A Brooklyn, New York, clothier founded by Holocaust survivor Martin Greenfield, a man best known for dressing presidents and celebrities, is making masks to protect New Yorkers from the coronavirus.
The well-known and respected company, Martin Greenfield Clothiers, has been tasked with creating suits for former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, Jimmy Fallon, Al Pacino, and even President Donald Trump.
But its next project is giving back to the community by creating masks to protect its fellow New Yorkers from the coronavirus.
“We’re always looking for solutions, not problems,” Tod Greenfield, the current co-vice president with his sibling of Martin Greenfield Clothiers, told the New York Daily News. “We will figure out a way to go forward and survive. We are a family of survivors.”
The founder of Martin Greenfield Clothiers, Martin Greenfield, is a Holocaust survivor himself. He survived Auschwitz 76 years ago and learned how to sew from one of the older Jewish inmates inside the Nazi laundry room.
Greenfield survived tyranny from inside that laundry room when he mended the shirt of the SS guard, who beat him for scrubbing the Nazi uniform so hard that it ripped.
Since then, Greenfield was able to come to America as the only Holocaust survivor out of his family and established Martin Greenfield Clothiers in Brooklyn.
The custom suit-maker teamed up with union workers to start producing protective face masks, aiming to give the first batch of masks to local community groups in need.
“We’ve never had the attitude that our business existed simply to profit for our benefit, but to benefit the workers, their families, and the surrounding community,” said Tod Greenfield, 59.
The company is also selling washable, reusable masks on its website, promising to distribute one free mask for each mask sold.
Edgar Romney, secretary-treasurer of the Workers United union, said he approached the Greenfield family about making masks to put his members back to work.
Romney said some of his union members died of coronavirus, and some of the survivors were reluctant to use mass transit during the peak of the pandemic. The first shift of mask-makers was just ten, but they are hoping to get 65 mask-makers employed.
The first completed bundle of masks went to St. Nick’s Alliance, a nonprofit serving low-income Brooklyn residents. Once production ramps up, the business plans to donate their second batch of masks to a neighborhood homeless shelter.
“My dad always instilled in us his desire to give back to the community whichever way we can,” said Tod Greenfield. “This just seemed like something we should be doing.”