One American Dream

The only thing Jack Rubin ever wanted was to be a real American. A Jewish immigrant from Poland, he arrives in New York City in the late 1800s and begins his American journey by pulling himself up by the bootstraps. But his success doesn't satisfy him, and when he struggles while raising a headstrong daughter through the roaring twenties, he feels like a failure. Only when he finds himself helping those less fortunate during the Great Depression does Jack realize that he's been a real American all along.

Every author draws from within himself: Who am I? And what do I stand for? Well, in his case, Bernard Beck is an American. And he stands for what he perceives as American values, but is also a self-described restless soul. A native of the New York/New Jersey area, Bernie attended Jewish religious school (yeshiva) from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. He then attended City College in the fifties, where he also worked part-time and summers for an advertising agency in Brooklyn. Following graduation in 1959, he spent two years in the army, stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina with his wife Judy.

Upon return to civilian life, he joined his father’s giftware business which, under Bernie’s management over the following thirty years, evolved into a major national importer and distributor of candles and Christmas ornaments.

After the recession of 1988, Bernie closed the business and began his second career as a business consultant and an adjunct professor of marketing at Rutgers University. This second phase lasted for twelve years. Upon retirement, Bernie authored the books The Bible, The Greatest Marketing Tool Ever Written and True Jew, Challenging the Stereotype, drawing upon his religious school background, combined with his marketing knowledge.

Bernie has been married to Judy for fifty-five years and together they have three children and five grandchildren. Both are very active in their community. They live in New Jersey, about ten miles west of New York, where they have lived nearly all of their married lives.