FEBRUARY 16, 2024

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

Hi Authors of the Weequahic Novel, 

Steve Mandel (6/62) has been added to the newsletter subscribers’ list at slice2rite@icloud.com. 

Martin Blume (6/64) advises of passing of spouse and WHS classmate:

It is with profound sadness that I announce the passing of my wife Anna Raff Blume after 55 years of marriage. We met the first morning of our sophomore year in the Weequahic High School cafeteria. I was immediately attracted to Anna because she was an illuminator having the ability and skill of understanding others, making them feel larger, respected and lit up. We became good friends and eventually married in August of 1968.

Anna graduated from Rutgers Newark and taught first grade at Bergen Street School in Newark for seven years until she had our first daughter, Erynn. Anna received her Masters Degree in Counseling from Kean College. After giving birth to our second daughter Helaina, she was a counselor at Resolve Community Counseling, Scotch Plains High and Middle Schools. Anna spent the rest of her career at the Clinton Township public schools where she was extremely successful in working with challenging populations of all ages and adored by the staff.

Anna put her heart and soul into raising her daughters. As she was very involved in their education; Anna helped to start a nursery school, became a Board of Education member and often volunteered her time in their classrooms. Anna had a close-knit group of friends and their partners who met in college and became extended family. They supported each other through life’s ups and downs and celebrating their families and spending holidays and New Years together. 

We lived in the Free Acres section of Berkeley Heights, NJ for 44 years. In 2017 we retired to Ithaca, NY living in a rural section of the Town of Danby. Anna adored living in nature, bird watching and seeing a wide variety of animals roam through our 26 acres. Most of all, she loved having her daughters close by and spending time with her grandchildren, Owen, and Henry whom she was very proud of. Anna was loved dearly by her family and she is deeply missed. Marty

Lisa Max Zimet (nee Zimetbaum; 6/64) appreciates comment of appearing in the “WHS Note:”

It is with immense gratitude that I thank my fellow classmate, Larry Koenigsberg for his post regarding my late brother, Marc Zimetbaum (61). Marc clearly deserves inclusion in the "notable alumni" category of Weequahic High School graduates. Despite enormous challenges throughout Marc's adult life, his accomplishments are undeniable, and they continue on after many decades. I know he is dearly missed by many. Lisa

Jack Lippman (50) shares recollections of watching the Saturday afternoon movies:

To Jonathan Lazarus (WHS 58/West Orange 60) on his NJ Jewish News mention of the Park Theatre and others reminded me of a recent article on that subject I wrote for my community publication down here in Boynton Beach. I share it with you, below.

It’s peculiar how some things stick in your memories and other things do not. Many years ago, when I was growing up in Newark, the kids I hung around with went to the movies on Saturday afternoon. I remember that the admission for children under twelve was eleven cents in those days (I think it was a quarter for grownups) and those of us twelve years old or older would scrunch down as we approached the ticket window to get in for the lower price. Usually, the movies included a cartoon, a “short subject,” a serial, a newsreel, and two films, one usually a western. 

I don’t remember what movies we saw but I do remember a large banner reading ‘Held Over’ that was frequently stuck across the posters at the theatre’s entrance.’ I thought that was the name of a very popular film until someone, who probably paid a quarter to get in, explained to me what it meant. For some reason, I remember a star of one movie whose name was Vera Hruba Ralston, probably an athlete who turned to making movies. I also remember a serial called “Perils of Nyoka”’ that was featured along with Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers serials.

After we left the theatre, usually the Cameo on Elizabeth Avenue, although we sometimes went to others, we would imitate the cowboys we just saw in the movies, running and jumping through a small park along the way. One actor from those westerns who sticks in my memory was Randolph Scott, a predecessor of John Wayne by several years. I don’t remember the name of the park we ran around in, but I do know that after World War Two, it was renamed “Schleifer Park” in memory of a local boy who was killed in the war. 

I know how old I am and figure that in those days I must have been about twelve years old.   That would place this memory as going back to around 1944 when across the Atlantic millions were dying in German death camps, including kids of my age. Within the next year our troops would be battling the Japanese on Iwo Jima, and atom bombs would have been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

We didn’t think much about that while we were having fun at the movies on a Saturday afternoon. Jack

To Jac Toporek (6/63) on his inquiry about remembering Dr. Lohman:

Leslie Goldman Pumphrey (6/62)

I read what Jac Toporek wrote about his experience with Dr. Lohman and wanted to chime in with my remembrances of that good man. I think his first name might have been Herman, but as I looked through my ancient medical records (yes, I still have copies), he just signed them with an “L”

At the age of 4, my dear mother warned me not to go and play on a neighbor's swing set several doors down from my house on Goldsmith Avenue. Of course, that is exactly what I did, fell off and limped home. Dr. Lohman treated me for a sprained ankle and discovered that one of my legs was shorter than the other. Thus began 18 years of twice-yearly visits to see Dr. Lohman and to get my legs measured. I absolutely hated having to walk barefoot down his hallway while he watched me. But he was oh so kind to me and my very worried mom, enough so that I still cherish his memory today.

I ended up having surgery on that ankle after I graduated from Weequahic. I remember the last time I went to see Dr. Lohman. When I asked him what I could and couldn't do with my now-operated leg, his final words to me were, "Just don't go skiing and live the rest of your life." Leslie

Cookie Wax Gulkin (62)

I remember Dr Lohman. I got a kick out of his name which was Hyman Lohman. I went to him for something or other in what seems like a zillion years ago. He was an excellent doctor. Cookie

Marty Friedman (1/47)

Thanks for keeping the newsletter going and keeping the memories alive. Henry "Hank" Lohman, MD is the orthopedic doctor that you are referring to. He lived in West Orange and was a member of Crestmont Country Club for many years. My wife and I were friends with him and his wife Lillian. His brother, who was also at Crestmont, owned a men's clothing store which is what paid for Hank's college education. Dr. Lohman was a very caring and generous man.

My story about Dr. Lohman is from the 1980' and 1990's. Three days a week I was scheduled to be on a treadmill at 6 AM at the Fitness Center in the Atkins Kent Building across the street from St. Barnabas Hospital.

On one side of me on the treadmill was Raymond A. Brown, the famous and successful Newark attorney. He was the attorney for “The Boys” in a number of criminal cases. Ray was a friend and super smart; a handsome black man who could speak perfect English in court and how to communicate on the inn Newark’s urban setting.

Ray told me that he loved to ask the star witness in court something like, "Are you just as sure that this was the person you saw at the crime scene, as you are sure that I am a white man and not a black man?" Then, when the eye witness said yes, he would switch his speech as is he was speaking with many a member of his own black community and win the case.

On the other side, also on a treadmill, was Richard A. Boiardo, MD, a recent graduate from Tulane Medical School in New Orleans. Unfortunately, he could not get a residency in orthopedics in the area.

He was the other son [“Tony Boy”] of the famous Richie Boiardo who was shot multiple times on Broad and Market Streets and still survived.

Ray Brown would tell us stories of the cruelty in the south and his parents escaping one night on a freighter boat from Florida to [last stop] Jersey City. His mother was to be killed that next morning because she was teaching other blacks to read and write. Ray said that when he got out of the army after surviving 4 years [as an officer], he graduated as a lawyer from Fordham University thanks to the G.I. Bill paying for his education. At the time there were no blacks practicing law in NJ because they first needed to do internships, but there were still no legal firms that would hire a black. He said that one black gentleman, who graduated from Harvard Law School, gave up and opened his own barber shop in Montclair. Finally, he found a Jewish criminal defense attorney in Jersey City who gave him a chance and hired him.

Richie told us about how Frank Sinatra was like an uncle to him. Every time Frank came to New York, he always stayed with them at the Boiardo fenced in estate in Livingston. Richie also told me that he finally got his residency for orthopedics at St. Barnabas Hospital only because Dr. Lohman was Chief of Orthopedics and he gave him his opportunity. That was Hank. Always doing what was right. Marty (only 94 years old)