Oral history interview with Max and Susie Dodek. Max was born 1900 in Winipeg and Susie was born 1910 in Winnipeg.

Oral history interview with Dr. E. Lewison.

Oral interview with Alex Kliner. Interviewed by Peter Doolan for SLAIS Oral History class. Kliner was born in Philadelphia in 1930. His parents were from Rusia and he talks about his parent’s life and growing up in Philadelphia. At 20 he was drafted to fight in the Korean War. He came back and studied acting at Hedgerow. After he graduated, he went to New York to work on Broadway. Morris Schwartz told him not to go into Yiddish Theatre because it was dying. He talks about McCarthyism and the blacklist in Hollywood and on Broadway. A friend convinced him to move to Hollywood. Here he went to Los Angeles Community College and UCLA and got a master’s degree. His teachers told him not to get his PhD and got into teaching instead. He moved to Vancouver to work at the Peretz School. He then became the program director at JCC. With Tova Sneider he started the Jewish Heritage Theatre Company. Later he became the Executive Director of State of Israel Bond. He also worked with Chelm Cultural Club

Interview with Selina Robinson for On The Record: The BC Jewish Queer & Trans Oral History Project in collaboration with JQT Vancouver. Interviewed by Carmel Tanaka via remote Zoom video call. Selina (she/her) is a Jewish politician who is the mother of a gay son. She is an NDP representative and Member of Legislative Assembly of BC residing in Coquitlam. Selina talks about growing up Jewish in Montreal, and Richmond, BC where the Jewish community was much smaller. She talks about organizing community-led Jewish education in Burquest that focused on inclusion of all sects of Judaism during the ‘90s. Selina talks about working for Jewish Family Services, and their attempts to make safe spaces for gay Jewish kids and their parents. She talks about guidance from her son Aaron, who is similarly pursuing queer Jewish community initiatives. She also tells an anecdote about Aaron’s coming out and how his leaving for university worried her about his preparedness for the world at large. Selina talks about Aaron being openly Jewish growing up and creating positive spaces for him to share his Jewishness with non-Jewish peers, but the difficulties of not knowing the perfect way to parent a queer kid as a straight parent. She also talks about Aaron inviting her to Shabbat dinner with Pride Colours and how proud she was. Selina talks about how Jewish organizations can become more welcoming to queer Jews by including queer Jews in their leadership and becoming more self-reflective.

Interview with Susan Dempsey for On The Record: The BC Jewish Queer & Trans Oral History Project in collaboration with JQT Vancouver. Interviewed by Carmel Tanaka via remote Zoom video call. Susan (she/her) is a Jewish woman, born in St. Catharines, ON and living in Victoria. She identifies with the lesbian community, but confides the idea of a sexuality without boundaries is something she’s getting more used to. Susan shares about her parents’ and their respective upbringings and livelihoods as mostly assimilated Jews in Chicago and Toronto or Southern Ontario. She talks about chosen family like her klezmer bandmates in the Klezbians, coming out to her family, and when she realized herself that she was a lesbian. She reflects on her childhood and growing up aware of political events like the JFK assassination. She talks about eventually finding the field of psychology, studying in St. Catharines, working in peer counseling initiatives and non-profits. Susan talks about relationships and reconnecting to the Jewish community through feminist and/or lesbian Seders after negative experiences and ambivalence. She talks about the Klezbians and feeling valued to queer and Jewish communities, wondering about the place for young people in current Jewish community, and wishing she was more proud to be Jewish and out throughout her life.

Oral history interview with Bill Gruenthal who was born in 1935 in Netanya, Palestine. His father's side is from Silesia, Germany and his mother's side comes from Lower Saxony and Aachen. Bill has been a part of the Jewish National Fund and worked for the Vancouver Board of Trade. Bill discusses tensions between Arab and Jewish communities growing up.

Oral history interview with Deb Bockner who was born in St. Louis in 1951.

Oral history interview with Shirley Brown.

Oral history interview with John Gort who was born in Breslau, Germany. Escaped Gestapo while in school in Frankfurt in November 1939 due to local police. He went on to study in England but quit and than volunteered for the British Army. He worked in London, England; Northern Rhodesia and Vancouver in medical technician and psychiatric nursing. The interview also discusses John's study of German philosophers.

Oral history interview with Daniel Ezekiel who was born in Manila. His family is split between Ashkenazi and Sephardic. Daniel talks about his family history and how they ended up in Manila. Daniel speaks 4 languages, his father speaks 5, and his mother 8. In the 1970s political change in Manila caused everyone who could to leave. His family moved to Vancouver. He went to medical school at the University of Toronto. He compares North American Jews to Jews in the Philippines. He went to Israel with a youth group in 1980 and still visits ever couple of years.