October 2, 2003

As a child, whether we lived in New York in the early 1930’s or New Jersey after 1935, I would frequently accompany my father and mother to monthly meetings of the First Pilzno Social & Benevolent Society. These meetings were held in an office building in downtown N.Y., not far from the Jewish theatres on 2nd Ave. and/or Jewish restaurants to which we would go immediately after the afternoon Pilzno meeting ended. The meetings were always held on Sundays; my father, the Faleks and Rosenbaums all had grocery stores which were open Sundays until 1 p.m., so they would get to the meetings late (after 2 p.m.)

My father convinced me to become a member of the Society about the time of my marriage to Shirley in 1943. I joined to please my father, who I greatly admired. He was a founding member of the Society. Shirley accompanied me to a few meetings before we moved to Trenton & the Jersey Shore. I was billed and paid my dues regularly until the Society was terminated. When the treasury was divided up among the surviving members, I received my share, but I don’t remember how much it was. (It wasn’t much).

When a member entered the meeting hall, usually late, you placed your right hand on your heart and then extended your arm, pointing to the president who was seated on a higher chair in the center of one side of the meeting hall. You then sat down and listened to what was being discussed. You could raise your hand and ask for the floor to participate in the discussion. Some of it was about members who needed to borrow money from the society, which had such a lending fund.

I remember the most prominent member and also the richest was a man named Storch (perhaps Sam Storch). He was always donating money to the relief (or lending fund). The society also occasionally sent money (before World War II) to people in Pilzno. There were also memorials to members who had died.

Founded in the first decade of the 20th Century, the society consisted entirely of members who had been born in Pilzno, originally part of Austria-Hungary and now part of Poland, as well as offspring and family members.  Of the more than 100 members, about 35-40 usually attended the monthly meetings.

Its principal functions, besides financial support and socializing, were funerals and the cemetery plots it had reserved in the Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, N.Y. (My parents and a 5-month old son of Shirley and me who never left the hospital after birth are buried there.) My father, after serving as one of the founders and first presidents of the Society, became chairman (for life) of cemeteries (There eventually were plots in a second cemetery). When a member died, his survivors would call my father, who would handle the burial arrangements.

This was relatively easy, since my father had arranged for my uncle, Isadore (Itch) Alter who worked for the Hirsch & Schwartz funeral home to handle all burials. Itch, who was not originally from Pilzno, joined the Society to button up the arrangement. Itch usually drove the hearse on Hirsch & Schwartz funerals and he worked all through the depression. Itch also joined the Oleszyce Society, where my mother’s father was a member. My mother and her parents were born in Oleszyce.

After the meeting, there were refreshments distributed, including sponge and honey cake, and a cup of “schnapps”. Schnapps usually turned out to be scotch, which I learned to hate. I haven’t drunk any scotch since then, although I have a Manhattan on the rocks almost every day of my life.

After the meeting and dinner (and occasionally Jewish theatre), my parents and four or five other couples who had attended the meeting would drive to the Bronx to the home of Hymie Geiser, another member who had introduced my parents to each other, where they would play penny-ante poker until late into the evening. (The children, including me and Florence Falek, would be resting in another room while the adults played cards.). My father drove us home to Jersey City at a very late hour.

The last meeting of the Pilzno Society I attended (and it may have been the last meeting held) was held in a rather small room in a different building. Only about 10-15 people attended, including Anna Bochner and some of her family. The main business was to hear Shirley and I report on our 1985 trip to Poland and Pilzno that year. I told of all we had seen and answered questions. I found out who had erected the monument in Pilzno to the Jews who had died there during World War II. There were refreshments afterward.