By: Shloimy Blau. Steven Pfeffer, Esq., who was Niftar last week, was an attorney with the prestigious Levin, Shea and Preffer law firm.

The following interview was published in 2012 by the Homodia, and is republished here with permission.

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Your family’s Lakewood roots are well known. Can you tell us how you got here?

I was born in the years following World War Two  in the town of Bursztyn, Galicia, from where both of my parents a”h hailed. When I was several months old, my family moved to Berlin. In 1951, we moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where I attended Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. A year or two later, we moved to Lakewood and my father built up a 13 acre chicken farm in Jackson, where we moved to about a decade later.

Why did your father decide to go into farming?

There were many Holocaust survivors who went into farming in this region. As they would say, they came to America with “nisht kein shprach, nisht kein fach,” not fluent in English and with no profession, and farming had some successful years during that era. Eventually, the farming industry in the northeast was badly damaged by competitors from the South, and many farmers sold their properties during a booming real estate market.

To be sure, being a farmer is not an easy job, especially for a frum yid. You have to tend to the livestock non-stop and many issues tended to crop up on Shabbos. However, the work discipline that I saw with my parents and other European survivors was amazing. They worked hard and took no vacations (you can’t leave chickens on their own). The survivors lived within their means and didn’t show off whatever money they made. I don’t recall any of them ever schnorring. If they didn’t have money, they just worked harder.

During the later years, when my father put together some of his savings and developed commercial real estate projects (Prospect Plaza and Lanes Mill Plaza) in the area, he built it step by step, finishing one unit once he rented out the previous one, picking up the nails with his hands, and being very averse to borrowing. You see that many survivors’ children were successful in business over the years, and that has a lot to do with the work discipline that they learned from their parents.

Is your family farm still around?

Yes it is. After the farm closed, we rented some space for storage. My father requested that I not sell the property, and I didn’t. Interestingly, my good friend Rabbi Shlomo Kanarek showed me that there is actually a Gemara in Maseches Kiddushin that says that one is best off not selling the first property he acquired.

How did you forge such a tight bond with Lakewood if you grew up in Jackson?

We were affiliated with Congregation Sons of Israel in Lakewood and walked there, to Park Avenue in Lakewood, from Jackson on yomim Tovim. As a child, I attended Bezalel Day School in Lakewood. I was a classmate of Rabbi Shmuel Meir Katz, dayan in Bais Medrash Govoha (BMG), among others. My sister was the classmate of one of Rav Shneur Kotler zt”l’s daughters. Later in the 1980s, my parents moved to Lakewood, to Fourteenth Street and Cedar Row.

What shul did you daven in in Jackson?

We davened in one of the “farmer shuls” that existed in Jackson and Howell. These were small shuls in homes, with small minyanim, that were modest, to put it mildly. I remember the paroches in my shul that was made of the bags that the chicken feet were packaged in. The Jackson shul property was later condemned  when the 195 highway was built there. The shul then moved to Lakewood.

Why did you pursue a career in law?

For starters, I didn’t want to work as hard as a farmer!

Additionally, as a child, I found myself in Lakewood Municipal Court on many occasions, particularly on the many weekends that one of the farm employees got drunk and my father went to bail them out. I was very fascinated with what I saw. I got my undergraduate degree in Rutgers University in New Brunswick and graduated the University of Maryland Law School.

When did you join your current law firm?

In 1974. I had previously worked as a legal aid attorney in Trenton for two-three years, but after getting married that year, I joined this firm, which then had an office in Lakewood too.

Did you live in Lakewood after you got married?

Originally, we lived in Jackson, near the Lakewood-Jackson border. Eventually, we moved into our current Lakewood home, on Fourteenth Street and Willow Court. My three sons attended Bezalel Day School in Lakewood and Hillel high school in Ocean Township.

What area of law does your firm specialize in?

I’m a certified civil trial attorney is involved in cases such as personal injury and business litigation. We work on various other areas of law, including real estate law and zoning issues.

Are there any particular notable cases that your firm is involved in?

Several decades ago, we were involved in the battle to allow Khal Zichron Shneur to build their shul on Oak Knoll Road. It was the first shul in the area and some residents, including some secular Jews, came out in vocal opposition. Ironically, one of the opponents’ claims was that the shul would drive down the value of their properties. Actually, the neighborhood ended up becoming very popular, with many frum families and shuls, and property values rose significantly.

I do pro-bono work for Lakewood Hatzolah as well as the Igud Hamosdos, which represents about 60 local mosdos, which is led by Rabbi Kanarek.

Looking back at your early victory in the Zichron Shneur case, how do you see the future of the frum community’s development in Lakewood?

Gaining approval for shuls and schools is mostly not an issue anymore in Lakewood. The neighboring townships, particularly Jackson and Freehold Township, have “up-zoned” in recent years and made it more difficult to develop land, but the growth in Lakewood is enormous.

I sat on Lakewood’s Master Plan Advisory Committee two years ago and the experts’ estimates of Lakewood’s future growth would knock your socks off. I can tell you that, as much as Lakewood has grown in recent years, you ain’t seen nothing yet.  They noted that were about 3,000 births in the community that year, bli ayin hora, and about 600 families moved here from other communities.

Why, then, do you believe that the real estate market remains so weak?

Overall, I think the market is strong. New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs said that Lakewood leads in the state for new building permit applications.

I believe that the market for more affordable homes, particularly those below $400,000, is pretty strong. It is an attractive option for young families to buy, especially now that Township officials made it possible to have a legal basement apartment, where the buyer can live or use to collect a rental income. The market for more expensive homes is softer, though.

I truly believe that there is no such a thing as a bad neighborhood in Lakewood. The long term demand is huge. We must think about Lakewood’s attractiveness from the perspective of a Brooklyn person. I remember once doing a closing on a home in town where the buyer, who was from Brooklyn, spoke of the “metziah” he got…since the house had two parking spots!

There is a lot of talk about reduced demand for lawyers. Do you see that?

I see our firm as one of “country lawyers” who aren’t necessarily affected by these trends. We’re also involved in other areas, such as real estate projects and banking. We started First Washington Bank about 20 years ago, which grew exponentially into 16 branches and $550 million in assets, and sold it several years ago. We then started Harmony Bank, which already has two operational branches, including a rapidly growing branch on River Avenue in Lakewood.

Overall, I believe that the law field will come back strong. There are some areas that are especially strong, such as mergers and acquisitions and product liability. Of my three sons, two of them are attorneys. My third son is currently attending law school in Florida, and learns in a BMG night kollel there.

Thank you very much for your time.

You’re welcome.

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Y’hi Zichro Baruch.