Brummer, who died in November, fled to America from Poland and Nazism, only to return to Europe on D-Day. The Bronze Star winner, who made Hobby's Deli into a Newark institution, now has a bronze plaque in Veterans Memorial Park. Watch video
NEWARK -- With his middle-aged paunch, Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo no longer has the slim physique of the young athlete he once was, and it's partly Sam Brummer's fault.
Brummer, a WWII veteran who died in November at age 93, was the longtime proprietor of Hobby's Deli, a Newark institution where DiVincenzo and other Essex County power brokers would meet for power noshes.
"Hobby's, of course, is a historic place," DiVincenzo said Tuesday, addressing a crowd gathered at Essex County Veteran's Park that included Brummer's widow, Rona, and the couple's children and grandchildren. "It's put a few pounds on me."
But he doesn't blame Brummer. In fact, DiVincenzo was hosting the gathering to honor the departed veteran of war and pastrami, who 72 years ago took part in the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France, which turned the tied of the war in favor of the Allies. Monday will be the first Memorial Day since Brummer's passing seven months ago.
After emotional tributes from friends, family and fellow vets, a bronze plaque commemorating the military and culinary exploits of the Bronze Star winner was unveiled in the park's Staff Sgt. Jorge Oliveira Plaza, named for a New Jersey Army National Guardsman and detective sergeant in the Essex County Sheriff's Office, who was killed in 2011 during his third tour of duty in the Iraq War.
"At age 17, in 1939, Sam, his mother and sister escaped the anti-Semitism of Poland as Hitler began marching," the plaque reads, adding that Sam was drafted by the U.S. Army three years later. "On June 6, 1944, after 12 hours pinned down on their landing craft, his unit finally landed on Omaha Beach, Normandy. They suffered 80% casualties as they fought their way through France."
"We all live more safely because of the sacrifices made by Sam and his fellow service men and women," the inscription on the plaque concludes, "and are proud to honor him, and them."
Brummer's plaque is the third one placed in Veterans Park, in addition to Oliveira's in 2011 and one honoring all service men and women in 2009, and DeVincenzo said others would be added in future years.
While Brummer was an Army veteran, members of the nation's other armed services were saluted in a medley of military hymns performed by bagpiper Jack McGarry of the Essex County Emereld Society Pipes and Drums.
Sam's sons Marc and Michael, now the co-owners of Hobby's, were among family members who attended the Noon ceremony, joking that it was one of the few lunch hours they had spent away from the restaurant.
"And we're sitting here wondering if Table 32 has not been served yet," said Marc, 54, who lives in Livingston.
After the war, Sam Brummer went into the restaurant business, and in 1962 he bought Hobby's Delicatessen and Restaurant, already a venerable downtown Newark lunch spot that had been in business on Branford Place for half a century. For years, Brummer and his sons have sent salamis to U.S. troops stationed overseas.
After experiencing anti-Semitism first-hand as the Nazis and their influence spread through Europe, Brummer was sensitive to Hobby's racially diverse clientele. His son Marc recalled how Brummer put a stop to a practice under the prior ownership, when waiters would quietly signal to the kitchen that an order had come from African-American patrons, who would then be subject to inferior service.
Among the ethnically and racially mixed crowd gathered at Veterans Park on Tuesday was Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex), who nodded affirmatively as the story was recounted. Oliver has long been a regular at Hobby's, and her favorite is the pastrami sandwich, "with onion rings, of course."
"Today, we're here in memory of all those who have served in or armed forces, but especially to honor Sam Brummer," Oliver said.
More than a few tears were shed when Brummer's grandchildren, Aaron, David and Karli, took turns reading from a speech that their grandfather had made four years earlier, when he was honored by the county during an Essex County Veterans Day ceremony in 2012.
"I stand before you today with an immense feeling of pride," read Aaron Brummer, 21, an aspiring filmmaker. "To really understand how I feel at this moment, you have to understand that I came to this country as a teenager, with my mother and my sister in 1939 to escape vicious anti-semitism in Poland and the rise of Hitler in Germany. I came here not knowing a word of English, but craving freedom. I desperately wanted to be an American. As we pulled into New York Harbor, I remember racing to the top deck of the ship we were on, the President (Warren) Harding, and getting my first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Lady Liberty, the very symbol of hope and freedom that I had always read about."
Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.