KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
credit. He worked hard, going from customer to customer and ar- ranging for the sale of general merchandise. He had connections with several appliance, furniture, and clothing stores, and would go to a customer, agree on a price for an item, such as a new re- frigerator, and then give him a letter of credit to take to the store in exchange for the merchandise. Phillip received a dealer discount from the stores. The customer would pay my father-in-law in weekly installments, perhaps five dollars a week for a big item, or three dollars a week for a small item. Once a week, he would drive around and collect the payments. He never charged interest. His profit came from the dealer discount he received from the stores; he took on himself the risk of extend- ing credit to the customers. He worked with quality stores; I used to patronize the stores to which he sent his customers. I also remember that he had a big box of dress samples in various sizes, but I do not recall the details of those transactions. I know a lot about Phillip’s business because I used to fill in for him occasionally after work when he was sick. By the time I met him, he had been in business for about thirty-five years, and his customers were the grandchildren of his original customers. He loved his customers and had genuinely warm relationships with them. They talked about him with great respect and invited him to their children’s weddings and so forth. But some of the neighbor- hoods he worked in were rough and he was beaten up by several times by local hoodlums who thought Jews had horns. Ruthie’s father was also a big supporter of the Orthodox syna- gogue to which he belonged, a shtibel, a traditional, Eastern Eu- ropean style synagogue where the women and men sat separately. Once a year, the United Jewish Appeal made an appeal for Israel there. I happened to see one of the lists of UJA contributors from the shtibel: the total contribution that year was $4,136, with some members giving $18, some $5, some $3, and Phillip Silverstein giving $4,000. Money was very dear at that time; people did not earn much. In those days, you could buy a fully equipped new car
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