Over the past two weeks there were two significant inaugurations. One took place at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C.. The second took place at the Rodda Community Center, located on Colonial Court adjacent to Votee Park in Teaneck.
Our new mayor, Mark (Mendy) Schwartz, was raised in Monsey and, in his words, “All I wanted growing up was to live in Teaneck. The homes where I grew up were quite far apart and getting together on Shabbos was a commitment to ‘take a hike!’ Adding insult to injury, there were very few restaurants where a growing kid could enjoy eating out.”
At long last, Mark attended Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck. He confided to me during our interview that his dream of going “out” for lunch finally became a reality. One of his favorite places quickly became Noah’s Ark. He described the glee of a high schooler unwrapping the aluminum foil in which his pastrami on rye was nestled alongside his black cherry glass of soda. He had finally arrived!
During Mark’s first month in school at TABC he bumped into someone running for the student council and was asked to sign a petition, which he did. At that moment, Mark made a snap decision to pull a petition of his own for the ninth grade seat. Within moments he and Elie Katz, a fellow student, signed each other’s paperwork. Fast forward 35 years and they are both still involved in politics, though on a much more serious level.
Noah’s Ark has been kind to our new mayor. While working at the restaurant post high school, Mark was offered a job in the a real estate consulting field in Manhattan, and last week he celebrated his 30th work anniversary. Mark reminded me that my business partner, Vera Greenewald, a”h had taken him in her Lexus to look at homes in Paramus but, thankfully, that was not to be the plan. He and his wife (now of 27 years with four kids) eventually built a new home in Teaneck and became one of the founding members of Shaare Tefillah. Stay tuned for the rest of my interview with the mayor regarding the “state” of real estate in Teaneck.
Nechama Polak is the broker of record and owner of V&N Group LLC, located at 1401 Palisade Avenue in Teaneck. Send your thoughts and comments to [email protected] or call 201 826 8809.
