ALUMNI ASSOCIATION HNOH/HARTMAN HOMECREST
HOTEL EDISON
228 W. 47TH STREET
NEW YORK, NY 10036
CONTENTS
WHY A KOFTOFF MEMORIAL FUND?
"OUR LAST HURRAH"
by Tom Bondy, Committee Chairman
Reuben Koftoff was a father figure to all of us at HNOH/HARTMAN/HOMECREST
who earned our respect by just being who he was---a man's man, never screaming
or cursing. his look told you how wrong you were when misbehaving. He made
men out of boys, had them stand on their own two feet, and did it without
fanfare or bragging.
This is our last hurrah, this man should have been acknowledged and
honored 1000 times, not just by a lovely testimonial dinner by his "boys
to men" in 1977.
I've often asked myself "What is the alumni association truly about?"
Do we give to some charities? Do we take care of our own? Do we meet every
few years, with diminishing ranks? How do we see the future of our alumni
organization?
We have an opportunity here to honor Mr. K with something he would be
truly proud of. He was a man that believed in higher education and this
fund will perpetuate his name and memory.
We, his boys, respected Mr. K to the point that all he had to do was
look at us and with his smile we knew that all would be okay.
So, now it is up to us to make this fund in his name successful and
something we can all be proud of. It will add a function and purpose to
our alumni association that can only enhance it and provide incentive for
its continuance. It is up to all of us to give this man his due and at the
same time provide additional substance to our cherished organization. Thank
you.
THOUGHTS ABOUT
THE REUBEN KOFTOFF MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND
By Sam George Arcus
Preface
I'm quite certain, and proud, that I was the first alumnus to benefit
from Reuben Koftoff's devotion to higher education---even before he was
able to fully put into place the program that later benefited other alumni
such as Bill Weinstein, Rick Safran, Lou Amber, Charlie Gelman and 40 or
more other alumni.
In 1940, when I left the HNOH, Mr. K obtained a scholarship for me at
the Universal School of Handicrafts and simultaneously appointed me the
Arts & Crafts Instructor for the HNOH. I continued in this capacity
(coming regularly on Sundays) for several years with Mr. Koftoff urging
me to begin my higher education at CCNY even if it meant going to night
school. In 1947 I graduated from CCNY with my BSS (social science) degree,
was awarded the Ward Medal for sociology and had been accepted by the Columbia
University School of Social Work.
But I had only enough money for my first year of graduate study of a
two-year program and shared my concerns with Mr. K. He urged me to make
the two-year commitment, assuring me that somehow he would come up with
the remaining monies---at the time $600! And he did---going from Sam Field
(President) to dozens of other men and women. By the time I was finishing
my first year, he sent me a check for $600 so that I could pay my second
year's tuition!
I received my MSW degree in 1949, nine years after having left the
Home! At Mr. K's suggestion, I sent a letter to Mr. Bernard Goldenberg,
Chairman of the Joseph Cohen Memorial Scholarship fund of the HNOH. In it,
I thanked the Home for making it possible for one of its "graduates"
to enter the field of professional social work and thus help other families
and their children. That "Letter From One of Our Boys" was published
in the Souvenir Journal-Year Book accompanying the Bar Mitzvah Banquet
held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Sunday, April 10, 1949. It is now part
of the archives of the HNOH/Homecrest/Hartman an affiliate of the Jewish
Child Care Association of New York.
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT
By Richard (Rick) Safran
1) How It Began
Just under five years ago a group of men, "alumni" of The
Hebrew National Orphan Home (HNOH), ranging in age from 65 to 79 met at
various times and talked. They were able to speak to one another with the
honesty and candor of those who have known each other for years and with
whom trust is as taken for granted as the air they breathed, men bonded
together in their youth by unique experiences "civilians" could
not understand. They could speak to one another about their failures and
losses as well as their strengths, experiences and hopes. All had shared
a sojourn in an orphanage; all had careers in which they achieved a degree
of economic stability (including seeing their children complete college);
all felt a need to "give back" to the type of community that had
given them the opportunity not simply to survive, but also to grow and flourish.
Consistently linked to their conversations were their various experiences
with the Executive Director of their orphanage, Reuben Koftoff, a man who
began his career in childcare as a prison guard, a man who who realized
that his time might be better applied by providing experiences and opportunities
for boys before they became men spending many years of their life as incarcerated
felons. The former orphans agreed that the older they became, the more they
marveled at the impact this single man had on their lives. He not only changed
the orphanage by renovating and restructuring the physical environment (finding
the dollars to change hundred-bed dormitories into smaller rooms with five
beds with individual closets and study tables), he also encouraged and enabled
them to redefine themselves and raise their goals. He encouraged them to
attend college (often raising scholarship moneys for them to pursue a wider
vision of living). His caring attention to both details and general issues
where "his" boys were concerned is legendary.
Today, to a large measure because of "RK's" endeavors, several
generations of children raised in residential institutions have taken their
place in communities across the country as ordinary citizens (and sometimes
as extraordinary citizens contributing in outstanding ways to their communities)
, accepting their risks in the marketplace, in the community hall, and in
all the social and political arenas. They (we) are more like other citizens
who have engaged in the struggle to survive, to grow and to flourish. Because
of the presence of Reuben Koftoff in their lives, the group was able to
move beyond the limitations of their earlier orphan status. Despite whatever
scars they may carry, most of the Koftoff Era boys have grown-up and joined
the community they once envied and looked at longingly. Reuben Koftoff would
have understood and appreciated what it took to get there. These men have
learned to appreciate the importance of and understand the opportunity offered
to "kids like us" and are determined to keep alive the spirit
exemplified by Reuben Koftoff as a living legacy.
2) The Quest for a Concept
The conversations of the men who were once described in the New York
Social Workers Handbook as "orphans, half-orphans, neglected and destitute
children" kept focusing on a recurring theme, how best to develop a
fitting memorial to Reuben Koftoff. There was general agreement that a fund
of some sort offering education and training for "kids like us"
would be appropriate, but the idea of finding and screening those young
people in addition to fund-raising was problematic. Then, too, the issue
of whether or not the fund should be restricted to Jewish children arose
and was discussed. Opinions covered all sides. Agreement became unanimous
when the discussion focused on the role of the Jewish Child Care Association
today, the organization that had, in years past, administrative jurisdiction
over a number of Jewish institutions in New York City. The fledgling RK
Fund awards would go to children without regard to religion, race, gender,
or gender preference.The JCCA now not only worked with Jewish children,
but in dealing with the New York of today, provided services to families
of all races and religions found in New York. The JCCA also had a scholarship
program with screening procedures supervised by a Scholarship Coordinator
Social Worker. Agreement was quickly reached that if the JCCA would accept
the "RK Fund Program" (still the informal designation of the program
to be) and permit the establishment of an endowment fund whose interest
could be used to generate an annual award, and that the orphanage alumni
group could choose the recipient of its award from a number vetted by the
JCCA, the RK Fund would become part of the JCCA's scholarship award unit.
The group agreed to contact the members of the HNOH Alumni Association and
ask them to contribute to this new endeavor. Rick Safran, HNOH '53, who
had been the editor of the alumni newsletter before Sam Arcus, HNOH '40
took over in 2002 (both men organizing members of the scholarship proposal),
had earlier proposed to the Alumni just such a liaison with the JCCA urging
that "before we sputter out, we organize a worthy endeavor beyond ourselves,
one last burst of incandescent organizational energy handing the torch of
opportunity to another generation of "kids like us."
3) First Steps--The Formal Beginning
Thomas J. Bondy, HNOH '53, the individual who organized the current
RK Fund group was elected Chairman of our casual group and set about creating
an action plan. After negotiations with the JCCA took place with Rick Safran,
and E. Louis Amber, President of the HNOH Alumni Association (both living
in New York City), meeting with JCCA representatives (Paul Gitelson, Executive
Director; Jane Barowitz, Communications/Development Director; Jeff Dube,
V.P. Finance, a bank account in the name of JCCA/Reuben Koftoff Memorial
Scholarship Fund was opened for all RK Fund contributions, to be administered
by the JCCA.
Tom sent out a letter to all HNOH Alumni (using the HNOH Alumni Association
mailing list, but using only donations from the committee members for postage,
printing and expenses) advocating a memorial to Reuben Koftoff in the form
of a scholarship fund. The original target was $5000. The idea became a
reality as responses were positive: $13,000 was collected: The Reuben Koftoff
Memorial Scholarship Fund was a reality.
Cooperation by the JCCA continued. Their own Scholarship Coordinator,
Helen Solomon, a professional social worker and faculty member at the Fordham
University School of Social Work would provide six candidates screened by
JCCA and their general backgrounds and goals. The RK Committee members would
select one or more for scholarship awards. . .A brief profile of kids who
were awarded first funding (without names) and where they are today: one
working in her field of x-ray technology; one about to graduate Columbia
University, and one about to graduate with a graduate degree from Fordham
University in Social Work.
We are still evolving and still raising money for "kids like us"
through The Reuben Koftoff Memorial Scholarship Fund at The Jewish Child
Care Association. We invite you to join us. Donations are welcome and may
be sent to:
Jewish Child Care Association
Reuben Koftoff Memorial Scholarship Fund
Attn: Mark Edelman
120 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
Please note that checks should be made payable to:
JCCA/Rueben Koftoff Memorial Scholarship Fund.
WHO WE ARE:
Every graduate of the Hebrew National Orphan Home and of its successor
institutions automatically is a member of the Alumni Association.
The Alumni basically is a fraternal and social organization........
The ALUMNUS, is the official publication of the Association.
CREDO
"...it shall be the purpose and aim of the Alumni Association to maintain,
advance and perpetuate the bonds of friendship and brotherliness acquired
and developed by its members in past years at the Hebrew National Orphan
Home and its successor institutions and agencies."
---from the Alumni Association Constitution
HISTORY:
The following is an excerpt as remembered by Irwin Abrams (Former HNOH
Alumni President,currently President,Florida HNOH Alumni), from an issue
of The Alumnus, dated October 1997.
"In September 1925, having reached the age of 16, the Home decided
I was ready for the outside world and found a job for me..........A number
of boys left the Home at about the same time as I did. We banded together
and called ourselves the ALYONS (meaning the Alumni from Yonkers). We met
regularly at the Central Jewish Institute, joining the basketball league
there..........Later we formed an Alumni Association consisting of boys
who left the Home before and after us. At is peak, it numbered about 1000,
I think. We kept in touch. Even to this day, we keep in touch, the Florida
group, in close contact with the NYC group..........Not too many of us left
now. But we still remember---happily for the most part---the days and years
at the HNOH."
GIRLS? IN THE ALUMNI?
reation of Hartman-Homecrest through merger has evoked
among HNOH-Homecrest alumni a greater curiosity about the history of the
Hartman Home. It also has created a most interesting and, to some, probably
intriguing development for the Alumni Association. First, let's get briefly
to the history.
The origins, growth, development of program and social philosophies
of the Hartman Home parallels closely those of HNOH-Homecrest. The Hartman
institution came into being in 1917 as The Israel Orphan Asylum. It was
located on New York's Lower East Side. The I.O.A. was to be conducted in
accordance with the orthodox tenets of the Jewish faith.
The I.O.A. differed from the then existent H.N.O.H. in two primary
respects. It cared for orphaned tots, ages one to five. It accepted girls
as well as boys. The H.N.O.H. admitted children ages 6 to 12. It accepted
boys only. Like the H.N.O.H. move from the tenement-filled lower East Side
to Yonkers, the I.O.A. in 1944 transferred its charges to the healthier
atmosphere of Far Rockaway. At about the same time that the H.N.O.H. changed
its name to Homecrest, the I.O.A. in 1953 changed its name to The Gustave
Hartman Home For Children. Note that both institutions dropped the word
"orphan" apparently in recognition of the changing social conditions
of the time, and the changing character of the youngsters in their care.
A few year before the change in name, the I.O.A. was accepting children
ages 7 to 14 in departure from its original policy of caring only for tots
under six. The policy of caring for girls as well as boys remained.
The new name was in tribute to the founder of the I.O.A. It was Judge
Gustave Hartman who in 1921 initiated the now famous Annual All-Star Benefit
Show and Fashion Revue at Madison Square Garden. The show was held under
the name of Hartman-Homecrest in 1957 and 1958.
The merger of the two institutions presents an unusual development
for the Alumni Association. The Alumni constitution clearly states that
all graduates of the H.N.O.H. "and its successor institutions and
agencies" are eligible and automatically are member of the Alumni
Association. Somewhere there must be a goodly number of females ready to
assert their eligibility for membership in our Alumni Association. Might
crop up at any meeting.
Best we could find in the files of the I.O.A. is the photo above. Wonder
what they look like now......
(From the 1958 HNOH Alumni Journal)
OFFICERS:
| President: |
Florida Alumi President : |
| LOU AMBER |
IRVING RUGA |
| 510 EAST 79TH STREET |
1067 VENTNOR PLACE |
| NEW YORK, NY 10021 |
DEERFIELD BEACH, FL 33442 |
NEWSLETTER:
"The Alumnus" - The Voice Of The Alumni Association
Of The Hebrew National Orphan Home And Hartman-Homecrest
| Editor: |
| SAM G. ARCUS |
| 8381 E. MARLENA CIRCLE |
| TUCSON, AZ 85715 |
EDITORIALS:
The following editorial is from the May 1995 issue of The Alumnus
by Richard G. Safran-HNOH '53 , based on an article from the 1962 HNOH Alumni
Journal.
RETROSPECTIVE: ORPHANS NO LONGER
We had no choice in the matter. We were orphans. Our parents had somehow
disposed of themselves leaving us to get on as best we could. It was not
a simple matter to be thrust at an early age into the bleak indifference
of orphanage routine. Still, we survived. We not only survived, we flourished.
We became tough and self-sufficient. We didn't cry when we were hurt and
we could, when necessary, be callous and brutal..Ours was a world punctuated
by brawls, struggles in the scramble for adolescent prestige, and some fierce
hatreds which were just as sustaining as love.
Love itself was a luxury we could not afford. It had little survival
value. Tenderness was something we rarely experienced and certainly never
understood. What replaced love was a fierce devotion to one another, to
our many championship athletic teams, and to our hazy dreams of capturing
a measure of success. We were not at all sure of what success
might mean, but it was a phantom we pursued with grim determination. Some
boys dreamed of large amounts of money. Others longed for prestige and social
standing (even to denying their orphan background), and still others had
fantasies of bedding down large numbers of beautiful, bosomy, leggy women.
Marriage and family were almost never talked about. We were, I think very
fearful of marriage and having children. There was a terrifying thought
that if we had children, they might somehow end-up in an orphanage
as we did. This was a horror which could not be mentioned, and so there
was discussion of epic sexual conquest, but none of love.
Today, although we may carry scars, they are healed wounds, badges
of Life's combat experience. We are able to work and to love. While we live
very much in the present, we can talk for hours about the old days. In some
ways they were exceptionally fine days. It is unnecessary to focus
on particular occasions. We do that well enough with one another when we
meet over coffee or whiskey.
Now we are adults - mere grown-ups without parents, which we
know, is not quite the same as being an orphan. Our memories of the more
distressing times in an institution are dulled and blurred by the passage
of years. Although we have not forgotten the ache of loneliness which we
could not understand, but could feel only too well, what remains in our
brain cases are the better moments, the common heritage of no heritage which
we shared, the sense of rapport and brotherhood, and the feeling that we
were somehow different from everyone else.
Time and age have endowed us with varying shares of title, property,
and position. In direct contrast to our origins, our characters in the affluent
present are in danger of being corrupted by ease and comparative security.
Our dreams, perhaps, are no longer compounded of the heady stuff they used
to be. So we think back to our earlier, younger selves, to that time when
we dreamed, schemed, fought, cursed, planned and groped our way through
adolescence and young manhood. That boy-world of the orphan home takes on
an aura of intense living and feeling. The world's indifference, the periods
of inarticulate despair are drawn from the vortex of our memory once more
to be keenly savored, for it is in the struggle that we are most ourselves
and increase our appetite for life. Our recollections of that struggle
can be sweet indeed!
ARCHIVES:
The HNOH Archives have been accepted at the American Jewish Historical
Society (AJHS), currently located on the Campus of Brandeis University in
Waltham, MA. In a letter dated May 8, 1996 to Richard Safran, Editor of
The Alumnus, The AJHS wrote the following:
"The Society has a large collection of records pertaining to the
Jewish Child Care Association of NY and its constituent institutions...Both
HNOH and Hartman-Homecrest are currently under-represented in the JCCA collection.
We believe the records of your Alumni Association would help to fill in
this unfortunate gap in the records. The Society would accept for its collections
not only copies of The Alumnus , your association newsletter, but
also photographs, oral history, tapes, newspapers and clippings, correspondence,
memorabilia and other similar materials which document the experience of
your members in the HNOH, Hartman-Homecrest and the Alumni Association,
itself."
In another letter dated May 13, 1997 from AJHS, the following was written:
"On behalf of the American Jewish Historical Society, I would like
to gratefully accept your offer to gather and donate the records of the
HNOH Alumni Association and its members to our archives. The Society's Library
& Archives Committee unanimously approved such a collection for accession
at its last meeting and along with our archival staff, is confident that
it will be used and appreciated by many of our researchers during the coming
years."
Richard Safran,
JCCA Alumnus, Honored
Safran wins Distinguished Alumni Award
From: (JCCA 2007 September E-News)
Richard G. Safran received the JCCA 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award
in a ceremony at the annual reunion of JCCA alumni on September 9th held
on the Westchester Campus of the Cottage Schools.
Rick spent much of his childhood in JCCA's predecessor programs,
first at the Israel Orphan Asylum at age 7 and then at the Hebrew National
Orphan Home (HNOH) where he left at age 18 to go to Brooklyn college. Subsequently,
Rick had a distinguished career as an educator and administrator in the
NYC Public Schools system, from which he retired in 1990.
Rick was presented the award, not only for his many years of generosity
to JCCA, but also to recognize his leadership in the agency's alumni affairs.
Rick led the campaign to raise more than $116,000 (above and beyond the
goal) for the Reuben Koftoff Scholarship Fund, a resource that provides
much-needed scholarships to deserving youth in JCCA programs. He serves
on the Editorial Board of Growing Up, JCCA's quarterly magazine, and the
Board of Trustees' Scholarship Committee. In addition, he is a volunteer
fundraiser in the JCCA development department, working at the Wall Street
office every week.
In accepting the JCCA 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award, Rick cited
his wonderful upbringing by the agency. He pointed out how important it
is for those who were helped by JCCA to give back to the children who need
it most, now that they have the means to do so.
The inscription on the award plaque reads, "For your tenacity,
passion and profound sense of purpose in helping provide opportunities for
young people in need."
Congratulations, Rick!
VIDEO TAPE:
"Our Childhood....Remembered"
A beautiful and sentimental video produced by HNOH Brother Ed Lippman
depicting the history of the Hebrew National Orphan Home lovingly put together
from photographs and home movies with comments and memories by Brothers
who lived it!............. You'll laugh, you'll cry!
*****FIVE STARS
$25.OO Check or Money Order
For Information in obtaining this video, please email HNOHalumni@aol.com
ALL PROCEEDS DONATED TO THE HNOH ALUMNI FUND
INFORMATION:
Anyone wishing more information about the HNOH Alumni and information
on subscribing to their newsletter,"THE ALUMNUS", may send
email to the address at the bottom of this page.
All Alumni and their descendants are cordially invited to submit any
of their Memories, Memorial Photographs or any "Group" Photographs
(Bar Mitzvah, Graduation, Sports, etc.) to this Web Site. Please send all
email to the address below for further information.
FOR INFORMATION, CORRECTIONS AND/OR SUGGESTIONS!