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Ron Leir

After 75 Years, Borrower Returns Overdue Book to JC Library

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Bob Jablonski was in his mid-20s when his family left Jersey City for the suburbs, but as he neared his 90th birthday, he made up his mind to return.

He was on a special mission.

Seems that in 1947, when he was a 14-year-old sophomore at Ferris High School, he borrowed a library book to research a social studies project but never returned it. Now was the time to do it.

So, earlier this month, Jablonski drove to the main branch of the Jersey City Public Library and surprised staffers when he presented what was thought to be a long-lost hardback copy of “Hitler,” by Oden Rudolph, a left-wing German-Jewish journalist who published the book in 1936 with an English translation by Walter Ettinghausen.

Rudolph, who left Germany before Hitler seized power, wrote the biography “as a sort of warning against him to the world,” according to reviewer Arnold E. Bjorn.

Fortunately for Jablonski, the Jersey City Public Library decided in March 2021 to eliminate fines for overdue books.

“The Jersey City Free Public Library decided to go fine-free when we realized we were losing patrons who might have owed money for books they lost years ago,” said Assistant Director Kate Davis. “We want patrons in the library, and we do not want fines to discourage anyone from coming back to visit us.”

Jablonski said the book was stamped as having been loaned by the Ferris High School library, which at the time was — presumably like other city high schools — a branch of the city library, and that’s why he opted to return it to the city, not the school.

Pictured Left to Right: Librarian Dolores Reyes, Assistant Director Kate Davis, Director Terry B. Hill, Bob Jablonski, Chief Librarian Hussein Odeh, Librarian Julie Metri

Pictured Left to Right: Librarian Dolores Reyes, Assistant Director Kate Davis, Director Terry B. Hill, Bob Jablonski, Chief Librarian Hussein Odeh, Librarian Julie Metri

How did he end up with a book about the former German chancellor?

“I remember as a research project, I had to do a story on a country (outside the U.S.),” Jablonski said. “Most kids picked Canada or Mexico. For some reason, I picked Germany, and I found this book on Hitler maybe because it was right after the war. I read it twice. Fifteen years ago was the last time.”

Interestingly, a facsimile reprint of what is described as a “scarce antiquarian book” was issued by Kessinger Publishing LLC in September 2010, and the reviewer Bjorn credits the author with digging up sources to shed light on an adolescent Hitler, judged to be “already a man of strong opinions in his early youth.”

One such account mentions a 20-year-old jobless Hitler who while living in a Vienna homeless shelter tries to convince his comrades “that they ought to start a political party together to change the way things worked,” says Bjorn. For the balance of his book, Olden “follows the biographical outline in Hitler’s own ‘Mein Kampf,’ quoting snippets while adding his own background, comments, and views on the plausibility of individual items.”

Jablonski has lived in Little Falls, NJ, for the past 23 years, but during his moves prior, he periodically reorganized his belongings. As he did so, “the book kept popping up. I finally felt it was time to return it to its rightful owner,” he said. “I enjoyed bringing it back and how much (staffers) appreciated it.”

After graduating from Ferris in 1949, Jablonski enrolled at the former Jersey City State Teachers College where he got a degree in education (though he ended up working on Wall Street). He also served as chairman of the New Jersey State Highway Authority for five years, appointed by  former Gov. James Florio.

Jablonski recalled his formative years downtown on Pavonia Avenue, “a block around the corner from Hamilton Park, part of St. Michael’s parish.  Outside my grandmother’s house there was all cobblestone. Down the street from us was a big Wells Fargo building, but instead of cars there were all horses around there.”

He said there was a strong sense of neighborhood in those times. “We all went out at night; we met on the corner or on our stoop. Everybody had their own group.”

The good Samaritan will enter his tenth decade in April.

Emily Natelli 100th Birthday Party
Aaron Morrill

Bergen-Lafayette Woman Celebrates 100th Birthday

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Yesterday, surrounded by well-wishers, Emily Natelli celebrated her 100th birthday.

Cake was served and a gold embossed proclamation from Mayor Fulop delivered to the newly-minted centenarian.

Emily, born on July 15th, 1922, was the youngest of six children produced by Louis and Josephine Natelli, who had immigrated from Italy and settled in Jersey City. She grew up at 87 Clerk Street in the neighborhood then known as Lafayette.

As a young woman, Natelli worked at her father’s fruit and vegetable stand. Later she worked as a sales clerk.

While she never married and had no children she is, apparently, doted on by many nieces and nephews. Her sister-in-law, Peggy Natelli, was in attendance for the festivities.

Lowell Fein, Acclaim administrator reads out mayoral proclamation to Emily Natelli at 100th birthday

Lowell Fein, Acclaim administrator, reads out mayoral proclamation

Natelli now lives at the Acclaim Rehabilitation & Care Center on Stevens Avenue.

Happy birthday Emily!

 

 

James Goldberg, Nancy Marmer and Rob Goldberg
Ron Leir

Jersey City Writer Co-Authors Novel Inspired by Gruesome 1999 Murder

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Jersey City, already known for the arts, has some pretty solid literary talent as well. The latest example might be local resident, author, and former Wall Street Journal TV critic Rob Goldberg, who with his mother and son, recently penned “The Hanged Man’s Tale,” a book due out by Doubleday Dec. 7, the latest in a series inspired by the gruesome murder of four Dutch tourists in France in 1999.

But the book’s genesis isn’t the only unusual aspect of the “The Hanged Man’s Tale.” The family wrote the book jointly after Goldberg’s father, author and former UCLA writing professor Gerald Goldberg (pen name Gerald Jay), suffered a stroke in 2017 and couldn’t finish the work on his own.

Sadly, Jay died last year. But the fictional character he created — Inspector Mazarelle — is highly relevant in 2021.

Mazarelle champions the cause of the unjustly accused suspect from a minority community not getting a fair shake, according to Goldberg. (Indeed, we first meet Mazelle doing likewise in “The Paris  Directive,” the prequel to “The Hanged Man’s Tale” that Jay published to wide acclaim in 2012).

In the French murder case that spurred Jay to write both books, the defendant was an immigrant from Tunisia. Coincidentally, Goldberg had experience writing about the travails of immigrant groups as well. In the 1980s, he covered the “Dotbuster” attacks, a series of assaults on Jersey City’s Indian community from 1975 to 1993.

Rob Goldberg described his father’s painstaking efforts to finish “The Hanged Man’s Tale” while severely impaired:

“He was eager to keep working, but he had the initial loss of vocabulary and difficulty keeping an entire storyline in mind … he could focus on one scene at a time and still have great ideas … but he couldn’t remember the whole story at once.”

“Over time,” Rob said, “his memory started coming back. He still had his vivid sense of scenes and characters, and surprising flashes of language with images that surprise you.”

Language such as: “A palm to the small of her back sent her screaming down the elevator shaft, her shrieks trailing after her like a torn parachute.”

“That’s what inspired us,” said Rob, referring to his mother, Nancy Marmer, former managing editor of Art in America magazine, and his son, filmmaker James Goldberg.

Drawing from his experience as a cinematographer, James said, “We did what filmmakers do: We broke down the entire story on cards. Then we started moving the cards around on this giant table to get the best story flow.”

Rob, Nancy and James each took a hand writing different story chapters which, in turn, were read by Gerald.

“Before my dad passed away, we actually sat with him in the hospital and discussed details of characters and plotting [and] we were lucky enough to have mapped out an outline for the next book with him, a great road map for the story to come. He handed us this amazing creation. And now, because of the way the whole family came together as a writing team, we’re ready. Mazarelle is in our hands now. We look forward to helping him shine,” he said.

Team USA’s Raymond Martin
Elizabeth Morrill

Jersey City Native Wins Gold in Tokyo Paralympics

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Team USA’s Raymond Martin

Team USA’s Raymond Martin on the medal stand with his gold medal in the 100m September 3, 2021 at the Olympic Stadium at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Photo by Mark Reis

Jersey City native Raymond Martin earned a gold medal in the men’s T52 100-meter dash in the Tokyo Paralympic Games Friday, Sept. 3. With a time of 16.99 seconds, the wheelchair racer garnered his tenth Paralympic medal since his first such Games in 2012.

In July, Jersey City Times profiled Martin in the lead-up to the games.

“This feels amazing,” Martin reported.  “The last two events [400-meter and 1500-meter] I came out with a silver medal here. It was hard to complain about those events, but it was not where I wanted to be, which was at the top of the podium. So, to get on the top of the podium in the 100-meter is an amazing feeling,” he said.

Martin was born with a congenital condition called Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome, a subcategory of a broader condition called Arthrogryposis, which causes contractures, or stiffening, of joints. His condition has given Martin limited movement in his limbs, neck, and face.  But he has been competing since he was five years old, when he got his first racing chair.

Martin still holds the Paralympic record of 16.79 seconds for the T52 100-meter dash (set in 2012) and the world record of 16.41 seconds for the race (set in 2019).

The events Martin will be participating in are categorized by gender, distance, and mobility. Since mobility can vary greatly among the athletes participating, participants are grouped by similar functional ability. Wheelchair racers are divided into four classes: T51 (least mobile), T52, T53, and T54 (most mobile).

With the Games behind him, Martin will resume his studies at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to become a physician’s assistant. Speculating as to whether he’d compete in the 2024 Games in Paris, which take place just months after he’s due to graduate, Martin said, “I cannot rule out Paris now.”

Fencing Coach Steve Kaplan
Elizabeth Morrill

Steve Kaplan, Jersey City’s Olympic Fencer

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“In Our Midst” is a monthly conversation profiling Jersey City residents with a unique past or those doing something unusually interesting. This month we’re thrilled to be speaking with Steve Kaplan, member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic fencing team and founder and owner of Cobra Fencing Club in Jersey City. The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

 

JCT: Steve, it’s great to have you. You grew up in Queens in the 60s. How did you become aware of fencing? Did Errol Flynn have anything to do with it? Where did you first take lessons?

Kaplan: I grew up in Glen Oaks, NY, a garden apartment development in eastern Queens. There was a baseball field across the street, and since I became one of the best ball players in the neighborhood I dreamed of playing on the high school team. Van Buren was a huge regional school with 3,600 students on triple session. Around 100 boys showed up to try out. I did well enough to reach the last stages of being selected, but when they posted the final team selection I was not on it. This was personally catastrophic to me, but in a classic one door closing and another door opening I tagged along with a friend to try out for the fencing team. I didn’t know anything about the sport, but I really like the Guy Williams Zorro series on Walt Disney  I attended Martin Van Buren HS in Queens, which was a huge regional school with 3,600 students on triple session. Eleven years later, both myself and my friend were on the U.S. Olympic team competing for the U.S. in Montreal ‘76.

JCT: What is it about fencing that you love? Why were you drawn to it?

Kaplan: Fencing is a challenging sword fighting sport that requires you to make quick tactical decisions in the middle of the fight. I fell in love with it almost immediately, and having initial success a the beginner level really sealed the deal.

JCT: I know you fenced competitively at NYU. It seems as though fencers need a lot of agility and stamina, things that dancing and running, for instance, might inculcate. Did you cross train in any way?

Kaplan: As I got more serious there was strength training, cross training, rope jumping etc.

JCT: Does fencing help a college student get dates?

Kaplan: Yes! I stole my future wife of 50 years from the team captain.

JCT: Tell us a little about fencing competition itself. How are the bouts structured? Do men ever compete against women? Is there any risk of serious injury? What emotions do you feel toward your opponent when you fence?

Kaplan: Sure. Fencing bouts are fenced for either five touches or 15 touches. Fencers start the tournament in a “pool,” which is usually six or seven fencers. Everybody fences everybody in the pool, and then the results produce a ranking ladder. Then the tournament becomes like a tennis tournament, with pairings. The fencers fence a 15-touch direct elimination bout where the winners advance and the losers are eliminated. In the Olympic Games there’s no pool, just 32 top ranked in the world in the direct elimination table.

The men train with the women but not against each other in competition. It’s ironic that fencing is derived from real swordplay but the sport is extremely safe and injuries are extremely rare.

It’s emotional to be in a fencing bout. If you dislike the opponent on a personal level it can be extra motivation as long as you can maintain good control of your body and mind.

Cobra Fencing Club Class Jersey City

Class at Cobra Fencing Club

JCT: What was it like being at the Olympics?  The games have such a mystique, but are they  qualitatively different from other international competitions? Where did you live? Where did you dine? What are your fondest memories of the games?

Kaplan: The Olympic experience was one of the best of my life. Making the team was the culmination of years of training with, of course, highs and lows. We lived in the Olympic village in Montreal. There were celebrities walking around, Mick Jagger, for example. Gordon Lightfoot gave a concert. The U.S. team took eighth overall and I finished 28th in the individual competition. I defeated a Soviet gold medalist in the team event and was interviewed by CBS news.

JCT: Could fencing lend itself to more exposure and competition like professional boxing or tennis (both of which are one-on-one sports like fencing)? Why do you suppose the sport hasn’t developed along those lines?

Kaplan: Fencing has gained in popularity now all over the world. It started as a European based sport. There was still some dueling with swords going on less than one hundred years ago. It’s tough to follow on TV, and it doesn’t look like movie sword fighting at all. Could there be a professional tour with big prize money?  Maybe someday.

JCT: What did you do professionally before you opened Cobra Fencing Club? Why did you switch careers and decide to open the academy? Could Cobra become a franchise?

Kaplan: I’d been in sales for much of my professional life although I always had an idea to be a coach. I learned an amazing method of teaching from my coach, the legendary Hungarian sabre maestro, Csaba Elthes. My kids had grown up, and I was coaching at a couple of New Jersey and New York clubs, so it made sense to me to open my on.  I don’t necessarily believe that fencing clubs can be set up by formula like a TCBY or McDonald’s. I’m happy to be building the Cobra Fencing Club in Jersey City.

JCT: How long have you lived in Jersey City? What aspects of Jersey City do you take the most advantage of?

Kaplan: My wife and I have been here since the early 80s. We both love the diversity of JC. Never a thought to leave.

JCT: Were you ever tempted to take out your sabre when you were annoyed with one of your kids?

Kaplan: Ha-ha, that’s funny. Didn’t strike the kids except once when my son aged eight at the time hip checked my daughter on the staircase causing her to fall. The race was on, and still flashing my Olympic speed I caught him at the top of the stairs and meted out some instant justice. There wasn’t time to grab a sabre.

Raymond Martin, Jersey City
Casey Georgi

Jersey City Native to Compete in Paralympics for Third Time

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Jersey City’s very own Raymond Martin will be competing on the USA Track and Field team in this year’s Summer Paralympics to be held in Tokyo next month. But this isn’t Martin’s first rodeo, so to speak.

The 27-year-old athlete is a two-time Paralympian, earning a total of seven medals — six gold and one silver — in London (2012) and Rio de Janeiro (2016), as well as over a dozen more awards at competitions outside of the Paralympics.

The events Martin will be participating in are categorized by gender, distance, and mobility. Since mobility can vary greatly among the athletes participating, the athletes are grouped into races by similar functional ability. Wheelchair racers are divided into four classes: T51 (least mobile), T52, T53, and T54 (most mobile). Martin is in class T52 and will be competing in the 100-, 400-, and 1500-meter races in Tokyo.

He currently holds the world record in the 100- and 200-meter races and the American record for the 400-, 800-, 1500-, and 5000-meter races.

Raymond Martin, Jersey City

Raymond Martin

When not competing, Martin is a busy full-time student at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, studying to become a physician’s assistant. Of course, he still finds time to  train: five days a week for upward of 90 minutes each training session.

Martin was born with a congenital condition called Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome, a subcategory of a broader condition called Arthrogryposis,which causes contractures, or stiffening, of joints. His condition has given Martin limited movement in his limbs, neck, and face.

Martin has been racing since he was five years old, when he got his first racing chair. “I was in a school for children with disabilities, and they actually had a racing program through the school and the … gym teacher was also the coach, and asked me if I wanted to come on. And 22 years later, (I’m) still doing it,” he said.

Martin likens wheelchair racing to running and says it has given him more independence: “I would say as a wheelchair user, you sometimes can feel confined just because of various reasons like structure … So, you feel like you can’t really move around too much … [R]acing kind of gave me this sense of activity … I can do more and …can move definitely more freely.”

The 2020 Paralympic Games (originally scheduled for last year and delayed by the pandemic) will be held two weeks after the Olympics, from August 24 through September 5, though they may look a little different this year. At press time, the decision to have spectators was still pending due to Tokyo’s recently declared state of emergency.

Even though safety guidelines are constantly changing, Martin isn’t too worried. He says the International Paralympic Committee is doing its best to keep everyone safe and will provide extensive Covid-19 testing for athletes.

Martin is slated to compete on three of the competition days, with his final race on September 3. Since this is his third Paralympics, he admits that some of the novelty has worn off, but he still gets the jitters. Martin says that in the moments leading up to his races, he uses his tried-and-true strategy to prepare:

“I try to spend that time removing myself from where I am, at least partially… [B]y the time the gun goes off … I’m able to, like, come back … but not have spent the last hour worrying and stressing about it. … And then when I’m actually in the event … it’s just you and the finish line and the clock, essentially.”

To watch the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, stream it live at the Team USA website.

Andrea Crowley-Hughes

A Beloved Priest Dedicated to Social Justice Takes His Leave

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For Rev. Tom Murphy, leaving both his hometown of Jersey City and the Church of St. Paul and Incarnation will be bittersweet.

This Sunday will be his last service at the Episcopal church, where he served as rector for the past eight years, before beginning his new assignment at St. Thomas in Owings Mills, Md., on July 1.

The social justice-minded priest, known to parishioners and community members as “Father Tom,” said now is the right time in his life and career for a move. Through the many leadership changes over the parish’s 160-year history, he said, “the essence of the church remains the same.”

Murphy has been associated with the church for more than 20 years, first as a parishioner and, since 2013, as its rector. The church was known as St. Paul’s in Bergen when Murphy began his leadership, and is now merged with the Church of the Incarnation, a church formed early in the 20th Century when “Black Americans were not welcome at other Episcopal churches including St Paul’s,” Murphy said.  

Despite the history, Murphy said bringing the two churches together happened organically. He alternated preaching at evening services at the church located on Storms Avenue, just blocks away from St. Paul’s, with Rev. Laurie Wurm, rector of Grace Church Van Vorst, and a relationship developed between the congregations.

Incarnation parishioners eventually voted to merge with St. Paul’s. The now-combined congregation, which Murphy said is almost as diverse as Jersey City itself, reflects on the roles played by racism and white supremacy in the Episcopal church through a research and interview project called “Lifting Our Voices.”

According to those who know him well, Murphy’s day-to-day presence is marked by a willingness to serve members who need help and by sermons in which he links scripture readings to current events and sprinkles in self-deprecating humor.

“You could call him anytime,” said senior lay leader Belinda Stokes. “Whatever the need was, he would do it or find a way to get it done and not publicize it.”

From Mid-march of last year until this month, Murphy’s sermons were live-streamed on the congregation’s Facebook page due to COVID-19 safety precautions and in “church-by-phone” services during the pandemic, parishioners could call in during the week for 10 minutes of scripture readings, prayers and friendly chatter.

“Whenever there is a shooting in Jersey City, Father Tom always includes the person’s name, age, and the incident location in his prayers, whether it’s the Sunday service or the church-by-phone prayers on weekdays,” said parishioner Bill Armbruster. “That’s his way of reminding the congregation that the victims aren’t just numbers, but real people.”

Minister of Music Gail Blache-Gill said she appreciates being encouraged to bring styles as varied as Carribean, gospel and classical into services. 

Murphy’s community outreach efforts have included providing monthly “Stone Soup Suppers,” where members of the community could come for a free meal, no questions asked and, together with Wurm, starting the Triangle Park Community Center three years ago for residents of the city’s Greenville section.

“It’s a long neglected neighborhood sort of tucked away and easy to miss,” Murphy said.

“When I first met Father Tom in 2018, my assumptions were shattered from the first contact,” said Triangle Park Community Center Director Monica Shaw. “I thought I was going to meet another stuffy shirt, but instead I received a steady force of love, compassion and guidance at every turn.”

“At one point I thought I would throw in the towel. It was at that very moment that I saw a breakthrough in the work I was doing at TPCC,” she said. “Without any words spoken by Father Tom I felt his energy guiding me to keep steady and stay the course.”

Also meaningful to Murphy was serving as a leader of Jersey City Together, an advocacy group of congregations and non-profit organizations. He remembers the change in parishioners when they learned about advocating for better living conditions in apartment buildings. 

“They realized they were not, in fact, powerless,” he said.

Murphy shared his sermon following the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol with Jersey City Times.

Until an interim successor comes on board by Sept. 1, visiting priests will conduct the Sunday service at the Church of St. Paul and Incarnation. Murphy and his wife, Susan Suarez (pictured with him above), will be honored at the church’s third annual dinner dance at the Chandelier in Bayonne on Friday, June 25. Contact 201-433-4922 or office@stpaulsjc.org for more information.