My Father Was My Hero But Don't Ever Call Him That!
- Allan Shedlin
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 22 hours ago
Guest post by Mitch Berliner
Co-Founder, Central Farm Markets & Chief Sampling Officer, MeatCrafters
EDITOR'S NOTE: As I read this week’s guest post in recognition of Memorial Day, searing images of our world rife with war and the desperate images of those innocents in the crossfire, overwhelmed me with a profound sadness that is increasingly hard to shake.
As I struggle to fight off a weakening of my empathic capacities – being deadened by the unrelenting cruelties and horrors of our inhumanity – my mind reminded me of three related things.
The first was my experiences working with military veterans and their children in a program developed with Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient Ben King, called Armor Down/Daddy Up! During our sessions, I was reminded that even those who have come back from war never come back unscathed. Their service to our country may not have resulted in the euphemistic “ultimate sacrifice,” but the toll is everlasting.
The second, is the quote from FDR’s last message to the American people, engraved in stone at DC’s FDR Memorial, “More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars.”
Finally, it brought to mind lyrics of Bob Dylan’s song, Blowin’ in the Wind, that address the senselessness and incomprehensible cruelty of war, to which I'll add this thought:
Those who fight for peace are the warriors we truly need.
* * *
I was born a "boomer" along with so many others after WWII and I would consider my upbringing pretty "normal" for the times.
I grew up in the suburban sprawl that started after WWII that gave us Levittowns and other large-track home developments with tiny lots. This forced us to go out front, make friends, and play with the kids in the neighborhood. We were beyond fortunate. No helicopter parents or "play dates," where a parent would have to drive us to play with a schoolmate. We learned to get along with the kids in the neighborhood, and that served us well in life.
My Dad would whistle for me when it was dinner time. It was our special whistle, and I could hear it from far away. I still can hear it in my mind.
My Dad stood up for me. He protected me. He was a huge reader and a fan of history. He had no patience for television and pop culture, and I followed in his footsteps.
My Dad lived through the Great Depression. His Dad lost his business and the family house. They went to live with my Grandmother's brother until they could afford to get on their own again. Growing up in a modest house, we had paintings, sculpture, and all kinds of art from my parents' travels. This was extremely unusual at the time. Our parents gave my brother and I a real love of the arts that we've carried on throughout our lives.
Dad and Mom operated a small business out of the house for many years until they outgrew it and moved to offices in our town of Plainview on Long Island, New York. I was told I had to earn my keep and had to put in an hour of work each day. I still had plenty of time to play and be on sports teams. I got my work ethic from them and, more importantly, how to deal ethically with people, particularly associates, partners, and customers.
Both my parents worked hard but they also played hard. They could laugh in a moment's notice even when the moments were unfortunate. When there was a fire in our basement clothes dryer and the whole house filled with smoke, the fire department came in full regalia. My Mom went out to the street where all the neighbors were gathering and held up her burnt bra. While all the adults, especially my Dad, were hysterical with laughter, I tried to hide from embarrassment. I got over it and have since realized I was gifted their sense of humor. And from their example, I learned to not sweat the small stuff.
My Dad spoke seven languages. As business partners, Dad and Mom traveled the world in the 1950s and 60s, when it was a very big deal and you got "dressed to the nines." I can still picture my parents looking like they were going to a Hollywood event. My dad was a very good dresser. I did not inherit that trait. I'm happy in jeans and t-shirts, 24/7.
My Dad had ZERO tolerance for bigotry. It's one of the many reasons I am blessed.
Visitors from around the world came to visit my Mom and Dad, and my parents would always introduce my brother Guy and I to them. We had visitors from many different nationalities, and that was very different back when I was growing up.
My Dad had ZERO tolerance for bigotry. It's one of the many reasons I am blessed.
My family would go to other ethnic neighborhoods and try different foods. My Dad, who often knew the owners, always gave them a big hug. He wasn't afraid to show how he felt. He gave a huge hug to the fellow that owned a Lebanese restaurant, and they would call each other "cousins" because they knew, despite having different religions, they were both Semitic peoples. Food was a BIG DEAL in our house, and everyone chipped in. That love turned into my life's passion and work for the past five decades.
Dad and Mom were not very observant Jews despite the fact they both grew up in Kosher homes. But my Dad was very proud of his Jewish heritage and he gave that gift to my brother and me.
When I was in sixth grade, our teacher told the class that we were going to paint the windows facing the road outside with Christmas decorations. I asked the teacher if we could do some Chanukah motifs, as well. She said, absolutely not. I flipped out and cursed her in front of the entire class, which was never done back then. The teacher immediately grabbed me by the arm and hauled me to the principal's office.
The principal called my Dad in to see him. When he arrived at the principal's office, I recounted what had happened. My Dad said, "We don't ever use that kind of language to a teacher."
When I got home, he told me how proud he was of me.
My Dad worked for the State Department and was exempted from service in WWII. Regardless, he and bunch of his buddies, most of whom were Jewish, decided they would enlist in the Army anyway. They didn't want to sit on the sidelines. He was 23 and married already when he enlisted. My Mom followed him to basic training in Little Rock, Arkansas.
After basic training, my Dad was sent to the British Isles to get ready for the Normandy invasion on D-Day. He landed on Omaha Beach. He marched and fought his way down to Paris then north to Belgium and on to Germany, where he was injured by a bomb. The injury may have saved his life because his 28th Keystone Division from Pennsylvania lost many men later during the Battle of the Bulge.
My Dad rarely if ever spoke about the war. Just a few stories about how he received the Bronze Star Medal for capturing German officers behind enemy lines, where his perfect German came in handy.
My wife and I visited the museum on base in Little Rock a few years back. I gave the museum a photo of my Dad's graduating class, which had been saved and passed down in our family over the years.
My brother's family and mine recently visited Normandy to tour the beaches, the German gun installations, and the American and Canadian Cemeteries. It was an emotional and educational journey seeing these hallowed sites and the Arc de Triomphe, under which he passed to celebrate the allied forces taking back Paris. We also went to the town my Dad's unit liberated north of Paris, and we still have the photo [above] of him and his fellow soldiers surrounded by ecstatic villagers, like you would see in a movie.
The entire time we were in France, I wore a t-shirt with that same photo on the front and other famous photos of the allies marching through the Arc de Triomphe on the back. My brother and I also wore my Dad's dog tags, which was a big deal since many Jewish soldiers threw their dog tags into the English Channel. They knew if the Nazis caught them, a death camp was their fate, not a POW camp.
Despite living through the consequences of the depression and the awful things he saw during the war, I never heard my Dad complain about anything. If you called him a hero, he would correct you and say he was just doing his job as a citizen soldier.
I hit the jackpot growing up with amazing parents and I know it.
Thank you, Dad and Mom!
Don't Forget!
D3F 2026 Call for Entries Kicks Off this Fathers' Day!
Mitch Berliner grew up in the suburbs of New York City. Together with wife and business partner Debra Moser, he has four children and six grandchildren and claims he can kick every one of their butts in any swim race (he is a Master Swimmer who swam his first race at age 67 and has garnered many medals since). Mitch left New York to attend American University in Washington, DC, where he graduated with a business degree in computer science in 1970. Mitch chose to go into teaching elementary school at the Green Acres School in Rockville, MD, instead. He loved teaching, but after three years of awful pay, Mitch started the first gourmet-to-go business in Montgomery County Maryland at Bethesda's Farm Women's Market. That grew into multiple farm stands throughout the county, which he operated for seven years until he handed the reigns to his cousin. Simultaneously, Mitch started an all-natural ice cream, organic foods, and specialty frozen foods distribution company, which he operated for 38 years before selling it in 2005. Mitch also co-founded Louisiana Express, a fast casual restaurant, in the mid 1980s and had a successful, 30-year run. During his time in food distribution, Mitch introduced the Mid-Atlantic states to many new brands, like Haagen-Dazs, Dove Bars, Amy's Organic Kitchens, among others. In 2008, Mitch opened the Central Farm Markets in Bethesda. Now with three locations, the markets consistently have been voted among the best farm markets in the DC Metro area. In 2010, Mitch and his wife created MeatCrafters, a premium, all-natural sausage, salami, and charcuterie company that now sells direct to consumers, restaurants, and retailers nationwide. MeatCrafters' products have been featured in print and broadcast news media, and recently won a coveted Best Food of the South Award in 2024 for their duck breast proscuitto.
Mitch is an active philanthropist in both the secular and Jewish communities and has served on many charity boards over the past four decades. Central Farm Markets was awarded the 2025 Heroes for Hunger Award from the Manna Food Center a local food bank in Montgomery County. In 2007, he was inducted into the Maryland Food Industry Hall of Fame. This summer, he will be inducted into the Specialty Foods Hall of Fame at the Fancy Food Show in New York City.
