Weequahic Alumni Award $51,000 in scholarships to 34 students including the high school’s top five students pictured below: 1 - Karim Gifford 2 - Lenita Onque 3 - Evette Fedd 4 - Al-Mustafa 5 - Perry Williams Ingram More on scholarship recipients on page 4 HOMECOMING 2010 Now on Thanksgiving Day - Thursday, November 25th Weequahic vs. Shabazz Football Game at Untermann Field Join us for breakfast between 8 & 10 a.m. See the neighborhood parade. Tour the high school. Buy alumni merchandise. At 11 a.m., watch the greatest rivalry in the South Ward as Weequahic defends its Thanksgiving Day championship trophy. provides students with opportunities that Why Give To Weequahic might not otherwise be available to them. ALUMNI CALUMET is a publication of the By Phil Yourish, Executive Director So many see the value in giving to WHS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Weequahic. Others say why give to Look at the faces of Editor, Layout & Design: Weequahic. It’s not the same place that I our Weequahic alumni Phil Yourish, 1964 remember. So much has changed. That’s scholarship students, just the point. Let’s help create a Proofreading: read their words, hear Weequahic where students 50 years from Dave Lieberfarb, Hal Braff, and their voices. This why now can have the same wonderful Myrna Jelling Weissman we, as an alumni memories of their high school and association, exists. In Printer: neighborhood that we have. Budget Copy Centers, Bloomfield a world where so many of us have been blessed with so much, this Alumni Merchandise: Yes, their circumstances are different. is what makes our Weequahic alumni All Star Sporting Goods, West Orange Their needs are diverse. Their challenges experience so meaningful and gratifying. are vast. But their dreams and aspirations Our thanks for articles and photos from The Star-Ledger, NJ.com, NJ Jewish are the same as ours. They deserve For so many of us, we have fond memories News, and our WHS alumni and friends. nothing less than the outstanding of a very special place in the City of education that we received in our growing Newark where you and I grew up known up years. Given the chance, their potential CONTACT US: as Weequahic. Today that name is magic. will blossom. When uttered, it immediately launches a Weequahic High School flow of wonderful memories from the past. Good ideas and visions take money – lots It connects us with our roots, to the days Alumni Association of money over time. We are privileged to of our youth, and to the moments when have such generous alumni and friends P.O. Box 494 everything just felt right and good. who want to invest in the current and Newark, NJ 07101 future generations of Weequahic. By When people speak of Weequahic, they (973) 923-3133 - office doing so, we all win as our young people usually describe it as follows: the best (973) 303-5294 - mobile grow and develop into productive men and years of my life; an outstanding high women who will have a significant impact [email protected] school; a great place to grow up; I wish it on the world to come. [email protected] had never ended; I wish my children could have grown up there. And from this www.weequahicalumni.org Can there be a better legacy for us leave special place, so many successful people than to return to the “old neighborhood” have sprouted and plant the seeds for future success for HELP WRITE THE the many wonderful kids who go to NEXT ISSUE: Our alumni association is a wonderful Weequahic today. example of passing on one's legacy as Send us letters, articles, previous generations of Weequahic "give stories, memories, poems, recipes, Look at the faces of our Weequahic back" to support the students currently at photos, cartoons, alumni scholarship students, read their the high school. The alumni association trivia, obituaries, reunion words, hear their voices (on Chancellor has had a tremendous impact on the information, etc. Avenue; in Washington, DC; in Paris, Weequahic of today. It has become an France; at a sports camp; at college) - and important resource to the high school as it GIVE...and then give some more. WEEQUAHIC ARCHIVES: Send us your Weequahic things: yearbooks, jackets, sweaters, letters, Save this special date on your calendar, palm, blackberry, i-pad, or smartphone Calumets, class pictures, photos of the old neighborhood, etc. Weequahic High School Alumni Association fundraising dinner honoring our co-founders RECENT DONATIONS OF NOTE: Chancellor Foundation, Provident Bank, Kalfus Fund, Boose Fund, Griffin Fund, Masin Fund, Walter Hastreiter Scholarship HAL BRAFF & SHELDON BROSS Fund, Jewish Historical Society MetroWest, Hearft of Stone Donations, Zach Braff, Irv Newman, Nancy Small, Lou Bodian, Judy Herr, 1964, Class of 1939, Class of 1945, Thursday, May 19, 2011 Class of Jan. 1950, Class of 1963, Classes of 1965 & 1966 at the historic Robert Treat Hotel in Newark Lutzke also told of the chilling Seniors recall their effect Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his hunt for communists had on school years in local educators, particularly French instructor Robert Jewish Newark Lowenstein, who lost his job. Mix said he fought the charges by Debra Rubin, 9/27/10 for six years and was eventually NJJN Bureau Chief/Middlesex reinstated with back pay, rising to become chair of Weequahic’s Ikey, Mikey, Jakey, Sam foreign languages department. We’re the boys that eat no ham, “He also taught algebra,” called out a man from the audience. “I We play baseball, we play soccer, Now a Verona resident, Lutzke spoke of had him for algebra. And it was Dr. We keep matzos in our lockers the excitement she felt her first day as a Lowenstein. He had a PhD.” Aye, Yiye, Yiye, Yiye Weequahic High! teacher at Weequahic, “the newest high school in the city, where the kids were Lowenstein, who is still alive, had written a That old-time school cheer from Newark’s smart and clever.” The school was filled letter to be read to those gathered in which Weequahic High School brought back a “with parents concerned about their he corrected a common fallacy - that he is flood of memories as Jews with roots in the children.” Her annual pay was $1,000, 103 years old. “I am only 102,” he wrote city gathered for the Sept. 13 meeting of higher than some others because she had a while expressing the hope that the former the Jewish Historical Society of Central graduate degree. Jersey. student who contacted him still had the “spit and vinegar” he remembered. “My husband was a grade school teacher The program on Jewish Newark drew with a master’s, and he made $900,” said Others had their own fond memories of about 200 former city dwellers, mostly past Lutzke as audience members gasped. “In Newark. Jack Cohen said that while students of Weequahic High - and some 1975, I retired making $10,000 a year.” fighting in Guadalcanal in World War II, whose alma mater was South Side High - They were years “of joy and hard work.” his commanding officer told the soldiers to Congregation Etz Chaim Monroe Considered one of the best high schools in they could request one thing from home. Township Jewish Center. America, Weequahic producing renowned Cohen decided he wanted photos of alumni, including author Philip Roth, a Newark. “My poor mother didn’t know The program featured Hilda Lutzke - an 1950 graduate whose novels often feature where to get pictures,” said Cohen, so she English teacher at Weequahic from 1937 to Newark and Weequahic. 1975 who turned 97 on Sept. 14th - contacted two city dailies for help. speaking about colleagues and students and The program was chaired by Marilyn Mix, “One of them, I can’t remember which, her “lovely” hometown of Newark, whose herself a former Newark resident and decided to run a story on the front page Jewish community was once 80,000-strong school teacher who spent two years at something like, ‘GI from Newark prefers and thriving. Weequahic High. Like most others pictures of Newark to bathing beauties of present, she now lives in one of Monroe’s the time.’” The nostalgic talk elicited sighs and nine adult communities. She shared stories murmurs of recognition as audience of socializing at the Weequahic Diner, Charlotte Anker described Newark as “fun, members spoke of their own memories of where “everyone ate.” Ever the teacher, family, and friends.” “terrible” high school football teams; she used a pointer and easel in sharing peaceful streets; and safe, close-knit trivia and discussing Newark’s greatest “It was perfect,” she said. “I learned neighborhoods. philanthropist, department store owner about philanthropy and how to be kind and Louis Bamberger. thoughtful. I have such good memories.” 3rd WEST COAST REUNION Sunday, February 20, 2011 Temple Beth Yahm 949-644-1999 Newport Beach, CA Open to all West Coast (CA, OR, WA, AZ, NM, TX, CO, UT, NV) alums and all other interested alums & their guests Contact Reunion Organizer: Fran Katz Sekela Home: (760) 944-7384 / Cell: (760) 207-1795 [email protected] OUR 2010 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS Felicity Appiah-kubi Kadim Bobbit Andrew Bodison Niyale Branch Elijah Brice Marquis Brown Jerry Butler Our 1st Scholarship fullest because tomorrow isn’t promised, economic status through attending and but when do you start working towards graduating from college? These are the Celebration Dinner your long-term goals? Today a high questions that I face on a daily basis. world, and society is a lot more Theses are the issues that are at stake in Our first Scholarship Celebration competitive...there are those who wallow my life.