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June 18, 1997
IRA THRIVED IN POWELTON \ EINHORN'S
STUNTS TOLERATED IN `LIVE & LET LIVE' ATMOSPHERE
Author: Joseph R. Daughen, Daily News Staff Writer
Staff writers Julie Knipe Brown and Melanie Redmond
contributed to this report.
To the people who know and love it, Powelton Village over the years has been a community of progressive citizens who care about social justice and have a generous tolerance for the peculiarities of others.
A perfect environment for that most peculiar person, Ira Einhorn, the bushy-bearded guru of counterculture who murdered girlfriend Holly Maddux in their Powelton Village apartment.
``One of the things that happens in a tolerant neighborhood is that extremists like Ira Einhorn and MOVE are attracted to it,'' said a longtime Powelton resident who asked that her name not be disclosed.
The MOVE group occupied a house at 33rd Street and Powelton Avenue that became the scene of a confrontation with police in August 1978, almost seven years before the MOVE house in West Philadelphia was bombed. Police Officer James Ramp was killed in the 1977 clash, and the arrest and conviction of MOVE members for that slaying led to the Mother's Day 1985 warfare.
Einhorn lived in a second-floor apartment on Race Street near 34th and could be just as annoying to Powelton neighbors as MOVE.
``There is a feeling of `live and let live' in the neighborhood,'' said Donald Matzkin, an architect who has lived in Powelton for more than 30 years. ``Powelton in some ways tolerated Ira and enabled him to be what he wanted to be, and in some ways enabled and tolerated MOVE.''
The tolerance of Einhorn was widespread. It extended from those who didn't object when Einhorn greeted them without any clothes on, to those who let him claim credit he didn't really earn for organizing the first Earth Day in 1970, to the management of the stylish restaraunt La Terrasse, which allowed him to use the place as his headquarters.
La Terrasse, on Sansom Street near 34th, closed and Einhorn vanished, playing now-you-see-him, now-you-don't with authorities for 16 years before his arrest in France on Friday. Ironically, La Terrasse is back and Einhorn appears to be on his way back, once the extradition process is completed.
Bill Hoffman, the new owner of La Terrasse, said he started working there in 1979 and did not know Einhorn, although he had heard all about him. Judy Wicks, who ran the place in the 1970s, said she did not want to talk about Einhorn.
Civil-rights lawyer David Rudovsky, a onetime Powelton resident, talked about Einhorn and about his old neighborhood.
``The neighborhood was a place in the late '60s and early '70s where a lot of people were involved in politics - civil rights, the women's movement, the Vietnam War,'' said Rudovsky. ``Except for occasional acts of civil disobedience, they worked to change things within the system. This was a group that was peaceful. What Ira later did was totally unrepresentative of that community.''
Shelly Brick, a community activist who lived in Powelton during this era, said the neighborhood was ``a very relaxed environment.''
``It was a wide variety of people, artists, musicians, college students,'' Brick said. ``People didn't lock their doors. People were very friendly and open. You weren't judged.''
But, Brick said, she ``never bought into his bull.''
Matzkin said he went to Central High School with Einhorn and found him a ``fascinating'' person.
``I found him stimulating, but I didn't place much stock in what he was saying,'' Matzkin said. ``He had a tremendous ego, but he was basically a super marketer.''
Among the things that stayed in Matzkin's memory: ``He was the first person I ever knew to wear Bermuda shorts.''
Copyright (c) 1997 Philadelphia Daily News, reprinted with permission |
