Browse Items (34 total)

Lenny Abrams talks about his father working in a men’s shirt factory, losing his job during the Great Depression, working as a Union Agent representing the workers in their quest for better pay and work conditions, and then opening his own factory…

Shirley Berman talks about growing up in Allentown. Her father’s ancestors (Malenovsky family) were among the first Jewish settlers in Allentown. Elias Malenovsky was a founder of the first synagogue in Allentown down on 2nd St. Later, Shirley…

Leonard Bloch talks about his father’s reluctant start in the needle-trade business. A few years after Lenny’s father started the business, Lenny’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As a result, rather than go to college, Lenny joined the…

Nate Braunstein talks about first failing then succeeding in operating a belt factory with his brother. The business (Atlantic Apparel) began in the 1950s when women’s fashion commonly included shirt-waist dresses with a matching belt (same fabric)…

Dolores Delin talks about her close relationship with her grandmother and how she encouraged Dolores to be independent and resilient. Those traits were very important later in Dolores’s life when she opened an up-scale women’s clothing store in…

Arnold Delin talks about how he was raised in Nashua, New Hampshire. After World War II he moved to Brooklyn, worked there and met and married Dolores. A few years later the Delin family moved to Pottsville, PA when Arnold landed a good job in…

Bernie Filler talks about how he grew up in the Bronx, worked part-time for his uncle who was in the textile business and attended FIT after high school. After graduating and being in the service, Bernie worked as a manager and an engineer at…

Arnan Finkelstein talks about being born in Tel Aviv, Palestine (this is prior to the establishment of the State of Israel) and spending his young childhood there. In the early 1940s, during World War II, the Finkelstein family returned to the U.S. …

Marlene Finkelstein talks about growing up in New York City, attending Hunter College, and then coming to Allentown at the suggestion of her aunt and uncle to meet a nice young man, Arnan Finkelstein. After Marlene married Arnan and moved to…

Tama talks about the joy of growing up in Northampton and, later living in Allentown as wife and mother