by myself because everybody else that lives there works. So, I decided the best thing to

01:09:55.690 - 01:10:18.720

do would be to go to a retirement home. I finally looked at this one, Five Star Premium Residents of Chevy Chase, and that's where I've been for four years. I've also gotten a new boyfriend. He's not exactly a boyfriend. He's 96 1/2. In fact, he's more than

01:10:18.720 - 01:10:50.420

a half because November, he'll be 97. Wow, that's wonderful. He's a retired scientist that worked at NASA. Uh huh. So, it's very interesting and it was very good during the uh, COVID virus, because we were locked in entire apartments. So, he would come up every night, and

01:10:50.420 - 01:11:11.540

would watch movies or sit and talk. So, that was good for me. Yeah. I'm sure. Yeah, I wanted to ask you just for a minute to talk about. I know, I think your is your sister in Washington also? She is. My sister, Leah Chanin lives here

01:11:11.550 - 01:11:35.980

15 minutes from me. And I see her every once in a while. I'm going to synagogue with her. And having dinner with my, lunch with my nephew, her son. She has three married children. And their Children, that live here. I also have my daughter, Carolyn, who

01:11:35.980 - 01:12:01.750

I lost in 2012. Her daughter lives here and she has two children. And she just bought a house about two years ago, five minutes from Five Star Retirement Home. So, I have a lot of company. And I got very involved in volunteer work here at Five

01:12:01.750 - 01:12:21.320

Star. I had to be busy. I'm sure you did. It's not like a switch, you can just, you know, turn turn off. Everywhere you go, you know, you're, you're making a difference. Well Sonia, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to talk

01:12:21.320 - 01:12:42.920

with me. To remember Texas City, Galveston, Mason City, Houston and and to update us about, your, your life on the East Coast. Now we hope that you say well, that you stay safe, and that your family and friends will enjoy watching this video and reminiscing

01:12:42.920 - 01:13:00.510

with you. Thank you so, so much. Thank you, Josh. You've done such a super job with this job. It started out so small, and it's gotten to be very big and very important. And thank you for interviewing me.