________________ LONG BEACH _______________
HERALD Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
KOTLER’S WE BUY GOLD 516-897-6003 kotlers.com
Vol. 37 No. 15
APRIl 9 - 15, 2026
$1.00
SCAN ME!
A local family’s Holocaust story Ger many disallowed Jewish marriages. Less than four months later, The most dramatic chapter on Nov. 9, 1938, Kurt was one of of longtime Long Beach resi- 10,000 Jewish men arrested on dent Kurt Reiner’s story begins Kristallnacht and taken to in Vienna, where he and his Dachau, a concentration camp wife, Hennie, lived in the late in Germany. He was released 1930s. Kurt was a scholar at the three months after that. “It was before they were Technical Institute of Vienna, now known as TU Wien, and interested in the ‘Final SoluHennie was a tion,’” Gary Reiner, translator for an 81, said of the Nazi import-export firm. re g i m e. “ I f yo u When Nazi Germacould prove that ny annexed Austria you were able to in March 1938, the leave Germany or couple knew it was Austria, they didn’t time to leave. care.” “That was a Over the next time when the real two years, Kurt and h avo c s t a r t e d , ” Hennie Reiner contheir oldest son, tinued to face reliGary Reiner, who gious persecution. grew up in Long GARY ReINeR They traveled to Beach, said. “My Long Beach native Italy late in 1938, parents were on only to face the full alert.” leggi razziali, or Kurt Reiner looked for many racial laws, established by the ways to escape to other coun- dictator Benito Mussolini. In tries, registering with the U.S. 1939, after they crossed the area Consulate in Vienna, despite its of the Mediterranean known as annual quota of 29,000 immi- the Ligurian Sea from Ventimigrants. He also applied for ref- glia, Italy to Marseille, France, uge in other countries, includ- Kurt was arrested for having a ing England, Mexico and Uru- Ger man passpor t. He was guay. To avoid being separated, taken to Camp De Milles, a the couple married on July 24, French internment camp. 1938, at the Stadttempel, an After sending a telegram to Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Rabbi Simon Scheuyer, of ConVienna. It was a week before
By AIDAN WARSHAVSKY
awarshavsky@liherald.com
Chris Colucci/Herald
More than 200 residents and business owners packed City Hall to get the facts about how the adjusted ordinances could impact life on the boardwalk.
Alcohol sales close in on boardwalk City open to more bars and restaurants near the ocean By CHRIS ColUCCI ccolucci@liherald.com
T he Long Beach boardwalk is a major attraction for visitors and a part of the daily routine for most residents. In the coming months, the boardwalk experience may take a turn toward the tipsy. The City Council has voted unanimously to amend two city ordinances which currently limit the opening of bars and restaurants and prevent the sale of alcohol at the boardwalk. The change will create an opportunity for new establishments to open throughout the city and, just as important, to allow boardwalk-facing businesses to sell alcohol. City Manager Dan Creighton began Tuesday’s council meeting by explicitly stating what the amended ordinances would not allow. “To be clear, if adopted, these changes would not, I repeat, not, allow the sale or consumption of alcohol on the boardwalk or beach.” The ordinance amendments will allow
businesses “that have an opening to the boardwalk” to serve beverages, alcoholic a n d o t h e r w i s e, a s we l l a s f o o d . I t will affect concession-style cafes and restaurants that f ace the boardwalk, with the expectation that beverages will be consumed on the premises and not taken elsewhere. The amendments also permit new bars to open anywhere in the city, even those with functional bars or “service areas’ more than 10 feet long — a limitation in the current ordinance. A similar proposal to expand alcohol sales was considered in February 2017. The council at the time, which had none of the current members, upheld the ordinances and their restrictions in a 4-1 vote. The ordinances were first implemented in 1986. Sporadic variances, or exemptions, have been allowed in the years since. The city’s corporation counsel, Greg Kalnitsky, noted recent legal precedent. “In the last 13 years, the zoning board has heard 18 applications for new establishments or establishContinued on page 5
I
didn’t become serious about my role to carry on my dad’s story until I wrote the book.
Continued on page 7