Abe
Hirschfeld
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HIRSCHFELD
INVENTIONS & INNOVATIONS
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Open
air parking garages
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Magnetic
refrigerator door
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Patent
to convert existing
trains to bullet speed and safety |
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Abe Hirschfeld builds open-air parking
garage at Yankee Stadium
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CRAZY
OR GENIUS?
Will The Real Abe Hirschfeld Please Stand Up?
By TIM BOXER
BE HIRSCHFELD is a real
estate developer, health club builder, publisher, hotelier, investor,
philanthropist, perennial political candidate, theatrical producer,
innovator. Normally, you’d describe such a person as a renaissance man.
But the gentlemen of the New York
newspaper establishment have been describing him for years with
terminology ranging from certifiable screwball to oddball, madcap, madman,
wacky, nut, loon, animal, dog, drooling old fool, eccentric, quirky, zany,
crazy old coot, incomprehensible -
the invective litany goes on and on, proving that if you’re a New York
newspaperman you can’t do a piece on Abe Hirschfeld without the aid of a
trusty thesaurus to give you fodder for your intention to ridicule.
At
the outset I want to say that I have known Hirschfeld for more than 10
years, ever since he became one of the first supporters of a fledgling
educational showbiz group called Minyan of the Stars. This is a nonprofit
educational organization, created with the help of Broadway impresario Joe
Papp, to help people in the entertainment industry reconnect to their
roots, rediscover their faith, and celebrate their heritage.
I
worked for him for a year when he started a daily newspaper he named Open
Air. After that he got me again to run a nonprofit educational
organization which he created, House of Levi, with a mission to reach out
to the Kohens and Levites throughout the world.
So
I may have some insight as to what Abe Hirschfeld is really like.
First,
Hirschfeld is a lot of fun. A lot of people have made fun of him, and he
has had fun being the brunt of their jokes. In fact, he delights in making
fun of himself. I’ve often heard him say that he wanted to become
publisher of the New York Post because he’s a great writer in his
own right. He has a talent at writing in a certain area that has no equal
at The Post. He writes checks.
In fact, he’ll tell you
he’s a professor at Columbia. He teaches broken English. Yes, he says
he’s been in this country 40 years and speaks like he got off the boat
next Thursday.
At
a Purim celebration of Minyan of the Stars, held at the Sutton Place
Synagogue, Hirschfeld was grilled by several comedians who delighted in
roasting him. Bobby Shields said, “Abe is Abraham, a name out of the
Bible -
only Abe is older.”
“Abe
is a believer that the only reason the Jews wandered in the desert for 40
years was because they couldn’t find a place to park.”
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