by
NJJN Staff Writer

Mindful of the good fortune that allowed his family to survive the Holocaust, and thankful to a commanding officer who taught him to become a wine connoisseur and merchant, Michael Zeiger is expressing his gratitude for his success with acts of Jewish philanthropy.

Even as he works diligently to expand his business at his new warehouse in Cedar Grove, Zeiger remains active as founder and supporter of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva and several orphanages in Israel. He serves on the boards of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey, where he is a major donor, and the Chabad Rabbinical College of America in Morristown. He is also a past president of the Mount Freedom Jewish Center.

Zeiger believes that without the kindness of neighbors in his Ukrainian home town, such generosity would not have been possible. As the Jewish world paused to mark Yom Hashoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day last week, he reminisced at a corner table in the sales meeting room in the vast warehouse.

“I was very young when World War II broke out,” he said. “My father escaped from a concentration camp in Ukraine, and a neighbor took us in and hid us.”

Zeiger, his parents, his brother, and two orphan girls his parents took into their home “were in a bunker under a barn for almost two years,” said Zeiger. “We were liberated by the Russian Army, but we did not want to stay there. My father said, ‘This is not a life; we have to get out of here.’” In 1946, the family escaped Ukraine, then went to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and finally a displaced persons’ camp in Germany.

“From there we were supposed to go to Israel, but it didn’t work out. My aunt in Newark insisted we come over here.”

At the age of 13, in early 1950s, he arrived in New Jersey. He mastered English in a hurry and finished Central High School in Newark in six months, then won a scholarship to Upsala College in East Orange. After graduation, he was one of only 5,000 young men to be drafted into the Navy — which normally filled its ranks with voluntary enlistees.

It was after the Korean War but before the United States began sending troops to Vietnam. Zeiger was assigned to an admiral in naval intelligence who loved wines. “We were traveling all over Europe, and every time we had liberty, I wanted to go out with my friends and meet girls, but I had to go with him to taste wines. At that time, the only wine I knew was Manischewitz at Passover.”

On one occasion, Zeiger found himself in a winery, being tested by his commanding officer. “I was sitting there, bored, while he and some other officers were talking about wine, when he said to me, ‘Mr. Zeiger, how do you like the legs on this 18-year-old?’ I said, ‘Sir, I don’t see any 18-year-old over here.’

“But he was talking about an 18-year-old wine,” and the word “legs” referred to its glycerin content, which, he explained, has a bearing on “the structure of the wine and how it’s made. It was my first embarrassed lesson, and that’s how I learned.”

Sales of “Sneaky Pete”

After being discharged from the Navy, Zeiger returned to Newark and met, for the first time, an uncle who was in the wine business, selling pint bottles of low-end “Sneaky Pete.” Zeiger, together with his brother, Shelly, and his father, Irving, invested in a company they named Admiral Wine in honor of his Navy commander.

After his father died and his brother left the firm in the early 1970s, Zeiger opted to stay in the business and upgrade the product.

“I took courses to learn more about the market and the wines and the trends in the industry. Then I went to Europe to import wines from France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. I had my ups and downs,” he said.

Through the years, Admiral Wine headquarters moved from Union, to Kearny, then to Irvington, where it stayed for 18 years until another recent move.

“Irvington was very good to me. I was lucky. I developed to a point where it became a national business. We are selling all over the country now,” he boasted. “It gave me enough muscle to go into this new facility,” a 50,000-square-foot brick warehouse in a Cedar Grove industrial park. Twice the size of its previous location, the new warehouse, although still under construction, is operational.

In the past few years, Zeiger’s business has branched out in several directions. In addition to ice wine, bottled water, and vodka from Canada, the Zeiger family business imports some 2,500 different wines from France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Chile, Australia, and Israel.

His stock includes 14 different types from the Israeli winery Tishbi, which has its vineyard in the village of Zichron Ya’akov.

“Israeli wines have come a long way,” he said. “There is constant improvement in the technology. They are learning to keep up with the rest of the world. We market them not just in Jewish and kosher stores, but in restaurants that have nothing to do with Judaism. Like Levy’s Rye Bread, you don’t have to be Jewish. The admiral would have been very pleased to taste a Tishbi wine.”

Zeiger conceded, “Fortunately or unfortunately,” France is still the world champion when it comes to great wines. “I do a tremendous amount of business in France, and I have nothing against the French people. They are good people.”

But after the government of Prime Minister Jacques Chirac declined to support the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 — “What he did was inexcusable,” Zeiger said — his firm decided to boycott French wines.

“I had maybe $2.5 million worth of French wines that I stopped selling — and I had calls from all over the country congratulating me. It was unfortunate that the French people had to suffer, but I wanted to send a message.”

The boycott lasted for three months, until it became economically unviable for Admiral.

Zeiger’s son Chet, who joined his father’s business 10 years ago, is now a vice president. He lived in Russia for several years, and worked in business affairs for Time magazine. But when he returned to New Jersey in 1995, Chet opted to work with his father.

“I grew up in the wine business, and I’ve been in it on and off my whole life,” said Chet, “from unloading containers to setting up computer systems.”

Before his Russian sojourn, Chet, captivated by his father’s story of survival, made a pilgrimage to Ukraine. He visited the neighbor, now deceased, who had concealed his father’s family during the war.

Zeiger also imports wine from his Cedar Grove warehouse to his home in Randolph. “I always drink wine with my dinner,” he said, refusing to reveal his preferences. “You know, when a father has many children, he can’t have any favorites.

“Every evening I try something else. I don’t want to sound conceited, but over the years I have acquired a very good palate. I can taste the differences between a very good wine, a good wine, a mediocre wine, and a not-so-good wine.”