The Columbus Jewish Historical Society

Interviewer:   Hello.  This is Bill Cohen from the Columbus Jewish Historical Society.  We’re at the Society’s headquarters and we’re interviewing Ronald Feerer, F-e-e-r-e-r, and we’re going to talk to him about his memories of Jewish Columbus and Jewish life in Columbus because he’s been here for many, many years.  Mr. Feerer, let’s start by just asking you, do you know anything about the roots of your family?  In other words, can you go back to your grandparents at all?  Do you know where they came from?

Feerer:  Well, they came here from, they were born in, my mom’s family was, they were in Europe and then when they got here, I don’t know where they met at, but they were living in Pittsburg.

Interviewer:  This is your mother’s family.

Feerer:  My mother’s family lived in Pittsburg and they moved to Columbus from Pittsburg.  My mom went to high school at South High School and my dad went to Central High School.  I don’t know where they met but that’s where they went to high school.

Interviewer:  Did they ever tell you, your parents, did they ever talk to you about what it was like at South High School and Central being Jewish?

Feerer:  No.  They never did. No.

Interviewer:  Do you know about what years they graduated?

Feerer:  I don’t know. I’m thinking early 30s.

Interviewer:  Okay. And so, you said your mother’s parents were from Europe and your father’s parents?

Feerer:  Also.  My family, my dad’s family somehow, they migrated to Toledo and there’s three generations of my family buried in Toledo.  My grandfather, my dad’s father.  I’m named after him. Jacob Feerer.  He died at 42 years old.  He had appendicitis attack.  They didn’t know how to handle it in those days, you know, many years ago, but he’s buried in Toledo, but his father and his grandfather in Toledo, Manny Feerer, and, let’s see, Jacob Feerer was my grandfather, then Manny Feerer and Meyer Feerer.  Three generations are buried in Toledo, Ohio.   I was there once at the cemetery, got to visit it one time and my grandfather died at, when my dad was 12 years old, just before his bar mitzvah.  So, he died and his mother, my dad’s mother had [a couple?] brothers in Columbus, so she moved the family.  They were three boys and a girl and they moved to Columbus.

Interviewer:  Now, your parents’ names are, the names of your parents?

Feerer:  Well, my mom was Freida Feerer.

Interviewer:  Frieda.

Feerer:  Right, maiden name was Hillelson, Frieda Hillelson.

Interviewer:  And your father’s name?

Feerer:  David Feerer.

Interviewer:  David.  Okay, and so, when did they arrive in Columbus, approximately?

Feerer:  I don’t know.  In the 30s.

Interviewer:  In the 30s. Okay and you were born?

Feerer:  1939.

Interviewer:  1939 and do you, do you happen to know, do you know if you have a Hebrew or a Yiddish name?

Feerer:  Yah. Yah. Yaacov benDavid.

Interviewer:  Yaacov benDavid.

Feerer:  Yaacov ben David.  I’m named after my grandfather Jacob Feerer.

Interviewer:  Okay. 1939, and where did you live in your early childhood years?

Feerer:  We lived in an area that was, had a lot of Jewish families in east Columbus called Driving Park and then we moved to the fashionable neighborhood of Seymour Avenue.  I remember that.

Interviewer:  That’s also Driving Park.

Feerer:  Well, nearby.

Interviewer:  Yeah.  Okay.

Feerer:  There was all a lot of Jewish families all around there and I remember when World War II was over, 1945, went outside.  People were yelling and screaming, you know. I mean, I can remember that and I was like six years old, you know.

Interviewer:  In celebration.

Feerer:  Oh, yeah. And then we moved in 1946 to Bexley, to the corner of Roosevelt and Mound.

Interviewer:  Roosevelt and Mound.  So, your elementary school years?

Feerer:  Montrose. Well, I went to Fairwood.  First, kindergarten and first grade was at Fairwood Elementary and then after that I went to Montrose Elementary.

Interviewer:  What are your early memories of elementary school at Montrose.  Jews, there were many Jews but, of course, you weren’t in the majority.  What was, do you have any memories of what that was like, uh…?

Feerer:  Yeah, a little bit.  I remember that in those days, I remember the sixth grade, this is like 1950s, early 50s.  Martin and Lewis, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were very popular then and I loved Jerry Lewis, okay?  And we had some kind of a play.   I think, I don’t know I was going to portray him in the play but I never did.  It never happened.  I remember those years, you know, when I thought they were great.

Interviewer:  You had a good time in elementary school.

Feerer:  Oh, yeah.

Interviewer:  Good memories.

Feerer:  I think so.

Interviewer:  Were most of your friends Jewish or not Jews?

Feerer:  Both.

Interviewer:    A mix. How did the Jews and non-Jews get along?

Feerer:  Pretty good.  It was never a problem. No.

Interviewer:  Never had any examples?  You don’t remember any anti-Semitic things happening to you.

Feerer:  No. No. No.

Interviewer:  Now, this was just a few years after the Holocaust.  Do you remember any, did your parents or…

Feerer:  They never made a big deal about it around here, in those years, I remember.  You know. It wasn’t.  I mean, I don’t remember reading anything in the newspapers about it, you know.  I don’t remember anything about it in those years.

Interviewer:  Did you, now, did your parents, did your family have, belong to a synagogue?

Feerer: Yep. Temple Israel. My grandfather, my mom’s family was Agudas Achim, but my dad’s, they went to Temple Israel.  I went to Bryden Road Temple.  I was confirmed.  My confirmation was at the old Bryden Road Temple on Bryden Road.  I was 14 years old.

Interviewer:  So, even though you’d already moved to Bexley…

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:   …you went to the old, your confirmation…

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:   …was at the old synagogue…

Feerer:  The old Temple Israel.

Interviewer:  …which was the old Temple Israel on Bryden Road.

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  This was before it moved way out on East Broad Street.

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  And that was when you were confirmed.  How ‘bout, did you have a bar mitzvah?

Feerer:  Oh yeah, I had my bar mitzvah there also. 1952.

Interviewer:    In ’52.  And you went to Bexley High School.

Feerer:  Bexley Middle School. Bexley High School.

Interviewer:  What are your, were you active at all with any Jewish groups, I don’t know, at the Jewish Center, or AZA groups or…

Feerer:  I was active in the Boy Scouts, yeah, at a young age a little bit, yeah, but I wasn’t active in any, any Jewish groups, no.

Interviewer:  Did you do anything at the Jewish Center?

Feerer:  I did.  I played Little league baseball at the Jewish Center.  I got a picture of that and my team. I still have it. Yeah.

Interviewer:  What are your memories of that?

Feerer:  It was a lot of fun, you know, and we won the championship, you know, and it was a big deal, you know, winning the championship, you know.

Interviewer:  And this was at the Jewish Center…

Feerer:  Yeah.

Interviewer:  So, it was all Jewish kids.

Feerer:  Oh yeah.

Interviewer:  Hey, when you were in high school, you say you had Jewish and non-Jewish friends.

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  Now, when you started to date, was there anything, was there any rules at all by your parents of who you could date….

Feerer:  No.

Interviewer:  Jews or non-Jews?

Feerer:  No. No.  Not really.

Interviewer:  You were free.  You were free to do what you wanted.

Feerer:  I was in, those years in high school, I was in love with the football team and the basketball team. So, I was little, you know, and I couldn’t play so I was a manager, a team manager for the football team and I loved it and then basketball after that and that was fun.

Interviewer:  You liked, you didn’t mind not being the athlete.  You, as long as you were close to sports.

Feerer:  Right.  Right, but I played basketball at the Jewish Center, you know, when I was like 16, 17 years old. I remember.

Interviewer:  Was this the old Jewish Center…

Feerer:  Yeah, the old.

Interviewer:  …when they had the bowling alley?

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  Tell, what are your memories of the old Jewish Center?

Feerer:  Well, we had the bowling alley and I just liked being over there, watching the basketball games. They had some semi-pro teams that practiced over there and I liked watching them, and handball was a big deal and like, I’d watch the guys play handball, you know, so, I liked it, you know, being around it.

Interviewer:  Do you remember, was there smoking at the bowling alley?

Feerer:  Oh yeah, cigars, cigarettes, oh, yeah.  Now I played on a Jewish Center travel team and we went to Louisville for a tournament one weekend, so, the other, played against, you know, other Jewish Center teams, you know, from around the country.  I remember that. I remember a couple other friends of mine.  In fact, they’re both gone now, but, that was fun.  I remember that.

Interviewer:  So, you went to, your synagogue was Temple Israel and when it moved way out on Broad Street…

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  …near Noe Bixby or McNaughton, way out there, did you, then did your parents follow? You went out there to services?

Feerer:  Oh, yeah.

Interviewer:  And what do you remember about that?  Anything in particular?

Feerer:  I never… a friend of mine, you know, a lot of my friends, you know, would go to Agudas Achim.  I didn’t really feel, I didn’t get the spiritual feeling at Temple Israel that I was looking for. You know, I wanted to wear a yarmulke and I wanted to wear a tallis, you know, and then I had my kids’ bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs at Temple Israel but, and then my mom passed away in 1985 and I wanted to say kaddish for her, so, actually what happened before that, a very, very close friend of mine, his name was Butch Levy, and he died in 1983, and I was very close to him and Rabbi Stavsky, of blessed memory, from Beth Jacob gave the eulogy and I went to talk to him after the eulogy. You know, I just felt lost.  It was my close friend.  He started asking me questions.  Are you a Koheyn? Are you a Levy? I didn’t know what he’s talking about, so I told him I wanted to be more involved to be Jewish and Rabbi Stavsky’s the one that introduced me to becoming more, you know, involved, more religious and I was at Beth Jacob for a couple years.  Then when my mom passed away in 1985 and she’s buried at Agudas Achim Cemetery, then I joined Agudas Achim in 1985.

Interviewer:  So, in your early years, you were at the Reform synagogue at Temple Israel…

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  …and then in your later years you wanted to be more observant and more spiritually Jewish

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  …and so you were dealing with Rabbi Stavsky who was Orthodox and…

Feerer:  Right.  We had a great relationship, you know, Rabbi Stavsky and I, you know.  I did a lot of favors for him and he liked that and we were close friends, you know.

Interviewer:  Now, did you, what did you do after high school?

Feerer:  I went to Ohio State, The Ohio State University, okay, and I was, a guy who was president of the fraternity there, ZBT, he knew I was a manager for Bexley High School football.  He says, “How’d you like to be a manager for the Buckeyes?”

Interviewer:  Wow.

Feerer:  Yeah, and I said, “I’d love it.” So, he was the senior manager. This guy’s name was Irwin Thall, so, he introduced me and says, “This is where you should be at the…”  It was like a, it was right after Labor Day and the players started to practice and they, in those days they lived in, they had dormitories in the stadium and that’s where they lived for a few weeks and I stayed there with them and ate with them and hung out with them and I loved it, and then when the time came for games, you know, the managers have different jobs, like, catch the extra points after a touchdown, or being on the sidelines with the [attitude?] of being a ball-boy, all these different jobs and I loved it. In fact, it was my priority in my life, that, being involved with that football team, with Woody Hayes, you know?  Woody would say to me, in those days my hair was real short and he thought I looked like Jerry Lewis. He kept calling me “Jerry.”  I’d say, “No, it’s Ronnie, not Jerry.” So, he says, “Do me a favor.  Here’s twenty dollars. Get my car lubricated for me, will ya?’ So, I take Woody’s car, [?] bill and get it lubricated. Then he’d say to me, “Do me a favor,” ‘cause I didn’t have a car in those days, “ go pick up the quarterback after practice so he’s not late for practice,” so I go pick up the quarterback, you know, bring him to practice, so, I loved it. Now, I was not a good student in those days.  I wasn’t motivated to study.  I didn’t.  I flunked out ‘cause I was, I just didn’t study.  Years later, I was, wait, I’ll get to this story when I was in the wholesale meat business, but I was, I became friendly with this professor from Ohio State, a PhD and his name was Bob VanStavern.  He was a PhD in agriculture school and I was taking him to Dayton to speak.  We were talking and “Look,” I said, “You know what, Bob?  You’re a PhD. You’re teaching students to get their PhD’s.  I didn’t even get through my freshman year in college,” and he said to me, “You know what? Why did you want to waste your talents in those years?” That’s what he said to me. It really made me feel good, you know? “So, you weren’t motivated to be a good student.”  Now, and I just, in those years I just, I just didn’t study, you know? I was so involved with the football team.  I used to take, I didn’t have a car then, and I would take buses from home to get after school, hitch a ride somewhere, but in those years, it was a big deal for me, and I was always selling tickets for the players, you know.  They loved that. You know, the days of tickets were five dollars, you know, per ticket in them years, you know, so I was a manager for one year and I loved it.

Interviewer:  And then when you left Ohio State you couldn’t be the manager anymore.

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  Wow. But what a year that was.

Feerer:  Right. 1957.

Interviewer:  1957, because you graduated high school in earlier in ’57?

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  You were Bexley Class of ’57.

Feerer:  Right.  Here’s a picture I brought. This is what I looked like as the manager. I was eighteen years old.

Interviewer:  Yes, eighteen years old and you were the manager of the…

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  …one of the mangers of the football team…

Feerer:  Right

Interviewer:  …of the legendary Woody Hayes

Feerer:  Oh, yeah.

Interviewer:  Wow.  So, in ’57, did that team go on?

Feerer:  Oh, yeah, they went to the Rose Bowl.  They lost one game.  They lost to Texas Christian the first game.  Then they won every game after that.

Interviewer:  And they went to the Rose Bowl…

Feerer:  Rose Bowl.

Interviewer:  January first, 1958.

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  And if my memory serves correctly, we won ten to seven/ 10 -7 on a field goal. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Feerer:  Was it? I don’t remember.  I couldn’t go to the Rose Bowl…

Interviewer:  Oh.

Feerer:   …because they said, “We don’t take freshman managers, okay?”  So, I never got to go.

Interviewer:  But you really, it was really a heartfelt experience for you being a manager.

Feerer:  Oh, yeah. Oh yeah.  In fact, my friends, after a touchdown was scored, I had to make sure I didn’t drop the ball on the extra points, you know? I had to make sure I caught the ball…you know. After touchdowns are scored, I’m catching extra points, you know?  And that was fun.

Interviewer:  So, again we’re always kind of looking for the Jewish angle.  I always have to kind of ask this.  Being Jewish, being the manager, everybody got along as far as you could tell…

Feerer:  Yeah.

Interviewer:  …in terms of you being Jewish and being the manager and most of the people around you were not Jewish? But it worked out fine.

Feerer: Fine.

Interviewer:  So, what happened?  You left Ohio State and what did you do then?

Feerer:  I went into the, well, my dad had a retail, my dad was in the retail luggage and leather goods business.

Interviewer:  The retail luggage and…?

Feerer:  Retail luggage and leather goods business.

Interviewer:  Leather goods.

Feerer:  His, my dad worked for his uncle early years, and in the store, my uncle’s store.

Interviewer:  What was the name of that store?

Feerer:  The Travel Shop.

Interviewer:  The Travel Shop.

Feerer:  Right.  My dad left him to have his own store and his uncle didn’t like that, you know, competition, you know, and he did everything to hurt my dad.  He would tell suppliers, don’t sell him, you know, and whatever.  They had terrible fights, you know, in those years, you know, with his uncle, but he opened his own store.

Interviewer:  And what was it called?

Feerer:  Gay’s Luggage Shop, Gay – G-a-y on Gay Street, downtown, Columbus.  Gay’s Luggage Shop and I worked there as a youngster in my early years waiting on customers, you know? With my mom? and my dad? at Gay’s Luggage and then he moved the store to High Street around the corner like in the 1960, better store, better location, more traffic, you know, and then he opened a store in Springfield, Ohio, and I, called Royal Luggage in Springfield, and I worked in that store in Springfield, and while I was in the Air Force. Well, I joined the Air Force after college, Air Force Reserve because it was a six-month active duty, rather than being drafted for two years I did that, okay? So, I joined the Air Force for six months and there were a lot of guys, Jewish guys that, you know, I met ‘cause they were doing the same thing six months active duty, then you have to go to meetings once a month after that but…

Interviewer:  So, where did you serve your six months?

Feerer:  I, the first month was at, in San Antonio, Texas, basic training for a year, and then the next three months I was in Cheyanne, Wyoming.  There was an Air Force Base in Cheyanne.  It was an Air Force base without a runway, you know, it was a tech center, but I was a clerk typist.  That was my job.  I learned to type in high school, and then in the last two years I was here in Ohio, Wilmington. Ohio.  They had an Air Force…Clinton County Air Force Base.  I was there for the last two years.

Interviewer:  The last two years…

Feerer:  …of my Reserve.  So, one month in Texas, three months in Wyoming and the last two months here in Wilmington, Ohio.

Interviewer:  Oh, two months, the last two month of your active, and then from then on you weren’t in the active armed forces.  You just had to go once a month.

Feerer:  Here’s what happened.  At an early age I had asthma, okay? And I was reading of an Air Force Regulation that, anyone with asthma at a certain age, you don’t have to serve.  Now I told the doctor when I went in that I had asthma.  He didn’t do anything, and the same doctor that signed on my discharge papers was the same guy when I went in six months later.  I didn’t have to go in in the first place because of my asthma, so I got out of going to the meetings.  I had a medical discharge from the US Air Force Reserve.

Interviewer:  This was very early 1960’s.

Feerer:  Yeah.

Interviewer:  We were not at war at that point.

Feerer:  No, it was 19…like 1959, ‘58,’59, but yeah.

Interviewer:  And so, what happened then?

Feerer:  Then I went to work in my dad’s luggage store.  I worked there and he worked.  I used to work in Springfield, Ohio at the store there and then I had my first car.  My first car was a mustard-colored 1954 Chevy convertible, and the top was kind-of ripped and I was driving back like in January from Springfield to Columbus, and the wind was blowing and the hole got bigger and bigger and bigger, so, I stopped and I took the top down.  It’s like two above zero and I drove into West Jefferson in a gas station with the top down.  The guy thought I was crazy, you know?  “You’re driving around with the top down. It’s two above zero!”  I remember that, you know.

Interviewer:  But you had to do that so that the hole in the fabric wouldn’t get bigger

Feerer:  …didn’t get bigger.  Right. Then I got rid of that car after that, but and then my dad opened a store in Northern Lights Shopping Center in Columbus, but the store did not do well.  It didn’t have good traffic there so, I went back to work in his regular store, but I said, “You know things are rough,” So, he says to me one day, “I want you to go see this guy.  He’s got a restaurant.  It’s called Max’s. That’s the name of the restaurant on Spring Street.  I go in there, sit down with Max Schell.  He says, “Listen.  I’ve got this distribution for a meat company in Chicago called Kosher Zion – salamis, corned beef and.  I got a guy that sells it for me but he just is not aggressive, so, how would you like to ride around with him and maybe you can take over the route?”  So, I met the guy.  This was like, it was March of ’61, and the guy, I remember getting in the car, he smoked cigars. Aside from that, he wouldn’t sell more than he could carry in one arm. He wasn’t very aggressive. So, I ride with him and, you know, the end of the day Max said, “How did it go?”  and I said, “Well, how come you don’t sell this place and how come you don’t sell that place?” So, he finally said, he told the guy, you know, to leave and I took over the route and I loved it.  I was selling a consumable product.  I was selling and every time I’d sell, I’d open a new account, you know, selling corned beef, you know.  I, we had a station wagon and then had to buy a truck, you know, because we needed more room.

Interviewer:  Because you were selling so much more you needed more transportation space.

Feerer:  That’s right. Everything, but Max, you know, he didn’t have the best reputation in the community.  This guy, he was a loan shark and he just, they didn’t like him.  I was with him but I like the business. He kept telling me, “I’m gonna’ build you a warehouse” do this, do that.

Interviewer:  So, you were selling these meats to restaurants?

Feerer:  Right, kosher.

Interviewer:  To restaurants?

Feerer:  And supermarkets.

Interviewer:  Supermarkets, okay.

Feerer:  And fraternity houses on campus all over the place.  I’d open a new account. He’d say, if you open that account, I’m really going to put a feather in your hat.” I said, “How much is that in dollars and cents?”  I said to him. The feather shit.  I was, then I brought my brother in to the business with me, ‘cause I would sell on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Wednesday afternoon I’d put up the orders, deliver Thursday and Friday, but if I had my brother with me, we could deliver every day, so, I had my brother come with me.  He was working at a produce company and I brought him in, okay? We were doing, when I started the business, we were doing like, in those days, six or seven hundred dollars a week. When I left, we were doing five thousand. It was a big deal in the sixties, so that lasted until 1966 and then this guy from Chicago, had moved to Chicago, named Michael Bloch, he was selling meat.  His father had a big company in Chicago and he was selling meat to restaurants and a guy who owned, a wealthy family in Columbus, the Wolfe family, John Wolfe was backing this guy who had a meat company called Union Meat Company, but it was losing money and he contacted Michael and says, “I want you to buy the company.”

Interviewer:  I’m sorry.  Who contacted who?

Feerer:  John Wolfe.  John Wolfe contacted Mike and said, “I want you to take over this meat company,” you know? “I’m tired of losing money,” ‘cause Mike was operating out of the trunk of his car, you know?  They would ship the meat in from Chicago.  He’d go to the place and, you know, do the invoicing, or make deliveries out of his car. So, Michael called me and said, “Listen, we’re a little bit in competition but I want to talk to you.” So, I was living at home then. He came over, showed me his P&L statement.  He said, “I made forty thousand dollars last year. I can make more and I can buy this company, but I need someone to work with me who will become partners.” I said, “You’re kidding, you…” so, I was so excited, you know? And there was a chance to move on, to move from, to leave Max. So, we signed a deal.  I got a lawyer. He got a lawyer and I went to Max.  I remember, I said, “Max I’m going to leave.”  “What? What do you want to…?  Remember that five thousand dollars I’d said I’d give you to get married?  I’d give it to you now.”  “I don’t want the money. I want out of here. I want out.” Gave him a two- week notice.

Interviewer:  So, you were leaving his business…

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  …to actually compete with him.

Feerer:  Well, a little bit. Well, he didn’t have, a little bit, but he didn’t, Max was making like, three, four hundred a week on me and I’m making 75 to a hundred a week in them days, you know? So, I left him and I went with Michael and I was so excited, you know?  I loved it. It was, and I, Mike and I became very successful and I was traveling all over Ohio, selling meat.

Interviewer:  And the name of this company was?

Feerer:  Michael’s Finer Meats.

Interviewer:  And his last name?

Feerer:  Bloch B-l-o-c-h. Michael Bloch.  He passed away five years ago but Mike and I were together, from 1966 until 1994, we were together.  Now, while I was there, and then in 1985, joining Agudas Achim Synagogue and they had a program at Agudas Achim called Boys Night Out and they would get, you know, a couple hundred guys would come for dinner and then they would have a comedian and I liked that and I got very involved with it.  I was chairman for twenty years of running Boys Night Out at Agudas Achim Synagogue. My parents introduced me a little bit to show business because in those years they had shows in Columbus, well B’nai B’rith shows.  They would use, rent the auditorium at East High School, for example, and put on a show for the Jewish Center and I would tag along, you know?

Interviewer:  Now wait a minute.  These were shows with comedians or comics or music or…

Feerer:  Well, what happened was it was show business, but at Temple Israel while I was there, they had an event called Deflation Dinner and for a dollar ninety-nine, a dollar ninety-nine, you got a brisket dinner, a roast beef brisket dinner and they brought in entertainers. For a dollar ninety-nine they packed the place and I brought in a famous old Jewish comedian named Mickey Katz.  His father, his son was Joel Grey and I brought Mickey Katz to Temple Israel for that evening, and then another comedian named Woody Gunty and I brought him in and I liked hanging out with these comedians, you know? And, uh, it was fun and then when I left Temple Israel, I went to Agudas Achim and Boys Night Out was there and I jumped in, and became chairman of Boys Night Out and brought in, my parents in the summer would go to a resort in the Catskills called Grossinger’s and I was up there also when I was 17 or 18 years old once, I remember, but I just liked meeting the comedians and hanging out with them later on, getting them jobs, you know bringing them to Columbus, you know, and in fact, one of the comedians I brought, I got this guy 11 jobs.  His name was Freddie Roman.  In fact, he passed away two months ago.

Interviewer:  Freddie Roman.

Feerer:  Roman, Freddie Roman.  Freddie was, created a show called Catskills on Broadway with him and another great comedian, Mal Z. Lawrence, and a woman named Louise Du Art, did impressions, and then an Italian guy named Dick Capri, but he only did Jewish audiences. They were great.  Freddie’s friends told him the show will last two weeks. It lasted a year and half on Broadway, and did great.  In fact, one year, 1985, my mom passed away.  I took my kids up to the Catskill Mountains to the Concord Hotel, ‘cause I wanted a place that had services so I could say kaddish for my mom, you know? And Freddie Roman was there, hanging out there, ‘cause, and he said to me, while I’m there, he says, “Where you gonna’ be at night?   I’m working this place one night, the other place another night.”  “Great,” but he also said to me which was really special, but it never happened, “We’re gonna’ play golf.” I play golf. So, “We’re gonna’ play golf tomorrow with Sammy Davis, Jr.”  I said, “You’re kidding?  I get to meet him?  I love Sammy Davis, Jr.”  I was so excited.  I couldn’t sleep that night.  I get up.  It’s raining.  The monsoons came in the whole week, rained every day, while I was there, so, I never got to meet Sammy Davis, Jr. He couldn’t hit the ball very far but he likes to play.  I was so excited, but anyway. So, Freddie Roman and I became very good friends and he was president of the Friar’s Club in New York which is a big deal in show business and every time I’d go to New Jersey, I’d make arrangements to go to the Friar’s Club, have lunch with him at the Friar’s Club.  I was there maybe eight or nine times, you know, just hanging out there, having lunch with him and then later on, because of the entertainers I became friendly with, one guy named Stewie Stone.  Stewie was the, very close to Frankie Valley who had a very big show called Jersey Boys and I had three meals with Frankie Valley.

Interviewer:  Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons.

Feerer:  Right, and I met Frankie.  He’s like this tall…

Interviewer:  Very short, you’re saying.

Feerer:  …but he got lucky with that show and so, I got three meals.  He came to Columbus. Well, Stewie called me, “I’m coming to Columbus with Frankie. We’re gonna’ be at the Palace Theater. Pick me up and then we’ll go to dinner. Then we’ll pick up Frankie.  He’s coming from California.”  So, I pick him up.  We go to dinner, Stewie and I.  Then we go to the airport and pick up Frankie Valley, and it’s a limousine outside. So, I get Frankie and the driver, Frankie says to the driver, “Just take my luggage to the hotel. I’m going with my friends for dinner.”  And the guy looked at me “You know where you’re going?”  “I live around here.  I know where I’m going.”  So, I took Frankie with me.  We went to dinner.  Next day at breakfast, then we went up to Easton with Stewie and Frankie and I, you know. Frankie wanted to go shopping, you know?  So, I hung out with him that day and then I had a pass that night, an all-access backstage so I could go anywhere, sit anywhere I want, so, and then after the show, Stewie and I went to bite to eat. And then he called me a few months later, “I’m going to be in Cleveland with Frankie. Come up to Cleveland.  Pick me up.  We’ll go to a deli and then go pick up Frankie.”  We did the same thing.  So, I did that with Frankie Valley three times.

Interviewer:  So, you have mixed with some of the, some of the great names…

Feerer:  Oh, yeah.

Interviewer:  …in show business.

Feerer:  I’ll show you this picture.  I have a picture of Frankie and I.  I still have it and Stewie Stone.  Stewie just passed away three months ago also.  Funny guy, Stewie Stone.  I also met Jay Leno because of this other comedian. There I am with Jay Leno.

Interviewer:  There you are with Jay Leno.

Feerer:  Very, very nice guy, very nice. He was sitting there with us.  He’s just a plain nice guy. Now I met him because of this one comedian that I brought in for Boys Night Out.  His name is Elan Gold, Jewish guy from California and he was terrific.

Interviewer:  Do you have any thoughts about Jews and humor?  Here you were mixing with a lot of these…

Feerer:  Here I am with Frankie Valley and Stewie Stone.

Interviewer:  There’s Frankie Valley in a picture with you, yes.

Feerer:  And Stewie Stone.

Interviewer:  Do you have any thoughts about why it is that Jews are so big in the humor business?

Feerer:  A late great comedian said, Red Buttons, and he said, he was giving a roast, you know, and he said, they were roasting Sinatra.  He said, he said, “Most of the comedians are Jewish and most of the singers are Italian.  The difference is one year of high school.”  That’s what he said in his life, but Jewish guys, you know, years ago, Jewish humor, you know, the Buddy Hacketts and all those guys.  They were funny reading the phone book.  Don Rickles, you know?  They don’t have that kind of guys anymore. It was just, it was their personalities, you know, and the Catskill hotels, you know?  I mean, they were in vaudeville and the Catskills.  Were you ever up in the Catskills? You ever…?  No.  It was a special place, you know, for the summertime and very Jewish and I wanted to be a waiter there when I was 18 years old. I’m making three, four hundred a week, you know, it was a big deal, but I didn’t have the connections to get a job there as a waiter, never happened, okay?

Interviewer:  Now, you talked about your business dealings in the 60s and 70s and 80s with the meat business.  What about your personal and family life?  Were you married?

Feerer:  I got married in 1978, okay? And the girl I married was not Jewish but she converted and she, if she didn’t convert, I wouldn’t get married, but she did, so she converted to Judaism.

Interviewer:  And her name?

Feerer:  Julie.

Interviewer:  Julie.

Feerer:  Right, we, so, and then after we got married at Temple Israel and then in 1985 when my mom passed, that’s when I joined Agudas Achim, okay.

Interviewer:  And children?

Feerer:  I have two daughters, okay? Now, my one daughter, the oldest one, Ashley, when she was a senior in high school, I sent her freshman year, no senior year, the first three months, to a school in Israel called Alexander Musk.  It’s an American high school in Israel for Jewish kids and I sent her there for three months because I wanted her to be Jewish.  When she was 14 years old, “I hate Sunday School.  I don’t want to go to Sunday School,” you know? And so, I was told, “You send her to Israel for three months, she’ll come back Jewish,” and I did.

Interviewer:  And did it work?

Feerer:  No. It didn’t take.  No.  It just didn’t take, but my youngest daughter, it took.  She came, she’s very Jewish, my youngest daughter.  She lives in New Jersey.  She keeps a kosher home.

Interviewer:  And her name is?

Feerer:  Chelsea.

Interviewer:  Chelsea, and did she go to this Jewish school in Israel?

Feerer:  No. She never, no she didn’t go there, though.

Interviewer:  So, she came out more Jewish…

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  …than your other daughter who went to the Jewish school in Israel.

Feerer:  Right.  Chelsea got involved in college at, with Hillel, you know at Tisch College at Tufts University in Boston and that’s where she met her husband. You know Chelsea, well they were both, when they were younger, I sent them to Emma Kauffman, Jewish camps, you know?  I sent them there for camp, you know? So, I always exposed them to Jewish things, you know?

Interviewer:  So, sometimes that helps to instill a Jewish identity and sometimes it doesn’t.

Feerer:  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work, right, but I tried, you know. In fact, I’m going to have, my grandson’s bar mitzvah’s going to be coming up this October in New Jersey.  I always said to my daughter Chelsea when she went to college, “I hope you meet a Jewish guy, get married, have a son, have a bar mitzvah and I’ll be there.”  It’s gonna’ happen, this coming October, my grandson’s bar mitzvah.  He’s a great kid, so I’m all excited about that.  Also want to say that, at the Jewish Center, my dear friend that passed away, Butch Levy, of blessed memory, in 1982, this Jewish Center asked him if he would share something with a Jewish, a sports event.  He got sick with cancer and he asked me to help him, so that’s when I created the Jewish Center Sports Spectacular in 1982.

Interviewer:  That’s an annual event.

Feerer:  It was.  In 1982, remember they had committees, you know. I said, “I’m the committee,” you know? I was, oh, I said, “This is the way we’re going to do it,” you know, and “I don’t want, I can hear your opinions but I’m the boss.”  So, we created this, we had a Jewish Country Club at that time called Winding Hollow Country Club and I made arrangements to have two tennis pros, I mean, good ones.  One of them won Wimbledon.  His name was Roy Everson.  He was a big deal and Fred Stolle, he was from New Zealand, but I met them in Florida, brought them to Columbus, and then I had two golf pros that I brought to the Country Club and an after-dinner speaker and I got these basketball coaches in August when they weren’t working.  I always felt basketball coaches know how to talk, so I created the first one and I brought in this famous basketball coach named Al McGuire, and he was, he liked Jewish people.  He was a great guy, so I created this Sports Spectacular and I went and got sponsors, Kroger’s and this and that one and charged $250 a person in 1982 and we had 250 guys and they loved it and I got a photographer. We’d take, you know, pictures with the guys, you know, hitting golf balls with the pros and we did the first year and we made a lot of money from it. They loved it. So, then my friend passed away and we named the second one the Butch Levy Sports Spectacular.  I brought in some more tennis players and pros and I got lucky.  I brought in this great basketball coach named Jim Valvano. Do you know who that was?  Jimmy Valvano.

Interviewer:  Sounds familiar.

Feerer:  North Carolina State University.  He was married to a Jewish girl, in fact.  He’s Italian.  He won the NCAA Championship in 1983.  It was a big deal and I brought him in and they loved it, and then later on we had other, I brought in guys like Bobby Knight, and Dick Vitale, and Rick Pitino and we did it, but then I stepped out as chairman, but, let other people, but it lasted throughout.  If you go to the Jewish Center there’s showcases.  There’s posters there from the events, but…

Interviewer:  Is it still going on?

Feerer:  No.  The athletes just cost too much money and they just…

Interviewer:  Oh, I see, but it lasted for how many years?

Feerer:  A few years, 12 years maybe.  I made over a million dollars with the event.  They loved it.

Interviewer:  And this was a fundraiser?

Feerer:  A fundraiser for the Jewish Center. Right.

Interviewer:  So, there would be a big dinner and there would be a big sports figure who would give a talk and speech…

Feerer: Right.

Interviewer:  …and people could take pictures with them.

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  So, for sports minded people…

Feerer:  They loved it.  They loved it. And women?  You know, they got to be there, too. Play tennis with the pros and golf, you know. Well, the pros, just on par three holes. If you know golf, they would hit a ball and you would, your group could use their ball if you wanted to, the par threes, you know.  Had one great golfer, Chi-Chi Rodrigues. They brought him in.  He was, he was great, you know?

Interviewer:  So, this Sports Spectacular, was not just an evening event with a dinner, but it was also during the day they could choose and participate…

Feerer:  All day, twelve o’clock. Right. Oh, yeah.

Interviewer:  …in a sport with some of these big athletes and coaches.

Feerer:  Right. Right.

Interviewer:  Wow.

Feerer:  In fact, my cousin, my late cousin, a guy named Jimmy Goodman, he was a character.  He was a tennis player and he said, he was gonna’, he had, they put him on the court to play doubles against [?  ] and Fred Stolle, they played Wimbledon, you know, Fred Stolle, and Jimmy says, “God, what a partner I got,” ‘cause Fred Stolle said to him, “Take whatever you want.  I’ll take the rest.” And Jimmy says, “What a partner I got.” Guy played Wimbledon, you know? So, it was funny, but they had like 40 tennis players.  And they would rotate with the pros, you know? It was great.  They loved it.

Interviewer:  Now you mentioned what was, did you say Winding Hollow Country Club?

Feerer:  Winding Hollow Country Club. Right.

Interviewer:  That was a Jewish…

Feerer:  Jewish Country Club in Columbus, right.

Interviewer:  And your family, was, was your family members?

Feerer: No. No. No. No. No.

Interviewer: Not growing up.

Feerer:  No. No. Growing up there was a swim club on North Cassady called the Excelsior Club, all Jewish, and our family was members of the Excelsior Club, you know?  So, in the summertime, I would hang out there and swim there on the weekends. And, so, and they had parties and guys were upstairs, you know, men playing cards, you know, but it was a social focal point at that time, the Excelsior Club on North Cassady.  It’s all gone now though, but there was the Excelsior Club.  Then the notch above was the Winding Hollow Country Club.

Interviewer:  Both Jewish institutions.

Feerer:  Oh, yeah.

Interviewer:  When you went to the Excelsior Club as a teenager, did you understand why the Excelsior Club was created because Jews were not allowed to join the mainstream country clubs?

Feerer:   I never, I never thought about it, to be honest with you.  No, it was just our thing and they’d bring in big bands, they did their thing, you know?

Interviewer:  It was just the way things were.

Feerer:  Right.

Interviewer:  Jews went to one place and the non-Jews had their own place and that was it.

Feerer:  Now there was a, years later there was a golf club created called Walnut Hills Golf Club. Walnut Hills.   It’s not here anymore.

Interviewer:  Walnut Hills.  Yes.

Feerer:  It’s not there anymore but there were Jewish, I would say the place was, like, twenty-five percent Jewish, seventy-five percent non-Jewish, but it was always that murmur that the Jews this and the Jews that.  That bothered me, you know?  I don’t know why they did that, but in those years, you know, and then another club opened called Stoney Creek Country Club, maybe thirty percent Jewish, maybe half and half, but everyone got along,  but there’s still the, you hear these little remarks, you know, about the Jews different things.

Interviewer:  You’ve heard that sometimes.

Feerer:  Oh, yeah.

Interviewer:  So, you’ve heard anti-Semitic remarks sometimes…

Feerer:  Oh yeah.

Interviewer:  …and that’s the extent of what you’ve seen as anti-Semitism in your life or have you faced other?

Feerer:  Many, many years ago, years ago when I was in the meat business and we were doing business at Muirfield Village Golf Club and they had a [?] golf tournament at Muirfield and I got to play in the golf tournament and then after the tournament, they had a dinner, and I, there was a guy there from Chicago who was representing one of the golf clubs, a Jewish guy, and I went up to him and I said, “ You know, Oh,” ‘so-and-so’ you know,  “told me to say hello to you.”  “Oh, my friend,” and he answered me, “but don’t let anybody know that I’m Jewish,” he says to me.   “Don’t anyone, don’t let them know, these non-Jewish golfers, don’t let them know I’m Jewish.”  I’m thinking, “Hey, you’ve got to be a proud Jew,” you know?  That bothered me that a guy would make a remark like that ‘cause he’s doing business with non-Jews.

Interviewer:  And he felt if they knew that he was Jewish it would hurt his business.

Feerer:  Who knows? You know, may, but it made me, I didn’t like that remark.

Interviewer:  So, you did the meat business for many years.  Was that the end of your professional career or did you go into something else?

Feerer:  After I left the meat business in 1994, I didn’t work for five years. I had a, Michael and I had a falling out.  I left and I didn’t work for five years and then got to go to my kids sporting events and do different things, my kids, and then, let’s see, and then in the year 1990, 1990…[yike] time goes so fast, so in the year ’03, friends of mine owned an insurance company called Safe-Auto Insurance, came to me and said, “Why don’t you go to work for us?” you know?  I said, “I ain’t gonna’ work for you. I mean, sit behind a desk? Answer the phone?”  “Try it. You’ll like it,” ‘cause I was getting very bored. “Okay, I’ll try it.” So, I had to go to insurance college, up in Westerville and they teach you to learn how to pass the test that is administered by the State of Ohio, to get licensed.

Interviewer:  To be an actual licensed insurance agent.

Feerer:  Right and my professor there, an older guy, nice guy, said, “I know you haven’t been to college in a while. You listen to me.  I’ll help you pass the test.”  I said, “Okay.” So, I went there every day and at the end of the thing, I went to take the test.  You have to get 70 percent right, so I got 68 percent right. Uch. Two weeks later, take it again, 69  percent right. Two weeks later, same thing, so, Johnny Diamond said to me, “Listen. You’re only allowed three times but you’re gonna’ take it ‘til you pass it.”  On the thirteenth time, I passed it.

Interviewer:  The thirteenth?

Feerer:  Thirteenth time I passed it.  I got 73  percent. I thought the computer was broke, you know, but I passed it.

Interviewer:  You were persistent.

Feerer: Absolutely.  I’ve always been persistent, so then I went to, then you go to their, it’s called Safe-Auto College for two weeks.  They teach you how to sell insurance their way. And I did and I liked it and I still do it to this day. I believe that a busy mind is a healthy mind and I’ll always do it.  Now I also, in the early years there, my hours were horrible. I was working from three in the afternoon ‘til midnight and off, like Tuesday and Wednesdays but I went to synagogue services every morning to help the minyan and I would pick up my cousin who passed away.  I worked ‘til midnight and I’d pick him up at seven o’clock in the morning to go to services.  Later on, I would pick up two other gentlemen every day, and my hours got better. I was working 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. so, while we had services at Agudas Achim, I’d pick up these two gentlemen – one of them passed away a couple months ago – and then I would get on the phone, call guys up at quarter of seven in the morning, “We need you to make minyan for services,” and I did that for many years over there. So, I just, my mom passed away.  I said prayers for her every day, said kaddish every day wherever I was. I was in Miami and I wanted to go at nighttime to say the prayers for my mom.  I’m on the freeway and I see a fire engine and the traffic.  There’s an accident but I’m not gonna’ make it, but somehow, I got there to the synagogue and the rabbi, I’d never been there before.  He looked at me.  He knew I was there.  He held nine guys over in Miami so I could say kaddish for my mom, so, I made sure I said kaddish for her wherever I was, you know, Chicago, New York, Miami, wherever.  I never missed and same with my dad.  He passed away in 1992.  I did the same thing, you know. I never missed.  You’re supposed to go for eleven months.  You don’t have to but I wanted to.  So, I always, I said to Rabbi Stavsky once, about him making me more observant.  He says, “No, you have it in your heart.  I didn’t do it. I directed you but you got it, you have it in your soul.”  That’s what he told me.

Interviewer:  So, you have a, you do have a good feeling about Judaism…

Feerer: Absolutely.

Interviewer:  …and you have pride?

Feerer:  Absolutely.  You gotta’ be a proud Jew.  That’s right.  Absolutely.

Interviewer:  And here you are.  You are in your 80s now.

Feerer:  Eighty-three years old.

Interviewer:  And you say you are still working and selling some insurance?

Feerer:  Absolutely. I’ll work as long as I can, as they’ll let me do it, you know?  ‘Cause I like it.  Now just recently, I had my second bar mitzvah. As Jewish tradition says that you have your second bar mitzvah.  Okay?  It’s Jewish tradition when you’re 83 so I had it this past August, my second bar mitzvah, and, at Agudas Achim.  My friends were there. My daughters were there and it was very special, so I made a speech and my daughter, my youngest who did the haftarah portion of the service, you know, Chelsea.  It was great.  Part of my speech when I started talking, I said that my first bar mitzvah was in 1952 and here it is, seventy years later.  I said it took a loooooong time to get here but it happened so fast. And I said, 1952, gasoline was twenty-five cents a gallon.  The average home was $9000. One out of four families had a TV.  Two out of four families had a telephone.  You know, I talked about that stuff, what happened in 1952 and how I, and I said that I, I talked about where my first bar mitzvah was and being here at Agudas Achim, you know, and it was about a three/four minute speech, you know, that I made and at the end I said, that, I said, that “we all have bumps in the road of life and I want to thank Agudas Achim for helping me getting through these bumps” and then I said, “As Frank Sinatra said, I did it my way.  He did it his way and I do it my way.” I always try to help people when I can.  In fact, one of the late members of our synagogue and I, he’s passed away, would go visit sick people in hospitals and nursing homes and I still do that today. I walk in a room.  They don’t know who I am, but “I’m a member of Agudas Achim. I’m Ronnie Feerer. I just want to come in and say hello and wish you a speedy recovery,” so, I still do that to this day. And when you go in a hospital or nursing home to say hello to somebody and you come out of there, it’s a nice feeling that I get by doing it and one day I was at the Heritage House and, to see a friend and across the hall is this guy named Cookie. Cookie Berman.  You gotta know me,  comes up and he says, “Do me a favor. Look at my belt.  My belt’s in shreds. Ronnie, will you go buy me a belt and I’ll pay you?”  “What size are you?”  “Thirty-two.” So, I go to Target and I buy him a belt for eight dollars, come back, put the belt on.  It’s the wrong size, so I gotta’ go back, get the right size, bring it back again, give him the belt. “This fits.”  Then he reaches in his wallet to reimburse.  He had a dollar.  “Cookie don’t worry about it. It’s okay,” you know? “I can afford the eight dollars,” you know?  It was fun, but I just, and then my friend, they guy, he passed away. All these older gentlemen that I’ve been friendly with, they’re gone, you know? I had a very, very close friend named Louie Goldfarb who passed away a few years ago and he thought I was his second son, and I would, he lived alone and I’d pick him up, and call him up, “Louie, we’re going to dinner,” you know? I’d pick him up or I’d pick him up to go to synagogue services, you know? They called [him?] “Mr. Agudas Achim,” but I, any time, I go to synagogue services every Saturday no matter what city I’m in. I always go every Saturday.  I just like the feeling, that spirit, that Jewish feeling of being there on Saturday.  It’s important to me and I have a good feeling when I leave there.

Interviewer:  That sounds like a good way to end our interview here with Ronnie Feerer and it’s February 14^th, 2023, and I’m Bill Cohen for the Columbus Jewish Historical Society.

 

Transcribed by Linda Kalette Schottenstein

April  2023.