MEMORIAL | Silvia Tennenbaum (1928-2016)

Silvia Tennenbaum, 1928-2016.

June 9, 2017—A memorial service for our former neighbor Silvia [Pfeiffer] Tennenbaum was held today, Friday, at noon.

Her tombstone was unveiled at the Green River Cemetery on Accabonac Road in Springs.

Present were her brother and her three sons and many other relatives and friends.

Silvia died last year on June 27 at 88 at the Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She had moved in 2014 from her home in Springs to the Quadrangle, a Jewish-affiliated nonprofit independent-living facility in Haverford, Pennsylvania, where she reportedly continued to follow her team, the Mets. 

At a reception following the unveiling at Ashawagh Hall, her eldest son, Jeremy, told us that the Quadrangle was founded by a couple of Haverford professors and that the Philadelphia area is heavily populated by nonprofit religion-based assisted-living facilities. It is close to where Jeremy lived, and he took charge of managing his mother's last years.

Jeremy reported that his mother was suffering from bleeding ulcers and pneumonia and asked that there be no intervention. "She was ready to go," he said. She had previously lost much of her mobility out of a reluctance to move around.

Two of Silvia's fellow Mets fans, who show in their
 hair their solidarity with Silvia and The Team.

Silvia had a defiance about her during her last decade of life in Springs, symbolized by the blue streak she put in her hair. 

Two of the women who came to the unveiling were retired Postal Service staff members at the Wainscott Post Office. They were grateful for the Mets tickets that Silvia subscribed to and would bring them in weeks that she couldn't use them. 

Silvia was born in 1928 in Frankfurt, Germany, daughter of a mixed-religion marriage between Lotti Clara Stern and Erich Pfeiffer-Belli. Perhaps because of the rise of Nazi-inspired anti-Semitism in Frankfurt, her parents divorced in 1930. (It turned out that the Nazis tended to leave alone couples with one Jewish partner and a Christian partner, but no one could be sure.) 

Silvia's brother.

Four years after divorcing her first husband, Silvia's mother married William Steinberg, a talented conductor. Together with Silvia, now eight years old, in 1936 the couple fled Hitler's German tyranny. Steinberg went to Tel Aviv, where he helped create the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. In 1938 he was recruited by Arturo Toscanini to assist him in running the NBC Symphony Orchestra. 

Silvia was a fervent Mets fan.

Silvia loved America. She graduated from New Rochelle High School in 1946 and attended Barnard, earning a BA with honors in Art History in 1950. As a new immigrant, she took to baseball as a way of embracing her new  homeland and followed the Brooklyn Dodgers until, through Walter O'Malley's teachery, they decamped for Los Angeles in 1957. (Ask a Brooklyn Dodger fan: "If you had a gun with only two bullets in it and were in a room with Hitler, Stalin and O'Malley, which one would you shoot?" The answer will be: "Shoot O'Malley, twice!") 

She switched her allegiance to the New York Mets and never for a minute ever left them.

Studying for an MA in art at Columbia University graduate school, she met and, in 1951, married Lloyd Tennenbaum, who was a student in mathematics and philosophy and became a rabbi. 

Meanwhile, Silvia's father, by then conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, became also a guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic and in the 1960s the family stayed in East Hampton during the summers.

The Tennenbaums moved for seven years to Lynchburg, Virginia, where Silvia gave birth to three sons. Her husband was eventually appointed rabbi to two congregations on Long Island's North Shore and the family settled in Huntington, New York. 

Million-dollar sale
of paperback rights.

There Silvia wrote her first book, Rachel the Rabbi's Wife (1978), a caustic roman à clef about the life of a self-important rabbi and a demanding congregation that believed in its entitlement to unlimited support services from the rabbi’s wife. The book was a huge success. Silvia told me she sold the paperback rights for a million dollars, and used the money in part to build on the property a studio where she liked to write. 

However, by 1981, when we became her neighbors, the couple had separated. Silvia retained the house. She was extremely welcoming and told us all about the merits of registering as Democrats in East Hampton.

During the next 33 years, Silvia continued to be outspoken and flamboyant. She had her front fence painted a bluish-tinged purple, not quite the same color as the streak in her hair.

In the 1980s, one of her letters to the East Hampton Star prompted a local resident to place in front of her house a sign, “Communist Headquarters”. A critic of Israeli policy toward Palestinians, she preferred not to be formally associated with the large Jewish Center of the Hamptons and instead affiliated with Sag Harbor’s Temple Adas Israel, the oldest synagogue on Long Island, led until 2014 by widely published Rabbi Leon A. Morris. 

Silvia's three sons, L to R, Rafe, David and (holding the "veil"),
Jeremy, with Rabbi David Geffen.

Silvia and her husband were divorced in 1986 (he was a few years older than Silvia and predeceased her by a decade). She had returned to Columbia, where she earned an MA in art history in 1983. Besides frequent letters to the East Hampton Star, she wrote for the New American Review and the Massachusetts Review. One story, “A Lingering Death,” was selected by Joyce Carol Oates for “Best American Short Stories of 1979.”  Her second novel, Yesterday’s Streets (1981), was a fictionalized account of her family’s life among upper-middle class Jews in Frankfurt, Germany from 1900 to 1936. In 2012, Frankfurt named this book its "Book of the Year”. 

She is survived by her three sons — Jeremy, David and Raphael (Rafe). She was buried at Green River Cemetery in Springs on June 29, 2016. Rabbi Daniel N. Geffen of Temple Adas Israel presided then and presided again over the unveiling, followed by a sharing of food, beer and memories at Ashawagh Hall.

Additional Comments

Silvia was generous. She gave us a few things she didn't need when we first became her neighbor. She was always responsive to our suggestions about improving our properties and planted pine trees between us after just one suggestion. We and others missed her greatly when she moved to the Philadelphia area.

Alice notes how much fun Silvia was to talk with. She always had an interesting individual point of view, and effectively marshaled facts, often little-known ones, to support her view. We enjoyed her hospitality when we first arrived and were beneficiaries of fertilizer generated from horses in her back yard. She also often shared lilacs from her prolific bushes.

See also: Announcement of her death, one year ago.

Acknowledgments, Woodin Bio (Updated October 15, 2015)

THANKS to the following for assistance with the book

•  Doug Clemmons, an attorney whom I have known since we both worked on Capitol Hill in 2009-2011, who accompanied me to Berwick for the Borough's historical association annual meeting.
• Ashley Kim, who read the entire book in August 2015 and commented.
• Frank Evina of Mocanaqua, Pa. (formerly 37 years with the Library of Congress),.
• Bill Selden of Berwick, Pa., and other descendants of ACF employees.
• The Library of Congress, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the British Library in London, the Vero Beach Library, the Harvard Club of New York Library.
• The Society of Genealogists in London; the FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Park, N.Y.;

Woodin Descendants:

• Charmaine Caldwell, for many emails and interviews about her family
• Anne Harvey Gerli, granddaughter of Will Woodin, daughter of Anne Woodin Harvey – provided interviews and photos.
• Suzanne Phipps Hyatt, for some of my best photos and huge patience with details of the genealogy of the descendants of Will Woodin.
• John Mackall, descendant of William S. Rowe - interviews and email correspondence.
• Charlie Miner Jr., grandson of Will Woodin, son of Mary Woodin Miner – many interviews, a notebook, Raggedy Ann songbook, several photos.
• Woody Rowe, grandson of Will Woodin, and Libby Woodin Rowe – extensive notes and recollections.
• Lucy Sachs, descendant of William S. Rowe – access to family photo album and permission to use photos.



Album provided to me, created by
Bill Phipps' mother.


• Eve Woodin, great-granddaughter of Will Woodin, granddaughter of William H. Woodin II of Tucson, Ariz., daughter of Peter Woodin.
• Peter Woodin, interview.
• Mimi Rude Bell, for a wonderful set of photos she took with her father Charlie Miner in 2010.
• Bill Phipps of Bloomfield, N.J., for giving me access to his mother's giant album of clippings about Will Woodin's musical performances.



Visited Bloomfield, N.J., to meet
with Bill Phipps.

• William H. Woodin III, for new information about his father and grandfather.

Amagansett, N.Y.,  Library
Seth Bank, Reference Librarian – obtained several relevant books.
Judith Wolfe, local historian – helped search for photos.

Berwick, Pa. Press-Enterprise
Story by Susan Schwartz in April 2015 on my talk to the Berwick Historical Society. Well-written story, helpful to my thinking.

Berwick, Pa., Historical Society
Tom Adams
Jim Stout, Curator of the Jackson Mansion

Devon Yacht Club, Amagansett, N.Y.
John Hossenlopp, former Commodore – answered numerous questions about Devon files.
Pat Hollmann, General Manager – referred me to experts on different topics.
Bob Tepe, former member of the History/Archive Committee – provided access to archives. Stephanie Fleetwood, former Archivist, author of Devon history – provided sources.
Doug Geddes, boat owner – referred me to Swede Edwards.
Alice Tepper Marlin – for enabling this work in countless ways
 Robert Wick – Help with search for a student intern to assist with the work.
Ann Roberts - Introduced me to Anne Harvey Gerli, Woodin's granddaughter, and thereby got this whole project under way.

East Hampton, N.Y.  Historical Association
Liz Neill, Assistant to the Director – assistance with tracing photos that were on display at the "Jazz Age" exhibit at the Clinton Academy.

East Hampton Library
Steve Boerner - Archivist, Long Island Collection
Children's Librarian - provided access to Raggedy Ann songbooks.

New York Public Library
Genealogy and Local History Section

North Sea Radiator, Southampton
Amund ("Swede") Edwards – huge set of Lloyd’s Registry annuals and other photos through which I traced the history of Will Woodin's boat, the Nanin.

Mystic Seaport Museum
Picture Department, Rosenfeld Collection.

East Hampton Star
Baylis Greene, for excellent editorial suggestions. The East Hampton Star published "GUESTWORDS" columns about Will Woodin on April 11 and August 1, 2013 and subsequently. These columns were very helpful for getting feedback and moving along the writing of the bio. 

EAST HAMPTON | LVIS History, 1840-1920

The LVIS History
by Colleen Rando.

The Ladies Village Improvement Society has produced a chronology of events with which it was associated, starting with 1840. The book was prepared by Colleen Rando.

My wife Alice is a volunteer and just brought home a copy. Readers may order their own from LVIS, which may be reached at info@lvis.org. The history is extensively treated in books published by the East Hampton Star and by the East Hampton Library; the LVIS book has a special perspective.

The chronology goes up to 2012 and includes many interesting photos. I am covering only the first 80 years, selectively and rephrased where I feel like it, and occasionally with some new information:

1840 - Families from NYC and Philadelphia start to summer in East Hampton, boarding with local residents on Main Street and going to the beach in horse-drawn carriages that permit changing at the beach in privacy.

1877 - Artists come to East Hampton from NYC's Tile Club in search of its special lighting, which relates to its flat topography and multiple accesses to bays, inlets and ocean. East Hampton is later referred to a "the cradle of [American] art".

1890 - In the "gay 90s", summer visitors begin building their own seasonal homes, which are called "cottages" and are simply designed of wood covered in shingles, unlike the elaborate Newport mansions.

1895 - The Long Island Rail Road finally gets to East Hampton, instantly changing the accessibility of the resort. The ladies of the resort decide to get ready to try to preserve the culture of the resort in the face of an expected onslaught of visitors from NYC. The first LVIS meeting was held in Clinton Hall. The group erects a flagpole, arranges for its daily raising and lowering, provides for flags along Main Street on Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day and other holidays. The LVIS installs oil lamps to light the streets at night, and puts in bike lanes. It cleans the streets with two sprinkling carts.

The Mostly Annual LVIS Fair. My wife Alice Tepper
Marlin  has  done three booths over the years -
the food booth, playland and the silent auction.

1896 - The first of the mostly annual LVIS fairs. Raises $300, which is $8,149 in 2012 dollars after adjustment for inflation using an unofficial inflation calculator (the BLS calculator doesn't go back before 1913). The first LVIS cookbook is published. LVIS dredges the village pond.

1898 - LVIS pays for lamps and $190 for a lamplighter. LVIS takes over the Good Roads movement promoted by the Clinton Cycle Club.

1899 - LVIS spends $1,316 on street sprinkling.  Mrs. Dayton is quoted as saying of the LVIS:

We go in for business. We charge members 50 cents a year [$14 in 2013 dollars - JTM] and we do not have pink tea meetings. We are all business. We hope soon to show what we can do in road building. ... And what do the men say? They smile, look wise and murmur something to the effect that it is their money that does the business. But the ladies don't mind that. They give the brains. So there." [From the New York World, November 22, 1899.]

The New York Journal also weighed in and an article that appeared in this paper was reprinted in the East Hampton Star on November 24, 1899. An excerpt follows:

The women of East Hampton do not agree with former Senator John Ingalls [R-KS 1873-1891, former President of the Senate, led campaign for Kansas statehood, coined the Kansas State motto, 7th cousin of Laura Ingalls Wilder - JTM] that the fair sex has no initiative and rarely knows enough to come in before the rain stops. They want him to visit their town, where the real municipal government is in the hands of women and the men are not allowed to interfere in local affairs. ... Statistics show that when East Hampton was governed by males, there were no crosswalks, the common was ragged and unkempt, and half the time there was no kerosene in the street lamps.

1900 - LVIS arranges for the paving of Main Street from Newtown Lane to Huntting Lane - not very far, but hey, it was a start. The road had cobblestone gutters.

1902 - The Electric Light Company is formed and starts replacing oil lamps owned by LVIS. LVIS insists that all wires be buried underground.

1903 - LVIS hands over to East Hampton Town the business of cleaning the streets, along with, as a guide to the Town, the near-unanimous LVIS recommendation that any request by the Summer People for Sunday cleaning would be unacceptable to LVIS.

1908 - Summer People hold a "gymkhana" horse-jumping contest and raise $700 for LVIS ($18,900 in 2012 dollars).

1909 - East Hampton Town takes over street lighting and road paving along with the street cleaning handed over in 1903.

1910 - LVIS is incorporated. LVIS starts admitting summer people to active membership. Previously summer members were called "associate" members and paid four times as much as regular members.

1914 - LVIS starts looking into the proliferation of signs.

1915 - LVIS gets permission from David Gardiner to make improvements in the Sheep Pound. It is hereafter mowed along with other East Hampton village greens.

1916 - No LVIS fair is held. Incorporation of East Hampton Village is voted down. Woodrow Wilson is reelected on a platform of (1) Opposing involvement in the European Great War, and (2) Opposing a federal amendment acknowledging the right of women to vote. New York suffragette Inez Milholland collapses in Los Angeles on a multi-month cross-country campaign against Wilson on behalf of Votes for Women.

1917 - Wilson declares war on Germany and reverses himself also on votes for women after months-long picketing in front of the White House following sarcasm from President Wilson when a delegation from the National Woman's Party appeals to him with memorials of Milholland's death.

1920 - Proposal to incorporate the Village of East Hampton passes 166-57. LVIS retains its activities relating to trees, village greens, trash cans and flags. Also any activities designed to beautify the Village. In August, Tennessee - the last required state -ratifies the 19th amendment and Votes for Women is the law of the land.

For the whole history of LVIS to date, and many photographs, order the book from LVIS - info@lvis.org.

The F.D.R.-Woodin Miracle in The East Hampton Star

FDR's first Treasury Secretary, Will Woodin, is not as well known as his second (Henry Morgenthau), largely because Woodin gave the job everything he had, including his life. He died close to the first anniversary of his swearing in.

He was a fascinating person, a lover of music and a composer. He wanted to be a doctor but followed his father into the railway car business.

He made a significant contribution to the successful implementation of the New Deal, despite being a Republican and disagreeing with some of FDR's program.

Here is the story I wrote for the East Hampton Star, published today -
GUESTWORDS: The F.D.R.-Woodin Miracle | The East Hampton Star