An old joke tells about two Jewish men trying to join an exclusive country club. On their best behavior for an admissions interview, they anglicized their names and put on their least “ethnic” face.
But when asked their religion, both men immediately responded “Gentile.”
That, however, is no longer the climate in local country clubs, according to Brynwood Country Club member Joel Lee.
“I believe I could get into any one [of the local country clubs now]” he said in a recent telephone interview.
But Lee, 70, a commercial real estate developer, joined Brynwood “12 or 14 years ago” to play golf with his friends, who are also members there.
And representatives of Mequon, North Shore, and Tripoli Country Clubs all agreed with Lee’s belief that he could join any, not only the “Jewish country club.”
Each said in recent interviews that they do not ask about, nor are they concerned with, their members’ religions.
This openness to Jewish members at other North Shore area clubs has undoubtedly contributed to a gradual decline in membership numbers at Brynwood, whose membership has been overwhelmingly Jewish since its founding in 1929.
Brynwood president Howard Sosoff attributed that decline to several factors, including assimilation, expanded club choices and Milwaukee’s shrinking Jewish community. Other club members pointed to the community’s demographic shift to the North Shore and Mequon.
And in one of several moves to boost membership numbers in the last several years, Brynwood has recently undertaken talks with the downtown Wisconsin Club about the possibility of a contractual agreement that would allow the members of both clubs to share their facilities.
Last year, in another bid to increase membership, according to the August 27, 2004 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Brynwood decided to actively seek non-Jewish members.
But that did not reflect a big change in policy for the club, said Sosoff. “There was never really a policy of not including non-Jews; they just didn’t apply.”
According to last summer’s Journal Sentinel article, Brynwood had 280 members, including about 170 with full membership privileges. That’s a decline from 225 full members at its peak.
In 2000, Brynwood, like many other private golf clubs, established less expensive membership categories for members who do not use the golf facilities.
Now Brynwood’s membership is stable at about the same number as last year, and its non-Jewish membership has undoubtedly increased, Sosoff said.
History of discrimination
The history of Brynwood can be traced back to the 1920s, when Jews were not welcome at Milwaukee area country clubs.
In 1928, the Michiwaukee Country Club, a former manifestation of the North Shore Country Club, then located in what is now Bayside, reportedly asked eight of its 35 Jewish members to resign.
Four of those members sued the club for religious discrimination and their suit was upheld in court.
Most of the other Jewish members of Michiwaukee subsequently resigned, and joined the fledgling Brynwood Country Club, which had been in the planning stages since 1926, according to a 1951 Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle article.
But now that Jews have largely assimilated into the mainstream of American society, it seems that some Jewish Milwaukeeans, like Lee, choose their club mostly on the basis of personal and family recreation considerations.
River Hills attorney Nicol Padway chose to join Mequon’s North Shore Country Club 18 years ago when his wife Janet, a UWM librarian, was pregnant with their first child.
Padway said “[North Shore] really sold us on the fact that they welcomed young families” which he contrasted with “the classic country club environment where ‘children should be seen and not heard.’”
He and his wife were also drawn to North Shore Country Club by “the mix of people” and the emphasis the club places on developing sports skills in children, Padway said.
North Shore’s clubhouse manager Greg Schultheis estimated his club’s Jewish membership to be about 25-30 percent of the total of approximately 500 families. And Schultheis said North Shore has maintained this peak membership level for the last three years.
In the winter, North Shore County Club puts on a “Festival of Lights” celebration in addition to the December Christmas events, Schultheis said.
And though his family “tends to celebrate [Chanukah] with their extended family,” rather than at the club, Padway said that he has many Jewish and non-Jewish friends there and “the mix [of members] is such that I feel welcome to play [golf] with anyone who is out there, regardless of religious background or ethnicity.”
The club is so accommodating to its Jewish members, Padway said, that a year or two ago when Rosh Hashanah fell on the same day as a long-standing golf tournament that is always scheduled for the Friday after Labor Day, the club rescheduled the golf event.
Shorewood ophthalmologist Tom Alpren and his wife Kathy, a Milwaukee Jewish Day School teacher, also joined a country club when their three children were small.
“In 1982 or ’83 right after we moved here we were looking for a place for the kids to swim and for Tom to play tennis,” Kathy Alpren told The Chronicle. They joined Tripoli Country Club.
They had Jewish friends who belonged there who were enthusiastic about the Alprens joining the club. But, Tom said, he thinks the number of Jewish members may have decreased over the years he has belonged there,
Sharing a ‘common thread’
But some community members interviewed for this story expressed satisfaction with belonging to a Jewish club.
Diane Strauss, of Mequon, said she and her husband, Randy, chose Brynwood both for its family-oriented atmosphere and its excellent golf course.
Brynwood goes out of its way to try to create family-oriented events and they do it very well, Strauss said.
“When we were little, we could play in our neighborhoods, but it’s not like that anymore. At Brynwood, my kids [aged seven and nine] have the safety and freedom” that was available in the neighborhood then. “My kids can be themselves there,” she added.
And the Jewish nature of the club is comfortable for Strauss but she is not sure how a large influx of non-Jewish members would feel.
“I have both Jewish and non-Jewish friends at Brynwood and I enjoy [that]” Stauss said. She shares a common thread and Jewish holiday events with her Jewish friends but her non-Jewish friends give her a fresh perspective, she added.
Brynwood member attorney Frank Gimbel said he belongs there because “Brynwood has a great physical plant” and, he added, “I have many friends who are members and I enjoy their company.”
But long-term Brynwood member Mark Brickman noted that a change in the Jewish character of Brynwood is both a good and a bad thing. It reflects both an expanding of choices for Jews and the loss of a Jewish institution, he said.
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