Reaching out to Weequahic friends:
Christopher Kreybig (68)
I am wondering if there is any information about Martin Flynn my WHS 1968 classmate? Thanks for any response, which you can be sent to me at c.kreybig@yahoo.com or via phone to 609-290-0529. Christopher
Sheba Bloom Noll (1/53)
Imagine my surprise when I opened the June 3rd WHS newsletter and there we are, the 1953 ladies at lunch. Come join us. Contact me at twotox@yahoo.com. Sad to say, since that photo, Miriam Fenichel Carchman passed away. Sheba
Elaine Katowitz Zirulnick (6/48)
I would like to let anyone who graduated in January and June 1948 know that I would love to hear from them. We had such great times growing up at WHS. I live in New Jersey and my e-mail address is saftae114@aol.com. Elaine
Allen Levine (66)
Does anyone know anything about Howard Schneider. He graduated in 1966 and was a first-rate saxophone player. I played in a band with Howard and Roger Chlowitz (68). It would be lovely to reminisce with him. My contact for any info on Howard is aslevine@umn.edu. Allen
Alan Ginter (64/65) has W-Hood questions:
Train tracks ran between Stecher Street and Dairyland, crossing Chancellor Avenue and occasionally there would even be a couple of empty train cars positioned on the tracks. Does anyone remember seeing any trains actually moving on those tracks?
Does anyone remember the jewelry store on Chancellor between Wainwright and Leslie? It had, in the window, a compass-looking balanced-needle device in a glass globe with alternate black and white paddles at the ends of the arms. The sun would hit the black paddles and make the compass thing spin with solar energy. You could block the sun with your hand and it would stop. Absolutely amazing.
You guys remember Block and Zuckerman, the Opticians? I broke my glasses so often; we had a charge account there. I'd stop in on my way back from school after I broke them, they would fix the glasses or give me new ones. Every month my mother would go in and settle the bill. They were the nicest men. I was there so many times that they got used to me; I was like a mascot. They would have me sweep up a little then send me to Harjay's for ice cream or sodas for everybody, with me included. Maybe it was just to get a little break from me asking so many questions. Even after the opticians moved to the suburbs, I took my wife and kids to see them.
Anybody remember Christmas lights being strung over lower Springfield Avenue? Sometimes, my mother would drive us to pick up my father who worked at Reliable Electrical Supply Co. at 305-307 Springfield. just up from Prince Street. On the way back home, we would sometimes stop at the greasiest wholesale jelly donut manufacturer at an angled intersection on Springfield. The bag was all greasy but the donuts were good. They would regularly get closed down for health dept. violations. Anybody remember the name? Alan
“Mosque Mentions” continue:
Michael Klein (6/56)
The Mosque served so many different communities. I went there to hear Paul Robeson sing. It was the height of the Senator Joseph McCarthy period and probably the FBI had spies in the audience to enumerate all the lefties who might be in attendance. After Robeson had his passport taken away, I attended a concert in Peace Arch Park, which is half in Washington State and half in British Columbia. Both were breathtaking. At the US side of the border at Peace Arch, Robeson stood on a flat-bed trailer provided by one of the unions and sang across the border into Canada, songs of struggle and many “Negro” spirituals.
As a young kid, my mother took me to the Mosque to attend a political rally for the Progressive Party in 1948 when Wallace was running for president. He got about 2% of the vote. Prior to the run, he had been Vice President under FDR. A lifelong Democrat, Wallace was rejected by the Democrats for being too liberal. They chose Harry Truman as VP instead of Wallace at the end of FDRs last term.
I was 7 years old at the end of the summer of 1945 when I had broken my arm. My arm in a cast as we returned from summer vacation to our Newark house on Ridgewood Avenue to find people in the street crying. We wondered why. FDR had died. My broken arm and FDRs death are forever connected.
And then, to take a big jump, in today’s Ukrainian catastrophe, would Russia now be threatening the West with nuclear war? Accidents of history that have changed everything. Remember Philip Roth’s book, The Plot Against America, in which the pro-Nazi Charles Lindberg beats FDR and turns the US into a concentration camp to incarcerate everyone, especially the Jews, who disagree with Lindberg’s fascist-racist politics. Michael
David Chinoy (Chancellor 6/56)
My grandmother introduced me to Gilbert and Sullivan (The Mikado) at the Mosque. I played clarinet there with the Newark Children’s Orchestra.
As an interesting aside, the note about the Mosque by Natalie Confield Tublitz (52) brought back a memory I had forgotten. I lived across street (353 Leslie Street) and was a classmate of her sister, Vivian. As a preteen, from my second story front porch I used to see guys pick Natalie up in their cars and think about the days when I would be able to drive, too. However, life is what happens while you’re making other plans. After I graduated from Chancellor, we moved to Ft. Lauderdale and I spent most of my life in Florida, currently in Miami Beach. David
Sharon Rous Feinsod (66)
When I was in fourth grade, my mother took me to The Mosque to Junior Frolics. I remember the sponsor, Silvercup Bread, gave each of the kids in the audience a mini loaf. A crazy minute detail to remember! Sharon
Rita Kravet Rzepka (1/55)
In response to reading about the Mosque performances of the Hortense Greenwald’s Dancing School in Hillside. I went there, too It was a wonderful experience. My Cousin, Rena Fae Greebel (53), who married Leonard Birnbaum, maybe WHS 1/53, went with me. They are both gone now. Years later, I became friends with Toby Redlus (54) and her husband David Goldfinger (Hillside 53), and found out David went to the dancing school, too. He was such a klutz that his mother thought it would help him become graceful. Those really were the good old days. We were poor but happy because we didn’t know any different. Rita
Robert Dubman (6/52)
As reported, Public Television (Channel 13) was broadcast from within the Mosque Theater. As part of an educational series to a live class of public-school students, a call was put out for a live demonstration of Clarinet playing. As I was the first chair clarinetist for the Newark All City Orchestra, I was selected (picture, below, circa 1951).
When I returned home to Wolcott Terrace, my parents said that they forgot to watch.
As a freshman at Newark College of Engineering, I played the tenor saxophone at night in a “gin mill” on Broad Street within one block of the Mosque. When my band was on a break, I found a way to sneak into the Mosque to watch live performances for a few minutes (such as the Moscow Symphony). Finally, when I was a ROTC cadet, I recall the Billy May Band playing for a Military Ball at the Terrace Room (basement of the Mosque). Bob
