THE PRINCIPAL OF RIVINGTON STREET
By Henry F. Mazel
Copyright © 2011 Henry F. Mazel. All rights reserved. Please purchase only authorized editions of this material. Help avoid piracy of copyrighted material.
The Principal of Rivington Street
By Henry F. Mazel
Published by Henry F. Mazel
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Henry F. Mazel
OTHER WORKS BY HENRY MAZEL
Murderously Incorrect (Crime & Again Press) 1999
The Plot Against Marlene Dietrich 2010
Breakfast With Nattie (Green Silk Journal) 2010
The Chooser (Shofar Literary Review) 2010
The Unpleasantness in the Peanut Gallery (Green Silk Journal) 2011
The Best of the Society Pages (Lock Raven Review) 2011
Favoring Harry Gold (Screenplay) 1998
Philly & Gus (Screenplay) 2005
The Principal of Rivington Street
HE was an educated man. Today, no doubt, he would have been a university professor of some renown, but in those days a grade school teacher was more than respectable. Louis Bloom, through hard work and dedication, became the principal of P.S. 20 on Rivington Street. There, after the Great War, he made a career, and apparently was content. Why he chose to upend his life in such a way was incomprehensible to everyone except Bloom himself.
Now it so happens that Public School 20 had some illustrious graduates. Mostly, they were Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe at the turn of the century to escape a pogrom here and there; they were sons of fathers who had avoided conscription into the army – and each sought the promise of a better life in America. Edward G. Robinson and Paul Muni, the film and stage actors; the future Senator, Jacob Javits; George and Ira Gershwin; and the journalist Harry Golden all attended P.S. 20 around the same time