And then in the 1960s there was an increase in crime and demographic changes, which led to a movement away from Crown Heights to Flatbush, Far Rockaway, etc. As a result, the Jewish character of Crown Heights became identified almost solely with Lubavitch. The Rebbe, as we know, felt the community should hold its ground, which it did. Now, many years later with the regentrification of Crown Heights and much of Brooklyn, we can appreciate his prescience.
Among your father’s greatest accomplishments was getting New York City to change its Blue Laws in 1963. Were Jews really being arrested for doing business on Sunday until 1963?
I don’t know if they were actually being arrested rather than fined. Having said that, clearly these laws discriminated against those for whom Sunday was not their Sabbath. What is interesting in this saga is the politics and economic interests that were involved. For example, the kosher butchers, of all people, were opposed to changing the law; they were exempt from the Blue Laws and wanted to protect their monopoly on Jewish shopping on Sundays.
Another of your father’s accomplishments was exponentially expanding NCSY and its kiruv efforts. What was his motivation in doing this?
I suspect that he was concerned, as certainly most Orthodox leaders were at that time, for the future of Orthodoxy. We were losing vast numbers of Jewish children to assimilation, [so he worked] to expand the OU’s outreach efforts by developing NCSY beyond the borders of New York City and having much of the income from the kashruth division finance this explosion of activity.
Dr. Medoff mentions in Building Orthodox Judaism in America that your father was also instrumental in getting Jewish funeral homes throughout New York to observe halacha and Jewish tradition. Can you briefly recount his efforts and the funeral home scene at the time?
The establishment and acceptance of the OU’s “Jewish funeral standards” by funeral homes was not limited to New York. They were established and accepted throughout the country. My understanding is that, until then, Jewish funeral homes applied whatever halachic standards they elected, so that families who weren’t necessarily conversant with halachic requirements weren’t always served appropriately.
As with the introduction of the fair Sabbath laws, acceptance of the funeral standards was highly politically charged. When vested economic interests are threatened, change becomes difficult. One of my father’s strengths, though, was his ability not to shy away or get discouraged by political shenanigans. When he had a goal that wasn’t based on political expediency but on what he felt was proper, he applied Sisyphean efforts to see it through.
