JULY 14, 2023

TO RESPOND WITH A COMMENT OF YOUR OWN, PLEASE WRITE TO OR CLICK ON WHSALUM63@AOL.COM. 

Hi Livers of Weequahic Life, 

William Ginsburg (58) comes aboard the Weequahic memory train at dandwginsburg@gmail.com.

Carl Greenberg l(52) now makes his email home at carlgreenberg01@gmail.com.

Mourning the loss of Weequahic alumni:

Marc Tarabour (6/63)

With sorrow and deep condolences to family, I share the note, below, from Jonathan, the son of Ben Wolfe (6/55) who passed away this week and whose service is this Sunday. Ben was a member of our WHS Alumni Association Board and its Secretary. He will be sorry missed for his compassion and insight and dedication to the WHSAA.  Marc

It is with our deepest sorry that we share news of the death of Benjamin Wolfe on July 8, 2023. We warmly extend an invitation to all of his family and friends to celebrate his life at a memorial service on Sunday, July 16, at 11:00am at Temple B’nai Jeshurun; 1025 South Orange Ave, Short Hills, NJ 07078. The service will be followed by a shiva at Skyline Ridge Apartments. Full details below.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, we encourage you to support Weequahic High School Alumni Association. Ben had deep affection for Weequahic and throughout his life he invested his time, capital, passion, and intellect on behalf of those he loved. We encourage you to honor that devotion in his memory. Anita, Jonathan and Elizabeth

WHSAA, PO Box 494, Newark, NJ 07101

on-line at:  

https://weequahicalumni.org/scholarship-donations/

(please put ‘Ben Wolfe’ in Memo section)

Steven Gold

My dad, Barry Gold, resident of Delray Beach, FL passed away on July 2nd at the age of 83. He was born on December 27, 1939, in the Bronx, NY, and grew up in Newark, New Jersey. He graduated from Weequahic High School (Class of January 1958) where he built friendships that endured throughout his life. He went on to earn his degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Following a brief time in the family dry cleaning business, my dad began his financial securities career at Paragon Securities in NJ.  He later went on to Hamilton Cook, followed by Gibraltar Securities, and ultimately Wells Fargo Advisors, where he retired in 2004. And throughout his career making valuable contributions. Known for his dedication, hard work, integrity, and friendships he left a lasting impact on his colleagues.

His loving wife of 59 years, Linda Gold and his three sons, Adam, Michael, and Steven Gold survived him, as did his cherished grandchildren, Aidyn, Ross, Zac, Simon, Dylan, and Tyler Gold. His family and extended family, including his daughter in-laws Andrea and Connie, were the center of his world, and he treasured the moments spent with all of them.

In dad’s memory, the family kindly requests that donations be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation whose mission he admired, to find a cure for Parkinson's disease. For the Foundation to notify the Gold family of your kind gesture, please use the following email address when making your contribution, barrygold@aol.com.  Steven

Enid Hinkes’ (60) Memorial Day tribute to Weequahic’s fallen heroes is applauded:

Bobby Clark (64)

Enid, first I need to commend you for putting together the casualty results from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. I grew up with Mike Swangin and entered the Army just after he was KIA and I found myself in the same area where he was killed. I have written about Mike before and what a great friend he was. However, Michael was not awarded the Silver Star as you noted. He was an assistant machine gunner when he and his gunner were killed manning an M-60 protecting others. He was KIA due to fragmentation wounds, as was the gunner. I won’t go into all the details, but he was a hero nevertheless. No doubt about that! Thanks again Enid. Babby

Lynn Lustig (53)

The Korean War also took Jerry Sobrano. I remember him fondly. God rest his soul. Lynn

Maurice Moishe Freedman (57)

I thank Enid Hinkes for providing the Memorial Day list; a wonderful service. On the eve of Memorial Day, I read through all of the names on the list. I felt a great deal of pain knowing that every single person on the list died in battle and was never able to fulfill their lives. I knew none of them and grieve for all of them. Moishe

David Chinoy (Chancellor 56)

I just read the WW II military information sent by Enid Hinkes. One of my uncles survived from age 19 as a major member of the Air Force and survived as an excellent service member until a few years ago in York, Pennsylvania.

Enid and I were classmates until 1956 when my family moved to Ft. Lauderdale. Except for one medical internship at Atlanta in 1968, my wife and I lived in several Florida cities and now have moved to central Florida. I have enjoyed all the reports of life since I left there at age 13 to my current age of 80 this past October.  David

Jacqueline Kaufer Klein (66) shares musings and thoughts motivated by reading recent commentaries in the “WHS Note:”

I wrote these thoughts after learning within a two-week period of the passings of two women with whom I went through Maple Avenue School and Weequahic. It is always a shock to reading our weekly newsletter about these losses. I wasn’t close with these women, but I can still picture them exactly as they were, when they were ten years old.

Pictured, below is my father's 1940 yearbook from high school (for pics click on LINK TO PDF) which would mean that today, the people in the photographs would be about 102 years old. Every once in a while, I will take it off the shelf to look at it. The pages are filled with many young faces of classmates who had their lives ahead of them. They wrote warm and lovely things to my father with their fountain pens (there were no ballpoint pens then}. They wrote about what they wanted to become and a little synopsis of their lives. Many did not know that the future would hold. Perhaps enlistment into the military for World War II? Some who did would not come back.

Then, there is a pamphlet from their 40-year reunion, which would put them at about 60 years old in 1980. You can see some of them above, laughing and smiling in their fine clothes, reminiscing, dancing, and enjoying being with their fellow graduates again.

But now, it is all over. I grew up with all of these people. They were all faces in my neighborhood. Friends of my parents. Parents of my friends. I saw them buying lox and herring in the dairy store, in temple, sitting in the restaurants and trying on dresses on Bergen Street. They all would have been born around 1921, like my father, but the ones I could identify are all gone. Though many of the homes they lived in, still exist, their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren continue. They themselves, if there isn’t a picture, don’t exist any longer and the same for their experiences in the neighborhood and the lost memories.

How can we look through the pages of this Legend, a book that once was brand-new and now realize that these people are no more real than illusions or dreams or mostly forgotten memories. Especially, when they were so loved, so cared for; their lives were so important? I put the yearbook away because I can’t bear the thought that what I am holding in my hands. Yet, the Legend is one of the only places where their memories continue to exist.

On the other hand, in allowing us to share memories, the weekly “WHS Note” does make everyone's memory for a blessing. Our exchanges, recollections and reminiscences do make the families, the neighborhood, and the memories come alive again. And everyone who reads these memories on Fridays, feels the same way. The newsletter is where some of the memories come back to life again, and, very often, as if not a moment has passed in our shared Weequahic experience. So lucky we are to have this precious conduit to our past and to the many graduates of Weequahic whose photos, classes, activities, future ambitions and high school and neighborhood stories appear in their yearbooks. Jacqueline

“Dem ole W-attachments:”    

Myron Borden (1/52)

Harry Boodish also had a daughter who was the youngest member of their very nice family. Leon Malamed worked next door in Moishe's, a Kosher restaurant, with his lovely wife. My best friend, Merwin Feinsot, Class of January 1953, who lived very nearby at 200 Clinton Place, passed away a couple of years ago.



Along with Larry Barsher, (1/52) and Dave Schwartz (1/53), we used the Boodish Candy Store as our evening meeting place most nights of the week. Others in our nightly group were Alan Ginsberg, Calvin Drucks and Allen Rubenstein, who by the way, is still actively practicing medicine at the age of 89.

In those days, many groups of friends used local eateries as their unofficial "clubhouses" as did others throughout the city of Newark. There are many funny stories I can relate about Merwin Feinsot, who somehow had been the main character of humorous episodes as a Newark teenager. I will do so in a future edition here. Myron

Herman Rosenfeld (67)

Thanks for featuring Jerry’s Izenberg’s book, “Baseball, Nazis and Nedrick’s Hot Dogs.” I have been reading his columns for many decades, his other books and his writing on the NY football Giants. I just ordered his latest, and look forward to reading it. Herman

Shirley Sarasohn Birnholz (1/49)

I so enjoy all the memories from the neighborhood and school. I marvel at the total recall so many have from their years growing up in the wonderful Weequahic section! I had the good fortune to attend Maple Avenue School when we lived on Weequahic Avenue, and then Chancellor and Weequahic High School when we lived on Summit Avenue. I married my classmate, Jack Birnholz, in 1953, and we lived in Millburn before moving to Florida in 1974 with our three children. 

A huge highlight was attending our 50th high school reunion after Jack had a heart transplant. I moved to California after Jack passed away in July 2004. Reading the “WHS Note” is a real joy! Thanks for the memories. Shirley