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Alright Today is July 7, 2021. My name is Josh Wurman, I am the curator of the Houston Jewish History Archive at Rice University and I'm here with Suzanne Jacobson in her kitchen. Suzanne, how are you looking at my live photo thing? And I'm looking at a

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picture of my father just went Oliver sholem and I'm saying that he would love to be here schmoozing with us. That would that would be great, would have been happy. So let's start by talking a little bit about your childhood, Tell us where you were born,

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a little bit about Um growing up, your parents and your Jewish upbringing. Okay. I was born in Stanford Connecticut and I always say it was a great place to be to be raised um you know, it was like 40 minutes outside of Manhattan, a real Nice

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Jewish community. It really was a city of around 100,000 people and there were around 10,000 Jews, so it was a pretty significant um Jewish community for a city that size. And um my my parents were both born in Stanford, so we have a significant stanford history

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going back now it would be you know, well over 100 and 10 years. And um my father was a psychologist in private practice but was also the head of the cycle of psychology for the stanford school system and um graduated from Columbia University. Um I actually

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have his diplomas here at my house still the and my my my mother um actually um as I said born in stanford. Um and she met my father, she was, she was um registering for a class at a tech, a typing class at a technical school

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and my father had volunteered to do registration and that's how they met and he asked her on a date and and that was it. Um I have two sisters. I'm a middle child, I think that explains all my idiosyncrasies and whatever. Typical middle child. I have

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an older sister who now lives in um las Vegas Nevada and I have a younger sister who lives in um black, famous Blacksburg Virginia who wasn't wasn't nobody knew about it until that massacre at Blacksburg and her and her husband is a, is a head of

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a department of um Physics at Virginia Tech and he was actually in the next building over from all that mass shooting. So and my sister happens to work professionally with was working with crisis intervention. So she for 15 years after that was still working particularly with

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members of the police force that were so traumatized by that terrible event, but we understood wonderful Jewish upbringing, went to a a conservative congregation friday night dinner um you know, together every, my mother served the same chicken kugel vegetable and salad. Um and that was it

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and we just had a wonderful life very involved with our conservative congregation and my my father sang in the choir, my father when he was going to Columbia also studied at Juilliard School of Music and he played the piano and sang. And so every night he

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played the piano and we read, we sang usually Rodgers and Hammerstein's music and um, but he, we sang on friday nights together and he sang in the choir at our, at our congregation had a beautiful, beautiful voice and my mother was extremely active in Gaza. Um

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as a matter of fact, I would always say, we would say if we got this cast, if you served a casserole, that was macaroni and meat and tomato sauce, we would also say uh, Hadassah casserole. My mother must have had a big meeting that day. So

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we always, we always knew that. So we just had a great, great upbringing. It was just a great place to be. And um, you know, I, I used up until my mother died five years ago. I visited stanford all the time all the time. Amber alert,

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please God, they should find the person say a Bracha. Okay. Um, so life was good and living in stanford and you know, I knew we knew so many people. If I went to the cemetery, I visit my grandparents, uh, um, graves and you know, then later

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my parents, I could walk around at stanford cemeteries, the jewish cemetery and I knew everybody. I knew, he just was related to a lot of people and knew everybody. So it was a very close knit and we, we, we knew every famous jewish person from. There

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was joe Lieberman, my mother was best friends with joe Lieberman's mother and I used to drive her all over the place where my mother was still driving and she wasn't. So that was one of her claims to fame. So that was it growing up in stanford.

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So take us now from stanford Connecticut to Houston texas. So how did you, how did you? I ended up in Houston interestingly enough, I had a first marriage, my husband was, my former husband was actually Israeli and he was in architecture school at Yale. And when

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he applied to graduate schools he only wanted to go to M. I. T. Well he got into everywhere except M. I. T. But but this this crazy school in texas that I had never heard of Rice University, his professor had told him to apply, they had

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a really good urban design pro five year master program and he he said apply there so he applied and lo and behold it really. Catched caught our eye because they gave him such a massive um financial grant to come. They gave him full tuition scholarship plus

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a $9000 a year stipend which back there in the mid 19 seventies in Houston texas 9000 you could you could live on $9000 a year modestly but you can kind of live. So we said what the heck since he didn't get to his first choice, we

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might as well go here and come out of school with no with no loans. So I actually knew somebody um in new york who had just been hired to become the executive director of the Houston Federation. A mutual friend had us meet and he said to

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me when you get there the week you get to Houston come to my office I'm gonna hire you. I said okay, his name was Earl Jordan's. He had a very short lived two year stint as executive director to put it mildly, it wasn't a good fit.

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And when he left he said well hopefully they'll remember that I hired you, that was probably was and um so I ended up and guess what my salary was $9000 a year. So between the two of us we said it was a share it we earned

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$18,000 and Houston you could a young couple you could live really nicely for 18,000. So when I started the Federation, the only job he had for me was kind of ridiculous if you know me it was working in the accounting office, you know, try struggling to

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try to do work and then I was eventually he promoted me to be the executive assistant, which was an equally ridiculous job for me. Um I used to spend nights in the bookstore buying books to show me how to set up a letter and how to

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how to be an executive secretary. And luckily after six months a new job was created and it was really the uh the director of women's division which is the precursor of women's philanthropy and I that became my job which I loved and I did That and

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then eventually added leadership development and other positions and ended up primarily in Development Department and became eventually the head of development. So I had a really great career path there and I always felt like the one of my proudest things is of all these people. I

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used to run a young leadership program annually and I have to say and I did that for around 15 years when I am out in the community when I'm at an event when I'm at a program when I go to a funeral, when I go anywhere,

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there are graduates of that program, are there? They are the people who were in their sixties today, fifties, sixties, seventies and they really were the core leadership of this community. And it was very, very, very proud of that. And I wish we would re initiate a

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program like that because I think it's it's sorely needed today. Yeah, it must be so gratifying for you to see not just people staying in this community right and continuing to put down roots, but to know that you have trained multiple generations of community leaders and

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to see them. And the beauty of it was not only did we bring in and we had great programs and I used to always say and particularly when people were had young Children and raising their families going to our leadership program on an evening, it has

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to be worth getting a babysitter for the person on the way home. This was better than going to a movie. And plus people had a very high social interaction and you could see that people's friendships and lifetime friendships developed through these programs. And so that was

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also extremely gratifying to me. I want to come back later to your career and Federation and get more insights about development and how development has changed and how federation has changed. But let's go all the way back to your arrival in Houston. So what from what

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you can remember, what were your impressions of Houston in the mid 19 seventies and the jewish community at that time having grown up in a very different environment in the northeast. Well, I remember when we had this opportunity to come to Rice University, I ever even

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asking people are there jews in texas for me. I came from such a northeastern jewish community background and big city background that I, I didn't even know that there were jews in texas. So of course I had to do a little asking around and when I

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got here, I was, you know really, I was just very surprised at how wonderful the community community is. Um I was immediately struck at how friendly people were, how welcoming people were and I could see very quickly that if you wanted to be, this is the

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kind of community that if you wanted to become engaged in the community, you just used to say, here I am and and and people noticed you and people you know wanted to engage and of course, you know, my work and federation, that was part of what

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I was doing, but in general, just socially very welcoming community and very interestingly right around the time that I came was when there was this huge influx of South African jews and it was amazing and I remember the federation hosting um a big welcome event one

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night for it happened to be in the summer and I remember it well because it was at someone's beautiful home and during the evening their air conditioner went out, But people stayed and they must want to be here because I thought I was going to die,

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people stayed and there were, there were probably 75-100 people at that event that night. It was worth, it was definitely worth a babysitter and you could see how, you know, they, people wanted to retain their identity as South Africans, but really wanted to be, you know,

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a full part of the Houston jewish community and but and it was a great place for them to land because it's that that kind of a welcoming open community, um you know, I had to get a little bit accustomed to the southern culture. Um The other

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thing I also noticed quite easily was there were so many people in the jewish community that I met that were you know, five generation Texans, six generation Texans. That floored me. I mean, I I mean I knew most of the people I knew growing up, you

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know, their grandparents had come from europe. Most of the grandparents were not born in the United States, but today people would, but when I grew up, my my grandparents or my for my grandparents, none of them were born in the United States, but we would sit

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and I would sit with members my age of the jewish community and they were like so many multi generations Texans um with that and I was fascinated by that history of how they're you know how their ancestors came to texas and then stayed here and it's

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just that that blew me away completely. What were, you know, in your early days at Federation? Because you started working there almost as soon as you got what what were the priorities? What was on the agenda of the Federation, You know, in the 1970s and 1980s?

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Well, I think obviously the whole Soviet jewelry movement was a was a massive before, you know, it was it was getting them out and then you know, helping them to relocate. So the Soviet jewelry was you know, really big on our our our agenda. Um young,

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that was when then the whole notion of singles community came out our agenda up until there there were never special programming for singles, there was never social programming that the community did and we really, the federation got into the singles programming business and saw that as

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a as a need and really because people came to us and said, you know, there's just a growing young singles population um that became, you know, terrific, the, you know, some of the same, some of the issues are the same. The cost of jewish education has

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always been an issue. We haven't solved it, we still haven't solved it, and that was an issue back then and it is, it's an issue today. Um I think that uh activism, I think people, you know, wanting to do, you know, hands on do things, some

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of those are the same issues as today. But I I really think that it's so interesting when I when I think back there were so many times where we were engaged in large community efforts that that really brought the community together, we did a huge program

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that became a priority. That was a Shabbat program where we were encouraging families to have some kind of a Shabbat experience. I can't remember what we called it, rekindling shabbat or there was a special name for it and we engaged all the congregations and um the

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whole community, so those became, and I think when we did these big initiatives, it really brought the community together, but as I said, you know, soviet jewelry was huge on our agenda. Later Ethiopian jewelry and I think the connection to Israel was very different than today,

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you know, there was a time where Israel was in some ways the melting pot when, you know all we we may have some differences, but but everybody was united in our support of Israel, um but obviously today, I can't say that, unfortunately, it's not, it's not

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what it what it was, that relationship. Um and I think we we changed at some point from being, you know, I think that at some point back in the seventies, sixties, we thought of ourselves as the, as we were like the the big Brother to Israel

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and I think it really needed to begin involving two were partners and I think that was really, you know, very positive switch, but back then, you know, we were, Israel needed a lot more financial assistance, but I think that has changed significantly. Okay, why don't we

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move in a little bit of a different direction. Tell us about how you met your husband, David, that's fun. Um I obviously got divorced and um was also one of the young singles in Houston, so I liked that programming um and one time we decided to

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do a Federation board shot button and we were and I was working on that project and we were looking for a location and we decided we were able to do it at the, at the Woodlands, at their conference center, at the conference center in, in in

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the Woodlands. And um we needed to, we wanted it to be kosher, we wanted to be inclusive obviously because the Federation events have always been kosher. Um so I had to contact, we had a caterer and then we had to hire a for the event. My

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husband who was in optometry school and was a member of United Orthodox and single. Um he used to sometimes part time do work, so I was lucky that he was asked to be the most for that share button at the Woodlands for the Federation and we

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had brought in a scholar um Rabbi, it's Greenberg, who I had always been a big fan and you know, really had an incredible, wonderful relationship always have had with its Greenberg. And I remember I had picked up yet at the airport, we went back down to

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the conference center before anybody came and um we, we were standing and talking on the steps and all of a sudden a guy came over and said to me, excuse me, do you happen to be Suzanne? And I said, I am, and he said, well I'm

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David, I'm and I looked at him and I said, are you kidding? I thought I was going to be an old guy with a long beard or something and he said, well I'm the man, he was like 25 years old, good looking guy and I was

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like okay. Um and then actually, um a week or two later I had somebody, one of my friends had called me and said on a saturday night and said, what are you doing tonight? And I said nothing. He goes well remember that that you met, I'm

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very good friends with him. And I suggested that he asked you out, he's gonna call you in a little while, if you're really stupid, you're gonna say I can't say yes on saturday night, I'm staying home and just say yes. So I said yes and we

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went out and um you know, at that time I was, I didn't keep kosher, he was religious and I ended up, it was so enticing to me that part of life that that would really, really make the full circle of who I am. And but I

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knew as our relationship built, I wasn't going to start to observe shabbat and keep kosher because of him, it's not the right reason because if the first time I had an argument, I would have said, oh, forget it, I'm going to have an am sandwich, you

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know, not that I ever ate him, but it was like, it had to be because it was something that was important to me and while we were dating, we used too often um on friday nights we were invited to Rabbi Radinsky of blessed memory used to

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invite us over. And he um, He really encouraged our relationship a lot. He just thought it was a great match. So I'm very happy that he eventually married us and that was it great 40 years ago. Great story. You married the owe it to the Federation

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Federation community. It's Greenberg. What can I tell you? Right, that's a great story. Remember calling us and say remember that? How was the food? That food was pretty good. That's great. So, and when were you two married? We were married in 79. And yeah. And then

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we actually had an apartment over at United Orthodox. And I used to remember we were living there. And I remember that just came to me when I said that apartment, Henry Spira of blessed memory was an old timer at United Orthodox. He was one of the

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big significant real leaders at United Orthodox. And I remember that he used to do solicitations for the, for the for the campaign. And very often he would fill out these cards if he'd spoken to somebody and he'd give them to David at million handed him at

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6 30 in the morning. And it'll give these to Suzanne and I'll never forget a couple times when very rarely if David, Miss Minion, David goes 2,000,007 days a week. But very rarely if he would miss, we would find on the gate of our apartment, he

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would tape them there and say, oh sorry, David missed Minion, which is like a little patch to David. You missed Minion didn't see you in. So why? That popped into my brain. That's a great community community. So these were the department's Stratford House, Stratford house and

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all. We had nine couple, nine people, four couples and one single that lived there. And we used to eat all our meals together, had a beautiful, beautiful group. And us was an interesting, interesting community at that time. In terms of how you think about Orthodox stewed,

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especially coming from the Northeast. There's Southern Orthodox, right? There's a little bit different. Can you talk about Southern Orthodox a bit? Well, I didn't know that much. So for me, it didn't matter. It didn't matter. So really wouldn't have mattered that much. So I don't know

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how much I can comment on that. I think that they made one mistake and we talk about it. I'm not in any way criticizing United. There was no Real affordable housing in that neighborhood for young couples. There was nothing and we all kind of wanted to

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buy a house. And there was just nothing affordable. And all those little houses that today are the little houses were too expensive for us back there 40 years ago when we were young couples. And um, what they, they should have maybe put up some kind of

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an apartment lower, you know, lower condos or something or had some kind of program to help younger couples just get a mortgage because I think it would have retained a lot of people who eventually moved to this neighborhood because I have purely because of housing because

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of housing. And um I mean we probably would have stayed there if we could have bought a house, but at that time the city floated a bond for first time mortgage owners and from mortgage and we were able to get we said okay we're gonna take

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advantage of that, we're gonna buy a house. And they were very affordable in Fondren, we bought a patio home for next to nothing. And um and went to Habad that was in the neighborhood here. So in other words, what brought you and David to found in

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Southwest was not necessarily the like the situation at United Orthodox where there was a sanctuary with no Marissa had more to do with the trying to think is before when we left that they actually put up before we left or they didn't we used to govern

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in the chapel and the chapel. So we actually got married in that, so we we dive into the chapel minion. So there was there was a market. So that wasn't an issue for us. Um But we we moved over here and because Habad was a minion

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that David could go to. And although look I have I could say really wonderful things about Habad, we're just not Habad, we're not and you know, that's not that's not criticizing them in any way. It wasn't the right community for us. And a bunch of our

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friends moved over here and there were some other couples that were actual body that really was not, they were going there because it was accessible. So we started a minion in a in a in a house, in someone's house. Um and I remember we had 12

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men, so everybody had to be there. If somebody was going to be out of town, you're gonna have to find somebody to stay over because you know, a couple of people are gonna be out of town because we needed those 10 men for our minion. How

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did you get a safer for that? We were, we borrowed it, I think maybe us lent us the first one and then we had a very interesting thing, we had that one first and then eventually there was a rabbi whose name was Nathan Witkin who used

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to be the Houston jewish committee, the chaplain at the medical center for years and he was so beloved that when he was retiring and we did a big testimonial dinner for him actually dr Cooley and dr DeBakey who didn't speak to each other for decades. Both

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came to that dinner and people were like blown away that they had Rabbi Witkin in such esteem, held him in such esteem that they both came. I mean it was like really amazing at that time. Um and Rabbi Witkin earlier in his life had been a

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chaplain at the Panama and the Panama Canal and he had given them a he had donated a safer Torah to that minion. But he said stipulated if that if that if that chapel ever closes it had to be returned to him. So lo and behold he

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got a call sometime I guess in the eighties or whatever that it was being disbanded and they were gonna ship him back his safer Torah and he wasn't even in Houston at that time, he was retired. But he had such memories of this community. He didn't

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even live right here. He gave it to our school, he donated it. Remember we had this beautiful dedication for that beautiful safer torre came back to Houston. Uh So so take me if you can reconstruct in your memory the steps. So there was a nucleus of

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The two of you and other families around 12 family of which I think only two of us still live in Houston and none of none, none of them live here anymore. And then others started moving. You know, and I think that there were other friends of

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ours who kind of waited to see that this really congealed. Um and then there were some that were already going to Habad who and so we started in house to house and the first three or four months it was house to house, it was coming to

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our house the following month when we made a decision, there was a rabbi, his name is Rabbi bob Kaplan, who was also um oil but was a full time teacher at Baron Academy which was still at that time the Hebrew Academy. He had a house in

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the in the neighborhood where we were, which is not in the neighborhood I'm living in now it's across, it's across Fondren. He said, I will agree that we can have the minion in my house all the time so we don't have to keep moving from month

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to month. So he became the de facto rabbi um wasn't official, but he became the de facto rabbi. And we were in his house for a couple of years and we drive him there all the time. And then we ended up buying another house in that

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same neighborhood which we gutted and made that the synagogue building at that time. It was, it was small and it was still also a patio home, it was much too small but we were able to gut it. And um we were in there for some years

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and then what did this mean? You have a name? It was called Israel wasn't, which ironically, ironically years and years and years later there was a break away from our young Israel here and they called their sexual vodkas around, there was nobody in there who would

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have remembered that, that was our original name, they just happened to name it. What was our of all the names? That's the name they picked, which was kind of funny. Um and so after that, the next, the next step we started for a while, we were

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in the clubhouse here and I don't remember if that was maybe, I don't know if that was before the house or after the house we owned, but we had to stop that because it was fine in the winter, but you couldn't be at a pool um

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clubhouse in the summer because you'd be looking out on Shabbat morning to everybody in their bathing suits that was not gonna work. And then we made the decision, I'm not alright, I'll have to grab, I have to tell you the year to build this to buy

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the property and build the school. And we had to go through a lot of steps um to get to get the deep restrictions lifted to allow us to build in the neighborhood a synagogue. I mean, he had to go through the, obviously the homeowners association, but

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also through the city of Houston to to get the prum in which we eventually did. My husband David was actually the president of the shoal while we went through that whole period of time of, you know, of finalizing those agreements and then raising the funds and

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then building the original show here, which was very exciting. When did that, when did that building first open, You know what I'm gonna I'm gonna have to check. And while you're thinking of it, when did you choose to affiliate with young? Very early? It was it

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was before we were in that house that we bought. I mean, it was early in the probably be by 82 or so we did that very early on. And one of the reasons why we affiliated with young Israel is I hate to make this analogy, it's

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kind of like a McDonald's franchise, you kind of knew, you know, this is what was, this is the kind of Orthodox jewel, It might be that you had this national affiliation, so somebody moving to town or looking to be here would see, oh, there's a Young

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Israel, so they felt like that was an option. Now, interestingly enough today, um the Young Israel's are very, they're all over the country and they're very, one is different from one another. I was just this past week, I was at the Young Israel in Century City

00:30:02.970 - 00:30:24.880

in Los Angeles and it's very different than the Young Israel here. It's much more central and this is much more to the right, so it's, it's, you know, there was, it's a it's very, very, it was very different, very different and what, as as the Young

00:30:24.880 - 00:30:46.610

Israel in Houston was, was growing? I did it, I did it distinguish it, did it distinguish itself from United Orthodox very early on in terms of a certain ideological outlook or in terms of a certain population that it attracted or did that happen? I think even

00:30:46.610 - 00:31:01.910

from the beginning it was definitely more to the right than United is a very liberal Orthodox. And I'm not I'm not in any way criticizing. It's a pretty, you know, even then it was very central Modern Orthodox. Even now it might be more considered even more

00:31:01.920 - 00:31:18.060

um uh liberal modern Orthodox back then. Um this was also the makeup of the Israel and we started was also very diverse. I used to, I used to smile when I would see two women that I loved very much walking down the down the street together,

00:31:18.060 - 00:31:32.340

they became best friends and one was wearing, you know, a shorter dress and uh you know, didn't cover hair and the other one is wearing a shackle and long sleeves and they were the best of friends that was never, you know, and I think because when

00:31:32.340 - 00:31:50.570

they're, when you have a small shul, you know, everybody counts and you're so thrilled to have everybody that the differences didn't make any, there didn't make it and I think today it definitely is. Um it has moved to the right. Um and it's not as diverse

00:31:50.580 - 00:32:06.200

as it was the the the the diversity, I would say I'm on the making a diverse, Yeah, me, I would say me and Helen Keller and they should be happy for us, you know. Um but but one of the most important things about the young Israel,

00:32:06.200 - 00:32:30.940

I think that really defines our young Israel and it has really for decades is the emphasis on study and I'm learning. That has always been the hallmark of this shoal intense study, intense learning. And it's really with the when we when when when torch came and

00:32:30.940 - 00:32:47.580

then later the coal L. R. The coal L. The emphasis on learning and the amount of people who are doing daily learning. But my husband is a perfect example. He can tell you if he does his jewish genealogy, he can go on, he can go back,

00:32:47.590 - 00:33:08.140

you know, generations and not find a soul who ever studied Talmud David decided it's already close to 20 years ago that he wanted to be participate when they started the first Daf Yomi study program here and he started in the first day of the first group

00:33:08.150 - 00:33:21.290

and he went through a seven year cycle of studying, adopted a and at the end of the seven years I said, well what are you gonna do now find something else to study? He goes, no, I'm gonna do it again because you're always gonna find new

00:33:21.290 - 00:33:40.050

insights. He's now on his third cycle. It's it's this. And the interesting thing is it takes seven years to complete. It takes seven full years reading a page a day to complete the entire Talbot And the beauty of this is everybody in the world who was

00:33:40.050 - 00:33:57.340

part of Daf Yomi, which is in every country in the world is on the same page the same day. So if you decided to start tomorrow and let's say they were in year three, you'd be starting in year three, it would take you seven years to

00:33:57.340 - 00:34:16.950

do everything. But you would be starting on the same page as everybody else is on today. So when you think about it, it's unbelievable how many hundreds and thousands of people are doing this every day, studying the same thing. It's extremely powerful. And you know, at

00:34:16.950 - 00:34:35.600

the end of the official seven year cycle of it, they do a massive CMA ceremony and it's all on that day, all over the world. There are these celebrations now. My David took my son when he finished his the first time, I guess the first scene

00:34:35.600 - 00:34:53.010

that he was a part of and it was in there, I think maybe they went to Madison Square Garden and then they went to the Meadowlands and you have these stadiums that are whatever 30,000 people and everybody is is do is there just for that. And

00:34:53.010 - 00:35:07.140

he said, when they say Sharma, you could have 40,000 people saying at the same time, but remember it's happening all over the world and my, my son's big takeaway was, wow, he happened to be up the night before someone to take him to to it. It

00:35:07.140 - 00:35:27.260

was, was a basketball game. It was, it was a stadium with a basketball. He said I was here for a basketball last night. Everybody was cheering like mad because the ball went through a hoop and tonight where everybody is so moving ecstatic because they're, they're saying

00:35:27.260 - 00:35:42.430

a prayer together. And he said the difference was unbelievable. Was both. It was just so powerful. So that really is the hallmark of this young Israel. And it has been for decades, this massive. And if you go in there should come down any night of the

00:35:42.430 - 00:36:02.810

week, you should just drive down, come in any, any night and there are the base midrash is filled and their young boys and there's people that are just studying every night of the week. It's really quite amazing. Yeah. And I'm sure nothing like that existed when

00:36:02.810 - 00:36:20.030

you, when you came here. No, no, no. So that really is the center, a central focus. But the other thing, which is just amazing is that the influx, we were very, you know, we kind of plateau at a certain amount of families for years. And there's

00:36:20.030 - 00:36:33.880

always, because it's Houston, some would move in, some would move out, Some would come for me medical school and then they leave become a job and they get transferred. So it was, it became pretty much the same. And then we ended up with this huge influx,

00:36:33.890 - 00:36:49.130

I think as the coal l grew of people moving in because of affordable housing and job opportunities and the fact that the schools exist without the schools, you can't you can't move here. You know, you can have you can have a community where there's a school

00:36:49.140 - 00:37:06.300

and there's a and their jobs and there's affordable housing. But if it doesn't have the right schools for your kids, you can't, you can't come. And I used to have lots of conversations, you know, when, when this school, Whitey began, Terada met began and it started

00:37:06.300 - 00:37:22.210

to grow and then they eventually were eligible to apply for funding from the Federation and I had friends who were, you know, very engaged with the Baron Academy that were upset. And it's like they're taking kids from Baron and you know, this is not good for

00:37:22.210 - 00:37:37.160

the community. And I would say to them, you know, I agree with you. I think that most of the families that are sending their kids to Whitey, they moved here because the school existed. If they were not sending their kids to Baron, that wasn't the right

00:37:37.160 - 00:37:49.290

school for their kid. And if there, if it had only been barren as an opportunity exists and it might have been not been the right school for them, they wouldn't have moved here, don't move to a community if there's not a school for your child that

00:37:49.290 - 00:38:03.070

you feel is the right fit for your child. And I think you have to respect, look my kids, all three of our kids went through Preschool through, you know graduation to the Baron Academy and we were always thrilled. I used to say I'm probably the parent

00:38:03.070 - 00:38:15.950

that complained the least about anything with 25 consecutive years of kids in that school and I had had no big issues, I loved the school, we're thankful to the school. My daughter lives in this neighborhood. She has two little boys, they send their kids to I.

00:38:15.950 - 00:38:31.910

T. And you know what, I respect that everybody has to, if my daughter from Israel, if she were living here, she would be sending the Baron, there's no question. So I think it's if you care about the community, you want the options that will give people

00:38:31.910 - 00:38:48.090

an opportunity to move here and to stay here, not just to move here, but to stay here. Absolutely sure. So it's you know, my, my motto in life is all boats rise if you have the right options, every the whole community benefits that there are more

00:38:48.090 - 00:39:09.210

options and people can choose this for the community. But the growth in this community is Unbelievable and it sounds like even just in the last couple of years it's the last five years, I think around 25 families moving in this summer. only if they can get

00:39:09.210 - 00:39:20.650

housing and I think most of them are getting it now, but they have to get housing and there's such a shortage of housing now in this neighborhood that if I were to put my house on the market, I'd sell it in less than a week And

00:39:20.650 - 00:39:37.680

I probably get more than my asking for it because it just isn't enough housing even though there are 40 new houses within the last 3-5 years and I'm gonna show you later they're clearing land for another 40 houses, which is amazing. And this can you imagine?

00:39:37.680 - 00:39:54.390

It's just Mind Boggling. It is, it's mind boggling and it's interesting. So I'm a member at us and we live over there, we have one of the houses that you couldn't afford 40 years ago for better or worse, we're in it now. And of course that

00:39:54.390 - 00:40:14.000

neighborhood has its own housing issues with proximity to the Bayou and this neighborhood does not does not seem to have this and you shouldn't you should not should never have to know from that. So are these families, are they coming from new york and New Jersey,

00:40:14.000 - 00:40:33.020

are they coming from, from Israel? Where are they coming from? New york florida all over? Not a lot from Israel, I mean we'll get a somebody from Israel if maybe they have to come because someone's gonna do a three year thing in the medical center but

00:40:33.020 - 00:40:48.390

they don't they don't come here necessarily because they're decided to move here, we have a couple of very few, a few Israeli families, but most a lot or just now what's happening. An interesting phenomenon is we have people who have moved here three years, five years

00:40:48.390 - 00:41:03.860

ago all of a sudden they have siblings that are moving here. They come to visit when they say wow I'm living in L. A. I can't afford to buy a shack and I can come here and I can buy a beautiful house and the school is

00:41:03.860 - 00:41:24.150

good and they decide and then you have a little bit, you'll have now a few parents who are coming because they're kids. So I hope I would think it would be amazing eventually if we could put up a condominium here um where a grandparent could say

00:41:24.160 - 00:41:34.450

oh I want to either be living in two places, buy a condo here because my kids, I have two kids here or say I want to move here, but I don't want to have the upkeep of the house anymore. I mean there was nothing, I cannot,

00:41:34.460 - 00:41:46.160

would never sell my house because I can't, I will someday, but I can't because where would I move? There's there's no there's no I'm not moving into one of these little patio homes and if there were beautiful condos that would be a great option. I say

00:41:46.160 - 00:42:07.730

hopefully eventually that might happen, tell me about the wider Fondren community. You mentioned Habad earlier, but there's also a number of the same subdivision. The bomb is three blocks from here, it's in the same subdivision as our young Israel is So we have to have two

00:42:07.730 - 00:42:25.460

synagogues in the same subdivision. Habad is less than a mile walk. But I will say that um, you know Robin and, and, and you know really nice relations together. It's like they're so, they're so diverse because you know, once it's far sexual and once in Ashkenazi

00:42:25.460 - 00:42:44.740

and there are some people who cross over and go to either one. Um, and you know, okay, relationship with, with, with the bod, but to me, one of the most beautiful just side products of the Covid was the way these synagogues and schools work together. Let's

00:42:44.740 - 00:42:58.710

talk about its and I will say that the federation, I'm really proud had a had a beautiful role in that, that right after Covid began. And of course we know that the first one of the two first Covid cases in Houston happened to be in our

00:42:58.710 - 00:43:13.580

community from a girl that was visiting from new york and came down and got sick while she was here. And she actually had gotten word while she was here that somebody in her class in new york had been diagnosed. She got sick over the weekend, had

00:43:13.580 - 00:43:27.430

sun on that sunday had been in all day at the rodeo and by sunday night she got sick and when the CDC came down when she got her positive test. Um, she was one of the reasons why the next day or two, they shut down the

00:43:27.430 - 00:43:40.650

rodeo because she had had a positive test and had been there all day. I couldn't even remember who she had been near and um so this poor kid had to quarantine here until she was over and then she can finally fly back to new york. Um

00:43:40.660 - 00:44:01.200

but very immediately um the Federation helped convene a meeting of the rabbis and the directors of um of Chabad of young Israel of bait ram bomb of the Chabad school of Y. T. E. Of the girls high school in the neighborhood. And they really the Federation

00:44:01.200 - 00:44:15.160

helped with the messaging and us to get all the messaging out to the community very early on and Covid when there wasn't a lot of message and it was it was just a beautiful thing to see how people and I know from the Federation, we were

00:44:15.160 - 00:44:30.720

so impressed by how everybody sat at the table together and really was on the same page and work together. And there was no, no, I want it that way. You know, I want it that way. It was, it was really a very nice thing. And for

00:44:30.720 - 00:44:47.560

for months there used to be somewhat regular communications would go out to everybody in the community. Um that would be from all of these, you know, heads of all these uh schools and schools, which was really nice because we all know for the most part usually

00:44:47.560 - 00:45:02.880

it's hard to get everybody on the same page and agree to everything. And so to me that was one of the really big pluses. Um and I know that you know our Federation Marketing director and carry and all of us enjoyed working with this group a

00:45:02.880 - 00:45:25.810

lot. And of course they brought in Ed Septimus who served as really the, you know, the medical advisor to the schools and the schools and throughout the entire year, they regularly consulted with it on every protocol. So that was a really nice connection. How did how

00:45:25.810 - 00:45:41.880

did Young Israel eventually reopen? What were some of the precautions that they put in place? And and did you did you go back? And it was it was it was closed for at least eight months. I mean there were they eventually started an outdoor minions. Um

00:45:41.880 - 00:45:58.390

And and of course by the time when they started it was a time of year where it was kind of okay that you could be outside and it was still um they started going back in when, when you remember what month it is, when they started

00:45:58.390 - 00:46:10.650

going back in, right when most places we're going back in, it wasn't they didn't do much any earlier. You they only had like had everybody was like in every other pew and it was like on the ends. And so you were really distancing and you you

00:46:10.650 - 00:46:27.780

had to wear a mask and they didn't allow any kids in, there were no kids. So I think that they really the younger they really followed very good safety protocols plus had the you know the outdoor minion as an option when it got too hot. You

00:46:27.780 - 00:46:46.160

know you couldn't really be outside. There was a time where you couldn't the only time that from last March I went to shul on Russia China in the outdoor minion and there I mean I was like 12 ft from anybody. And and I will say when

00:46:46.160 - 00:47:03.100

I went in the evening on colder drake I'll never forget that killing dray because you watch the sky or sitting outside there was like a little bit of a breeze and it was like so inspiring. I thought to myself, minutes should be outside when they can

00:47:03.100 - 00:47:23.070

be maybe inspiring. Said the sky was beautiful and that it was really nice and then I really personally I have gone very little. I just didn't feel so comfortable particularly with so many kids. I was more careful than most because of medical condition. I was really

00:47:23.080 - 00:47:41.350

really had my own protocols that were very intense, very intense. I mean to me for a year, my only place I went to I went to the A. T. M. Machine and my mail box basically my kids would come in the backyard and you feel you

00:47:41.350 - 00:47:57.150

know I always kept in mind josh I just feel for families who were in small apartments with a bunch of kids and here we are my husband and I in this big house with a big backyard and but a really sweet thing about my house. It's

00:47:57.150 - 00:48:12.870

like, I love it. We're on this cul de sac at this point, my next door neighbor to the left is a member of bait Rambam. The other, all the families in the cul de sac are young, Israel Um of the seven families, five have young kids

00:48:13.680 - 00:48:29.100

and for any months, the months where the weather has been decent all of Shabbat day, everybody's in the cul de sac. It's like and they even put like the cones in the front, in the in the in the head because because there's no big street because

00:48:29.100 - 00:48:42.130

it's just basically our whole street is a cul de sac. It's not like a big street that ends in a cul de sac. And so the only cars that come here on Shabbat are gonna be amazon or you know, yes or you know the male and

00:48:42.130 - 00:48:52.970

they know and so they can still drive in, but they put a cone most of the time in the, in the middle. So that's really have to drive slowly and if you look when you're coming, you'll see every chair, every house has chairs in the front

00:48:52.970 - 00:49:07.080

lawn and um I have a bunch of toys outside and it's such a sense of community and they're all young young couples and young kids that it's and I spent a lot of the time during covid baking and then delivering to everybody in my cul de

00:49:07.080 - 00:49:24.610

sac baked goods for Shabbat and what a sense of community that everybody was just outside together. Yeah, so you, I mean we were all sort of forced to redefine what Shabbat looks like and what community looks like when, you know, there's no kid ish actual and

00:49:24.610 - 00:49:43.480

there's no having people over for meals. And we did one night in a very close friend who passed away from cancer during a man who used to live here. He actually was the Hillel director in Houston and then eventually he became the director of the Houston

00:49:43.480 - 00:49:56.780

jewish Community Foundation. So he was my colleague here for years and he actually, there was also a member of the young Israel and lived a block away. So he knew a lot of people in this neighborhood at that time and of course, and he passed away

00:49:56.780 - 00:50:09.680

in New Jersey and of course zoomed the funeral, but then a bunch of us who knew him decided we wanted to do a minion one night in his honor and I said, well why don't we do the minion outside in my cul de sac. And we

00:50:09.680 - 00:50:23.740

invited people who had a relationship with him, you know, not just people who live in this neighborhood and it was, it was such a beautiful thing. We must have had around 40 people in the cul de sac doubling that night in, in in his memory. And

00:50:23.750 - 00:50:45.330

um, I mean those, those things really, things like that that happened during Covid, you just never forget them. So the feeling of community was amazing. Yeah, no, that sounds, that sounds incredible. Um, I want you to reflect again, coming back to an earlier topic about your,

00:50:45.340 - 00:51:07.800

your career path at, at federation. So you know, you started where you started now, you're a senior vice president and head of Development. What, what were some of the important stops and and lessons learned for you along the way on that on that journey? Well, to

00:51:07.800 - 00:51:30.180

me, the most important part, I'm not a great administrator. Can't say I am, it's not my hot spot. I'm, you know, i, in today's world, I appreciate data. I'm in awe of data. I'm not the person to handle it. But I um, To me, the whole

00:51:30.180 - 00:51:52.580

thing is about relationships, it's about relationships with their colleagues and it's about relationships with donors and I just feel so fortunate that I've been able to spend a 45 year career where the central to me is the relationships people that I've developed. The other interesting thing

00:51:52.580 - 00:52:10.660

is I was at my son, we're out of our son's house last week in Los Angeles and a young friend of his was was a couple was there. Now the guy that was there, I known him forever and I happened to know his father pretty well.

00:52:10.810 - 00:52:32.120

His father is one of the best fundraisers I've known in the jewish community. His father is richard Joel, who was the president of the university, who was the national director of Hillel before becoming the president of Y you was a great fundraiser and his son, we

00:52:32.120 - 00:52:46.430

were having this conversation at lunch and he was saying the worst job in the world would be to be doing fundraising, that to me would be the worst job in the world. And I was like, well, first of all, why don't you ask your father about

00:52:46.430 - 00:53:01.750

that? And second of all, I have to tell you, I never look at it like that. And I actually like asking people for money. I like it, I enjoy it. And I have so many leaders who will say to me and staff will say to me,

00:53:02.240 - 00:53:16.280

well, I can talk about the good work that the federation does. I know the impact we're making, But I just don't feel comfortable asking somebody for money. And I said, Oh great, I'll go with you. You talk about the impact and then I'll say, and would

00:53:16.280 - 00:53:30.330

you consider a contribution or an investment of $5,000 and I have no problem saying it at all. I like saying it because I always keep in my mind, I'm not doing this for me. If I had to go ask somebody to lend me money because I

00:53:30.330 - 00:53:50.070

needed money, I'd be dying. But if I'm asking for the community, I just feel like it's it's no, I'm not joking, I feel like it's my pleasure. And I'm doing it for such a good reason and I like doing it. Someone's trying to reach you. Okay.

00:53:50.080 - 00:54:12.740

How has, How is fundraising and development changed over the course of 40 years? Is the approach still the same? Or is today's generation of donors different? No, it's definitely different. And I, I actually have my conversations and my more with are more senior donors. And I'm

00:54:12.740 - 00:54:26.120

always kind of laugh because I had one of our younger professionals said, well, I, I feel like, I don't know well enough how we allocate funds, you know, and where we're giving the money and and all this, all the programs that we do. And I said

00:54:26.120 - 00:54:37.990

it's so interesting because the demographic that I talked to and I, you know, try to, donors that I work with the most i in contact with them throughout the year. So it's not just once a year, I'm calling you up and say, hey, you know, you

00:54:37.990 - 00:54:52.060

want to make your Federation gift. Um, they don't really want to talk to me about how we allocate our funds. They not that they don't care. They have a certain trust that we're, that we're having impact with the, with the allocations and with the programs that

00:54:52.060 - 00:55:08.380

we make happen and the work, the Federation does the programs that we do. They want to talk about jewish values, how they learned this from their parents that they care about community. you know, we need to take care of each other, blah blah blah blah blah

00:55:08.390 - 00:55:28.590

about these because their stock is rooted in a deep personal jewish value system, a younger donor today, that's not going to resonate, they want to know and I'm not criticizing them, they want to know how is this affecting me? Um, they probably would be more likely

00:55:28.600 - 00:55:45.890

to want to want to fund a school that their kids go to or a program that their kids are involved in, something that impacts them personally as a person. So I think it's a really different focus for, not for all young adults, but I think for

00:55:45.890 - 00:56:01.100

many, um, and they also want to see what's the return on the investment that they're making in the community, which is a, it's a different mind frame today, which we understand and believe me, I can speak to a young person, but it's a very different conversation

00:56:01.110 - 00:56:19.960

half the time than with an older person. The other interesting thing, of course, we alluded to it before, Israel and look, there was a time where it was the they unified us and no matter where you were made no difference where you were on the jewish

00:56:19.960 - 00:56:44.550

spectrum, you know, something with Israel, we're there, we're there and today there are just many different opinions. Um, and there are many younger jews who all age, jews, who are questioning many things about Israel today and it's disheartening, I understand it, but it's just it's a

00:56:44.550 - 00:57:00.110

different world, It's a different world, it's a different world, it's a different world. Yeah. And the lack of consensus around, you know, look, I had to laugh when somebody says, I don't laugh at all when, when, when, when, when when people owe your daughter was in

00:57:00.110 - 00:57:18.500

Israel, does she live over the green yard line? Well, actually she does, then they will have certain people would just be like, oh that's, you know, she lives in an area where nobody ever questioned her area in terms of its legitimacy and you know, whether or

00:57:18.500 - 00:57:37.720

not that would be ever traded, it's not it's not going to, but she's not living on some little outpost somewhere. But no, it's it's but I think it's totally aligns with the general polarization of society, it's just another polarization. Right. Another one. And it's not just

00:57:37.720 - 00:57:53.620

the jewish community. Right, right, right. Look at when you hear Congress, you know, like so many congressmen who are women who don't don't want to support Israel or who just questioned so much things about Israel, I mean, it's it's the support that we had I read

00:57:53.620 - 00:58:18.210

a thing last week, I was blown away that said young evangelicals are questioning their relationship with Israel now, that was like, really, okay, so, and look, I understand one thing I've learned from this path is the worst thing you can ever say is this is the

00:58:18.210 - 00:58:31.470

way we do things, this is the way we do things. I have gotten that out of my vernacular. It does not. You cannot, you know the way we did is you have to do what you are, how you're doing today, you have to look at the

00:58:31.470 - 00:58:51.180

future and um I just, it's a thinking about that. No, this being stuck in this is the way we do things is not, you can't exist, you can't exist there. You have to adapt. You have to adapt to evolve. Trying This is like I can put

00:58:51.180 - 00:59:06.830

it on my Spotify. Oh my gosh, maybe that person that wants to say, I want to give you $10,000 on that phone. Maybe that's just calling. I don't think so. It's a very real interview. You have all the beats and sounds, that's alright. It's genuine, what

00:59:06.830 - 00:59:21.830

we're almost done. I'm curious, Suzanne, what in your mind, you know, having been here for so long and having had a front row seat Um you know, in in the, for the history of the Houston, Jewish commune over these last 40, almost 50 years, what makes

00:59:21.830 - 00:59:44.170

this community special or different? I think that even with the polarization, we are a much more unified, respectful community than most and I think that is also one of our hallmarks that we are a kind community. Um This is a terrible thing to say, Don't quote

00:59:44.170 - 01:00:07.920

me, I used to say maybe one of our mottoes could be disasters are us, but we've had so many more disasters in this community than the typical community, whether whether it's our own freeze or floods or the wars in Israel or pandemic or anything, the things

01:00:07.920 - 01:00:25.510

that hit everybody hits us, but then we end up with our others that only hit us and it's very unique ways and this is a community that comes out for one another. Like I don't think any other do. I mean it is unbelievable how when the

01:00:25.510 - 01:00:44.030

need is there, we just rally and you know, we all can have pictures in our mind of, you know, that that that racquetball center at the JCC and people coming to get their supplies during Covid and we were giving to the whole community, not obviously just

01:00:44.040 - 01:00:59.670

just the jewish community and people, you know, helping one another and just, you know, doing laundry like everybody else. I was slipping to the US and getting laundry to do for people, you know, during harvey to bring it back and we all were and nobody was

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more special than anybody. We all did our part. And so I think to me that is one of the most please God, we shouldn't have disasters. But God forbid when we do this is an unusual community. And that's, that's always always struck me great, well thank

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you so much for taking the time to do a lot of, a lot of beeps and beeps and drumbeats and Amber alerts and something. I will. I will. But thank you for taking the time to do this. What a pleasure. We talked about. Some fun stuff.

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I think people really enjoy listening to. What a pleasure.