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W: Yes, I would say that was probably sixty-odd years ago, about 1920. When the
 Stein family came here from Lake City, about sixty years ago, 1920, Mrs.
 Stein was a great lady (Mr. Stein died in 1923). She had broader visions
 than anyone else at that particular time and she exerted strong leadership,
 and developed a more philosophical concept of not only helping transients, but
 helping needy people. She had a core of devoted and dedicated women, and
 these women were behind her, although she was never president of the organ-
 ization as such. She was the treasurer. And she was smart enough, I would
 say, that she selected women to be president who did a wonderful job,
 but Mrs. Stein was the power, the friendly chairman of the board. With this
 new concept of a home for the aged, they had to overcome a lot of supersti-
 tions. Because a superstition in those early days was that a home for the
 aged was, as they say in Yiddish, a hegdish, it was a mess. It was a place
 where only insignificant people came to die. And it was the greatest sin on
 earth if you went to a home. Well, they knew all about this, but they con-
 tinued to raise money to buy a plot of land in order to establish a home.
 Well, Joseph Shapiro was one name. And Mrs. Schevitz was another name, and
 Mrs. Naban was another name, Mrs. Wilensky, Mrs. Newman, gosh, I really
 shouldn't even try to name names. And, of course, Mrs. Yoffee. I don't
 recall, I mean without looking up at the records.

S: Were these women contemporaries of your mother or of what age group were they?

W: Yes, they were contemporaries of my mother. When this organization began to
 take off in the late twenties, I was already twenty-four years old, so they
 were already probably old women, say from forty-five to fifty. It included
 a number of Jewish women, and I'm sure that every family will tell you that it
 was their mother who was the one who was the leader of the organization. They
 were a very compatible and closely-knit group of women who had one purpose in
 mind, and that was truly not to help the transients, as much as to help the
 needy people of Jacksonville, and to perform charitable services for those who
 needed it, as well as charitable services for those who may need it in future
 years. They conceived the idea, you might say, the impossible dream, of forming
 a home for the aged. This could have never been done without Wotid War II.
 I'm skipping over a number of years now, because the years of hardship of soli-
 citing and collecting small amounts of money, in order to further their dream,
 was one that they did constantly, but with World War Two coming along, and
 money being free, you might say, easy to make. Mrs. Stein had some devoted
 sons, Mr. Yoffee adored his mother, and together Mr. Ben Stein and Mr. Ben
 Yoffee told their mothers if this is what you want, you're going to have it.
 Mr. Nathan Dwoskin found the property at Riverside and Stockton Street for sale.
 He mentioned this to the ladies, and he may have even made the option himself.
 I don't know, but he found the property, he offered it to the ladies. The
 ladies went along with it. Mr. Stein and Mr. Yoffee went along, they under-
 wrote the deal.

S: Which Mr. Stein and Mr. Yoffee?