Garber, Delott_1979

We welcome you here tonight Mr. M. Delott Garber, Ph.D., or should I correct that to
Dr.Garber. A Ph.D. from Yale who was a teacher and administrator in the Hartford
Public School system for 30 years. In 1966 he became a professor in education at
Central Connecticut State College and at the time of his retirement in 1976 was
chairman of the Department of Curriculum Research and Supervision. He has been
adjunct or visiting professor at the University of Connecticut, Trinity and the University of
Hartford where he founded the workshop in Intergroup Education and was its director
until 1963. From 1943 until 1967 Dr. Garber was the director of religious education at
Temple Beth Israel in West Hartford. He has been active and has provided leadership
in many professional, civic and community agencies and organizations on the local,
regional and national levels, such as President of Hartford Principals Association,
President of Hartford Jewish Community Center, President of Connecticut Jewish
Community Relations Council and Vice President of the New England Region of
National Jewish Welfare Board. Over the years Dr. Garber has received numerous
citations and awards some of which are for the Hartford Board of Ed, National
Conference of Christians and Jews, National Association of Temple Educators,
Connecticut Jewish Community Relations Council, WCCC, Hartford Courant, Hartford
Times, Hartford Jewish Community Center, National Jewish Welfare Board. He is listed
in Who's Who in American Education and Who's Who in the East. He is being interview
tonight by Joseph H. Soifer who is here on my far right. A member of the Jewish
Historical Society Board and long-time member of the Newsroom staff of the Hartford
Public Schools. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for the University
of Hartford Alumni Association and the Outstanding Alum Citation and is presently an
Alumni Trustee Julius Hartt and School Foundation. He is a part president of the
Agudas Achim Synagogue and has been president of the Labor and Zionist Alliance
Branch 61 since 1960. At president he the Executive Secretary of the Connecticut
State Federation of Teachers. I turn this interview over to Mr. Soifer. Not on my far
right.
JS:
This taped interview is taking place on Wednesday evening, May 9, 1979 and we
might add right at the beginning the hottest May 9 in history. What was the temperature
today? 97 if the radio was right. In the Adult Lounge of the Hartford Jewish Community
Center. My name is Joseph H. Soifer and I am interviewing Dr. M. Delott Garber, an
outstanding educator and community leader. This tape will be placed in the Oral History
Archives of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford to be used by students for
research and study. Well Del, this should not be a difficult interview for either of us,
especially since we worked together at the Alfred E. Bird Junior High School in
Hartford's South End from 1948 to 1961, you as principal, and I as Music instructor. But
first things first, so why don't we go back to the beginning of the Del Garber saga.
Where were you born and what do you remember about your early years?
MG:
Well, I was born right here in Hartford and on the basis of the information I can
recollect which is based upon discussion I heard as a youngster we must have been
living on Windsor Street at the time. I was not born in a hospital, which I know. The
early years or rather phase at least as far as recollection and personal experiences are
concerned, but some of the things that I do remember, I suspect I remember primarily
because these things were talked about in the family. One early experience that I had
is one that I've told to a number of people and that deals with a boat trip from Hartford to
New York. Evidently it was 1914 when the family learned that a cousin of my mother
was arriving in New York by board from Europe. And as I said it must have been 1914
because all the talk for years after that was that this was the last boat that was admitted
to this country before World War I broke out in 1914. And my father took be to New
York by boat to meet this cousin, this first cousin of rny mother's. The thing that was
talked about for years was the fact that, number one, when we got to the foot of State
Street to get the boat, we saw the boat going off. This didn't phase my father evidently
because all we did was to talk back up to Main Street, get on a trolley, go to Middletown
and pick up the boat in Middletown. Well, there was another thing that happened on
this little sojourn to New York that was talked about, and because of that I am able to
tell about it. Because I am pretty sure that if it was left entirely to my own recollections I
probably would have forgotten about it. But at any rate, before we got to New York
evidently it must have gotten windy while I was on deck and the cap that! was wearing
was blown off into the water and the first thing we had to do, at least my father had to
do, when we got to New York was to look for a store where we could get a cap because
no respectable youngster of about 5 or so would be seen with a cap in those days. And
evidently everything else must have gone along all right, I did get a cap and we did get
back. Another thing I remember about my youth was on November 7th, 1918, whistle,
factory whistles began to blow and as far as we were concerned how we got the
information, I don't know, World War I ended. And one of the- back in those days the
barrels that rubbish and garbage was put into were wood and the gang in the
neighborhood collected barrels from backyards and started a big bonfire to celebrate
the end of the war. Well, as I said this was November 7th, we got to school, and yet no
one went to school in the morning. We got to school in the afternoon and we learned
that this was a false alarm and of course four days later the war did end officially and
one of the things I do remember was watching a parade on Main Street right opposite
Morgan Street and my father lifted me up and holding me on his shoulder. I was even
shorter then than I am now, so that I could see the parade. Well, a few years later I
reached the Jewish age of maturity and so had to be Bar Mitzvahed and in preparation
for this we had a Rebbe come to the house. We were now living on Flower Street that
is off Farmington Avenue, one block west of Broad Street, and it was not a Jewish
neighborhood. And of course the only way I could get a Jewish education was to have
a tutor or Rebbe come to the house. Mr. Nassau was my Rebbe until he got enough
sons into Yale where evidently it was cheaper for him to move to New Haven then to
keep teaching me and the other devils who he undoubtedly had as students. At any
rate we lost Mr. Nassau and then I had a Mr. Premak whose son was a tailor on Capitol
Avenue and had a flowing red beard as my Rebbe. But my father who had also been a
Rebbe when he first came to this country back in 1904 because he left very quickly from
Europe so that he could avoid the Russo-Japanese War and for the first year or so he
was in Colchester where he was the tutor of Rebbe for some of the families there. One
of the things that he talked about and was proud of was the fact that one of his students
turned our to be a rabbi and another one, a girl, was married to a rabbi. And this one
here we did visit in New York or Brooklyn, or somewhere, I do recall sometime in my
early years. But at any rate, my father also tutored me as far as Bar Mitzvah was
concerned and I was Bar Mitzvahed in the Litchmachere Shu! the Agas Israel
Synagogue and of course in the tradition of that
in addition to the Torah reading,
the Haftorah and so forth, one had to give a speech right in the synagogue. You know,
what was referred to then as "today I am a man speech." You had to memorize.
You
couldn't, you know, look at papers or notes or anything. Of course, we kids used to
refer to it as "today I am a fountain pen" speech because the number of fountain pens
we got as gifts for our Bar Mitzvah.
JS:
Del, was your family religious and observant and what were the important values
in your home?
MG:
Well, I came from a strictly orthodox and kosher home. In fact as far as I was
concerned and ourfamily was concerned everybody; every Jew came from an orthodox
and kosher home. Now obviously 1 know now that's not true, but we just assumed it
was. We had a meat market and grocery store on Flower Street and despite that fact
that we had beautiful meats and delicatessens and other all kinds of food, in fact at one
time my father had a little wholesale business where he sold to restaurants and even
the Hotel Bond as I recall, but at any rate here was all of this food and yet we couldn't
touch it or eat and we had to, in fact this was a mission of mine very frequently 1 had to
go to Windsor Street in order to get meat. I think a butcher by the name of Ratner at
one time, I know others, and certainly the delicatessen Yatkin or Yotkin and Weinbaum
and so forth, Siegel, I don't know. At any rate I had to you know travel all the way to
Windsor Street in order to get food and here we were surrounded by food, but no one
ever thought of eating the non-kosher food. In addition to that, of course, in the home
we always had to wash our hands, make a brucha, or prayer before eating and there
was this towel on the, on one of the doors in the kitchen, on one of these rollers, you
know, and you just used one part until it became dirty and then pulled on it and used the
next part until it was dirtier than the other and as forth. But at any rate this was the kind
of home in which we lived and certainly it was as I say orthodox. Regardless of how
busy business was my father had to doven every day, put his tefilen on and doven
every morning, sometime not quite as early as other times but dovening had to take
place. And of course after I was bar mitzvahed I had to lead tefilen and doven or at
least go through the motions as I frequently did. Until, and I did this while 1 was home
until 1 left for college. Then to, of course, there was no question that shabbos beginning
Friday night that day was different than any other day in the week. No ifs, ands or buts
about it. You could smell it, you could feel it, and you could see it in the air once you
came into the kitchen where we ate on Friday night. In the first place there was the
smell of bread, the challah that was being, that was baked. And of course, chicken
soup and chicken every Friday night so that for years I don't think I despised any food
more than chicken or chicken soup. However, I've matured now and I love both of them
and look forward to my wife making chicken soup especially. But at any rate, Friday
night was different and shabbos was different. The linen on the table, the silverware,
the challah, the candles of course were lit and the challah with the napkin over it. You
just felt and smelled and sensed that everything was different. And so there was this
kind of respect toward the sabbath that one required one might through osmosis even if
you knew nothing about the sabbath, which, of course, we were supposed being taught
in addition to that.
JS:
Tell me, Del, was Zionism of Socialism or any organizational activity part of your
home life?
DG:
Well, as you know and probably in more detail and more specifically than 1 do
Joe, you know that your dad and my dad our fathers were two of the sever originators,
founders, of what back in those days was known as the IN GERAN - the Jewish
National Workers Alliance and which today is what - Labor Zionist Alliance. This was,
as you told me, in 1914 and one of the things that I can remember for years was looking
forward to these meetings which were held at the Labor Lysiam on what was then
Windsor Avenue and which is now North Main Street, and one of the reasons I've
always looked forward it as a youngster was the wonderful delicatessen corned beef
and pastrami sandwiches that they served along with delicious soda out of the bottle.
However, as I am sure you know, Joe, there were speakers and whether we liked it or
not we acquired a great deal of knowledge and information as a result of the meetings
that were held as this old Labor Lysiam. We lived in a non-Jewish Gentile
neighborhood. And, of course, the geography at that fact at the geography being what
is was back in those days as far as transportation was concerned; I had very little
personal contact with other Jewish youngsters and Jewish organizations. However, in
spite of what I look like now I did have, apparently, athletic ability back in those days
Joe. I played baseball. I was considered pretty good. I was a pretty good track person.
The forty-yard dash if I remember correctly the distance. And, of course, what in those
days was called the running broad jump and basketball. Believe it or now, in this day
and age where you have to be seven feet tall in order to be a basketball player I was
considered a pretty good basketball player because of my athletic ability. I was
searched out by the Hatikvah Club, a Zionist organization, to play basketball. And I
played basketball with Dave Schlossberg, Kritsky who is now - no the one who is a
psychiatrist in New London - ya, and Charlie Krat and Dave Goldsmith, avasholom, and
four of five others were on. As a result of this 1 got involved with "other Jewish
youngsters" and with Zionism.
JS:
You were telling me when I was out to see you at your home about the time you
went to the
MG:
Theater to listen to two very distinguished gentlemen.
Ya. I am glad you reminded me of that, Joe. Back in those days movies were
closed on Sunday afternoon and the Poli Theater was the place for a Zionist meeting, I
must have been in the early years of high school, I would suspect it was in the early
1920s, where my father took me to this particular meeting at the Poll Theater at which
Chaim Weitzman and Albert Einstein were the speakers. That's a picture that I'll never
forget and, of course, it's become more vivid and more dramatic as I grew older and the
importance and significance of being able to see in person those two giants of Jewish
history, and, of course, Albert Einstein probably one of the greatest scientists of all
times.
JS:
Well that covers it pretty well. I would suggest that you got a pretty good memory
to remember all those wonderful things. Now when and where did you become
interested in your life work?
MG:
Well, let me give you just a very brief synopsis of my education. Living of Flower
Street! went to West Middle School from Kindergarten through grade eight. There were
eight grades in the grammar school as they were called at that time. From there I
graduated and I checked this in the graduation picture today because I was under the
impression there must have been about 28 to 30 in the class, but I was wrong.
Because as I counted the number of people in the graduating class there were 25 in this
graduating class at the West Middle School. We went from a class of 25 at West Middle
and my size, I was the shortest person in the high school class with the exception of
one girl and we went into a class at Hartford Public High School which at that time was
the only high school in the city of around 2,000 students and we had double sessions.
We the freshman went to school in the afternoon from 1:15 to 5:15, if I recall correctly.
After my secondary school education I went to Yale and well, I suspect and I assumed
at that time that in every Jewish home every youngster was expected to become either
a doctor or a lawyer. And so when I went to Yale I was in Sheffield Scientific School
and started on a pre-med course. After two years or during the first two years I could
see that this wasn't what I was interested in and particularly under the influence of a
professor by the name of Phillips who happened to be a Stanford University graduate I,
well the end result was that I got some kind of a scholarship and ended up at Stanford
University in Palo Alto, California from which I got my degree, the BA degree. And it
looked liked law at that particular time. However, and I got out in beginning thirties it
was right in the middle of the depression after coming home and plus the fact that I had
the California bug at that had bit me, I went back to California. My grandfather was
living in Los Angeles and I had an uncle and other relatives in the Loa Angeles area and
I got a job with the C. F. Adams Company doing personnel work. On November 23rd,
1932 my father died and I came back East and even though I had a six month leave of
absence I never went back and during this time when my mother, brother and I were
operating and running the store I was asked to tutor a friend and I'd hate to tell you the
subjects I was asked to tutor. They were subjects I had never had. But at any rate I
enjoyed it so much that as a result of that I started taking part-time courses at New
Britain that at that time was Teachers College of Connecticut. I got my fifth year degree
from New Britain, from there went on to UConn to get my Masters and then to Yale,
Ph.D. So that's how I became interest in education.
JS:
Our careers pretty much parallel each other and I know I had an interesting time
getting a job in the City of Hartford back in the thirties. How did you get started?
MG:
Well, to begin with I had applied and for one year heard nothing. I did Fred Wish
was superintendent of schools back in those days and one of the things he
recommended he gave you a list of the members of the Board of Education was to go
around an see the members of the Board of Education and also to go see principals. I
did get work for about 5 or 6 weeks and Eleanor Ryan, whom you probably know, Joe,
had a strep throat and a strep throat back in those days wasn't a relative easy thing to
cure as it is today and she was out for at least 5 or 6 weeks. That was at the Northeast
Junior High and Clifton Brainard was principal so that's how I got started. As a result of
that his recommendation must have been such that when Annie Fished needed a math
teacher at the Henry Barnard Junior High School she asked for me and I went to Henry
Barnard, which in those days included grade 10 as well as grade 9, the sophomore year
in high school. I taught first and second year algebra. And of course I think one of a
number unique and for me gratifying and life-directing experiences was working under
Annie Fisher. I assumed, and I think this is true, that she took the same interest in
every new teacher that she did in me, supervising, coming in, observing, sitting down
after school, making recommendations, planning with you and so forth and Annie and I
got to be very good friends. I spent two very happy years there. But to get back, at any
rate when I got the appointment to my teaching job, Fred Wish told me there were over
200 applicants that year, four appointments were made.
JS:
I know when you first came to Burr as a teacher I forget what year.
MG:
That was in '39 1 think, '38 or '39.
JS:
All right. When you first came to Burr you were interested in helping children with
learning difficulties and how did you get started in that area?
MG:
Well, this was one - the second year I was at Barnard, Annie Fisher asked me to
take over assignment of a Mrs. Nickols who has a year's maternity leave of absence
who was a guidance counselor and as a result of getting involved with guidance and
dealing with children with problems and this was depression and we were having many
older youngsters who were not quitting school even when they were legally able to quit
school. Annie Fisher was interested in this group and evidently, well not evidently, I
know, because she did some of it with me, talked to the superintendent Mr. Wish a bout
the possibility of starting up a special class which was then called a coaching class.
You see there was the opportunity rules or opportunity classes for youngsters who were
having difficulty but once you became 26 you weren't eligible to remain in an opportunity
class so the coaching class was for the older students and this was the class that was
set up at Burr. The first such class in the city and Fred Wish asked me if I would take
on this assignment and as a result of that I got interested in reading and wrote my
Masters thesis in reading too.
JS:
You must have taught that class very well because when I was overseas in
World War II there was one of the youngsters in your class who wrote to me constantly
and a girl who had all the social graces and who knew the right thing to do and the right
thing to say. So I could see from her that you did your job well.
MG:
Weil, I thank you Joe.
JS:
From there you went to
MG:
Well, from there I went to the New Park Avenue School as principal and this also
provided me with an unusual opportunity because one day soon after I got to New Park
Avenue School Dr. Mahoney, who at that time was Director of Secondary Education,
came out to see me and said that there was a project being set up by the American
Council on Education to experiment with educational procedures and techniques for
eliminating or reducing discrimination and prejudice whether of religion, race, ethnic
background, socio-economic conditions and so forth and he thought that I was the kind
of principal that might be interested in participating in this project. And as a result of
that the New Park Avenue School became one of 18 schools in the United States that
were purposely selected to give a cross-section of education in the United States.
These schools were schools from all kinds of neighborhoods and different size
communities. The director of this particular project was a Dr. Hilda Tarbuck, who I got
to know real well, Helen Jennings, one of the co-founders of the Socia-Metric approach
with Dr J. L. Marino and gave me a wonderful opportunity and really turned me in an
entirely new direction as far as my professional life was concerned.
JS:
About this time you also got started with the religious school at Beth Israel.
MG:
Ya. It was just a couple of years before, I think ya, just about that time. Certainly
in the early !40s that I got involved with religious education on a formal basis. Lewis
Fox was a member of the Board of Education and dear Lewis of course I guess was a
member of the Board of Education when any of us turned around anywhere. He was on
that Board, I don't know it must have been 35 or 40 years or so. But at any rate he
called me into his office on Asylum Street one day and said there was an opportunity
that he'd like to see me take advantage of. And that was to become the head of the
religious education program at Beth Israel which was his synagogue. Well, as a result
of discussions and then him taking me out the meet Rabbi Feldman I ended up at Beth
Israel figuring it is going to be a nice easy part-time job and at the beginning it wasn't
that demanding. We had 162 students, however, as time passed, in fact 24 years,
which was the number of years I spent at Beth Israel heading up the education
program, the enrollment, pupil population kept increasing so that in 1967 when I left
Beth Israel religious school we had 1,136 students. And, of course, during these years
and the subsequent years after that, and until he passed away, I had the very unique
and rewarding experience of working with Rabbi Feldman and I'm sure, I just can't put
into words, wouldn't attempt to put into words, the influence and impact that my
association and relationships with him have had upon me and my life. He was a very,
very unique and unusual person. To get to know him at the level that I did was a rare
experience and I'm sure if I sat down and listed everything I could think of that resulted
from this relationship there would be many that I am not even conscious of that many
ways I am not conscious of in which he influenced me to.
JS:
Can we go back just a step because your mention of Dr. Jennings, of course,
who I got to know and respect very highly, led you on a completely untraveled,
unexplored field.
MG:
Right. As I indicated before, this American Council on Education Project that had
the title Intergroup Education and Cooperating Schools, these 18 schools across the
country, gave me the opportunity to associate with these outstanding consultants that
included Helen Jennings and as a result of that particular experience I became
interested in the field of intergroup education, human relations and I began to work and
fight for this kind of education in Hartford Public Schools and I also did some doctoral
work until Hugh Hartshorn and Mark May at Yale in this particular field. But at any rate I
think the thing you are getting at is that eventually I ended up setting up a workshop in
intergroup education at what originally was Hillyer College and later became the
University of Hartford. And this was another unique experience that I had. In fact Joe, !
think as I look back now and have done some thinking about it before coming here this
evening, I really have had three professional lives. One is public education. And, of
course, I went from principalship of New Park Avenue School back to join you at Burr
Junior High School as principal and for a while, as far as I was concerned, this was a
very happy experience and I wanted nothing else. In fact, I had difficulty trying to
explain to Clyde Hill as Yale, who is Dr. Hill, the head of the Department of Education at
Yale, who had come to me with various offers in the field of education and why are you
remaining principal of a junior high school. Well, I loved it and I think you know why,
Joe, having been there all those years. It was a unique group of teachers and very
unusual students too, for whom you could do many things. But at any rate, in 1961, Dr.
Mahoney, who at this time, I think, was acting superintendent, at any rate he came out
to me one Saturday afternoon and he said we had a Board of Education meeting all
morning and we have a problem and you're the one whose going to have to solve it for
us. We need a principal at the Northwest Elementary-Jones Junior High School up in
the North End there on Albany Avenue and Woodland Street. And I said well I'm happy
here, I have no interest but anyway start talking to me with my background, with my
experience particularly in the field of intergroup education I'm the person for it and in
view of what's going to happen in this particular neighborhood they need someone like
me. They don't have anyone else in the city, in the school system who has these kinds
of skills. But at any rate, as a result of that I recall, I said, well I'll take it on three
conditions, I don't even remember what the three conditions were, but I remember three
conditions. One was that he had to come out to the Burr faculty and explain to them
that I didn't want the job and so because I couldn't face the faculty telling them I was
leaving. But at any rate, I went from Burr in 1961 to Northwest-Jones and was there
fore five years and a real metamorphosis took place as part of the pupil population was
concerned. It happened much faster than any of us thought. When I got to Jones in
1961 there the black pupil population was a little of 19% when I left in 1966 it was 92%
and in a five year period that was the kind of change that had taken place in that school.
In addition to that the pupil population increased from about 1,100 to 1,600 and
something. In other words, white families were replaced by bigger black families and
we were running extensions in Emanuel Synagogue, the one on Blue Hills Avenue at
that time, at Burlington was at Tikvoh Chodosh was a, Teferes Israel, yeah, at the
corner of Burlington. We had branches up there, three, four rooms up there, seven,
eight in Emanuel and so forth.
JS:
Well, Delott, that pretty much covers your professional and your career with the
Hartford Public Schools, tell us about your community activities, and of course, this
must have been an offshoot of the things that you were interested in education.
MG:
Ya. Well. Before we get to that, I don't want to leave one of the very happy
aspects of my professional life out and that was after leaving Northwest-Jones, I went
as a full professor to Central Connecticut State College and I won't get into the details
but these were very happy years and they were a natural outcome because for years I
had been teaching extension and adjunct courses first at University of Connecticut then
Trinity and then at University of Hartford and a few other places each and every year.
And so it was a natural for me to go to Central and I was very and still am very proud of
that fact that without even asking, I was offered a full professorship which is unusual.
I've never been anything but a full professor in college whereas many have to start as
instructors and fight hard and work their way up and of course when I retired in
September 1976, I was chairman of the Department of Curriculum Research and
Supervision. All right now, obviously as a result of interests in prejudice, discrimination,
human relations and so forth, I became interested in the general community and as far
as the Jewish community is concerned both the general and Jewish community, in what
is today called community relations. And I've involved over the years in community
relations and community organizations of other kinds too. On the local, state, regional
and national levels at the local level I became, I succeeded in 1951 Milton Naham as
chairman of the Community Relations Committee that I headed up for five years, I think
it was, five or six years until about 1956/57 and Judge Sy Likens succeeded me as
chairman. At that time I, as a result of my activities and involvement and attempts to get
coordination particularly as far as state legislation was concerned became involved with
other community relations people, people interested in community relations in the state
and I think primarily as the leadership provided by Lew Feinmark and myself a
Connecticut Community Relations Council was created and Lew became the first
president and I was the second president of that. Result of these things I was on the
Executive Committee of the NCRAC, the National Community Relations Advisory
Council succeeded Morrie Fagin who was the director of the Fellowship Commission in
Philadelphia as the chairman of their commission on intercultural education and later
served on the National Commission on Church State Relations.
JC:
That you were on the Search Committee to find a spot for the Jewish Community
Center and that's why we're here tonight and one of the proud achievements that you
can really take credit is having picked a very wonderful director we have here today.
MG:
Yes. I eventually became president of the Jewish Community Center and as you
said I was chairman of the Search Committee when Hy Melitz went to Pennsylvania and
as a result of the interviews we had and the searching that we did as you said I am very,
very proud of the fact that some 20 odd years ago Murry Shapiro ended up as director
of the Hartford Jewish Community Center. May I also add, parenthetically, that I am
also proud of the fact and hopeful that it will turn out just as well that a year ago I
headed up a search committee for the Jewish Family Service and brought to this
community, Philip Weiner, I don't know how many of you have met him, but he's an
outstanding young man and I'm looking forward to similar kind of leadership from him in
case work and social work activities as we've gotten in the group work field from Murry
Shapiro.
JS:
I know that on May 27th you are coming to our Labor Zionist Alliance meeting.
You're an old friend of ours there and you're going to speak on Soviet Synagogues and
Refusniks visited. You and Florence have spent a lot of time traveling and maybe we
can take these last few minutes to speak about your travels, especially this last one.
MG:
All right. Before I get to this last trip, I do want to point out since this is a
recording for the Jewish Historical Society that I have been to Israel, in fact I have been
to Israel four times. The first time in 1964 as a result of a Fellowship that was provided
by the UAHC (the Union of American Hebrew Congregations) and that's another
experience that I'll remember as long as I live. There were 18 of us in religious
education who spent seven weeks in Israel, not at the Hilton or any of the fancy hotels,
but included such experiences as having a private cocktail party provided for us by
Salmon Chazar who was president at that particular time. Also meeting members of
Parliament, living on a kibbutz for three weeks and each of us had a family that had
adopted us and so forth. But at any rate the second time Florence and I went was in
1968 and of course we had to get there after that Six Day War so we could get to the
things that we could only read about and be told about in 1964. The third time was in
May 73 which was before the Yom Kippur War and then the last time was an interfaith
group of educators, again there were 18 of us that included five college presidents and
this was in October 1975. Well, as you said, Joe, Florence and I have done a lot of
traveling and I can think of unique experiences. How much time do we have? OK. And
from the point of view, well in the first place wherever we go, whenever we go
anywhere, one of our basic interests is to try to find out something about the Jews and
Jewish life in that particular community or country. We had traveled in many countries.
I never counted them up but! wouldn't be surprised if somewhere between 30 and 40
foreign countries, certainly most of the countries of Europe, Africa, Asia and so forth.
Things that come to mind are the synagogues we visited in Morocco, particularly
Tangiers, Fezz, Medina, Marrakech. My severest critic over here on my right is
whispering Ethiopia, yes, when we visited Ethiopia we went out of our way to take a
special trip on a rinky-dinky plane to get to Gongdarfrom which we were able to go to a
community of the black Jews, the Falashas, or Falasha, as some people pronounce it,
another thing that comes to mind is in the trip that we took around the world after I
retired, this was in the spring, late winter and spring of 1977, we attended services and
had our Pesach Sedar in Tokyo, Japan and I'll never forget the sign as went first to the
services into the synagogue there, a big sign that says there Jewish community of
Japan. We had a very lively and an exceptionally long sedar conducted by a Jewish
naval chaplain and an Israeli who was the educational director in Tokyo. Another thing
that comes to mind even more recent, is when we were in Cairo, Egypt in September
1978, on the say before Anwar Sadat was due back from Camp David and they were
preparing the streets for a heroes welcome for him because it was assumed at that
particular time, at least as far as we could determine in Egypt, that peace was inevitable
between Egypt and Israel. And, of course, one the things that I try to do, particularly in
the three Communist counties we visited, which were Yugoslavia, Romania and the
Soviet Union, is to compare how Jews live and are treated in each of these three
countries and are treated very, very differently and I'm not going to take the time to go
into these distinctions now. But you are right, Joe, that the most exciting and
adventuresome experiences I've had have been on my visits to the Soviet Union. I
have been there three times. This last time was at the end of December and beginning
of January of this year, 1979. And this last time we went to Moscow, which is the
capital of Russian, Minsk, which is the capital of Belarussia, of White Russia, and
Vilnias. I still have trouble saying Vilnias. But Vilna
my whole life which is
today the capital of Lithuania. And this had a special meaning for me since my
ancestors come from Vilna Gabalna, which is what I always heard about. And one of
the tragic experiences I had was seeing this wall in the synagogue in Vilna containing
the names of the various Shtetls in Vilna Gabalna that no longer exist as the Jewish
communities because there are no Jews left in them. There must be at least forty or
forty-odd names of Shtetls there. Plus the fact there are all kinds of changes. One of
the communities I was looking for is no longer in Lithuania, it's now of Grodnagaverti
which is in Belarussia. Because the things I heard about were things that existed at the
beginning of this century, 1904, 05, 06 and so forth.
JS:
Del, lest these people think otherwise, they should know that you're not the only
doctor in your family. What about your two lovely children?
MG:
Well, it so happens, Joe, that we got a call last night from Norman, my son, who
is the older of the two children we had. He is, as you said, also a Ph.D, He is an
Associate Professor of Speech Pathology at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and he
accompanied me on this last trip to the Soviet Union. He called last night, because
tonight he is speaking to the Hillel group at Ohio University on his trip to Russia, and
one of the things that the students there are going to do is to adopt a Rise family, this is
Blodmere Rise, who was a Refusnik and a nuclear biologist and his wife, Carmella Rise,
who was the first violinist with the Lithuania National Symphony Orchestra and they are
going to adopt this family and he wanted the address of the family which I had. So
that's where Norman is. The younger of our two children is Ellen and she's married to a
Mark Brasso, an attorney here in town, lives in West Hartford, and of course, has given
us the kind of naches that all of us look for in two lovely grandchildren, a daughter
Rebecca who is seven, and a grandson to us, Adam, who is four.
JS:
Del, I would say you've had a very rewarding and meaningful life that you have
been able to share with Florence all these years and to have two lovely children and
grandchildren such as you have and I can tell you that we here of the Jewish Historical
Society are very proud of your contributions to both education and to the community
and we wish you well in that beautiful house of yours over on Hammick Road for all the
joy and rest and further activity which I am sure you will be giving to this community.
Thank you very much.
This interview took place on Wednesday evening, May 9, 1979 in the Adult Lounge of
the Hartford Jewish Community Center. The interviewer was Joseph H. Soifer, the
interviewee Dr. M. Delott Garber, outstanding educator and community leader.