Mr. GRIFFIN. Were these temples in Chicago?
Mr. RUBY. One was in Chicago, I can’t think of the name.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Your mother died while Jack was still in Chicago. When was
that?
Mr. RUBY. 1944.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Jack was in the service?
Mr. RUBY. That is right.
Mr. GRIFFIN. How did you know he did that?
Mr. RUBY. He told us he went to services. You can say services there
too as long as the chaplain——
Mr. GRIFFIN. Would he have to go before a rabbi or chaplain of some
sort?
Mr. RUBY. Really not necessarily; it is not—because they say if it
isn’t available, you can still say the prayer.
Mr. GRIFFIN. This could be something he could have done on his bunk,
his cot in the Army?
Mr. RUBY. I don’t know. There he had access to a chaplain though
because it wasn’t a large camp.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes.
Mr. RUBY. When I say you don’t have access, I am thinking of overseas
where it might be a small unit, like where I was there wasn’t a Jewish
chaplain.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What I am trying to get at is this occurred while he was
in the service. In order for him to properly observe mourning for your
mother would he have had to have done something so that somebody else
would have to be aware he was doing this other than Jack simply telling
them. Would he have done something in his area where he lived or light
a candle or would he have gone to a chaplain or gone in some place and
prayed where people could have seen him. What would there have been
observed by other people?
Mr. RUBY. I don’t know. How can I answer that. I wasn’t with him.
Mr. GRIFFIN. But you know what the requirements are of the Jewish faith
to properly observe mourning for people.
Mr. RUBY. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What would some of the things have been that Jack would
have had to have done?
Mr. RUBY. Just say the prayer, to read it out of the book or if you
know it from memory, by that time after a while you know it from memory.
Mr. GRIFFIN. And he could have repeated that to himself?
Mr. RUBY. It is possible. But if a rabbi or services are available that
is where you usually go. But if you are at a remote place where it
isn’t possible to have services then you can say it.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you actually recall Jack telling you that he was going
to services for your mother?
Mr. RUBY. Yes; definitely.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Where did he tell you that he went?
Mr. RUBY. He just said he was carrying on the services but I don’t
remember now. This happened 20 years ago.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What I am trying to get at is your not saying that you
recall him telling you he went to a chapel or to a synagogue or a
temple.
Mr. RUBY. No; all he said was that he said services.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I see.
Mr. RUBY. But as to where I didn’t think it was at that time necessary
to question him.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Are there any other examples of this concern with his
religious heritage?
Mr. RUBY. Well, I told you about he read all the books or as many books
as he could on the Jewish atrocities, whatever you might call them.
Mr. GRIFFIN. He did this down in Dallas?
Mr. RUBY. He did this in Dallas that I know, my sister told me. In
fact, when I went there he had several books.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What kind, do you remember the names of the books?
Mr. RUBY. He had one called “Eva” and “Exodus”, and another one
there that he was reading, and then he would give them away after he
finished. I can’t think of the other one. It was still there while I
was there.
Mr. GRIFFIN. When was this that you observed “Eva” and “Exodus”?
Mr. RUBY. Right after the incident I went down there.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I see. So after the incident he was reading “Eva” and
“Exodus”?
Mr. RUBY. No, no; it was before. I saw the books after but he had been
reading them before because they were in my sister’s apartment. She had
taken everything from his apartment.
Mr. GRIFFIN. So it is your understanding that he had certain religious
type books?
Mr. RUBY. Oh, yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Books on Jews in the apartment that he was living in?
Mr. RUBY. Right; definitely. In fact, he went out of his way as I
stated before, to go and listen to lectures at the synagogue on the
Jewish problem and the atrocities in Germany, and they showed films,
real detailed films on what actually took place and he made it a point
to be there.
Mr. GRIFFIN. When did this occur?
Mr. RUBY. This happened before the incident.
Mr. GRIFFIN. How long before?
Mr. RUBY. I don’t know. I don’t know. But my brother Sam told me about
this just last week that when his mother-in-law, his wife’s mother, was
down in Dallas, Jack insisted she come along to see these films and
hear the lecture.
You see, as I said, I have to get these, some of these things through a
third party because I am in Detroit.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Sure, sure. I want to get them straight as to where you
got them so we can follow them out.
Mr. RUBY. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you recall, this is on another subject, that at one
time when you were questioned about why Jack and you had a falling
out with respect to Earl Products, that you stated that Jack was not
spending full time on the business, and that was one of the reasons?
Mr. RUBY. Well, we didn’t think so. This was Sam’s and my opinion.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Can you tell us what was happening?
Mr. RUBY. Well, we wanted him to sell our products that we were
manufacturing, and he was, seemed to be always getting involved with
selling somebody else’s product. Of course, there was a commission
involved or whatever it was, but I didn’t—we didn’t approve of it. We
wanted to push our products and so, of course, he and Sam had a real
runout or whatever you call it and then we finally decided to buy him
out.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What other products was he selling?
Mr. RUBY. Well, I think he was selling costume jewelry. Well, we don’t
manufacture that. We wanted him to devote his entire interest into the
company.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Would costume jewelry, could it be considered a companion
line for anything you were selling. Would he go into the same stores to
sell costume jewelry?
Mr. RUBY. You possibly could, you possibly could, but it was our
opinion that he should devote all of his time to our products.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What was Jack’s responsibility in Earl Products?
Mr. RUBY. He was actually the sales manager.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did he have employees working in there?
Mr. RUBY. I was just going to add, he didn’t have any, he was the only
one.
Mr. GRIFFIN. He managed himself?
Mr. RUBY. Yes; and he was a good salesman, too.