by Debra Rubin
NJJN Bureau Chief/Middlesex

April 28, 2009

World War II veterans recalled recent and ancient history during a Passover seder held at the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park.

They gathered around the table, some in wheelchairs, to take part in the traditional meal sponsored by the New Brunswick/Highland Park Post 133 of the Jewish War Veterans.

The April 14 seder marked at least 15 years since the JWV began conducting the Passover ritual at the Edison facility through the efforts of 87-year-old World War II vet Milton Frant of Highland Park, the post’s religious committee chair.

“Since my wife passed away 18 years ago, I’ve dedicated my life to volunteer work,” said Frant, who led the seder and had prepared the Haggadot created especially for the event.

“We come and do barbecues, take the guys to a ball game,” said post commander Edward Salvage of Somerset. “We want to make sure these guys are not forgotten.”

Joseph Brandspiegel, the home’s chief executive officer, joined in the seder and explained the services the facility provides for its Jewish residents.

“Milt is an old friend and we welcome him,” he said. “We have our own small seder, Shabbos services, a rabbi that comes in to make sure our Jewish veterans get the religious observance they want.”

That rabbi is Milton Kula, former religious leader at Congregation Adath Israel in Woodbridge — where Brandspiegel was a member — which merged about three years ago with Congregation Neve Shalom in Metuchen.

Additionally, Frant and the JWV have an annual Hanukka party and conduct Shabbat services.

Post members were assisted at the seder by Alan Grossman of Metuchen, an assistant scoutmaster and member of the National Committee on Jewish Scouting; his son Adam, a life scout; and by Valentina Gordon, one of Adam’s classmates at Metuchen High School.

Also lending a hand were Helene Fragman Abramson and her son, Ross, of Princeton, who has been visiting the veterans in the home — and planning to pen a book — as his bar mitzva project.

Ross, who became bar mitzva at The Jewish Center in Princeton on Nov. 15, said it was his family’s ties to World War II that prompted him to take on the project.

Ross’ great-grandfather, who lived in Vienna, was the only one of 11 siblings to survive the Holocaust. His paternal grandfather was a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps who took part in the liberation of a concentration camp.

“I wanted to do something that was related to my family’s history,” Ross said. “I started to work with the veterans and then I decided to start interviewing them for a book.”

That book, recounting the exploits of the Jewish vets at the home, will be donated to the National Museum of American Jewish Military History in Washington, DC.

“I feel very close to Ross,” said Frant, who became acquainted with the youth on his visits to the home.

So close, in fact, that he came to the boy’s bar mitzva although he had just been released from the hospital the evening before.

The seder participants expressed their appreciation for the seder. “It meant a lot,” said Evelyn Sterngart, whose husband was killed in action during World War II, leaving her with two small daughters to raise alone. “It’s a nice, very clean place, but there are not a lot of Jewish people, so it’s nice to be able to get together.”

Mark Smolinksy, a former high school math teacher and mathematics professor at Brooklyn College, said the seder “was a reminder of my Jewish upbringing.”

Smolinksy, who most recently lived in Monroe before entering the home, recalled he had orders to go to Belgium during World War II, but they were changed after the military realized his math skills could be put to better use elsewhere. He then spent two years working on the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb.

Those interested in joining the JWV post or in assisting at the home should contact Salvage at eddysalvage@yahoo.com or at 732-356-8629.

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