By Frank Weisberg
Guest Columnist
Resnick AZA Class of 1960 Reunion. Frank Weisberg is pictured in the front row at extreme left.
All 20 of us were just starting high school in 1957 when we joined the Harry C. Resnick AZA Chapter of BBYO at the old Jewish Community Center in Louisville. We graduated high school in 1960.
After graduation, many of us stayed in close contact. In 1997, several other Resnick AZA alumni from different years got together and discussed a compelling idea: inviting all the past Resnick AZA chapters to join in a reunion in Louisville to honor our chapter advisor, Charles L. Weisberg. Many of the boys (now men) said he was “like a second father” to them. The result ended in a wonderful reunion held at our Jewish Community Center in Louisville.
The JCC was our home away from home. Other AZA and BBG chapters – plus other independent boys & girls clubs – met there weekly. It was a true hub
Past Resnick AZA alums came from all over the United States. There were 128 attendees from East Coast to West Coast who attended the gala event. We published a booklet showing everyone’s high school graduation photo, accompanied by facts about them at the time. We had several events, including our Friendship Circle, that were enjoyed immensely by the entire group, it was a fabulous weekend of renewing old friendships.
Approximately a year later our Resnick AZA, Class of 1960, decided to have its own reunion in Louisville at our home, the Jewish Community Center.
We set a date, contacted our brother Alephs and everyone came to the reunion. Our group has many doctors, psychologists, lawyers and businesspeople. The psychologists helped plan our first meeting which was held in the Boardroom, graciously provided to us. We immediately pushed the large rectangular tables against the wall and opened a generous space in the center. We created a Friendship Circle with 20 chairs – – one for each of us. There was nothing in between us, physically or mentally. Physically, we could see one another with no obstructions in between. Mentally, because we’d known one another so well as kids and young teenagers – Therefore, there were no airs to put on. In addition, each of us knew each other’s parents and in many cases, we even knew the grandparents.
THE RULES OF OUR FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE:
- We all agreed to speak openly about our lives after graduation from high school, our college years, getting married (or divorced), having and raising our children, our life’s work and our hobbies.
- “Everything said in the room stays in the room”- – Jewish Honor!
It took almost the entire day for 20 guys to go through and open up their lives to all their old buddies. There were times we had great laughs and there were times we had tears. But everything stayed in the room. Over the years this created quite a rock-solid bond between each of us. It’s a wonderful feeling to feel so close to people you’ve known for more than 60 years.
In retrospect, we’ve had about six or seven reunions. We started off having them once every five years and more recently have been having them every two years.
Our most recent reunion was held in Louisville this past Sept. 14-15 at the Trager Family JCC. Our brother Alephs flew to Louisville from all parts of the country: California, Washington State, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky. We all met for a Welcome Dinner on Thursday evening. We kibbitzed a lot.
On Friday morning, we had the first of four sessions, each lasting about three hours.
The first session was devoted to our Friendship Circle. Out of the original 20 boys, only 12 men are left. Eight of the 20 have passed away over the years. However, we still put 20 chairs in the circle. We had framed photographs of our brother Alephs who’d passed away and placed each framed photograph on its own chair. That way we could look at them, remember them, and feel their presence in the room. It was a way of having them with us.
Our second session was led by one of our physician brothers. The subject was “Aging,” an appropriate subject for a group of 82-year-olds.
Each of us have our own medical issues, so it was a great help to learn what we should be doing to maintain healthier, longer lives.
Our third session featured our brother, Oliver, a seasoned psychologist who led more discussion about aging. We found that there were many common issues we all faced. Valuable lessons were learned by all.
For our fourth session we’d invited a past Resnick member who was three years younger than we: Jerry Abramson – a Resnick AZA club member from the Class of 1963. He spoke about his days in the Resnick AZA, how he became a lawyer, and later served 21 years as Louisville mayor.
It was a wonderful weekend and we all pledged to be there two years from now.
We understand how special it’s been to have stayed for so long. Many of our other childhood friends who were in clubs always say how they wish they could have the same with their group. I always tell them the same thing: “All it takes is one individual to get it started.”
Frank Weisberg is a longtime visual artist, a devoted advocate for Jewish life in Louisville, and a generous contributor to the Trager Family JCC, where the first space visitors encounter is the expansive Weisberg Family Lobby.