from Rabbi Axelrod, a fellow "Brooklyn Boy"

In Brighton Beach... there were Summer Resorts with Boarding Houses and Bungalows which people rented to get FRISCHE LUFT much like the Bungalows in the Catskill  Mountains in NY, or closer to you the White Mts. Everyone went. Jews who were observant,secularized Chassidim and all seemed to get along well.... I lived across the Street from Lincoln HS and there was a strong sense of neighborhood. Neighbors cared for each other. We wished the Goyim HAPPY EASTER AND MERRY X-MAS  in front of their churches and they came to our Synagogues to wish us GUT Shabbos/Yom-Tov etc.

Your husband/father AH was a little kid when the Yeshivah in Coney Island closed down. I remember him although I’m older than he was coming to the Yeshivah of Brighton on Public Transportation the SURF AVE. B-36 Bus. Older students the Bernstein Brothers (Rabbi Bernstein’s sons AH) Rabbi Phil Polatoff ( A Talmud Chochum in Scranton, PA) Jerome Feller, Ira Langer,Billy Cohen Esq.  Morty Bluth M.D. Sheldon Fried and others would go with him on the Bus and walk him home from the Bus Stop which was quite a distance.

.....Although I never knew Avi for years, as an adult because I left NY in 1965)  I returned in 71 for a short while and in 75-76 he was long gone from the area. When I moved to Kemp Mill he  immediately recognized me and was shocked to see me as he thought that I passed away. I was a Chaplain for 20 plus years in the US ARMY and he had heard that my Helicopter was shot down in Viet-Nam which was true but luckily we were rescued in  minutes. I was also the last helicopter out of the Imperial City of Way on Easter Sunday during the last insurgency. He kept up with all the Chevrah we grew up with and we kept each other informed of their whereabouts. Of their Mazel-Tovs and Chas V’sholom their tragedies.

For more insight I recommend that you call Adina Friedman as she and her mother probably know much more about the “OLD NEIGHBORHOOD” and Fred can tell you about NIH.