A Trunk of Polish Clowns and Masks from Zeiger Enterprises. Colorful and whimsical creations. Labels on the bottom. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Size: 18 1/2 x 19 x 17 in. 

#3548 . 

Shelley M. Zeiger was born in a small village in western Ukraine in 1935. In 1941 he and his family were caught in the middle of Operation Barbarossa, and they, along with all Jews in the nearby villages, were rounded up by the Nazis and taken to a ghetto in Zborow, Tarnopol. A man named Anton helped his family escape, hiding them in his root cellar, and tried to keep the young Zeiger’s spirits up with toys and stories, an experience that made Zeiger a lifelong optimist in the face of sometimes insurmountable odds. He and his mother were snuck into Bavaria while his father joined a resistance group, and after the war ended they were reunited in Zborow and helped to rebuild the country. In 1949, after the Soviets tested their first nuclear bomb, Zeiger’s family clandestinely immigrated to the United States. They settled in Newark, New Jersey, where Zeiger taught himself to speak English and began to develop a series of successful local businesses from the ground up. In 1970 he became chairman of the board of Capitol Wine and Spirits, and was instrumental in building the controversial Trenton Capitol Hotel, eventually selling it to be turned into office space in 1986. Throughout his life he sought to build business connections between the Soviet Union and the United States, hoping that economic stability would lead to mutual disarmament, and in 1975 he created Zeiger Enterprises to oversee his vast empire, with an entire division focused on importing Eastern European gifts, collectibles, and toys (particularly from Poland and Ukraine) for sale in the United States. With his wife Marion he had two children, and together they visited Moscow on several occasions, including to open the first pizza restaurant in the Soviet Union, AstroPizza, in 1987, and the first American restaurant in Moscow, called TrenMos, in 1989. He convinced Mikhail Gorbachev to come visit Trenton, and introduced him to J. Willard Marriott in the hopes of building a hotel next to St. Basil’s Cathedral. Instead, Gorbachev worked with him to bring the Bolshoi Ballet to Trenton for the first time, and Pizza Hut hired him to help establish their chain behind the Iron Curtain as well. In his later years he wrote a book about his many experiences with Maryann McLoughlin, and held events frequently to benefit Jewish organizations all across the country. He died in Moorestown on November 10th, 2013, leaving most of his fortune to the Goodwin Holocaust Museum in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Commensurate with age.