University of California • Berkeley
Regional Oral History Office University of California
The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
Jewish Community Federation Leadership Oral History Project
Melvin M. Swig
PRESIDENT, JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION OF SAN FRANCISCO, THE PENINSULA, MARIN AND SONOMA COUNTIES, 1971-1972
With Introductions by Donald H. Seiler
and Robert E. Sinton
Interviews Conducted by
Eleanor K. Glaser
in 1991
Copyright ° 1991 by The Regents of the University of California
Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well -placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the Nation. Oral history is a modern research technique involving an interviewee and an informed interviewer in spontaneous conversation. The taped record is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The resulting manuscript is typed in final form, indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable.
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All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Melvin M. Swig dated July 30, 1991. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley.
Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with Melvin M. Swig requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond.
It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows:
Melvin M. Swig, "President, Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Mar in and Sonoma Counties, 1971-1972," an oral history conducted in 1991 by Eleanor K. Glaser, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1992.
Copy no.
Melvin M. Swig, 1986.
Cataloging Information
SWIG, Melvin M. (b. 1917) Jewish community leader
President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1971-1972. 1992, xii, 228 pp.
Family background, Boston, and business, the Giant Store; to San Francisco after World War II; San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation: fundraising, executives and volunteers, presidency, 1971-1972, views on Jewish day schools; Jewish Community Endowment Fund; dispute with Jewish Agency; further Jewish community involvement: Bulletin, Telegraphic Agency, Family Service; overseas work: the State of Israel and the Jewish community; San Francisco civic, philanthropic, and political activities.
Introductions by Donald H. Seller, current president, and Robert E. Sinton, past president of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties.
Interviewed 1991 by Eleanor Glaser for the Jewish Community Federation Oral History series. The Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
The Regional Oral History Office would like to express its thanks to the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties. Their encouragement and support have made possible the Jewish Community Federation Leadership Oral History Project.
TABLE OF CONTENTS-- Me Ivin M. Swig
PREFACE i
INTRODUCTION --by Donald H. Seller iv
INTRODUCTION --by Robert E. Slnton v
INTERVIEW HISTORY vi
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY viii
CHRONOLOGY x
I THE SWIG FAMILY 1
Aronovitz and Swig Relatives 1
Joe Ford 5
Simon Swig and His Children 6
Benjamin Swig's Businesses 9
II EARLY YEARS IN BOSTON 12
Born July 31, 1917 12
Education 14
The Giant Store 18
III MARRIAGE AND MILITARY SERVICE 20
Married to Phyllis Diamond, 1939; U.S. Army, 1945 20
Out of Officer's Training School 21
Military Training 23
Return to Civilian Life, 1945 25
IV SWIG FAMILY MOVES TO SAN FRANCISCO 26 Purchase of Hotels: St. Francis, 1944; Fairmont, 1945;
Bellevue, 1950 26
Mazor's Store, Oakland 28
From Retail Business to Real Estate 29
V JEWISH COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT 32
Jewish National Welfare Fund, 1948 32
Early Leaders 32
Fundraising and Budgeting 33
Campaign Chairman, 1969 34
The Budgeting Process 36
Mount Zion Hospital
Jewish Family Service Agency 39
VI MISSION TO MOROCCO AND EUROPE, 1961 40
Accompanied by John Steinhart and Marshall Kuhn 40
Programs to Aid Moroccan Jews 40
Refugees in Vienna and Paris 43
VII MORE ON FUNDRAISING 47
Speaking to Groups on Return from Mission 47
Capital Fund Drives 48
Funds From United Way 49
Advance Gifts 49
VIII FEDERATION AND VOLUNTEERS 51
Those Who are New to the Community 51
IX FEDERATION ASSIGNMENTS 54
Committees 54
Promoting Leadership 56
Trip to Israel and Suez Canal, 1970 57
X FEDERATION PRESIDENT, 1971-1972 59
Campaign 59
Professional Staff 59
Federation Agencies 61
Changes During Presidencies 62
Jewish Vocational and Employment Guidance Service 63
Programs for Young People and Stronger Jewish
Identification 63
Jewish Day Schools 66
Israel 69
United Bay Area Crusade 71
Large Cities Budgeting Conference 71
Positions After Presidency 72
XI FEDERATION EXECUTIVES 74 Federation President Jesse Feldman Seeks New
Executive, 1973 74
Opposition to Rabbi Brian Lurie 75
Federation Headquarters Building 78
Wayne Feinstein, New Federation Executive, 1991 78
XII JEWISH COMMUNITY ENDOWMENT FUND 80
Early Executives; Growth and Uses of Funds 80
XIII DISPUTE WITH JEWISH AGENCY 86
Support for Brian Lurie 86
XIV MORE ON JEWISH COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT 90
Jewish Community Bulletin, President, 1969-1971 90
Jewish Telegraphic Agency 94
Mount Zion Hospital 96
Jewish Family Service Agency 98
Federation Assignments 99
Overseas Committee 99
Committee on Jewish Education 101
Chairman, Ad Hoc Committee on "Who Is A Jew" 102
American Friends of Haifa University 103
American Jewish Committee 104
State of Israel Bonds 105
United Jewish Appeal 106 American Association of Ben Gurion University
of the Desert 107
Ant i- Defamation League of B'nai B'rith 108
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee 109
Brandeis University 109
XV INVOLVEMENT IN NON-JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS 111
University of San Francisco 111
Grace Cathedral 113 President, California Association for American
Conservatory Theatre 117 Civic League of Improvement Clubs and Associations
of San Francisco 118
Commonwealth Club of California 119
Crescent Porter Hale Foundation 120
Chairman, Easter Seal Campaign, 1963 121
National Conference of Christians and Jews 122
Foreman, San Francisco City and County Grand Jury, 1969 122
Vice-President, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce 124
San Francisco City Parking Corporation 126
Commissioner, San Francisco Housing Authority, 1962-1965 127
Chairman, San Francisco International Film Festival, 1965 129
San Francisco Life Insurance Company 132
State Savings and Loan Association of Stockton 132
Stanford University Jewish Studies Program 133
President, Lake Merced Golf and Country Club 133
United Way of the Bay Area 134
Bay Area Council 134
Boy Scouts of America 135
Brown University 135
Civilian Advisory Committee 136
Columbia Park Boys' Club 137
Koret Foundation 137
United Negro College Fund 139
United Services Organization [USO] 139
Fundraising for San Francisco's New Main Library 141
XVI MORE ON ISRAEL 144
Centrality of Israel 144
Political Situation 145
Arab- Israeli Relations 146
XVII POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT 152
Northern Californians for Good Government 152
Democratic Party Politics 153
Republican Candidates 157
XVIII FAMILY 159
Father's Influence 159
Sons' Community Involvement 159
Wives 160
XIX PHILANTHROPIC DECISIONS 163
People in Need 163
Satisfaction Gained 164
Inter-Religious Activity 164
XX A LOOK TO THE FUTURE 166
Direction of the San Francisco Jewish Community 166
Assimilation 166
The Federation 168
TAPE GUIDE 169
APPENDICES 170
A. Report of the President presented at the annual meeting of the 172 Jewish Community Federation, 1971.
B. Report of the President presented at the annual meeting of the 181 Jewish Community Federation, 1972.
C. Remarks made by Melvin M. Swig at the annual meeting of the 189 Young Adults' Division, December 5, 1972.
D. 1973 Standing Committees, Jewish Community Federation. 194
E. Jewish Community Federation Committees, 1986. 195
F. Members, Ad Hoc Committee on "Who is a Jew," 1988. 204
G. Endowment Committee, Jewish Community Federation, 1989. 205 H. Executive Search Committee, Jewish Community Federation, 1990. 206 I. Endowment Committee, Jewish Community Federation, 1990. 207
J. "Mel Swig Heads Bulletin," San Francisco Jewish Bulletin. 208 December 8, 1978.
K. "Jewish leader becomes S.F. Catholic university chairman," 209 Northern California Jewish Bulletin. July 26, 1985.
L. "Swig gets award for endowment work," Northern California 210 Jewish Bulletin. January 24, 1986.
M. "Settlement Reached On Koret Foundation," San Francisco 211 Chronicle. June 24, 1986.
N. "The Swigs Build a Bigger Empire," San Francisco Chronicle. 212 September 8, 1986.
0. "Family of S.F. philanthropists get community's thanks," 216 Northern California Jewish Bulletin. October 31, 1986.
P. Dinner honoring the Swig-Dinner family, November 9, 1986. 217
Q. Remarks made by Melvin M. Swig before the Anti Defamation 218 League, June 11, 1987.
R. "USF president Melvin M. Swig honored at testimonial," 221
Northern California Jewish Bulletin. July 31, 1987.
S. Honorary degree, Brown University, 1989. 222
T. The Presiding Bishop's Committee on Christian-Jewish Relations, 223 July 29, 1991.
INDEX 227
PREFACE
The Jewish Community Federation Leadership Oral History Project was initiated in 1990, under the sponsorship of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, to record the recent history of the Jewish Welfare Federation. Through oral histories with the thirteen living past presidents of the Federation, the project seeks to document Jewish philanthropy in the West Bay as spearheaded by the Federation during the past half -century.
The Jewish community can take pride in the manner in which it has, through the years, assumed the traditional Jewish role of providing for the less fortunate. Organized Jewish philanthropy in San Francisco began in 1850 with the Eureka Benevolent Association, today's Jewish Family and Children's Service Agency. With the organization in 1910 of the Federation of Jewish Charities, the community took the major step of coordinating thirteen separate social service agencies. The funding of local services was absorbed by the Community Chest when the Federation affiliated with it in 1922. Soon thereafter, the need was seen for an organization to support the financial needs of national and overseas agencies. This led to the formation of the Jewish National Welfare Fund in 1925, which pioneered in conducting a single annual campaign for Jewish needs outside of San Francisco. The Federation of Jewish Charities and the Jewish National Welfare Fund merged in 1955, becoming the Jewish Welfare Federation, the forerunner of the present Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties .
This oral history project was conceived by Phyllis Cook, executive director of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, and Eleanor Glaser, the oral historian who had just completed the oral history of Sanford M. Treguboff, the late executive director of the Federation. They realized that 1990 would be the thirty- fifth year of the Jewish Welfare Federation and that it was none too soon to try to capture the insights and experiences of the Federation's first presidents. Not only would these leaders be able to document the dynamic history of the Federation, but they could link that to the activities of several other agencies since all had prepared themselves for their services as Federation president by working in one or another capacity in the earlier Jewish charitable institutions.
Thus, it was anticipated that through the recollections of these Federation presidents it might be also possible to understand the driving motivations and principles of those pioneer leaders and the forces they dealt with during the building of the Bay Area Jewish community.
ii
Phyllis Cook, in consultation with the board of directors of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, worked with the Regional Oral History Office of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, to carry out the project. Direction of the project was assumed by Eleanor Glaser, the office research editor for Jewish history subjects.
In the oral history process the interviewer works closely with the memoirist in the preliminary research and in setting up topics for discussion. For the Federation project, Eleanor Glaser conducted extensive research in the Federation Board minutes in order to determine critical events, committee assignments, and the pressing needs during each president's term of office. The interviews are informal conversations that are tape recorded, transcribed, edited by the interviewer for continuity and clarity, checked and approved by the interviewee, and then final typed. The oral history manuscripts are open to research in libraries nationwide. Copies of the Federation project oral histories will be available in the Federation Library; The Bancroft Library; the Department of Special Collections, Library, UCLA; and in other libraries interested in collecting source material on this subject.
Sam Ladar, president of the Jewish Welfare Federation in 1965 and 1966, was the first interviewee. As the initial oral history for the project, general Federation information such as early board minutes, lists of officers, etc., have been included in the Ladar volume. Researchers are advised to start there.
The Regional Oral History Office was established in 1954 to record the lives of persons who have contributed significantly to the history of California and the West. The Office is administered by The Bancroft Library. Over the years the Office has documented a number of leaders in the California Jewish community. The Office is honored to have this opportunity to document Jewish philanthropy in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Eleanor Glaser, Project Director Leadership of the Jewish Community Federation Oral History Project
Willa Baum, Division Head Regional Oral History Office
January 1992
Regional Oral History Office
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
iii
Jewish Community Federation Leadership Oral History Project
Series List
Jesse Feldman, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1973-1974. 1991
Samuel A. Ladar, A Reflection on the Early Years of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation. 1990
Robert E. Sinton, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1967-1968. 1991
John H. Steinhart, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1969-1970
Melvin M. Swig, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1971-1972
In Process
Jerome Braun, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1979-1980
Annette R. Dobbs , President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1988-1990
Richard N. Goldman, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1981-1982
•inces D. Green, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1975-1976
Peter E. Haas, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1977-1978
Ronald Kaufman, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1984-1986
William I. Lowenberg, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1983-1984
Laurence Myers, President. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula. Marin and Sonoma Counties. 1986-1988
iv
INTRODUCTION --by Donald H. Seller
The task of writing an introduction to the oral history of Melvin M. Swig and his relationship to our Jewish community seemed to be so simple at first. However, upon reflection, to recite his long and dedicated leadership, to enumerate the many areas of outstanding service he has rendered, or to extol the multiple virtues he possesses does not really do justice to what our community has been given by Mel Swig. The reading of this oral history will give all of you an excellent understanding of what he has done and how deeply it has affected our Jewish community; but to fully realize the depth of Mel and his feelings, you must grasp the intensity he brings to his endeavors.
There is an old saying, "Life is short — play hard." These simple words capture for me Mel's approach to almost everything. Hopefully, life will be long for Mel- -but playing hard really tells the story. Mel plays hard in all areas- -in business, in sports, in family life, in political life, and, most certainly, in his charitable and civic life. His feeling for his fellow man is constantly evident, and the depth of his commitment to others is constantly manifested, as it has been for his lifetime. His leadership and service has been outstanding in our local, national, and international Jewish community- -but it has been equally outstanding in civic affairs, educational institutions, religious organizations, service to the underprivileged, and many, many other avenues of assistance. Mel has truly "given back" to his fellow man. He has done it with intensity, integrity, and a tremendous amount of personal effort—he has truly "played hard."
Mel Swig really needs no introduction- -but here it is anyway. I know you will enjoy reading the history of a true leader of our community. We are blessed to have him and look forward to many more years of his participation and guidance. As new challenges arise for us, both in the Jewish Community Federation and the larger world in which we live, it is comforting to know that we have Mel in the forefront of our efforts.
On a personal level, I have grown to know and respect Mel over many years. I am honored to have him as a friend and very pleased to have this opportunity to write this introduction.
Donald H. Seiler
January 1992
San Francisco, California
INTRODUCTION --by Robert Sinton
Why did Mel Swig ask me to do an introduction to his oral history? Perhaps it has to do with my being his friend for the last thirty to thirty- five years and also his colleague in philanthropy, fellow traveler, victim on the golf course (I can't remember winning), and one of his many admirers .
How do I put in proper words the kind of man he is . His love of life comes first to mind. This characteristic has a great deal to do with his being the leader he is in all his many activities- -the majority of them have to do with helping his fellow man in the support of education, health and welfare, Israel, our city, our country. I'll not mention the many specific foundations, cultural institutions, and civic positions he has held for they are covered in the book to follow.
Working with Mel has been one of the great pleasures of my life. His great warmth, his good mind, his sense of humor are qualities that come to mind. His good judgment is a reason he is sought after to resolve issues, give financial support, and to lead others in philanthropic giving. His energy is equal to that of ten average men.
With all the above he is a strong family man, a wonderful husband and father.
I'm glad to share Mel Swig with you dear reader- -read on.
Robert Sinton
March 16, 1992
San Francisco, California
vi
INTERVIEW HISTORY- -Me Ivin M. Swig
When the Swig family moved to San Francisco from Boston soon after World War II, it did not take long for the family's influence to be felt in the community- -in fundraising and in their personal philanthropy. Both Ben Swig and his son Mel were Federation presidents after serving in a variety of the organization's positions.
Melvin M. Swig, who was president of the Jewish Welfare Federation for 1971 and 1972, is the fifth past president of the Federation to be interviewed for the Jewish Community Federation Leadership Oral History Project that documents the history of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties. This series of memoirs is sponsored by the Jewish Community Endowment Fund.
A preliminary meeting with Mr. Swig was held in June 1991, and a chronology covering his almost forty years of Federation activities was given to him at the time of our first interview. In total, five interview sessions, from mid- July to mid-November, were held in his office.
Mr. Swig's firm, Swig Weiler and Dinner Development Company, takes up an entire floor in the Mills Tower in the San Francisco financial district. Only phone calls from Mrs. Swig were taken during the interviews, which lasted approximately one and one -half hours each. During the period of the interviews, Charlotte M. Swig was chief of protocol for the city of San Francisco, and she and Mel Swig were co- chairs of fundraising for the new main public library. Documents and photographs for inclusions in Mel Swig's volume were obtained from his secretary, Lauren Brown, who searched through files for them.
At the time of the preliminary meeting, I asked Mr. Swig for the names of people to whom I should talk for information regarding his community involvement. Those he suggested were: past Federation presidents William Lowenberg and Robert E. Sinton, as well as the current president, Donald H. Seller; businessmen Gerson Bakar and Barney Osher; Father Lo Sciavo, recently retired president of the University of San Francisco; Bishop William E. Swing and Dean Alan Jones of Grace Cathedral. A reading of these names indicates the breadth of Mr. Swig's philanthropy, interests, and friendships.
Mel Swig is very involved in Democratic politics and is considered a key person to contact, by phone or in person, by local and national politicians looking for votes and financial support in San Francisco. He is equally involved in fundraising for his community and for Israel. He is a passionate supporter of Israel; it is close to his heart. There
Vll
were three areas that caused Mr. Swig to speak with great emotion: his family, when talking about Israel's enemies, and the enthusiasm expressed for Brown University. One senses that Mel Swig is never half-hearted about anything.
Mr. Swig's memoirs cover the wide -range of his Federation activities from his earliest involvement, his presidency, and the role he played in the subsequent years. In addition, he discusses philanthropy and his involvement in the general community.
The edited transcripts of his interviews were submitted to Mr. Swig for his review, which he returned with just a few minor corrections in record time. At Mel Swig's suggestion, his friends and fellow Federation leaders, Robert Sinton and Donald Seiler, were asked to write introductions to the volume. We appreciate their response to this request.
Eleanor Glaser Interviewer- Editor
May 1992
Regional Oral History Office
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
viii
Regional Oral History Office University of California
Room 486 The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California 94720
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ix MELVIN M. SWIG - BIOGRAPHIC DATA
Date of Birth: July 31, 1917
Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts
Residence: Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco
Wife: Charlotte Mailliard Swig
Children: Steven, Kent, Robert
Business Affiliation: Vice-chairman of the Board, Fairmont Htel
Management Company Chairman of the Board, Swig Weiler and
Dinner Development Company
PROFESSIONAL AND CIVIC AFFILIATIONS PRESENT
\merican Assoc. Ben-Gurion University Board of Directors
\nti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith Member Regional Board;
Honorary Member National Commission
Vtalanta Sosnof f Board of Directors
Bay Area Council Board of Directors
3oy Scouts of America Advisory Council
Brandeis University Trustee
Brown University Trustee
Civilian Advisory Committee (Presidio)
Department of the Army Board of Directors
Columbia Park Boys' Club Board of Directors
Commonwealth Club Board of Directors
Srace Cathedral Trustee
Jewish Community Federation Board of Directors
<oret Foundation Board of Directors
Stanford University Jewish Studies Advisory Board
Jnited Negro College Fund Advisory Board
Jnited Service Organizations (USO) World Board of Governors
Jniversity of San Francisco Chairman, Board of Trustees
PAST
\merican Friends of Haifa University Board of Trustees
\merican Jewish Committee National Board of Trustees
\merican Jewish Joint Distribution Comm Executive Committee
\merican Jewish Joint Distribution Committee . Board of Directors
California Association for ACT President, Board of Director
Crescent Porter Hale Foundation President
faster Seal Campaign Chairman, 1963
Jewish Community Federation President
Jewish Family Service Agency Board of Directors; Vice Pr
L^ake Merced Golf and Country Club President
fount Zion Hospital and Medical Center V.P. Board of Directors
Rational Conference of Christians & Jews Board of Directors
San Francisco City and County Grand Jury Foreman, 1969
San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Vice President
San Francisco City Parking Corp President, Board of Directc
San Francisco Housing Authority Commissioner
San Francisco International Film Festival. .. .Chairman, 1965
San Francisco Jewish Bulletin President, Board of Directc
idei
3an Francisco Life Insurance Company Member of the Board and Trc
s
s surei
CHRONOLOGY-- Me Ivin M. Swig
1952 Elected to Federation board.
1953 Co-chairman, Business and Professional Division of campaign.
1955 Re-elected to Federation board.
1956 General chairman, Israel Bonds drive. 1959 Chairman, campaign.
1961 Mission to Europe to observe immigration problems, with John
Steinhart and Marshall Kuhn. Budget and fundraising committees.
1962 Chairman, budget committee; fundraising committee. As budget
chairman, overriding consideration at budget meetings was action taken at Federation board meeting of 11/9/61 that UJA should not be placed in position of being residue from which increases to other agencies are taken.
1963 Fundraising committee; chairman, Advance Gifts.
1964 Budget committee.
1965 Assistant treasurer, vice-chairman of finance and administration.
1966 Assistant treasurer, vice chairman of finance and administration,
budget committee.
1967 Treasurer, chairman of finance and administration.
1968 Board vice-president, executive committee, finance and
administration, vice-chairman budget committee.
1969 Board vice-president, chairman public relations, Federation
representative to Jewish Bulletin, finance and administration, Federation member on joint Federation/Maimonides committee to review funds accruing to Maimonides. One-half already given to Home for Jewish Aged when Maimonides closed; Federation trustee for balance .
1970 Board vice-president, reported on UJA study mission to Israel
including experiences at Suez Canal. Director, San Francisco Jewish Bulletin.
xi
1971 PRESIDENT. Reports to board re sit-in by group of thirty-five
college students from Friday a.m. to Saturday p.m., demand immediate support for Jewish education and public debate on Jewish education. Contested election, statements circulated re way Federation allocates funds. Petition submitted for ten candidates, but didn't have required 250 signatures.
1972 PRESIDENT. Announces need for capital funds drive — last one in 1960.
Notes decrease in UJA share of overall campaign receipts. "As long as our campaign continues to grow, the allocations to all agencies can be increased without seriously jeopardizing funds available to Israel. Therefore need to increase sums raised in annual campaign.
1973 John Steinhart's commendation to out-going President Swig: on
executive committee of UJA, national commission of Ant i- Defamation League, national board of American Jewish Committee. Dealt with problems of Jewish day schools. Chairman, executive committee, chairman, Advance Division.
1974 Chairman, executive committee. Appointed honorary director so can
remain on board; on by-laws revision. American Jewish Committee's Human Relations Award. Trustee, Brandeis University.
1975 Vice-chairman capital funds campaign, on finance and administration,
allocations review committee for capital funds; three year term on San Francisco Jewish Bulletin. Legal suit by Hebrew Academy. By-laws; past presidents honorary directors ten years, can vote.
1976 On new standing committee; Jewish Community Endowment Fund, Marshall
Kuhn director.
1977 Re-elected Federation representative to Bulletin, three year term.
Finance committee.
1978 President, San Francisco Jewish Co muni tv Bulletin.
1980 Capital funds, endowment fund, fundraising committees.
1981 Capital funds, fundraising.
1982 Committee for new Federation building, capital funds, fundraising,
new chairman of Jewish Community Endowment Fund for five years.
xii
1983 Committees: fundraising, ex officio philanthropic fund advisory
committee, officio planning and budget, building investment, executive, capital funds, overseas, ad hoc committee on Jewish education- -to study direction an magnitude of Federation's allocations to Jewish education institutions and evaluate desirability of this funding pattern. Also, should have long-range study of Jewish education?
Endowment fund to have two -phase grant process because of large capital funds outlay from corpus to Home, Schulz Center, day schools and maybe new building. New policy: Federation proposals must go to executive committee first before going to full endowment committee for approval . Three subcommittees : culture and public affairs, education and youth, family and health care. Newhouse Foundation turned over to endowment fund.
1984 With L. Myers, R. Kaufman, and B. Lurie, met with UJA/CJF leaders at
quarterly meeting. Asked to wait before visiting other cities to present Federation's concerns re Jewish Agency.
1988 Federation board, chairman of endowment fund development, of ad hoc committee on "Who is a Jew."
Chairman
1989 Executive committee, capital funds committee, vice-chairman, Endowment Development.
I THE SWIG FAMILY [Interview 1: July 9, 1991 J////1
Aronovitz and Swig Relatives
Glaser: I want to ask you about your great - gr andparents , because you told me that you knew them when they were in their nineties.
Swig: All four of them were, on both sides, and I remember them only
with a vision of having known them and having seen them. I can't even identify where I did see them. I can remember the room, but I can't remember their faces.
[tape interruption] Glaser: Tell me about your maternal grandparents.
Swig: My maternal grandparents, I believe, came to this country about the middle to late 1870' s. I think they were from Kiev, or in that general area, although I'm not sure. My grandfather was in the furniture manufacturing business. I don't know what business he was in prior to that, but when I remember him that's what he was doing.
Glaser: What was the family name?
Swig: The family name was Aronovitz. My grandmother's name was Ida, and my grandfather's name was Hyman. Matter of fact, in their later life they lived on a street called Gibbs Street in Boston, which was the same street that the Kennedys lived on. Joe Kennedy lived on that street and John Kennedy, who was my age, lived and was brought up on that street, although I didn't know him.
Glaser: Would there have been any interaction between the two families? Swig: No, there was none to my knowledge.
]This symbol (//#) indicates that a tape or segment of tape has begun or ended. For a guide to the tapes, see the end of this transcript.
Glaser: The Irish didn't talk to the Jews?
Swig: [laughter] Yes, they did talk to the Jews, of course they did, and my grandfather was very good friends with many of the Irish politicians of that day. Dan Coakley, for instance, my grandfather's friend in politics was an extremely good friend, and his son Gael was a good friend of my father's. So Irish did talk to the Jews in those days. Although I'd get beaten up on by the Irish kids in my day, but I stopped that by fighting back and beating up on a few of them. That kind of stopped that nonsense.
But my maternal grandparents were lovely people. My grandmother was about five foot tall. My grandfather might have been 5*4", 5 '5", or 5 '6", or something like that. Not a big man. Nice man, very quiet person. We celebrated many Passover Seders at their home. They lived about two blocks from the synagogue where I had my bar mitzvah and attended services in that particular synagogue.
Glaser: Were they married in this country?
Swig: Yes, I believe so.
Glaser: Were they born in this country?
Swig: No, they were not born in this country. They came over quite
young from I think the Kiev area. And there were seven children. There were six girls and one boy. And I still have the youngest, my Aunt Miriam. She's four years older than I am. She came late in life. She's still alive. I talked to her this morning.
Glaser: Still in the Boston area?
Swig: She lives down the Cape in Boston. I've forgotten the name of the town. Her husband is ninety and she is going to be seventy-eight next month, and they are getting along fine. In fact, my wife and I visited with them the end of May and spent a night in their house, just this year. She is doing just fine, although at ninety he's slipping a little bit.
The daughters were quite musical. When they were young they used to have concerts in their house. One of the girls played the bass viol. Another girl played the piano. My mother was a concert violinist. She wasn't at that time but became one. And they used to have their trios play, and the mother and the father - -and I have a picture at home showing it—would be sitting there and the girls would be playing. It was all very nice.
Benjamin H. Swig (second from right, front row) and his family, circa 1903.
Glaser: Did they work after they graduated from high school or was that not done at that time?
Swig: I don't believe they did. I don't think they did. My mother said in those days they didn't allow women in the symphony orchestras, only men. But there was a Jordan Hall in Boston, still very well known and very famous. And she played in that orchestra at Jordan Hall. There was a famous band leader by the name of Leo Reisman, who played society- type music in New York. And my mother's claim to fame was she was the first fiddle and he was second fiddle. So that always pleased her very much.
But I remember her playing when I was a young kid, a young kid being three, four, five years old. And then, for some reason, she gave it up. She loved music and she adored it. She went to symphonies regularly. In fact, all the girls loved their music and attended Symphony Hall. None of them, however, ever made a career out of it. The closest, I guess, that anyone came to it was my Aunt Gert, a younger sister to my mother. Her husband had a very fine voice and sang, and she used to accompany him on the piano. He used to do concerts once in a while.
Glaser: Was this a close family?
Swig: Very. Very close.
Glaser: Did you do a lot of things with the family?
Swig: Yes. I can remember one summer at a beach outside of Boston with my Aunt Flora, the oldest sister, and my mother, whose name was Mae. We took a house together for the summer, July and August I guess it was. And we did that regularly. My cousin Ruthie, a girl who is twenty- five days younger than I am, and I were together. We were more like brother and sister than cousins. We were that close. In fact when I was about fourteen or fifteen I belonged to a fraternity in high school, and I wasn't allowed to take out girls because I was too young. But the fraternity had a dance so I'd take my cousin to the dance. She was my date. And to this day we are very close. Ruthie lives in Long Island and has lived there for must be forty- five years or more. We see each other regularly in New York when I go there . We talk to each other on the phone. We love each other dearly.
Glaser: You sound like someone who has strong family feelings, [tape interruption]
Swig: Anyway, our relationship was very good, very close, and very warm and still is. As I told you, my aunt who lives in Boston, down
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser Swig: Glaser; Swig:
the Cape in Boston, is only four years older, so the three of us were thrown together a great deal. And the sisters were as close as any sisters could be, all of them. Miriam, this youngest one, is many years younger than the rest of the family, so she was like another cousin and was thrown together with us.
My grandmother, of course, was the matriarch of the family on my mother's side. A strong woman who ran things with a strong iron fist and was a great influence on the whole family and a wonderful, brilliant influence.
Was your family as close to your father's family as to your mother's family?
No, I wouldn't think so, because you know the mothers tend to have more of an influence in that regard than do fathers . But we were close on my father's side, and I used to see my uncles and aunts regularly. I spent time alone with my grandparents on my father's side.
Tell me their names please.
Simon Swig and Fanny.
Tell me first about Fanny. What was she like?
Well, she was a fairly large woman, tall, not a terribly attractive woman. A very nice person, quiet, good cook. My grandfather used to play pinochle and he was a dominant individual. So she'd have the people over on Sundays, and the family would come over, and everybody would sit around and play cards, which my grandfather dearly loved, as did his sons. She kept the family very well together.
As I say, I spent time alone with her and my grandfather at their home, both the one in Hull outside of Boston and the one that they had in another part later in life. I was then about thirteen or fourteen. And I spent a couple of weeks with them, I remember, down there. I remember my grandfather beating me in checkers. [laughter] The guy was a wiz. I thought I was really good but he would knock me out. In a few plays I was gone, he was that good. He loved to play pinochle. I learned to play pinochle, of course, with him and my father and this gentleman who was a great influence on my father, Joe Ford. Joe loved pinochle too. So I was brought up in the game of pinochle. In Boston we played it a lot. I don't see it much elsewhere, or at least around here .
Joe Ford
Glaser: What kind of an influence did Joe Ford have on the family?
Swig: Well, Joe and his wife, whose name was Clara, were born in the old country, came here quite young. He started a manufacturing company that made inexpensive ladies' underwear sold to places like Grant, Woolworth, Kresge, Sears, and places like that. It did a tremendous business and had a fine reputation. He was the kind of man who loved people.
He had no children. He put more children through college than any person you've ever heard of, mostly children of his employees. He treated them like part of his family. I remember during the 1939 World's Fair in New York he closed down the plant, took everybody by bus, took them all to New York. I think they spent a week at the World's Fair in New York, and they came back and went back to work. That was the kind of a man he was. Interestingly enough, they were never unionized because he paid them more than the unions would pay them. So they never unionized. They loved and worshipped this man like a god.
He treated everyone like an individual , and this was also true in his charitable giving. He taught my father, I'm sure, much about charity. My father was a charitable person, obviously, but this man was in a class by himself. He was this unusual individual .
Incidentally, he and my father were two of the founding fathers of Brandeis University. Brandeis, as you know, is just outside of Boston, the next town to where I was brought up, in Newton. It was called Middlesex Medical School, and it was a flop. It wasn't an accredited school. That campus became available right after World War II. In 1948, the same year that Israel was founded, so was Brandeis University founded. And two of the founding fathers were Ben Swig, living here in San Francisco, and Joe Ford living in Boston. And both were on the board until my father left the board early. But Joe was on the board until he died at age ninety- three. I succeeded my father on that board and still am on it. I don't go to very many meetings these days, but I am still on that board. We have a very soft and warm spot in our hearts for Brandeis, obviously.
And this guy Ford was one of those people who turned people on with his charitable affairs and did a lot. He gave money to Tufts. He gave money to Northeastern, Brandeis. A little bit to
Harvard, not much. But those are the things that he was interested in. And, of course, Jewish affairs.
Simon SWJE and His Children
Glaser: Let's go back and talk about your grandfather, Simon Swig.
Swig: Incidentally, I have a new grandson. He's a little over a month old. His name is Simon.
Glaser: How nice, and Mazel Tov.
Swig: My son who lives in New York just had this child a little over a month ago, June 5th, and named him Simon. I happened to have had a few things in my house that I took back. One written in 1905 by Simon Swig that says "With Affection, Simon Swig". And it's a book having to do with his days in the legislature in Boston. I brought it to the new Simon so that someday he'll be able to see that, among some other things. I had pictures of my grandfather with Calvin Coolidge. He'll have that.
My grandfather was quite a character. He came to this country in 1876. Carried a pack on his back door -to -door to earn a living. Married Fanny when he was, I think, eighteen. They had eleven children, eight boys and three girls. My father was the seventh child. My grandfather developed into a legislator in Massachusetts. He was president of a bank in Boston. He was very well-known, very well -respected, and very well -liked generally in the community. I remember when he died, in 1939 I believe it was, on my birthday.
Glaser: He died on your birthday?
Swig: On my birthday in 1939. His death was announced over the radio and the newspapers in Boston, New York and everywhere; he was acclaimed. He was quite a large civic individual in Massachusetts, and he ran a good bank. He was so progressive, however, and being the only Jewish banker around in those days, he was not looked upon with favor by other bankers. I don't know the politics of the situation; I was too young to know about it. Somehow or another the other bankers established a run on the bank. My grandfather paid off a hundred cents on the dollar, that I know. And was closed, unfortunately. I know he was crushed by this and never really rebounded well after that.
Glaser: But he was very active politically.
Swig: Politically he had been very active. Of course by that time he was in his sixties when this happened, and in those days people didn't rebound in their sixties like they do today. Somehow or another he was in the insurance business, and he just never really did a lot thereafter. Incidentally, he had a beautiful home in Roxbury, Massachusetts right down the street from where I was born. He had collections of old estate things, and he enjoyed and liked that. He had things in that home that were simply magnificent. And in that big home he had down in Hull he used to have clambakes for all his political friends. As a matter of fact, just recently somebody who called me, or wrote me a letter, from Boston, had heard that my grandfather had collected some things from the Lawson estate way back. And I remembered that because I remembered seeing some of it in encrusted insignias. I turned them over to a cousin of mine who is older than I am, and she recalls enough of it to help this man out, talking about the Lawson estate. So it was pretty well known that he was a pretty good collector. He was a remarkable guy and quite a wonderful man.
Glaser: Tell me about some of your father's siblings.
Swig: Okay. The oldest was Louis Swig and Uncle Lou was a lawyer and judge in Taunton, Massachusetts, where they lived. His oldest son, his only son, Irving, lives in Hawaii today. Retired. Irving is at least a couple of years older than I am. He had an older sister, Sydell, who passed away some years ago of cancer. And a younger sister also passed away just a couple of years ago from cancer. So Irving is the only one living out of that side of the family, plus their children. At least of my generation he's the only one. There were three children. But Louis was a very well -respected, highly- regarded individual who died, unfortunately, very young. He had brain cancer and he died. I think he was only forty-nine years old, but by that time he had accomplished much in his life.
Another guy in the family, an older brother of my dad's, was a fellow named Hyman, a dentist. He gave up his practice when prohibition went out and formed a new company and went into the wholesale liquor business. Represented Seagrams and other brands, I guess, until he died. He died before my father did, several years. I can't remember when exactly. He was in his late seventies when he passed away.
Another brother, Hirsch, was in the real estate business. Younger than my dad. Very sound, very good business man. Lovely guy, full of hell. Active politically, not running for office,
but in his activities and support of candidates he was a very active guy in Boston.
Glaser: Did they all remain Republicans like their father?
Swig: No, Hirsch was a Democrat I think. My father was a Republican until 1952, although I know he voted for Roosevelt. But he registered until 1952 as a Republican. The others, I really don't know, I imagine they were Republican. But, I think they voted for Roosevelt when he came in; but most people did in those days. My grandfather had an idiosyncracy. He named the tail end of his children-- Let's see there was Howard Roosevelt, Hirsch McKinley [laughter] after the president, my father's name was Benjamin Harrison after the president, George Dewey after Admiral Dewey. I think that was it. Those were the political names that my grandfather picked for his children.
Glaser: And the female names?
Swig: Females were not named politically. And the older ones- -Louis and Hyman and Izzy and Eddie- -all those brothers were not named for politicians. I think probably my father might have been the first one, and the rest of them below him were.
Glaser: Do you get the feeling that immigrants were more American than Americans?
Swig: Oh, I'm sure they were. They had to prove, the Americans didn't. They were.
Glaser: That's right. And very civic minded I would think.
Swig: Very civic minded. My grandfather, as I say, was a very active political guy and a very active civic guy.
Glaser: Now tell me about your father. Where was he educated?
Swig: He was born in Taunton, Massachusetts, and went through high
school in Taunton. He sold newspapers on a train from Taunton to Providence .
Glaser: That sounds like Thomas Edison.
Swig: Somewhat like it. They all used to wear newspapers in their shoes to keep them from getting soaked. They were poor. You know, eleven children in those days, that was a lot. But my grandfather did pretty well. As I say, he came in with a pack on his back and then progressed through all these various things and later on became president of the bank. My father went one year to college,
I think it was Suffolk University, and then joined the bank. At age twenty- three, he became the youngest treasurer of a bank in the country at that time. I don't know whether it's since or not but at least at that time. He was very good, and he was very astute. An interesting story- -you've heard of the Ponzi scheme?
Glaser: Yes.
Swig: There's a book somewhere--! have it but I haven't located it yet. I want to give it to my grandson. My grandfather was one of those who exposed Ponzi. He wasn't the only one. But Ponzi came to his bank, and my grandfather was suspicious of what he saw and what was going on and reported it to someone. And part of the evidence given by my grandfather caused Ponzi to be apprehended.
Glaser: What was the Ponzi scheme?
Swig: The Ponzi scheme was that I have this piece of metal and I sell it to you for a dollar. And then I take it to somebody else and sell it for a dollar, and to somebody else and so forth. You keep adding on. You get the dollar from the first guy, and you go to the second guy and you pyramid it. And there is no substance behind it.
Glaser: Was it selling or was it investing?
Swig: I think it was probably investing. Yes, it was investing. And
you keep pyramiding it. It's called the Ponzi scheme to this day. He was the initiator of that scheme. What he did with my grandfather I can't tell you; I don't remember. But my grandfather became suspicious of him and turned him over to the proper authorities. They already, I guess, had some record on him but this helped to expose him. It was written up in some journal or some book about him doing this and it's a matter of public record. My grandfather was in the bank at that time when he did it, and he exposed Mr. Ponzi and his scheme and helped to get him convicted.
Benlamin Swig's Businesses
Glaser: When your grandfather gave up the banking business, or it gave him up, what did your father do?
Swig: My father went into the real estate business and became a partner in the firm called Henry W. Savage Company at 1333 Beacon Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was very successful in his
10
business. He was in with two men, one by the name of Curtis the other by the name of Tucker. They just did very well in their business. They were a very highly- regarded, successful firm. Then along came the Depression and the Depression hit everybody very, very hard. The real estate business stopped almost totally. There was just nothing doing.
My father left the real estate business after a while, when he couldn't make any money at it. He lost everything in the stock market at the crash of '29, he and all his family, and opened up a store. It was a forerunner of what we now call a discount house today. It wasn't quite as stark as the so-called Price Clubs that we see, but it was that type of thing. A little more refined than that, but not much. It had clothing, it had hardware, homeware, a supermarket, drugs, soda fountain type of food.
Glaser: Were these concessions? Swig: They were all concessions.
Swig: It was called the Giant Store and was in Lowell, Massachusetts.
It was an old mill building that had gone out of business when all the mills in New England went south and left great unemployment and real serious problems in each of those cities. Lowell, Lawrence, Have rhill- -all those places were severely damaged economically by the movement south. The building was a relatively new mill building, but it was still an older building. It was remodelled and fixed up and made into a store. It had parking in the back, and it was the type of building that we now take for granted around here, but in those days it was quite novel.
The store was moderately successful. It was a living, and that's about all. But for the Depression, when people were raising families on thirteen and fourteen dollars a week, you know things were real tough. On one of the floors in the upper part of the building, I remember, they used to have WPA [Works Progress Administration] working there. You don't know what WPA is do you?
Glaser: Oh yes I do.
Swig: WPA was working a whole floor. They were selling aprons, I think, ladies aprons, or cotton goods of some sort. Putting them together. And they were paid- -that's why I remember them-- fourteen dollars a week that those ladies were making at that time. And incidentally, it's not a bad idea for today if we put some more people to work instead of letting them sit home and do
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nothing while they're getting the money. That's another story. But the store was moderately successful and made a living, and we stayed there until we moved out here in 1946.
Glaser: Then it must have been more than moderately successful.
Swig: Well, it did quite well but it changed and we'll get into that
later after you ask me more about my personal life because I was involved in the store later on.
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II EARLY YEARS IN BOSTON
Born July 31. 1917
Glaser: All right. Let's talk about your education and your early years. And tell me about your siblings.
Swig: I started out being raised until about age four or five in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where I was born. We lived in an apartment .
Glaser: I thought you told me you were born in Boston.
Swig: That is Boston. It's a section of Boston called Roxbury. I was born in a hospital somewhere in Boston, I don't know where. I probably was told, but it's long since gone so I never did see it Raised in this town, suburb, part of the city of Boston where my grandfather lived up the street not far away. Where my grandfather, incidentally, caused to be built an Orthodox synagogue called the Crawford Street Synagogue. I was born on Crawford Street, number twenty -two. I told you I could remember numbers; I can't remember names.
Then we moved to a section of Boston called Jamaica Plain. There we lived for a couple of years, I guess. It was at that time, and living in that house, that the bank closed. Then we moved to a place called Brighton, another suburb of Boston, another section. There, Betty, my sister, was born in 1923. I was in grammar school there, at that time.
Shortly thereafter we moved back to another part of Jamaica Plain, right down the street from a very well-known mayor by the name of James Michael Curley, with whose kids I played when I was a youngster. And it was there, in that period, that my brother Richard was born in 1925 .
Incidentally, Joe Alioto's present wife, Kathleen, was brought up a block and a half away from that particular part of
13
Jamaica Plain many years later. And today we talk about it. lived a street over and a half a block up. Interesting.
She
As I said, Curley lived at the head of the street facing what is called Jamaica Pond, a well known pond in the suburb of Boston. And his kids, a couple of them were close to my age and we played together as kids. A very sad part of that family is that most of the kids died very young: were killed in accidents, one thing or another, illness. I don't think there are too many of them, if any, left. He was the famous mayor who became a congressman who served his congressional term, in part, in jail.
Glaser: He was supposed to have been quite a character.
Swig: He was quite a character, [chuckles] Not the most honest guy in the world. My grandfather, incidentally, was a very close friend of a man by the name of Coakley, Dan Coakley. And Dan Coakley was the politician who was not a very good friend of Mr. Curley, and therefore my grandfather was not a very good friend of his. It's interesting how later on we lived near each other.
Glaser: Well, if your grandfather was not a friend of Mayor Curley, did things happen to you?
Swig: No.
Glaser: He was very powerful, wasn't he?
Swig: Yes, powerful but not that powerful. I can't tell you what the implications were because I was too young to know.
Glaser: And you mentioned the Kennedys also.
Swig: Well the Kennedys lived near my grandmother in a town called
Brookline, Massachusetts. Which is a suburb of Boston, not a part of Boston. It was an independent town. And they lived on a street called Gibbs Street. Joseph Kennedy lived nearby and John Kennedy, who was my age, lived in that house with his folks although I didn't know him at that time. I knew him much later on when he was senator and then president. I didn't know them at that time . Although he was my age , we never bumped into each other. He went to Harvard. I went to Brown. We had nothing to do with each other and never saw each other. Much later on we met, but that's just a coincidence that they happened to live on the same street. And the Irishmen do talk to the Jews as I mentioned about Coakley. But that Irishman didn't talk to many Jews I believe. [laughter]
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The Coakleys were dear friends of my family, my grandfather starting out. And Gael Coakley, the son of Dan, was a good friend of my father's until the day that he died. They were powerful political folks, the Coakleys, and very well known too, even though they opposed Mr. Curley. Anyway, that is the background of their political life around Boston and the association with the Kennedys, which was not an association.
Glaser: We were talking before this about you and your siblings. There's quite an age difference. Did that keep you from being close?
Swig: I was not as close to them as they were close. They were two years apart and I was six years and eight years older, so you know, you don't have as much in common. We were close, obviously, but not to the same extent that they were close. Because of the age difference. I was in school when they were born. I was in high school when they were in grammar school. I was in college when they were still in grammar school. And so you know it's quite a swing.
Education
Glaser: Tell me about your religious training and your schooling.
Swig: I was bar mitzvah and went to Hebrew School under difficulty.
There was no temple; we were living in Newton. That was before they had a temple; they have them now. I had to go a long way to Hebrew School and get training for my bar mitzvah. My mother's parents were Orthodox and we had a kosher home until I was about fourteen. But my grandmother finally got religion and decided we didn't have to do it anymore. So I had that kind of atmosphere in my upbringing.
I went to grammar school in the Boston area until the sixth grade, when we moved to Newton. Newton is another suburb of Boston and an independent city, called the Garden City. Beautiful homes, lovely place, good area. We moved there in 1927, I was then ten. I was in the sixth grade, or fifth grade I guess. I went through grammar school and then Newton High School and then went to Brown University from high school. I was only a fair student. I was much more interested in athletics. I played on the football team, I was on the track team, I was on the baseball team, and that sort of thing. That was far more important to me than studying, I guess.
Glaser: Did you win letters? Did they give out letters in your school?
15
Swig: Yes. I sure did. Yes. And I was a pretty good athlete. I made all -scholastic team in football and that sort of thing. You know when you get home from football you're pretty tired, pretty hard- workout, and it's hard to stay up and study and work.
Glaser: But did you have favorite classes and subjects?
Swig: Yes. In spite of what I've told you, I had three years of Latin and four years of French, English subjects of course, and history. I took all the courses. I wasn't particularly good at them, but I did well enough. My Latin teacher, one of them, was a teacher by the name of Johnson who was terrific. I used to like him. I had a math teacher, and math was one of my pretty good subjects, by the name of Tommy Walters. He was the golf coach. Tommy Walters. Actually, I remember two very good English teachers. One was Miss Weatherly, and then my senior year I had a wonderful English teacher by the name of Smith, and she really turned me on. But I worked hard in my senior year because I had to get ready to go to college, and I had to turn it on a little bit. So I studied a little harder and did a little better.
Glaser: Because of the Depression years, did you have to work when you went to college or was your family at that point prosperous?
Swig: I worked both in high school and college. I used to sell
magazines door -to -door and shovel snow and do anything I could to get a few bucks because we didn't have very much money. My father, I think I told you, lost his home in 1932 and we moved from pillar to post in that general area of Newton where I lived. And so if I needed any money, or wanted any money, I had to go out and sell the magazines or shovel snow.
We used to get fifty cents to seventy- five cents to shovel big driveways and front walks. That was a lot of money for us. So we did that, and I'd get some commission, I've forgotten what it is now, for selling subscriptions to magazines like Good Housekeeping and that sort of thing.
In college I washed dishes and waited on table to make a living. And that was worth a big sum of seven dollars and fifty cents a week, but I got my meals for free so I didn't pay the seven- fifty. I had a little dry cleaning route on the side, and I made a few bucks shooting crap. [laughter] Wherever I could find a dollar.
Glaser: Let me go back to your high school days. What was your social life then?
16
Swig:
Glaser: Swig:
Glaser: Swig:
Glaser: Swig:
Glaser Swig: Glaser Swig:
Kind of quiet. I wasn't allowed to go out up until age sixteen. I belonged to a high school fraternity and we used to have our fraternity dances and my cousin Ruthie, my mother's sister's daughter who was my age , was my date up until the time I was sixteen. And I had another cousin on my fathers side, Barbara Swig, who used to be a date on occasion too.
You make it sound as if your parents were very strict with you.
Well, they were strict in that regard. But that wasn't terribly unusual in those days. People were more strict and didn't allow kids out socializing until they were fifteen, sixteen years old. In my case it was sixteen.
You probably didn't have much money for that anyway.
I didn't have any money then or later. [laughter] So I couldn't do too much anyway.
Tell me why you chose Brown University.
My high school football coach went to Brown. An interesting thing, I had a possibility of a scholarship at USC [University of Southern California] and I said, "California? Three thousand miles away?" In those days, you know, that was so far away. I hadn't been out of Boston, I don't think. So I turned that down quickly, and I had another chance at North Carolina State, I think it was. But my high school coach worked on me. He was what they call a Brown Ironman, which was the 1926 football team. And he said, "Come on down. I want you to meet Tuss McLaughery, the coach, and I'll introduce you to the dean of admissions, Bruce Bigelow." And so I did.
My marks weren't as good as they should have been so the dean said, "You'll have to take college boards," which was like an SAT type thing in those days that you may remember. So I said, "Okay, I'll work on it." I went to a cram school. I studied and I worked my butt off, and I passed my exams and did okay, and they accepted me at Brown. So I went to Brown and loved it, enjoyed it very much.
What was Providence like in those days?
Not too damn much different from what it is today. [laughter]
What is it like today?
Well, Providence is a mill town, was a mill town, manufacturing town as well, costume -type jewelry.
It's a jewelry It was a pretty
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good city. The school is up on a hill. There it is [points to large photograph on the wall]. You really didn't have too strong a relationship with downtown unless you wanted to. And the part that was up on the hill was a very attractive older residential section, most of which is made up into Brown. And it's expanded quite a lot since then. It's just a very fine place and a wonderful place to go to school. In those days it was about an hour from Boston. You could take the train in about forty minutes to Boston.
Glaser: Oh, you lived at home?
Swig: No, I lived at school. I lived in a fraternity house. But I say it was that close to Boston. It was about three hours or three and a half hours by train to New York. It was very convenient and very well located. It was a good, fun town. It was attractive. It's not a rich town. Today there are a lot of places outside of Providence that are very attractive. Newport, Rhode Island, is one of the top places in the country. We never got over to Newport; that was out of our league.
Again, I didn't have much money and I couldn't do a lot of the things. You know it was still part of the Depression and things weren't so good. My father had to pay tuition. Then it was four hundred dollars for the year, and he had to scrape up four hundred dollars , but I had to help him scrape it up by working. Oh, incidentally, I worked in one of those drug stores that my father owned at one time. I worked there a couple of summers, behind the soda fountain. I was too young, so they only let me work part-time. So I worked making seven, eight, six dollars a week.
I bought ray first suit of clothes after I got paid one day. I was walking down the street in downtown Boston. A friend of my father's owned a clothing store there. He grabs me by the shoulder and pulls me in says, "You want to buy a suit?" I said, "You're too expensive." He says, "I'll give you a deal." So I paid seven dollars and bought a suit, [laughter]
Glaser: A whole suit, my goodness.
Swig: I've always remembered that. Anyway, things were difficult but it was a good experience.
Glaser: But how could you afford to live in a fraternity house if you were working your way through?
Swig: Well, I waited on table in the fraternity house.
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Glaser: Oh, In the fraternity house, I see.
Swig: Yes. I washed dishes one week and waited on table the next week and I paid my way through.
Glaser: And you had time for sports also?
Swig: Well, I did. I played hockey in college and I played football.
Glaser: You were one of the star players on the hockey team, weren't you?
Swig: Well, I wasn't that good. I was pretty good. But I only went two years to college, incidentally. I went two years because I wanted to get into business and make some money. So I left school. I was then going with a girl whom I had met at summer camp as a counselor up in Maine. That had an effect on me which is unfortunate, because I probably shouldn't have left school. But I did.
The Giant Store
Swig: I went to work, and I went to work in the Giant Store. This man, Joe Ford, lent me ten thousand dollars to go into business and become one of the concessionaires in the clothing department. And we hired a guy who was the with the W.T. Grant Company who taught me the business. I was then a young kid. I was twenty, I guess, and I went into business. I learned the business, and I worked hard at it. I worked morning, noon, and night. The store was open five nights a week. Opened at nine -thirty, closed at nine.
Glaser: You were there for twelve hours?
Swig: I was there the whole time. Except Wednesdays when it closed at one o'clock, I guess. So I didn't go in on Wednesdays. I went downtown to Boston to do the shopping for the store. Oh, and Friday and Saturday nights it was open until ten, and I worked from nine -thirty in the morning. Well, the store opened then but I was there earlier, obviously. I worked twelve, thirteen hours a day in the store, and I had to drive an hour to and an hour from. Anyway, I didn't know any better. It seemed like a way of life, and that's what I did. But I worked hard, and we made great progress. Finally we took over more departments, and I ran the whole store and did the whole thing.
Glaser: Are you saying you took over the whole store from your father?
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Swig: Yes, my father had long since gone. He had a woman in charge at that time. He went back into the real estate business at that time. Let's see, he worked from 1932 to 1935 or 1936 in the store, I guess, '35 maybe. Then he went back into the real estate business. Things started to pick up a little bit by that time. That's where he met, and how he met, Jack Weiler.
Glaser: Who is Jack Weiler?
Swig: Jack Weiler became my father's partner in 1936. That's fifty- five years ago from now, and they're still partners. In fact, you'll see a message here. A Mr. Jack Weiler just called me a little while ago. "At 4:23 p.m., Mr. Weiler called."
Glaser: It certainly sounds as if you paid your dues.
Swig: Yes, but it was good experience. When I look back on it now it was great experience. It taught me discipline. It taught me to do the right thing, be on the ball, and be creative. And I learned about business. I learned it the hard way, but I learned it, and I think I learned it pretty well. The experience of working those hours makes the hours I work now seem like nothing, although I work almost as many hours today as I did then. I'm here in the office at seven- thirty , quarter of eight in the morning. I don't leave here until five -thirty, six o'clock at night. But now I'm not working so much on business as I do outside activities: civic, charitable, and that sort of thing. But it's worth it, nonetheless.
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III MARRIAGE AND MILITARY SERVICE
Married to Phyllis Diamond. 1939: U.S. Armv. 1945
Glaser: You were married in 1939. Whom did you marry?
Swig: I was married in 1939 to that girl, unfortunately, that I'd met that summer at summer camp .
Glaser: What was her name?
Swig: Her name was Phyllis Diamond. We had two children, Steve, who
works here with me now, and Judy, who unfortunately passed away at age twenty- six from cancer. That was 1975, so it's been a long time. But the marriage failed. Well, in between I went in the service, in the army, World War II.
Glaser: What year did you go into service?
Swig: I went in 1945, went in kind of late because my son was a pre-
Pearl Harbor birth. At least he was created before the war and he was born May of 1942, and I went in at the beginning of '45. I spent a year in the army, and the war ended, and I was lucky enough to get out.
Where did you take your training?
I took basic training in Macon, Georgia, in the infantry. This is a cute story. I had an I.Q. of a wild- eyed genius in telegraphy. Don't ask me why, I don't know. Probably because I'm good with numbers and it's dot, dot, dot, dash, dash, dash. And I guess I could count pretty well.
Glaser: I think your being good in languages would help you too.
Swig: Well maybe that had something to do with it. But whatever it was, I was a wild-eyed genius. I was very good in the rest of my exams, but in telegraphy I was a genius, wild- eyed genius. I was
Glaser Swig:
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a genius the other way but a wild- eyed genius in telegraphy. So what did they put me in? The infantry. [laughter] So I was a soldier boy, and I went from basic training, where I was selected number one out of a thousand men to go to O.C.S. [Officer Candidate School] . And of course it was in the infantry.
Glaser: At Fort Benning?
Swig: Fort Benning. I went to infantry school there. I was a good soldier.
Glaser: Was it rough?
Swig: Yes, it was tough. But, you know, it was like working the way I did in college. I had a good experience. I took everything they could throw at me and I did well. That was a confidence builder if I needed it, and I probably did. It was a tough experience, but the experience was good.
Glaser: Did you run into anti-Semitism when you were in the army?
Swig: No, I did not. My best friend in the army was a guy by the name of Dick Rebello. Dick was a fire chief in Providence, Rhode Island, as it turned out later on. Matter of fact, shortly before he died he was out here visiting with me. Another fellow I was friendly with was a fellow named Eddie Epstein. He was Jewish. We still correspond once in a while to this day. He became a lawyer. He's in Washington, D.C. He was in the rag business at the time. He was making ladies' sportswear in New York [laughter] and he wound up being a lawyer in Washington afterwards.
Out of Officer's Training School
Swig: But the experience was solid. I did well. I was a good soldier. My fellow men and my superiors liked me. In fact, I decided not to take a commission in the army because the war had ended by this time, and they wanted us to stay in an extra two years, I think it was. I had a wife and a kid, and I didn't feel like I wanted to do that. I had a hell of a time trying to get out of the army because my record was too good. They said, "We spent all this money on you and now you want to leave us . "
Glaser: Did you have to have a certain number of points to get out?
Swig: Yes, you did. But I didn't get out at that time. I just got out of O.C.S. at that point. So I had been in for about twelve, I
22
think, of the sixteen weeks. I had already been fitted for uniforms by this time. I went to my platoon leader and said, "I want to get out, sir." And he said, "You can't do it. You're too good a soldier. We can't lose you after we've done all this for you." He said, "You'll have to see the company commander."
I went to the company commander and I got the same story. In the meantime, weeks are going by, and so then the company commander said, "We'll have to take it up to battalion." Well, some guy up there finally let me out. I said, "Look, I don't want to flunk out of here. I don't want to ruin my record. I want to just get out because I've got a wife and a kid. The war is over. And I don't want to stay in. I've got a business back home, and I have to get back and run my business." Finally they let me out.
So then I drove trucks, [laughter] They didn't know what to do with guys like me. There were some others, a fellow name Bill Sustak from Owatonna, Minnesota. He slept next to me in the barracks. He became a postmaster in Owatonna, Minnesota. I haven't seen him. But they had us driving trucks for a while and experimenting. We were driving through mud, through sand, through hills, up, down, all over the damn place. So I learned how to drive a truck.
They finally transferred us over to Leesville, Louisiana, which was Camp Polk. Leesville before the war was a town of about twelve hundred, fifteen hundred, two thousand people. It became the area for a hundred thousand troops during the war. So you can imagine what happened there. Anyway, I was able to get over there. I had my car and I drove over, and I had my wife and my son with me at that point. She wasn't too well.
Swig: So we rented a little house down there. We were part of a surplus company, if you will, because men were coming back from overseas and had the points to get out. I did not. One night I had pulled guard duty, and while I was on guard duty they served us some coffee. It had some chicory in it, which I didn't realize, and I drank it. That's what they serve in New Orleans, you know. I just couldn't stand it. It tasted awful to me. And, gee, pulling guard duty is not too good, but I had to do it, I had to do it. So anyway, the next day, as it turned out, they asked for volunteers to serve as a company clerk. You had to type and you had to do whatever they asked you to do. I volunteered. Now, you're not supposed to volunteer in the army. That's the last thing you do. But I volunteered because I didn't want to pull this guard duty and have this chicory coffee . So I became the company clerk.
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Part of my job being the company clerk was typing up requests for retirement to get out of the army. I looked at all these different requests, and I saw which ones were approved and which ones weren't. I thought I had an idea of what would work because I had a wife who was ill. Even though she was with me, she wasn't a well woman. And I wrote back for her record. I sent the material to a friend of my father's in New York who was a lawyer because I knew he would know how to do this , and I told him the general idea. Another friend of my father's was a doctor and I got the record from him. I sent all this material to the lawyer, who wrote up a request for retirement. He sent it back down to me, and I typed up my own request.
Lo and behold, three or four weeks later I get a call from headquarters company, from this fellow Sustak who was still at the same camp. He says, "Guess what?" I said, "What?" "You're out." I said, "You've got to be kidding." He says, "No, you're out." "O.K!"
December 7, 1945. Very auspicious day. At twelve noon, I was out of the army, with a little discharge button on, in the car, wife and a kid, bags packed, everything done, on the way back to Boston. So we drove from Louisiana, up through Little Rock, Arkansas; Louisville, Kentucky; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and then on to Boston. Finally got home and back to work the next day in the store in Lowell, Massachusetts. End of career in the army. But I was a good soldier, and it was not a bad experience. Fortunately, I didn't get killed and I didn't get wounded and I didn't go overseas.
Military Training
Glaser: Did you get injured in O.C.S.? Because that happens.
Swig: No, but you know a lot of guys did. And I saw a couple of guys killed in basic training. Carelessness, pure carelessness. The obstacle courses are where accidents happen. You're climbing things, jumping things, crossing rivers, and getting shot at. You've got to go through all kinds of training. They put a line of fire with machine guns over your head and you're crawling underneath them. You can get hurt doing that. You don't dare stand up, obviously. You'd get killed. And one guy was killed in basic training doing that. Another guy got killed on maneuvers that we went on- -it's a little complicated- -but he got in the wrong line of fire, stupidly, carelessly. And a guy got killed.
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He was a big league ball player. I forgot the name, but he was killed.
It can happen, it does happen in basic training. And O.C.S. training, which is probably no more rigorous than basic training. They're both tough. They're both rigorous. I lost thirty pounds in basic training, and I lost it in the first six, seven weeks. I weighed more than I have ever weighed in my life, more than I have ever weighed since. I weighed 191 pounds. I went down to 161 pounds. But I was solid. I was like rock because 1 was in such good condition. Everybody is.
It was an experience that you don't forget, obviously, and the discipline is a good example for life. The benefit I had of being a good soldier was that I had gone to summer camp up in Maine that I mentioned earlier. I had been a camper and a counselor at summer camps. And there's a certain amount of discipline. One of the head counselors of the camp I went to, when I was a junior counselor, wanted me to go to West Point. He tried to talk my mother and Dad into it very, very much.
I had a pretty good inclination. Every summer we had two West Point cadets who were counselors. They had the summer off. They were allowed one summer off in the four years . They had a pretty good influence on me because, again, it was discipline, and they were great guys. I learned to ride, I learned to shoot under their guidance. And I got pretty good at it. So good that when I went in the army I was an expert in every weapon- -rifles , machine guns, no matter what it was --based on the training that I had had.
At this camp, this head counselor, who was a professor at West Point, wanted me to go to West Point, tried to talk my folks into it. I turned it down because I had been accepted at Brown by now, and I decided to go to Brown. And because I had to take another year of schooling to take the exams for West Point. It was too late for that year, so I decided not to do it. I guess I'm glad I didn't. But when I did get in the army, the training that I had from that discipline made me a good soldier automatically. I knew what to do, how to do it, and how to do all the things that you had to do in the army. I was so good at it that the company commander used to turn the company over to me , the acting sergeant, and I'd take over the company and take them out.
Glaser: For drilling?
Swig: For drill, hikes, whatever we had to do. So the training was excellent.
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Glaser: One doesn't usually think of a summer camp as being a good basis for discipline and for training that leads you to doing well in the army.
Swig: Oh, it was, clearly. That camp was, certainly.
Glaser: Well, you give me the impression of whatever the experience is you look on it in a favorable sense and get the most out of it. You don't look negatively upon it.
Swig: I'm an optimist, not a pessimist. If I were a pessimist I
wouldn't do half the things I do. I'm always looking forward; I don't look back. But the experiences of life, those experiences, build whatever you are and make whatever you are out of you. And I think they're good experiences when I had these kinds of things happen to me .
Glaser: That's a wonderful trait to have.
Swig: That's the way I am. Whatever success I've achieved, I think, has been partly because of that. Mostly because of that. And when I take on ventures and do things, I'm an optimist. I always believe we can do them.
Return to Civilian Life. 1945
Glaser: When you went back to Boston and you started up again in the Giant Store, where were you living?
Swig: I had, by that time, sold ray house, my relatively inexpensive house. I was living in an apartment in Boston.
Glaser: You told me you were divorced from your first wife.
Swig: Yes, later on.
Glaser: How long were you together before the divorce?
Swig: Twelve years. I was then here in San Francisco. I moved to San Francisco in August of 1946.
Glaser: Well, why don't we leave that for another time. We'll pick that up later.
Swig: All right. We'll pick it up when we move to San Francisco. I'll tell you then.
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IV SWIG FAMILY MOVES TO SAN FRANCISCO [Interview 2: July 30, 1991 ]//#
Purchase of Hotels: St. Francis. 1944: Fairmont. 1945: Bellevue. 1950
Glaser: While you were in the army, what was the rest of your family doing?
Swig: Well, my father was transporting himself back and forth from San Francisco. He had bought the St. Francis Hotel first. And then in 1945, in March, bought the Fairmont Hotel. So he and my mother were spending a lot of time in California at that time. My brother was overseas, in the New Hebrides Islands. They're called something else now. My brother-in-law, Buddy Dinner, was in the CBI theater of war.
Glaser: What does that stand for?
Swig: China -Burma -India. Subsequently came back to this country. So we were all in the service at the same time. Buddy was discharged in September, October of '45. I was discharged in December of '45. And Dick didn't get out until March of '46. Maybe it was February; I'm not sure exactly.
Glaser: When you were discharged, did you go back to managing the Giant Store?
Swig: I did. As a matter of fact, on December 7, 1945, at twelve noon I was discharged. Two minutes later I was in my car and on the way back to Boston. I arrived in Boston a few days later and went to work.
Glaser: Who managed the store while you were in the army?
Swig: I had a partner who had been brought in when I knew I'd have to go in the service. He was an ex-W.T. Grant man. He became a partner, and he ran the store while I was gone.
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Glaser: Where did you settle in the Boston area when you came back?
Swig: I went back to where I had been living before, which was in a hotel in downtown Boston.
Glaser: And you had just the one child at that point?
Swig: At that point I had one child.
Glaser: When was your daughter born?
Swig: She wasn't born until 1949.
Glaser: If your father was going back and forth to San Francisco and
returning to Boston, who did he have managing the Saint Francis?
Swig: It was a man by the name of Dan London, who was an old established member of San Francisco. Well known, and a very fine man. He ran the hotel on a daily basis.
Glaser: He managed that for years, didn't he? Swig: A long time.
Glaser: Your father also bought the Bellevue Hotel? Swig: Yes, but that was quite a lot later, [conversation interrupted]
Swig: The Bellevue Hotel was bought, I'm going to guess, in the late 40' s, early 50' s. Somewhere at that period. Around 1950, '51, maybe .
Glaser: You told me that the family took a vote on moving out here, and
your mother said, "Let's go." Does this mean that she had a very strong voice in the family and was a dominant person?
Swig: She was a strong family woman. She envisioned the possibility of the family not being together because of the hotels out here, and the rest of her family and my father's family all being back East. She said, "Either we all move out together or let's sell the hotels and go back to Boston." Back being wherever home was and everything else. In a democratic way she said, "Let's take a vote. Let's see how we all feel about it."
After I got out of the army, I came out here after the Christmas season was over. In January of '46 I came out and
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Glaser Swig:
spent, I think, three weeks, or something like that, traveling around this part of the country to find out if I liked it. My brother was still overseas, and hadn't come back. My brother-in- law and my sister had been out here. They liked it. They voted aye . I subsequently voted aye . My folks voted aye . And my brother didn't get a vote. [laughter] Besides, he was the only single one. We all agreed to come out.
But that separated your mother from her own family.
It did do that. But it was important to my father, and we all felt it was a good move to come out here.
Mazor's Store. Oakland
Glaser: When you came out, you started a store in Oakland. Is that right?
Swig: In Oakland, yes.
Glaser: Would you tell me about that?
Swig: Well, my father had invested with a couple of his friends in a store, called then Mazor's, in Oakland: Harold Baruh and Harold Goldman, who operated another store in that town called Goldman's. My father had bought an interest in this particular store with them, which was a few blocks away. It was a ladies clothing store. I had been in the retail business back East, but not in this kind of business. So that seemed like a likely outlet to continue in the retail business. And so we bought out the Baruh and Goldman family and bought into this business.
Glaser: Where was the store located?
Swig: Broadway and Fifteenth Street in Oakland.
Glaser: What was Oakland like in those years?
Swig: It was a nice town, a very nice town. We were right in the middle of the retail district. Kahn's Department Store, which is no longer in existence, was right across the street. It was considered a good location.
Glaser: Did that put you near Capwell's?
Swig: Capwell's was up a few blocks, about four or five blocks up the street.
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Glaser: You saw Oakland in its heyday then, didn't you, compared to now?
Swig: Well, I don't know whether it was its heyday or not, because I
think it's become a bigger community today than it was then. It was a nice community in all, but I wasn't overly enthralled about working and being in Oakland, I must tell you.
Glaser: Where were you living? Swig: San Francisco.
Glaser: When you came out here, what was your first impression about San Francisco?
Swig: Well, I woke up- -on the train in those days, my first visit ever to California- -I looked out from the windows on the train. I was in Sacramento and it was in January. I looked through the windows and looked out at a beautiful blue sky, far bluer than what comes now. No smog, nothing, just clear blue and green. And looking at that, after coming out of the East where it was winter time, was a tremendously wonderful impression. Then I came to San Francisco, and of course, like everybody else I fell in love with the city. It's a beautiful city. I went to Los Angeles at that time. Even in L.A. the skies were clear and blue in those days. There was no smog yet, and that was a pleasant experience. But I loved being here in this wonderful city.
Glaser: How long did you have the store in Oakland, Mazor's?
Swig: Until 1950.
Glaser: Did you keep the name, Mazor's?
Swig: No, we changed it. It became a Joseph Magnin store. We made a
deal with Cyril Magnin at that time. He became a partner with us in the store. We remodelled the store, and we reopened about 1949, I guess it was. And it became a Joseph Magnin store.
Glaser: How long were you there? Swig: Four years.
From Retail Business to Real Estate
Glaser: What made you change from retail into the hotel business?
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Swig: Well, I never was in the hotel business. I went into the real estate business with my father. My brother went into the hotel business. I went into the real estate business. And it's still that way.
Glaser: The Swig's have, or perhaps I should say had, a very fine reputation for hiring refugees, giving them a break in the Fairmont .
Swig: That's true. That's right. My offices were in the hotel until we had to move here because we didn't have any more room. The Henry Lewins and Werner Lewins . Our present manager of the hotel is Herman Weiner, and Herman's been with us for must be close to forty years. He had been in a concentration camp as a Polish young man when the war was on. Somehow or other got out alive by being a slave laborer. There's a number tattooed on his arm and he's here working at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
Glaser: I know the Lewins were in Shanghai.
Swig: And the Lewins were in Shanghai. Hans and Peter Goldman, who worked for the hotel for years and years, also came out of Shanghai. And other people, waiters and other folks. And they all started, incidentally, as waiters or busboys or what have you, and worked themselves up and did very well and accomplished a great deal. Good people.
Glaser: I think the family has a fine reputation concerning that.
Swig: You mentioned reputations. One of the nice things I recall along those lines is a story I was talking to my wife about last night. Ella Fitzgerald came to play the Venetian Room at the Fairmont probably around 1950 I'm going to guess. And she always tells this story to this day. When she played the Fairmont the first time, it was the first time that she had ever slept in the same hotel in which she played. Black people were not allowed to do that. But when she came to play the Fairmont, she had a room at the Fairmont Hotel and stayed in the Fairmont. She always tells that story. She's never forgotten it. She's always had a soft spot in her heart for my dad and the Fairmont Hotel because of that. Nice Story. To this day she still tells that story.
Glaser: In transferring from retail business to real estate, was there any difficulty in that adjustment?
Swig: Yes, I had the learning process, a very strong learning process.
I had to learn all about different things. But I had been exposed to it through my father, obviously, for quite a few years. He'd
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been in the real estate business for, well, practically all my life. So I wasn't unfamiliar with the real estate business, per se. But it was a learning process.
Melvin and Richard Swig at opening of San Jose Fairmont Hotel, 1987
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V JEWISH COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Jewish National Welfare Fund. 1948
Glaser: Your first Federation activity, actually it wasn't the Federation yet. It was the Jewish National Welfare Fund, is that right?
Swig: I think that's what it was called.
Glaser: One gets confused between that and the Jewish National Fund, which plants trees in Israel. Did you have much contact with the professionals at that time?
Swig: Oh, yes. I started working for the Federation about 1948, I think it was. I went through every phase of volunteer kind of work. So I knew [Sanford] Treguboff, of course originally. He was the mainstay, or the chief gunner, for many years until [Lou] Weintraub took over. I went up through the chairs; I became everything that one does .
Early Leaders
Glaser: Who were the lay people you were working with?
Swig: I remember Lloyd Dinkelspiel, Sr. , was around those days. Then Walter Heller. Of course Walter Haas and Dan Koshland. And I remember Jake Shemano and Lenore Underwood.
Glaser: I've never come across her name as part-- Swig: She was a judge in San Francisco. Glaser: And she was active in the Federation?
33
Swig: Yes, I remember serving on a budget committee with her, among other things .
Glaser: Now tell me what these people were like whom you've named.
Swig: They were actually great symbols of leadership. They were the deans of San Francisco in those days. I learned from them. I watched them. I thought they were very fine people. They treated me very well. It was quite a wonderful experience because they were good leaders. They were bright, with-it kind of people. My father, of course, was among that group. They just led the community. They took charge. They did by example and by hard work a lot of good things for this community.
Fundraising and Budgeting
Glaser Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser:
What was fundraising like when you started?
Well, as compared to today, it was chicken feed because things were a little different then. But I had cards that I called on, other people that I used to call on, to raise money. I subsequently, after going through all the chairs, became the campaign head. Obviously, you have to raise money, and I did a lot of calling. In those days, if we raised about two and a half million dollars in the community, that was a pretty good year. And that was the most that had ever been raised at that time.
But was there a difference in how the money was raised then? Aside from the end result, was there a difference in the method of raising money?
Not really. I mean you go in cycles. Sometimes you do big dinners , and other times you do parlor meetings , and other times you do just direct contact and nothing else. We did that. Mostly we had parlor meetings. We got people into a room and we asked for money. And we did a lot of personal solicitation which is no different from what is done today.
Did two people together call on one? done now .
I think that's the way it's
Swig: You mean work two-on-one? Yes, we tried to do that. We did some of that. We did one -on- one. We did the parlor meetings. Those were successful, and we did very well with them at that time. It doesn't seem like a lot compared to what we're doing now, but it
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took the same effort and the same energy then that it does now to do what we're doing today.
Campaign Chairman, 1969
Glaser: When you were the campaign chairman, was there an orientation period for the volunteers?
Swig: Yes, we did some training with them. But, you know, what really
happens is that year after year most of the same people do most of the same work. There are transition periods, but you kind of break in gradually. By the time you get to be calling cards and so forth, you've already been doing it for a few years. It was a smaller community then, too. Everybody knew everybody in town, pretty much, and you just-- It's your turn to take a card this year, or it was my turn to take it last year. I still call on cards on occasion. Not so much today, but it doesn't stop. It keeps going. So the training part is relatively small. You have to have new campaign slogans. You have to have new reasons why to give, and so forth and so on. But basically you know your stuff when you're going in.
When you started up, did you have a mentor? Did somebody take you under wing and help you break in?
No, I think it just came about gradually. You get involved. Then you see what other people doing, and you do your own thing.
Did you ever serve as a mentor?
Some people have accused me of being a mentor to them, but I haven't recalled doing it as a studied thing.
Did you have help from the United Jewish Appeal in your campaign?
Yes, we did. In those days, as a matter of fact, we had more help than we seem to be getting today. UJA people came out here more often and talked to our groups more often than I believe is done today. We used to hold meetings--! remember meetings in Palm Springs, meetings here, meetings in Los Angeles- -where all the communities of the West Coast got together more than they do now. Although I'm beginning to see some revival of that happening today. I guess with Brian Lurie going to New York maybe more of it will happen.
Glaser: He'll bring the local picture to New York?
Glaser Swig:
Glaser Swig:
Glaser Swig:
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Swig: I think he'll get it souped up again.
Glaser: Did you achieve your goal when you were the campaign chairman?
Swig: Sure did. We had the best year they ever had at that time. It was a good year. Now what year it was I don't remember exactly. Let's see, I was president in '71 -'72, so it must have been in 1969.
Glaser: Did you pick the chairmen of the various campaign divisions?
Swig: Well, we worked together. To say that I picked them is not
accurate; Treg and I would go over it. I guess Lou was involved at that time, he was Treg's assistant, and we'd pick out our people. And they knew the bodies better than I could know them: who performed, who didn't perform. And we made selections.
Glaser: What was the role of the Women's Division in your campaign?
Swig: Not very strong. We had one, but it wasn't as strong as it is today .
Glaser: Was it still, at that time, that if a woman gave over a certain amount it would go into the main campaign rather than stay with the Women's Division?
Swig: I don't recall that.
Glaser: Were people still giving more money than before because the State of Israel was established?
Swig: Oh, I think there's no question that Israel has always been, since I can recall, a focal point during a drive throughout the years, and increased as it went along. The strength of it. Once Israel was established as a state, there was an upbuilding, if you will, of devotion and giving.
Glaser: There wasn't the need for a second line during your campaign, was there?
Swig: I can't remember. The years kind of get mixed up as to what went on. We worked every year, whether we were campaign chairman or not. There were several years where we had two lines, and I can't tell you which year it was. I don't remember.
Glaser: I know one year it was the War of '67.
36
Swig: Sixty-seven clearly was one. There was a big outpouring of people at that time. Seventy -three as well, I'm sure.
Glaser: During your campaign, what were the local needs? Because you were also involved in allocations, after your campaign.
Swig: The local needs were not as big as they are now. We gave a much bigger percentage to UJA than we do now. The Jewish Family Service Agency, the Centers. Well we didn't have as many Centers then, the main one being in San Francisco, of course. The hospital [Mount Zion Hospital], I think we had the Hillel Day School, the Bureau of Jewish Education, of course. Those are the ones I remember principally at that time. Oh, the Jewish Home for the Aged, called the Hebrew Home for the Aged at that time.
Glaser: Probably the orphanage was still in existence then too.
Swig: I don't think so. It was already falling out. Then the national organizations, of course, were similar to what we have now.
The Budgeting Process
Glaser: What were the budget meetings like?
Swig: Budget meetings were held at the Concordia Club. Went on from
dinner time to all hours of the night. It was kind of long, very long. You're talking about the final meeting when we allocated?
Glaser: Right.
Swig: Yes, they went on for hours and hours on end.
Glaser: Was there a lot of screaming going on?
Swig: No, it was done rather well. We divided up into various segments: the nationals and the locals and the overseas . And they were set up by committees. They were voted on very democratically.
Glaser: Did the subcommittees meet separately before the final meeting?
Swig: Yes. It was all done well and came out pretty good on the whole, I thought. It was kind of a challenge to make it all add up and come out. Negotiations took place when the budgets didn't match the outlays and so forth. It came out fine. It was hard not to be ritualistic about your own studies, because you'd take a patriotic view, if you will, of your own department, but you had
37
to rise above it in the overall picture. Of course, Israel was the big number. That was the biggest amount of money that we gave out.
Glaser: Did you have a favorite local agency?
Swig: I had two, probably. The Family Service Agency and Mount Zion Hospital were probably my favorites.
Mount Zion Hospital
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Somebody said to me that Mount Zion was considered the most prestigious agency of all. Is that true?
It was. We had great pride in Mount Zion Hospital because we had, obviously, one of the better hospitals in town. That was a day, of course, when Jewish doctors were not allowed to practice on a community basis the way they are today. Today you go to any hospital anywhere in the Bay Area and there are Jewish doctors. In those days there weren't. So we had great pride in establishing, for our Jewish doctors, a wonderful hospital. All that changed over the years.
How do you feel about its merging with the University of California Hospital?
I think it was a good move. I think it was an important move and one that had to be done, because the whole demographics of San Francisco changed dramatically over the years. The percentage of Jewish people in our community diminished, and a lot of other people moved in. It became a different kind of community. Also, the rest of the Bay Area built hospitals that were fine and good hospitals. For instance, down in the Peninsula. Then Stanford Hospital was built. Sequoia Hospital was built. Other good hospitals were built. And whereas everybody used to come to San Francisco to the hospital, they didn't have to come into San Francisco anymore. So the whole complexion of hospitals changed.
There was, as a result, an over -supply of hospital rooms in San Francisco. It was an over-built situation. Mount Zion and all hospitals suffered as a result of it. The recent merger of Presbyterian with Children's Hospital is a result of some of that. Mount Zion, Children's, and Presbyterian at one time talked merger, the three of them, years ago. I was still on that board at Mount Zion, and they talked merger. It never went through. There were too many economic problems to make it happen. But
38
Glaser Swig:
Swig:
Glaser:
Swig:
Glaser:
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
eventually Presbyterian and Children's did merge. Mount Zion merged with U.C. So it took away the problems. It's like the banks that are merging today.
That's in disrepute. Don't make that comparison. [laughter] Yes, but it's in part not dissimilar.
I*
The hospitals cut their expenses. They don't compete one against the other to the extent that they did then. They don't have to buy as much equipment. They have cancer in one hospital, a baby hospital in another part, and so forth and so on. They don't have to duplicate what amounts to today millions of dollars worth of equipment. They segment them. It makes for lower expenses.
How long were you on the board of the hospital? I think it was only about twenty years .
What kind of problems were they having during your term on the board?
Growing. Very serious problems in the end, financially. Hospitals, at the beginning of course, were running, I guess, in the eighties and nineties percent occupancy. It got to a point at the end, at least when I left, and I left some years ago now, they were running in the fifties and sixties. Making it very difficult, obviously, to make both ends meet and supply the first class kind of hospital that we'd been used to having. There were some serious economic problems as a result of it. Therefore, the merger was good, as it was with Presbyterian and Children's.
In the 70' s, you had a lot of governmental help, funds - -
The Hill -Burton
Yes, there was that, and that evaporated. Then they got into this new system of the government telling how much you could charge for a room. Each hospital was competing and having to bid for the government thing. It became a very competitive thing and profits were reduced. Mount Zion had more of its population in government -supported business, and less private business and as a result was under very severe hardship economically.
Glaser: Aside from the economic hardship that you mentioned, was it a well -administered hospital?
39
Swig: Most of the time, yes. We had good administrators. We had a
couple of bad ones, but mostly they were good. I'd say the guy that's running it now, who came in some years ago, Marty Diamond, I think has done a very good job.
Jewish Family Service Agency
Glaser: Were you on the board of the Jewish Family Service Agency at the same time that you were on the hospital board?
Swig: No, prior to.
Glaser: What kind of clients did they have? What were they dealing with?
Swig: They dealt in family problems and there was no hospitalization involved. It was a semi-psychiatric type thing. It was family problems and social problems that were totally different from what a hospital performs. A man by the name of David Crystal came in, Doctor David Crystal, who recently died incidentally. He did a super job with Family Service Agency. He was a devoted, intelligent, bright, lovely person. I admired him very much. I think he elevated the Family Service Agency very, very much. It became, and still is, one of the fine institutions of its kind anywhere. We did a good job. Same old building that they're in now.
Glaser: On Scott Street?
Swig: On Scott Street, across from Mount Zion.
Glaser: What was it about that agency that made you decide to work with it?
Swig: I guess somebody asked me. I don't remember. [laughter] Glaser: So there was no selective factor involved?
Swig: No. I guess I was asked, and I don't remember who it was. It was such a long time ago. It was early 50 's I guess.
40
VI MISSION TO MOROCCO AND EUROPE, 1961
Accompanied by John Steinhart and Marshall Kuhn
Glaser: Tell me about your mission to Europe with John Steinhart and Marshall Kuhn.
Swig: Let me see, that was '61. I was not the chairman of the drive, and I don't remember who was. I think John might have been.1 We were asked by Treg to go to Europe and go to Vienna to see the Romanian people being taken out and sent to Israel. We went to Morocco, to see what was going on with the plight of the Jewish people in that Arab country. A lot of them were coming out of Morocco and going to France. We went from Morocco to--
Programs to Aid Moroccan Jews
Glaser: Tell me first what you found in Morocco.
Swig: We landed in Casablanca. We were met there by the Jewish Agency people. We toured the Jewish section of the city, and the Arab section of the old part of the city, not the modern part. We went through the ORT [Organization for Rehabilitation Through Training] schools. We saw the work of the feeding of the children that was done by the Jewish Agency there. Kids were fed and clothed at these little buildings. And to see the way they lived was unbelievable. Coming from an environment such as we come from and to see fourteen people in a room living as families with outdoor toilet facilities and poor education facilities.
To see these kids come to this at least fairly pleasant environment to be fed, clothed, and taken care of as little
*Richard N. Goldman was 1961 campaign chairman.
41
children. To see pregnant mothers get their milk there that they needed for their children, for their own health. To see blind people taken care of, and there were an awful lot of blind people with glaucoma, 1 guess it was, or some eye disease that was prevalent in Morocco, an awful lot of blind people there. And schools to help educate the kids. You know, it's like this is what life is all about. This is why we give money. It was a very good educational process; it was sad to see.
The Jewish folks there on the surface got along okay with their Arab neighbors. (And the Arabs didn't live much better, I must tell you, if at all.) But by this time, the people were starting to come out of Morocco and go to France .
Glaser: Was there a reason for it? Was there any anti-Semitism that caused them to emigrate, or any political reason?
Swig: Oh yes, there was clearly some anti-Semitism. It wasn't like some of the other Arab countries, like Egypt, or the Saudis, or the Syrians, or the Iraqis. I don't believe it was as bad as that, but it definitely was there and it was difficult. A lot of people also went to Israel, of course. In fact, I remember when I was in Israel some years later and saw a plane load of these Moroccan people coming off. It was very hard for me to see them come to Israel. We were there in the middle of the night and they were coming in.
Glaser: What were the children being taught in the ORT schools?
Swig: Well, some of it was the typical reading and writing type of
thing, but also in those schools they were trained for a trade. I can't remember what all the trades were at this point. But it might be leather work. It might have been weaving and other things like that, so they could be self -productive . So they were taught all kinds of things. But the good part was that they got at least two meals a day there. I think they had breakfast and lunch if I'm not mistaken. 7 \ey had people taking care of them and cleaning them, because th^y lived under terrible conditions, awful conditions. That was in Casablanca.
Then we went to Fez and Rabat, which is the capital. I think that's where the king lives. We spent only a few hours in each place, so we didn't get to see a lot of that. But I do remember when we were driving that there were guards and policemen all over. They were having some internal problems in the government. They had areas on the road if you went the wrong way your tires would burst. That type of thing. Guys poking their machine guns into the car to look around and see what's going on. It wasn't exactly the most pleasant thing at the time. A little
John H. Steinhart, Melvin M. Swig, Marshall H. Kuhn. American Airlines photograph, 1961
Photograph courtesy of Western Jewish History Center
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Glaser Swig:
Glaser Swig: Glaser Swig:
frightening because you don't know what these people were going to do, or how they were going to do it. But we did get over to Fez, which is a much older city. Similar kinds of things but not as much Jewish concentration there.
I also recall there were a lot of Jewish people coming out of the mountains. They were shambles of people. They weren't educated. They were living like people would live in the mountains. There were some of those people that came on. Then we went by the king's palace, we did get to see that in Rabat, and then back to Casablanca.
The day we left there was some kind of an outbreak that took place in the country, a revolutionary type of thing. There were soldiers all over the place. I mean you couldn't move in that city without being pointed at by a soldier to move here, move there, and told what to do. We were so happy to get out of that city that day because we didn't know what was going to happen at that moment. We felt very fortunate to get out. And we went from there to Marseilles, which is a relatively short ride. Just across the Mediterranean at that point. But that was kind of a harrowing experience. Obviously you can see I was impressed with the experience. Marshall, John, and I trooped around all over the place and did our job. And we learned. One of the chaps we met with came with us from there to Marseilles and also went on to Paris as I recall.
A United Jewish Appeal representative?
It wasn't the UJA; it was the Jewish Agency. And HIAS [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society], I guess, was involved there too, and the ORT people from the schools. The one fellow I remember was from Brooklyn, New York. I can't remember his name, dammit. He was a delightful guy and helped us a great deal, took us around and showed us everything.
And the ORT schools are still there?
Yes, I think they are.
What did you do in Marseilles?
Practically nothing. I went out and got a haircut, and got cleaned up. The funniest story — I've got to tell you this because it's a cute story. They have a Fisherman's Wharf kind of place in Marseilles. By that time, Paula Borenstein, the Jewish Agency representative in Paris, had come down and met us there. I still send her a Christmas card. Lovely gal. She's been here a few times. We went to dinner and we start going around the table to
43
Glaser
Swig:
decide what we're going to have. So Marshall orders, I think it was clam chowder. The famous dish, of course, in Marseilles is bouillabaisse. He orders bouillabaisse after ordering clam chowder, not knowing what bouillabaisse was. But he heard about and talked about it, so he decides to order the bouillabaisse, which is a fish stew. The head guy, or whoever was taking our order, says, "Impossible!" And he walks away, he won't complete the order. [laughter] "Impossible!" And he walks away in disgust that somebody could order chowder and bouillabaisse. I've never forgotten the incident. I don't think Marshall to his dying day ever forgot the story. It's always been a cute remembrance of that restaurant. I think the restaurant was called the New York Restaurant, interestingly enough.
[Knock on door. Tape Interruption.]
Back to Marseilles. You said nothing much happened there aside from the restaurant.
No, we looked around the town but nothing.
Refugees in Vienna and Paris
Glaser: Wasn't that where you saw the Romanian emigres?
Swig: No, no, that was in Vienna. We went to Vienna first, then to Morocco, then to Marseilles, then up to Paris.
Glaser: Tell me about Vienna, then.
Swig: Vienna was a fascinating situation. We stayed at a fine old
hotel, which I think that had been Nazi headquarters during World War II. We were escorted around the town by the Jewish Agency people. We got up at five o'clock in the morning, five, six, something like that. We went down to the train station to see the-- What's the name of the railroad?
Glaser: The Orient Express?
Swig: The Orient Express come in with people from Romania.
Glaser: Was this at a time when the government had to be bribed to let Jews out?
Swig: Paid is the word, bribed or paid, whatever you want to call it.
Yes, we paid so much a head. These people came off the train and
44
they were typical, I guess, typical refugee -type looks to them. They had their little bags, and that's all they were allowed to take out. Their whole life was in these little bags. Fairly young people. Some older people. Little children. Egyptians were there watching us . Other Arab countries were checking us out to see these people coming in.
Glaser: In Vienna?
Swig: In Vienna. You know, a state of war still existed between all these people. As it does today with most of them. We had surveillance on us very carefully. We knew that.
Little kids, some of them had blood in their ears where their little earrings had been torn off for the gold. And the blood was still on the ears of the kids. The people were confused, of course. They came in and we shook hands with them. We were happy to see them. Two interpreters told them who we were and why we were there, and we welcomed them and so forth. It was exciting to see these people coming out of Romania to freedom.
They were then put in World War I barracks and kept for two, three, four, five days. The Austrian government- -interestingly enough, of all the places the most anti-Semitic people of all time --the Agency kept them in their barracks, these Jews coming out of Romania and then going on to Israel.
So we went out and we reviewed their barracks, looked at them, saw their living environment. Then, I guess it was another night, we went out at one o'clock in the morning to the airport and saw an El Al plane loading up with these folks. Not necessarily the same ones, but coming out of that barracks and going out to the airport. At one o'clock in the morning, obviously, it's fairly deserted. Taking these people out and taking them on to Israel.
Glaser: You're inferring it was a safety factor that it was done at that time?
Swig: Safety factor. And I think without calling attention to what was going on. To quietly do this thing and take them away so as not to, Lord forbid, offend those terrible Austrians. The thing was done so well and so nicely, the people cared for so well. It was very impressive.
An incident that occurred there I think I shall never forget. We were with these Agency people and going back to their office, I think it was after a lunch. As we entered into their office building (their office was on the second floor), and we
45
were about to walk up to the second floor- -although it had an elevator we were walking — and out of the back door comes a man screaming something in Austrian. We didn't know what he was saying, obviously. But he was screaming and screaming. We could see something was up; this wasn't a normal thing, at least to us.
When we got upstairs, we found out that this guy was the head janitor or engineer, whatever he was. What he was screaming was, "You no good Jews, you blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," and swearing and calling us all kinds of names because we were Jews. Nothing more; nothing less. I said, "How do they allow this thing to happen?" This was a government building. Typical, standard, the guy is that way. They paid no attention to him. We were kind of taken aback. We'd never seen anything like this before. They were used to it. It didn't bother them. He did this regularly. This was standard. But the government never corrected it.
Another day- -or maybe one of the days, I forget how long we were there, maybe two or three days --we were accosted on the street for being Jews. How they knew we were Jews, I don't know. I guess we looked it, or what. They recognized us as whatever we were, and we were called names. This time it was in English with an accent. So I sensed of Austria that they were the most anti- Semitic of all, and we were told that they were.
A couple of the nice things that happened to us there was we did go on a little bit of tour. We did see a little bit of the city and the surrounding countryside. It's a very pretty area.
Glaser: Did you go out to Grinzing? Did you see the wine area?
Swig: Yes, yes we did, and beautiful estates out there, just lovely.
John and Marshall went to the opera. I don't care for opera so I wouldn't go with them. So I went to a restaurant all by myself and read my book. You ate at big long tables where everybody ate together, sat together. It was kind of interesting just looking at the local life. I enjoyed that more than I would have enjoyed the opera. I did go to the opera house with them. I don't know if you've been there, but it's a beautiful, beautiful building, exquisite building.
Another night they took us to a Russian tea room type of place, playing Russian music. That kind of thing with the strings and all that business. That was kind of interesting.
Glaser: The balalaika?
46
Swig: No, these were violins. They may have had the other, I don't know. But the name of the restaurant could have been The Balalaika if I'm not mistaken. [laughter] It was something like that. It was a very nice evening, as I recall, with a bunch of those people. The Jewish folks there were working hard and industriously, through the Jewish Agency, bringing these people in. They did a super job as far as we were concerned. Again, this was our first experience of finding out why we were, what we were doing, what we were all about, and how we had to raise money, and why we had to raise money.
We had started out in Copenhagen. That was just an overnight stay before we got to Vienna, because you could fly in those days from Los Angeles to Copenhagen. I think it was a non stop flight. It was a good way to get to Europe. I love Copenhagen anyway, so John and Marshall decided they'd go with me and appease me as a way of breaking in to Europe . We had a nice time for a day in Copenhagen. Went to the massages, and all that sort of thing like you do. Stayed at a lovely hotel. Then we went to Vienna, then on to Morocco, then to Marseilles, and then back to Paris .
Glaser: In Paris, did you do anything connected with refugees?
Swig: Yes we did. We went to soup kitchens that were set up in Paris to handle the people coming in from the North African countries. They had a fairly large population coming in at that time because they were French citizens. France, of course, owned those countries originally. Took them over, or whatever you want to call it, but they were French citizens.
Glaser: Was this at the time of the Algerian War?
Swig: I think it was, if I recall correctly. There were a lot of
Algerian people there. We also went down to the Jewish quarter in Paris. It was along the river. We went to some Holocaust -type building that they have there, where we saw first hand some of the things of the Holocaust. We hadn't yet been to Israel. I had never been to Israel, hadn't seen Yad Vashem or anything like it. So this was my first introduction. There were a lot of things there about the Holocaust, stories and pictures and so forth. It was a small Yad Vashem, if you will. It was interesting to us to have seen that.
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VII MORE ON FUNDRAISING
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser Swig: Glaser: Swig:
Glaser:
Swig:
Speaking to Groups on Return from Mission
This trip must have made you three very effective as fundraisers when you got back.
It sure did. We did a good job. We each went out and spoke. You know when you see that in the action, when you see what you're doing, what life is about, and what kind of reward we were getting for our money, it makes you want to go out and do that much better a job. And we were good fundraisers, accordingly.
What kind of groups did you speak to? Everybody. Everybody who would listen. Do you enjoy public speaking?
Well, I did my first public speaking for the Federation. I didn't know whether I was good, bad, or indifferent. It apparently went over very well, so I got confidence in myself. I didn't think I'd ever be able to do it. But I had to do it, and it seemed to go over. So I continued doing it, still do. I do my best speaking extemporaneously, as long as I know my subject, and I can get up and belt it out. I try to do that for the most part. I sketch ideas out. Most of the time when I start out I have the piece of paper up with me, and then I talk about whatever I feel like. I don't always follow the paper.
That makes you sound like a natural speaker, that you don't have to have it all written down and read directly from it.
Well, if I have to be precise, I do it that way. But I do better if I just let it flow. As long as I've done my homework and written the stuff down- -I write it out long hand.
Glaser: I imagine as campaign chairman you had to do a lot of speaking.
48
Swig: That came easy. That was a natural. You're so knowledgeable about your subject. You've lived the subject so easily and so well, it doesn't take any effort to get out and do that. It didn't for me, anyway.
Capital Fund Drives
Glaser: Were you ever involved in capital fund drives?
Swig: Yes, when the Federation had one, which we did.
Glaser: Was that the one for the hospital?
Swig: We had one for the hospital. We had one for the Jewish home.
Glaser: There was one, I think it was early '70's, where you--
Swig: I was president, come to think of it when we had one. That would be '71 or something like that.
Glaser: That's right. That's the one I was thinking of. There was a
combination for the hospital and the home, and there was another agency combined in that.
Glaser: How long do capital fund drives go on?
Swig: I don't remember. Probably a year or two. No more than that. .
Glaser: Do you ever get funds from the general community?
Swig: We do get some, sure we do, but not very much.
Glaser: I think the hospital is more likely to do that.
Swig: Well, even the hospital didn't get a heck of a lot.
According to Federation board minutes, in 1971 President Swig announced the need for a capital fund drive in 1972. The last one was in 1960. In 1973, two separate and simultaneous capital fund drives were to be launched: one by Mount Zion Hospital for $7,500,000, one by the Federation to raise $7,500,000 for the Bureau of Jewish Education, the Jewish Home for the Aged, and the United Jewish Community Centers. Due to the 1973 war in Israel, the drive was postponed until 1974.
49
Funds From United Way
Glaser: What about from the Community Chest?
Swig: Yes, that's an ongoing thing. The United Way used to be the Community Chest. You're dating yourself.
f*
Swig: The United Way gives money to the Federation each year, and still does to my knowledge. And then the Federation disperses that money with its own allocation committee. Now it may not still work that way, but it did at that time.
Glaser: Was there ever any difficulty in getting the amount that you felt you were entitled to?
Swig: No. I think that the United Way always did a very fair job.
Glaser: There was a period of time much earlier when there was some difficulty.
Swig: There may have been, but I am not familiar with that. At the time that I remember, we'd always get our fair share.
Advance Gifts
Glaser: In 1963, you were chairman of the Advanced Gifts Division. What was involved for you in that activity?
Swig: See, you're reminding me of something I had completely forgotten about. [laughter]
Glaser: I'll give you another copy of your chronology, because it helps, it's a long time ago.
Swig: Well, the Advanced Gifts is an extension of being a campaign
chairman, actually. It's just a more detailed and specific kind of assignment where you're talking about the bigger hitters in town, the bigger gifts. You do the same damn thing. You get out there and hustle, only you're doing it with relatively few people. I think in the Advanced Gifts area, at that time, you're probably talking about a hundred, a hundred and fifty people at the most,
50
if that. You just concentrate on those people and try and upgrade the gifts as much as you can. What was that, in '63?
Glaser: Yes.
Swig: I believe it was a good year, as I remember it.
Glaser: For the Advanced Gifts, do you have the parlor meetings, or is it two -on- one or one -on- one?
Swig: Both. Every bit of it. One part of it I remember being at Bob
Sinton's, as an example, having a parlor meeting. I'm quite sure that that was the evening we had an Advanced Gifts parlor meeting that went very well. Bob, of course, was always a big help and did a good job, he and Joan both. We had the heavy hitters there and we went out and raised money.
I remember also being at another one at Walter Heller's home, as I recall. You see, they overlap. You can't remember which year you did what. I remember the one at Bob's house very well. I also remember the one at Walter's -house, but I can't tell you that that was the same year. It wouldn't surprise me if it were, but I don't remember whether he was still alive at that time. I remember being at Advanced Gifts functions at Walter Heller's home, but I can't tell you that it was 1963 or not. I think it was. We just went out and worked the house, if you will. We called cards and got people to give. And we made the pitch.
Glaser: Is there any particular kind of gimmick that you need for the big givers?
Swig: Well, it depends on the year and what the need was. The needs were constant in that Israel was a focal point at all times. Nineteen sixty- three was not a particularly troublesome year in terms of wars or things like that. But there were always things. People were still coming in from other countries at that time. Not like today, because the numbers today are astronomical, but at one time there was a constant flow of people coming into Israel from every which country.
Unlike the Arabs, we were taking our Jews out of Arab countries, settling them in Israel. In later years the Arabs didn't take their people and settle them like the Palestinians do today. But we did, and that was our focal point; that was our drive impact: saving lives, saving people, bringing them to Israel. That was the whole emphasis of all our campaigns during that time. And successfully, very successfully.
51
VIII FEDERATION AND VOLUNTEERS
Those Who are New to the Community
Glaser: As a newcomer yourself in the early years, how open was this
community to new people? And how did somebody who was new get a toehold into the Federation and start working up through the chairs?
Swig: I told you, I started working in 1948, and I was then thirty-one years old. So I was the young kid on the block. But people accepted us, accepted me, very well. I had no particular problems being an outsider. Everybody whom I knew, who knew where I came from, treated me well. I had good friends. I just met a lot of new people at that time and then enlarged upon it as life went on.
But I think, although I didn't consciously do this for any particular reason, some of the friends I made in the Federation, and some of the contacts that were made-- Well, I think Bob Sinton is probably the best example. He and I, to this day, are the closest of friends. We play golf three or four times a month. We're still close and wonderful friends. I respect him and I know he does me. We still work on many things together. This has been going on for forty-odd years. But it was through Federation that I first met Bob.
Being a newcomer and not one of the insiders, if you will, it took a little time to develop friendships, because you don't have your old school buddies around where you develop those friendships. It took a couple of years or so to get acclimated to the new environment, make new friends. You still lost your old buddies back home, so to speak, with whom you were brought up. But it's interesting, after a few years, I didn't know too many people back there and I knew them all out here. So it changes and it develops and it works. If people like you they accept you. If they don't like you they don't. I think they liked me and I think they accepted me. They made me feel very much at home. Never did
52
I feel that anybody excluded me, or wouldn't want to have me as part of them. I felt, very much, their warmth and their friendship. And it went very well.
Glaser: After becoming active in the Federation, and after a few years, what did you see of the Federation reaching out to newcomers to bring them into the sphere of the Federation?
Swig: I think there was strongly active work in that department. I
think we always were reaching out trying to find new people and bringing them into the Federation. To this day, that still goes on. The demographic study we did recently, about three years ago, is an example of that. We found out that instead of having a 125,000 or so people we've got maybe 200,000 Jews in the Bay Area. We didn't think we had that many. We didn't know where they were, so we redoubled our efforts to try and find these people and bring them into our community.
Glaser: What kind of efforts?
Swig: Well, you have to go to the congregations and do some research.
Try and look in phone books. You do all kinds of work to find out who the Jewish people are, where they are. You check businesses and so forth. You check their rolls and see who they are and try to incorporate them. A lot of them get lost that you're never going to get. But you do pick up people every year. And every year we get more.
Glaser: It seems to me it's a matter of informing the people that the Federation is more than just a fundraising organization. That it's the center for the Jewish community.
Swig: It's a central thing. It transcends all religious factions, if
you will. Whether you be Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox, we're all Jews. And this is the central Jewish organization, almost central to Jewish life, in my opinion. It's like another religion, in a way, because it doesn't separate the people. It brings them together. I have always viewed it that way. I think it's almost the central voice for Judaism in our communities.
Glaser: It seems to me that's the message the Federation has to get across .
Swig: I think we do it pretty well. And I think once you're involved
with it you realize that's what's happening. While we might have different political and social views and so forth and so on, that central agency brings people together from all walks of life. Poor people as well as rich people, because poor people give to the
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Federation too. They may not give big numbers but they give something.
The social services that we render in our community, for instance to the newcomers from the Russians. We knock our brains out to take care of those people and make sure they're comfortable and happy in our community as best we can, offering them all kinds of services. We give big money for that. We should. That's central to our theme. That's central to our beliefs. It is its own kind of religion.
Glaser: Tzedakah [charitable giving] . Swig: Exactly.
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IX FEDERATION ASSIGNMENTS [Interview 3: September 12, 1991 ]#//
Committees
Glaser: I would like to talk to you about the Federation committees you were on before you became president, the finance and administration committee. You became chairman in 1967. What was the function of that committee?
Swig: That's a good question. I wish I could remember. It seems to me that had to do with the budgeting process of the Federation. It was not a very meaningful job or a very big job. The most important jobs at the Federation were the fundraising jobs. The finance committee for instance was watching the purse strings of the Federation, obviously important but not in proportion to what the rest of the Federation was doing.
Glaser: What you're saying is that the raising of the funds is really the impact of the Federation.
Swig: That's really what it's all about.
Glaser: When you were the treasurer, was that also pretty low-key?
Swig: That was just a low-key job.
Glaser: Then you were on the budget committee. That must have been--
Swig: The budget committee I was on for about twenty years, and that's giving away the money that is raised. That is very important.
Glaser: What were the changes that you saw in twenty years?
Swig: Well, I think that the budget committee became a more diversified group of people who became very interested in the function of the various agencies that we watched and supervised. We added
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Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser Swig:
agencies over the years and changed emphasis in thought over the years. It is really the reason why we function. We do two things. We raise money and we give it away. That is basically what we are, plus some social planning.
So the giving away of the money becomes almost as important as raising it, to make sure that the best job is done in the community with the money that we do raise. That is a very important function and we go over each agency very, very carefully. We study it, we're very careful, we watch their budgets, we watch what they are doing and what they are performing in the community and make sure that they are doing the right kind of job that the community needs and wants.
Were you on that budgeting committee when it became the social planning and budgeting committee of 100?
I went off just about that time, as I recall. That followed me but eventually led to what you are describing.
You were on the executive committee in 1969, just before you became president. What were the functions of the executive committee?
The executive committee then and now performs actions and decides issues that it then presents to the board for a final approval. The executive committee on some occasions can act for the board under emergency conditions.
Is it like a clearing house, deciding what's important enough to go to the board?
Basically that. It's kind of like a sounding board and gives the professionals advice and allows them to know what the feeling is because all the people who are on the executive committee had votes at the board level. So if those people are in agreement on issues it's likely that the board will follow their ideas.
You were chairman of public relations. What did that do?
Public relations does just what it says it's to do. It sets the atmosphere for the fundraising part of the work that the Federation does. It also is involved with where it gives the money because we sell, in effect, the fundraising effort based on the agencies that we supply money to, including overseas, national, and local agencies. We are three divisions so to speak. We sell to our community all of those agencies, overseas, local and national. We sell those agencies to the public and say, "This is what we need money for." And we have to have a good sales
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pitch and a program, an effective one, that makes people want to give to us .
Glaser: Why would that be separate from the campaign?
Swig: It's all part of the campaign. The campaign itself has special
emphasis in some ways. But basically we cleared the air for those things that do happen, on- going.
Glaser: Did you get help from the UJA for your public relations?
Swig: In part, yes, because UJA tied in with us much more then than they do now, I think, but we got campaign slogans. We were part of the national UJA campaign. I can't remember all the slogans, but each year we would have a different slogan for a sales pitch. We dwelled on this. We would use partly theirs and part of our make up. We had local people, for instance, in different advertising agencies for free who helped us put these campaigns together.
Glaser: Did people come from New York from the UJA to help you on the campaign?
Swig: On occasion. Not greatly, no. We ran our own campaign. Glaser: As you got bigger and bigger you had your own manpower. Swig: That's right.
Promoting Leadership
Glaser: When you were appointed the vice-president in 1968, was it clear that you were on-line to become the president?
Swig: I think that was the trend at that time. I think John Steinhart preceded me. It was understood that I would follow him.
Glaser: So there was a moving up on the ladder in a very definite
progression. What input did the professional staff have to do with that, with the grooming of who was going to be next?
Swig: I think they had a lot to do with it because they knew who were
the people who were working the hardest and doing the best job and who were the most qualified and who could raise the most money.
Glaser: Did you see this with other people? How people were spotted and moved up and groomed?
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Swig: I saw it then and I see it now. Glaser: Is this an effective way?
Swig: I think it is. Today more than then there are more lay people involved with doing the selection. But it's a limited group of people, the insiders so to speak, who have worked the hardest on the campaigns , who know who can produce and who are the natural leaders .
Glaser: If the lay people are involved, does it make it more democratic?
Swig: It's somewhat democratic but it's also autocratic in the sense that the broad spectrum of people really don't have much input into it.
Glaser: You bring a slate to the annual meeting and that's it, right?
Swig: Yes, pretty much. But it's effective because we the people who work on those things know who are the best bodies, who are the best leaders, who will do the best job.
Trip to Israel and Suez Canal. 1970
Glaser: In 1970, when you were the vice-president, you went on a mission
to Israel. That included the Suez Canal. Do you want to tell me
about your experiences at the Suez Canal? It seemed to be something special.
Swig: It was special; I remember it very clearly. I didn't remember the year, but I remember my first trip there. I've been there a couple of times. First of all, the experience of going there and seeing the Suez Canal, it's almost like seeing the Colosseum in Rome for the first time. It's a very great experience. I think it was on that trip that we flew down to the Sinai area in army or air force paratroop planes. It's kind of a rough ride and not very pleasant. Then they took us by bus right up to the Suez Canal. We were looking out at the Egyptian soldiers on the other side. We saw our own troops --our own troops being the Israeli troops --guarding the eastern shore of the Suez Canal. It was a very good experience seeing the Canal for the first time.
Glaser: Did you feel you were in danger?
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Swig: Not really. We waved at the Egyptian soldiers, [laughter] We felt no problem with that. But we saw some beautiful young Israeli boys down there. I have a picture at home that I can recall of a handsome, movie -star like young Israeli boy. He made such an impression on us . I remember his face, I can almost see it right this moment. Beautiful kid. They were down there on the canal doing their duty. They protected that country very, very well.
Glaser: That must be very hot duty. Swig: It is hot down there.
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X FEDERATION PRESIDENT, 1971-1972
Campaign
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
In 1971 you became the president, yourself as president?
Did you have any goals for
Well, the important goal was to keep the flow going and gather more money and do a better job. We did. The campaigns that I was involved with, I know that we upgraded ourselves every year in terms of fundraising. We did a good job. Every year that I happened to have been involved, I seemed to recall that we raised more money and that's always the important part of our program.
While you were president Frannie Green was campaign chairman, and she brought in the largest amount to date, which was $6,600,000.
I think she was. That's right. When I was the campaign head we raised $2,500,000 and that was the highest ever raised in the City before. You can see the progress that was made over the years and how well it worked.
Professional Staff
Glaser: What was your relationship to the professional staff?
Swig: The professional staff was not as good as it should have been in my opinion. I think I was instrumental in causing a change to be made. I went to Jesse Feldman very early on in his administration, which followed mine, and discussed with him the problems that I felt were present and told him I thought it was time for a change. Jesse said, "Why didn't you do it?" I said, "Jesse, the reason I didn't do it is because by the time you assimilate all the material that is necessary to understand why a
60
change ought to be made, it's already too late to do it. telling you early on.
I'm
I got together with all the other past presidents and we sat and we met. We discussed the problems, what at least I felt were the problems , of operating the Federation and what kind of help we needed to do a better job." Jesse finally said, "Okay, I hear you. I'll study it and then I'll go to work and we'll see what can be done . "
I didn't bother him anymore. That was it, I think, about March of his first year. That was the last time we met that subject.
Glaser: Are you talking about the San Francisco Seven? Swig: I don't know about the San Francisco Seven.
Glaser: Somebody told me that those who worked to bring in Brian Lurie in place of Mr. Weintraub were called the San Francisco Seven.
Swig: I hadn't heard that statement, but I guess that they could be
called that. I didn't know there were seven; I didn't count them.
Glaser: But you are talking about after Mr. Treguboff took retirement.
Swig: Treguboff was long gone by this time.
Glaser: He left in 1970.
Swig: Yes. He left in 1970. I became president, when, 1971?
Glaser: 1971.
Swig: 1971-1972, right?
Glaser: Right.
Swig: Yes. Well, Treg was gone, out as the executive, and Weintraub was then the executive. I found that they were not functioning in the way that I felt that it ought to function. That's what brought about this whole issue. So we left Jesse on his own after March. In January I started on him, or maybe it was late December. I don't even remember which, but somewhere in there. At the end of March, we finished our deliberations with him and then he was on his own to do what he felt was right. He finally agreed that obviously what I had said was correct and he went about making the change .
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Glaser: I will talk with you about that when we talk a little later on
about Brian [Lurie]. I am trying to just keep to the presidency now.
Swig: Okay, [chuckles]
Glaser: What was the relationship between the lay people and the professionals when you were the president?
Swig: It was only moderately good. That was one of my problems. Glaser: Did the lay people need more direction?
Swig: They needed a more compatible type of individual who could turn
people on rather than turn people off. Lou is a very nice guy, I don't want you to get me wrong there. I'm not trying to condemn him, but his personality didn't fit too well with a lot of people in the community. He was a loner type of individual. I don't think he had the broad perspective or maybe didn't see the broad perspective as, at least I felt and others felt, should be done for our community. I didn't think it was working too well. Therefore I made the suggestion for change. I guess it worked very well because Brian came along and obviously did a tremendously successful job.
Federation Agencies
Glaser: When you were president, what was the relationship with the agencies?
Swig: I think that it was adequate. It wasn't superb, it was adequate.
Glaser: You had the chairman or the president of each of agencies sitting on the board at that time?
Swig: Yes, they did. I believe so.
Glaser: How much oversight did the Federation have with the agencies?
Swig: Quite a lot. We checked them out very carefully and we watched
their progress. We saw where they spent their money, overhead and so forth and so on, and carefully watched them. That was part of the budget committee's responsibility, as well as the on-going social planning work. In those days the budget committee was not a social planning committee. We had a social planner on our staff. Mike Papo hadn't come yet. But Mike Papo , for instance,
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was a social planner when he first started with the Federation. That was important to know: what the needs of the community were, where we should emphasize, what we should de-emphasize , and so forth. So that became very important, was important to us.
Glaser: Did you attend any agency board meetings?
Swig: On rare occasions.
Glaser: I know some presidents made it a habit to do that.
Swig: Those who had more time I'm sure did. [chuckles]
Glaser: In 1971 you suggested a capital funds drive and a population
study. Actually, I think the capital funds drive didn't really get under way until 1974, after you were president. Can you tell me any of the results of the population study?
Swig: I don't think it was an in-depth study of population. It wasn't anything like what happened within the last three years. As a matter of fact it was perfunctory and I don't think it was very effective. What we did do and we did plan was the capital funds drive, which was very important at that time.
Glaser: I gather that half of the funds raised were to go to the hospital and the other half to be shared by the United Jewish Community Centers, the Bureau of Jewish Education, and the Jewish Home for the Aged.
Swig: Yes, I think that was it. That's my memory.
Changes During Presidencies
Glaser: In your term as president there was the establishment of the
combined social planning and budgeting committee, the committee of 100.
Swig: Maybe it was. I can't remember exactly when it happened. I know it did happen some time very close to them. I can't remember whether it was just at that time or just afterwards. But it was established. I felt from my perspective that it was important for the community to have such a thing. Not to be just going wildly supporting anything that came along, that we ought to have a knowledge of what the needs of the community were. Also checking our organizations that were in place. Are they still valid? Are they still necessary? What do they perform? What are we doing?
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How are we helping the community? Those things are important to know in order to satisfy the needs of the community and do a good constructive job. I think we started in to do that.
Glaser: Has the number of people on the committee become unwieldy? I
understand it has increased from 100 it went to 120 and to 140.
Swig: I haven't worked on that committee so I really don't have a lot of knowledge of it. But it seems to function very well. As a matter of fact, it has been expanded since the beginning. It's bigger now than it even was then. So I have to presume that it is working fairly effectively.
Glaser: And a lot of subcommittees.
Swig: A lot of subcommittees, and those are the people who really do the work.
Glaser: Did you enjoy the presidency?
Swig: Yes. I think I did very much. It's a big responsibility. If you do the job correctly it requires a lot of work. I maybe shouldn't say this but I wish I had had a Brian Lurie to work with. I think I would have enjoyed it more.
Jewish Vocational and Employment Guidance Service
Glaser
Swig:
During your administration, the Jewish Vocational and Employment Guidance Service was established on a two-year trial basis. Did you feel perhaps that that should be part of the Jewish Family Service Agency?
No. That thought never crossed my mind. I don't think they are related exactly.
They do separate work.
Programs for Young People and Stronger Jewish Identification
Glaser: Many programs for youth were developed during your administration A great number. Can you tell me how that came about?
Swig: As I recall, it was during that administration that we had the-- what did we call them? The young people's groups out of which developed some of the future leadership of the Federation.
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Glaser: The Bay Area Jewish Youth Council?
Swig: No. It was a group of unmarried singles really, mostly.
Glaser: Oh, the YAD?
Swig: The YAD- -Young Adults Division. The Young Adults Division really sprouted and I did attend their meetings. I remember we had a meeting down at Fisherman's Wharf, and I know that I went to other places and met with those young people. Those young people turned into some of the future leaders of our Federation. A lot of marrying went on with the young people. It was very good. I guess they have all these singles things today. I guess this was the equivalent of it at that time, but for a very healthy and good cause. I was very taken with that. I liked that. I thought that was the way the Federation should move, get those young people involved.
We still do that. We do that very strongly to this day, only probably even more so today than we did then. We do have a young cadre of people who are coming along always and moving through into leadership positions in the Federation. That is very healthy and very good.
Glaser: Aside from that, there were programs funded with an emphasis on students. This Bay Area Jewish Youth Council that I mentioned, Hillel programs at Berkeley and Stanford were funded and there was a North American Jewish Students Appeal.
Swig: They weren't that powerful in the organizational structure; they were just newly developed things that were just beginning to come along, I think, at that time. They weren't a very big, major development, although the YAD was the far more important of all of those things. At that time, incidentally, as I recall it was early on, maybe even before me, we had Brian Lurie over at Temple Emanu-El sending young people to Israel. The confirmation classes were sending their kids to Israel for the summer for a two or three week program, I believe.
That was marvelous, and to this day we send kids by the bucketful compared to what we were doing then. Brian was the guy who instituted that and got it moving. As a matter of fact, there were some people at that temple who, as I recall, resented it. It caused a little bad blood with him and the rabbi at that time.
Glaser: Between Brian and Rabbi Asher? Swig: Yes.
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Glaser: In a speech to the YAD in 1972 you stated that the funding of all these different youth programs shows a trend toward more Jewish- . oriented programs; that the allocations indicate more funds going to agencies with distinctively Jewish content and less to health and welfare agencies. That sounds like a whole new direction.
Swig: It was. All you have to do is look at the allocations in Jewish education as an example. It went from whatever percentage it was at that time to this kind of a percentage over a period of not too many years .
Glaser: But at your time, during your presidency, what brought about this development?
Swig: I don't remember exactly. But the feeling of the community, as I recall, was a much stronger feeling for Jewish identity. The way it expressed itself was with day schools, the Bureau of Jewish Education contributing a stronger and important involvement with the young people of our community. I think the parents approved of this and wanted this. I had the feeling at that time, and still think I was right, that part of that, however, was the breakdown of our public school system brought about partly with some racial problems (busing and the like). And that the parents, in order to avoid that kind of thing and not being able to afford all the private schools, sent their kids to Jewish parochial schools. I think that was a part of it.
But at the same time, there was a stronger feeling on the part of these families that they wanted a stronger Jewish identification for their children. It was kind of a mixture of both, I think.
Glaser: Would part of this come about because you had a lot of new people coming in from other parts of the country?
Swig: I think that was a part of it. I really feel that a fair amount of it, however, was the busing situation and the decline of the public schools. They wanted therefore to, in effect, protect their children. I think that was that percentage. The Jewish identification was also prominent at that time. As a matter of fact it has been expanded upon over the years. There has been a much stronger push in that direction.
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Jewish Day Schools
Glaser: I want to ask you about Jewish education; during your
administration you had a lot of difficulty. You had a sit-in.
Swig: A very unfortunate incident. Glaser: Would you tell me about that?
Swig: Well, we had and have a rabbi out at the Hebrew Academy who wanted to run all the Jewish education in this community.
Glaser: Rabbi Pincus Lipner?
Swig: Yes. And he made some public utterances that were not in the best interests of the Jewish community at large. And he did some things with the city building department and the permits that were not in conformity with the local rules. He just did a lot of bad things, and he wasn't very happy with the Federation and the support he was getting from them. The Federation conversely was not very happy with him because he wasn't doing the right thing, in our opinion.
So they held a sit-in because we were cutting off our allocations to him. So he sent down a bunch of kids one afternoon I guess it was, or one morning, I've forgotten. Anyway, I called in Sam Ladar and John Steinhart, Bob Sinton, Lou Weintraub and myself. Lou was all for calling the cops and getting rid of the guys and doing all that. I said, "Hold the phone," as did the others. "That's not the way to handle it. That's only going to create a bigger disturbance and that's what they are looking for. Let them sit in." So we had one of our people stay overnight with them, sit in with them, so that we would not have damage and have trouble. It went reasonably peacefully.
The next morning I came down and they wanted to meet with me and I said, "Sure, I'll meet with them." And I did. They told me what was on their mind and I told them what was on mine. I had all our people there with me, I didn't do it alone, and we met. And they got up. That was the end of it.
Glaser: Did you feel these young people were manipulated by Rabbi Lipner? Swig: Unquestionably they were. They were his disciples. Glaser: These were college kids; they weren't high school kids?
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Swig: Glaser
Swig: Glaser:
Swig:
Glaser Swig:
Glaser: Swig:
I believe they were a little older than high school.
What was going on at the Bureau of Jewish Education through all this turmoil?
They were not sympathetic to Lipner. everybody ' s neck .
He was a noose around
You appointed a committee to study the situation of Jewish day schools. That resulted in the combining of Brandeis and the Hillel day schools. What was the situation with either of them that they could work better combined?
I don't remember it in full detail, but I do recall that we thought we needed a strong school that would satisfy the appetite of the local people and could provide better service and be a stronger institution. I think that's what actually happened. The two of them alone were not doing the job as well as one combined could do it. That's what I seem to remember. But that was a long time ago; I'm not exactly sure.
What was your personal feeling about funding Jewish day schools?
I personally am not a proponent of Jewish day schools. I have always made myself clear on that. On the other hand, the community wanted it and I supported it because they wanted it.
Why were you against it?
My personal observation is that we are a multi- ethnic, multi racial, multi-religious society. Basically I feel that our children should be exposed to that way of life and shouldn't be separatists. I don't believe particularly in parochial schools. It's a personal observation. I think we should learn to get along with our neighbors and be a part of the total society. I think our Jewish education can come about either at afternoon schools and/or at the various temples and synagogues. That's where I feel the Jewish education should take place. In our daily school, it should be done either in a public school or in a private, non- sectarian school. That's a personal observation. I feel rather strongly about it.
My experience tells me that it's introspective and not broad enough to be a part of a total community. I think we as Jewish people should be a part of the total community, never losing our Jewish identity. I'm not for that but for showing our Jewish identity and being a part of a total community. I happen to believe strongly in that and I think I do do that in my life and
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have done it. I am part of the total community very strongly, but nobody will ever think I am not Jewish. Everybody knows I am Jewish and what I stand for and what I believe in the Jewish community. I think that is important.
Glaser: What kind of a job do the synagogues to with education for their young people?
Swig: They weren't parochial schools. They were giving Jewish education at their Sunday schools. I don't know how far they went with their daily programs, but I know that on Saturdays and Sundays they had schools. They could obviously teach the religious part of what a temple is supposed to teach to the young people. They are not involved with history, geography, arithmetic and all the other things. They are just involved with religious education. I believe that that is important to have, not on a daily basis at a private sectarian school. I don't happen to approve of that personally. I think more people would disagree with me about that these days than agree with me. But that's my own feeling.
Glaser: There seems to be more and more of a movement toward Jewish day schools .
Swig: Yes, there is. I think it's brought about in part, incidentally, by the poor performance of our public schools.
Glaser: I don't think that is it altogether. Swig: I don't think it is altogether.
Glaser: I think there are people who feel that for our continuity as a people we need to know what our history is and what our ethics are, and to have a good grounding in Judaism.
Swig: I'm all for them, if that's what they want Co do. I won't not support them because I have supported the 5ople who feel that way. However, I think an element, and I dc;'t know to what percentage, but an element of that is people who are avoiding sending their kids to public school and can send them to these parochial schools that are far less expensive than the private schools that are available today. The kids can get a reasonably good education there, as opposed to what they are getting out of the public schools. That's my personal observation, mind you, and I guess I'm in the minority of people who feel that way.
Glaser: Well, I wanted your personal observation, your reaction to it all. Bill Lowenberg told me that you supported him when he was fighting against the proposed merger of the Bureau of Jewish Education and the San Francisco Jewish Community Center.
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Swig: Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig: Glaser
Swig:
Glaser: Swig:
I don't recall that.
There was a movement for that in the '70s, and he felt that it should be kept separate.
I think I would have agreed with that. I think that is the right way to go because the Bureau of Jewish Education not only supports the Jewish day schools but it supports the programs in the various temples and synagogues, so it has a dual function. I don't see how the Community Center can perform that function and perform it well. I think it takes something more than that to do. I'm sure that I would have supported it. In retrospect I'm glad I did support it.
During your administration, there was a contested election. I don't know whether this was on the part of the Rabbi Lipner faction or it was another group. I think it probably was Rabbi Lipner 's group because there was an unhappiness with the amount of funds allocated by the Federation.
He brought suit against us. don't believe.
It wasn't a contested election, I
No. Aside from the suit, there was a contested election. Then it was found that the petitions submitted didn't have sufficient signatures, and many of those people weren't even members.
Yes. I think I vaguely remember that. It was not very important as it turned out, apparently. It wasn't a major significant move. It didn't have any groundswell support.
And you're not certain of who was behind this?
I am not surprised to think that it might be Lipner because I can't think of anybody else who would have done it.
Israel
Glaser: During your presidency what was the Federation's relationship to Israel?
Swig: Strong. It always has been, I think. Most money in my opinion- - the big money- -was raised by Israel, because of Israel, for Israel. I always felt that the local community, local agencies, benefitted strongly from the fact that so much emphasis was put on
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Israel, even to this day. When we want to raise money what do we do? We take people to Israel. When we want to influence the young people, we send them by the bucketful to Israel. Why? Because that is where the action is. That's where they learn and can see first hand what's going on in the world of Judaism. It's become the mother's milk, if you will, of raising money, of getting money, for our Federation. That's true all over the country. It isn't just here. I think to a large extent we were able to raise an increasing amount of money throughout the years because of the missions to Israel, the devotion to Israel and the love of Israel by all our people.
Over the years, recently, there has been some conflict about some of the things that Israel does . But still we send people to Israel. Witness this last April when my brother and his wife led a wonderful mission- -
Glaser: I was on that Mega Mission.
Swig: Were you? Great. Well, you know what happened. It's still
Israel. It's still the turn on. I don't think that changes. I still think it helps tremendously in the fundraising efforts of our Federation, which supplies the money (which I don't think it would otherwise would get to the extent that it does) for the local and national agencies. I think we do a good job because of it.
Glaser: Is there any conflict between the needs of the local agencies and that money that goes to Israel?
Swig: Conflict? Competition maybe is a better word. I don't think it's conflict. But over the years I think, because of the money that's been raised, there has been a lower percentage of the money going to Israel of the total campaign than there used to be. I know there is. We used to give 70-80 percent of our money to Israel or Israel -related. Today I think it is 45 percent. The dollars haven't decreased but the percentage has, mainly because we are raising more money. You mentioned the campaign that was $6.5 million that Frannie Green raised. Today we're raising $18 million. It's almost three times.
So all those millions, if you look at the records you will see that they have gone to local agencies: Bureau of Jewish education, the schools that we're talking about, the Family Service Agency, and so forth. The Centers take a much bigger percentage of the money. So these agencies locally have grabbed off a much higher percentage of dollars of the increase than has Israel. But I think the money for Israel has remained fairly constant and gone up slightly. But the percentage dropped.
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United Bay Area Crusade
Glaser: There was a severe cut in the appropriation to the Federation from the United Bay Area Crusade. This had to impact on local agencies. What was done about that.
Swig: I don't recall the incident that greatly, to be honest with you. I can't believe it was a huge cut.
Glaser: Well, the Federation had to advance the United Jewish Community Centers $1500 a month for three months because of the cut.
Swig: Yes, but that's not huge. That's fairly moderate. I believe that the United Way did cut. Their funding went down too.
Glaser: It was a 12 percent for 1972.
Swig: Yes, 12 percent. That money all went to local agencies. It didn't have anything to do with Israel or anything like that. It's all local. I guess we went out and raised more money. I guess that was the net result of it. I don't recall the incident that heavily. It wasn't that major a factor.
Large Cities Budgeting Conference
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
I assume as president, and perhaps as vice-president, you attended meetings of a Large Cities Budgeting Conferences?
I had been to a couple of them. That's all.
What did you get out of it?
Not much.
Not worth attending?
I don't find them-- I'm not sure the need for it exists.
They were to give you directions as to how to allocate funds for national organizations, is that right?
National and local.
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Glaser: And local also?
Swig: Yes.
Glaser: Would they know about the local agencies?
Swig: They didn't perform much for me. What they did was they made recommendations and they were a clearing house for budgeting process. They had guidelines really. That's all they were. They weren't that important. It was just a guideline. We had the obvious work to do for ourselves . They performed a function but they weren't that important as far as I was concerned.
Glaser: Maybe they were more important earlier.
Swig: Maybe earlier on they were. But at that level I never found them to be that critical or that important.
Positions After Presidency
Glaser: You became chairman of the executive committee in 1974, and then in 1975 a bylaws revision made past presidents honorary directors for ten years with voting privileges. Was that something new?
Swig: That was brand new. There were only at that time four past
presidents alive, maybe five: my father, myself, John Steinhart, Bob Sinton, Sam Ladar, and maybe there was one other. But the older ones, my father's generation, didn't attend very many meetings so we gave them the privilege, obviously, of doing that. That's all it was. It didn't last for ten years.
Glaser: They kept revising it after that.
Swig: They kept revising it and I am, I think, an honorary member if I recall. They have voting power.
Glaser: It's a shame that those past presidents like your father and
others didn't attend it and give the benefit of their experience.
Swig: They did on occasion but they weren't that heavily involved.
Sinton, Ladar and I- -Steinhart, no- -maintained our interest. Sam until the day he died, which was only a very short time ago, was very much present. Sam devoted a huge amount of time. Sinton still does and I still do. Even though we're honorary, I have attended a fair amount of meetings over the years , including
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executive committee. We work hard at it still. I don't go out and raise money today like I did. I don't work on committees and a lot of things like that, but I'm around when they need me. Like choosing the new executive director, Wayne Feins tein. I was on that selection committee.
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XI FEDERATION EXECUTIVES
Federation President Jesse Feldman Seeks New Executive. 1973
Glaser: Yes, I understand you were on the search committee to replace
Mr. Weintraub. That was during Jesse Feldman' s term of office.
Swig: It happened in November of the first year of Jesse's term, which was a year after I was on.
Glaser: Brian said that you were very influential in his coming back.
Swig: You bet I was.
Glaser: Could you expand on that?
Swig: Normally in the selection of an executive director of a
Federation, it goes through the Council of Jewish Federations or whatever it is. Which I think is another useless organization, but it gets a big turnout so I guess they're okay. I think they should be merged with other things but anyway. Jesse didn't go through that organization. It didn't make his selection.
Jesse worked very hard in trying to find the right person to be in that job. He did it quietly. He met with only two, three or four people at the most, who kept it very quiet, and he worked very hard to find a good person. I can't tell you what he did because I don't know. I wasn't involved, I wasn't party to it. At the end of March of that year, he went on his own, did not consult with very many people. He came up with a candidate, Brian Lurie.
When he did, I checked it out in New York because that's where Brian was working at that time. I had glowing, glowing, glowing reports about what Brian had accomplished and what he had done. A partner of mine in New York said, "I hate to see the guy go, Mel, but if you don't take him you guys are crazy. This is a guy who is very, very active in the Jewish causes of New York."
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Opposition to Rabbi Brian Lurie
Swig: So Jesse came to me and said, "I think I've got a problem. I need your support for Brian. There will be a few people in this community who will be quite vocal in their opposition to him." I said, "Jesse, you've got me in and I'll do anything I can to help." And I did. When it came push to shove we got through and it worked, and Brian was hired. A lot of bad blood on a few parts.
Glaser: Do you want to name some of the people who were opposed to him?
Swig: Well, Frannie Green was the principal opponent and she and her
brother Lloyd [Dinkelspiel , Jr.] didn't want him in the worst way.
Glaser: I thought her brother was for him.
Swig: Oh no. Very strongly opposed. The reason was that he felt that the rabbi at Temple Emanu-El--
Glaser: Asher?
Swig: Asher. That Rabbi Asher had an involvement with him, and Asher
apparently felt that Brian didn't do right by him in some way. I don't know exactly what it was, I can't tell you. But Asher influenced Lloyd enough that Lloyd was just hot and heavy against Brian. I remember going to Lloyd's office with Doug Heller. His father had been president of the Federation from 1960 to 1962. Anyway, Doug and I went to see Lloyd at Lloyd's office and Frannie was there. They chewed us out, he did in particular, like you can't believe, like we were the worst guys who ever came down the pike. When we got through, after hs spouted everything out that he wanted to spout, we finally convinced him that he ought not to be opposed to it. He came around finally and didn't. I guess we did a good job on him because letting him vent his spleen and get it all off his chest he had nothing left to say, and the enmity stopped. Frannie and I to this day are good friends. We weren't mad at each other, but Lloyd was mad at the whole process.
And I guess, in a way, if you look at it as far as the process was concerned, it wasn't the way that we handled this latest replacement. It was done the only way Jesse could have done it to get the results that he got, to hire the best guy in the business. Because had he gone through the normal chain, the
76
social work chain, because that's what the Council of Jewish Federations is--
Had he gone through them we would have gotten a whole bunch of guys whom they would have suggested, and they had to be social workers or they wouldn't have been satisfactory because that's their mentality.
Social workers are not necessarily good administrators, not necessarily good fundraisers or know how to raise funds. That doesn't detract from social workers. Social workers are a very important part of our community. Some social workers are very good in this field. Without being a social worker, they still can be damn good, as Brian proved in doing the job that he did. That broke down that mystique about social workers being the only kind of people you can hire. Anyway we hired him.
Glaser: Frannie Green told me she felt that if she had been a man it would have been handled it differently, that the whole business went around her, that she was left out of the circle.
Swig: I don't think that's entirely-- Well, it might have been true at that. She hadn't been president yet so that's possible. But I relied on the ex-presidents when I first initiated the discussions with Jesse. They are the people you would rely on. These were the people who had the experience, who knew the people, knew the players, had proved themselves as leaders of this community.
So yes, it's true. Although I had met with Frannie, I'm quite sure I did. Yes, I'm almost positive I did. But she wasn't in on the so-called inner circle, if you will, this group of seven if that's what they were. Let's see, there was Jesse, myself, John, Bob, Sam Ladar. I know Frannie was involved at a point in time, I just know she was there. I can't remember who the others were if any others were present. But that group in particular were the ones whom I relied on. I was out of office by that time, so I didn't do it as an officer of the Federation.
I wanted Jesse to know what our findings were and the reasons for and so forth and so on. We met and we related it to Jesse. We met several times in the early months of that year until March. March was the last meeting. Jesse said, "Okay, I've heard you. Now let me do what I think is right." We laid off; that was the end of it. From that point he was on his own.
Glaser: There was a very odd contract that was drawn up for Brian the
first year. In his mind he was the executive director, but that really wasn't the title. He was executive director to Lou, who
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was the executive vice-president. Lou Weintraub still kept the title.
Swig: Yes, but he was wiped out. We got rid of him. Brian was the guy who was the replacement. I don't recall that Lou stayed on. Did he?
Glaser: Yes, and after one year he was given an office upstairs. Swig: Yes, that's right, we did. Glaser: That was a nice gesture.
Swig: Yes. It was only a way of keeping him on. I think that was an appeasement to Frannie , if I remember correctly. I think that's what it was. Lou was put upstairs in another office and kept away from the main body. It was a tokenism. He was being paid a salary, and he was paid a retirement situation. He was taken care of so he wouldn't be harmed. Nobody wanted to harm him; that wasn't the intent at all. We needed somebody who could do a job. He wasn't it.
Glaser: But technically, that first year Brian wasn't the chief executive- -
Swig: Yes, but he was.
Glaser: But that's a technicality?
Swig: A technicality.
Glaser: What was your working relationship with Brian over the years?
Swig: I was now through as president, but I still worked and still did my thing. I was still on board and still doing everything that I had to do to help the Federation. I had a very good relationship with Brian, still do.
Glaser: Did he rely on your financial expertise?
Swig: In part. We used to have, still did to practically the day he left, regular meetings. I met with Brian on a fairly regular basis .
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Federation Headquarters Building
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser Swig:
Glaser Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
I understand you helped raise quite a bit of money for the new building.
I did. I got the Shorenstein group to work on the land, the loan. That was a very important part of the whole deal, to get the land. Walter Shorenstein and at that time Bud Levitas and Warren Epstein owned part of the land on which the building now sits. They contributed not entirely but a fairly good, significant part of the land to the Federation. That's how we were able to get the land to build the building.
But you also did fundraising.
Then we also did fundraising. It took $7 million, if I recall correctly, at that time to build that building.
You brought in a very large amount from the Herbs t Foundation.
I don't recall exactly. Yes, we all went out and raised money and we all gave. The Haases and Koshlands and my father and the rest of us all pitched in and did our number, and the building carries those three names in the hallway. They are the people that the building was named for.
Was it a good idea to have a headquarters building rather than renting? Because you tie up a lot of money.
It's money that probably otherwise wouldn't be raised, and we own it free and clear. There are no mortgages on it. So it cost us less over the years than what it would have cost to rent in that regard.
Wavne Feinstein. New Federation Executive. 1991
Glaser: Tell me about the search committee for Brian's replacement that you were on.
Swig: Don Seiler headed that up and he put together a good group of people. Some were past presidents: Sinton, myself, Annette [Dobbs], Seiler himself and some other nice younger people.
Glaser: And your sister-in-law [Cissy Swig].
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Swig: My sister-in-law was on it. They asked the right questions, they did the right research and we wound up with the best candidate.
ft
Swig: I had a phone call this morning from Cleveland asking me who we hired to replace Brian, and when I told him who it was he said, "Hey, you got a good one. You did well." He knew of Wayne [Feinstein]. I don't know whether he knew him personally or how well he knew him but he knew of him, and he was very pleased that we had hired such a good person.
Glaser: Is Wayne going to function much like Brian?
Swig: He learned under Brian so in part I guess he will. But as he matures into his job he'll have his own direction, I hope. Nothing stays static, there will be all new kinds of ideas and other things happening, and I hope he'll move with the times and do the best job possible. I think he will. He's young, he's bright and he knows the community pretty well. I think he'll do a good job.
Glaser: It will be interesting to watch.
Swig: It will be. It's tough to follow in Brian's shoes. It wasn't like Brian following in the shoes that he followed; because so many new things were happening at that time that Brian led the whole thing in a new direction. As a matter of fact, he led the country in a new direction and did a super job. But whether that many changes will take place in the next few years, who knows? With Brian in New York it's possible, and I hope Wayne will follow whatever the good pattern will be.
Three past Federation presidents, Melvin M. Steinhart, 1978.
Swig, Benjamin H. Swig, John H.
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XII JEWISH COMMUNITY ENDOWMENT FUND
Early Executives : Growth and Uses of Funds
Glaser: I want to ask you about your involvement with the Endowment Fund, which was established in 1976 as the standing committee. Of course, it had been in existence long before then, but then it became a standing committee. Marshall Kuhn was the director originally. You were on that committee starting from 1976, weren't you?1
Swig: I think I was.
Glaser: Would you describe the makeup of the Endowment Fund, because I understand there are various bits and pieces in it.
Swig: Well, there are. The Endowment Fund was very small at that time, relatively small. We had discussed over the years of building it up and letting it do some good things in the community. I can't remember the exact sequence of events. It's too hard to remember those. But we started to move in the direction of getting-- I guess Phyllis Cook had come on board later on but Carole Breen- -
Glaser: She followed Marshall Kuhn.
Swig: Carole did a good job. She did quite a nice job; she's a nice gal. But the fund was in the growing stages at that time. We were maturing but it wasn't turning on big numbers the way it did later on. But the ground work was laid to do that. I think, if I recall, Marshall passed away not too long afterwards. I forget when he passed away but it's been quite some years now.2 Marshall was a wonderful guy and I have nothing but warm and wonderful
]In 1986, Mr. Swig received the first Council of Jewish Federations Endowment Achievement Award.
Marshall Kuhn died May 18, 1978
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memories of him. He and John Steinhart and I , as I told you earlier, went to Europe together and to North Africa and so forth. He was terrific. He always was a great supporter of the Federation, did wonderful things and was a marvelous human being.
Anyway he started out. But then Carole came on and Carole enlarged upon what had happened. But it really didn't truly take off, I think, until Cookie [Phyllis Cook] was there. She just led it to a new dimension. Carole left for a reason that I can't remember. I think she found another thing that she wanted to do, and that's when Phyllis came on board. She just took off like a son-of-a-gun. Things have just sprouted since then. We're up in the multi, multi-millions and we were in the low millions early on. Now some of the foundations that were separate foundations from the Federation have become a part. That was Brian's (and Treg's) doing. They've become a part of that fund.
Glaser: Well, Mr. Treguboff brought the Newhouse Foundation into the Endowment Fund.
Swig: That's right. Treg did before he died. That's right. Glaser: You had the Eva Kohn Helping Fund, [phone conversation]
Swig: All the guys who are running for president, I'm getting calls from all over the place.
Glaser: I'll ask you later on about your political activities.
Swig: The Eva Heller Kohn did come on board. I think there were two or three. I guess the one from, not Mt. Zion, but Maimonides Health Center came on too.
Glaser: The Maimonides Trust for a while was separate but with some oversight from the Federation, I believe.
Swig: It always had an oversight but it was an independent authority. Glaser: Right. Was it eventually brought in?
Swig: I think it was eventually brought in so that it became a part of it. Now all of those foundations are a part of the Endowment Fund. We are up to $60 odd million or something like that. Maybe it's $70 million today. Over the years with a series of guys, the usual crew helping, the usual crew being guys like Peter Haas, Claude Rosenberg, Bob Sinton, Gerson Bakar, Mel Swig, and I guess
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there were some other sets of names that escape me at the moment. Oh, Merv Morris and Don Seller. All those people pitched in and really did a job on the community. Rhoda Goldman. Today it's just going like gangbusters. People are coming in with big amounts of money, doing wonderful things, and our Endowment Fund is building up, building up and building up. It's doing very well.
Glaser: How are the funds from the Endowment Fund used?
Swig: They are used for projects that are not in the normal budgeting thing. They are usually one or two-time shots, sometimes as capital funds. For instance when the community center in Marin came in, we supplied money for that. We lent money if I recall and got repaid, or are supposed to get repaid. I think the Schultz Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto we are involved in. We give special projects money. I'm not that involved with the daily operations of that deal, but they are special projects which are funded by the Endowment Fund.
Glaser: Does the Federation itself get support from the Endowment Fund?
Swig: Some support, yes.
Glaser: For?
Swig: For a part of the overhead.
Glaser: But you have capital funds and then you have philanthropic funds, is that right?
Swig: Yes. A lot of people give money to the philanthropic fund, give
it and then give away their money out of that fund. For instance, if a guy has a good year and he wants to take a deduction that year, he will put the money into the philanthropic fund. It stays there; he gets a deduction in that year. You don't have to give the money away for two or three or four years or ten years . The interest can give money away for a period of many years.
Glaser: It's almost like a holding place.
Swig: That's right. It's a reservoir of funds. I'll give you an example. We have a foundation that we are giving to the Federation to insure our gift in case our kids don't want to be good kids. This will insure our gift to the Federation.
Glaser: So that's in the philanthropic fund?
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Swig: That will be in the Endowment Fund. We are giving a foundation of ours to the Federation. The Federation will have four board members, we in our family will have three, and it will operate.
Glaser: My question was is that part of the philanthropic fund?
Swig: No. That's part of the Endowment Fund.
Glaser: I see, like the Newhouse Foundation.
Swig: Exactly.
Glaser: Aside from the separate foundations, separate funds, and the
philanthropic funds, is the other part considered capital funds?
Swig: Capital funds. In other words, if somebody wanted to give a million dollars to the Endowment Fund, we will use the income whichever way we see fit.
Glaser: The committee that sits on this, how does that work as far as making decisions of allotting funds?
Swig: Well, there is a fairly significant committee that sits in
judgment of where the money goes. It's like a budget committee. It makes a decision whether it's going to help this, this, this or this. I think we use 5 percent of the income. It is available for funding each year.
Glaser: You have separate subcommittees, don't you? Swig: There are subcommittees, yes. Glaser: On health, education, etc.
Swig: whatever. A variety of items. After these subcommittees perform, it goes to the total committee , the total committee makes the final judgment which is then presented to the board of directors of the Federation. That is usually approved.
Glaser: Did the Council of Jewish Federations help you set up the Endowment Fund?
Swig: No. They may have some input with Cookie. I don't know. Cookie being Phyllis Cook. [chuckles]
Glaser: In 1983 there was a new policy that the Federation proposals "must go to the executive committee first before going to the full Endowment Committee." I am confused whether the executive
84
committee means the Federation executive committee or the Endowment Fund executive committee.
Swig: I guess it would be the Endowment Fund executive committee.
Glaser: In 1983, the Endowment Fund had a two-phase grant process because of large capital funds outlays from the corpus to the Jewish Home for the Aged, Schultz Center, day schools and of course the new headquarters building. What was this two-phase grant?
Swig: I don't recall. I know we gave money to the Schultz Center; I
mentioned that. I know we gave capital money to the day schools, both the Hebrew Academy and the Brandeis-Hillel. We gave money to the Marin Community Center across the Bay. That's not the same time. What was the other one you mentioned?
Glaser: The home.
Swig: Jewish Home for the Aged?
Glaser: Yes.
Swig: I don't recall. What year was that?
Glaser: Nineteen eighty- three.
Swig: Yes. That could have been the year that they added the wing on. They added a new wing at that time. I'm guessing that's what it went for.
Glaser: Then in 1989 you became the vice-chairmen of Endowment development. That must have been quite a job.
Swig: It was. Took time. I tell you, Phyllis Cook does such a
wonderful job, she makes it a lot easier. She's a one-man gang. She does a super job on this. The community has accepted the Endowment Fund very well. We've just made progress in building up this Endowment Fund. We're doing better and better every day. Lots of money is coming in to the Endowment Fund along the lines that I just mentioned to you.
Glaser: But what did you personally do in the development phase?
Swig: Well, we've held meetings and they are usually held in my office among this group. Out of this group we've gotten a lot of money, from guys like Gerson Bakar, Claude Rosenberg, Bob Sinton, Peter Haas, Mel Swig, and other people who have donated quite significant sums of money. Leaving it in the Endowment Fund to do
85
whatever they decide they want to do with it, in whichever way they want to handle it.
I told you we gave a significant number and we're turning over a foundation to them. We control it in the sense that they would listen to us. We don't control it; they control it. But they will certainly take advice from us as to where we want the money spent. But when we're gone, if our kids don't shape up, they could take it over and do what they want.
Glaser: Who is going to oversee it at that point, if they take it over? Swig: The Endowment Fund and the board of the Federation.
Melvin M. Swig and Robert E. Sinton honored by Jewish Community Endowment Fund, 1989.
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XIII DISPUTE WITH JEWISH AGENCY
Support for Brian Lurle
Glaser: I want to talk to you about your support of Brian when the Jewish Agency dispute came up. That's a big topic. Do you have time?
Swig: We have about ten, fifteen more minutes because I've got an all-
day meeting tomorrow at USF and I have got to get cleaned up. But go ahead.
Glaser: Well, I think this will take more than ten minutes. Should we wait?
Swig: No it won't.
Glaser: No? All right. [laughs] Let's talk about it then.
Swig: Brian had some ideas as to the Jewish Agency. When he was
overseas in Israel at the Jewish Agency meeting, he brought up the subject of restructuring the Jewish Agency. He was beaten up on at that time pretty badly by the people in charge at that time , the fellow from Baltimore- -
Glaser: Chuck Hof fberger .
Swig: Chuck Hof fberger. Max Fisher also took him on pretty well and
some others. Well, he came back here to this board and got very strong support from the local community and the board of directors. We all raised the issues that were obvious. And were we harming support for Israel by doing what we were doing? We finally concluded that no, we might be helping. We invited Fisher; Chuck Hof fberger; the architect from Chicago, Ray Epstein; and a couple of others whose names escape me at the moment. We had a knock down, drag- out at our board meeting room. We could see that there was a little warming up to our ideas by some people, not Hof fberger and not Max Fisher. But other people present, Ray Epstein, nice guy, came up on our team and were supportive as were a couple of the other people who were there.
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Then things started to break down, and it became a melting kind of situation. But Brian got the support from our Federation very, very strongly.
Glaser: Describe what it was he wanted the Federation went along with.
Swig: The Jewish Agency had become a politicized kind of agency. The religious establishment in Israel in part was controlling it. Lots of money was going to different things that we weren't too happy about, still are not in many respects. That isn't resolved 100 percent yet. We felt that we should become- -well, let me put it this way. At that time, not today, this was before the Russians came, the rescue/rehabilitation efforts of Israel were pretty much over. All the Jews had come out of the various countries where they needed to come out of, substantially. Let's say, 95-98 percent. There was no need for rescue/rehabilitation. We had to change our direction; we had to look at where we were going with the funding. It couldn't be business as usual like it used to be. We didn't need to do some of the things that we were doing. Just because we had done them didn't mean that we should perpetuate them. Let's change and look and see if there weren't new agencies that needed help and needed new things.
We decided in our Federation that we were going to take $100,000 a year and we were going to allocate it. This didn't set very well with a lot of people, obviously. But you know what? Pretty soon, the groundswell of support around the country came in our direction. At first there was great opposition. All of sudden LA and Cleveland and other places said, "Hey, you guys are okay. You're thinking right. We have duplication of expenses and money." Agencies were duplicated; there was great waste. It became bureaucratic like any big organization run on a quasi - public type operation.
The result was that they brought in Mendel Kaplan, who still is the national/international head of it. A wonderful guy, understands the problems, and is doing things about it. They changed the process in Israel where the government intervention has become lessened. The government had a big action there. They were telling everybody what to do and how to do it. We started to eat into their operation, if you will, and we succeeded in pulling the government out of a lot of it. It's got a long way to go yet. Brian is now in New York and in a position where he can do much more than he ever could working here, and I'm sure he will.
So he's on a track that I think will make more meaningful the monies that we will present to Israel. Now, with all the Russians coming in, it's like apple pie and ice cream today because now we are raising money all over again for
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig: Glaser
Swig:
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rescue/rehabilitation, which is really what we were all about in the first place: bringing people into Israel. That's why we were founded. We got away from it in part.
Now we're back on the track and now we have Operation Exodus and all those new things that are raising additional, huge sums of money for Israel to support the new immigration process that's going on. There will be, they say, something close to a million Jews coming in within a five year period. That's a lot of people. Israel's population is about 4.5 million. You take another million; it's a big hunk of people. It's like us taking fifty, one hundred million people into this country. When you think of it, it's almost 25 percent of their population. We've got 250 million people; it's like us taking in 60 million people into this country, what Israel's doing. You could imagine what the impact would be here .
So in Israel, it is a very, very tough deal that they are going through. Today Mr. Bush made some very bad statements about Israel. ]
Oh, something new?
Terrible. Watch your news tonight and you'll see.
Let me just finish up by asking you, in that meeting here with representatives of the Jewish Agency and United Jewish Appeal, I understand that you narrated a slide show that presented the need for change .
Yes, I did. I had forgotten about that. You've got a lot of information, haven't you.
It's called research, [laughter] And then you stood up and made a family donation of $1 million. That just floored them. Even though Max Fisher is such a big man in Detroit, he had never given anything of that magnitude.
Then I called Max a couple of weeks later and said, "Max, how about making a donation." And he did.
Glaser: So this whole thing turned around right then and there?
Reference is to remarks made by President Bush at a press conference, September 12, 1991, at which he insisted that Israel postpone for 120 days its request for $10 billion in housing loans guarantees.
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Swig: Yes, we turned it around very nicely but it took some leadership to do it, and Brian is that kind of a leader. He had us to help and support him.
Glaser: But I understand that there was a point in which the UJA asked the San Francisco Federation not to publicize what you were doing.
Swig: That's right. We didn't pay any attention to that. Glaser: Then it all came out.
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XIV MORE ON JEWISH COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT [Interview 4: October 30, 1991 ]##
Jewish Community Bulletin. President, 1969-1971
Glaser: You served on the Jewish Community Bulletin from 1969. John
Steinhart told me that you took over as president when he became Federation president and he resigned from the Bulletin. Is that true?
Swig: I believe that is true, yes. I've forgotten it but I think that's right.
Glaser: Then when you became Federation president, did you go off the board of the Bulletin?
Swig: I don't remember the sequence of time. No, I think that isn't how it happened. I don't remember the years, but I was on that board for a number of years. I think my term on there preceded John's arrival as president. I was on that board for several years and I can't remember how many.
Glaser: Several years before you became Bulletin president?
Swig: Before I became president. Maybe I succeeded him as president but not on the board per se. Do you follow what I'm saying?
Glaser: Yes. Marcel Hirsch was president for years and years.
Swig: That preceded us. I think we went on that board after Marcel went off the board.
Glaser: He was on for years and years.
Swig: He was on for a very long time, did a wonderful job.
Glaser: He was the one who got Geoffrey Fisher as editor.
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Swig: Yes. We interviewed Geoffrey. I think we all participated in that, if I recall correctly. Geoffrey became the head of the paper, and then Marcel retired from the paper about that time. John and I among others were on that board together. I can't tell you how much we overlapped but we were on it together for a number of years. Then John became president of the paper, head of the paper, and I guess I succeeded him when he became president of the Federation. Then when I became president of the Federation following him somebody else took over after that.1
Glaser: Did you go back on to the board of the paper after your presidency?
Swig: I really can't recall. I don't remember the years.
Glaser: Who were some of the other people who were serving on the board with you?
Swig: You are going back a long time. My memory for names is not that good. Sue Brans ten, I think, was on there. There was a lawyer, Larry Goldberg, who was on there. I really don't remember all the people who were on there. You are going back probably twenty years ago, something like that, and I just don't really remember all the folks who were on. It changed too. I think Barbie Isackson was on. Barbara, I called her Barbie. Sue wasn't on there. There were other people who represented organizations that were intermittent who weren't permanent members. I can't remember all their names.
Glaser: Were you on the board when there was somebody who was trying to get control of the paper?
Swig: No. I think that was during Marcel's time.
Glaser: Yes, it was.
Swig: I don't think I was there.
Glaser: There was a period of time when the newspaper needed more money as a subvention from the Federation.
Swig: That happened during my time, I think, or maybe just afterwards. I can't quite remember it.
JJohn Steinhart states that when his term as Federation president ended in 1971, he succeeded Mr. Swig as president of the Bulletin. This was at the time that Mr. Swig became president of the Federation.
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Glaser: Was there any difficulty in getting that extra funding?
Swig: There is always a little difficulty getting extra funding but we got it. [chuckles] I think that may have happened after I was off. You see, I find it a little dim only because having served on the board of the Federation for as many years as I've been on there, I can't remember whether that was a board action of the Federation or a board action of the newspaper. My guess is that it was a board action of the Federation that I'm recalling. The time of that need came at a later time, I think, as a matter of fact after Geoff Fisher had retired. I was not present at the time. I mean, I wasn't present on the board of the paper at the time that Geoff retired. I did not participate in that.
Glaser: My notes show that this need for more money came after he became editor, not after he retired.
Swig: Yes, but that was a relatively small amount of money compared to what the bigger amount of money was during the newer administration of the paper.
Glaser: Yes, that's quite true. My notes show from $30,000 to $50,000 was the increase that he requested.
Swig: Yes, at least that.
Glaser: In the overall scheme that's really not a very big increase.
Swig: Well, we changed the paper. We hired more people. We were kind of the forerunner for what subsequently happened on a much bigger scale. We made a much better paper and a more contemporary paper than what it had been because Gene Block- -God bless him, he was a wonderful human being—had run the paper in a certain way for so many years, and it really hadn't changed very much and hadn't contemporized itself. I guess that's the best way to put it.
So when we came on, we brought Geoff Fisher in who had come from St. Louis, I believe. He wanted to do some better things like putting on more management and more advertising sales, developing a new format for the paper different from what it had been before. We did all those things. It started an upward movement. It didn't go far enough as it has gone today but was certainly vastly improved over what we had. But we didn't have the money to do what they did today. And they eventually gave them a lot more money than what we had been given.
So it moved onward and upward. We were the first force of change, if you will. Then subsequently there was a greater force,
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Glaser Swig:
Glaser:
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
which was very good. The paper today is doing, I think, a very superb job. I don't always agree with everything they do, but it certainly does a superb job.
Of course it's covering a much wider area.
A much wider area. At the time I was on there we tried to make a deal with the East Bay Federation. Their paper was in trouble and we agreed to take over and help them out. It never happened. We initiated the discussions that time. Subsequently it happened. Today we have Santa Rosa and that whole area in the Federation, which we didn't have before. We now have the deeper Peninsula in the paper, which we didn't have before. So the paper's developed. It has a much broader readership. It has a much greater circulation. It therefore attracts more and better ads, which is what we were trying to do. We were just a little early at that time. Therefore, more money can be spent on the paper. We now do things in color, and we do a whole lot of wonderful things that have attracted a great deal more advertising and put a lot more people on. We had just initiated that kind of thinking at our level, and then eventually it took over and became better.
With this increase in size and with the improvement, do you feel that the paper is more responsive to the Jewish community?
I think it is. It certainly is not run by the Federation nor was it ever. A lot of people identify it and think that because it is subsidized by the Federation that it is run by the Federation. It is not. The Federation puts ads in there and gets some compensating advertising availability. But in terms of its editorials or its content, the Federation does nothing, to my knowledge, to ever influence it; it has little or no influence on it. So it is an independent operation, and that's the way it ought to be, in my opinion.
In 1973, the Federation was under attack by a group of people who felt the Federation was not responsive to the needs of the Jewish poor. This group wanted to take out ads in the paper. There was a discussion in the Federation whether this should be permitted. It was the decision of the board of the paper that there was not going to be any censorship, either of ads or of letters to the editor, unless it was just too violent. It wasn't going to censor material. [Telephone rings.]
Would you turn that off just a second? My wife is calling. [Tape turned off . ]
Glaser: [Resumes] I'm going to reword that. The ads were taken in the Bulletin to urge the readers to throw out the insiders of the
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Federation. The Bulletin decided to accept all ads that weren't slanderous.
Swig: That's right.
Glaser: But as far as the letters to the editor, they decided that they
could not censor these. This was discussed by the Federation, but then the Bulletin was given free rein on that.
Swig: As I recall, it was the Bulletin that initiated the discussion with the Federation. It was a Bulletin matter and it had to do with censorship. My recollection is that we decided that censorship was not proper for the paper. We had to take whatever which way it came . We elected to take those ads . I think Steinhart was involved on the paper at that time. I think we relied on his legal expertise to tell us about what we could handle and what we couldn't handle as to potential lawsuit problems .
Glaser: When you say "we," do you mean the Federation?
Swig: No, we the board of the paper. I think you had it right on. I don't know where you get your information [chuckles] but you did it well. We agreed to take the ads. We agreed to take the letters to the editor. We were careful to make sure that the ads were not inflammatory in any way that we would get in trouble legally. But I don't think that occurred. I think the ads were okay, as I recall. And we did it. It blew over and that was the end. I think it was a wise decision because it did blow over.
Glaser: Probably wouldn't have if you attempted to--
Swig: If we turned it down we wouldn't have been behaving like a proper newspaper .
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Glaser:
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
You were a director of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
I still am.
Is that right?
Yes.
What are your duties?
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Swig:
Glaser Swig:
Raise money, occasionally.
Now I don't do much. I go to a meeting very
Glaser Swig:
Glaser: Swig:
Glaser:
Where are the meetings held?
The meetings are held in New York. If they coincide with other meetings I have in New York, when I am in New York I go to a meeting. As a matter of fact, they are held in our New York offices. My partner in New York, a fellow named Bob Arnow has been head of the JTA for a number of years. I am still the vice- president of JTA. I just sent a letter out accepting another term for another three years and told them that they should get a younger person who can attend the meetings better than I do. I would be happy to make the swap. But I'm still on there, even to this day.
How many years has it been?
Oh God. If you remember it, it must be a lot of years. [Laughter]
Well, I got it from your list of things you are active in. So it is just a matter of raising money? Don't you oversee policy or any - - ?
Yes, I do, as a matter of fact, check the notes, and I check the
minutes, and I check things out carefully. If I have an objection
or anything is not doing what I think, I let myself be known. But that doesn't happen very often. They do quite a good job.
How does the Agency function? Bulletin.
I see the byline on articles in the
Swig: What they do is they have reporters all around the world. They are in England, in Israel, in the United States. They were in South America, I don't know if they are still, I don't remember. All those people are contributors to the JTA. They disseminate their material to all the Jewish newspapers around the country. They send out a daily bulletin of material [searches for Jewish Telegraphic Agency bulletin] . I read about more material in there than I ever see in our daily newspapers. A lot of information, a lot of material that is of interest to Jewish people all over the world never hits the daily paper.
Glaser: Is that your waste basket you're going through?
Swig: That's what I'm looking at. I probably turned them over to my son so I don't have it. [laughter] Those daily bulletins- -and they have weekly bulletins- -are sent out to people around the country,
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Glaser
Swig:
of course to all the newspapers, and to the daily newspapers, the public newspapers. They are in my opinion the single best source of Jewish news and information that you could imagine. It's like a Kiplinger-type letter that-- Turn that thing off a minute. I'll go get a copy. Here, four pages [counts them] one, two, three, four. Two pages printed on each side so it's four pages of material.
For instance, I brought home to review an item just a couple of days ago. An item having to do with anti-Semitism in the State Department of this country and in Washington generally. It was fascinating, something I thought I knew anyway, but it brought out much more than I really knew. It is something that is printed in that bulletin. You will never see it anywhere else. It never will show anywhere else. Just interesting items that appear, news items that we don't read in the public paper. I urge most of my friends to try and read these things because they are really good. Even just the Week in Review is a good paper to read, and it is again four pages of printed material capsulizing the most important issues that happened during the previous week.
That sounds as if it's a digest, in addition to the actual articles that go to newspapers.
Yes. I don't know exactly what they send to the newspapers. They send this and additional material, I'm sure. The newspapers, of course, use it as they see fit. A newspaper in one city may use it more than a newspaper in another city. It depends on what kind of a format they have and what their need for material is in a given week. But you will see it often quoted.
Our local Federation supports this JTA fairly well. We do a pretty good job in supporting it. In fact, we're one of the better cities in the country that supports this JTA. So it gets to the public newspapers as well and that's important. They disseminate this material all over the world: in the English press, all over this country. They're in Israel, as I said. I think they are in South America. So they have done a very good job. It's fascinating.
Mount Zion Hospital
Glaser: I want to go back and ask you a little bit more in detail about
Mount Zion Hospital. I have the date of 1970 that you were on the board. Were you on earlier than that?
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Swig: I served a total of about twenty years. I think I was on there
originally in the early fifties or mid- f if ties . I'm guessing. So I was there from let's say 1955 possibly, or 1956 maybe, until about 1976, or somewhere in that vicinity.
Glaser: What was the period when you were the vice-president?
Swig: Oh, I think I was vice-president a couple of different times. I don't recall. Probably towards the end. I'm guessing.
Glaser: Who was the president when you were vice-president?
Swig: I don't know. It could have been Rhoda Goldman. It probably was Rhoda.
Glaser: Did you have any specific committee assignment? Swig: Yes. I was on some search committees. Glaser: For the executive director?
Swig: For executive director at one time. For various heads of
departments at other times. I was on building committees as I recall .
Glaser: That must have been a period of a lot of construction.
Swig: Yes, it was. I went through all the executive directors until the present one, Marty [Martin H.] Diamond. I don't think he had been here yet when I went off the board as I remember. Maybe he had just come in.
Glaser: There was an Englishman who had served for a long time. I can't remember his name .
Swig: That's the original guy who was here when I was just a young
fellow. He passed away. My dear friend what' s -his -name . I told you I have a bad memory for names. Wonderful guy. He did a swell job in the community. He did a good job in the hospital. We had a wonderful staff. He really did well --Mark Berke .
Of course, the whole operation of hospitals today is so drastically different from then. The HMOs and the government interventions and all this sort of thing that has happened- - hospitals have changed dramatically.
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Glaser:
Swig: Glaser: Swig: Glaser:
Swig:
Mrs. Rogers did a history of the hospital. book?1
Have you seen her
Yes. Barbara is very nice. She did a very good job on that.
You don't have a copy of that?
I don't, I'm sure. I might have but I don't know.
In the Federation board minutes of 1965, it's recorded that you and Frannie Green were upset at not being given prior consultation when Mount Zion decided to construct a seventh floor. Did the Federation have to be consulted, or did this involve extra funding?
All capital programs of Jewish agencies who were recipients of funds from the Federations, we felt, should have consulted and worked with the Federation because they were going to ask us to help, as they did. And we participated in that fundraising program. I guess at that time, as I recall, they didn't consult very well with the Federation and should have. I guess I was on both boards .
Jewish Family Service Agency
Glaser: I want to get some more details about the Jewish Family Service Agency. What made you select that agency to be part of?
Swig: I can't tell you. I don't know. I probably was asked. I think I liked the agency at the time. I still do. I think they do a fine job. I just don't know why that happened. Somebody must have asked me who was a friend or somebody I respected, I suppose. So I went on that board.
Glaser: You worked up the chairs to become vice-president.
Swig: I was vice-president there.
Glaser: Did you have any specific assignment?
Swig: I can't recall. Now you are really going back. When was that? That was in the early fifties, wasn't it?
1The First Century : Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center, by Barbara S. Rogers and Stephen M. Dobbs , San Francisco, 1987.
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Glaser: I think, 1956. Who was the executive at that point?
Swig: The executive at that time was an older man who had been the dean. Then he was succeeded by another man who just passed away recently, Crystal. David Crystal became his successor, and it was with David that I really worked the most. The other fellow was a wonderful guy and was quite old when he retired. David came along and took his place and, I think, elevated the standards and so forth even higher than what the previous guy did. But that is not unusual --different time, different play.
Glaser: Was there an expansion of services?
Swig: Not terribly, no. They haven't really expanded greatly. It was like a young blood versus the old one. They come in and they innovate, do the newer things and the new techniques and so forth. They did a very fine job. David Crystal was in my opinion superb, an excellent guy.
Glaser: Was there any cooperation with non- Jewish service agencies of that type?
Swig: There was a relationship, and I think there was a mutuality of
interest in doing community service, as I recall. I think there still is, to my knowledge. Incidentally, we did take non- Jewish people and did help non-Jewish people as well as Jewish people in the Jewish Family Service Agency. But it was predominantly Jewish. It was right across the street from Mount Zion, and it certainly was a Jewish-oriented operation. But there were a few non- Jewish people that were helped as well.
Glaser: I didn't realize that. Swig: Yes.
Federation Assignments
Overseas Committee
Glaser: There are some other Federation committees I want to ask you about. You were on the overseas committee in 1983; what was involved with your work on that?
Swig: That was the committee that in effect changed the manner in which funds are delivered in Israel from the Federation. It was the
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forerunner for a lot of drastic changes that occurred in the Jewish Agency.
Brian Lurie, of course, was the initiator of that particular thinking. In Israel at a Jewish Agency meeting in, I guess, June of 1982, or maybe it was June of 1983 (I can't remember), he led the way and got a lot of flack for having had the nerve to even suggest that some changes ought to be made. Like all bureaucratic systems that had evolved over the period of years, it needed change. There was a great resistance at that time by the establishment, if you will, of the United States. There was tremendous resistance to this idea of change. I guess because people get in the habit of saying, "We've always done it this way." Sometimes it changes.
As an example, the change in the need in Israel. We originally raised funds for rescue, relief, and rehabilitation. I can remember those words. I can't remember names but I can remember those words. The rescue, relief, and rehabilitation was now changing. People weren't coming in the huge numbers that had come to Israel in the fifties and the sixties. We had taken them in. There weren't that many left to bring in. So the needs in Israel were changing. Those things had to be addressed and looked at. What should we do now? What should our goals be for the future? Where were the funds to be directed? These are things that Brian was talking about. An inordinate amount of money was going to religious organizations in Israel, to the ultra -Orthodox and so forth, who were controlling schools, and still do incidentally, to the point that the public schools were not as good as government -supported schools over here. Controlling through religious organizations, which we felt (and I still do feel) is really unfair. Separation of church and state, if you will, which obviously in this country we feel very strongly about. They aren't doing it, weren't doing it. That needed change. Hasn't happened yet, but it will.
So we are looking more carefully at where the funds are going, to whom they are being directed, and with whom we are doing business. Those were some of the issues that were coming up. The resistance was strong. We overcame the resistance to a substantial degree, we made and created changes in Israel. Now guess who is heading up the UJA today — Brian Lurie.
Swig: Over the objections of these very fine people, incidentally. The old expression, "We shall overcome." And we did. Changes were made and changes are still going to be made.
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Glaser: So it was the overseas committee that brought all this about. It was more than just seeing what was being done in the UJA office?
Swig: Well, it was a committee that was studying the proposals that Brian had indicated. Supporting that belief, our committee studied and worked on those things , and we came up in support of Brian and felt very strongly he was on the right track. I had some reasonable doubts about some of the things at the beginning myself. But as time wore on, I saw that he was right on target as far as I was concerned. We pushed and fought and won.
We had a big meeting out here with some of the more prominent members of that society who were opposed to this. We got called some names for having the temerity to fight for something like this. But you know what? They came around to our way of thinking eventually. We had great support from LA and most of the western part of the United States at the beginning. Then it spread to the east and finally it happened. Today it is working and working better.
I think with Brian in New York now at the UJA level there will be more refinement. That was a time when we in our Federation decided to give a relatively small amount of money to individual agencies in Israel that had not been supported by UJA or the Jewish Agency. We did that and are still doing it.
Committee on Jewish Education
Glaser: Also, in 1983, you were on a committee on Jewish education that studied the direction it should go in financing. I thought that was rather ironic since you're not really that much in favor of Jewish education.
Swig: Broadly, I am not ii favor of parochial schools. As to Jewish education, I'm not opposed to Jewish education per se.
Glaser: That's a good distinction.
Swig: I have no objection to, and as a matter of fact support, the
process of Jewish education. My emphasis, however, from my point of view believes that it should not be a day school -type of Jewish education. That's my philosophy, and most people don't agree with me, so I go along with the gang. But philosophically that's my approach. I think we live in a multi -ethnic , multi-racial and multi- religious society and that our kids should be exposed to that total society. I don't doubt that these day schools are an
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escape from the public school system which is not adequate to meet their needs. The people feel threatened by the public schools, by busing, by one thing or another, and are not getting the full education value that they ought to be getting out of public schools. They have used our parochial schools, if you will, to avoid the public schools. They are in fact subsidized by the Federation to get their kids a better education than they would get in public schools. 1 guess that isn't all bad, because if we can better educate our kids I'm for it.
However, I do not happen to like the idea of parochial schools. I didn't like it for Catholic people. I think they do wrong when they do that, but that's their business not mine. For the Jewish people, I think it's not altogether healthy. It's segregating ourselves. I think we've fought too hard and too long not to segregate ourselves to go back to segregation. I guess that's part of it.
Chairman, Ad Hoc Committee on "Who Is A Jew1
Glaser: You were chairman of an ad hoc committee on "Who is a Jew."
Swig: We didn't accomplish very much except that we were able to see that the Knesset did not pass that bill.
Glaser: I know Annette Dobbs went to Jerusalem along with other members of the whole United States community to see about that. What did your committee do itself.
Swig: As I recall, it was not a major committee because there wasn't too much we could-- We didn't have to influence anybody. It wasn't a hard sell. We were obviously committed strongly to seeing that Israel didn't make the unfortunate mistake of passing the bill that they were proposing about who was Jewish and who was not.
We still haven't been altogether successful in changing the extreme political views that there are in Israel about the religion by relatively few people. It's like the tail wagging the dog. The Orthodox people over there do not allow Reform or Conservative rabbis to perform marriage. Probably do not recognize a bris . I suppose, by either of those officiating people. A mother converted to Judaism by a Reform or Conservative rabbi is not considered Jewish in Israel. The children of that mother are not considered Jewish in Israel. Even though they have been brought up Jewishly and so forth and so on, they are not considered Jewish.
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rfow the devil can they tell us that these kids are not Jewish? They want to be Jewish, their mother was converted by a rabbi, they are brought up as Jewish. How in God's creation can they say they are not Jewish? It's ridiculous. Furthermore, how do they know all the millions of people who have come into Israel conform exactly to the standards that they have established? They can't. When they bring them in from Russia today, do they know who the mothers and fathers were in all cases? Of course not.
Glaser: This also affects the Law of Return, doesn't it?
Swig: It affects the Law of Return. If they want to come to Israel and be considered Jewish, they have to go through a ritual in Israel performed only by Orthodox rabbis. I'm sure if they had to they would. People would, and then they would tell them to go to hell afterwards. But I mean, that's ridiculous. It's a farce and it's part of the extremism of the Orthodox area of religion that I found very unhealthy and very narrow, very bigoted. I don't accept it and I try, and I will continue to try, to change it if I can. In my lifetime I doubt if it will change.
American Friends of Haifa University
Glaser: I want to ask you about some of the other Jewish organizations you have been involved in. I have got a list here- -I sound like Senator Joe McCarthy. [laughter] This is your list of organizations. It's so tremendous. I wanted to ask you why you chose to serve on these various organizations, the aim of the organization, and what was accomplished during your term of service. The first one is the American Friends of Haifa University. You were on the board of trustees.
Swig: I was. I didn't do a lot for Haifa. We formed a chair at Haifa in my father's memory. It was going to be a hotel school. We tried to get Cornell to joint venture that with us and were unsuccessful. We therefore decided that it ought to be a business school rather than a hotel school, and that's what it is. I visited Haifa several times. I did not participate in their board meetings or was not terribly active.
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American Jewish Committee
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser:
Swig:
Glaser Swig:
Glaser
Swig: Glaser:
Swig:
Yes.
What did that entail?
Well, the American Jewish Committee is something that I worked on for a number of years. A matter of fact, it was John Steinhart's father who asked me first to get involved with it. It was fairly new in San Francisco at that time. I think the chapter was formed by Edgar Sinton, Jesse Steinhart, and some other people whose names escape me.
I think Marcel Hirsch--
Marcel Hirsch. Those people started the chapter. Although it is one of the oldest defense agencies in the country, the chapter here did not begin until about 1948, * I think it was, something like that. About 1954 or so, Jesse asked me to get involved. John, I guess, was involved at that time and got working on it.
I liked what they preached, so to speak, and I liked the things that they were doing it, appreciated the work that was being done by them. I enjoyed the people who were involved with it. There were some very fine people from all over the country who were involved. The contacts and meetings I had with those people were the most exhilarating. I enjoyed that work very, very much.
That must have been the period when John Slawson was the executive director.
John Slawson was, that's right.
I was rather surprised that you were never a local chapter president but were on the national board.
I was a chapter chairman.
According to Edgar Sinton, the first chairman of the San Francisco Chapter, it was founded in 1945. Edgar Sinton, Jewish and Community Service in San Francisco, a Family Tradition. Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley, 1978, pp. 38-43, 137-145.
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Glaser: You were?
Swig: Yes.
Glaser: That's not on your list.
Swig: It may not be on the list but I was at a point in time. Some years ago. I can't tell you when but I was.1
Glaser: And your son Steven also.
Swig: Steve. Now he's through; he's already served his term. There
were three generations of my family involved with AJC because my father was a member of that too. He wasn't as active as we were but he was involved.
State of Israel Bonds
Glaser: When you were general chairman of the State of Israel bonds in 1956, who was the executive?
Swig: Lou Stein.
Glaser: Way back then?
Swig: Oh sure. He was from the beginning. 1951 he started, I think.
Glaser: A long, long time then. I didn't realize you went back that far.
Swig: That was the infamous year of the Suez Canal situation when
England and France and Israel went after Egypt for taking over the Suez Canal from England. Egypt took it away from her. So France, England and Israel attacked Egypt to try and recover the canal. I think, if my memory serves me, it was in the fall of the year. At that time Eisenhower was president and a man by the name of John Foster Dulles was secretary of state.
John Foster Dulles, who was a no -good, anti-Semitic S.O.B. said to these three countries, "You will refrain or we will have economic sanctions against you." This was 1956. The war [World
^r. Swig was chairman of the local American Jewish Committee chapter from 1960-1962; chairman, western region, 1964-1968; honorary chairman, 1969; national vice-president, 1967; on the national board of governors, 1968-1971.
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War II] was not that much over to where all those countries had recovered very well. Of course they backed away. Anthony Eden was Churchill's prime minister, and it cost him his job.
At that time we were selling Israel bonds, and some of my dear Jewish friends .said that I was a traitor to my country to be selling Israel bonds at that particular time. I have never forgotten that. As you can see, I can forget names but I don't forget that. But there were people in this community who accused us of being traitors because we were selling bonds. Not too many, thank goodness, and we still sold bonds and continued, and we had a very good year in spite of it. But that was a very eventful year, obviously, and I remember it very well, as you can see.
Glaser: After that year, how did the community take to the purchase of Israel bonds?
Swig: We went onwards and upwards. Bonds continued to sell and
increase. We did very well. Lou Stein was an inspiration in this community in terms of the work he did for it. In bonds he was terrific.
Glaser: In 1986 the Swig and Dinner families were honored with a Golda Meir Leadership Award.
Swig: What year was that? 1980? Glaser: 1986.
Swig: They wanted to honor me as an individual, and I wouldn't do it. I don't allow myself to be honored. I've got a fetish about that. Because the whole family was involved in Israel bonds (my brother served as chairman, I think my sister-in-law served as chairman, and my father had been chairman, so it was a family deal), I said, "If you honor the whole family, then we'll do it." And we did. Moshe Arens, former Israeli ambassador to the United States and formerly Israel's defense minister, was the speaker. It was a very nice evening.
United Jewish Appeal
Glaser: Another Jewish organization was the United Jewish Appeal. In 1973, you were on the executive committee, and then you were a regional head.
Swig: Yes.
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Glaser: What di'd that entail?
Swig: At the time the western division of UJA was a much stronger
organization, I think, than it is now, although they are trying to recover it. But at that time we had a lot of regional meetings. We had one major one, usually in Palm Springs, in February or January or something like that. We did a lot of good work in all the communities up and down the coast in bringing people in to support UJA, raise funds and do the job.
Glaser: Being on the executive committee, did you have to go back to New York?
Swig: The executive committee was back in New York. Glaser: How did you function on that committee?
Swig: Not very well. I participated but I was not that active. Going back to New York, like they would want you to go back: they would call me and [snaps finger] in five minutes. We just couldn't do that from here. I had other obligations and other trips to New York that I would take, on business. To be going back and forth and then going to these meetings too was very difficult. So I wasn't that strong a participant. I worked on the coast; that is what I did.
Glaser: Were you called upon to go to smaller communities to address them?
Swig: I did. I made the trips. I remember going to Tulsa. I had been up to Seattle. I went to Portland. I was in LA. Where the devil else did I go? Denver. So I did make trips and I did go out to raise money. I did do that. But it is very difficult to go back and forth to executive committee meetings in New York.
American Association of Ben Gurion University of the Desert
Glaser: One of the Jewish organizations that you are active in now, as
opposed to those in the past, is the American Association of Ben Gurion University of the Desert. You are on their board. If you couldn't go back to New York, I'm sure you don't go to their meetings very often.
Swig: No, I don't. I help in this community. I was in a meeting for the Ben Gurion deal last week, I think. We had a nice meeting with a Dr. [Louis] Sullivan, a black man who was here and spoke to
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a whole group of people. We must have had 300-350 people, something like that.
Glaser: You mean the doctor who is the head of the Department of Health and Human Services?
Swig: Yes. He was very good, spoke very well, a delightful man.
Glaser: It's obviously a fundraising organization in support of the university.
Swig: Oh yes. You bet. [Laughter]
Glaser: I think by the way you are chuckling you mean, "Aren't they all.
Swig: Yes. The answer is yes. [Laughter]
Ant i- Defamation League of B'nai B'rith
Glaser Swig:
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Ant i- Defamation League of B'nai B'rith; you are on the regional board.
Yes. I don't go to meetings. I help them wherever I can, give money, raise a few bucks. I don't anymore but I used to. I guess I'm just honorary now.
Now, tell me, what is Atalanta Sosnoff?
It is a company that invests money for stock, bonds, and so forth- -an investment banking company. It has a portfolio of customers and manages their investments. If you had a million dollars and you wanted to invest money and didn't know what to do, they advise you. They get a fee for doing that.
Oh, this is not a philanthropic thing. Oh no, no. This is business. [Laughter] I got that from your list of organizations. Yes, but that's business. Oh, forgive me. [Laughter] That's okay.
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American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Glaser: You're on the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Swig: I was.
Glaser: You are on the executive committee and were reelected in 1987 to a third three -year term. But that sounds as if you have been on that for quite a while.
Swig: I was. I'm not anymore. I was on it for a while, and I used to attend some meetings in New York on occasion. It's more honorary than active. It's not the executive committee part. Is that the one you are talking about?
Glaser: Well, I show you as being on the executive committee.
Swig: The Joint Distribution Committee? Yes, I was on it for a while but mostly I was on the board of directors. But I just couldn't attend the meetings for the same reason.
Glaser: Did you help establish policy? Swig: They did. I didn't.
Brandeis University
Glaser: Now, tell me about Brandeis University.
Swig: Brandeis University, I've been on that board for, I guess,
forever. As a matter of fact, the new president of Brandeis will be here next week. I've met him. I am unable to go to too many board meetings now these days because I am on too many other boards that have a conflict of time schedule. I have told them they ought to take me off that board, and I am going to talk to them again about doing it.
Brandeis is near to my heart. My father was one of the founding members of it. It is in the neighborhood, relatively speaking, where I was brought up. I remember it being an old broken down medical school, not a very good one. It was the first Jewish sponsored non- sectarian university in the country. It has developed into a perfectly marvelous educational institution. The
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student body is not all Jewish. It's about 65 percent Jewish undergraduate and is about 30 some odd percent graduate. They have three chapels on campus. It's a Jewish sponsorship, of course, but nonetheless it is non- sectarian.
They were appointed Phi Beta Kappa in the shortest time ever given to a university at that time. Their academic standards and their quality of education is among the highest in the country. It is not yet quite in the Ivy League standard but very damn close. So we're very proud of having accomplished something that has never been done in this country before. It's a wonderful school.
Have you been honored by them?
No, I don't think so. My father got an honorary degree from there, but I haven't been honored by them. Madeleine Russell serves on that board too. From out here, it's awfully hard to be as active in a university back there, as you can imagine with all the other things that have been going on
I know there is a lot of money raised for Brandeis in this part of the country. Also, when I was living in the Middle West, women would have huge book sales to raise funds for Brandeis.
The women are very active. They do a great job. My mother was one of the founders of the women's division out here.
Oh, is that right?
That book selling business that you are talking about.
So the Swig family is very closely identified.
Very strongly, and we've given a lot of money to Brandeis, raised a lot of money for Brandeis over the years. Still do.
Melvin M. Swig, Dr. Abram L. Sachar, first president of Brandeis University, and Marvin G. Morris, circa 1972.
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XV INVOLVEMENT IN NON-JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS
University of San Francisco
Glaser: I want to talk to you now about non- Jewish organizations that you are involved in. I imagine the first one would be the University of San Francisco when in 1979 your family endowed a chair in Judaic studies. That was the first at any Catholic university, and I think it was the first endowed chair that the University of San Francisco had.
Swig: It was founded in 1855, I think, and this was 1979, so that was 124 years later. It was the first endowed chair in the university. That was a year before my father died. We all worked, and I particularly worked very hard to get that done. How it started was that Rabbi David Davis, who is still out there, was a professor at the school in the theological department teaching courses on Judaism. One of the more favorite courses in that department, which was attended better than any of the other classes, I understand, was "Jesus the Jew."
Rabbi Davis had, and still does, have a Lutheran minister (I have forgotten his name right now) who works with him in teaching that class, which is still one of the most popular classes that they have over there. He got me interested in working with Father Lo Schiavo, the president of the university, in developing a chair in Judaic studies. We did that. We got it going. I forget how much it was, probably $300 ,000-$400,000 that we raised, and that was an endowed chair. It wasn't fully -endowed, as most chairs are. A fully endowed chair would probably be around $700,000- $800,000 at that time. Today they are a $1.25 million- $1.5 million. They have gone through the roof like everything else. But that was my first contact with USF and it was very attractive. I enjoyed it.
Glaser: In 1985 you became chairman of the board of trustees.
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Swig: I had gone on the board shortly after that because Lo Schiavo
asked me to. I went on the president's council at one point and then I became a member of the board. I became chairman when? 1985?
Glaser: Yes.
Swig: Yes. That's about right.
Glaser: What was accomplished during your administration as chairman.
Swig: A whole bunch, thank goodness, I'm happy to say. The endowment of the school when I went on that board was probably around $4 million. By the end of this year or by the middle of next year, it will be over $50 million. During that same time, we paid off the debt of the university, which was at the time I went on maybe $4 or $5 million. We paid that off. We balanced the budget all the rest of the years, including paying off the debt. We also built the Koret Center, a $22-23 million dollar building, which is a health and recreation center, a marvelous addition to the university.
We changed the format of the board at my suggestion from almost a fifty-fifty balance with Jesuits and lay people. Today we have the same number of Jesuits, which is thirteen I believe, and we have increased the lay people up to thirty- two people, I think it is. We improved the caliber of the board accordingly, and made it a much more attractive board to serve on. We brought a lot of good people in who could raise money and help run the institution better. We have done that, so it has been a very rewarding several years .
Just recently Lo Schiavo retired and we hired a new president. We searched the country for a new president. I made sure that we got out of the politics, if you will, of the Catholic priests who like to pick their own people. We had a lay board and we had priests on the board. We selected a guy who is absolutely terrific. The result is that we have a new man in place who started June 1, I guess. We had the inauguration ceremonies last weekend. He is just a terrific guy.
Glaser: What is his name?
Swig: His name is Schlegel.
Glaser: Were you on the search committee?
Swig: Yes. I appointed the search committee and I served ex officio on it. I made sure we had the right kind of search committee that
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was going to go out and get the right kind of guy. And we did. He will be a breath of fresh air for the whole university and the city.
Glaser: Where did you find him?
Swig: We found him in a little school in Cleveland, Ohio, called Carroll College. He is an educator, he is an administrator, and he is smart. We are very happy with him.
Glaser: Then in 1987 there were two new programs you helped to establish: the Melvin M. Swig Graduate Program in Judaic Studies, the first in any Catholic university, and the Dee Swig Israel Scholarship Fund to aid Judaic studies program participants who want to study in Israel.
Swig: Right. That was done, I guess, on my seventieth birthday. I
wouldn't allow any honors; I told you I don't like that kind of nonsense. But what we did do is, I allowed them to establish this graduate program in my honor and my late wife's scholarship fund. So in concert between the two programs we get to send these students over to Israel. The students are educated. We have a program for a master's degree, and then some of those students are able to go to Israel to study. We've sent quite a few.
Glaser: Do they study for a year?
Swig:
It's not a calendar year. It's a class year.
Grace Cathedral
Glaser: You've been very active in Grace Cathedral. Swig: Yes, I am.
Glaser: You are a trustee and chairman of the development committee. According to Bishop [William E. ] Swing, whom I talked to--
Swig: Oh, really?
Glaser: Yes. Rave reviews, Mr. Swig, rave reviews.
Swig: You know what's interesting about it? I used to serve at one time on the board of Temple Emanu-El, and the problems of running a
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temple and running a church are no different. This is an Episcop'al church, very nice people having the same kinds of things. They have to raise money to keep the payment to their rabbis and/or priests (or whatever they are) taken care of, and to upgrade the quality of the plant, and do all the same kinds of things. That's what they are about. I was head of development committee and I raised a lot of money for them- -from among their people, not our people. I gave, of course, of myself, but from the congregants and the community, we raised quite a few bucks and did a good job on it.
Bishop Swing told that. Incidentally, he said that when people get confused about his name, he tells them that you put them to sleep down the hill and he puts them to sleep up the hill, [laughter]
That's right. And people do confuse our names once in a while: Swig and Swing.
He said that you were the driving force in getting community support for the cathedral as well as the congregational support.
Well, I did do that. We went outside the congregation and we did get some community support. It's not broad but it was more than they had before.
He said that you pushed them to become solvent. We did balance the budget pretty well, yes.
Are you involved in the capital campaign now to improve the cathedral?
I am somewhat involved but not majorly because my term of office is up very soon, I think. So I am not enrolled in that terribly. I will be involved financially but not a* a fundraiser. My wife is somewhat involved in that. Steve Giliey of our company here, whose wife happens to be the president of the congregation now, is very involved, obviously, and he has worked very hard to put all this plan together for the new development. They do it here in this office, and I have been a little bit involved on the periphery.
You were the person who suggested the golf tournament, fundraiser?
Was that a
It sure is. Yes, we raise about $20,000 a year on that golf tournament. It is still going on.
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Glaser: I know you were unhappy with the resolution that was adopted at
the 1991 General Convention of the Episcopal Church that urged the United States to withhold funds from Israel equal to the amount Israel spends on Jewish settlements in the territories and East Jerusalem. What was the outcome of your discussion with Bishop Swing?
Swig: I had heard, frankly through the American Jewish Committee, that they were going to present in Phoenix a very damaging set of expressions against Israel. The bishop of Jerusalem is a man by the name of Kafiti or something like that, who happens to be a Christian but happens to be also a Palestinian. He is responsible for Syria, Jordan, I think Iraq and Israel, and maybe other countries I'm not sure of. He's a Palestinian, he's an Arab, and his whole identification comes from the Arab countries. He runs a large church in Jerusalem. He is generally responsible for the Palestinian line, which is obviously anti- Israel.
I got a hold of the material that they were sending out and I was very upset about it. So I had lunch with Bill Swing and we talked about it. I gave him a lot of facts and information about some of the things they were presenting and told him how wrong their history was, that they hadn't done their homework. Because I know it like the back of my hand, and I know that he doesn't know it like the back of his hand although he has been to Israel two or three times. A matter of fact, I sent him to Israel the first time with Father Lo Schiavo of USF and Rabbi Davis. The reason I didn't go was because my wife was then quite ill and I couldn't go, and I sent Davis in my place because I wanted them to have a Jewish escort. The three of them got along famously and did very well .
But Bill has been somewhat influenced by this Kafiti fellow, who, incidentally, came here a couple of years ago and was here on the pretense of raising money for his hospital in Ramallah, I think it was, to help Arab people. Nothing wrong with that. The only problem was that he spoke around here and gave out the Intifada line and the pro-Palestinian line against Israel, knocking Israel. That upset me quite a little bit and I had a to- do with him [Bishop Swing] about that. Not that Bill and I ever had a to-do because we are too friendly for that, but at least we had a dialogue about what was going on and how I felt that that was very unlike the church to do.
Then I reflected back on the fact that during Israel's War of Independence in 1948, the English weren't the best damn people to the Jewish people at that time. They supported, in effect, the Arabs and were very harmful to the Jewish people. But thank goodness the Israelis overcame and they existed. So there has
Glaser :
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been a bit of problem throughout the years with England generally. Obvipusly, the Anglican Church is the Episcopal Church. There has been a bit of a problem there, and I felt that they weren't handling themselves too well. So I discussed all that with Bill.
It just happens I brought [a document]1 from my house by the way, and I didn't know this was going to be covered today. There was a member of this bishop's committee by the name of John Burt whose remarks I could have written, they are that pro -Israel, where he told all the facts of what caused some of the problems in Israel and how the Jewish state certainly was not the responsible party in the things that they were discussing.
[Quotes from document] "We need to be aware that Israelis and Jews generally are rightly offended when we Christians seem not to understand that the underlying issue for the Jewish state, whether it be for the West Bank or Gaza, is the reality that twenty Arab nations are still in a declared state of war with her." This was his speech at that meeting. "For Israel, it is difficult to respond effectively to the changes we urge in the occupied territories until those Arab nations make peace." Now he is telling all the people about that. "The very secure borders we say we favor for Israel is simply not possible until peace is negotiated, at least with Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. How can Israel, for instance, possibly vacate or demilitarize the West Bank until she is guaranteed security by those Arab powers." You and I could have made the same statement.
He says that Baker understands it and so does Bush. I don't think they do. Anyway, the result is that while the statement was not perfect that the bishops came up with, it was watered down tremendously over what the initial statements were to have said. This man helped and Swing helped. So an effective thing occurred as a result of the relationship that I had with Bishop Swing, who, incidentally, is a wonderful guy. I think very highly of him.
He thinks very highly of you. Well, we're good friends.
I have a long list of non-Jewish organizations you have been involved in in the past and now.
There is one that you haven't asked me about that I still do and that is Brown University.
Glaser: Yes.
]See Appendix
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Swig: That's one of my favorites.
Glaser: That's under the heading of "Now."
Swig: Okay. "Now." All right.
Glaser: Shall we do the ones in the past?
Swig: Whatever you want.
President. California Association for American Conservatory Theatre
Glaser: You tell me what you were doing with these organizations. The first one is the California Association for A.C.T. You were president and were on the board of directors.
Swig: Yes. That was one of the more interesting things that I was
involved with. I was on the board of the Chamber of Commerce at the time. I had run the film festival for the chamber in 1965. I didn't know a damn thing about a film festival, but they assured me they had put together a whole body of people for me to help me. They did. I ran the film festival and it was very successful. It was run for the Chamber.
So along came a thing called A.C.T. Cyril Magnin was president of the Chamber at the time. He and I were good friends, had been for a long time. A.C.T. was performing at Stanford University, and it was thought that it might be a wonderful idea to bring a company like A.C.T. to San Francisco. We had no theater of that type here. We had the traveling road shows but we had no repertory theater.
So we took a bus and went down to see the show that was performing at Stanford by these people. A fellow named William Ball was the head of it. We all liked it very, very much.
Glaser: It was headquartered at that time in Philadelphia, or was it in Pittsburgh?
Swig: I think they were in Pittsburgh at that time. But they weren't headquartered anywhere really. Ball was from Pennsylvania and they were kind of looking for a home. So we set about to try and create that home. Thanks to Cyril, Mortimer Fleishacker, and we did the first initial funding out of our own pockets to cause A.C.T. to come here. We negotiated with Ball, who was most
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Glaser Swig: Glaser: Swig:
difficult to deal with—he was the whole time he was here. We kicked it off and got it going and here we are all these years later. That was about 1967 I guess, something like that. They are still here. As a matter of fact, I think they are now about to celebrate their twenty- fifth year.
So Cyril, Morty, and I did all the work. No, Morty became the first president, then I became president, and then Cyril became president. I'm not sure of the order; it doesn't matter. I was the new kid on the block at that time compared to them. But they were so supportive and so helpful, and I was charged, as I say, with doing this thing. Morty came in a little later on. But it worked very well and became very successful.
It's still here and doing quite well. They had that terrible earthquake problem a couple of years ago that knocked out the theater.
Yes. It still isn't being used, is it?
No, but I think they are about to raise a whole bunch of money.
That was the Geary. The Curran is all right, isn't it?
The Curran is fine but the Geary got knocked out. It has to be rebuilt. Anyway that was a very exciting experience and very rewarding to have been able to bring an organization like that to San Francisco.
Civic League of Improvement Clubs and Associations of San Francisco
Glaser: The Civic League of Improvement Clubs and Associations of San Francisco. What is that all about?
Swig: Political Organization. It was formed initially by Mayor Elmer
Robinson and a whole bunch of political people, non- denominational (they were Republicans and Democrats) . They sent out a mailer to the community in support of candidates who, in the judgment of these people, were the best candidates to run for office for the city of San Francisco. Supervisors, mayors, propositions on the ballot, all those kinds of things they dealt with. It was a highly political situation and very powerful.
Glaser: It sounds as if this was a non-partisan organization.
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Swig: It was non-partisan. It got to be a little partisan from time to time, but everybody would make an eloquent speech about their own personal beliefs and strengths and there was a vote taken. It was very democratically done, and the majority won. They were pretty much on target.
Glaser: Sounds interesting.
Swig: I'll give you a funny story. I'll tell you a story which I think is interesting. A young lady by the name of Dianne Feinstein had her first run at the board of supervisors. I happened to be her finance chairman. I had known her since she was that big and her folks were friends of mine. She asked me to be her finance chairman and I did. Elmer Robinson, the former mayor and the head of this organization, and my father, who was very active in it, said to me, "You've got to get that girl out of the race. She's only going to muddy the waters." I said, "I'm sorry, gentlemen, she ain't getting out of the race. I hope you are going to support her before this is over." "No way. Got to get her out of the race." "Sorry, ain't going to happen."
As time went on they supported her. She won the board of supervisors race and became president of the board of supervisors. She got more votes than anybody else and ran a terrific race. Of course they became friendly thereafter.
Glaser: Was that a prejudice against women in general in politics?
Swig: No, I don't think it was that so much. There were women on the board of supervisors over the years. I don't think it was that. They just wanted to narrow the gap to some of their own people, I guess .
Commonwealth Club of California
Glaser: Commonwealth Club of California. Was this just a membership, or were you active?
Swig: No. I was on the board and I was on the executive committee, and I worked at it. Helped wherever I could in fundraising and other judgmental things that needed to be done before the board.
Glaser: What do you mean by that? Would you expand?
Swig: I mean whatever the problems were of running an organization I was involved with. I cast my votes, made my judgments. An example:
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they were talking about building a new building or buying a building, and doing this and doing that. Obviously I became involved in that. Just the general operations. I was always there, and I had served fairly well until recently. I had to resign because I just couldn't do the work anymore. I just couldn't handle all the things I was doing.
Crescent Porter Hale Foundation
Glaser: Crescent Porter Hale Foundation. Did Mr. Treguboff get you involved in that?
Swig: Not at all. It's a Catholic institution.
Glaser: I know that Florette Pomeroy before did she died--
Swig: I hired Florette.
Glaser: Oh, is that right? When I did Mr. Treguboff 's oral history1 the foundation had its name on the doorway and Florette was managing the foundation.
Swig: She was. She was a wonderful lady, marvelous lady. That
organization was started by two people by the name of Hale in Oakland. They lived in Piedmont. A friend of mine, Ed Keil, was a lawyer here in town with whom I had worked, not as a legal adviser but just in civic affairs. He said, "Mel, I need you to serve on this board. It's a small foundation and I would appreciate it if you could help us out. We need some people who know a little bit about fund giving." I liked the guy very much. He has passed away. He was a lovely man who lived in Woodside, I think. Anyway, he asked me to serve on it. I went over there, golly, I don't know how many years ago, a long time ago. I served on their board for quite some time. All of these older people who were on there finally left, and I became the president because I was about the only one left who knew anything about it.
Then the lady who had given this money, Mrs. Hale, passed away at age 101 . She was out of it for years , and she was always in bed and always with nurses and everything. When I first knew her she was reasonably with it and was a nice person but couldn't
*Sanford M. Treguboff, Administration of Jewish Philanthropy in San Francisco, Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley, 1988.
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navigate. So I finally became the president of this thing. We gave away very little money, and when she died all the additional money from her estate came to this foundation. They had one child, the Hales did, but he had passed away so there was nobody else to leave the money to. They were Catholic and we predominantly gave money to Catholic institutions, although we did civic things as well.
I stayed as president. I must have been there for I don't know how long, fifteen or twenty years I suppose. Finally I went on the Koret board, and I got so many other things to do I just couldn't continue on it. But I did hire Florette Pomeroy at a point in time and she handled it. That's when the new money came in, and we needed to be a lot more careful of where we were going and what we were doing. She did a superb job. She was wonderful.
Then I had the fortunate experience of introducing her to Ulla Davis, Rabbi Davis' wife. Ulla was looking for a change in her business career. She wanted to get into this kind of field. I introduced her to Florette and the two of them just fell in love with each other. Florette needed an assistant. Ulla was it. Florette was in partnership with Treguboff and Treg, of course, at that time was not as active as he had been. He wasn't as well as he could have been. So she needed additional help. Ulla stepped in and did the work.
Then, unfortunately, Florette died and Ulla became the head of the foundation. She ran it and she's done a marvelous job ever since. But she learned from Florette. Florette was her teacher.
Chairman. Easter Seal Campaign. 1963
Glaser: The next one I want to talk to you about is the Easter Seal Campaign. In 1963 you were the chairman.
Swig: Yes, for one year. It was a fundraising job just for the year Glaser: You didn't continue with it?
Swig: No, I didn't continue with it. I remember we had that blond comedienne, Phyllis Diller. She helped us raise money, I remember, that year and I was very impressed with her.
National Conference of Christians and Jews
Glaser: National Conference of Christians and Jews. You were on the board of directors for a long time I think.
Swig: Quite a few years. Yes. I still help. Glaser: Oh, you're still on it.
Swig: No. I'm not on the board. I still help them. It's a fundraising deal. They are a social service type organization. How it got to be named, "Conference of Christians and Jews," I don't know. The Christians and Jews got together in order to do some work in the community in a social service manner. The presentation was very good. The brotherhood type of thing occurred. They performed pretty well. They are not as strong as they ought to be. They need help. But it was fun working on it. We did a pretty good job.
Foreman. San Francisco City and County Grand Jury. 1969
Glaser
Swig:
San Francisco City and County Grand Jury foreman in 1969. were your functions?
What
In those days particularly, it's changed a little now, the grand jury was selected by presiding judges. All the judges put in names and there is a presiding judge. The judge that year was a Judge O'Day. He was more of a friend of my dad's than he was mine. He was much older than I was. A lovely man, Ed O'Day. My name was submitted by him and then one is selected by lot. All the names are thrown into a jar, and they are picked out, and that's how you get to go on the grand jury.
Finally, nineteen out of 100, or God knows how many, names are selected by lot. The presiding judge was Ed O'Day and I happened to be his selection, so I became foreman of the grand jury. That is a one-year job, a tough job. It requires being there Monday night, starting from seven until twelve, one, two o'clock in the morning, hearing various criminal cases that are presented by the district attorney's office. It requires study of all the city departments and making judgments as to their capabilities, where there were strengths, where there were weaknesses, suggestions and ideas. It requires a lot of committee work during the year to come to these conclusions. You have got nineteen people to deal with who are from all walks of life, and
Melvin M. Swig, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, and Professor William Haber, 1980.
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you have to come to a common denominator, an essay if you will, at the end to discuss all the things that you have done all year.
As to the government operation, in addition to hearing all these cases, which you do every Monday night, on Thursday you return the indictments . If you are down at City Hall around eleven o'clock, you're out of there by twelve fifteen. You return the indictments and the cases either go to trial or not, as the case may be. But you have to sit as judge and jury in deciding whether or not there should be an indictment returned against an individual. It isn't a trial but you hear evidence only presented by the district attorney, not by the defendant. So it's kind of an interesting job.
Glaser: How do these criminal cases differ from those that go to an ordinary court?
Swig: These eventually go to an ordinary court. The question is whether these cases should be tried or not. That's what we determine. We don't determine guilt. We determine only if the case should be tried or not. Like we had a murder case once, a husband killing a woman, a woman killing her husband, I forget which way it went. We threw it out. It was certainly a case of self-defense in our opinion. We said it should not be tried.
It's interesting. Even in those days, 1969, we were hearing a lot of drug cases back then. The first I ever saw marijuana, it was right in front of me on my desk. The foreman brought the stuff up, and I showed it to the jury. "This is marijuana. This is cocaine." I had never seen the stuff before and there it was.
Those kinds of cases, robbery, and breaking and entering types of cases. Friends of mine over on Washington Street who lived next to my brother, their house was ransacked. Their maid was tied up, they were tied up, and the house was robbed. They came in and they were witnesses, and I was cross-examining them and so forth. It was fun; it was interesting.
Incidentally, our grand jury, who were nineteen (now I think there are ten or eleven left of us), we meet twice a year every year. I think we are the only grand jury to my knowledge that does that.
Glaser: As a social event?
Swig: As a social thing. Twenty- two years later we still meet.
Glaser: That's interesting. So you became very close then.
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Swig: We all stayed together and we're still friends
Vice-President . San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
Glaser: When you were vice-president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, what was going on and what were your functions?
Swig: My functions for that were city planning. We did a lot of good things for the city and could have done more had we not met some opposition. One of the things we did was to run the one-way streets: Geary, Ellis, Eddy, Post Streets.
Glaser: Pine?
Swig: Pine and Bush already were one-way. We made all those one-way
streets so they could increase the traffic flow through the city.
if
Swig: We created the first truck-only loading zones in the city. We
then created bus lanes of traffic, I remember, on Geary Street, on Sacramento Street, on Post Street. We made a bus -only zone at certain hours of the day for buses to have exclusive use of those zones to move the buses through the city in a better way. Those were some of the things that we were responsible for.
We had a wonderful plan that was going to connect up- -you' 11 be happy to hear this --that stub of a road that comes in on Highway 280 extension. We had a plan to come around through the city, tear down the Embarcadero Freeway, submerge it (very similar to what the mayor has proposed now) , and then connect up eventually by going out Bay Street and then out into the Bay, underneath the Bay, outside of the St. Francis Yacht Club, coming up to the Golden Gate Bridge and meeting the Golden Gate Bridge. This would have circumvented the entire city with all that traffic around the city.
Glaser: Interesting.
Swig: It was a marvelous plan. The only reason we would have been able to do it was that the state at that time, if we created bus -only lanes as a part of this, would give us $200 million dollars. That was a lot of money in those days . There was also federal money involved that would have helped this thing too at that time. We had a public hearings on it. Gosh, we did all kinds of wonderful things. At that time BART was finishing up on Market Street. I
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Glaser : Swig:
Glaser:
Swig:
Glaser: Swig:
don't know whether you recall how much devastation there was to the city doing that: the upsetting of traffic, and retailers having trouble, and all the people along Market Street complaining about the terrible upset that they were in. But that's the only way the thing could have been built.
Well, all the people out at Fisherman's Wharf and in the Marina District remembered this BART thing. They opposed this thing like you can't believe. I guess I can't blame them really because I knew it would have been upsetting. But that would have been such a wonderful plan for the city that it would have been well worthwhile to have done it. It was a once only chance because all this money was available to do it. Otherwise it couldn't have been done.
So we worked and we worked and we fought and we fought, and we met with the police departments and the traffic departments and God only knows what. We went to Sacramento to meet with Reagan's people (he was governor at the time) , trying to get him to get this money and get the approval from the state, from the U.S. Army, from everybody else we had to get approval from. And we did, we had it through except for the opposition within the city. That was one of the more exciting plans that I think we did that year.
The other that I told you about we accomplished. We did that and it was successful. Still is, even to the zones of pedestrian-only traffic, some of the downtown streets along Montgomery Street.
Did you have anything to do with height limitation on new buildings?
No. We didn't. That was not something that came up at that time. We had our hands full doing what we did. It was fun though. It was interesting.
All you have to do is go down Lombard Street at commute time and you will know how much that was needed.
Oh yes, and still is. All the accidents that happen on the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge.
That's right.
We would have eliminated that.
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San Francisco Citv Parking Corporation
Glaser: San Francisco City Parking Corporation. You were president of the board of directors. Did that consider building new underground garages?
Swig: Yes. The city in its infinite wisdom decided they didn't like
garages in downtown. The reason they didn't like garages was they wanted people not to bring their cars downtown. What they didn't know, however, was that people were going to bring their cars downtown anyway. So we got together. Cyril Magnin was involved with me too, and that's where I first met this lawyer on the Crescent Porter Hale Foundation, Ed Keil.
So we put together a non-profit garage. We had to go through the parking authority to get this done. We were going to increase the tolls on parking meters from 5C to IOC, which would have raised $5- $6 -$700, 000 a year. With that, through bonds, we could build some short-term parking garages downtown to get the traffic off the streets and move the traffic through the streets in a better way. That was our whole purpose.
Now I have to recall back why the damn thing never went through. There was opposition to it. We had it all set up; we had the parking authority done. I guess we just never were able to sell it to the board of supervisors properly, and they turned it down. They just didn't want garages downtown. They put such restrictions on them, made it so difficult, it never happened. They passed the increase of the meters. [Laughter] That went into the city budget. It never went to what we wanted to do.
Glaser: Where would you have put these garages?
Swig: Wherever we could find land and build them. We were going to build one down near the waterfront, where it would have been tremendous for today's purposes. We had one over here at the end of Sansome Street, near Sansome Street somewhere. Those were two sites I remember we looked at. Wherever we could have fit, wherever we could have afforded to buy land and build a garage.
Glaser: This was more on the periphery? Swig: More on the periphery.
o c\ a\
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Commissioner. San Francisco Housine Authoritv. 1962-1965
Glaser: Now this is an interesting one: San Francisco Housing Authority. You were a commissioner.
Swig: Yes.
Glaser: That must have called for a lot of time on your part.
Swig: It did. I was young then though. That was about 1962 or 1963, I believe. Something like that, in that vicinity. I was appointed by George Christopher. I was playing golf one day out at Lake Merced on a Friday afternoon. I got a call on the telephone and was told, "Please call the mayor immediately." I called him. He said, "Mel, can you come right down to see me?" I said, "Yes, but I'm on the golf course." He said, "I want to talk to you about a commission. I need to discuss it with you."
So I got dressed and went down to see him. He said, "I want you to serve on the housing authority. A couple of your friends have recommended you very strongly, and I think it would be a good idea." "Tell me what it's all about." He explained it and I said, "Well, that sounds interesting. Okay, I'll do it." I was a fairly young kid at that time and it seemed like a good thing to do . It was .
So I served on there for about two or three years , I guess . It was somebody's unexpired term as I recall. Then Shelley came in. The interesting thing was that Christopher I had not supported when he ran for governor, but I was a friend. He wasn't really anybody that I had supported very strongly. Shelley came in, whom I had supported for a reason that I'll mention in a minute. He didn't reappoint me and I'll tell you why. On that board were some people, one of whom is a black fellow whom I still correspond with: Sol Johnson. He lives in Hawaii. Another fellow was a Chinese fellow, Dr. T.K. Lee, a lovely man. Another one was Joe Mazzola, the head of the plumber's union. Another guy was a good friend of George Christopher's, and I can't quite remember his name. And myself. There were five of us.
All the meetings are open to the public. There were problems in the housing authority. I went to meetings in Denver and I went to Washington. I was learning all about housing and what you do and how you do it. I think I was a pretty good director. We decided that we needed some social -worker type to handle our community relations with the tenants. In a private meeting (about personnel, you can hold private meetings. The Brown Act says you can't hold private meetings except about personnel.) The rest of
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us go into this private meeting with Mazzola and decide to hire this lovely black lady. She was a doll. He was raising hell about it because she was black and all kinds of racial things, and it was just a total disgrace. But we outvoted him three to two.
We came out to the public meeting later on to do this, and Mazzola talked totally different from what he had talked in the meeting. I was turned off terribly. He was eloquent in praising that she was black, all the opposite things to what he had said just a half hour before. Well, that turned me off pretty good. He was that kind of a man. He wasn't doing the housing authority the best job in my opinion. Not only that, but some other things.
But this guy Johnson, the black fellow, and I (and he was a lawyer incidentally, a very nice guy) , and we had one other vote we could always count on, I think it was the Chinese fellow, Dr. T.K. Lee, and on occasion we would get the fourth. But Mazzola was always the guy who was causing the trouble.
Anyway, it was an interesting couple of three years that I put in there. When Shelley called me up one day he said, "What do you think about reappointment?" I said, "Well, I'll tell you Jack, I won't take it if you keep Mazzola as president. You've got to put on somebody else as president of that board. It just isn't going to work well if he is president as far as I'm concerned." So guess who they kicked off. I was. Mazzola had the juice, if you will, the political clout, to keep himself on and I went off. But it was an interesting two or three years. I'm glad I served on it; it was good experience.
Glaser: During your term of office, was public housing constructed?
Swig: Oh yes. We built the housing for seniors over on Sacramento
Street near Presbyterian Hospital. You know that apartment house on Sacramento? Well, you may not know it. You live on the other side of the bay, don't you?
Glaser: There is a Jewish complex, Menorah Park, but you don't mean that.
Swig: No, not Jewish. It's public housing for seniors. Still is. And we built other buildings around the city. We had a police department of our own. We tried to take care of the apartments as best we could, do them right. They had some real problems, as you can imagine. There were a lot of drugs starting out in that area at that time. There was vandalism and all the usual things that you have in a low income kind of environment. But we did a pretty good job by and large, and we took care of a lot of people who needed a lot of help.
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Glaser
Swig:
Glaser:
Swig:
Glaser:
Swig:
Glaser Swig:
It seems to me that public housing has fallen into disrepute. And disrepair.
Wasn't it some years ago in St. Louis that they actually tore down some public housing?
I visited that in St. Louis. I was there.
I think in Chicago they have found that it is--
What happens is that you try to help people but it gets to be a way of life, and not a very healthy way of life for people. You're clustering a whole bunch of people in a bad environment, really, because drugs and robbery and other things occur and have occurred, which has deteriorated the whole living environment. People live in fear in those housing developments.
Especially the high rises.
Especially the high rises. The theory today is that people ought to try to find a way to buy them, then they take care of them. So there is a move afoot to try and work along those lines. So they have deteriorated over the years, but at that time it wasn't that bad. I said we had a police department and we ran them pretty well. There is always going to be vandalism. There was vandalism. There was the beginnings of these things that later on occurred. They were beginning to happen. There were some serious problems in running them. It was very difficult, but it was, in our opinion, quite worthwhile.
Chairman. San Francisco International Film Festival. 1965 [Interview 5: November 21, 1991 ]////
Glaser: We were talking last time about your involvement with non- Jewish
organizations in the past. I would like to pick up with some more of those. You were the chairman of the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1965. How did that come about?
Swig: I was on the board of the chamber of commerce and a man by the
name of Bill Bird was president at that time. He wanted someone to run this film festival and he said, "You're it." I said, "I don't know anything about films. I don't even go to the movies at all." He said, "You're it. I'll put together the staff, you'll have all the support in the world, and we want you to take that
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on." Bill was a good friend and I found it hard to say no so I did it. I learned a lot about film festivals.
Glaser: What was involved in being chairman?
Swig: Everything. We had to start from scratch out here. There was a film festival that had run here before and it had been moderately successful but not completely so. A fellow named Levin was the guy who ran it.
Glaser: Was that Mel Levin who had movie houses?
Swig: He had movie houses. Not Mel, Bud. Anyway, he was having
financial difficulty running the festival. Somebody asked the chamber to take it on and the chamber agreed to do that. They needed people to run it, so they gave me a great staff of people.
We went to Cannes to the film festival and there a man from MGM whose name I've forgotten, a wonderful guy, helped me tremendously. He helped me and the others, but I personally met with him a few times before we got the others involved. He was just tremendously helpful in guiding us how to do what and why and when.
We did it. We had people on our board who were just terrific, particularly Barnaby Conrad II, Shirley Temple Black, Dave Sacks who was in at Channel 5, I guess. I'm trying to think of some of the others who were on there. Claude Jarman, a good friend. He won an academy award as a child star. Stanley Mosk, who is now a judge, Patty Costello, Marianne Goldman. A fellow named Albert Johnson, a professor at the University of California who was a walking encyclopedia of film. Those last four I mentioned plus a man by the name of Bill Boyd who was on the staff of the chamber at that time went to the Cannes festival together and just did a great job. We put that whole package together, and lo and behold we turned out a film festival at the Masonic Temple that was really a star here in the city.
Glaser: How did you select the films that were shown?
Swig: We went to Cannes. Part of our rules, as I recall, was that they must be foreign films, no domestic films. I take that back. That isn't quite true. They had to be shown at the film festival, not introduced in this country prior to the time of our showing the film, including domestic. They could not have been shown in this country before the festival. It was truly an international film festival with international film festival rules.
Melvin M. Swig and Danny Kays at Cannes Film Festival, 1968.
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Glaser Swig:
We went to Cannes, as I said, and we learned a great deal from this man who was just terrific to us. With all the knowledge of the other people who were on our board and on our committee , we gained a great deal of insight and knowledge. We had very good people who helped us in the promotion of it and the work and the detail of the local community involvement in the film festival. It wasn't just that we wanted to show it for international flavor but we wanted the community to be involved. We had parties for every socialite in town all over the place, you know, and different events going on at different times. We had retrospectives of old movie stars and introduced them here in afternoon sessions which, incidentally, were very successful. We had over the years some of the top names in the business.
It was really an exciting gathering and an exciting event for San Francisco. It ran for about ten days, as I recall, and we just had wonderful audiences, and it became an important event in San Francisco. I ran it for that first year. These people later succeeded me as chairman of the event. I know I'm not thinking of all of the names on there, but they were a very fine group of people altogether.
Were you involved in subsequent years?
I was involved but not running it, and not to the extent that I was that year. Once the pattern had been developed, it was a lot easier to keep the thing going because the good things we found out that we were doing we continued, the bad things we changed. There weren't too many bad things, though. It worked amazingly well.
Glaser: You were on the board and treasurer of the San Francisco Life Insurance Company.
Swig: Before we get there, back in the film festival, that's where I first met the gal I'm now married to.
Glaser: Is that right?
Swig: She was then going with Jack Mailliard, who became her husband a short time later. Jack and Charlotte and my later to-be-wife, Dee, became good friends over the years. When we both lost our spouses, we finally wound up getting married.
Glaser: I did the mathematics and that is now twenty- five, twenty- six years ago .
Swig: Twenty-six years ago, yes. Anyway, you were asking about the San Francisco Life--
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San Francisco Life Insurance Company
Glaser Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser: Swig:
San Francisco Life Insurance Company.
Well, that was a company owned by a man by the name of Karl Bach, or started by him. He asked me to join in the company and I did. I think I was treasurer of the company. It was a fairly successful venture and subsequently sold to another company. We all made money on it. It was fun doing it.
I've heard about Mr. Bach and I understand he was a refugee who got his start by selling insurance to other refugees and was very successful .
Actually, he got his start before that. house Fuller brushes.
Oh really? Interesting.
He was selling house to
He was a refugee; he was from Germany. He was a butcher in Germany, or his family was. I guess he was. He was pretty young when he came here. He managed to get out before the onslaught and came to San Francisco and did start selling insurance finally to other German people. He became one of the most successful life insurance salesmen in the country. A wonderful guy, kind, charitable, a good person all the way, very bright, very able; he did a wonderful job in the insurance business.
State SavinEs and Loan Association of Stockton
Glaser
Swig:
State Savings and Loan Association of Stockton, board of directors at one point?
You were on the
I was there for a fairly short time with a friend of mine by the name of Sonny Marx, who is still around. Others of us made an investment in State Savings and Loan. He asked me to serve on that board and I did. It wasn't for too long, though. He subsequently sold the company and that was the end of that.
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Stanford University Jewish Studies Program
Glaser: You were on the advisory board of Stanford University's Jewish studies.
Swig: Yes. I wasn't terribly active in it but it's a very good
department. It's a Judaic study program and it's doing a very fine job at Stanford. It is very well attended and is becoming stronger and stronger each day, from everything I know about it. They work very closely with the program at USF [University of San Francisco] and at Cal and at G.T.U. [Graduate Theological Union]. They share speakers, for instance, who come through. Each of these organizations use those speakers so that it is good for all of the Judaic studies programs. There is a network of Judaic studies in this community now that is very, very strong. Stanford is one of the finer ones there is in the country today.
Glaser: I think it was expanded several years ago. Swig: Yes, it was.
President. Lake Merced Golf and Country Club
Glaser
Swig:
Lake Merced Golf and Country Club, that. What did that entail?
You were the president of
I was many, many years ago. I've forgotten how long ago it was; I guess it must be over thirty years. I merely acted as president. I was on the board and they elected me president. That meant I had all the duties and obligations of a president running an organization. Of course, they had other people on the board with me. I merely ran the meetings and we all dictated policy in effect together. I was the supposed leader of the group for that time.
There were a lot of things going on at that time. Highway 280 came right through our property and took about thirteen, fourteen acres away from us. So we had to build a new club house and redesign the golf course and do all those things. I was at the beginning of that and began to get thinking going on what we would do and how we would do it at that time.
Glaser: What sort of policy did it have for accepting members?
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Swig: We accepted everybody. We have, and do have at that club today, male,* female, black, white, yellow, whoever is a good person can join.
Glaser: The only standard being that you can afford the membership?
Swig: You can afford it and you have to be a reasonably good, decent person.
United Way of the Bay Area
Glaser: You were on the board of directors of the United Way of the Bay Area. Were there problems during that time?
Swig: There are always problems. No major ones. It was interesting, I enjoyed it, met some good people. I think I served two terms on that if I'm not mistaken.
Glaser: Was there anything unusual going on during your period on the board?
Swig: Yes, but I don't remember. We had nothing major, nothing terrible .
Bay Area Council
Glaser: Now (I'm going into current memberships on boards) you are on the Bay Area Council. What is that?
Swig: The Bay Area Council is an organization (and I'm not on that
anymore; I've recently gone off it) of people around the Bay- -it's mostly corporate types --who deal with the growth of the Bay Area, the environment of the Bay Area, the housing of the Bay Area, the transportation of the Bay Area, and all the major things affecting the Bay Area. Trying to use that organization in concert with all these people to promote the good welfare for the Bay Area. It is more practically a study group than anything else.
Glaser: In yesterday's paper, there was an article about a push for
regionalism. Would this organization be involved in that sort of thing?
Swig: Yes, very definitely.
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Glaser: Are you in favor of regionalism?
Swig: I think you have to be in today's climate.
Bov Scouts of America
Glaser: Boy Scouts of America, on the advisory board.
Swig: Peripherally involved. Merv Morris and I have given a lunch that we sponsor each year for the Boy Scouts. We've been a little remiss. Remiss is not the right word. We've been a little upset about the fact that they had some policies that we didn't care for too much this year. Maybe you've noticed that they have talked about gay young men and wanted to exclude them from becoming members of the Boy Scouts. Merv and I have a different opinion on that.
Brown University
Glaser: This is something that is near and dear to you: Brown University. You've been a trustee since 1974.
Swig: Is that correct? Yes, I guess that's about right. I was a
trustee for one six-year term. It was 1974. I'll have to look and see myself. No, I was a trustee from 1981 to 1987 and then went back on again in 1989 and that goes until 1995 if I am still here.
Glaser: And you are a member of the Brown Foundation? Swig: Is that right? I don't think so. Glaser: You helped to run the--
Swig: I helped run the Brown fundraising campaign for a couple of years, which would be maybe 1985, 1986, or 1986 and 1987. I think 1985 and 1986. I ran the fundraising campaign nationally for Brown while I was a trustee. I did do that. But the Brown Fund doesn't ring a bell to me.
Glaser: But you received the--
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Swig: The Brown Annual Fund is a part of that campaign if that's what you mean. Maybe that's it. But that's a part and parcel of the total campaign. It's the alumni fundraising part of the campaign.
Glaser: You received the L.E. Leonard, Jr., Distinguished Achievement Award .
Swig: I did.
Glaser: That must have given you a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction.
Swig: It did. But the honorary degree I got a couple of years ago was
even better. That I enjoyed more for obvious reasons. I received another minor honorary something or other from Brown as well, so I've been well rewarded for my work at Brown. It's been very rewarding .
Glaser: You are very close to the university.
Swig: I am and still am. I am on that board still. The new president is a man by the name of Vartan Gregorian who came in a couple of years ago, almost two years now, and who's doing a super job at Brown, a wonderful guy. The previous president, Howard Swearer (whom I knew), just a month ago passed away, unfortunately, a young man fifty- eight years old, from cancer. He had done a marvelous job at Brown. He had really done great things. He had decided that he had been president for about eleven years, something like that, and that he had burnt himself out a little bit. So we brought in this new guy by the name of Gregorian, who is just a totally different kind of person but equally remarkable and who will, I think, carry Brown on to bigger and better things.
Civilian Advisory Committee
Glaser: You are on the board of the Civilian Advisory Committee, the department of the army that has to do with the Presidio.
Swig: I was more active in that, I'm not very active in that at all today. With the Presidio going out of business, it's academic anyway .
Glaser: What did the board do?
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Swig: We met with the generals over there and did everything in our
power locally to build up a good quality relationship between the civilian population and the military.
Columbia Park Boys' Club
Glaser:
Swig:
Would you talk about the Columbia Park Boys' Club, the board.
You were on
Glaser Swig:
Columbia Park Boys' Club is out in the Mission. They have about fifteen hundred young men who are helped in their athletic endeavors or artistic endeavors and have a place to go where they can elevate the quality of life for those young people who are coming mostly from a very poor and humble background. The organization has been in business for a long, long time. My father was on that board long before me, and it has been in business for, gee, I don't remember how long, but a very, very long time.
I have enjoyed the work on that and now it's about to become a boys' and girls' club, so that they are joint venturing with the young ladies out there. I think the board just voted two or three weeks ago for this change. I know I voted for it. It will require some fundraising, obviously, to make the changes necessary to have women there as well as men, or girls as well as boys, I should say. They are not adults yet. It has done just a wonderful job in that community in elevating life for all those young people.
What are the age groups?
They run anywhere from about eight to eighteen, something in that order.
Koret Foundation
Glaser: You were appointed to the board of the Koret Foundation in 1986; this was after the lawsuit.1
1A legal battle for control of the multi-million dollar Koret Foundation was settled out of court in June 1986. Mrs. Susan Koret, chairman of the foundation, had sought to remove the three directors, who
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Swig: Yes..
Glaser: Were you involved in the lawsuit at all?
Swig: No. Not at all.
Glaser: When the audit was done, was there anything wrong that came to light?
Swig: No. There were a couple of relatively minor things that did come to light. The people involved paid their dues and the attorney general ruled on it and that was the end of it.
Glaser: What do you mean, they paid their dues?
Swig: They paid some penalties or fines or what have you.
Glaser: For wrongdoing?
Swig: For some relatively little wrongdoing. They paid a lot of attorneys' fees too.
Glaser: I imagine so. What was the effect of your serving on both the
Koret Foundation and the Federation Community Endowment Fund? Was there a conflict of interest there?
Swig: No, no. The Koret Foundation has nothing to do with the Federation.
Glaser: It gives it a lot of money.
Swig: That's a different story. It's a separate foundation having
nothing to do with the Federation. It's intent is to help the Jewish community. No less than 50 percent of its money goes to Jewish causes, both domestically and overseas. It gives a little over fifty percent each year, usually 51, 52 percent, to all these causes. But it has no relationship to the Federation; only in the compatibility. It enjoys, likes, and appreciates what the Federation does and gives it a fair amount of money each year.
countersued to have Mrs. Koret removed as chairman allegations of financial mismanagement.
Also involved were
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Not only the Federation in San Francisco but also Oakland and San Jose.
Glaser: But your serving on the board of the endowment fund and the Koret Foundation, would that have an impact on decisions as to how the funds should be used by the endowment fund from the Koret Foundation? No?
Swig: No. The money that is given by the Koret Foundation to the
Federation goes to its annual programs, not to the endowment fund,
Glaser: I see, to the Federation itself.
Swig: Yes. It had nothing to do with the endowment fund.
United Negro College Fund
Glaser: You are on the advisory board of the United Negro College Fund.
Swig: Yes.
Glaser: Where does that fund meet?
Swig: It doesn't meet very often. I meet with its director. Shirley
Matthews is her name. I'm not as active as I once was but I have raised every year quite a lot of money for them. It goes to forty different black colleges in the United States, and supports those colleges- -fundraising.
Glaser: Do you have anything to do with policymaking?
Swig: No. Each college runs its own show, but this fund, throughout the country, raises money, and each of those schools is given money from this fund.
United Services Organization fUSOl
Glaser: I see. You are on the World Board of Governors for the USO, the United Service Organization.
Swig: I was until June of this year, I think it was, when my term expired. I think I was for eight or ten years maybe.
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Glaser: What was the function of the board of governors?
Swig: Well, the board of governors was a board that supported, helped, and advised for the USO throughout the world. As you know, the USO is not only a Bob Hope show type of operation but helps all service people. And now, with the way things run, it helps their families, in Europe, in Israel, in the Mediterranean areas, Korea, the Philippines, and all the local bases where those people come, like San Francisco. We have out at the airport an office and all the folks coming into this port are met by the USO. Family advice is given where to stay, where to go, do you need money, what can we do to help you, all that kind of service, how the kids are handled. All that takes place at each port all over this country and all over the world. A huge work.
Glaser: Mr. Swig, that sounds like the Red Cross' function.
Swig: Oh no, not at all. Red Cross has nothing like that at all that I know of. The Red Cross functions mostly in the handing out coffee and doughnuts type of thing as far as the military is concerned. This is a family function. We have people over there helping families, helping with schools, helping with all kinds of emotional problems with families being transplanted all over the place. A whole bunch of things that they do that are over and above the entertainment process that takes place.
Glaser: I'm a little surprised to hear this because USO to me meant a
meeting place where you could play ping pong, get a free hot dog, and that was about it.
Swig: That's what most people think. That was World War II. That's how it started. The USO is only fifty years old now, that's all it is. It is, relatively speaking, a young organization. It started during World War II; people like Bob Hope and all those wonderful entertainers who went out all over the place. Entertaining the troops was the first order of business. You remember all the dance places that the boys and girls --
Glaser: Stagedoor Canteen?
Swig: That's right; all that stuff took place at that time. Anything to help the troops. We were in wartime, that kind of environment. But after the war ended the USO continued. We have a permanent military force that was not like it was prior to World War II, where we had practically no force. Our troops were all over the world at that time. We had troops in Germany by the bucketful. The Korean War started early in the fifties. We had troops over in Korea, still do. Troops in Japan. We are all over the world.
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
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Our folks then began to travel with families, their kids, the wives. It was a whole social service aspect that took place that we never had before. The USO does that and does it very, very well. I used to scream at them a lot, telling them, "We don't tell our story. Everyone thinks of us still as just the entertainment part. We don't do that. We are a social service agency providing huge services for the military all over the world, doing a wonderful job."
I guess I thought of the Red Cross because I know that during World War II if a service man needed compassionate leave because a family member was dying or was very ill, the Red Cross handled that.
Yes, they did that. But that was a relatively minor kind of thing compared to what's going on today.
I want to move on to ask you about Israel. Why is it so central to your life?
Why? I guess you have to go back to my earlier beginnings, which occurred in the thirties, when the Father Coughlins of the world and the Nazis--
I have to interrupt you. you.
There was one more thing I wanted to ask
Swig: All right. Go ahead.
Fundraising for San Francisco's New Main Library
Glaser: You and Mrs. Swig are co-chairmen to raise funds for the new main library in San Francisco.
Swig: Yes.
Glaser: Would you tell me about that?
Swig: Okay. A year and a half ago, I suppose, Ann Getty and Marjorie
Stern and some others had us over to the Getty house and unloaded on us this program of raising money for the library (the bond issue had then been passed for the city to fill the library) . They asked us to raise the money to complete the interior of the building, which was going to be a $30 million project, $5 million of which was to be an endowment. We thought it over and kind of liked the idea. The library is such a necessary part of our
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community, and it deals with education in all facets of it, we thought it would be good if we did it.
So we agreed to take on a project of raising $30 million in this community. We're well on our way. We already have over $12 million raised and we're working on the next five or six. We hope to get in a few more million before the end of the year. We are working on that and I hope we will be very successful.
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
So it's going to be a new building, renovation of the old building.
It's not going to be the
That's correct. The new building will go down where the planning department used to be at Civic Center, nearer to Market Street. It will front on the Civic Center and be compatible with the present library in its design. It will be much bigger and much better laid out than the present library and therefore much more useful. It's a magnificent new building. The city passed a bond issue for $109 million and received a 77 percent positive vote on it, which is unheard of for that. To get 55 or 58 percent is a terrific victory and this got 77 percent. So it is very largely supported by the community.
The problem for us is that it has no alumni, it has no boards, it has no people whom you can get out to raise money for it. Everybody loves the library, but there aren't that many people involved with it who can go out and raise the funds. Martin Paley was hired to be the professional for fundraising with his staff. Charlotte and I and Martin and his staff have raised the bulk of the money, practically all of the money so far, and it looks as if we're going to have to do the bulk of it ourselves. It is very hard to get volunteers to go out and raise money for it.
I imagine so . Foundation?
Is Martin Paley connected with the San Francisco
Used to be.
When you refer to his organization, what is it?
He has himself and several other people, three or four other people, who assist him in his organization. They are hired by the library foundation to be the fundraising professionals for raising this money.
Glaser: So he's acting as a consultant.
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Swig: That's correct. Yes.
Glaser: What's going to happen to the old building?
Swig: The talk is, and it. hasn't been decided yet, that the Asian Art Museum will take that over, have its own drive, restore it, and make an Asian Art Museum out of it. The one that is out in Golden Gate Park now.
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XVI MORE ON ISRAEL
Centralitv of Israel
Glaser: I interrupted you when you had started to talk about Israel. Let's go back now.
Swig: Okay.
Glaser: And I asked you why it has played such a central role in your life.
Swig: I guess part of it is the fact that I was brought up and was a young man during the thirties when Hitler took over Germany and persecuted the Jews. I was humiliated very many times by my peers, in terms of anti-Semitism. I fought my way through school part of the time.
Then, of course, World War II came along and all the terrible atrocities that we heard about occurred. Finally, the opportunity to have a place where Jews could call home became possible in 1947. The state was formed in 1948 and it just enveloped me as far as being the right thing to do, and the right place to go, and the right thing they had for our people. The old expression of the Wandering Jew has been prevalent for so many generations; here was a place to settle down, build roots, and make something that was very, very good. Had they been left alone and allowed to do all the things they wanted to do, it would have prospered much better than it has. But having been burdened with terrible wars and atrocities that they have had to experience, they have been slower in their development than they might otherwise have done, but still have done a remarkably fine job.
Glaser: You and your family have been very involved. What have you done in Israel? By that I mean your contributions.
Swig: You mean financial?
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Glaser: Yes.
Swig: Gosh. The first thing, of course, is that we support the
Federation very strongly. Depending on what year you are talking, a fairly good percentage of the money goes to Israel. Over and above that, we have endowed chairs at the universities, we've built buildings and raised tons of money for it, gotten deeply involved in the Israel bond program as well as the Federation. So we've made what I hope are significant and continuing contributions to the State of Israel.
Glaser: How many times have you visited?
Swig: I don't know how many times, but I guess it's over twenty. I don't know how many; I've never counted.
Political Situation
Glaser: What do you think about the current political situation in Israel?
Swig: I think that it's a very difficult one. I tend to get very upset with the extreme religious parties over there who are like the tail wagging the dog. As a matter of fact, at Koret Foundation, we are working to help to change the electoral system there so that they don't have those splinter groups controlling the balance of power. So that a government can be formed that will be independent of those people, because they are very extreme in their points of view and the bulk of Israel is not extreme. I've heard that 80, 85 percent generally would approve of an electoral reform that would eliminate that problem.
Interesting that in all the history of Israel, when Ben Gurion was alive and Go Ida ^ir and so forth, they never had an absolute control of the go\ nment by votes for their party. There always were the splinter parties that they had to deal with in order to make the government function. They never had control and it's high time, it seems to me, that they elect one party and that party has control- -that they elect the individual, not the party. That's what we're working for and eventually, if that becomes successful, then hopefully the Knesset members will also be elected in the same way. That will give them an opportunity to accept or reject whoever is in the party, the elected official. If they like him, they keep him in; if they don't like him, they vote him out.
Glaser: You're talking about the direct election of the prime minister.
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Swig: They were Jews. Jews living in Israel were Palestinians the same as these people were. They all lived in Palestine. So Jews are Palestinians as well.
Glaser: Oh yes, but the Palestinians are Arabs, they are not Jews.
Swig: No, Palestinians are Jews. They have become Arabs. The Arabs
call their people the Palestinians, but the Jews were Palestinians just as much as the Arabs were.
Glaser: Yes.
Swig: We have all forgotten that because the term Palestinians means today Arabs. But Jews are Palestinians too; there were a whole bunch of Jews living with those so-called Palestinians at that time before Israel became a state. Those people are Palestinians as well.
So when Israel became a state, Jordan was living next to what became Israel, and Jordan was the fighter that took over Jerusalem and so forth. The people who were then living in Palestine decided to call themselves Palestinians, those Arabs. That's how the name was founded, I think. They became a symbol. The ones who were living in what is now Israel were told by the Arabs, "Get out of there. Come with us. Fight the Jews. We'll get back in. You'll take back over. Don't worry about it."
Well, they didn't win the war. Israel fought them off. So they used those people, those Palestinians, as symbols of the terrible thing that Israel had done to them. They kept them in camps. They didn't have to keep them in camps. I was in Amman, Jordan, with my father and my late wife in 1977. I don't know whether I told you this or not. We were there as guests of the then queen; she provided a car and driver. There in the middle of Amman, Jordan, was a Palestinian camp, three generations of people living in it. Why do they keep that there? Why don't they let them be a part of their whole community? Only for one reason. They want to keep it as a symbol to show what the Israelis have done , the Jews have done .
Right in the heart of Amman, Jordan, we saw it. The driver described it to us. That was the kind of thing that was occurring down near Jericho. They had a whole bunch of camps down there. They kept them there for years. Why? Gaza- -the Israelis tried to give it back to the Egyptians; they wouldn't take it. Israel tried to build housing there; the United Nations wouldn't let them. What are you supposed to do with it. Israel didn't want it; Egypt didn't want it. But Israel was forced to hold onto it
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Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser
Swig:
Correct.
How are you working for this?
We are working with some organizations as a study group to find a way to do this. We are allowed to do that and we are. Hopefully, something good will come of it. It may be that I'll go over there next spring and work on it myself. We already have hired some people to do that for us up to this point, and organizations who are working in that regard. If necessary, I would like to participate in it because I feel very strongly about it. I shouldn't be as dramatic as saying the survival of Israel depends on it, but I think that to a large extent that its good survival will depend on it. I think that if they overcome their rigid rules today, they will prosper and benefit more than they might otherwise do.
Are there any other changes you would like to see brought about in Israel?
Yes, I would like to see some peace over there. I hope they can find some way to make peace , because they spend an inordinate amount of their money and their budget into warfare kinds of elements. Having to keep a very large standing army, to buy all the weaponry that they have to buy, it's not exactly what you would call a wealthy community. They don't have the natural resources there that the oil rich nations do. That's what takes so damn much money from all the people around the world to support them and help them. If they didn't have that unusual burden, they could develop their own industries in a better way and become much more self-sufficient.
Arab-Israeli Relations
Glaser: How much land would you be willing to give up for peace?
Swig: I would be willing to give up enough land for peace to keep their security, to keep it strong, and to give an element of feeling for the Palestinians to have their own symbol, if you will. They are really attached to Jordan, they always have been, so I don't feel like-- I could get in a long discussion about that one, but they are Jordanians. The Palestinians are also Jews; they don't mention that .
Glaser: You don't mean Jews; you mean they are Semitic.
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Swig: Syria, for gosh sakes, is worse than Saddam Hussein.
Glaser: I wanted to ask you about the Golan Heights. When we talk about giving up land for peace, that would be very dangerous, wouldn't it?
Swig: I don't know if you remember or not, but before the 1973 war, and I visited there many times and I've seen it, they barricaded the concrete abutments that were put in to hold their guns so that they could shoot at the land down below. Is Israel going to let them do that again? You know damn well there won't be peace. There can't be peace with a guy like Assad. Assad is worse than the guy over in Iraq, and God knows he's bad enough. But Assad is probably worse.
It's interesting that the world doesn't care that he took over Lebanon, destroyed a beautiful city, a wonderful place which lived in relative peace with Israel for many, many years. He took over and Arafat took over in there and destroyed the country. The world doesn't seem to care about that. Only about Israel do they care and make a fuss. There is Lebanon and Beirut, its great city, it was the Paris of the Middle East, if you recall. It was destroyed, totally destroyed. Nobody raises a hand. Nobody says anything.
So give them something? Yes, give them a token, but that's about all I would want to give, if it mean peace. If it meant peace, I would give them something, but it would have to be a damn good peace .
You see the Arabs today. Did anybody raise a question about Iraq and Iran in the war that went on for eight years and killed 1.7 million young people. Mr. Bush, our great president, was supporting the Iraqis because they were fighting the Iranians. There everybody was feeding them arms and plowing everything into them. The same thing will happen again, I believe, because there will be some other reason why to help them. Now, they are playing the same game with Syria. "If you make peace, we're going to give you this, we're going to give you that." All the same kind of--
Will there be peace over there? I don't think so. First of all, the Arabs kill the Arabs more than they kill the Jews. The only thing that they have in common is that they hate the Jews . That's the only thing that I know of that they have in common. Other than that they butcher each other like mad.
I remember I had dinner one night in Israel with a friend of mine, and he brought along a general and his wife. That general
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Glaser :
Swig:
Glaser:
and take all the abuse of the Gaza Strip. Most of those Gazans were working in Israel; that's where they made their living. The Egyptians didn't take care of them, but Israel did.
But when that non- Palestinian Arafat got involved and built up the emotions of all these people, they had a symbol to fight for and they were going to kick the Jews out. They never liked them anyway, let's face it- -for the most part.
So what are we talking about, the Palestinians? But the world doesn't know about that. The world never remembers the history of Jerusalem, which our great Randolph Hearst said should be made an international city in an editorial the other day-- He doesn't remember, or little cares, that that city was forbidden to Jews during the occupation by Jordan of that city. They took the cemeteries on the Mount of Olives and made roads out of the marble gravestones and destroyed and desecrated the Jewish cemeteries. Mr. Hearst doesn't remember that. Now he says, "Internationalize it."
It's been internationalized and is internationalized. Every religion is allowed to go there, and yet Mr. Hearst says it should be internationalized. Christians have their churches, Armenians have their churches, these have their churches, all of them have churches, and all of them live side by side. If they weren't of the Arafat type of mentality, they would be living reasonably peacefully.
When Mr. [Teddy] Kollek became mayor of that city, look at the wonderful things he did for the Arabs. He built roads, schools, and houses, and gave them water every day. They used to have it maybe two or three times a week when they lived under Jordan. They became part of the community. Mr. Hearst says internationalize it.
I get on a stand on this, I guess, but what should they have? I've said many times to friends of mine, "Let's negotiate with those people. Give them some land for peace. I'll predict for you that it won't happen because they will get so demanding and so outrageous, with a guy like Arafat, that it would be impossible to live under the conditions that he would set for his people." Who aren't his people; he was born in Egypt. He doesn't come from Palestine.
You don't hold out any hopes for the current peace conference?
No, not too much.
What about the Golan Heights?
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is now the chief of staff of the Israeli army. The Lebanon invasion by Israel had just finished. He said, "We were sitting in Lebanon and we sat with all these Lebanese people, bright, intelligent, educated, lovely people. We sat, we had dinner, we went home. The next day those same people were out butchering." That was that massacre that happened where--
Glaser: Sabra and Shatilla?
Swig: Yes. "These same people were out butchering the next day. We couldn't believe. How could you figure these wonderful people could do a thing like that." That's the history of the Arab nations. They butcher each other. Iraq knocked off Kuwait. Saudis fighting off Iran; although they are not Arab, they are Moslem. Saudi Arabia is having a helluva time with the fundamentalists again and worrying about Iran. The fundamentalists killed Sadat in Egypt. How do you make peace over there under those conditions?
The Israelis showed their desire for peace when they made peace with Egypt. They gave up a huge amount of stuff, including oil that they themselves had discovered, for the benefit, as it turned out, of Egypt. They gave it all up for peace. They showed their intent. Give up Jerusalem? No way. They can't. Have you ever been there?
Glaser: Oh sure.
Swig: Okay. Well, you know you can't give up Jerusalem. It's part and parcel of the whole of Israel. The Wailing Wall, so-called, was not available to Jews prior to 1967. A Jew couldn't set foot over there. You were not allowed to. You could almost see it from the King David Hotel but you couldn't stand over there and go to the wall. How are you going to have peace and give up Jerusalem? I don't see it.
Glaser: Well, I'm sure that's not going to happen, but I think it is really a step forward that people are meeting.
Swig: I'm delighted with that, of course I am. I don't trust it too
much, to be honest with you. I don't think it's going to work too well. That's my gut feeling.
Glaser: But it's always better to talk rather than--
Swig: Talk rather than shoot, absolutely. I'm for that all the way. As I said to you, I urged at times that the government speak even to the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization]. They'll only kill themselves. They'll screw themselves into the ground because
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their demands will be so preposterous that Israel will come out looking good and say, "Hey, we tried. We failed." That was my philosophy. Nobody listened to me but that's what I felt ought to have happened way back.
I'm going back quite a few years now, when I first enunciated that. I felt that if Israel had talked to the PLO--I know that's not popular, but if they had talked to the PLO and sat down and tried to negotiate with them, that the PLO would be so demanding and so absolutely impossible to deal with that Israel would look the better for it. It didn't happen.
Glaser: Yes, but Arafat has now screwed himself into the ground, to use your phrase.
Swig: That's right. And I think that's what would have happened in a better way for Israel had they done it at that time. But there was no way anybody would ever think of that. I understand the emotion that goes with an Arafat. Even today the world forgets all the atrocities that he committed and his whole group. There are several divisions of them apparently. They have committed terrible atrocities.
Glaser: I have never been able to understand the vast amounts of money that he was given by other Arab countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Swig: They were scared of him. It's a payoff.
Glaser: But why were they scared him?
Swig: He's a terrorist. He can commit mayhem.
Glaser: I suppose you're right.
Swig: And that's a part of it. It -aay not be all of it, but it is certainly a major part of it.
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XVII POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT
Northern Californians for Good Government
Glaser: I want to talk to you about politics in this country now. Swig: Okay.
Glaser: You are involved in the San Franciscans for Good Government that's now the Northern Californians for Good Government. How did this come about and when, and what does it do?
Swig: It came about five, six years ago maybe. Seven. I don't remember exactly. Five or six anyway. These PACs [political action committees] started to form around the country to provide funds for candidates who were friendly to Israel, in Congress, in the Senate. In our particular case, we would not support anybody in California, only outside of California. We didn't want to get into partisan politics within the state. We support with an emphasis, incidentally, on those areas in the country that have very few Jewish people, because here in San Francisco, as an example, we have plenty of people who can support whomever they want. But in outlying areas, in the Dakotas and the Midwest generally, there aren't too many Jewish families out there. We felt that we wanted to make an impression with those people. We support them; we hope they'll support us and support Israel.
We've been very successful in it. We've done a very good job. Our people in this community have been one of the better communities in the country in showing its support on a non- partisan basis to those people who support Israel. That was the genesis, that's how it formed, and that's what its present activity is.
Glaser: You are the chairman now.
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Swig: I'm the president. I guess it's president now. But I'm about to go out of office on that too. You see, I'm getting older. I'm cutting down. [Laughter]
Glaser: I don't think so, not when I see all that you're involved in. This is aside from AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] , which you are also very active in.
Swig: But AIPAC is different. AIPAC is a political action group in the sense that it tries to influence decisions among the present incumbents .
Glaser: It's a registered lobby.
Swig: They're registered lobbyists for the State of Israel, which is different from what we do. They don't give any money to candidates or anything like that. They merely try to sit down and discuss issues with people and influence them in a way like any lobbyist would.
Democratic Party Politics
Glaser: I know that you are very involved with the Democratic party.
Swig: I am.
Glaser: You knew Jack Kennedy.
Swig: I did.
Glaser: Can you tell me about that.
Swig: I didn't know him really well. It is interesting that he and I
were the same age. We came from the same section of the country. We lived not very far away from each other, actually, relatively few miles. As a matter of fact, he lived on the same street that my grandmother lived on, and I never met him when I lived in Boston. When I first met him he was a senator. I think about 1957 maybe was when I met him, 1958 possibly—whatever it was. He was a very nice guy and we had nice chats and talked about our upbringing and where we came from. I went to Brown; he went to Harvard. As I said, we lived probably within eight or ten miles of each other and never met.
I found him relatively shy, kind of standing off in a corner. That's how I happened to go up to him. I saw him
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The Northern California Jewish Bulletin September 13, 1991
S.F.'s pro-Israel PAC expands to include N. Calif.
By LESLIE KATZ
Of the Bulletin Staff
With the football season upon us, if s a shame Northern Califor- nians for Good Government won't be predicting the odds. It seems the S.E-based political ac tion committee has a knack for picking winners.
The winners it picks, though, aren't teams — they are members of Congress with strong pro-Is rael voting records.
During the 1989-90 election cy cle, for example, NCGG allocated more man $125,000 to candidates running for both the Senate and the House. More than 85 percent of the candidates it supported won their elections.
Now, NCGG is gearing up to repeat its track record in 1992.
While $125,000 might not seem like much in the big-bucks world of campaign financing, ifs a lot "when you put it in perspective, compare it to a lot of little [pro- Israel] PACS around the coun try," according to NCGG execu tive director Barbara Kaltenbach. Most give much less, she says.
The Jewish PAC already has donated $35,000 to campaigns for the upcoming elections.
Kaltenbach, a former legisla tive assistant, admits that "a lot of people are against PACs." Those critics say the $5,000-per- candidate-per-PAC allowance di minishes the relative influence of individual contributors.
Even so, Kaltenbach believes pro-Israel PACs are essential for the Jewish state at a time when pro-Arab lobbyists are gaining in numbers and influence.
Unlike some pro-Israel PACS around the country, NCGG — es tablished in 1981 — is bipartisan. But members say there are no conflicts between Republicans and Democrats over supporting candidates from rival parties.
"The one issue of this PAC is that it is pro-Israel, and that tran scends party lines," says Mel Swig, chair of the PAC and one of its founding members.
Formerly San Franciscans for Good Government, the PAC, which has more than 100 board members, recently became Northern Californians for Good Government when it incorporat ed smaller pro-Israel PACS from the East Bay and Peninsula.
By joining the San Francisco group with other smaller PACS, "we decided we could raise more money than has been raised be fore," Swig says.
The reason the word Israel does not appear in the group's name, according to Kaltenbach, is that organizers wanted to main tain a low public profile to avoid being the target of anti-Israel at tacks. Still, Kaltenbach says, she has received a number of anony mous threatening phone calls.
Some have accused Israel of "murdering Palestinians."
Though people sometimes con fuse NCGG with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Kaltenbach says that unlike AIPAC — which is not a PAC but a national lobbying group prohibited from contribut ing or endorsing candidates — NCGG's influence is solely finan cial.
NCGG campaign contributions — collected through traditional fund-raising tactics such as events and mailings — are allo cated according to the type of race, difficulty of the opposition, and how strong support for Is rael in a given geographic area appears to be.
In fact, many "pro-Israel" sen ators and members of Congress now in office received at least some aid from NCGG, Swig says, earning it "a reputation as one of the strongest pro-Israel PACs in the country. People respect us, come to us and ask for our sup port."
Some of the politicians now in office who have benefited from NCGG's support are Sens. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Tom Harkin (D- lowa), John Bingaman (D-N.M.), Howell Heflin (D-Ala.) and Larry Pressler (R-S.D.).
Surprisingly, though NCGG is California-based, it contributes only to electoral campaigns out side its home state. That's be cause there already exists strong support for pro-Israel candidates within California, with its sub stantial Jewish population, ac cording to Swig.
The group instead focuses its attention on candidates in parts of the country where pro-Israel sentiment is harder to come by. "There is an emphasis on states with low Jewish populations, like the Dakotas, Minnesota, Utah," Swig explains. "We don't miss any races."
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Swig: Yes, philosophically I'm a Democrat. I think Mr. Cuomo best
expressed it in a speech he made in the 1984 convention here in San Francisco, when he made what I thought was one of the great speeches I have ever heard in politics. That speech expressed very clearly why I am a Democrat. It had nothing to do with individuals. It had nothing to do with anything except philosophy. And philosophically, that's where I come from.
Glaser: Do you think that Governor Cuomo will run for the office of the president?
Swig: It's beginning to look as if he will, but it's awfully hard to tell for sure. I think the fact that he hasn't said no, up to this moment, an absolute no, and from talking to some people I know who happen to know him, it appears that he might run and make that decision within the next couple of weeks.
Glaser: He's getting a bad press for waffling yes or no on it.
Swig: I think that's appropriate. I would prefer to see him get out and do his thing and, if possible, keep other candidates from announcing. And maybe some of the present ones would retire from the race, which would save everybody a lot of money and a lot of effort.
Glaser: What do you think is the future of the Democratic party?
Swig: I think that the future is as good as it's always been. It
controls the governors, it controls the Congress, it controls the Senate. I think we have put up poor candidates for president, and I think we've gotten our ears bent back. Our poor candidates for president, however, might have been a helluva lot better than what I have seen in Washington in the last ten years. I think our country has gone down the tubes in many respects due to the fact that the Republicans have done just a terrible job.
Reagan, as popular as he was when he was president, I think the real truths of the matter are beginning to come out and emerge, and he's not as popular as he once was. I don't think Bush is as popular as he once was when the war was going on a year or so ago. I think the domestic policy is absolutely in a shambles. We are in a recession. We have a debt that is mind- boggling. The bulk of it occurred in the last ten years, and I think we are in deep trouble unless we can find ways, and I'm sure there are and I can think of some, and I have discussed some with our politicians. There are ways, I hope, that we can emerge out of this thing, if we had leadership.
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standing that way so I decided that somebody ought to be talking to this guy. I went up and introduced myself and we had a nice chat. Time went by, and now the guy came back and he was running for president, and we met again. I went to a dinner; I think it was at the Palace Hotel. A big crowd was there, and the guy was dynamic. He wasn't the shy, fairly young man that I knew then. He was a real dynamo at that point. Captured the crowd, did a great job. So I met him and chatted for a few minutes and that was it. That was the total of my experience with him. Then of course he was elected and unfortunately was killed.
Glaser: You are on the executive committee of the National Jewish Democratic Council.
Swig: Where did you find all this information? That just happened recently.
Glaser: Well, I got a letter from them. That's how I found out. [Laughter]
Swig: Oh, I see.
Glaser: I wouldn't have known otherwise. [Laughter]
Swig: Okay.
Glaser: Tell me about that.
Swig: A fellow by the name of Morton Mandel from Cleveland heads that up. There are a lot of nice people around the country whom I respect who formed together to get a Jewish point of view across. It's almost like another lobbying job, I guess. It lets candidates know that we are alive and kicking, that we want to talk about our issues, and that we are going to help and support those people who support us. And that's what we're about.
a
Glaser: As a Democrat, do you support the party or the man?
Swig: Well, philosophically, I'm a Democrat. That's the first essence. If the candidates are good as Democrats, I will support them. On several occasions, when I felt that the candidates were not particularly good and if the Republicans were better, I supported the Republican. Most of the time I support Democrats.
Glaser: So then yours is really a pragmatic approach.
154a
/.. 1
Official Newsletter of the National Jewish Democratic Council
Issue 2
Jctoisfc Democratic
NJDC Executive Committee member Mel Swig has made his home in the western part of the United States, as have many NJDC leaders. He is Vice-Chairman of the Board of Fairmont Hotel Management Company and Chairman of the Board of Swig, Weiler, and Dinner Development Company in San Francisco, California. His current civic affiliations include Brandeis University (Trustee), Brown University (Trustee), Stanford University Jewish Studies (Advisory Board), United Negro College Fund (Advisory Board), and United Service Organizations (World Board of Governors). •
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I think one of the major problems we have is that our leadership in this country, on both sides, has been severely damaged. It's been damaged by a thing like the Thomas situation,1 which vilified people and caused good people not to want to be involved. So good people don't run for office as much as they used to. We have rules and regulations that have made it so difficult for good people to run. We've tried so hard to be so purely democratic that I think we loused it up.
An example: in my opinion we used to get much better candidates, much stronger candidates, when we had smoke-filled rooms. Today we nominate, and we play politics, and we make it so difficult for people. We make them expose their whole lives to the whole world. Good, high quality, intelligent people don't want to put up with that kind of nonsense. In the old days, we used to get people who felt strongly about their government, wanted to serve in Washington to help the government on the cabinet level, or what have you. You look at the kind of cabinet people we get today. It ain't very good. They're pretty well second raters, most of them. We need to get back that good businessman from here, there, or elsewhere who is willing to sacrifice something to go into government, not to be maligned for doing it. I think we have to change the rules.
We've also made it so difficult in trying to be democratic by restricting the amount of money that these individuals can raise from any one person. The result is that our congresspeople (they are elected every other year) have to spend half their time raising money all over the country in order to run a campaign. We put in a law in 1975, I think it was, that a thousand dollars was the most any one person can give for a single campaign. That is worth about maybe $150, $200 today, I don't know. In the meantime, things have gone through the roof in expenses. So these poor people have to go out all over the country and raise money. That's all they do, raise money. Every time they go out they have to raise money. It takes too damn much time and effort to do that.
Glaser: But Mr. Swig, if you allow unlimited funds, don't you also get influence peddling like what happened to Senator Cranston?
Swig: That's a totally different issue in my opinion. Mr. Cranston did not take the money for himself. That's very clear. Mr. Cranston used the money for the Democratic party to get out the vote and that type of thing, but he did not take the funds himself because
'The Clarence Thomas hearing in Congress when Judge Thomas was nominated to sit on the Supreme Court.
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that was illegal, number one. Yes, you can get influence peddling, if you want to call it that. I guess you could, but I remind you that back when that influence peddling occurred we were getting better candidates to run for office than we get today, in my opinion.
Call it what you will. I don't know what the pure line is. I wouldn't like to see the government supporting all these people in terms of their fundraising. Maybe that's a way to do it. But then you would have every Tom, Dick, and Harry and his brother Joe running for office, and that would louse up the situation. So there is no perfect way to do this. Don't get me wrong; I'm not suggesting that one way is more perfect than the others.
I do think that maybe we shouldn't have it unlimited, but we sure should have a CPI [Consumer Price Index] cost of living index kind of thing to allow them to have more than the thousand dollars they have. It would reduce the amount of time that these people have to spend on raising funds and would keep pace with inflation and the cost of running a campaign, which is huge today.
Republican Candidates
Glaser: Do you think if Patrick Buchanan enters the race he is going to help the Democrats by pulling votes away from President Bush?
Swig: Any time you get into that kind of an event, I think it helps the other party. Pat Buchanan is an extremist, not very friendly to Jewish people. Tends to be a little like this fellow Duke, I think, although I don't think Buchanan has been a member of the KKK [Ku Klux Klan] . But I think his actions or words are somewhat akin to what they believe. I think he puts Bush in a terrible position. Maybe he moves Bush a little more toward center, takes away the right-wing element and clearly divides the party, which in some ways may be a benefit because then the Republicans, or a guy like Bush, who, I think, has tried to play up to the right- wingers to too much of an extreme, now won't have to play that game with them because they have got Buchanan to back. So Bush has to go more to the middle to get that element of the people. So it may be a blessing in disguise in a way.
Then if he happens to get elected, or nominated even, the right-wingers are almost legislated out of the party. They hurt him. They don't have as much influence within. Bush talked about, as I recall, voodoo economics before Reagan was nominated and now is a participant in that voodoo economics situation, which
158
he aptly described before, he doesn't have to play that game with them anymore. It might be better if he happens to be reelected. I see Buchanan helping the country, not hurting it.
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XVIII FAMILY
Father's Influence
Glaser: I want to ask you now about your family. I have observed that children, especially the sons, of fathers who have achieved a great deal find it hard to live up to the example that is set by the father. Not necessarily that the father is trying to manipulate the children, but he raises a high standard for the children. Has that been true in your family?
Swig: Yes, I guess there is an element of that but I don't see it as
sharply in my family, at least, as in other families. My father could be described as one of those, obviously, and I should have therefore gone the opposite route as so many kids do and say, "The hell with him, I'm going the other way. I've got to do my own thing." But I didn't take that attitude. My father I loved and respected, obviously, and I thought he did wonderful things. I think I gained from that and learned from that and I hope I followed the same patterns. And I think I have. I didn't do it maybe in exactly the same way that he did it, but conditions are different in each generation so there is no way, it's always going to be the same thing.
Sons' Community Involvement
Swig: I like to believe that my children-- I know there is a
compatibility with my thinking and my father's thinking in terms of Jewish life and Jewish ways, if you will. My oldest son, Steve, is very active in the Jewish community, sits on the board of the Federation, and does a lot of good things. My son Bob is still very young; it's a second family so he is much younger than Steve, but I know what his thinking is and what his feelings are and where he puts his money. My son Kent lives in New York, active in the Jewish community and doing his thing. They all
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belong to the same temple and contribute to it. So I have a feeling that they will continue to do it. I'm very pleased about it, obviously.
Wives
Glaser: Tell me about your wives. You were first married to Phyllis Diamond, and were divorced, and she died subsequent to the divorce. Whom did you then marry?
Swig: I married a girl named Marcia Hove who was the mother of my twin boys .
Glaser: Bob and Kent are twins?
Swig: Bob and Kent. Yes. She was a buyer for Joseph Magnin and I met her when I was involved with Cyril Magnin. She was a lovely gal. Unfortunately she was an alcoholic and that led to serious problems between us. It ended in divorce, unfortunately, but she was a good gal and a very nice person. She had this terrible affliction which I couldn't control nor could she. And as a matter of fact, when the boys were thirteen she died as a result of her alcoholism.
Glaser: Did you have custody of your sons?
Swig: Yes I did.
Glaser: How old were they when you assumed custody?
Swig: They were five or six, I think it was, when we were divorced. I
didn't have legal custody. I took illegal custody of them but was never challenged. She understood her weaknesses, I think, and realized that she couldn't handle it very well.
Glaser: It must have been difficult for you, with such children so young.
Swig: Oh boy, yes. When I took them, I guess they were about seven at the time. I built a house over in Marin where I could take care of them, and we lived there, and we did very well.
Glaser: And your third wife?
Swig: She was a wonderful gal whom I met in 1971, which was about six years after I had been divorced. She was just a wonderful human being.
Benjamin Swig being Bar Mitzvahed in Israel by Rabbi Simon Greenberg, July 1975
San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos , Melvin M. Swig, Mary and Steven Swig, May 5, 1988
Melvin M. Swig and son Robert, 1989.
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Glaser: She was known as Dee. Was her full name Dolores?
Swig: Dolores, yes.
Glaser: What was her last name?
Swig: Cochrane. That was her married name; she had lost her husband.
Glaser: She shared a lot of your political activities.
Swig: She shared all my activities very well.
Glaser: I used to see her with you at American Jewish Committee activities .
Swig: Yes. She had a strong commitment to the good things of life. She was a bright, attractive, marvelous human being. There wasn't anything that I participated in that she wasn't there for everything. Everything good. She adopted my children after their mother died. She was very active at their bar mitzvah, helped put it on and do all the work. Their mother died, as I recall, within two or three weeks after their bar mitzvah. Their natural mother was not present at the bar mitzvah; she was dying at that time. Dolores was their mother.
Glaser: Did she have children of her own?
Swig: She had two daughters of her own and six grandchildren. You know, she just did a swell job. It was a very happy marriage; we were married for almost seventeen years very happily. She died from lung cancer. She smoked to the day she died, I think. There was nothing anybody could do about it. She was terribly sick for a couple of years, in pain, great discomfort. It was a very bad ending .
Then as I told you, I had met this lady by the name of Charlotte in 1965. Actually I knew her before I met my wife Dee. Not too long after Dee died, just by accident, we happened to be sitting together one night at a dinner.
Glaser: According to Bishop Swing, it wasn't an accident. Swig: Oh, it was quite an accident.
Glaser: [Chuckles] Well, he takes a little credit for seating you together.
162
Swig: Actually he had nothing to do with it. If he says that, he's
wrong. I think he would like to take credit for it; I don't blame him. It was kind of a romantic thing, I suppose. But at a Grace Cathedral dinner, which was I guess about a month or so after my wife died-- I am on the board there, as you know, and so a woman by the name of Cathy Bellis asked me who did I want to sit with. I said, "Cathy, I don't know who's going to be there." Poor Cathy died not long after that; a fairly young woman too. Anyway, she said, "Who do you want to sit with?" I said, "Well, who's going?" She mentioned some names. I don't remember the other names but she came to Charlotte. I said, "Well, why don't you put me with Charlotte because we are old friends." I thought it would be fun.
Practically the first person to come to ray house when Dee died was Charlotte. My wife Dee used to cook for her husband when he was dying. She made things that Jack Mailliard liked. She used to bring them over to their house, and Jack would like them very much. It was that kind of a relationship.
Anyway, so I just sat with Charlotte. That evening we danced a dance or two, and we said good night and that was the end of it. There was no romance; there was nothing happening. But a few weeks later I thought, "Why don't I take Charlotte to dinner?" And that's how it started. That's where it all happened- -like friends. She is, and was, a really dear friend. That's how the romance started.
Charlotte M. Swig and Melvin H. Swig, 1989
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XIX PHILANTHROPIC DECISIONS
People in Need
Glaser: You are involved with so many organizations. How do you choose what to give your time and money to?
Swig: Gosh, I don't know the answer to that. I don't choose it per se. Money is given, to a large extent, to people. Outside of my Jewish charitable stuff, which I've explained to you comes out of my heart and soul, the other charitable things are certainly people in need that you care about. But the other things come as a result of who asked you. As my father used to say, "It's a good thing he was not born a woman. He doesn't know how to say no." [laughter] I guess I must have inherited it. It's a little difficult to say no to your friends . So you tend to give to a fair extent to those organizations with which your friends are involved.
Then also when you ask for money, as I do very often, you become then obligated in a sense when they come to ask you to return the favor. So it happens that way too. I happen to do a fair amount of asking, so I'm asked also as well to give and you must respond.
But basically it's those things that touch you, like in today's world the homeless people. You want to make sure they are cared for as best you can, although I think it's band-aid treatment what we do. I think we have to get to the causes of the thing. Take away the causes of why we have homeless as opposed to doing what we're doing. We're just helping like a little pimple. We don't do anything really major in reconstructing their lives and helping the way I think we ought to be. But those are things that we care about.
We care about education so we help educational facilities. We care about the library. We care about the Museum of Modern
164
Art. We care about universities and that's where a good percentage of our money goes .
Satisfaction Gained
Glaser: In all these activities, all of the calls upon your energy and funds, what gives you the most satisfaction?
Swig: You know, one of the things that gave me the most satisfaction that I can think of, that comes quickly- -there are other things that do, don't get me wrong—but one of the most is the scholarship fund that I did at Brown University, where I am sending kids through school who otherwise wouldn't be able to go to school. When I get letters from those kids, it brings tears to my eyes to think that those kids (and they are from Northern California mostly) are going to school, to a fine university, and getting help because of a scholarship that I was able to give. I think that is one of the most important things I've done. I like that.
When I got my honorary degree from Brown, the president of the university alluded to the fact that I wasn't able to complete my education because I had to go work. There was a Depression on and my father wasn't all that well-to-do, and I went out and went to work and didn't complete my schooling. He alluded to that. When he talked about it, because I gave this money to Brown, the kids got up and cheered. I had never seen that before in any graduation I had been at where I was present. The kids got up and cheered. That gave me such tearful warmth that I think it is the best thing I have ever done.
I just love the fact that it is still going on and it will continue ad infinitura. Any money tiat I give again to Brown will go into that fund to embellish it and make it bigger because I think that is the best thing I have ever done at Brown. I have given money to a lot of different things at Brown, but that is the most rewarding.
Inter-Religious Activity
Glaser: What brought you to become so involved in and concerned about inter-religious associations?
165
Swig: I got that out of the American Jewish Committee as a part of my
education with them. From experience, I feel that the non-Jewish community to a large extent doesn't really understand the Jewish community and understand Jewish people as well as they might. The ghettoism, if you will, in both communities is such that they don't really get together enough. They don't socialize together; they don't meet together enough. Banks have excluded up until fairly recently Jews. Clubs excluded them. Universities used to. All those things happened. It seemed to me that as long as 1 was an identified Jew-- Everybody in the world knows I am. I don't hide it as some people have done in the past and tried to join the other side because they didn't like being Jewish. Contrarily, I am Jewish and everybody knows what I am, and I am all those things that I've talked about. I felt that if I could become a part of the other community, identified as a Jew and helping that community and working with that community, they would find out that we don't have horns, that we are rather nice people, that we can have a lot in common and do a lot of things together. I think it has worked pretty well that way.
Bishop Swing invited me to serve on his board at Grace Cathedral and we've got a wonderful relationship. I have a fine relationship with those people. They have treated me beautifully. My experience at USF has been similar. Great friends. Nice people. I think I told you this, we formed the first and maybe the only chair in Judaic studies in a Catholic university. The courses that are taught there are a turn-on to the students. They flock to those courses almost more than they do to their own. I think not almost more, they are definitely more. So those things are helpful, I think, in establishing relationships. If I can contribute to that, then I have done something good for people. That's what it is all about.
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XX A LOOK TO THE FUTURE
Direction of the San Francisco Jewish Community
Glaser: In looking at the Jewish community of San Francisco, in what
direction should it be going in the future that it is not now?
Swig: You know, for so many generations the Jewish community has done so much good for its own people I don't think they could change an awful lot. I think they are going to continue in that mode, and I think they are doing the right thing when they do do that. They take care of their people. They watch out over them. I just hope that they don't lose that identity and continue with doing that same kind of thing, because it is very important.
Assimilation
Swig: A lot of people are worried about assimilation. I think if the Jewish religion isn't strong enough to hold its people there is something wrong with the Jewish religion. But I think it is strong, and I think the Jewish religion will hold its people together. It is a fine religion, a very good religion, in my opinion. I don't like some parts of our religion, but I like most of it. I respect it and I think it is easy to take, comfortable, and yet teaches good. But all religions teach good, of course. But I think it is a comfortable religion to live with and not so demanding that it overpowers one. But it teaches the rights and wrongs of a way of life, and this is a comfortable place to be.
I think the inter-marriage question which bothers a lot of people is-- What is it? Thirty- three percent of marriages today are to Jews?
Glaser: No. Much more.
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Swig: Is it more than that?
Glaser: Yes. I think it is almost 50 percent.
Swig: I don't think it is that much. I think it is somewhere around- -
Maybe it is 40 percent that are inter-marriages. But an awful lot of gain is made as well as loss.
Glaser: Oh yes.
Swig: I've seen a lot of converted Jewish people who become more Jewish than the people to whom they are married and actually are very devoted.
I'll give you an example of a young lady who took Jewish studies at USF. She went to Israel as a result of programs that we've established. She came back and converted to Judaism. She said, "My Catholicism really didn't do the thing for me that Judaism does. I just felt I wanted to do that." I happened to be very fond of this young lady. She moved to New York and went to work when she got there for a Jewish organization. Subsequently she moved to New Jersey. I just heard the other day she is marrying a Jewish guy. I don't know what she's doing right this moment or who the guy is, but that is an interesting story. The Jewish courses that she took, her interest in Judaism, and her study of Judaism versus Catholicism was a satisfying experience for her.
Swig: It made her feel that she wanted to be a Jew. The point of it is that Judaism does have strength and can hold people and should hold people and will hold people. Those who don't like Judaism will assimilate, I suppose. But that's been true for a long, long time. We've lost a lot of Jewish people by assimilation and will continue to. But when we talk about other religions, other religions lose their people too. Catholics go to other religions, Protestants go to different religions, Protestants become Catholics, Catholics become Protestants, some of them become Jews. They switch around. And people take no religion or want no religion. But that's been going on for a lot of years, I'm sure. So I don't see why we should get overly cut up and act worried about how we're going to lose Judaism. I don't think we will.
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The Federation
Glaser Swig: Glaser: Swig:
Are there any changes that you would like to see in the Federation?
Glaser
Swig:
Glaser:
Swig:
Nothing special. I think they are doing a good job. are working in the right direction.
I think they
Should non-Jews be solicited for funds for Federation institutions and agencies, like the Centers and the hospitals?
Yes. I think we should. I don't think we are going to get very far because I find that even in the Episcopal Church, for instance, when you go out and search money for their church from other than Episcopals, it's not forthcoming very much. So the Jews have no different problem in that regard than do the Episcopals. Jews tend to be a little more liberal in giving to non- Jewish things, religiously non- Jewish things, than do other people. But I think that is part and parcel of their station in life, if you will, and the impressions that they felt. It's a Tzedakah. which Jewish people feel more than most people.
And you feel that toward the greater community as well. Also, yes.
What suggestions would you make to a newcomer who wishes to become involved in the Jewish community and in the greater community. I ask you that because obviously you went through that yourself.
Well, only to a relatively minor extent, but the first thing I did was to work for the Federation. It was not called that then. I got involved and I just went through all the chairs and worked my way through it and made a lot of wonderful friends. It's a part of growth and development, and I think I would recommend that to anybody, to become involved in the Federation.
One of my first activities was through an agency, the Jewish Family Service Agency, and it was one of those that I worked with. Out of it grows the growth and development of young people. So I think that being a part of charitable affairs and civic events and so forth is part of growth. People coming to this community who want to meet people and be a part of the community and have a good feeling about civic and social and charitable life must do those things in order to become a part of it.
Glaser: That was my last question.
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TAPE GUIDE- -Melvin Swig
Interview 1, July 9, 1991 Tape 1, side A Tape 1, side B Tape 2, side A Tape 2, side B
Interview 2, July 30, 1991 Tape 3, side A Tape 3, side B Tape 4, side A Tape 4, side B
Interview 3, September 12, 1991 Tape 5, side A Tape 5, side B Tape 6, side A Tape 6, side B
Interview 4, October 30, 1991 Tape 7, side A Tape 7, side B Tape 8, side A Tape 8, side B
Interview 5, November 21, 1991 Tape 9, side A Tape 9, side B Tape 10, side A Tape 10, side B
26
38
49
not recorded
54
66
79
not recorded
90 100 113 124
129 142 154 167
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APPENDICES --Melvin M. Swig
A. Report of the President presented at the annual meeting of the 172 Jewish Community Federation, 1971.
B. Report of the President presented at the annual meeting of the 181 Jewish Community Federation, 1972.
C. Remarks made by Melvin M. Swig at the annual meeting of the 189 Young Adults' Division, December 5, 1972.
D. 1973 Standing Committees, Jewish Community Federation. 194
E. Jewish Community Federation Committees, 1986. 195
F. Members, Ad Hoc Committee on "Who is a Jew," 1988. 204
G. Endowment Committee, Jewish Community Federation, 1989. 205 H. Executive Search Committee, Jewish Community Federation, 1990. 206 I. Endowment Committee, Jewish Community Federation, 1990. 207
J. "Mel Swig Heads Bulletin," San Francisco Jewish Bulletin. 208 December 8, 1978.
K. "Jewish leader becomes S.F. Catholic university chairman," 209 Northern California Jewish Bulletin. July 26, 1985.
L. "Swig gets award for endowment work," Northern California 210 Jewish Bulletin. January 24, 1986.
M. "Settlement Reached On Koret Foundation," San Francisco 211 Chronicle. June 24, 1986.
N. "The Swigs Build a Bigger Empire," San Francisco Chronicle. 212 September 8, 1986.
0. "Family of S.F. philanthropists get community's thanks," 216 Northern California Jewish Bulletin. October 31, 1986.
P. Dinner honoring the Swig-Dinner family, November 9, 1986. 217
Q. Remarks made by Melvin M. Swig before the Anti Defamation 218 League, June 11, 1987.
171
R. "USF president Melvin M. Swig honored at testimonial," 221
Northern California Jewish Bulletin. July 31, 1987.
S. Honorary degree, Brown University, 1989. 222
T. The Presiding Bishop's Committee on Christian-Jewish Relations, 223 July 29, 1991.
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Appendix A
ANNUAL REPORT 1971
.
^
1971 HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL YEARS WE HAVE EXPERIENCED IN THE HISTORY OF THE FEDERATION. FIRST AND FOREMOST, WE RAISED THE LARGEST SUM
IN HISTORY, SIX MILLION DOLLARS. TO ME THIS PROVES THE FAITH AND COMMIT- A
MENT OF OUR FEDERATION'S JEWS TOWARDS ISRAEL'S SURVIVAL AND THE MANY LOCAL AND NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS WHICH WE SERVE.
I WILL MENTION ONLY A FEW OF THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS CAMPAIGN THE SUCCESS THAT IT WAS: OUR CHAIRMAN, JERRY BRAUN, HAD THE IMAGINATION AND THE DRIVE TO OVERCOME THE OBSTACLES OF APATHY, INDIFFERENCE AND BAD ECONOMIC CLIMATE. HIS DEDICATION WAS INSPIRATIONAL. HIS CO-CHAIRMEN,
Ms
FRANNIE GREEN AND HENRY BERMAN* DIVISION LEADERS, JAY FRIEDMAN, LARRY MYERS
A
AND PHYLLIS GINSBERG AND ALL THE OTHER HARD WORKING PEOPLE THAT TIME DOES NOT PERMIT MENTIONING, WORKED TIRELESSLY IN AN ALMOST SUPERHUMAN EFFORT,. GETTING EVERY CARD COVERED ACCORDING TO EACH PERSON'S ABILITY TO GIVE.
WE OWE A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF THANKS TO THOSE OF OUR CONTRIBUTORS WHO, WHEN THE CAMPAIGN NEEDED THEM MOST, WHO, WHEN THEY HEARD OUR STORY, WHO, WHEN THEY REALIZED ISRAEL'S SURVIVAL WAS AT STAKE, WHO, WHEN THEY UNDER STOOD THE ENORMITY OF OUR RESPONSIBILITIES, CAME THROUGH WITH TREMENDOUS INCREASES FROM THE VERY TOP TO THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE LIST. THIS WAS A CAMPAIGN WHERE ALL JEWS WHO WERE WILLING TO ADMIT OPENLY THAT THEY WERE JEWS OF CONSCIENCE, GAVE LIKE THEY NEVER GAVE BEFORE AND WORKED LIKE THEY NEVER WORKED BEFORE, ALL FOR THE ONE COMMON AND WONDERFUL CAUSE.
THIS YEAR ALSO SAW US TAKE A SEVERE CUT IN THE APPROPRIATION FROM UBAC. IT WASN'T AN ISSUE OF WHETHER OUR AGENCY NEEDED MORE OR LESS; OUR NEEDS WERE MORE, "WE UBAC RAISED MORE, BUT UBAC WAS CHANGING AND ITS "NEW DIRECTIONS" WAS TO BE THEIR SIGN OF THE FUTURE. OUR AGENCIES, LIKE THE
173 2.
HOMEWOOD TERRACE, THE CENTERS *£) HOME FOR THE AGED^AND THE FAMILY SERVICE AGENCY ALL TOOK THEIR PART OF THE LOSS. WE HOPE IT WON T HAPPEN AGAIN. WE HAVE BEEN TALKING TO THE LAY AND PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP OF UBAC, WE HAVE BEEN PARTNERS WI7N THEM SINCE 1923 AND HAVE ENJOYED A VERY FINE RELATION SHIP DURING ALL THESE YEARS. HOWEVER, WE HAVE SUGGESTED TO THEM HOW SERIOUSLY WE VIEW THEIR CHANGE IN DIRECTION. WE HAVE BEEN PROMISED A NEW BUDGETING APPROACH DURING THIS COMING YEAR. WE WILL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS... BUT, IF THE CUTS CONTINUE WE WILL HAVE TO REAPPRAISE OUR POSITION.
NOW LET'S LOOK AT SOME OF THE THINGS WE WERE ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH IN TERMS OF BUDGETING. A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN HELPS US IN THIS REGARD:
#1. WE WERE ABLE TO SEND OVER $^,500,000 OVERSEAS, COMPARED WITH A LITTLE OVER $3,000,000 IN 1970. AN INCREASE OF OVER 51%.
#2. WE WERE ABLE TO INCREASE OUR ALLOCATION TO JEWISH EDUCATION FROM $116,000 TO $15**, 000. A 321^£ INCREASE. WE WERE ABLE TO SEE, FOR THE FIRST TIME, A MARKED INCREASE IN THE ALLOCATION WHICH WENT TO THE TWO DAY SCHOOLS... $12,500 to $33,750.
#3. WE WERE ABLE TO INCREASE OUR ALLOCATION TO THE JEWISH COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL FROM $9^,000 to $116,000. AN INCREASE OF ALMOST 23%. THIS ENABLED US TO EARMARK $12,500 BOR THE BAY AREA COUNCIL ON SOVIET JEWRY. THIS IN ADDITION TO THE INCREASED MONEY BEING SPENT BY JCRC IN THIS FIELD. THEREBY INCREASING SUBSTANTIALLY OUR COMMITMENT TOWARD THE PROGRAM OF HELP TO SOVIET JEWRY.
174 3.
#k. WE WERE ABLE TO SHOW OUR CONCERN FOR COLLEGE YOUTH BY PUTTING INTO OUR BUDGET $12,000 FOR THE HILLEL PROGRAM AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE AND CITY COLLEGES. THROUGH ENDOWMENT FUNDS, WE GAVE SUPPORT TO THE STANFORD HILLEL JEWISH STUDIES PROGRAM.
#5. WE WERE ABLE TO PUT THE FEDERATION CHAPLAINCY PROGRAM ON A PERMANENT BASIS BY AN ALLOCATION JOINED IN BY MOUNT ZION AND SEVERAL LOCAL FUNDS AND FOUNDATIONS.
#6. WE WERE ABLE TO MAKE UP SOME OF THE UBAC CUTS SUFFERED BY OUR AGENCIES AND WE WERE ABLE TO TAKE CARE OF SOME OF THE INCREASED NEEDS OF THE CENTERS, THE HOME FOR THE AGED AND OTHERS OF OUR LOCAL AGENCIES.
#7. NATIONALLY, WE INCREASED ALLOCATIONS TO THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
FOR JEWISH EDUCATION, AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE, AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS,
«-*-,
ANTI -DEFAMATION LEAGUE/ JEWISH WELFARE BOARD. WE WERE ABLE TO PROVIDE
/I
ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR THE WHOLE JEWISH CULTURAL AGENCIES FIELD.
DURING THE TERM OF MY PREDECESSOR, JOHN STEINHART, WE CHANGED THE METHOD OF BUDGETING AND SOCIAL PLANNING. IT WENT INTO EFFECT FOR THE FIRST TIME DURING THIS YEAR. I BELIEVE THE SYSTEM IS WORKING WELL AND WE WILL, OF COURSE, CONTINUE IT. I CANNOT BEGIN TO COUNT THE NUMBER OF HOURS THAT WENT INTO THIS WORK. THE MEETINGS HELD, THE BUDGETS REVIEWED, THE CONFERENCES HELD WITH AGENCIES. OUR COMMITTEE OF 100 PEOPLE WORKED TIRELESSLY DURING THIS YEAR AND OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS, I THINK, SPEAK WELL FOR THEIR EFFORTS
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OUR THANKS GO TO RENNIE COLVIN, CHAIRMAN, AND SAM LADAR, VICE CHAIRMAN AND THE 98 COMMITTEE MEN AND WOMEN. BUT, TO PARAPHRASE A POPULAR SONG, "THEIR WORK HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN". WE HAVE SOME SERIOUS PROBLEMS FACING US WITH REGARD TO THE PHYSICAL PLANTS OF MANY OF OUR INSTITUTIONS. WE HAVE POSTPONED, FOR MANY YEARS, THE CAPITAL FUNDS CAMPAIGN, BECAUSE OF WHAT WE FELT WERE THE MORE IMPORTANT REQUIREMENTS OF OUR OVERSEAS NEEDS. FOR EXAMPLE, THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER'S MAIN BUILDING IN SAN FRANCISCO HAS BEEN CRYING OUT FOR REPAIRS AND MODERNIZATION. THE CENTERS ON THE PENINSULA AND IN MARIN HAVE HAD TO DO WITH INADEQUATE SPACE, THE BROTHER HOOD WAY CENTER OVERFLOWED ALMOST FROM THE DAY IT OPENED. THE BUREAU OF JEWISH EDUCATION HAS POINTED OUT A GREAT NEED FOR MORE CLASSROOMS, OFFICE SPACE, LIBRARY, AND EQUIPMENT DESIGNED TO IMPROVE TEACHING SKILLS. MOUNT ZION HAS NEEDS THAT WOULD STAGGER THE IMAGINATION, THE JEWISH HOME FOR THE AGED PLEADS FOR MORE BEDS. THE SITUATION IN ISRAEL STILL REMAINS SERIOUS AND THE BUILDING NEEDS OF OUR INSTITUTIONS HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY WORSE. I BELIEVE WE HAVE THE CAPACITY AND WILL TO DO BOTH JOBS ... TO RAISE THE SUM NECESSARY TO MEET OUR OVERSEAS NEEDS AND TO PROVIDE OUR LOCAL INSTITUTIONS WITH THE IMPROVEMENTS THEY NEED TO SURVIVE.
I HAVE ASKED OUR PLANNING AND BUDGETING COMMITTEE TO GET THE FACTS AND FIGURES DEALING WITH THESE NEEDS AS SUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. A POPULATION STUDY FINANCED BY US WILL GIVE US UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION ABOUT WHERE OUR PEOPLE LIVE, WHERE THEY EXPECT TO LIVE, THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN TO BE PLANNED FOR, THE NUMBER OF AGED FOR WHOM PLANS MUST BE MADE. WE WILL HAVE SOME SORT OF ESTIMATE OF WHAT OUR NEEDS ARE, CONCERNING WHAT WE NOW PROVIDE AND WHAT WE SHOULD PROVIDE. AT THAT POINT, WHEN THE PLANNING L^DONE, WE WILL INITIATE A SUCCESSFUL CAPITAL FUNDS CAMPAIGN.
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5.
THE HISTORY OF OTHER COMMUNITIES PROVES TO ME CONCLUSIVELY THAT WE CAN HAVE A VERY SUCCESSFUL CAPITAL FUNDS CAMPAIGN AND, IN NO WAY, INTERFERE WITH OR JEOPARDIZE OUR REGULAR OR EMERGENCY CAMPAIGNS.
THE JEWISH WELFARE FEDERATION, IN MY OPINION IS THE KEY CENTRAL JEWISH AGENCY IN THE COMMUNITY. IT TRANSCENDS ALL BRANCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. IN ORDER TO DO THE KIND OF FUND RAISING THAT IS NEEDED, BOTH HOME AND ABROAD, OUR FEDERATION MUST BE TUNED IN. IT MUST BE TUNED IN TO THE DESIRES OF ITS CONTRIBUTORS AND TO THE NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY. FOR THAT REASON, YOUR FEDERATION SEEKS EVERY POSSIBLE MEANS TO BE CERTAIN THAT THE CONTRIBUTORS ARE WELL SATISFIED WITH THE WAY THEIR MONEY IS SPENT. THIS IS WHY WE DEVELOP SUCH ELABORATE MACHINERY TO STUDY THE PROGRAMS AND BUDGETS OF THE AGENCIES WE SUPPORT. THIS IS WHY WE SEEK OUT EVERY AVAILABLE PIECE OF INFORMATION WE CAN FIND TO JUSTIFY NEW PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS TO EMBARK UPON. THIS IS WHY YOUR FEDERATION IS TRUSTED AND HAS THE ABILITY TO RAISE MONEY TO MEET THE NEEDS OF ITS MORE THAN 50 LOCAL, NATIONAL AND OVERSEAS AGENCIES WHICH NEED OUR HELP.
DURING THE PAST YEAR, YOU HAVE READ AND HEARD A GREAT DEAL ABOUT JEWISH EDUCATION IN SAN FRANCISCO, PARTICULARLY WITH REGARD TO PRIVATE, INDEPENDENT JEWISH DAY SCHOOLS. THE CRITICISM HAS BEEN LOUD AND IT HAS BEEN CARRIED ON BY METHODS OF DIRECT CONFRONTATION, SUCH AS PICKETING THE FEDERATION, APPEARANCES AT MEETINGS OF JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS, AND CRITICISM IN THE PRESS, INCLUDING CRITICISM OF SPECIFICALLY NAMED OFFICERS OF THE FEDERATION, MYSELF BEING ONE OF THEM. IT CULMINATED FINALLY IN AN UNSUCCESSFUL EFFORT TO NOMINATE A SLATE OF PEOPLE WHO WOULD RUN FOR THE OFFICE OF DIRECTOR OF THE WELFARE FEDERATION IN OPPOSITION TO THOSE NOMINATED BY THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE OF THE FEDERATION.
177 6.
YOU MAY WONDER WHY I SINGLE THIS OUT FOR MENTION IN MY ANNUAL REPORT. I 00 SO BECAUSE I THINK THAT WHAT HAS HAPPENED COULD CAUSE DISTASTEFUL DISSENTION WITHIN THE JEWISH COMMUNITY, A BAD IMAGE OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN THE EYES OF THE GENERAL COMMUNITY IF CONTINUED, AND I THINK
IT'S ABOUT TIME THAT WE PUT THE SITUATION IN PROPER PERSPECTIVE.
C
I BELIEVE WE NOW HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DETERMINE THE APPTOiRiATE SIZE OF THE GROUP WHICH HAS BEEN SO CRITICAL OF THE FEDERATIONS SUPPORT OF JEWISH DAY SCHOOLS. AS I JUST STATED, AN EFFORT WAS MADE TO NOMINATE A SLATE OF PEOPLE TO RUN FOR DIRECTORS. IN THE PROCESS OF ATTEMPTING SUCH NOMINATIONS, IT WAS NECESSARY THAT A PETITION BE FILED AND THAT THE PETITION CONTAIN THE SIGNATURES OF NOT LESS THAN 250 QUALIFIED MEMBERS OF THE FEDERATION. THE PETITION WHICH WAS FILED, EVEN AFTER ADVERTISING FOR SIGNATURES IN A NEWS PAPER, CONTAINED ONLY 39k SIGNATURES, OF WHICH 8 WERE DUPLICATES AND OF WHICH LESS THAN 250 WERE QUALIFIED AS MEMBERS OF THE FEDERATION. BASED UPON THESE FIGURES, OUT OF A TOTAL JEWISH POPULATION OF THE AREA COVERED
BY THE FEDERATION WHICH IS ESTIMATED AT 75,000, AND A FEDERATION MEMBERSHIP
A
OF APPROXIMATELY 10,000, PERCENTAGE-WISE, THE PETITION SHOWS THAT THIS GROUP REPRESENTS ONLY ONE-HALF OF 1% OF THE TOTAL JEWISH POPULATION IN THE AREA SERVED BY THE FEDERATION AND LESS THAN 2% OF THE MEMBERS OF THE FEDERATION.
THE FEDERATION HAS MET WITH THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THIS GROUP AT SEVERAL LEVELS. THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE HAS HELD A MEETING WITH THIS GROUP AT THEIR REQUEST AND EACH OF YOUR OFFICERS HAS MET WITH THEIR REPRESENTATIVES ON ONE OR MORE OCCASIONS. THEY HAVE, THEREFORE, HAD AMPLE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPRESS THEIR VIEWPOINTS AND TO CONVINCE THE FEDERATION AND ITS LEADERSHIP OF THE VALIDITY OF THEIR DEMANDS. THEIR DEMAND IS SUBSTANTIALLY THAT THEIR SCHOOL BE HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED WITH FEDERATION FUNDS. HOWEVER, THEY MAKE IT
178 7.
CLEAR THAT WHILE THE FEDERATION IS TO SUPPORT THEIR SCHOOL, IT IS TO HAVE NO VOICE IN THE SCHOOL PROGRAM, CURRICULUM OR ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS.
JEWISH EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT AND SHOULD BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THOSE WHO WISH THE BENEFITS OF IT OR WISH THEIR CHILDREN TO HAVE A FORMAL JEWISH EDUCATION. BUT, IT MUST BE MADE AVAILABLE AS A PART OF THE ENTIRE JEWISH COMMUNITY ACTIVITY ON A PLANNED BASIS AND AS A PART OF OTHER FEDERATION PROGRAMS, IF FEDERATION FUNDS ARE TO BE USED FOR ITS SUPPORT. IT IS MY BELIEF THAT THIS GROUP OF CRITICS WITH THEIR CONFRONTATION TACTICS DO A DISSERVICE TO THE CAUSE OF JEWISH EDUCATION AND A GREAT DISSERVICE TO OUR JEWISH COMMUNITY GENERALLY. IT MUST BE STATED THAT, OF THE 10 PEOPLE WHO WERE PUT FORTH AS A POSSIBLE SLATE IN COMPETITION TO THE FEDERATION'S, 5 WERE NON-CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FEDERATION. IT IS A SAD COMMENTARY WHEN SO FEW PEOPLE, PARTICULARLY THOSE WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED PRACTICALLY NO TIME OR EFFORT TO OUR ORGANIZATION, WHO HAVE ONLY ONE CAUSE THAT INTERESTS THEM, GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO CREATE AS MUCH CHAOS TO OUR FEDERATION AS THEY CAN. THIS ONLY INTERFERES WITH OUR IMPORTANT FUND- RAISING ATTEMPTS. WE HAVE IMPORTANT MONIES TO BE RAISED. WE MUST GET ON WITH OUR WORK. I HOPE THESE PEOPLE WILL JOIN US IN MAKING SURE THAT ALL OF OUR AGENCIES ARE SUPPORTED AND THAT WE DO EVERYTHING TO HELP OUR FELLOW JEWS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. WE WILL PLEDGE THAT WE WILL, IN TURN, STUDY THE NEEDS AND DO THE PLANNING NECESSARY TO DETERMINE OUR FUTURE POSITIONS ON JEWISH EDUCATION.
BECAUSE I KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THE MATTER OF SOVIET JEWRY IS TO ALL OF US, I WANT TO DISCUSS WITH YOU HOW DEEPLY THE FEDERATION IS INVOLVED IN THIS MATTER AROUND THE WORLD. EARLIER I TOLD YOU WHAT WE ARE DOING ON THE LOCAL SCENE, NOW I WANT TO GO DEEPER INTO THIS MATTER.
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8.
MUCH HAS BEEN SAID IN OUR COUNTRY THIS PAST YEAR ABOUT HOW BEST TO HELP SOVIET JEWS WHO WANT TO BE~REUNITED WITH THEIR PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OR WITH FAMILIES IN THIS COUNTRY.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO LOOK AT THIS ISSUE IN ITS ENTIRETY. ONE PART OF THE PROBLEM IS TO AROUSE THE OPINION OF THE WORLD TO THE PLIGHT OF THE SOVIET JEWS IN THE HOPE THAT THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT WILL RESPOND TO AN AROUSED WORLD OPINION AND PERMIT JEWS TO LEAVE. TO THIS END, FEDERATION HELPS SUPPORT LOCAL PROGRAMS LIKE THE JCRC AND THE BAY AREA COUNCIL ON SOVIET JEWRY. NATIONALLY, WE SUPPORT THE NCRAC, THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE, THE AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON SOVIET JEWRY AND SIMILAR ORGANIZATIONS WHICH, NATIONALLY, WORK TO AROUSE THE OPINION OF THW WORLD TO THE CONDITIONS OF SOVIET JEWRY. IT'S ALSO A FACT THAT MANY INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS HAVE DONE MUCH BEHIND THE SCENES WORK IN HIGH POLITICAL PLACES OF THESE EFFORTS COMBINED HAVE ALREADY CREATED A CLIMATE MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR THOUSANDS OF JEWS TO LEAVE RUSSIA.
THIS IS ONLY A PART OF THE STORY. WHAT LIES HIDDEN BENEATH THE SURFACE IS EVEN A MORE DRAMATIC STORY. THOUSANDS OF SOVIET JEWS ARE NOW COMING TO ISRAEL. A STORY IN THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE LAST WEEK SPOKE OF TWO PLANE LOADS ARRIVING EVERY DAY. THE COST OF THIS RESCUE EFFORT IS ALMOST INCALCULABLE. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT IT COSTS ABOUT $35,000 TO RELOCATE A FAMILY OF FOUR. MULTIPLY THIS BY THE THOUSANDS INVOLVED AND YOU GET AN IDEA OF THE ENORMOUS AMOUNTS OF MONEY REQUIRED. THE DETAILS OF HOW THE SOVIET JEWS ARE BEING RESCUED CANNOT BE REVEALED IN FULL, PUBLICLY. WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW IS THAT THE RESCUE IS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE FUNDS WHICH ARE RAISED BY THIS FEDERATION AND SIMILAR FEDERATIONS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY.
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9.
I COULD NOT CLOSE THIS REPORT WITHOUT EXPRESSING OUR DEEPEST THANKS TO OUR GREAT STAFF, HEADED BY OUR EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, LOU WEINTRAUB AND HIS ASSISTANT, MURRAY SHIFF. THE HOURS OF WORK AND THE LOVE AND DEVOTION TO THEIR JOB, MUST NOT GO WITHOUT OUR DEEPEST FEELING OF APPRECIATION AND THANKS TO ALL OF THEM. I WANT THEM TO KNOW THEIR WORK IS APPRECIATED.
IN CLOSING LET ME ONCE MORE THANK JERRY BRAUN FOR HIS GREAT SUCCESS IN THE •>« CAMPAIGN AND WISH OUR FIRST LADY CHAIRMAN OF THE CAMPAIGN EVER, FRANNIE GREEN, OUR BEST WISHES FOR THE HUGE SUCCESS I KNOW 1972 WILL BE.
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RFPQRT OF TUF PRESIDENT Appendix B
To BE PRESENTED AT THE FEDERATION'S ANNUAL MEETING DECEMBER 12. 1972 - 12:00 NOON GOLD ROOM - FAIRMONT HOTEL
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WELCOME TO OUR ANNUAL MEETING, I
A
APPRECIATE VERY MUCH YOUR ATTENDANCE HERE TODAY,
I WOULD LIKE AT THE OUTSET TO REVIEW WITH YOU WHAT HAPPENED DURING THIS YEAR, GENERALLY, IT HAS BEEN A VERY SATISFYING YEAR, OUR 1972 CAMPAIGN PRODUCED THE LARGEST AMOUNT OF MONEY IN OUR HISTORY, SOME EXTREMELY IMPORTANT PROJECTS CAME OFF OUR PLANNING BOARD AND WE BEGAN MAKING PLANS FOR WHAT APPEARS TO BE THE BUSIEST YEAR WE HAVE EVER HAD TO FACE,
NOW, LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS YEAR'S CAMPAIGN, WE HAD A FIRST THIS YEAR BY HAVING OUR CAMPAIGN HEADED BY A WONDERFUL WOMAN, FRANNIE GREEN, THE RESULTS WERE GOOD, WE RAISED THE LARGEST AMOUNT EVER, ALMOST $6,600,000, NATURALLY, THE CAMPAIGN WAS NOT ENTIRELY FRANNIE GREEN, BUT SHE SURE WAS A LARGE PART OF IT,
STRONG ASSISTS WERE GIVEN HER BY HENRY BERMAN AND LARRY MYERS AS VICE-CHAIRMEN, HANK KAUFMAN AND DOUGLAS HELLER, ADVANCE DIVISION CHAIRMEN, AND LLOYD SANKOWICH, THE B&P CHAIRMAN AND BY MRS, ANNETTE DOBBS, THE WOMEN'S DIVISION CHAIRMAN, KEN COLVIN, DONALD SEILER, RABBI TEITELBAUM, MARTY CARR AND RICHARD ROSENBERG AS DIVISION CHAIRMEN AND GEORGE EDELSTEIN AS TELETHON CHAIRMAN,
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I COULD MENTION MANY MANY MORE NAMES BUT TIME DOES NOT PERMIT IT, SUFFICE TO SAY WE WANT TO THANK ALL THOSE WONDERFUL PEOPLE FOR WORKING SO HARD AND CONTRIBUTING SO MUCH,
DURING THIS PAST YEAR, OUR CAMPAIGN LEADERS AND TOP DONORS MET THE TRUE TEST OF DEDICATION AND GENEROSITY, CONSEQUENTLY, THIS COMMUNITY AND FRANNIE GREEN HAD A CAMPAIGN WHICH WAS ONE OF THE VERY BEST IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, WE THANK ALL OF YOU AGAIN FOR MAKING THIS POSSIBLE,
WITH REGARD TO OUR LOCAL PROJECTS, ONE WOULD THINK, WITH OVER $600,000 MORE TO SPEND THAN THE PRECEDING YEAR,THAT OUR SOCIAL PLANNING AND BUDGETING COMMITTEE WOULD HAVE A RELATIVELY EASY TIME, SOME THINGS, OF COURSE, WERE EASY BUT MUCH STUDY TOOK PLACE, OUR AGENCIES HAD SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASED NEEDS, SO MUCH SO, THAT ONLY PART OF THE NEEDS WERE MET, WE HOPE THAT WITH THIS YEAR'S CAMPAIGN WE WILL BE ABLE TO DO EVEN BETTER IN MEETING THOSE NEEDS, WE DID, HOWEVER, INITIATE SEVEN NEW PROGRAMS OF FUNDING FOR THE FIRST TIME:
(1) BAY AREA JEWISH YOUTH COUNCIL
(2) HILLEL PROGRAM AT STANFORD
(3) HILLEL FOUNDATION AT BERKELEY
(4) NORTH AMERICAN JEWISH STUDENTS APPEAL
(5) NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOVIET JEWRY
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FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE TWO LARGEST LOCAL ALLOCATIONS WENT TO LOCAL PROGRAMS WITH DISTINCTIVELY RECOGNIZABLE JEWISH CONTENT, THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTERS AND THE BUREAU OF JEWISH EDUCATION, SUPPORT OF TWO DAY SCHOOLS INCREASED FROM $32,000 TO $52,000, FURTHERMORE, OUR SUPPORT OF SOVIET JEWRY THIS PAST YEAR INCREASED CONSIDERABLY, WE ARE NOT ONLY TAKING CARE OF OUR LOCAL NEEDS IN REGARD TO SOVIET JEWRY BUT SUPPORT MANY NATIONAL AGENCIES WHO HAVE MANY WORTH WHILE PROGRAMS BOTH HERE AND OVERSEAS,
WE OWE A GREAT DEBT OF GRATITUDE TO REYNOLD COLVIN AND SAM LADAR, WHO HEAD UP OUR SOCIAL PLANNING AND BUDGETING COMMITTEE TOGETHER WITH ONE HUNDRED PEOPLE ON THAT COMMITTEE WHO WORKED DILIGENTLY AND WELL TO 'BALANCE OUR BUDGET WITH THE AMOUNT OF FUNDS AVAILABLE, AT
i. L
THE SAME TIME, MEETING THE DESIRES OF THE CONTRIBUTORS AND THE NEEDS OF A CHANGING COMMUNITY,
SPEAKING OF A CHANGING COMMUNITY, WE WOULD LIKE TO BELIEVE THAT WE ARE IN TUNE WITH THE NEEDS FOR CHANGE, FOR EXAMPLE, WE NOW HAVE A COMMUNITY SHALIACH, HE IS AN EMISSARY FROM ISRAEL, AND MEETS WITH GROUPS YOUNG AND OLD, BUT PRINCIPALLY YOUNG, THROUGHOUT THE BAY AREA, HE ENCOURAGES VISITS TO ISRAEL AND INTERPRETS ISRAELI AND AMERICAN JEWISH RELATIONSHIPS,
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FURTHERMORE, WE INTRODUCED TWO YEARS AGO A PROGRAM TO HELP HIGH SCHOOL YOUTH TO STUDY ISRAEL AND THE ISRAELIS, WE ALSO FINANCE SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS SO THAT RELIGIOUS SCHOOL CONFIRMANTS CAN SPEND SEVEN WEEKS A YEAR IN ISRAEL UNDER TRAINED SUPERVISORS, IT HAS BEEN A MOST REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE,
WE HAVE UNDERTAKEN A STATE LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM IN CONCERT WITH THE SEVEN LARGEST COMMUNITIES IN CALIFORNIA, IN THIS MANNER, WE ARE ABLE TO GET INFORMATION WITH REGARD TO OUR STATE LEGISLATURE ABOUT THOSE MATTERS WHICH AFFECT JEWISH HEALTH AND WELFARE PROGRAMS, OR THREATS TO CHURCH-STATE SEPARATION AND OTHER MATTERS PERTINENT TO JEWISH PEOPLE,
OUR CHAPLAINCY PROGRAM IS NOW WELL ESTABLISHED AND RABBI OLES, FEDERATION CHAPLAIN, HAS BEEN DOING A FINE JOB IN OUR COMMUNITY, HIS HEADQUARTERS ARE AT MOUNT ZION HOSPITAL,
GROUNDS OF THE JEWISH HOME FOR THE AGED AND HAS TAKEN CARE OF AGED PEOPLE WHO ARE OF GOOD HEALTH, THE EXPERIMENT HAS BEEN COMPLETED AND PINECREST HAS BEEN DONATED TO THE JEWISH HOME FOR THE AGED, WHO WILL CONTINUE TO RUN PINECREST ALONG THE SAME LINES AS DID THE FEDERATION, WE WISH TO THANK ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS POSSIBLE,
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FOR SOME TIME NOW, WE HAVE BEEN CONCERNED ABOUT THE INCREASING NUMBER OF JOB REQUESTS DUE TO INCREASED UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG JEWS, THERE ARE MANY HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS, COLLEGE STUDENTS AND COLLEGE GRADUATES WHO NEED VOCATIONAL COUNSELING IN ORDER TO DETERMINE CAREERS AND FIND JOBS, MANY OTHER PEOPLE IN ADDITION, SOME HANDICAPPED, NEED THIS KIND OF TRAINING, AFTER CAREFUL STUDY, YOUR FEDERATION DECIDED TO SET UP"A JEWISH VOCATIONAL AND EMPLOYMENT COUNSELING SERVICE ON A TWO-YEAR EXPERIMENTAL BASIS, AT THIS MOMENT, THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS IS BEING CREATED AND A SKILLED TECHNICIAN IS BEING SOUGHT TO HEAD UP A SMALL PROFESSIONAL STAFF, WE HAVE GREAT HOPES FOR THIS PROGRAM AND YOU WILL BE HEARING MORE OF IT,
THERE ARE TWO NATIONAL MATTERS THAT SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO YOUR ATTENTION, ONE IS THE FLOOD LAST SUMMER IN WILKES BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA, WHICH ALMOST WIPED OUT THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY, FOURTEEN HUNDRED OF THE 1,600 JEWISH FAMILIES IN THAT CITY HAD HOMES WHICH WERE BADLY DAMAGED OR COMPLETELY DESTROYED, THIS APPLIED TO ALMOST ALL OF THE JEWISH BUSINESSES, THE RED CROSS DID HELP, AS DID THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, BUT THE NEED FOR PROVIDING ASSISTANCE WAS IMPERATIVE, AS A RESULT, THE NATIONAL JEWISH COMMUNITY, THROUGH THE COUNCIL OF JEWISH FEDERATIONS AND WELFARE FUNDS, PROVIDED $2,000,000 WORTH OF EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE FOR INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES AND WE OF THIS FEDERATION, OF COURSE, ARE PROUD TO HAVE MET OUR SHARE WITH A CONTRIBUTION OF $50,000,
186
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THE OTHER NATIONAL MATTER RELATES TO JEWISH IDENTITY, PARTICULARLY AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE, THROUGH THE COUNCIL OF JEWISH FEDERATIONS AND WELFARE FUNDS, A THREE-YEAR EXPERIMENTAL PROJECT HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED TO ADDRESS ITSELF TO THE FULL RANGE OF PROBLEMS IN JEWISH LIFE, WITH EMPHASIS IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES WHERE JEWISH LIFE IS LIVED, YOUR FEDERATION HAS PROVIDED ITS SHARE IN THIS EXPERIMENTAL PROJECT,
NOW, LET'S LOOK AHEAD, WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE?
1973 IS ISRAEL'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY, MANY EVENTS ARE BEING PLANNED BOTH HERE AND OVERSEAS, WE RESOLVE ALWAYS TO KEEP ISRAEL STRONG AND WE HAVE SET UP WHAT WE FEEL IS AN EXTREMELY CAPABLE TEAM FOR OUR ANNUAL CAMPAIGN, HENRY BERMAN IS THE CHAIRMAN OF THAT FUND-RAISING TEAM, HE HAS ALREADY BEEN HARD AT WORK ORGANIZING A GREAT CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE, I KNOW THAT UNDER HIS LEADERSHIP WE WILL MAKE GREAT STRIDES FORWARD, HENRY, STAND UP, HE HAS THREE EXTREMELY COMPETENT VICE-CHAIRMEN, DOUGLAS HELLER, LARRY MYERS AND LLOYD SANKOWICH, IT IS A MAJOR RESPONSIBILITY AND A LARGE CHALLENGE TO ULTIMATELY REACH HEIGHTS NEVER BEFORE ATTAINED, I BELIEVE WE CAN DO IT AND I KNOW THE LEADERSHIP WILL DO ALL THEY CAN TO SEE THAT IT IS DONE, JUST TO INDICATE HOW SUCCESSFUL WE HAVE BEEN TO DATE, WE HAVE ALREADY RAISED $2.800.000. WHICH IS APPROXIMATELY 43% OF THE MONEY RAISED LAST YEAR, I BELIEVE THIS IS THE EARLIEST PERIOD IN WHICH WE HAVE RAISED THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY IN THE HISTORY OF THE FEDERATION,
187
IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT OUR CAMPAIGN STARTS AND ENDS AT AN EARLIER DATE THAN EVER BEFORE, BECAUSE 1973 IS ALSO GOING TO BE THE YEAR FOR OUR CAPITAL FUNDS CAMPAIGN, IT HAS BEEN 13 YEARS SINCE WE HAVE RAISED ANY MONEY FOR OUR LOCAL INSTITUTIONS FOR CAPITAL NEEDS, OUR JEWISH CENTER BUILDING ON CALIFORNIA STREET CRIES OUT FOR MAJOR RECONDITIONING, OUR OTHER CENTERS ARE WOEFULLY INADEQUATE TO MEET TODAY'S NEEDS, THE NEW WING OF THE JEWISH HOME FOR THE AGED WAS BUILT WITH BORROWED MONEY, AND NEEDS ARE GROWING EVEN MORE, JEWISH EDUCATION NEEDS SPACE IN WHICH TO LIVE AND GROW, THEIR FACILITIES ARE NOT IN KEEPING WITH TODAY'S NEEDS, MOUNT ZION HAS BUILDING NEEDS OF IMMENSE PROPORTION,
; SAN FRANCISCO IS PRACTICALLY THE ONLY MAJOR CITY IN THIS COUNTRY THAT HAS NOT HAD A CAPITAL FUNDS CAMPAIGN DURING THIS 13-YEAR PERIOD, MANY CITIES HAVE HAD MORE THAN ONE, I BELIEVE, AND HAVE EVERY CONFIDENCE THAT WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO BE SUCCESSFUL BOTH IN OUR ANNUAL CAMPAIGN AND MEETING OUR BUILDING FUND NEEDS, I KNOW WE ARE GOING TO DO IT,
NOW ON A PERSONAL NOTE, MY WIFE AND I JUST A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO WERE IN ISRAEL, WE WERE TREMENDOUSLY IMPRESSED WITH THE CONTINUING AND GROWING NEEDS OF THAT MARVELOUS COUNTRY; WE HAVE COME BACK WITH A FEELING THAT WE MUST CONTINUE TO WORK EVEN HARDER THAN IN THE PAST TO MAKE CERTAIN THAT WE RAISE THE AMOUNT OF MONIES NEEDED TO CARRY ON THE PROGRAMS WITH WHICH YOU ARE SO FAMILIAR,
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FORTUNATELY, WE DON'T HAVE THE EMOTION OF WAR TO STIR US, BUT WE HAVE THE EMOTION OF BROTHERHOOD AND RECOGNITION OF A WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO ARE SETTING MARVELOUS EXAMPLES OF COURAGE AND DEVOTION THAT I AM SURE WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS ONE OF THE GREAT MOVEMENTS OF ALL TIME,
AND NOW IN CLOSING, LET ME SAY THAT IT HAS BEEN A WONDERFUL TWO YEARS FOR ME WORKING AS YOUR PRESIDENT, I HAVE ENJOYED THE CLOSE ASSOCIATIONS WITH THE MARVELOUS PEOPLE WHO HAVE WORKED TOGETHER WITH ME FOR THE MOST WORTH WHILE CAUSE THAT I KNOW, IT COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MADE POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE HELP OF THE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF THIS FINE ORGANIZATION AND OUR STAFF, LOU WEINTRAUB HAS BEEN A TREMENDOUS HELP TO ME, WE HAVE PARTIALLY RE-SHAPED OUR STAFF AND IMPROVED IT AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO, I THINK WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED MUCH DURING THESE PAST TWO YEARS AND I WANT TO THANK ALL OF YOU FOR MAKING IT POSSIBLE,
C '.EMARKS OF KELVIN M. SWIG AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
YOUNG ADULTS1 DIVISION Appendix C
TUESDAY. DECEMBER 5. 1972
I AM DELIGHTED TO BE WITH YOU TONIGHT AND TO BRING YOU GREETINGS 2
FROM THE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF THE JEWISH WELFARE FEDERATION,
YOU ARE VERY MUCH ONE OF'OUR FAVORITE UNITS; YOU HAVE GIVEN US I
"ADULTS" A SIZEABLE NUMBER OF GOOD LEADERS; YOU ARE A GREAT ASSET !
TO THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY, j
4
I SHOULD LIKE TO JOIN IN OFFERING CONGRATULATIONS TO YOUR OUTGOING PRESIDENT, STEVE COOK, AS WAS TO BE EXPECTED, THE YAD \ ATTAINED NEW HEIGHTS DURING HIS TERM OF OFFICE AND HE LEAVES BEHIND j HIM A SET OF REMARKABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, HIS IDEA OF HAVING YAD MEMBERS PARTICIPATE AS OBSERVERS IN MEETINGS OF THE BOARDS OF DIRECTORS OF FEDERATION AGENCIES IS A GREAT ONE AND IT IS MEETING WITH ENTHUSIASTIC ACCEPTANCE BY ALL OF THE AGENCIES INVOLVED,
I CONGRATULATE ALSO YOUR INCOMING PRESIDENT, DAVID WEINER, WHO I UNDERSTAND IS A PROFESSOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AT USF AND WHO WAS A VERY SUCCESSFUL CO-CHAIRMAN OF YOUR ANNUAL RETREAT,
I WAS TOLD TO TALK BRIEFLY ABOUT THE FEDERATION, WHAT IT IS, HOW IT REACTS TO THE CHANGING NEEDS OF A CHANGING COMMUNITY AND HOW YOU, THE YAD, FIT IN,
TO UNDERSTAND THE FEDERATION, YOU HAVE TO KNOW THAT IT DOES NOT OPFRATF IN A VACUUM, THAT IT ACTS ONLY TO MEET THE NEEDS OF OTHERS AND THAT IT WOULD CEASE TO EXIST IN THE EVENT THERE WERE NO NEEDS TO BE MET,
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FOR EXAMPLE, WHEN OUR FEDERATION WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1910, ^ IT WAS ONLY BECAUSE THERE WERE ALREADY IN EXISTENCE A GROUP OF AGENCIES -- A HOSPITAL, SEVERAL FAMILY HELPING SOCIETIES, THE I PREDECESSOR TO HOMEWOOD TERRACE, ETC, - WHICH IN THE OPINION OF THE LEADERS NEEDED TO HAVE THEIR FUND-RAISING COORDINATED, SO THE J FEDERATION WAS FORMED, TO GO AFTER THE CONTRIBUTORS ONLY ONCE FOR A LARGE GIFT TO MEET THE DEFICITS OF A NUMBER OF LOCAL AGENCIES,
IN 1925, WHEN IT BECAME OBVIOUS THAT OVERSEAS NEEDS REQUIRED A VEHICLE SIMILAR TO FEDERATION FOR LOCAL NEEDS, THE JEWISH NATIONAL WELFARE FUND WAS CREATED, THE TWO, FEDERATION AND WELFARE FUND, RAN PARALLEL UNTIL 1955 WHEN GOOD SENSE AS WELL AS THE TIME DEMANDS UPON LEADERS DICTATED A MERGER BETWEEN THE TWO INTO THE JEWISH WELFARE FEDERATION AS WE KNOW IT NOW,
THIS FEDERATION, AS WELL AS THE FEDERATIONS OF THE MORE THAN 250 SIMILAR FEDERATIONS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY, BASICALLY HAS A TRIO OF RESPONSIBILITIES, FUND-RAISING, BUDGETING, AND PLANNING. IN OUR FEDERATION, WE HAVE DEVELOPED TO A FAi .Y HIGH ORDER THESE THREE FUNCTIONS AND, EVEN THOUGH WE ARE NOT THE BEST OF THE LARGE CITIES IN OUR FUND-RAISING ACCOMPLISHMENTS, THE LAST TWO YEARS HAVE SEEN US RAPIDLY ECOME OF AGE, BUDGETING AND PLANNING HAVE BEEN COMBINED INTO A SINGLE OPERATION, MANAGED BY A COMMITTEE OF 100, AND EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE STILL SNAGS TO REMOVE, ON THE WHOLE I THINK WE DO A MOST CREDITABLE JOB,
-3-
»•
*i
IN FUND-RAISING, WE TRY TO DO AS THOROUGH A JOB AS POSSIBLE 3
\>
BUT I WOULD BE LESS THAN HONEST WITH YOU IF I DID NOT ADMIT THAT £ IT IS BASICALLY THE TOP GIVERS - THE SLIGHTLY OVER 700 INDIVIDUALS j
4
WHO CONTRIBUTE MORE THAN 80% OF WHAT WE RAISE - WHO CARRY THE BALL,
| WE'VE GOT A LONG WAY TO GO TO BRING UP THE SIGHTS AND THE DOLLARS
OF THE REST OF THE COMMUNITY,
IN PLANNING, WE HAVE HAD NUMEROUS ACCOMPLISHMENTS, CLOSING J
t
AGENCIES WHEN THEIR PROGRAMS WERE NO LONGER NECESSARY (MAIMONIDES,
j EMANU-EL RESIDENCE CLUB) AND CREATING AGENCIES WHEN THEY WERE j
CONSIDERED ESSENTIAL (PINECREST, THE NEW JEWISH VOCATIONAL SERVICE,
I
CHAPLAINCY PROGRAM, ETC,),
i
THE KEY TO BUDGETING IS WHAT OUR BUDGETEERS ANTICIPATE THE WISHES OF THE DONORS TO BE, OBVIOUSLY, 100 PEOPLE CAN'T REALLY KNOW WHAT 14,000 PEOPLE WANT BUT THE 100 ARE SELECTED SO THAT THEY REPRESENT A GOOD CROSS-SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY AND, IF THEIR WORK TO DATE HAD NOT BASICALLY MET THE WISHES OF CONTRIBUTORS, THE RESULT WOULD HAVE SHOWED UP IN SUBSEQUENT FUND-RAISING CAMPAIGNS,
OUR COMMUNITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN OVERSEAS ORIENTED, THAT IS WHY APPROXIMATELY 75% OF WHAT WE NOW RAISE GOES OVERSEAS AND, EVEN BEFORE THERE WAS AN ISRAEL EMERGENCY FUND, WE WERE GIVING MORE THAN 50% OF WHAT WAS RAISED TO THE UNITED JEWISH APPEAL, AMONG THE CITIES WITH WHICH WE ARE COMPARED, WE ARE SECOND IN THE PERCENTAGE OF AMOUNT RAISED WHICH GOES OVERSEAS,
192
AMONG LOCAL AGENCIES, WE HAVE TRADITIONALLY BEEN HEALTH AND WELFARE ORIENTED — UNTIL RECENT YEARS, LOOKING AT A LIST OF ALLOCATIONS MADE FOLLOWING CAMPAIGNS SEVERAL YEARS BACK, YOU WOULD HAVE NOTICED HEALTH AND WELFARE - JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE AGENCY, MOUNT ZION, ETC,, RECEIVING THE HIGHEST ALLOCATIONS, BUT A FEDERATION CAN SURVIVE ONLY IF IT IS RESPONSIVE TO CHANGING NEEDS, THUS, A LOOK AT THE ALLOCATIONS FOR THE 1972 CAMPAIGN SHOWS UNMISTAKABLY THAT THOSE AGENCIES WITH DISTINCTLY JEWISH CONTENT IDENTIFICATION ARE IN THE ASCENDENCY,
THUS, THE JEWISH CENTERS AND THE BUREAU OF JEWISH EDUCATION ARE NO, 1 AND 2 RESPECTIVELY IN LOCAL ALLOCATIONS, MOUNT ZION IS NO, 3 - BECAUSE OF ITS FREE AND PART-PAY PROGRAM - AND THE JCRC IS NO, 4, BECAUSE OF ITS FOCUS ON SOVIET JEWRY AND THE MIDDLE EAST, NEW AGENCIES ACCEPTED DURING THE YEAR PROVIDE ADDITIONAL INSIGHT INTO THE TREND TOWARD MORE JEWISH ORIENTED PROGRAMS - BAY AREA JEWISH YOUNG COUNCIL, ISRAEL TOUR AND STUDY PROGRAM, NORTH AMERICAN JEWISH STUDENT'S APPEAL, NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOVIETY JEWRY, JUDAH L, MAGNES MEMORIAL MUSEUM,
WE HAVE BEEN FORTUNATE IN THE KIND OF LEADERSHIP ATTRACTED TO THE FEDERATION SINCE 1910 BUT FINDING GOOD LEADERSHIP IS NOT EASY NOR ARE THEY NECESSARILY KNOWLEDGEABLE WHEN FOUND, THUS, WE AS WELL AS OTHER FEDERATIONS HAVE HAD INTERMITTANT LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAMS WHERE A SELECTED GROUP OF POtTENTIAL "YOUNG LEADERS" ARE PUT THROUGH A SEVERAL MONTHS COURSE OF INFORMATION AND EDUCATION
.
-5- 193 i|
4
PLUS A PERIOD OF APPRENTICESHIP ON THE BOARDS OF OUR LOCAL
AGENCIES, WE ARE LONG OVERDUE ON A NEW COURSE BUT HOPE TO START ]
k ONE BEFORE LONG, |
IT IS PARTICULARLY GRATIFYING TO THE FEDERATION THAT THERE
•'»
I EXISTS IN OUR MIDST THE YAD, TRAINING GROUND FOR THOSE OF fr
f EXCEPTIONAL TALENTS AS WELL AS GOOD JEWISH MOTIVATION, YOU HAVE „
ALREADY GRADUATED INTO OUR "ADULT" RANKS SOME EXTREMELY COMPETENT
r
PEOPLE, I DON'T HAVE TO NAME THEM -- THEY SIT ON OUR BOARD AND
OUR COMMITTEES AND YOU KNOW WHO THEY ARE AS WELL AS WE DO, j
v
WE WANT MORE OF THE SAME AND FROM THOSE SITTING HERE TONIGHT, *
)
AS WELL AS THE MANY OTHERS WHO FUNCTION WITH YOU THROUGHOUT THE
YEAR, WE OF FEDERATION EXPECT GREAT THINGS IN THE WAY OF f
r
LEADERSHIP AND VITALITY FOR OUR FEDERATION,
I WAS TOLD TO LEAVE TIME FOR QUESTIONS - AND SO I WILL CLOSE
<
BY EXPRESSING MY DEEP APPRECIATION FOR THE INVITATION TO BE WITH
YOU TONIGHT AND SIMILAR DEEP APPRECIATION FOR THE EXCELLENT WORK
i
YOU ARE DOING, \
f I
Jewish Welfare Federation
220 Bush Street, Suite 645
San Francisco, California 94104
194
Appendix D
APPENDIX
1973 STANDING COMMITTEES EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Melvln M. Swig, Chairman 'Jerome I . Braun Reynold H. Colvln Jesse Feldman -Mrs. William H. Green Walter A. Haas Douglas M. He I ler
Myers
Swig
'Laurence E Benjamin H
FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE
Douglas M. Heller, Chairman Henry E. Berman, Vice Chairman Lloyd W. Dlnkelsplel, Jr. 'Robert E. Slnton John H. Stelnhart Melvln M. Swig
FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE SUB-COMMITTEES
Sub-Committee on Investments
Mortimer Flelshhacker, Chairman
Warren H. Berl
Jack S. Euphrat
Daniel E. Koshland
Robert E. Slnton
Carl W. Stern
Retirement Committee
Robert M. Lev I son, Chairman
Abraham Bernstein, M.D.
Paul Boas
Lewis B. Levin
Stuart Sei ler
Jerome I. Welnsteln
Louis Welntraub, Secretary
FUND RAISING COMMITTEE
Mrs. WllllamH. Green, Chairman
Lloyd Sankowlch, Vice Chairman
Karl Bach
Henry E. Berman
Abraham Bernstein, M.D.
Jerome I . Braun
Kenneth Colvln
Mrs. Morrl s Cul Iner
Mrs. Jay Darwin
Lloyd W. Dlnkelsplel, Jr.
Richard S. Dinner
Mrs. Harold Dobbs
George Edelsteln
Nathan Jay Friedman
Richard N. Goldman
Peter E. Haas
Douglas M. He I ler
Seymour Hyman
Haro Id J . Kaufman Jesse Levin "Wi I I lam J . Lowenberg Robert A. Lurie Mervin G. Morris Dr. Donald Newman Claude Rosenberg, Jr. Edward Schultz Donald H. Sel ler Peter F. Sloss Mrs. Richard Swig Mrs. Robert Taubrr.an Mrs, Marilyn Warshauer Melvin B. Wasserman David Weiner Bernara G. Werth Arthur B. Zimmerman
195
Appendix E
JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION COMMITTEES* (Some Committees are in Formation) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (as of 8/19/86) (Proposed officers nominated by Board Officers Nominating Committee a
June 18, 1986.) No other slate was nominated. Elections will take place at the first board meeting after the annual meeting which was held June 17, 1986.
Composition of the Executive Committee is mandated by the Federation Bylaws, Section IV, B. , 1.
Chairman:
Staff:
Members:
Guests
Chairman: Vice Chairman Staff:
Members :
President, Laurence Myers Brian Lurie
s Division
Judith Chapman, President, Women
Kenneth Colvin, Vice President
Adele Corvin, Chairman, Capital Funds Committee
Annette Dobbs , Chairman, Personnel Committee
Rhoda Goldman, Chairman, Endowment Committee
Barbara Isackson, Assistant Treasurer
Geoffrey Kalmanson, Secretary
Ron Kaufman, Immediate Past-President
Dr. Donald Linker, Chairman, Fundraising Committee
Dr. Donald Newman, Chairman, 1986 Campaign
Raquel Newman, Vice President
Claude Rosenberg, Chairman, Investment Committee
Albert Schultz, Treasurer
Donald Seiler, Vice President
Stuart Seiler, Chairman, 1987 Campaign
Roselyne Swig, Vice President
Melvin Wasserman, Chairman, Planning & Budgeting
Committee Ronald Wornick, Vice President
Ronald Berman , Chairman, Communications Committee Richard Goldman, Chairman, Overseas Committee George Saxe, Chairman, Demographic Study Committee
ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE
Albert Schultz
Annette Dobbs (Personnel)
Nancy Hair
Barbara Isackson Adriana Ryan
Michael Podell (Building) Dr. Andrew Rosenblatt George Saxe
Ex-Of f icio:
Laurence Myers
196
Chairman: Vice Chairman Staff :
Members:
Ex-Of f icio
BUILDING SUBCOMMITTEE
Michael Podell Barbara Isackson Elle Hoffnagel
Ron Kaufman
William J. Lowenberg
Donald Sweet
Laurence Myers
Chairman: Vice Chairman Staff:
Members:
Chairman: Vice Chairman Staff:
BYLAWS COMMITTEE
Samuel Ladar Jerome Braun Phyllis Cook
William Coblentz Randy Dick Jesse Feldman Alvin Levitt Robert Sinton Sheldon Wolfe
CAPITAL FUNDS COMMITTEE
Adele Corvin Alvin Levitt Phyllis Cook David Bubis Gene Kaufman
Members:
James Abrahamson Frances Berger Judith Chapman Helene Cohen Kenneth Colvin Richard Dinner Kate Feinstein John Freidenrich John Goldman Frances Green Richard Green Peter Haas Ruthellen Harris Douglas Heller Donald Kahn Geoff Kalmanson Sonya Kaplan
Ron Kaufman Harvey Koch Dr. Donald Linker Bernard Osher Michael Podell Robert Rubenstein George Saxe Donald Seiler Stuart Seiler Peter Sloss Donald Sweet Melvin Swig Marilyn Taubman Ronald Wornick Harold Zlot Allan Kaplan, Intern
197
Capital Fund Ex-Of f icio:
Chairman Staff:
Members:
Intern:
Chairman: Staff: Members :
ommittee - continued
Randall Dick Laurence Myers Sora Lei Newman Melvin Wasserman
CASH COLLECTIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
George Frankenstein Loren Basch/Seymour Kleid
Annette Dobbs Betty Dreifuss Douglas Heller Dr. Donald Linker William J. Lowenberg Donald Seiler Roselyne Swig Sheldon Wolfe
Susan Lowenberg
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
Ronald Herman Shelly Freisinger In Formation
COMMUNITY PLANNING/AGENCY RELATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
Chairman : Staff:
Michael Rubenstein Gene Kaufman
Agencies
Bureau of Jewish Education Jewish Community Relations
Council Jewish Family & Children's
Services
Jewish Home for the Aged Jewish Vocational Service Menorah Park Mount Zion Hospital Northern California Jewish
Bulletin United Jewish Community
Centers
Presidents
James Sammet Tanette Goldberg
Siesel Maibach
Jim Joseph
Max Bernstein
Alan Rothenberg
Peter Sloss
Prof." Edwin Epstein
Richard Green
Executives
Howard Gelberd Earl Raab
Anita Friedman
Jerry Levine Abby Snay Barbara Solomon Martin Diamond Marc Klein
Mark Rubin
Steering Committee (Local and National)
Chairman: Vice Chairman: Staff:
Mel Wasserman Randy Dick Gene Kaufman
198
Steering Committee (Local and National) - continued
Community Relations Family, Health & Elderly Group Work and Campus Jewish Education National Agencies Project Renewal
Dr. Joel Renbaum Michael Samson Alan Grossman Stewart Foreman Betty Dreifuss Alan Rothenberg
JEWISH ELDERLY PROFESSIONAL SUBCOMMITTEE Chairman: Barbara Solomon
Members: Professionals working in agencies dealing with
Jewish Elderly and key lay representatives. In Formation.
Chairman: Vice Chairman: Staff:
Members:
Chairman: Vice Chairman: Staff:
CONFEDERATION SUBCOMMITTEE William J. Lowenberg Brian Lurie
Adele Corvin Barbara Isackson Laurence Myers Stuart Seiler
DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY SUBCOMMITTEE
George Saxe Gerald Marcus Steven Haberfeld Gene Kaufman
Members:
Diane Cohen Randy Dick Stewart Foreman Ruthellen Harris Barbara Isackson Robert Levison Sandy Leib Robert Lipman Seymour Lipset Laurence Myers
Earl Raab Myra Reinhard Michael Rubenstein Rabbi Peter Rubinstein Lynn Sedway Ruth Sporer Thaddeus Taube Marilyn Weisberg Anita Wornick
Chairman: Vice Chairmen
Staff:
Members :
199 ENDOWMENT COMMITTEE
Rhoda Goldman
Peter Haas*, Development
Donald Seiler, Allocations
Phyllis Cook Deborah Bleicher
James Abrahamson Rabbi M. Barenbaum John Blumlein Joseph Blumlein Harry Blumenthal Jerome Braun* Adele Corvin Ruth Debs Richard Dinner** Annette Dobbs** Jesse Feldman * Howard Friedman Hanna Fromm Frances Geballe** Richard Goldman* Frances Green* Morgan Gunst, Jr. Douglas Heller
Ron Kaufman*
Samuel Ladar*
Robert Levison
Alvin Levitt
William J. Lowenberg
Phyllis Moldaw
Raquel Newman
Bernard Osher
George Saxe
Albert Schultz
William Russell-Shapiro
Robert Sinton*
John Steinhart*
Melvin Swig
L. Jay Tenenbaum
Haskell Titchell
Ex-Of f icio:
Laurence Myers Claude Rosenberg
Intern: Don Abramson *Federation Past Presidents **Reappointed for second three-year term.
EVA HELLER KOHN SUBCOMMITTEE
John Blumlein
Deborah Bleicher
Chairman: Vice Chairman: Staff:
Goldie Cutler, National Council of Jewish Women
George Saxe
Carolene Marks, Hadassah
William Lowenberg
Ex-Off icio:
Rhoda Goldman
Chairman: Vice Chairman Staff:
Members:
Chairman : Vice Chairman Staff:
Members:
200 FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE
Dr. Donald Linker Sonya Kaplan Loren Basch
Stuart Aronoff Ron Berman Dr. Jeffrey Carmel Judith Chapman Andrew Colvin Kenneth Colvin Randall Dick Annette Dobbs George Foos George Frankenstein Ruthellen Harris Jack Kadesh Susan Kolb Ron Kaufman Harvey Koch Arthkur Krulevitch
Nadine Krulevitch Sandra Leib Laurence Myers Dr. Donald Newman Dr. Joel Renbaum Marc Rosenberg Dr. Andrew Rosenblatt Norman Rosenblatt Adriana Ryan Albert Schultz Donald Seiler Roselyne Swig Sanford Tandowsky Phyllis Wasserman Sheldon Wolfe Ronald Wornick Judy Zimmerman
INSURANCE SUBCOMMITTEE
Kenneth Colvin Nancy Hair
Stuart Aronoff Joanne Backman Harry Cohn Dan Golden Richard Green Ruthellen Harris Douglas Heller
Peggy Nathan Michael Rubenstein James Sammet George Saxe Paul Steiner Melvin Wassermar. Steve Zimmerman
Ex-Of f icio:
Albert Schultz
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE
Chairman : Vice Chairman Staff:
Members :
Claude Rosenberg Toby Rosenblatt Nancy Hair Phyllis Cook
James Abrahamson Warren Berl Joseph Blumlein Jerome Debs Tully Friedman Daniel Golden Douglas Heller
David Kavrell Peter Maier Maurice Mann William Rollnick Alan Rothenberg Robert Sinton Alan Stein
201
Investment Committee - continued
Warren Hellman Alan Herzig
Ex-Off icio:
Rhoda Goldman Laurence Myers Albert Schultz
Willi Weinstein
Chairman: Vice Chairman: Staff:
Members:
NEW GIFTS SUBCOMMITTEE
Sunny Kaplan Lynn Blankfort Karen Marcus
Diane Cohen Annette Dobbs Victoria Rhine Dobbs Betty Dreifuss Mimi Gauss Hank Levitan William J. Lowenberg
Nick Martin
Dr. Barry Oberstein
Bruce Raful
Dr. Garry Rayant
Robert Rubenstein
Anita Wornick
NOMINATING SUBCOMMITTEE
Chairman : Vice Chairman Staff:
Members:
Chairman: Vice Chairmen Staff:
Members:
Jerome Braun Phyllis Cook
Ron Berman Randall Dick George Foos Barbara Isackson
Marge Kalmanson Michael Podell Steven Swig
OVERSEAS COMMITTEE
Richard Goldman Ron Kaufman Phyllis Cook
Kenneth Colvin Randall Dick Jesse Feldman George Foos Claude Ganz Douglas Herst Alvin Levitt William Lowenberg Raquel Newman
Dr. Andrew Rosenblatt Alan Rothenberg Rabbi Peter Rubinstein Robert Sinton Melvin Swig Roselyne Swig Sheldon Wolfe Anita Wornick
Ex-Off icio
Laurence Myers Melvin Wasserman
202
PERSONNEL COMMITTEE
Chairman:
Annette Dobbs
Vice Chairman: Albert Schultz Staff: Loren Basch
Members: Betty Dreifuss
George Foos George Frankenstein Douglas Herst Barbara Isackson
Chairman: Staff:
Members:
PHILANTHROPIC FUND ADVISORY SUBCOMMITTEE
Ex-Off icio
Deborah Bleicher
Adele Corvin Barbara Isackson Alvin Levitt Raguel Newman Norman Rosenblatt
Laurence Myers Rhoda Goldman
George Saxe Stuart Seiler Melvin Wasserman Ronald Wornick
Chairman:
PLANNING & BUDGETING COMMITTEE
Melvin Wasserman
Vice Chairman: Randy Dick Staff: Gene Kaufman
Members :
IN FORMATION
PROJECT RENEWAL COMMITTEE
Chairman: Alan Rothenberg Vice Chairman: Roselyne Swig Staff: Steven Haberfeld
Members:
IN FORMATION
Chairman: Vice Chairman Staff:
Members:
REAL ESTATE SUBCOMMITTEE
Victor Marcus William Lowenberg Phyllis Cook Nancy Hair
Stanley Dick Dan Geller Jim Joseph Jay Kaplan Harold Kaufman
Laurence Myers Joseph Pell Joseph Samson Al Shansky Boris Wolper
203
Real Estate Subcommittee - continued
Ron Kaufman Bradford Liebman William J. Lowenberg
Arthur Zimmerman
Chairman: Vice Chairman Staff:
Members:
Ex-Of f icio:
RETIREMENT SUBCOMMITTEE
Barry Sacks Stuart Seiler Nancy Hair
Andrew Colvin Dr. Julian Davis Samuel Ladar Sandra Leib Siesel Maibach Theodore Seton Vivian Solomon
Annette Dobbs Albert Schultz
2Q4 —ADDejidix.
ACTION: F. It was moved, seconded and passed to appoint the
following individuals to serve on the Ad Hoc Committee on "Who Is A Jew":
Melvin Swig; Ad Hoc Chair, Endowment Vice Chair
Max Bernstein; Project Renewal Chair
Jerome Braun; Past President
Annette Dobbs; Ex-Officio
Dianne Feinstein; Delegate
Jesse Feldraan; Past President
George Foos; Current Camp Chair
Stewart Foreman; B & A Chair
Sam Gill; Project Renewal Vice Chair
Richard N. Goldman; Past President
Frances D. Green; Past President
Peter E. Haas; Past President
Ron Kaufman; Past President, Overseas Chair
Robert Kirschner; Delegate
Samuel A. Ladar; Past President
Alvin Levitt; Overseas Vice Chair
William J. Lowenberg; Past President
Laurence E. Myers; Past President
Sora Lei Newman; BJE Chair
Dr. Andrew Rosenblatt; B & A Vice Chair
George Saxe; Strategic Vice Chair
Donald Seiler; Endowment Chair
Robert E. Sinton; Past President
Peter F. Sloss; Endowment Vice
Rabbi Malcolm Sparer; Board Of Rabbis
Ronald Wornick; Strategic Planning Chair
IX Executive Committee Report
A. Stuart Seiler delivered the December 6
Executive Committee report making specific mention of the Soviet emigre resettlement status. There was also an update made on the Marin Campus project and the South Peninsula Council.
X Overseas Committee Report
A. Due to time constraints, it was agreed to
postpone the Overseas Committee report until the January 17 Board of Director's Meeting.
Respeptfully Submitted,
La'uren Dellar
Assistant to the Executive Director
205
Appendix G
Item 11:
NOTE:
Chairman:
ENDOWMENT COMMITTEE (in formation as of 9/18/89)
For this committee only, the following key applies + Notes Federation Past Presidents Don Seiler
Vice Chairman: Melvin Swig-t-, Development
Peter Sloss, Allocations
Staff:
Members:
Phyllis Cook Dan Asher
James Abrahamson Ben Baum
Rabbi M. Barenbaum Ernest Benesch Harry Blumenthal John Blumlein Joseph Blumlein Jerome Braun + Adele Corvin Jesse Feldman * Hanna Fromm Bud Gansel Richard Goldman + Frances Green + Peter Haas + Douglas Heller Geoffrey Kalmanson Ron Kaufman + Samuel Ladar * Robert Levison
Alvin Levitt William Lowenberg + Bruce Mann Phyllis Moldaw Laurence Myers + Bernard Osher Eda Pell
William Rollnick George Saxe Jack Schafer Albert Schultz William Russell-Shapiro Geraldyn Sicular Robert Sinton + John Steinhart. + Melvin Swig + L. Jay Tenenbaum Haskell Titchell Sidney Unobskey Anita Weissberg
Ex-Officio
Stewart Foreman Claude Rosenberg
Tnt.firn :
Don
206
Appendix H
Item 11:
Chairman: Members:
EXECUTIVE SEARCH COMMITTEE (in place as of 9/18/90)
Donald Seiler
Rabbi Michael Barenbaum Annette Dobbs Donald Friend Richard Goldman Peter Haas Barbara Isackson Joelle Steefel Mel Swig Roselyne Swig
Item 12:
Chair:
Vice-Chair:
Staff:
Members:
IMPLEMENTATION SUBCOMMITTEE (in place -- as of 9/18/90)
Annette Dobbs Susan Folkman
Brian Lurie Nina Bruder
Adele Corvin Stewart Foreman John Friedenrich Bob Friend Sanford Gallanter Douglas Heller Barbara Isackson Sonya Kaplan Al Levitt Bob Lipman Susan Lowenberg Larry Myers Sora Lei Newman
Debra Pell Alan Rosen Richard Rosenberg Dr. Andrew Rosenblatt Rabbi Peter Rubinstein George Saxe Albert L. Schultz Stuart Seiler Joelle Spitzer-Steefel Donald Sweet Roselyne C. Swig Ronald C. Wornick Dr. Harold Zlot
207
Appendix I
Item 4:
Chair: Vice Chair
Staff: Members :
Ex-Officio: Intern:
ENDOWMENT COMMITTEE (in place as of 9/18/90)
Mervin G. Morris
Melvin M. Swig, Endowment Development Peter F. Sloss, Endowment Allocations
Phyllis Cook Peter Gertler
Rabbi M. Barenbaum Benjamin Baum Ernest A. Benesch John Blumlein Jerome Braun Adele Corvin Annette Dobbs Jesse Feldman John Freidenrich Robert Friend Hanna Fromro Bud Gansel Richard Goldman Frances Green Peter Haas Douglas M. Heller Geoffrey Kalmanson Ron Kaufman Samuel Ladar Robert Levison Alvin T. Levitt William J. Lowenberg
Bruce Mann Phyllis Moldaw Laurence Myers Bernard Osher Eda Pell John Pritzker William Rollnick George Saxe Jack G. Schafer Albert L. Schultz William Russell-Shapiro Geraldyn Sicular Robert Sinton John Steinhart L. Jay Tenenbaum Haskell Titchell Bertram Tonkin Sidney Unobskey Anita Weissberg
Claude Rosenberg, Chair, Investment Committee Andrew Rosenblatt, Chair, Planning & Allocations
Don Abramson
208
Appendix J
San Francisco Jewish Bulletin
December 8, 1978
SUCCEEDS JOHN H. STEINHART
Mel Swig Heads Bulletin
£ Mel via M. Swig, San Francisco real esUte developer, sportsman
land community and civic leader, h*j been elected president of the San Francisco Jewish Bulletin's
•Board of Directors.
Swig, who first served on the
jiewspaper's board in 1970, sue- ceeds John H. Steinhart who has
&Veo associated with the
^publishing of the Bulletin for 22
./ears. His father, Jesse H. Steinhart was one of the small
3poup oY Jewish community leaders who bought the publica tion from San Francisco attorney Sol SUverman -in -1946 and established it as a community weekly. .
Other officers elected are at torney Milton Jacobs as vice- president, Bernice Glickfeld as
"treasurer and Sue Sransten as secretary. .. ; . •"""••
Swig, who served as president of the Jewish Welfare Federation of San Francisco, Marin County and the Peninsula in 1971-72, is active In numerous civic and community
Organizations both locally and na tionally. He is a former owner of the California Golden Seals and the Cleveland Barons of the Na tional Hockey League. He is a director of the Fairmont. Hotel on
NobHiH. ' .V '">,"'-" The BuBetinJs the only weekly
newspaper in northern California serving the Jewish community. It Aas » escalation of some 17,000 copies weekty. It is served by the ^)ewish,"^eVgraphic Agency, a ^ world wifle news service, of which ~ Swig & a director, by the London Jewish Chronicle feature Service, by the National Religious News Photo Service 'and the Israel Press and Photo Agency.
I
A: f
I
<•£ ob "=
Jiff
*7? S
209
Appendix K
Northern California Jewish
Bulletin July 26, 1985
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210
Appendix L
Northern Californa Jewish Bulletin
January 24 , 1986
Swig. gets award for endowment work
I Melvin M. Swig, a long-time
leader of the San Franciso Jewish
'community and past president of
* "the Jewish Community Federation
of San Francisco, the Peninsula,
Marin and Sonoma Counties, has
been named a recipient of the first
Council of Jewish Federations
. endowment achievement award.
Since 1980, Swig has been chair man of the Jewish Community En dowment Fund of the JCEF. The committee develops new sources of endowment funds, and reviews all grants and emergency allocations of the JCEF.
The award is geared for "those who have, through their leader ship, vision and dedication, helped -in the successful growth" of their federation endowment funds, ac cording to the citation.
The awards were announced re cently at the General Assembly meeting of the CJF in Washington, D.C.
Robert E. Sinton, a member of the )CEF's allocations committee and former chairman of the JCEF, presented the award to Swig in San Francisco earlier this month.
"Among the many accolades I could lavish upon Mel Swig, ' ' com- .. mented Sinton, "are for his : warmth and his generosity. He has proven again and again his commit- *"' Inent to assuring the quality and f the continuity of the Jewish com munity."
The Swig Foundation recently made a gift to the Endowment Fund of $500.000.
Over the five years Swig had
; headed the JCEF, the total assets of
the fund have grown from less than
$23 miHion to more than $50 mil-
goal to build -a $100 million endow ment fund that would give us the flexibility to handle crises [ranging] from fires to floods to persecution of Jews abroad. That remains my goal."
Swig's father, the late Benjamin Swig, was chairman of the first be quest development committee, when the endowment fund offices were located on California Street in San Francisco. The JCEF was reor ganized in 1976 with Sinton as chairman.
Swig, 69, who was instrumental in helping establish the JCEF 20 years ago, is president of the Fair mont Hotel Company and is a trustee or member of the board of directors of some 20 Jewish and civic organizations, including the University of San Francisco, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the regional board and the national commission of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, Brandeis University, Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center, and the JCF.
•»*•*• t
..-Upon accepting the award. Bwig ' •aid, 'Twenty years ago I set as our
211
Bpord to Be Expanded
Settlement Reached
•i ;
On Koret Foundation
Appendix M
San Francisco Chronicle
June 24, 1986
.». By Evelyn H$u
A legal battle over control of the nearly $200 million Koret
• Foundation has been settled t oat of court, it was learned yes-
*" lend a y.
• " ' The dispute, involving one of ; ffie country's largest philanthropic
• foundations, included allegations of
• ^proper spending and attempts by
• three directors to remove the
• founder's widow. Susan Koret, as « chairman. Mrs. Koret, in turn, tried
• t2> fire the three directors.
• , Under terms of the settlement \ tfiat ended the dispute. Mrs. Koret
• will be reinstated as chairman and \ ike ether board members will re- ; main as directors, but the board will
• b£ expanded to 10 members from \ the present four.
T * The new board members will
• Include attorney William Coblentz;
• investor Richard Blum, the hus- 1 band of Mayor Dianne Feinstein; J Businessman Melvin Swig, whose I family owns the Fairmont Hotel;
• businessman Stanley Herzstein, and I Bernard Osher, head of the Butter- ; field and Butterf ield auction house.
• the sixth new board member has I y«t to be selected.
I - In addition to the composition
• o) the board, one of the major dis- t putes between Mrs. Koret and the I diner directors was how much of •tile organization's largesse should I bfe directed to Jewish charities.
I • The foundation, created by the ' lite clothing magnate Joseph Koret.
• had been directing half of its gifts to I Jewish causes. But the original ;tfcree directors — developer Tad
• *^ube, businessman Eugene Friend !a*d attorney Richard Greene —
• wanted to give more money to Jew- ; tfh organizations.
T } , Mrs. Koret, who married the : p^flanthroptist a year before he : dfed at the age of 79 in 1982, said her •late husband wanted only half of 1 Ufe money to go to Jewish organiza-
• * The foundation, established ! from the estate of Koret's first wife 'in-' 1978, gave away 16 million last ;ySar .and has about $8 million to
' gY?nt this year.
• «
• f The settlement, which was ;- ripened on Friday, calls for half of •the foundation's annual donations ;to,go to Jewish charities, said Herz- ; ifcin. The agreement is expected to
bnng an end to legal actions filed by ' bjth sides in April.
!• • Despite the often acrimonious tc&arges that were made during the •legal dispute, Herzstein was confi- idgnt the new board could work to- •gether. "You're dealing with a i group of very mature adults who lean put it all behind them." he said.
"The foundation has great po tential for growth and good," said Coblentz. "I'm sure reasonable peo ple can work together to earn, out the wishes of Mr. Koret."
Taube, who will remain as pres ident of the foundation at a salary of $60.000 a year, said: "We are very pleased with the resolution of this conflict. This will allow us to put our problems behind us and focus our energies and attention on helping worthwhile organizations in our community."
The settlement does not halt an audit of the foundation's finances by the state attorney general's of fice, said Carol Kornblum, assistant attorney general.
The audit began after the legal dispute raised questions about fi nancial transactions between the foundation and its directors.
Among the charges were accu sations by Mrs. Koret that Taube wrongly benefited from foundation grants that were used to buy tickets to Oakland Invaders football games. Taube was a co-owner of the now- defunct football team. His attorney, Jerome Falk, has denied any wrong doing by his client
Appendix N
San Francisco Chronicle
September 8, 1986
The Swigs Build a Bigger Empire
The push is on to increase the family fortune
BY STEPHEN MA IT A
At his table in the Fairmont's Brasse rie restaurant, Mel Swig munches a Cobb salad and fields rapid-fire calls on union troubles, charitable projects and real estate ventures. The last call spoils lunch.
Millionaire Phillip Anschutz, who is ne gotiating to sell Swig the 550-room Denver Fairmont, is arguing about who will get the hotel's "air rights" for future development After quietly stating his side, Swig con cludes, "Well, Phil, maybe we can't do busi ness." He hangs up and sighs, 'The Denver deal is off."
August wasn't a great month. Two •weeks before the Denver deal disinte grated, Swig pulled out of a planned 185 million resort project in Hawaii, citing spi- raling costs. But he has no time to dwell on nich "deal breakers." "The Denver market's been hurting anyway," Swig rationalizes. "If we don't add Denver, we'll add some thing somewhere else."
Such is life these days for Melvin Swig, the 60-year-old San Francisco hotelier, de veloper, checkbook Democrat and philan thropist who shares the throne of the Swig hotel and real estate empire with brother 'Richard, 60, and brother-in-law Richard Dinner, 64.
Unlike the Rockefellers and some other old-line families whose descendants have changed their focus from building to cash ing in their assets, the children and grand children of the late financier Benjamin Swig are intent on adding to the family business — already valued by some at more
than $450 million. In the past 24 months alone:
• The jewel of the family fortune, the elegant Fairmont hotels, are amid their big gest expansion. Two new hotels — one with 583 rooms in San Jose, another with 700 rooms in Chicago — will be completed in 1987, bringing the number of Fairmonts the Swigs own or operate to six. And they're looking at other cities, too.
• In June, the Swigs bought Arco Cen ter, Long Beach's largest office building. The acquisition of the 14-story, twin-tower complex came after the family missed out on its boldest bid ever — for the 52-story BankAmerica world headquarters in San Francisco. Developer Walter Shorenstein, ironically a partner on several Swig ven tures, walked away with the mammoth complex for I860 million. By most indica tions, this has been the Swigs' most aggres sive real estate year since 1984, when they added office towers in New York and New Jersey. ^^ ....
In all, the Swigs now own hotels in San Francisco, Dallas and New Orleans, operate the Denver Fairmont and have sizable stakes in 15 office towers in New York, San Francisco, Dallas and Houston.
Together, the Swigs have amassed one of San Francisco's biggest family fortunes, bankrolled prominent Democrats from for mer California Governor Edmund Brown Sr. to Mayor Dianne Feinstein, and devel oped one of the nation's most presti gious hotel chains.
Because the business is closely held, calculating its value is diffi cult. But Forbes magazine last fall •said Mel and Richard Swig and Richard Dinner are among the 400 richest Americans, with an estimat ed wealth of 1150 million each. That's up from $100 million each 'just two years ago, according to the magazine's rough estimates.
Although the family's real es tate is overshadowed by the assets 'of developers like Shorensteln and <New York's Donald Trump, the holdings still add up to an impres sive 8 million-plus square feet of space — the equivalent of 18 Trans- mmenca Pyramids.
:••»<»•, thtiaplrt
But they haven't done it alone. The foundation of the business was laid in Boston a half century ago when Ben Swig, then a discount re tailer, became partners with Jack Weiler. a New York property own er. The two built and purchased buildings throughout the East be fore venturing west in 1944.
It was purely by accident that Swig entered the hotel business. On a trip to San Francisco to buy an office at 111 Sutler Street, he learned that the St. Francis Hotel was for sale. The office deal fell through, but Swig didn't come back to Boston empty-handed. He pur chased the Union Square landmark hotel with several partners; one year later he sold his half interest in it and bought the Fairmont — nam ed after James Fair, a California gold miner whose daughter built the hotel.
Since Ben Swig's death in 1980, inanacement of the family business •'lias been neatly divided among his two sons and son-in-law.
Mel Swig heads the family busi ness as chairman of Swig Weiler and Dinner Development Co. An av id athlete and backer of Jewish and community causes. Mel Swig runs the real estate operations while his brother operates the hotels. Rich ard Dinner, the husband of the Swigs' late sister. Betty, co-manages the family's holdings.
During an interview in his mod est, single-window office on the mezzanine level of the Fairmont, Mel Swig said the company — once regarded as a staid, alow-moving family business — has embarked on its biggest expansion. .
The catalyst to tbe recent growth came in 1962, when the Swigs bought out the Weilers' stake in the hotel business for a reported
213
1200 million. The move marked a fundamental change in direction for the business. "They were non- growth oriented and we felt differ ently," Swig said. .
"It's simply a matter of econom ics," said Swig. "We needed to ex pand to remain competitive. In the hotel business, you need to develop referrals from city to city. One hotel tends to feed off another."
' -But Swig stressed that oWptte the recent growth, tb* upscale Fair- *numt till never &e another Shera- l ton or Hilton. "The** « duty a limit- ' ed number of cities in this country •- where you can build Fairmonts," ^sald Swig. "Not every city can af ford Fairmonts."
' iCnown Tor Its large rooms, ex pansive lobbies and nightclubs, the
Fairmont has never come cheap. In San Francisco, a double room starts at $170 a night and goes to $225. Suites can run several hundred dol lars more, and the tab on the Fair mont's three-bedroom penthouse, Ben Swig's former residence, fetches $4000 a night.
Although Swig has made it clear he'd like to spread his hotel and real estate arms to New York and Los Angeles, he insists that he -has not set any specific .goals for future development or investments in those cities. 'The Swigs don't go out seeking business," Weiler, 82, said in a recent telephone inter view. "Business comes to them,"
... 1» As much as he wouW like to be to certain cities. Swig is quick to
Jump on a perceived bargain any- __wheje. "It's hard to have a precise
game plan because you never know
where lightning's going to strike
next," he said.
When it comes to building or investing, Swig adheres to certain philosophies:
• Move qvtekly. "If you wait, the good deals are gone, he ex plains. On his desk, a bronze plaque' emphasizes that philosophy: "Noth- "ing will ever be attempted if all 'possible objectives are first over- tome."
• That quick-moving style helped Swig land the SOOtfJO-aquare-foot jArco Center in Long Beach for jaore than 160 million, regarded as a , good buy by industry experts. When .a real estate partnership packed out at tbe last minute, Swig ~wsn asked to make an offer. He im mediately set his lawyers working around the dock; by week's end
In another example of a quick deal, Swig received a call on a Mon-
•day morning in 1964 saying 80 Maid «n Lane, a 550,000-square-foot office
•building in New York, was for sale at *a good price because a large ten ant — Continental Insurance — had moved out By Wednesday, Steve Qilley, president of tbe family's real estate operations, was on a plane to New York. By Friday, the papers were signed.
• Don't go it alone. In many cases, Swig has formed partner ships with regional developers who can provide capital and local exper tise. In San Francisco, the Swigs and developer Walter Shorenstem have formed a powerful real estate alli ance over the years, buying the Russ and Merchants Exchange buildings together as wen as various other prime downtown sites. In San Jose, Swig is building the Fairmont with local developer Kim Small And in Chicago, Metropolitan Struc tures, a prominent Midwest builder, is Swig's partner.
• Be choosey. As in the hotel business. Swig won't build or invest in real estate just anywhere. He has virtually sworn off San Francisco, where he owns a stake in 1.5 million square feet of office space, includ ing the Mills Building at 220 Mont gomery and 633 Folsom.
Between a 16 percent vacancy rate, special city fees and taxes tack ed onto developments, and a loss of locally based businesses, Swig ar gues that it just doesn't make eco nomic sense to plow money into San Francisco right now.
"I wouldn't build a building here now and I'd think twice before buying one," he said. "I don't see new people coming into- town. We're not a Houston, thank God, but we've had some severe dam age." Instead, the family is focusing its attention on Southern California, where H believes the financial ser vice center of the West Coast has been drifting. '
v
Unlike some other real estate 1 financiers, Swig is more likely to flrop a project rather than compro mise on terms or quality.' In the Hawaiian project, for example, he -pulled out of *n $85 million resort on the island of Motokai after deter mining If wouM cost $125 million to "do it right" — that is, add two additional 18-hole -golf courses and upgrade the neighboring Sheraton Hotel
214
IB a profession characterized
by the crafty and the cutthroat
v ;Swig doe»r match the stereotype
f eH
tat even wile** o^alls gottg down the tabea. "He** » tow profile, that you wouldn't know be runrUtefcind : of -empirt *e do^s," aaid Al King- myii exeeuUye Jriee president at Pim Interstate Bank, which often kelp* «nance,Swig deals, v -
"*• VTbiJe miny devdoperetah af •
1 ^locd to be ieneroiii the Swigs actu-
E ally are, Soatn Bnibeck, a^broker
wKb Grvbb.lt EHis, said abe was
. -absolutely atunned** whea^wig
-paid bar a 1280.000 commiatian for
taking Pacific Stock Exchange off i-
' dak by onexrf bis buildings several
\ ' years ago. PSE signed a lease some
1 time after the tour, .negotiating di-
jttctly with Swig. . - TV.-
v f "Nlwiy percent of the other
'landlords in this city mould not
bave paid a commfesion tn that case
and still would have had; a dear
conscience.** Brubeck-said; • '. .
But union leaders in SanPran-
cisco say the Swig children $nd
grandchildren haven'l been is char-
* iuble to tbem. Contract talks with
the Hotel and Restaurant Employ
ees Unkm Local 2 are becoming
strained. aaldTeter pen'anles. di
.rector of staff for the Union. He said
Abe Swigs for ihe first 4inw hate
.aligned themselves with national
2>otel chains, like the Sheraton and
t^BUton, who hive taken a hard-iiae
ttand on concessions. -----
a '^Ha'B breatb away ^ from a viraikout. %aid Cervantes f * "Ben wata't a softie; but we newr
came tifis close to « strike with
him." .
the Many facets of Mel Swig
•f there's one thing that Mel Swig
- "I learned from his father, the late f inan-
der BeBi*™tp Swig, it's that business
knt everything
> The ioftfpbkcn, (»-year-old chair-
f man of the family's hotel and real estate
-empire works as hard giving money
.•way as he does making it. He's good at
It's still very exciting to me," said Swig, who hasn't slowed down since his •econd cancer operation in March. "I love the fact that I can be talking about hotels one minute, real estate the next and charities after that."
Swig rises by 6:30 every morning at bis five-acre summer estate in Woodside, - grabs a quick breakfast and then drives nfc Jaguar sedan to the Fairmont office on Nobtp to begin work by 7.30. Before bis day is over 11 hours or 12 hours later, he's likely to have met with developers about a joint venture. worked on a fund-raising drive for the state of Israel and presided over the University of San Francisco's Board of Trustees, of which he is president.
He attacks his free time with the same zeal. A college hockey star and former owner of the predeces sor of the Minnesota North Stars, Swig swims and plays tennis at his Woodside home. And nearly every weekend, he's on the golf course at the Lake Merced Country Club in Daly City, whittling away at a nine handicap.
• Like his father, Swig is ada mant about giving. One of the city's leading philanthropists, the Brown University graduate serves on the board of 14 college and civic organi sations. -We've been brought up to
• believe we're obligated to give" . something back to the community."; j* be sakUArtdlhe Swigs do — more ^ than $2 million a year to Jewish^ r educational, political and civic or pa ftiaizations, by some accounts.
f *Tm a Democrat and work verV P bard for Democratic candidates,'
* be said. "But the state of Israel is a if' ^overriding devotion of mine. A ' most recently, USF has been occu< 1 Pying more of my time." ii
•-• Philanthropy is something the;
• Swigs learned from their father. . Once dubbed "the fastest check- r^boOk iathe West," Ben Swig regu- flatly gave to Catholic and Jewish
^organisations alike, as well as youth ; groups, universities and community
-causes
•'My father used to tell his friends. tJivc it away while you're alive, because there are no pockets hi shrouds,' " Swig recalled.
215
Who's Waiting in the Wings
Whenever brothers Mei and Richard Swig and brother-in-law Richard Dinner retire, the grandchildren of the late financier Ben Swig are ready to take over the family enterprise.
Three of Mel's children and one of Richard's, ranging in age from 25 to 44, are involved in the family's real estate and hotel operations, believed to be worth more than $450 million.
The eldest is Stephen Swig, a 44-year-old San Francisco attorney with the law firm of Titchell Maltzman. Born to Mel and his first wife, Phyllis Diamond, Stephen represents the family in many ventures. His brother-in-law. Robert "Ted" Parker, also is an attorney with Titchell Maltzman.
Richard Swig Jr.. 35. has followed his father into the hotel business. He is now vice president and managing director of the Fairmont Hotel Manage ment Co.. which oversees operation of the San Fran cisco, Denver. Dallas and New Orleans hotels.
Twin brothers Kent and Robert Swig, 25. Mel's sons bv his second wife, Marcia Hove, also are active
ly involved In the day-to-day operation of the hotel and real estate businesses.
Kent is vice president of Swig Weiler and Din ner Development Co., the real estate arm of the Swig empire. Robert is the resident manager of the San Francisco Fairmont.
Last year. Scott Heldfond, 40. Richard Dinner's son-in-law, stepped down as chief operating officer at Dinner Levison Co., the insurance firm co-found ed by his father-in-law, to start his own firm. Held fond joined Doug Sborenitein, the 31-year-old son of developer Walter Shorenstein, in forming DSI Insur ance Services, a full-line insurance brokerage in San Francisco.
Despite the active involvement of four third- generation Swigs, family members insist there is no jockeying for position and no heir apparent.
"Everyone is equal here," said Kent Swig. "The percentages (of family holdings) are equal, we all have equal say in decisions. And nothing has been decided" about future positions.
— STEPHEN MA IT A
216
Family of S.F. philanthropists
_: » «• «. •
Appendix 0
Northern California Jewish Bulletin
October 31, 1986
A decade ago, Melvin Swig ac companied his ailing father, Ben jamin Swig, to Israel, where the fin ancier was to receive an award from Hebrew University. At the cere mony, the 81-year-old Swig told Is raeli officials about how he was raised in a small town outside Bos ton.
There were so few Jews that they couldn't form a minyan, he joked. There were so few Jews that he never had a bar rrutzvah, he noted with a tinge of sadness.
Less than 40 hours later, Mel Swig and his wife Dee had orga nized a bar mitzvah for his father at the Western Wall.
Many people would say that that kind of heartfelt commitment is the mark of the Swigs, not only within their family but in community giv ing and in Jewish life.
"The Swig family members put out their emotions as well as their resources," says William Lowen- berg, genera] chairman of Israel Bonds for Northern California. "They portray menschlichkeit.
"If it weren't for the Swigs, we would have a void here. They never have to be asked twice to help."
The Swig-Dinner family — Dee and Melvin Swig, Roselyne "Cis sie" and Richard Swig, and the Ri chard Dinner family — will be hon ored for their generosity and commitment at the international state of Israel Bonds dinner Sun day, Nov. 9 at the Fairmont Hotel, California and Mason streets, S.F.
It will be the first time a family will receive the much-coveted Golda Meir Leadership Award, which is the only award in her name authorized by the family of the late prime minister of Israel.
"I have had the great personal privilege of meeting and working with the members of the Swig and Dinner family," says Brigadier Gen. Yehudah Halevy, worldwide president and CEO of state of Israel Bonds. "Few families can equal mem.
"They have established a family Tradition of selfless activity for many worthwhile causes, which they inherited and have passed on to the next generation. Israel Bonds honors them with great pride and appreciation."
gets community's thanks
The Swig family estimates it has contributed "tens of millions of dollars, with approximately 60 per cent going to Jewish causes," since the late Benjamin Swig, once dubbed "the fastest checkbook in the West," moved to San Francisco from Boston in 1946.
With him, Ben Swig brought a sense of democratization to the San Francisco Jewish philanthropies, showing that "those who came up the hard way can join the leader ship of the community," recalls Lou Stein, director of Israel Bonds when it was first created and when Ben Swig served as its first chair man.
Following in his footsteps, Mel Swig served as general chairman in 1956, Richard Swig in 1964 and 1965, and "Cissie" Swig in 1982 through 1984.
The Swigs and Dinners aren't "just checkbook philanthropists," says Stein, noting that they partici pate in the planning, program ming, telephoning — from begin ning to end — of any project. "They're not clones of Ben or of anyone else. Their interests cover the whole fabric of the commu nity."
Like his father, Mel Swig is ada mant about giving. "Business is not everything," says the businessman and real estate developer. "We've .been brought up to believe we're obligated to give something back to the community.
"My father used to tell his friends, 'Give it away while you're alive, because there are no pockets in shrouds/ "
With gentle humor, Mel Swig de fines frustration as "not meeting your fund-raising goal," and he de fines tzedakah (charity) as a form of Jewish self-defense, prescribed in theBiMe.
The other Swigs are as doggedly committed to their volunteer activi ties.
Most people think of Richard Swig as the president of the world- famous, family-owned Fairmont Hotels. But Rabbi Brian Lurie, exec utive director of the Jewish Com munity Federation of San Fran
cisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, will always re member Richard Swig snievping two of the fattest suitcases during a mis sion to Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Israel despite a bad back. The suitcases, Lurie relates, were filled with gifts for needy Jews throughout Eastern Europe and Is rael; nothing could be left behind.
That trip affected the Swigs more profoundly than any other experi ence. "It brought us to our heri tage, our roots, and confirmed with a fervor why we do what we do, and why we will continue," says
Richard Swig.
When it seemed like an Israel Bonds show being written and pro duced by a talented San Francisco artist might fall through, "Cissie" Swig sent her husband boating by himself and, in her living room, marshalled her troops, the commu nity women working on the event, to write the script themselves. "If you're a leader, you have to be a catalyst," she says.
Volunteer work is also a lifestyle for the Dinners, who support Tem ple Emmanu-El, Hebrew Union College, the San Francisco Sym phony, and the San Francisco Gi ants. "We don't give it a second thought," says Richard Dinner. "It's a way of life for us."
Married to the late Betty Swig and currently to Joan Withers Din ner, he devotes most of his day to civic activities. He has undertaken responsibility and leadership on be half of a host of organizations and institutions that contribute to the stature of San Francisco — Pacific Presbyterian Hospital, the San Francisco Zoological Society, and the Salvation Army. He was also the founder of the San Francisco Chapter of American associates of Ben Gurion University.
"I get more out of this than I put into it, and in this way, I find deep, personal fulfillment/' says Dinner.
Each family member has been ac tive in philanthropic organizations outside the Jewish community, giv ing then all tremendous visibility.
"They care about the Jewish com munity but also about the entire community," says Lowenberg. "The credibility they give to the Jewish community is something very few can duplicate."
1CTDBER24. 1986
217
THE NORTHWN CAOFORNJA-JEWBH BULLETIN
Appendix P
PAGE 7
takes great pleasure in inviting yoii to join in honoring
The Swig <^> Dinner Family
1986 Recipients of *
Xfcfcvrf orf /mn Dtawr
TAie Go/da Me/r Leadership Award
at a
Gala International Dinner
*•
Distinguished Guest Speaker
Moshe Arens
Israel's Ambassador to the United States, 1982-1983 i
Israel's Defense Minister, 1983-1984 , . , .
Sunday evening, the ninth of November
Grand Ballroom Fairmont Hotel v; .;.
San Francisco
'. '":•• -
Cocktails at si'* o'clock .- . •• - , Dinner at seven o'clock
Couvert $60 per person Dietary Laws Observed
Black Tie R.S.V.P.
Walter H. Shorenstein, Dinner Chairman
DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION FOR ISRAEL
47 KEARNY STREET, SUITE 705, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94108
For reservations and information, contact 781 "32 1 3
BOND GALA TO HONOR SWIG-DINNER FAMILY ;
The Golda Meir Leadership Award, authorized by'jhe family of- the , late beloved Prime Minister of Israel, -is presented once each year1 to a nationally prominent leader for exemplary service to Israel, the Jewish people and the community-at-large.
The first family to receive this prestigious award, Dee and Mel Swig, Roselyne and Richard Sung and the Richard Dinner Family represent con tinuation of a tradition of service that has passed from generation to generation. Their tireless efforts on behalf of the State of Israel and Jews everywhere have earned them a well deserved place in the annals of world Jewry.
As individuals and as a family, they- have created lives of distinction and responsibility and involved themselves in a wide variety of philanthropic, humanitar ian and community endeav ors. There is virtually no sig nificant leadership role in both the Jewish and general communities that a member of this distinguished and energetic family has not served with dedication, gen erosity and integrity.
In the spirit and measure of Golda Meir, we honor the Swig-Dinner Family with great pride, respect, gratitude and affection in recognition of a lifetime of involvement. They serve as an inspiration to us all.
An Exciting Weekend in San Francisco For r Out-Of-Toum Guests
• Saturday Evening Party
• Tours of San Francisco and The Wine Country
• National Cabinet Meeting on Sunday Morning
• Women's Division Tea
Walter H. Shorenstein Dinner Chairman
. Robert E. Sinton
Eugene E. Trefethen, Jr. Tribute Committee Co-chairmen _
William J. Lowenberg General Chairman
218
Appendix Q
MELVIN SWIG'S REMARKS
ANTI DEFAMATION LEAGUE
June 11 , 1987
I AM PRIVILEGED AND HONORED TO SAY A FEW WORDS ABOUT MY FRIEND, FR. JOHN LO SCHIAVO, PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO. AS MANY OF YOU KNOW, FR. LO SCHIAVO IS AN EDUCATOR, A MOTIVATOR AND A CARING AND WARM HUMAN BEING. IT HAS BEEN A PRIVILEGE FOR ME TO WORK WITH HIM IN MY CAPACITY AS CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AT USF AND TO SEE JOHN IN ACTION. USF IS ON THE MOVE AND MUCH OF THE MOTION HAS COME AS A RESULT OF FR. LO SCHIAVO. HE HAS ENRICHED USF'S GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM, HELPED TO FURTHER SENIOR EDUCATION THROUGH THE FROMM INSTITUTE, AND HAS BROUGHT AN INTERFACED DIMENSION TO THE UNIVERSITY. MY FAMILY HAS HELPED TO ESTABLISH THE MAE AND BENJAMIN SWIG CHAIR IN JUDAIC STUDIES WHICH IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE ECUMENICAL PRESENCE THAT FR. LO SCHIAVO HAS BROUGHT TO USF. IN ADDITION, HE HAS STRONGLY SUPPORTED OUR EFFORTS IN CREATING THE KORET CENTER, A MULTI PURPOSE HEALTH AND RECREATION BUILDING WHICH IS PRESENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
219
JOHN LO SCHIAVO HAS WORKED WITH ALL SAN FRANCISCANS TO MAKE USF A TRULY UNIVERSAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION WHERE ALL ARE WELCOMED AND ENCOURAGED TO STUDY. PRESENTLY, THERE ARE STUDENTS FROM 85 NATIONS ATTENDING USF. FR. LO SCHIAVO HAS SERVED ON NUMEROUS BOARDS AND ADVISORY GROUPS THROUGHOUT THE BAY AREA. IN 1977 HE WAS NAMED MAN OF THE YEAR BY THE SAN FRANCISCO FORWARD FOR FOSTERING IDEALS AND TRADITIONS THAT HAVE MADE SAN FRANCISCO ONE OF THE GREATEST
/- ., ^-y ff-^fff^—i^^^ _^i-f*— <5c^»
CITIES IN THE WORLD. FR. LO SCHIAVO HAS SERVED AS A TRUSTEE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO SINCE 1964. HE WAS ELECTED THE 25TH PRESIDENT IN 1977 AND CELEBRATED HIS 10TH ANNIVERSARY IN FEBRUARY. THE MAN WEARS ---<
V BUT WHAT DO THESE ACHIEVEMENTS TELL US? THEY
INFORM US A BIT ABOUT THE PUBLIC MAN. BUT, AFTER SEVERAL YEARS HAVING WORKED1WITH FR. LO SCHIAVO, I CAN TELL YOU IN A WORD ABOUT THE PRIVATE MAN — HE IS GENUINE. TONIGHT WE HONOR THIS SPECIAL AND UNIQUE PERSON - THROUGH HIS ACHIEVEMENTS, HIS EXAMPLE, HE BRINGS EXCELLENCE TO THE UNIVERSITY AND GENUINENESS TO THE STAFF, FACULTY AND STUDENTS. THE MAN WE HONOR IS AN HONORABLE, UPRIGHT AND DECENT H-UM/ffT-B^J^. HE IS AN ACHIEVER, A DOER, AND ONE WHO UPHOLDS BY EXAMPLE MORALITY AND DECENCY.
220
I AM PRIVILEGED TO INTRODUCE MY FAVORITE JESUIT, ^^iV^
OCIETY or~jEStre) FR. JOHN LO SCHIAVO.
WILL FATHER LO SCHIAVO JOIN ME AT THE PODIUM ALONG WITH STANLEY HERZSTEIN, AL KINGMAN AND LEE PRUSSIA
CO
k'r
221
Appendix R
Northern California Jewish Bulletin July 31, 1987
CO CD
*rf 'S-ESl c.SS Su
co 2ffi|ijfjf
Itf -5
222
Appendix S
Brown University 1989
Honorary Degrees
Recognizing excellence
BY MARK NICKEL
Former Notre Dame president The Rev. Theodore Hesburgh and Emmanuel de Margerie, French ambassador to the United States, will be among seven recipients of honorary degrees at the 221st Commence ment They will participate in one of the nation's oldest academic traditions. Since its first Commencement in 1769, Brown has honored men and women who are leaders in their fields, from George Washington (h!790) and Thomas Jefferson (hl787) to modern-day astronauts, poets, world lead ers, scientists and artists.
The 1989 honorary degree recipients:
• Mel vin M. Swig, real estate develop er, businessman and philanthropist.
Swig, a native of Boston, has built a successful career in real estate de velopment on the West Coast Swig is chairman of the board of Swig, Wieler & Dinner Development Company of San Francisco and chairman of the board of the Fairmont Hotel Management Company. His many civic affiliations include higher education, religious organizations and civic philanthropies.
During his long service to Brown Uni versity, Swig served as director of the Third
University's highly successful capital cam paign (the Campaign for Brown) and the Athletic Center Committee. Swig was elect ed a trustee of the University in 1981 and served until 1987. He received an honorary Bachelor of Philosophy degree from the University in 1982.
Swig, a member of Brown's riass of 1939, will receive his honorary doctorate in front of classmates assembled for their 50th reunion.
223 THE PRESIDING BISHOP'S COMMITTEE
on CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS Appendix T
July 29, 1991 To: Members of the House of Bishops
From: John H. Burt, chairman, P. B. Committee Dear Colleagues:
I write to you in the aftermath of the General Convention to reflect a bit on the struggle all of us experienced at Phoenix to craft and adopt what we hoped would be fair and "balanced" resolutions on the Middle East.
A number of you, along with many clergy and lay deputies, expressed astonishment to me that one of our Jewish guests, Rabbi Robert Kravitz, should have publicly voiced such dismay over the wording of what we voted (especially the final form of Resolution DOOSs ) in his remarks before both Houses. Some bishops were even irritated at me personally since it was I who had introduced the rabbi in both of his appearances.
I trust it is obvious that I neither authored his words nor encouraged him to say what he said. My role was that of hosting the Jewish visitors on behalf of the Presiding Bishop because I currently chair his Committee on Christian-Jewish Relations. You should know, incidentally, that the rabbi did not just "drop in" on Convention to make a statement. He had been with us the entire week, attending hearings, talking with committee people, doing his best to influence those writing the Middle East resolutions in the directions of what he considered to be greater fairness. In a way, it is a compliment to our hospitality toward him that he felt free to "speak his mind."
Whatever the propriety of his words, however, it now seems to me important for each of us to try to understand (and help our clergy and our people understand) why many an American Jew (and perhaps a lot of the rest of us who are students of the Middle East) feel that our General Convention resolutions did turn out to be less than fair.
Especially in these coming days when Middle East peace negotiations may get under way, it is particularly crucial for us to understand and to empathize with the pain and dilemmas of both Israeli and Palestinian alike. Let me illustrate why our work at Phoenix seemed to lack balance.
1. First of all, though our resolution DOOSs begins in its first resolve to address the peace problem in the entire Middle East, the fact is that it quickly evolves into a narrow resolution dealing with the relation of Israel to the West Bank and Gaza. We need to be aware that Israelis and Jews generally are rightly offended when we Christians seem not to understand that the underlying issue for the Jewish State (whatever it may be for West Bank and Gaza residents) is the reality that 20 Arab nations are still in a declared state of war with her. For Israel, it is difficult to respond effectively to the changes we urge in the occupied territories until those Arab nations make peace. The very "secure borders" we say we favor for Israel are simply not possible until peace is negotiated at least with Syria, Jordan, Iraq and the Lebanon. How can Israel, for instance, possibly vacate or demilitarize the West Bank until she is guaranteed security by those Arab powers? Secretary Baker
224
understands this. So does President Bush. Why cannot we understand, also, when we write resolutions? Are we unaware that the strip o( Israel territory lying between the western edge of the West Bank and the Mediterranean sea is only nine miles wide in one place? An invading Jordanian tank assault could cut the State of Israel in half in 15 minutes! Thus, Israel's currently expressed willingness to talk with West Bank and Gaza representatives about some form of sovereignty, even as she negotiates simultaneously with those Arab powers over the larger peace issue, is for her a very big concession.
2. To advocate a Palestinian state, as the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion constantly do, rather than to speak simply of a "Palestinian homeland" (as the Roman Catholic bishops do) or "Palestinian sovereignty" or "Palestinian, self-determination" seems to many an American Jew as asking Israel to concede some of her precious peace "bargaining chips" even before the Arab powers have been asked to concede anything at all! In the eyes of Israelis and most American Jews, therefore, this feature of our General Convention resolution, along with our demand that settlement construction be stopped forthwith, makes the Episcopal Church appear to be clearly prejudiced to the Arab side of the peace equation. Why, they wonder, do we only make demands on Israel? Why no call for an end to the Arab boycott of the Jewish State, for example? Why no call for human rights and justice in the conduct of Syria?
3. The omission from our resolution of any hint that we appreciate Israel's provision of a safe haven for millions of oppressed Soviet Jews and the omission from any Convention resolution of appreciation for Israel's miraculous rescue of 15,000 black Ethiopian Jews (especially at a Convention dealing with "racism") is a silence Israelis and American Jews simply cannot understand — especially since we speak with concern for refugees everywhere else on the planet but in Israel. That Ethiopian refugee rescue, incidentally, may be the first time in history that a predominantly white nation imported black Africans for the sake of their freedom rather than for their slavery! Why can't we celebrate that?
4. When we refer to "East Jerusalem" as having the same status in our opinion as the occupied West Bank and Gaza, we appear to give the impression that Episcopalians think the unifying of the city by the Jews in 1967 was morally wrong and that we prefer once again a divided holy city (with all the memories of barbed wire and a "no man's land" running through its heart as from 1948 to 1967). Jews wonder if members of our General Convention have forgotten the way the Jordanian occupying army, back in 1948, drove all Jews from the eastern part of the city (where the Jewish quarter had stood for centuries), des'.royed their homes, wrecked 13 of their synagogues and paved roads with me rial markers from desecrated Jewish graves? Israelis and American Jews w nder if we recall that, during the those 19 years of Jordanian occupation, not a single Jew was allowed to visit the holiest Jewish shrine on earth (the Western Wall of the Temple) and that even Israeli Christians and foreign Christian visitors to Israel were unable to visit Bethlehem, Calvary and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Do we forget that Jerusalem has never, throughout human history, been the capital of any other people but Jews? Since Israel has for the last 24 years done a modestly good job in letting both Muslim and Christian authorities supervise their own holy places in East Jerusalem — with access open to all of their devout, why (our Jewish friends wonder) does the Convention resolution suggest the old city and its suburbs should be considered under the same rubric as the other
225
occupied lands? After all, both Christians (except for one year) and Muslim populations have increased in number within the reunited Jerusalem every single year but one since 1967 -- and this despite the intifada insurrection and the struggles over the Temple Mount and St. John's Hospice. Jews, therefore, wonder why our Church conclave appears to favor either a return to a divided city or (perish the thought!) a Jerusalem that is the capital of a Palestinian apartheid state from which Jews would be banned as Yasir Arafat and the PLO have proposed.
5. Since Israel, like every other nation receiving U.S. Aid, must already account to our government for its use of both loans and grants, Israelis and American Jews wonder why our resolution about accountibil i ty would have the United States force on Israel economic strictures which we do not insist be also placed pn Israel's sworn enemies. Why do we forget that Arab powers have abused our aid? Why, Jews wonder, do we say nothing to protest the U. S. decision to continue Syria's status as a beneficiary of the GSP trade program despite substantial evidence of worker rights violations and support of terrorist activity by the Syrian government? Why do we continue to arm Saudi Arabia which is no friend of democracy and freedom and where women are little better than chattel?
•~ . The resolution D-008s also seems to Israelis and American Jews sel ontradictory . On the one hand, it goes "on record in support of Sec try of State Baker's efforts" yet, on the other, it would impose pre-. -?otiation penalties on Israel that are not part of the Baker plan! The Bilker peace initiative, for example, does not make ending settlement construction a precondition (even though Baker dislikes them); it does not call for the establishment of a Palestinian state; in interpreting United Nations Resolution 242, it does not reject the Israeli claim that, having already given up the entire Sinai with its oil fields and part of the Golan, the Jewish State may have already demonstrated it has given up sufficient "land for peace." In other words, Baker understands that many Israel/Arab counter-claims must be negotiated at the peace table. Why do we urge pre-negot iat ion concessions on Israel without urging similar concessions by her enemies?
7. We rightly call for "justice" for Palestinians but why limit the call only in behalf of those Palestinians living in the West Bank/Gaza? Before the Gulf War there were 400,000 Palestinians in Kuwait and even more in Iraq. All of these have suffered dreadful Gulf War injustices. Kuwait's Ambassador to the United States said publicly on July 4, on the eve of our Convention, that his country has a plan to expel tens of thousands of Palestinians. And he said this just days after the UN Security Council condemned Israel for deporting four -- yes four -- Palestinians involved in instigating violence. No wonder Israel distrusts the fairness of the United Nations at the forthcoming peace negotiating table.
8. We rightly call on Israel to reopen universities in the West Bank (something it is in fact now doing) but make narry a peep when Jordan in early July suspended pre-universi ty exams in the West Bank with the result that Palestinians will not be accepted at universities in any Arab state.
Peace negotiations in the Middle East will be successful only to the extent that the United States (as one of the two convenors) reassures a skeptical Israel that it will be even-handed toward all parties at the
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peace table. Alas, the advice of our General Convention resolutions, if heeded by the President and the Congress, would (in the opinion of Israelis, most American Jews and many of the rest of us) serve to tip the scales in favor of the Arab powers -- powers that reflect very little of the democratic heritage, independent judiciary, freedom of speech and press, inter-racial understanding, equality for women and universal suffrage which the United States and Israel share in common.
We need not agree with our Jewish fellow-countrymen on all issues nor with Rabbi Kravitz on the several points he made. We need not and should not cease our call for justice toward West Bank/Gaza Palestinians nor our support for Bishop Samir Kafity and the intrepid witness of the Anglican Church in the Middle East. But we do need to understand the risks which Israel must take if permanent: peace is to come and to recognize the virtues of the Jewish State along with its warts, warts not entirely dissimilar to those we also have here in this American nation we all love
/Oohn H. Burt *
Chair, P. B. Committee*
* This statement represents the sentiments of its author and is not issued as a statement by or on authorization of the entire Presiding Bishop's Committee
You are welcome to share the sentiments I have suggested above with your clergy and your people if you are so moved.
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INDEX- -Melvin M. Swig
American Association of Ben Gurion
University of the Desert, 107-
108 American Conservatory Theatre ,
117-118 American Friends of Haifa
University, 103 American Jewish Committee, 104,
115 American Joint Distribution
Committee, 109 anti-Semitism, 41, 45 Aronovitz, Hyman, 1 Aronovitz, Ida, 1 assimilation, 166-167
Bakar, Gerson, 81, 84 Ball, Williama, 117 Bay Area Council, 134 Black, Shirley Temple, 130 Brandeis University, 5, 109-110 Breen, Carole, 80-81 Brown University, 16-18, 135-136, 164
Civic League of Improvement Clubs
and Associations of San
Francisco, 118-119 Columbia Boys' Club, 137 Commonwealth Clubs of California,
119-120
Cook, Phyllis, 80-81, 83, 84 Crescent Porter Hale Foundation,
120-121
Crystal, David, 39, 99 Curly, Mayor James Michael, 12- 13
Davis, Rabbi David, 111, 115 Davis, Ulla, 121
Dinkelspiel, Lloyd, Jr., 75 Dinner, Betty Swig, 12
Fairmont Hotel, 26, 30
Feins tein, Dianne, 119 Feinstein, Wayne, 78-79 Feldman, Jesse, 59-60, 74-76 Fisher, Geoffrey, 90-91, 92 Fisher, Max, 86, 88 Fleishhacker, Mortimer, 117-118 Ford, Joe, 4-5, 18
Grace Cathedral, 113-116
Green, Frances D. , 59, 75, 76, 98
Haas, Peter, 81, 84 Heller, Douglas, 75 Hoffberger, Chuck, 86
Israel, 35-36, 50, 57, 69-70, 87- 88, 100-103, 144-151
Jewish Agency, 42, 46, 86-89 Jewish Community Bulletin, 90-94 Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Mar in and Sonoma Counties, 33ff 109, 166-168 ad hoc committee on "Who is a
Jew," 102-104 committee of 100, 62-63 committee on Jewish education,
101-102
encouraging newcomers , 168 executive committee, 55 headquarters building, 78 Jewish education, 65-69 Jewish identity, 65 leadership development, 56-57,
64
overseas committee, 99-101 public relations committee, 55-
56 search committee for new
executive, 78
Jewish Endowment Fund, 80-85 Jewish Family Service Agency, 39,
228
98-99 Jewish National Welfare Fund, 32-
33
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 94-96 , Jewish Vocational Service, 63
Kaplan, Mendel, 87
Keil, Edward, 120, 126
Kennedy, John F. , 1, 13, 153-154
Kennedy, Joseph, 1, 13
Koret Foundation, 137-139
Kuhn, Marshall, 40-46, 80-81
Ladar, Samuel A., 72, 76
Large Cities Budgeting Conference,
71-72
Lipner, Rabbi Pincus , 66-67, 69 Lo Schiavo, Father John, 111, 115 Lurie, Rabbi Brian, 60, 63, 64,
74-77, 86, 87, 89, 100-101
Magnin, Cyril, 117-118, 126 Mazzola, Joseph, 127-128 missions, 40-46, 57-58 Morocco. See missions. Morris, Mervin, 82, 135 Mount Zion Hospital, 37-39, 96- 98
National Conference of Christians
and Jews, 122 National Jewish Democratic
Council, 154 Northern Californians for Good
Government, 152
ORT (Organization for
Rehabilitation Through Training), 40-42
Robinson, Mayor Elmer, 118-119 Rosenberg, Claude, 81, 84
San Francisco Chamber of Commerce ,
124 San Francisco City and County
Grand Jury, 122-124 San Francisco City Parking
Corporation, 126
San Francisco Housing Authority,
127-129 San Francisco International Film
Festival, 129-131 San Francisco Public Library,
141-143 Sinton, Robert, 50, 51, 72, 75,
81, 84 Stanford University Judaic Studies
Program, 133
State of Israel Bonds, 105-106 Steinhart, John, 40-46, 76, 90-
91, 104 Swig, Ben, 5-6, 8-10, 19, 26,
104-106, 109-110, 119, 137, 159 Swig, Charlotte Mailliard, 131,
141-142, 161-162
Swig, Dolores Cochrane , 160-162 Swig, Fanny, 4, 6 Swig, Kent, 6, 159 Swig, Mae Aronovitz, 2, 27, 110 Swig, Melvin M. ,
early years, 12
education, 14-18
employment, 28, 25-26, 28
family, 20, 159-162
fundraising, 107-108, 111-112, 114, 121-122, 135, 139, 141- 143, 145
military service, 20-25
philanthropy, 163-165
politics, 152-158 Swig, Richard, 12, 26, 106 Swig, Robert, 159 Swig, Simon, 4, 6-8 Swig, Steven, 20, 105, 159 Swing, Bishop William E. , 113-
116, 165
Treguboff, Sanford M. , 32, 81
United Jewish Appeal, 89, 106-107 United Way, 49, 71, 134 USO, 139-141
Weintraub, Louis, 32, 60-61, 76- 77
Eleanor K. Glaser
Raised and educated in the Middle West. During World War II, spent two years in the U.S. Marine Corps Women's Reserve.
Senior year of college was taken in New Zealand, consequently A.B. degree in sociology from University of Michigan was granted in absentia. Study in New Zealand was followed by a year in Sydney, Australia, working for Caltex Oil Company.
Work experience includes such non-profit organizations as Community Service Society, New York City; National Society for Crippled Children and Adults and National Congress of Parents and Teachers in Chicago.
After moving to California in 1966, joined the staff of a local weekly newspaper, did volunteer publicity for the Judah Magnes Museum and the Moraga Historical Society, and was the Bay Area correspondent for a national weekly newspaper, Also served as a history decent for the Oakland Museum.
Additional travel includes Great Britain, Europe, Israel, Mexico, and the Far East.
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