Part 29 (written 2004)

(Continued from previous week)

Unfortunately, in those years, phone switching between stations was done mostly manually and at night many stations were not manned at all. Consequently, the phone company had to physically send someone from station to station to trace the calls, a very inefficient and time-consuming project. As a result, the calls were never traced beyond the area code which identified the origin of the calls as coming from Borough Park, New York.

When I got tired of listening to the childish, but mean, outpourings, I told the caller that I did not take his threats seriously since he would not have the guts to carry them out. When he protested, I offered to meet with him at a point and time of his choosing to give him the opportunity to show whether he had the guts to carry out his threats.

I told him what kind of head covering I would wear, and he said he would meet me at midnight (very dramatic) on a certain day at Marcy Avenue and Broadway in Brooklyn. I promptly notified the police, and although we were convinced that nobody would show, the police sent a Yiddish-speaking officer in civilian clothing and wearing my head covering to that corner at the appointed time. The officer stood around for almost an hour, but as expected those cowards did not show and nothing happened.

Once I realized that due to the mechanical difficulties we would never be able to trace the caller, I decided to bring the annoyance to an end. I bought a special whistle (I think they have been outlawed in the meantime) that when blown into a telephone creates such a high-pitched sound that it is extremely painful to the listener at the other end. The nightly call I received the night I used it was therefore the last one ever.

Another event that took place at about the same time, orchestrated by the same fanatics, was more public than their calls to me had been.

The New York office of Shaare Zedek Hospital had always had an annual fundraising dinner at one of the major hotels in New York City. That year it was going to be at the New York Hilton with an expected attendance of some 800 to 900 supporters. We learned, I do not remember anymore how, that a group was organizing to bus hundreds of yeshiva students to the hotel to picket and disrupt the affair. The police were willing to cooperate, but by law they could not enter private property (the hotel) until or unless a crime was committed or at least threatened. I therefore formed a private “police” force made up of about 10 young men to prevent any unauthorized persons from entering the banquet hall. To identify ourselves to the hotel security force, as well as to the police, we wore identical lapel pins.

About an hour after the affair had started, we were told that about 10 school buses from the Lakewood Yeshiva were discharging students in front of the hotel. We mobilized our “police” and stationed ourselves at the top of the escalator on the banquet floor. For a while the picketers remained on the sidewalk outside, handing out leaflets. Then one group of students after another entered the hotel and came up the escalator. As they reached our floor, they were “guided” by us from the up escalator onto the down escalator resulting in their ending up where they had started.

Two fellows kept repeating this merry-go-round trying to get my attention in order to talk to me. I paid no attention to them as long as we had other students on the escalator. Finally, I did ask them what they wanted. They said that they just wanted to look into the banquet hall and promised no trouble. I warned them that if they even so much as touched the door they would find themselves in deep trouble. I took one at a time to the door, keeping a tight grip on them, opened the door for 30 seconds, and then got them back on the down escalator. After a couple of hours, the picketers went home. The dinner went on to the end without any disturbance.

Paralegal Training

Throughout my business life at PB, as well subsequently as a consultant, I had always had contacts with attorneys, and had always found their profession to be very interesting. One of my responsibilities at PB as general traffic manager was to check all contracts issued in the New York office for compliance with legal and corporate requirements.

Some years after retiring from PB, I knew that at my age I would never go to law school, but I did want to do something along that line. I decided that I would take a paralegal course at Fairleigh Dickenson University in Teaneck. I found the course extremely interesting, except for the computer section, which involved mostly theory and little practice. I finished the course with the second highest grade in the class.

After receiving my certificate in March, 1992, I started to investigate the job opportunities for a paralegal. The positive side was that I would be working in the legal field, but the negative side was too overpowering. Aside from the fact that it meant returning to the responsibilities (and constraints) of a paying job, investigation and conversations with working paralegals showed me that a paralegal’s work consisted of the work that the lawyers did not want to do themselves. Also, it could not involve direct client contact, and it was mostly routine. And the pay was lousy.

(To be continued next week)

By Norbert Strauss

Norbert Strauss is a Teaneck resident and Englewood Hospital volunteer. He was general traffic manager and group VP at Philipp Brothers Inc., retiring in 1985.