Jewish faith.
Isenberg recalls learning about his heritage at an early age. He remembers being taught that he was a first generation American and that his family had a special history; that of being a refugee family. Isenberg remembers being confronted with unusual circumstances at an early age. His first friend happened to be an African American which required Isenberg and his friend to hide their friendship and keep out of the public eye because of racial prejudice in the late fifties in Upstate New
York.
Isenberg also has vivid memories of having rocks thrown at him because he was Jewish. The local Catholic school in the community Isenberg grew up in was teaching their students that Jewish people killed Jesus. Finally, Isenberg recalls not being able to attend or participate in the Christmas and Easter programs at the elementary school he attended because he was Jewish. “I hated being sent to the office when my classmates were rehearsing their parts in the programs” Isenberg recalls. These experiences would later serve as the foundation to the development of ideas Isenberg had about civil and human rights.
His father, Norbert Isenberg, earned a PHD in Organic Chemistry and later
accepted a teaching position at the University of Wisconsin Parkside. His mother,
Edith Isenberg, was a Registered Nurse and would later become the Director of
Public Health at the University of Wisconsin Parkside. The family moved from
Upstate New York to Racine, Wisconsin when Isenberg was eleven years old.
Isenberg lived in Racine, Wisconsin until he was nineteen years old. Not a
particularly bright student, the only subjects Isenberg loved was history and
government. One of his fondest memories during this period was meeting and
shaking hands with Dr. Martin Luther King the night before he marched in Cicero,
Illinois. Isenberg also enjoyed attending various political rallies and hearing people
like Hubert Humphrey, John Lindsey, Nelson Rockefeller and Robert F. Kennedy
speak.
Isenberg lied about his age to get a job as a busboy at a local hotel when he was
thirteen years old. By the time Isenberg was sixteen, he was working at two
different hotels doing everything from busboy duties to being a night auditor
working the 11pm to 7am shift on weekends. Isenberg regularly worked double
shifts during this time. “I met all sorts of people during this time of my life and also
got accustomed to working with minorities as fellow workers” Isenberg said.
Isenberg was nearly fired from his job when then Governor George Wallace of
Alabama spoke at a banquet Isenberg was serving. The Wallace staff lined all
the service staff up to shake hands with Governor Wallace and when the Governor
extended his hand to Isenberg he refused to shake hands with him. His love of
history and government was now being combined with his real life experiences.
Isenberg was elected and later impeached as the president of the local Jewish
youth organization known as AZA. ”I got impeached because I told the parents off
when they would not permit the group to play basketball in the inter-city with
African American youth just after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King. The parents
were afraid there would be violence and I was afraid they were teaching us the
wrong values. The parents won but I still went and shot hoops that summer”
Isenberg recalls. The ability to speak his mind on right and wrong got an early test
when Isenberg told Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau off at a youth conference in
Canada in 1970. Isenberg was one of only 100 students from the United States
attending the conference of over 4,000 youths from Canada. Much of the
conference was spent severely criticizing the United States policy on civil rights
when Isenberg made the discovery that there was not one student in attendance
from French Quebec. His questioning of the Prime Minister resulted in a spontaneous
anti-American demonstration towards Isenberg until the Prime Minister confirmed
what Isenberg was saying was true and thanked him for his insight. The seeds of
Isenberg being an advocate were born.
Isenberg only attended college for a brief period of time. During his time in
college, Isenberg was elected Vice President of Legislative Affairs at the University
of Wisconsin Stout. Isenberg played an important role in establishing the black
awareness lounge at the student union at Stout only to get in a heated argument
with a campus visitor, Angela Davis, because she asked all white students to leave
the room before her speech to the student body. “Not only did I refuse to leave, but
I told her to get off the campus if she was going to behave like that” Isenberg
recalls. While at Stout, Isenberg organized several anti-Viet Nam demonstrations
that were designed to protest the war without being disrespectful of the soldiers
serving in the war. Isenberg has two special memories of the time. The first was
going dorm to dorm the night of Kent State and keeping the students calm and
making sure there was no violence on campus. That night, William Kunstler had
spoken on campus and had gotten a large number of students highly charged. The
second memory had to do with Isenberg being asked to lead the student voter
registration movement for all of Wisconsin, except Madison. When the local
government challenged the rights of students to vote in Menomonie, Wisconsin,
Isenberg organized those not permitted to vote into a group known as “The Stout
121”. The matter was taken to Federal Court by the ACLU and resulted in a
landmark ruling which recognized the right of students to vote in local elections.
This decision was considered landmark at the time because it was opposite the
Berkley ruling and led to the Supreme Court showdown that eventually won
students the right to vote in local elections nationwide.
Isenberg quit college after only a few semesters and started to work as a manager trainee at a major resort outside of Chicago, Illinois when he was twenty years old. He also met his first wife and they married and had two children. While working at the resort, Isenberg got his first experience working with large numbers of Hispanic workers. He recalls how hard it was to communicate because he did not speak Spanish and his co-workers did not speak English. “Even though we could not
communicate, there was a job to be done and we figured out a way to get past the
language problem and do what needed to be done. I also developed an early
impression of how hard working my fellow employees were” Isenberg recalls. It was
during this time period that Isenberg witnessed his first immigration raid at the
resort he worked. Seeing his fellow employees detained and handcuffed formed a
lasting impression in his mind. “What I saw then was not right and what I see now is
not right” Isenberg says.
Isenberg continued to work in the lodging industry for the next thirteen years.
During this time, he worked at locations all over the United States. While managing
hotels, Isenberg became active in community service. His prior activities are too
lengthy to detail as Isenberg did not know how to say no to people in need. A few of
the most memorable activities included being the chairman of the annual Easter
Seal Drive in Elgin, Illinois, a board member of Big Brothers Big Sisters and
American Red Cross in Norman, Oklahoma. While living in Norman, Oklahoma,
Isenberg trained to become a Disaster Action Team Leader for the American Red
Cross and went to school to be a Certified First Responder. As a result of his training,
Isenberg soon found himself racing to help victims of tornado strikes throughout the
States of Oklahoma and Texas. It was not uncommon for Isenberg to be gone on
assignment for a few weeks at a time. Isenberg was often asked to be a public
speaker at various community events and taught classes in various subjects at
community colleges where he lived.
Fate was kind to Ralph Isenberg while he was in the lodging industry. Isenberg got
two opportunities which were life changing for him. The Reverend Ralph Abernathy
checked into one of the hotels Isenberg was managing and the Reverend was
stranded for a few days. Isenberg introduced himself to Reverend Abernathy and
the two become instant friends. “Imagine having a man like Ralph Abernathy all to
yourself for two days. I just soaked up everything he was telling me about life. It
was a defining moment for me” Isenberg recalls. During the same time period,
Isenberg was invited to Washington D.C. to serve on the Inauguration Committee for
President Carter. Isenberg still recalls the important role he played once he got to
Washington. “I was asked to place larger restroom signs over the existing restroom
signs at the train station. I’m not certain if that will ever make the history books but
I did get to watch President Carter get sworn in and I used my credentials to walk
down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House before Carter did” Isenberg recalls
with a smile. That night, Isenberg recalls working advance and having a military type drive him to each inaugural party before the President and Mrs. Carter arrived. “Not sure what I did but it was sure fun,” Isenberg concludes.
During this time period, Isenberg became a Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA).
He used his years of work experience in lieu of classroom hours and was able to
pass the written test and the required essay. Isenberg had to detail an
accomplishment he made to the lodging industry. He had no problem detailing his
belief in community and the role a hotel could play in bringing people together.
Isenberg wrote about his management of the Holiday Inn in Camden, Arkansas in
the early eighties. Isenberg had accepted the assignment of opening the new hotel
and thought it would be interesting to try an experiment. “Since the community was
basically still segregated, I thought it would be interesting to see if decisions made
at the Inn could affect the way the community viewed itself. I reversed all the roles
and made African Americans the managers and department heads and had white
people doing jobs usually reserved for African Americans. Things were tense for a
few weeks, but eventually the community got used to how it was going to be and
accepted the experiment. This was a turning point in the community as all of a
sudden people of different race were showing a new type of respect to others. The
highlight for Isenberg was a community Easter Egg Hunt attended by hundreds of
people of mixed race” Isenberg concludes of the whole experience.
Little did Isenberg know that this was his last hotel assignment as Isenberg made
a career change in 1984 and took over the management of a large shopping center
in Dallas, Texas, known as Wynnewood Village Shopping Center. Wynnewood had
fallen victim to urban decay and the 27 acre shopping center was only 68%
occupied and predominately used by African Americans. Isenberg immediately went
to work to turn Wynnewood around. “I remember the first thing I did at Wynnewood
was go to security school so I could be an armed security guard and get rid of the
gangs in the center” Isenberg recalls. “After that, I went around and met all the
merchants. The merchants nearly freaked out when I hired an African American to
lead the merchants association. Merchants also learned not to complain about our
shoppers. I clearly remember ripping up a few tenant leases when they made racist
comments. At the same time, I got the owner of the shopping center to permit me
to incubate some minority tenants. These tenants were very successful to our
overall recovery plan. I also started to give paint to area residents to paint their
homes” reflects Isenberg. Within a few months, Wynnewood started to turn around
and Isenberg launched community program after community program that
permitted Wynnewood to regain the prominent position it had previously held in the
community. In just two years, the shopping center jumped from 68% occupancy to
99% occupancy. The center underwent a multi-million dollar renovation in late 1984.
In 1985, Isenberg was the first runner up for Citizen of the Year in Dallas for his work
at Wynnewood, which had created over 750 new jobs without the use of any
government money. Isenberg left Wynnewood in 1986 and formed his present day
company, Isenberg Management Associates. Isenberg Management Associates (IMA) has been anything but an ordinary company since being formed. The company has always given community service equal attention. As a business concern, IMA initially focused on third party
management of commercial real estate with a little multi-family thrown in for good
measure. This was during the RTC days and the company quickly found itself
managing over 100 properties for the RTC. Isenberg had also attracted the attention
of a few private investors that wanted him to manage their properties. As time went
on, Isenberg turned his attention away from the RTC and concentrated on managing
for his private investors. The lessons he learned from managing for the RTC were
used to identify and pick investment properties for purchase. Isenberg made it a
point to also invest his own money with that of the private investors that trusted
him. A subsidiary corporation served as general partner of real estate purchases
made by Isenberg and his partners. Within a few years, the IMA real estate portfolio
had grown to over 3 million square feet of commercial real estate with a value in
excess of 60 million dollars. The properties selected by Isenberg were typically on
the “wrong side of the tracks and very management intensive. My reputation for
filling these properties up with quality tenants and maintaining my properties is well
known in Dallas” Isenberg says. IMA continues to maintain a large portfolio with a
dedicated staff of nine employees, some of whom have been with IMA for over 20
years. The staff is very diverse and in December of 2011 the oldest employee of IMA
retired at age 94 after being with Isenberg for over 22 years.
During the same period of time, Isenberg was getting more and more involved in
the community. In 1987, Isenberg became active with the Oak Cliff Chamber of
Commerce. Even though Isenberg only had a small company, he adopted 3 whole
city blocks in the City of Dallas Adopt A Block Program. Isenberg hired a retired
nurse to coordinate the program until her death nearly 20 years later. About the
same time, Isenberg gained notoriety for an anti-graffiti program that won him both
praise and criticism. Isenberg had his maintenance workers begin to abate graffiti
within a defined area. It did not matter to Isenberg where the graffiti was located.
He openly trespassed onto both public and private property and dared property
owners to stop him. His efforts, while radical, proved very successful as 200 square
block area of Dallas became graffiti free. “At the height of the program, I made sure
any school within the area could call and get graffiti removed within an hour”
Isenberg recalls. A home owner once tried to have Isenberg arrested after he
painted her house an ugly purple color because she refused to permit him to cover
up a cuss word on her garage across the street from an elementary school. Isenberg
had no idea his antics would soon get him deeply involved in city politics.
Isenberg attracted the attention of newly elected Dallas City Council Member,
Laura Miller. Miller went on to become arguably the first populist Mayor of Dallas,
Texas. Isenberg was always at the side of Miller pushing his viewpoints. Prior to
gaining the attention of Miller, Isenberg had served on the Economic Development
Commission of Garland, Texas, Planning Commission of Desoto, Texas, and Board of Adjustment for Dallas, Texas. At the same time Isenberg served on so many board of
directors that he needed a secretary just to keep track of his community service
meetings. Isenberg fondly remembers serving on such boards as Leadership
Southwest, Turtle Creek Chorale, East Kessler Neighborhood Association and Desoto
Band Boosters. His fondest memory of board work had to do with the Oak Cliff
Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee and Board of Directors. Isenberg was
removed from both after he protested outside the Chamber building during an event
because the Chamber was trying to shut down Hispanic bus operators in the city. At
issue at the time were also Hispanic vendors selling ice cream on the streets and
non-enforcement of city codes related to bi-lingual signs hung by Hispanic
merchants. Isenberg insisted that these practices were cultural and needed to be
left alone. Isenberg prevailed and the Chamber backed down from picking on small
Hispanic merchants. During the same time period, Isenberg completed the
American Planning Association prescribed course of study as a Certified Planning
Commissioner.
Miller placed Isenberg on the Dallas Park Board and immediately there were
fireworks when the Board and City Council tried to close neighborhood wading pools
in the inter-city neighborhoods in favor of larger “for fee” privately financed water
parks. Isenberg and Miller waged a campaign that attracted national attention and
resulted in the raising of over $100,000 in private funding in a one week period to
open the pools. Then Mayor of Dallas, Ron Kirk, and the entire City Council were
humiliated and reversed their decision and the pools were opened for the inter-city
children to enjoy. After successfully serving on the Dallas Park Board, Isenberg next
served on the Cultural Affairs Commission along with a short return to the Board of
Adjustments before being appointed to the City Planning Commission (CPC) by
Mayor Laura Miller. Isenberg was known for taking tough pro-neighborhood positions
while on the CPC. Isenberg refused to allow big business or city planners to interfere
with the rights of “normal citizens” to be heard. Isenberg worked closely with Mayor
Laura Miller to push the Downtown Arts District, Downtown Block Parks and the
Trinity River Corridor. At the same time, Isenberg was busy with neighborhood
organizations laying out future historical and conservation districts. While on the
CPC, Isenberg had to deal with lots of name calling and in- fighting because several
members of the CPC were under investigation by the FBI for corrupt activity. “A few
even tried to draw me into the problem but without success” Isenberg recalls.
In an amazing series of events, Ralph Isenberg saw his entire life and all that
made living worthwhile threatened. Isenberg had not been happy in his marriage for
many years and in 2002, he met the woman of his life and quickly fell in love.
Rumors of Isenberg being unhappy had circulated in the community for years.
Isenberg made that unhappiness public when he separated from his previous wife in
early 2003. Things seemed to be going great for Isenberg when a series of events
related to immigration took place in late 2003 that lasted until January of 2007. The
details of what happened are typically private matters but Isenberg had to endure what he described “as a public lynching”. Isenberg quickly found out who his real
friends were. Isenberg also found out what was important to him as a human.
Isenberg vanished and took on the task of getting his family back together with a
vengeance seldom seen. Isenberg crossed the Pacific Ocean twenty-two times in
2006 trying to keep his family together. In early 2007, Isenberg brought his exiled
wife and two year old daughter home to the United States from China against all
odds. The happiness of Isenberg having married his new love, adopted the daughter
of his new wife and the couple having two children of their own did not over shadow
the pain Isenberg and his family suffered at the hands of immigration. Everyone
who knows Ralph Isenberg knows that something very bad happened to him and it
is doubtful he will ever fully recover from the pain of his bout with immigration.
“Nothing could have prepared me for the pain I suffered and yet G-d must have
meant this to be” Isenberg freely tells the world.
Even while in battle of his life to save his family, Isenberg was helping others in
need. Isenberg wrote detailed reports on the conditions foreign nationals faced
when detained. He spent thousands of dollars getting sworn statements from
detention center employees about what they saw and did to detained persons. His
findings were turned over to the Office of the Inspector General of the Department
of Homeland Security. Isenberg also stayed active in his support of various
programs related to civil rights. He funded several gun buyback programs and
commissioned original artwork from the purchased guns. The money donated by
Isenberg took several hundred guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition off the
street of Dallas, Texas. Isenberg also paid for a busload of Dallas youth to trace the
original “freedom ride” at the last second when backers pulled out because they did
not like a public decision made by an organizer of the trip. Finally, Isenberg flew
back from China to help plan the Mega March on Immigration which attracted
500,000 marchers in Dallas, Texas. “I recall being in China and seeing Dallas youth
on the front page of a Chinese newspaper and knew I was needed back home.
Students were trying to take over Dallas City Hall and were waving Mexican flags. It
was embarrassing. These kids needed to be in school and an event organized where
the world saw the same kids waving American flags” Isenberg recalls.
The only way Isenberg has been able to cope with his immigration pain has been
for him to become an advocate for others that are having immigration troubles.
Isenberg was not home for two days when he heard about small children being
detained at an immigration detention center known as Hutto. Isenberg did not
hesitate to immediately declare war on Hutto. Isenberg hired several legal
professionals to aid him in his attempt to free the children from Hutto. His attack
was so complete that within a few weeks of learning of Hutto, Isenberg had his legal
team in Federal Court trying to shut Hutto down. Immediately, immigration
responded by releasing families that Isenberg was fighting for. The releases only
made Isenberg more determined to continue his attack on Hutto. With great
satisfaction Isenberg won victory over Hutto in a little more than two years. “I was not alone in the battle to close Hutto, but I know my fight to close Hutto was as
fierce as any person or organization because in America you do not put kids in jail”
Isenberg proudly declares.
Hutto was only the start of what some feel is nothing short of a miracle. With no
legal training and only his resources to fund his cause, Isenberg has freed dozens of
people from the wrath of immigration. Isenberg takes on cases that no one will
touch and wins. His exploits have been reported worldwide including feature stories
by the New York Times and Huffington Post in 2011. Isenberg will do whatever it
takes to keep families united. Most of the families he helps do not have the means
to help themselves. Isenberg has even arranged for people deported to lawfully
return to the United States. Isenberg prefers not to keep count of those he has
saved, but the Reverend Peter Johnson, a member of the staff of Dr. Martin Luther
King, estimates the number to be in the hundreds. Isenberg likes to simply say “I
am in the business of saving starfish and so far I have been able to save enough to
make a difference.”
In late 2011, Isenberg formed two organizations to further his immigration work.
The Isenberg Center for Immigration Equality (ICIE) is the legal and advocacy arm of
his immigration work. ICIE is dedicated to stopping Immigration Customs
Enforcement (ICE) from separating families and violating the Constitution of the
United States in their daily operations. ICIE has filed several Federal lawsuits on
behalf of people with immigration troubles. ICIE does not charge those whom they
serve. The other organization, Stop Dreaming & Live, deals with preparing foreign
nationals for status, public education and community service. These organizations
are perhaps the most unique immigration operations in the United States. Isenberg
has hired a fulltime immigration attorney and an educator with a master’s degree to
assist him. In addition, there are several professionals and volunteers that assist
Isenberg when called upon. Beyond legal help and mental health services, Isenberg
encourages education. Any person wanting the assistance of Isenberg must be
willing to learn English. Isenberg will pay for class study, if necessary. Isenberg also
makes sure that those that are not permitted to work by law are busy improving
themselves by volunteer job training or returning to class. Known as “A Resort of
Last Hope”, there is no case too complicated for Isenberg to take on.
I've known about Ralph for about ten years. He's immensely impressive. I'm so glad that he's been there for so many different people at different times in his life. The world would be a much better place if there were more people like him willing to step up in the face of daunting challenges.
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