After sitting down with Reb (the “Dr.” part you’ll have to read on to find out about) Abish Mendel for several hours, I felt as though we’d only been speaking a few minutes. We covered his multifaceted career: real estate, teaching, the hotel business and more. Still, it was his advice and, more importantly, the man himself that motivated me.
Abish (Abe) Mendel came from heimishe beginnings in Boro Park, in a hard-working, middle-class family. His career is anything but typical, as he went from advertising/marketing to real estate and teaching. Though he served as a college professor for only a few years, Abish is a natural-born teacher and educator.
I spoke to several people who know him from his beloved shul and neighborhood in Lawrence, NY. They told me Abish is constantly surrounded by young people seeking his counsel, both in business and in life.
Together with his son Shmuli, who now leads the company, Abish built RiverBrook into a significant player in the hospitality (hotel) space. And although he is passionate about business success, he is even more passionate about seeing success in areas of Yiddishkeit.
Whether it is starting and chairing a high school for boys who need chizzuk, supporting a girls’ school, helping Misaskim or United Hatzalah, serving as a gabbai in his shul, or any of his myriad klal work, Abish is driven to see the next generation of klal Yisrael not only survive but thrive.
On the walls of his home you will not find plaques of recognition, but rather photos of gedolim to whom he and his family feel connected, such as Rav Chaim Kanievsky and the rebbes of Dushinsky, Vizhnitz Merkaz, and Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok.
We spoke about his career, “real estate” advice, and a wide range of topics that will leave you thinking for quite some time and, more importantly, may motivate you to follow in Abish’s footsteps and “just do.”
Wishing you a gut Yom Tov,
—Nesanel
I was born in New York and grew up in Boro Park. My father came from the town of Volova, which today is in Ukraine, and he was the only person in his family to survive the war. He somehow avoided the death camps and made it to America. My mother was in Auschwitz and survived along with several members of her family. She was from the same city as my father, and they got married after the war.
“I am one of two children; I have a younger sister. My nephew is Rav Yekusiel Bittman, the menahel of Toras Emes Kamenitz and also the rav of Khal Zichron Mordechai in Flatbush after Rav Sherer moved to Lakewood.
“My father was in the shmatte business for many years and then went into the financial brokerage business. He was a smart person and learned on the job. My parents made sure we were never lacking anything. I believe that many parents who survived the war made sure their children would be provided for, even if it meant they had to work harder.
“I went to Toras Emes for elementary school, Ner Yisrael for high school, and Torah Vodaas for beis midrash. I remember Rav Ruderman very well, although I did not learn in his shiur. In Torah Vodaas, I learned by Rav Avrohom Pam, zt”l. Interestingly, although I was taught by Rav Pam, I became close to him only after my children learned in Torah Vodaas. I attended Rav Pam’s Friday shiur for nearly ten years.
“As a teenager, I would not say I was entrepreneurial, but I managed to take care of myself. I figured out how to get my own dorm room in Ner Yisrael, which was a rarity.
“I got married at 22. My wife is from Chicago, and we had our wedding there, but we settled in Flatbush.
“For the first significant part of my career I worked in marketing and advertising. I went to college and got my degree in economics; I later earned an MBA in marketing and advertising as well.
“My first job out of college was at Young & Rubicam (Y&R), one of the largest marketing and advertising agencies in the world. I started as a media planner. The client would come to us with a budget, and it was up to me to decide where to spend their marketing dollars. I had to match the right medium with their product, and we had to produce results.
“After a few years at Y&R, I moved to Grey Advertising, where I worked in marketing and rose to vice president. Our team ran major campaigns for Procter & Gamble, General Foods and others.
“One of the most important lessons from marketing, still true today, is to match the message to the audience. One ad will not speak to everyone; reaching older customers is different from reaching younger ones.
“After a few years as senior VP at Avery, Freed & Ginsberg, another marketing firm, I was hired by PepsiCo as a marketing manager. This time I sat on the other side of the table. I was the client, working with the agencies to build the plan. They would pitch ideas and campaigns, and I had to decide whether to go ahead or not. We did some major campaigns in the ’80s, including a few with well-known secular singers.
“It was a different world back then. When I started at Young & Rubicam, it was not like today, where people understand that an Orthodox Jew takes off for Shabbos. Because I left early on Fridays, I had to make up the hours during the week. During the winter, when we had early Shabbosim, I had even more hours to make up.
“People don’t realize that even a few years ago, taking off for Shabbos wasn’t that simple. Here’s one story from my time at Pepsi. I was in a senior role. For a couple of years I left early on Fridays for Shabbos and kept that schedule as I moved up. One day, my boss called me in. He was incredulous that I planned to keep leaving early on Fridays and to be unavailable on Shabbos, no matter what. There wasn’t a single frum Jew at Pepsi then.
“I told him, ‘During the week I am in the 20th century, but on Saturday, I live in the 16th century.’
“Then I decided to go into real estate and went into business with a friend of mine, a lawyer. To be honest, I knew nothing about running a real estate business. All I knew was that this was the time in my life to try it. We called our company MB Management Company/MB Group Inc.
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