Arthur Klein's Oral History

Arthur Klein -- Brooklyn-born Navy veteran, retired hairdresser and former Yiddish Book Center docent -- was interviewed by Christa Whitney on October 12, 2011 at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. All four of his grandparents were from Russia. In his interview, he reminisces about the delicious Jewish dishes that his grandmothers cooked; for a while, he was overweight from eating all of their schmaltz-laden food. Both of his grandfathers managed to save their money from doing menial labor and buy apartment houses in Brownsville, Brooklyn, but Arthur remembers the hardships of growing up during the Depression. The family was not politically involved, except for being supporters of Roosevelt. He describes the pushcarts with live chickens and pickles, the stores, the movie house and the Jewish theaters. He recalls the experience of going to the shvits [steam bath] in Coney Island to deal with a hangover. Arthur did not think much about being Jewish growing up because his neighborhood was so homogeneous, but some were more frum [observant] than others and there were outliers, including those who were pool sharks or members of the Jewish mafia. Early on in World War II, the American Jews that he knew were completely unaware of what was happening in Europe. When he was nineteen, he joined the Navy as a cook, and for the first time encountered young men who had never met a Jew – one asked to see his horns! After the Navy, Arthur came back to New York and went to hairdressing school; he worked in beauty salons for over sixty years, not retiring until he was eighty-four. He and his wife had two sons and lived in Long Island, Florida, and now Western Massachusetts. Arthur talks about becoming disenchanted with religious institutions but feeling very at home at the Yiddish Book Center, where he greets visitors from all over the world. He is on leave from the internationally famous rock-and-roll choir comprised of seniors called "Young@Heart" which was great fun but a lot of work. Arthur believes in always giving the best that you've got and in thinking before you speak, and he hopes that he's passed these values on to his children. He ends by sharing two of his favorite Yiddish sayings.