It is many miles and many worlds from the bitterly cold, fireless winters in the 4-room stone house in Czestchowa, Poland, where Simon Birnbaum grew up, to the still solidly towering Provincial Apartments that rise in the shadow of the Cherry Hill Mall—the site of Simon’s first construction investment in this country. But those are the miles and the worlds that Simon traveled, surviving with courage and cunning five years in the death camps of Nazi Germany and four wars in Israel . Through the years he took with him the lessons of kindness he learned from his mother, and the work ethic he gleaned from a father who bought and sold horses to support his 9 children. His mother was killed by the Gestapo. His father perished in Auschwitz. Simon was liberated by the Americans in l945. Thirteen years later, he was to make America his home.
In l947, after the war, Simon married his cousin Dora, whom he had known all his life. She was the love of his life, and they were married 62 years.”She was the best woman in the world,” he says. “Whether I got up at 3 a.m. or 4 or 6, she was always up making breakfast, always helping people, always cooking for Tami and Morris and baking babka for her friends.” She passed away recently, in his arms, at the age of 83, and he is in deep mourning for her. He says Kaddish for her twice a day in the synagogue.
It is not surprising that the boy who grew up hated by anti-Semitic Poles, their cry of “Don’t buy from a Jew” echoing in his mind for years; the boy who had braved the walk to school and to cheder in the protection of groups to avoid the beatings , yearned after the war for his own country. He and Dora made aliyah in l949. With an entrepreneurship that presaged his future professional success, he left Europe with a dismantled truck, which he put together when he arrived in Israel, launching a trucking business which he continued to expand. In l949, a daughter, Tami, was born to the couple, who had settled in Ramat Gan.
But Simon was to know and battle enemies even in his new homeland. Joining the army he fought in the Sinai, the Suez and the War of Independence. Injured, he spent four months in the hospital.
Constantly reinventing himself and with the need to make a living, he emigrated to Cleveland and then to Toronto, where he lived for 3 years.
‘When you live through Auschwitz and other concentration camps, you have the courage to do anything,” he says. “I took care of dogs for the Nazis in the camps. They brought me meat for the dogs. I ate the meat and fed the dogs garbage. I survived.”
In 1958 Simon came to America and with $50,000 in savings, he joined with his brother, two nephews, a cousin and a friend, investing in a piece of ground in Cherry Hill and building the Provincial Apartments. In l964 the partnership split up, and he joined his brother in the construction business , building apartment houses in Cherry Hill and Delaware. “I loved the freedom and I loved making money,” he says.
But courage and authenticity, which had guided his life heretofore, propelled him on a different path once again. “I can’t continue to borrow money without knowing what I’m doing,” he told himself about the construction business. He enrolled in Temple University School of Architecture, attending classes from 6 to l0 p.m. “I didn’t need a degree’” he says. “I needed to know what I was doing, without bluffing it.” And so commenced the round of long days that began at work at 6 a.m. in Delaware, and ended at night school in Philadelphia. He is now in partnership with his son-in-law, Morris Starkman.
Simon, a member of Sons of Israel for 42 years, was invited to Chabad several years ago by his son-in-law, Morris. “I came and I loved the friendliness. And Mendy is such a mensch.”
Simon has 3 grandchildren, Randi, Jason, and Ari who is married to Natalie. His granddaughter, Randi, is married to Craig Stoopler. They have two children, Sidney, age 4 and Jake, age 1.
Asked what message he would want to leave for his children and grandchildren, he says with gusto, “I don’t have to tell them anything. They’re doing great!”