Solomon David Menashe

Weinstein: Sol, I would like to start by asking you to tell me about your family – tell me first of all when they came to Oregon.
MENASHE: Well my dad came to Oregon probably in the year 1920 or something like that. He came as a single person, opened up a business and then went back to the Island of Rhodes to get married. That was in 1925 or 1924. Got married and then came back to Portland.

Weinstein: What brought him to Portland?
MENASHE: He originally came to the United States as a young man, probably at the age of 13 or 14 – brought over by his older brother who really wanted to get him out of the Island of Rhodes because of the First World War. Turkey was in the War on the side of Germany and probably would have been conscripted to be part of the service. So they wanted to get him out and they brought him to the United States. They virtually landed in New York, went to Atlanta, Georgia to begin with. I don’t know how long they stayed there. From there, I believe, they went to Los Angeles, and then to Phoenix where there was a large Army camp and they set up a place where they could sell merchandise.
Weinstein: Like a PX?
MENASHE: That’s right. After the War or shortly after the camp disbanded, he moved back to Los Angeles and he got into business for a period of time. I would guess he came to the United States about 1914.

Weinstein: So they came west following business opportunities. There weren’t family members that they were following?
MENASHE: No, there weren’t family members; however my Uncle Ezra lived in Portland. Originally started in Seattle but had moved down to Portland almost immediately. At least that’s the way I understand it. Then my dad was in a partnership in Los Angeles with another man that he knew from the Island of Rhodes. They had a disagreement, they broke up. My dad sold his half of the business to him and he then moved to Portland. That’s where I am guessing he moved in 1920 or so.

Weinstein: Was it the same kind of business he had been in Phoenix, dry goods?
MENASHE: No. Actually in Los Angeles they had a flower shop and it was my understanding it was on Hollywood and Vine. They apparently bought property there which now is worth a considerable amount. The man, his partner, ended up a multi-millionaire.

Weinstein: There are a lot of those kinds of stories. Tell me about your dad. I know your mom. I’ve known her for many years. I never met your dad. What was he like?
MENASHE: My dad was a very gentle man; he was very quiet. I thought he was very smart. One of these people who was very friendly- had a lot of friends thru his business in the Gentile community. They are the ones who brought him into the Elks and things he never would have joined before.

Weinstein: That’s very interesting. That’s in Portland?
MENASHE: Yes.

Weinstein: For a Jewish man to belong to the Elks at that time… So his business friends.
MENASHE: He owned a little restaurant. I don’t know if you would call it a restaurant today. A fountain, they used to call it, where there was a counter, stools, booths…served sandwiches. That was his business. It was on the corner of Broadway and Taylor. At that point it was inside the Hilich building which housed the Hilich Theater which eventually was the Mayfair Theater. So, in those days, the theaters didn’t have candy or popcorn, that kind of stuff in the theater. So during intermission, they used to come out and buy candy at the fountain. Basically his trade was the people who came in for lunches and he met a lot of people there. There was a very interesting clientele. Some people I still know. I remember that Chris Melitis as a young man used to come in there. And I think it was probably because my father used to buy some stuff from him.

Weinstein: As I said, I never met him but it’s nice to hear about him. Had he known your mother before he came here in 1920?
MENASHE: No he did not. It was an arranged marriage.

Weinstein: Which was not uncommon in those years.
MENASHE: Apparently not. My mother was very young. When my father went back there, the families knew each other and that’s how arranged marriages were made, I guess. Knowing the family, who they were and what they were…

Weinstein: Did they come to Portland in 1925?
MENASHE: Yes, in 1925 direct to Portland.

Weinstein: Tell me about your mother’s family. Did they ever move to the US?
MENASHE: No. My mother’s family lived in a town called Mecina, Turkey. He was in the shipping business. Employed by an Italian shipping company and managed all the loading, unloading and trafficking of merchandise in and out of Mecina. Had a very responsible job. My mother lived there and actually was born in the Island of Rhodes. She attended school in a Catholic Convent.

Weinstein: Did she ever talk about that experience?
MENASHE: She used to talk about it years go, how she could do the Catechisms and all that.

Weinstein: Did you get a sense of how it may have influenced her?
MENASHE: No, not really. She would threaten me at times, that she was going to send me to a Catholic school because I was not behaving and I wasn’t studying like I should. From that standpoint, I think she was very impressed with her educational system and thought they were strict and that was something that maybe I needed.

Weinstein: Interesting. I have a thought about those years. I’m thinking of Eastern European Jews. They did not even value education for girl children. So that says something interesting about either her family or the culture in which she grew up.
MENASHE: I think that there were always interested in education. My father, had he not come to the US, was admitted into, I’m not sure how you pronounce it, but the Eliance (I think is what they called it). It’s a French school and he would have gone to sort of a high school at that age. Fourteen or 15 years of age. Unfortunately he did not go but I thought as I said before- a smart man. He was very quick learner. Had a lot of good things to tell us when we were kids.

Weinstein: It makes you wonder about the expression, ”What could have been.” You think that went through his mind in later years?
MENASHE: Maybe. I think they were so busy struggling to make a living. I think it was everybody. Things were very tough. I didn’t quite understand it – that he paid his employees more than he got himself. But that was to keep the business alive. He was a person who did not like to be employed by someone else. He wanted to be self-employed. Something that I didn’t do, but I learned a great deal from him in that respect about being independent.

Weinstein: Where did you live as a young child in Portland?
MENASHE: We lived on Broadway between Montgomery and Harrison in an apartment which I don’t remember because I was very young. We later moved to a four-plex between Broadway and Park on Montgomery. It’s where Portland State is. In fact the front door of Portland State is where our house used to be and because of that the President of the college at the time, presented me with a photo of Portland State. That came about because I was receiving an award for the Portland Progress at the time I was chairman, and my comments were ironic – I’m here standing basically n the front door of my old house.

Weinstein: Wonderful story. Do you live in that location for several years?
MENASHE: We lived there until 1940. We moved to Laurelhurst on 43rd and Burnside. I spent my last year or last two years hitchhiking down Broadway to Lincoln high school. Al Lippman and I (he lived on 44th or 45th off of Burnside and he also went to Lincoln) so we would either take the bus or hitchhike. They’d drive us into town and we would walk to Lincoln high school.

Weinstein: Tell me about what you remember in the earlier years living on Montgomery. What was the neighborhood like? Were there a lot of Jewish people?
MENASHE: Oh yes! The Hornsteins (Velma, Mark, Gloria – they had a large family) and they lived kitty-corner from us. The back of our four-plex was angular to their house and I could go thru the back yard to get there and Mrs. Hornstein was like a grandmother to me. In fact they used to babysit me. They took very good care of my mother because she was probably the same age as their oldest daughter. Of course the park blocks were not far away. I had my cousins.

Weinstein: Tell me the names of your cousins.
MENASHE: My uncle was Ezra and my aunt was Jolia. There was Rebecca (she’s in Israel now). Sol (he used to go Sol E. so that we could distinguish between us). Beulah (Schafer now) and Jack. All Menashes.

Weinstein: Was that Reuben’s dad?
MENASHE: No. Reuben’s father was a first cousin to my dad and Ezra (my uncle). I don’t know when it happened, but early on after my dad had been here, Jack wanted to go into business and so my dad and he opened up another restaurant, which was on the corner of Park and Yamhill. That’s the SW entrance to Nordstrom’s. So they had a rather large restaurant there that Jack took care of. My dad took care of the one that he originally started, and when my dad sold his restaurant in 1940 to go into business with my uncle Ezra, he also sold his interest to Jack in that restaurant.

Weinstein: Was he also in the restaurant business with your uncle Ezra?
MENASHE: No. My uncle Ezra had a market. They leased the market on 3rd and Yamhill, and then they sub-leased space there to vendors. Eventually my dad and uncle, in 1940 or ’41, bought the property and they operated the market for themselves. They also leased space from Mannings on 4th and Yamhill and they combined it all.

Weinstein: Here’s this little boy that came here and it’s fascinating to hear that he built a business, supported a family, continued to grow in business, maintain relationships with the community at large – that’s a fabulous story. Do you think that influenced you in your business career or in your choice of things you wanted to do?
MENASHE: I think my dad had a lot of influence in the fact that he would tell us things that we should and shouldn’t do but I think the greatest experience was that he said, “Do it. And if you fail, you’re young enough to collect yourself and don’t be afraid to take the risks.” Think it through, which I’m sure that he did. He would point out examples of things that he didn’t do or things he did do. I can think of things that both he and my uncle did that was stupid. I have the hindsight that they didn’t have. They didn’t have the experience of living in the country and knowing what could happen and how you could do things. I also had the advantage of meeting people who mentored me along the way.

Weinstein: Who were some of those people?
MENASHE: I have to start with my mother. She was really strict with us about studying. I was not a very good student because I didn’t study very often. I was more interested in playing basketball and football. Doing everything else except studying. I only learned to study when I went to college. I think I had the ability because out of high school I joined the V-5 program and I had to take a test, both mental and physical which I passed. But when I got to college, I did what I did in high school – didn’t study like I should have and in mid term, they told me there was a possibility I would flunk out. I finally got a 2.4 passing grade for my first semester and following that, I got a 3.8 the following semester.

Weinstein: That was your wake up call, the threat of losing everything ?
MENASHE: Yes. A threat. But I think, more important than that, I was afraid I would disappoint my mother and father. That was the thing that made me go ahead and do it. I just didn’t want to embarrass them.

Weinstein: I think that’s a common thread. I can totally relate to what you just said. Even in my personal behavior. I knew if I did something wrong, it would disappoint my mother and that would be a terrible thing.
MENASHE: I was more afraid of my mother because she was such a strict person when it came to studying. I don’t think she had to do that so much with Vick. Vick was sort of a natural student. He was pretty smart, probably a lot smarter than me. I just feel that the wake up call came then and there. But after that it was fairly simple.

Weinstein: There are a few things I want to go back to. One of which is you mentioned college. Tell me where you went to college.
MENASHE: I started at Willamette. That’s where they sent me in the V-5 program.

Weinstein: Tell me about the V-5 program?
MENASHE: The V-5 program was training for Naval Air Corps officers. And so I qualified for that. The program was that you spent two semesters out of high school in college, six months in “tarmac training,” hands on training on the field (you don’t fly, you just do a bunch of things and learn about it). Once you’ve done those two things, then you learn how to fly. In other words, it would take about a year of education and some training before you would start to learn how to fly. What happened to me and happened to a lot of people- was that we joined, we spent our two semesters at Willamette. But the mortality of flyers in the Navy was very low so they didn’t need any flyers.

Weinstein: The mortality you mean the remaining, or the mortality in the literal sense?
MENASHE: Mortality of flyers being killed in service. Therefore they didn’t need to fill those slots so they said, “We’re going to carry you for another semester.” Which they did. So I was at Willamette for three semesters. They cancelled the program and they sent us all to the University of Washington because we were to be line officers. We went there for one semester, two semesters and basically we were waiting there to be called. But they didn’t call us, and in 1945 the war ended and we were sitting there and they offered us the opportunity to continue on in an ROTC program. I only needed one semester to graduate so I stayed on and graduated from the University of Washington and then did a year overseas. So when I was in the service, I spent most of my time in China, Japan, Guam, North Sea area. Eventually we came back to the States, and went to Panama. So I did see quite a bit and experienced some things I never would have experienced, especially in China where they were having the civil war at the time. The Communists were coming down. We were in a town called Santel [spelling?] which was the battlefront at the moment. After we left China, permanently as a sea force, the Communists just came in and took over.

Weinstein: So did you witness any of the things that we read about during the cultural revolution?
MENASHE: Yes. I would see people who were so poor. If you were to throw a cigarette on the floor there would be 10 people scrambling for it. If you were to throw some food down…people were starving. People were doing anything to acquire money, food – it was a desperate time for those people. My feeling was that maybe communism was better for these people at that time.

Weinstein: So their conditions at that time kind of led them into following the Germans?
MENASHE: Definitely. The masses of people were in poverty. And I think I saw (if you can call it that) the best of the poverty, because if you went inland there was probably a lot more poverty going on than on the coastline.

Weinstein: Can you remember how you were regarded as an American?
MENASHE: In China? I think we were well accepted. They appreciated the fact that we were there because we provided an economic source for them. Whether they felt that we were intruders and trying to interfere with their government in the process, I do not know. I do know this, that we were interfering with the process. We were there to protect the Republic- General Chang Kai Shek and as long as we were there, the Communists couldn’t come south.

Weinstein: What a historic time to be there for you.
MENASHE: It was interesting and I didn’t appreciate it until I got back and thought about it.

Weinstein: You mean what you had witnessed?
MENASHE: Yes. And knowing what I did know then. I found this book called the Thousand Mile March, which gives the history of Chairman Mao and how he came from the South and how he went West and North and how the civil war was stopped because of the Japanese who had come in and invaded China and that put a damper on what the Communists were doing, they had to fight the Japanese as well. It was an interesting time.

Weinstein: During your time in the military, did you experience any overt antisemitism? How did you feel as a Jew in the military?
MENASHE: I think I experienced it once. Of course we were on a ship and there were only personnel of 70, so it was a small group of people. I was the Executive Officer and the people that I knew well, especially the enlisted men that came from the east coast were very friendly, very nice and I had no problems. I had some problems with only a few who had come from places like Texas or Oklahoma who really didn’t know or understand Jews. There was nothing that was overt but I would imagine that was because I was an officer on the ship and they probably wouldn’t say anything because they were afraid of what might happen. I did get one threat when one big tall Texan who was an enlisted man did something, and I was thinking about reporting him and he threatened me by saying, “You’d better watch your back where we are out at sea.” This didn’t bother me.

Weinstein: Did he connect it at all to the fact that you were Jewish?
MENASHE: I think so. I’d never really heard anything overt.

Weinstein: What about when you went to college. I’m going to jump back when you were going to Lincoln and I know there were a lot of Jewish neighbors and students. Was your social group mainly Jewish?
MENASHE: My social group was mainly Jewish. I don’t remember going out with non-Jewish girls or with the fellows there. Socially we didn’t mix although I used to play ball with a lot of the non-Jewish fellows. I knew them quite well and they were lasting friendships. I lockered with Punch Green who was well known in the Portland and Oregon Community; Dick Rokkins was a good friend; a guy by the name of Bob Efferson, but socially we didn’t see each other.

Weinstein: There were no clubs?
MENASHE: Yes, there were. It was sort of interesting that as a sophomore I was admitted into the Hi Y, which was sort of an elite type club. And frankly I don’t know how or why or what for. I think there were only a few Jewish people in there at the time. I can’t remember if Sid Rosen was in there or not. But there were not too many Jews in there.

Weinstein: Do you have any thoughts about what may have made that happen?
MENASHE: I have no idea. It was a complete surprise to me when they asked me. I was kind of young at the time since I was only a sophomore. I really don’t know why.

Weinstein: Tell me about your religious activities growing up. Did your family belong to a synagogue?
MENASHE: We belonged to Ahavath Achim but I attended Sunday school and religious school at Ahavai Sholom. And that’s where our ties were.

Weinstein: Did Ahavath Achim not have a religious school?
MENASHE: They did not have a religious school.

Weinstein: So did you go thru all the years of religious school?
MENASHE: I went to Sunday school. I did not go to Hebrew school. I was Confirmed.

Weinstein: How did you regard your religious education?
MENASHE: I thought it was a great experience to learn historically about the Jews. I’m not a Jew who really practices religion because I don’t see the merits to a lot of the customs and I think that’s fine if people want to do it. I think a little bit of that came from my father because he was sort of that way. He went to services and all those things. And I went with him but when it comes to practicing some customs, he said, “Some of it doesn’t make any sense here. Like not eating ham or pork.”

Weinstein: So he kind of lived the ethic rather than just practice and learning about it. And your mother I would guess was more observant?
MENASHE: No I don’t think so. I think she was pretty much the same way as my dad. So we weren’t really observant Orthodox Jews. We were probably what you would call traditional Jews – we did all the things we should probably do, observed the holidays…

Weinstein: Did you see your family a lot?
MENASHE: I saw the family a lot. We always had holidays together between my aunts family and my family. Four cousins I mentioned. We also had other – the Nestie’s? – were quite close to us. They moved to California. I forget what year it was, but we still maintained close relationships between the boys and me.

Weinstein: What was it like going to the University of Washington?
MENASHE: We were in the military so we went to class. We spent a lot of hours at the University (both Willamette and the University of Washington). We would take 22 to 25 semester hours. It was intense. But I graduated what might be called two and a half years of college. It was seven semesters.

Weinstein: Did you meet Rosalyn in Seattle?
MENASHE: I met Ros in my last year when I was going to school up there. We met once, we had an acquaintance. Then I went overseas.

Weinstein: So that was before you went to Asia. So were you committed to each other before you left?
MENASHE: No. No, when I came back, I saw here again. We dated a couple of times. When I came back I went to the University of Oregon because I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was unsettled, so I figured I’d take some courses. Then discovered that I wanted to get into the actuarial field and applied to the University of Michigan and it took two years.

Weinstein: So that must have been pretty intense. The actuarial school. Did you have time to have any fun?
MENASHE: Oh yes! Maybe a little bit too much. I met a lot of people. I was part of the fraternity there. There were a lot of Jewish kids. Sigma Alpha. We dated a lot of the girls there – girls from all over the country there. Many from Detroit. Met a lot of friends who I still know quite well. I think all of my roommates, except two of them are dead. I had six roommates when I was there. We lived in a house.

Weinstein: When you went into actuarial studies, did you assume you were going to work for an insurance company? Tell me the progression of your business career.
MENASHE: After I got out of school, I applied to several places, including the state of Oregon as part of their insurance department. I was accepted in a consulting actuarial firm in Denver. This was in 1950. I had accepted the job and I had second thoughts about it because I wasn’t quite sure I would fit in and I thought it was sort of antisemitic area. I shouldn’t say antisemitic. It just wasn’t comfortable. I don’t know what made me feel uncomfortable. I decided to take the job at the insurance department for the state of Oregon. I spent seven or eight years there. I was an Examiner. I didn’t do any of the actuarial practices. However at the end of that period of time, for about a year or two years I was the actuary for the department from that point. I was hired by a local insurance company in Portland, it was the Insurance Company of Oregon; John Merrifield who started it. He was a politician. And an insurance person. He had American Mutual Insurance. I went to work there for about eight years.

Weinstein: Tell me about the Insurance Company of Oregon merging with another company and kind of a crossroads in your career.
MENASHE: What eventually happened was that I was fired. Probably the best thing that could have happened to me. But I was devastated at the time. Immediately following that I received several offers for consulting jobs which I took. The one that really changed my whole career [was] when I got a call from Abe Olshon [spelling?], who was the actuary for West Coast Life. He said he wanted me to meet with people at National Hospital and they are having some problems and he thinks I could help them. And I knew Glen Bectal who was president of the company. We had a visit and I started to do some work for them which I thought was going to be a two to three month job and ended up that I worked there for a whole year. I helped them merge with another company out of San Francisco – Pacific National Life. They had a consultant come up. I worked with that consultant and we determined valuations of the company so that the Bectals could get paid off. I worked with the attorneys so that when all that was concluded, Pacific National actually offered me a job to search out insurance companies that they could buy. My job was to find the company, analyze it, determine the price and they would negotiate it. Actually I never did do it. Ros and I went down to San Francisco twice to look for a house; I had already accepted the job. Just as we were going to leave, I had an offer for a job as president of Blue Shield. I said I am not sure I can accept the offer since I have already accepted this other job. Ros wanted to stay in Portland so I interviewed for the job. That was a Wednesday night. I said I need to know now because we have an offer on our house and we need to make an offer on a house in San Francisco. Bottom line is that they made an offer to me that same night. We agonized it and we accepted and I had to renege on my job in San Francisco and the president Jim Tunit and I had a whole day conversation about taking either job and in the long run he said you are better off taking the job as president of Blue Shield.

Weinstein: That must have been very hard for you.
MENASHE: I felt I had an obligation. I had already accepted. They had paid our expenses twice, and he was convinced that he needed me. Again I think I was lucky because their company got sold and went to Texas. I’m not sure I wanted to go to Texas (laughter). Sort of interesting how an offer was made to me because I didn’t know anyone on the board of Blue Shield, or OPS as it was called. I don’t know how my name got there. We had a man by the name of Walt Marcy who was VP of PGE and he was on the board of the Insurance Company of Oregon and also on the board of this merged company. I had told him what my concerns were and everything that I told him came true. Almost in the same time. I only suspect that he was the one.

Weinstein: Tell me about your involvement in the general community.
MENASHE: I was involved with United Way for some time. I chaired certain divisions. I also was Chairman of the whole United Way campaign. It was a lot of work. Responsibility of raising enough money and expected return that everyone wanted.

Weinstein: What about other organizations vying for money?
MENASHE: I didn’t have much to do with that, that was part of the allocations committee. I never sat on the allocations committee for the United Way. I also was on the Chamber Board, which I thought was a useless position. I was on the board of Portland Progress which I thought did a marvelous job and I eventually chaired that board.

Weinstein: So at what point in the development of downtown were you involved with that?
MENASHE: I think I was involved at least 15 years with Portland Progress until I retired.

Weinstein: So that was during a time when there was a lot of development?
MENASHE: I think that the people involved who sat on that board of Portland Progress were very responsible people. I thought they were looking after the benefits of the city. As much as a lot of people thought that they weren’t. People thought there was a lot of self-interest. We had people like the Marks, Doug Goodman, a lot of realtors, and a lot of people who represented large companies who had property downtown. And basically their interest was to improve their property but they also knew that we had to have a viable downtown in order to make their property worth something which also benefited the city.

Weinstein: There was a lot of political change during those years, going from someone like Connie McCready to Frank Ivancie and Neil Goldschmidt to Vera Katz.
MENASHE: I think Portland Progress started just prior to Neil Goldschmidt. And I think Neil was in sync with what Portland Progress wanted to do (development of downtown). He brought Nordstrom’s into town. I think that there were a lot of business leaders backing him at the time. I wasn’t involved at that point. After that Vera Katz – sometimes she was with us and sometimes she was against us. She had her reasons for wanting to do what she thought was best.

Weinstein: What about your activities in the Jewish community?
MENASHE: I sat on the allocations committee for the Federation for years. I helped on the board of the Foundation (I was on the original board). I’ve worked on a lot of campaigns, chaired certain divisions.

Weinstein: Synagogue, has that been a focus?
MENASHE: I was on the board of the synagogue for many years. It has not been a focus for me. I have great admiration for Rabbi Stampfer, and that’s probably one of the only reasons I sat on the board. I do not like to sit on community boards. I do not like to sit on country club boards, only because I think that they cannot do things quickly. If you are on a board for business, decisions are made with certain ideas. Whereas the synagogue board or country club board you get a wide diversity of opinions and people are afraid to venture out and do something without getting their hands slapped. I’ve sat on a lot of boards like the Heart Association. I can’t even think of the names of the other health organizations. Some were a lot of fun. Salvation Army for three years. If I am on a board I like to be active. I like to be able to do something. If we can’t do anything I feel like I am wasting my time. I want to be able to have a say so in what was going to happen.

Weinstein: Other things that I haven’t asked you that you would like to talk about?
MENASHE: We talked about who were my mentors. I started with my mother and obviously my father was a great mentor to me. When I started working, one of the first persons that I had met who impressed me was Arthur Epstein, who was president of the Oregon Auto Insurance Company. I had never met people like that before. I was doing some work for that company and fortunately we were housed in an office that was right next to his and there was a connecting door. I don’t know what it was, but he came in and he started talking to me and then I got called into his office and we talked about the business – we just had conversations. I learned a great deal from him about everything. I thought I was more knowledgeable than he was about technical aspects. He taught me that there is a lot of common sense involved. Also, John Maryfield. He was a very vociferous man – colorful. He taught me a lot about marketing of insurance. It was an aspect that I didn’t know about. Taught me about the fact (indirectly) that when you have an insurance company, you need all sides. Marketing can’t live without services and services can’t live without marketing. He taught me in many ways what I shouldn’t do. He did in many respects what was wrong. I’ve learned from mistakes that were made and that is invaluable. When you can learn from mistakes and see what happens with certain decisions. Basically his career was modeled. I look at it and say, “You can’t give away the company, you can’t do this,” and he would tell me to figure out a way we can do it. How do you market a product and still satisfy an agent and profits?

Weinstein: We were talking about not just having a good product but knowing how to market and incorporate a service and everything else that a successful comp has to do.
MENASHE: I learned from this that when I was at Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Every claims adjuster, every marketing person, every service agent – they have to look at how to satisfy the customer, how to rate a policy so that it is fair and honest so that when the market goes out the marketing people don’t have a problem selling it. Because they know that the service and rate are honest. Customer oriented. I used to tell the claims people, “See how you can pay it, not how you can deny it.” If you are going to write a policy write it so you can sell it and that it will work for all parties. If not honest, we don’t get business and we go out of business.

Weinstein: This may seem like a stretch, what we were just discussing – kind of an ethical code for business. Tie that into the fact that your parents were good decent people, that your religion taught you a certain code of behavior. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but see if you can tie that into your Jewish background.
MENASHE: It does tie in. That’s exactly what my dad used to say. Basic fundamental of the religion is that you have to be honest and good, you don’t have to be religious. Rabbi Stampfer said, “ You don’t need to go to synagogue, you don’t need the customs.” But some people do. Some people need to be reminded. If you want to be kosher, that’s up to you. Fundamental teaching of Judaism – from my parents it came to me, and I am passing it on to my children – is what makes Jews survive. My dad died at 75. I actually thought he lived a lot longer than he should have; he had emphysema (not from smoking). When he was in Los Angeles he had pneumonia and his lungs were damaged, actually died of a stroke.

Weinstein: Thank you for taking the time with me. If there are things you’d like to add, I’d be happy to come back. If you want to do it when you get the transcript (it may be several months).
MENASHE: I’ll look at it and comment.

Weinstein: I have really enjoyed it. I have known you for almost 50 years but I learned a lot today, Thank you very much.
MENASHE: You’re welcome.