Professionals

I went to Yale, and then I went to Harvard Law. I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer. I really can't tell you why. There were no lawyers in my family, so I wasn't following a precedent in any way.
-Morton Greenblatt

Dr. derBrucke on Plaza Ave., 1929
(Collection of Edward Wilensky)

More recent generations of Waterbury’s Jewish community have built careers in numerous and varied professions, and their ranks include doctors, lawyers, educators, editors, publishers, architects, accountants, musicians and nurses.

[My husband] Samuel Bisnovich... was a dentist. He had a practice [on] North Main Street right off the Green.... If somebody came to him for dental work and they couldn't afford it, he'd treat them anyway. I was proud of him for that.
-Helen Bisnovich

I taught first, second and third grade in Kingsbury School. Then... instead of retiring, I took an exam and became a realtor. I sold houses, and I loved that. So I've had two careers.
-Vera Robin

In those days, unless you were related to somebody, ...you didn’t get taken up. The firms were all small, especially in Waterbury. The biggest firm was the old firm of Carmody & Torrance, with eleven lawyers.... I was the first Jewish partner in Carmody & Torrance.
-Eugene Kaplan

Kosersky and Sons Real Estate
(Collection of Natalie Bram)

I went to New York [and] worked... for Viking Press. I started out with... a secretarial type position, and then I did book production. Then I worked for... Davis Publications, and I wrote... advertising promotion. [Later] I worked for ABC... and I worked on writing one of the first brochures that went out [with] promos for Ted Koppel.
-Margie Ross

Prosecuting Attorney Mitchell Meyers in his office, 1933
(Collection of Fred and Janet Hennick)

I think [my father, Mitchell Meyers,] was the first Jewish judge in Waterbury. His family was so proud of him. His friends gave him a beautiful gavel, inscribed, a silver one. Later [my uncle] Milton Meyers became a superior court judge.
-Janet Meyers Hennick

There were Jewish aldermen, and in two different stages we had situations where both the majority and the minority leaders of the board of aldermen were Jewish. When Peter Marcuse was [the Democratic] majority leader, Harry Krasow was the Republican minority leader. When George Cohen was the Democratic majority leader, Alan Hertzmark was the Republican minority leader.

There's always been Jewish involvement [in politics].
-Eugene Kaplan