Fine Wines and Liquors
Harry (Hebrew name Tzvi) the oldest of Chaim and Yetta Stein’s five children, was born in Austria/Poland in 1897 and immigrated to New York with his family in the early 1900s. Living on the very Jewish Hester Street, Harry met his wife, Helen (née Pheffer) and the two moved to Cleveland, where Harry was a clerk in a pawn shop and their son, Alvin, was born. It appears that sadly Alvin passed young, because by the 1940 census the Steins are living in Fullerton with their 7 year old daughter Noreen and Harry’s mother, but no mention is made of Alvin. After the move to California, Harry became a fruit vendor, then a food market proprietor, and finally the owner of two liquor stores: Harry’s Liquor and the Royal Beverage Company. The family did well, joining Temple Beth Sholom in Santa Ana and becoming involved in the local community. Noreen attended UCLA, and, after her father’s death from cancer in 1958, became a major volunteer with the Southern California American Cancer Society.
Dalia Taft, archivist of the Orange County Jewish Historical Society, highlights images from the archives every month. For more information, please visit https://www.jccoc.org/pages/oc-jewish-historical-society. You can also contact Dalia at daliat@jccoc.org or at (949) 435-3400, ext. 360. The Orange County Jewish Historical Society is a program of the Merage Jewish Community Center and is funded by the Jewish Community Foundation Orange County.