Jacob Rabinowitz came into his office at 225 Fifth avenue at 9:30 o’clock yesterday morning from his home at Cedarhurst, L. I., just as he had every day except Saturdays for the past twenty-nine years, as long as he has been vice-president of Spear & Company. But “Mr J. R.,” as the office staff calls him, reached his seventy-fifth year yesterday which made it somewhat of a holiday.
The short, benevolent-looking, bearded man sat at his desk in formal morning attire, receiving telegrams and personal birthday felicitations over the phone. He seemed a little bewildered. The message he wished to convey was, “I hope the same thing will happen to Hitler that happened to Human years ago today.”
This week also marked the fifty-sixth wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Rabinowitz. They are to celebrate the occasion Sunday at their home in Cedarhurst, L. I., with a dinner and reception which will be attended by their children and a number of intimate friends. Among the friends who are expected are Rabbi Irving Miller of Far Rockaway, Judge and Mrs. Jacob Pankin, Louis Richman, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Z. Cohen, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Greenberg, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Carlin, Mr. and Mrs. George Klein and Rabbi Sol Baily. Mr. and Mrs. Rabinowitz’s fifteen grandchildren will also be with them.
CONCILIATION COURT JUDGE
For the past nine years Mr. Rabinowitz has been one of the judges of the Jewish Conciliation Court of America. He is also one of the organizers of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and he likes to recall the day some thirty-eight years ago when a group of friends and he called a mass meeting at the congregation at 186 Henry street, at which the HIAS came into existence. Although no longer active in any organization he is a member of many of the philanthropic organizations in the city.
Most striking to him, as he looks back upon New York forty years ago, is the difference in the way people live. “The rush hours then were at six o’clock in the morning and at 8 o’clock in the evening. There were only two horse-car lines; one on Madison and one on Delancy street, The cars only carried twenty-five people and they ran only once an hour.”
“People walked to work even if they were going to the uptown section around 10th street. Rents ranged from 9 to 12 dollars in the neighborhood in which I lived. The water pump used by all the tenants was in the yard; and we used coal stoves for cooking and heating. Of course it’s hard to remember those things when we have so much luxury today,” he said.
Mr. and Mrs. Rabinowitz’s children are Aaron Rabinowitz of Manhattan, Maurice R. Spear of Great Neck, Leon R. Spear of Woodmere, Mrs. Rose Guralnick of Manhattan and Mrs. Kenneth C. Newman of Cedarhurst.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
