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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 Interview with Sarah Adams. Interviewed by Alissa Cartwright for University of Victoria Public History class project.
Interview is about the desecration of the Emanu-El cemetary in Victoria in 2011; explores how the community reacted to this event and the role of historians in preserving historic sites such as this.

Oral history interview with Sam Barrett who was born in Winnipeg in 1897, fought during the First World War where he sustained a life-long eye injury.

Interview with Ruth Simkin for On The Record: The BC Jewish Queer & Trans Oral History Project in collaboration with JQT Vancouver. Interviewed by Madison Slobin via remote Zoom video call. Ruth (she/her) is a queer Jewish woman who was born in Winnipeg, currently residing in Victoria, B.C. She explains how she used to subscribe to the ‘lesbian’ label, but no longer feels connected to one identity. Ruth recalls her family history in rural Manitoba, including her parents, grandparents and siblings, their livelihoods and her relationships with them. Ruth talks about coming out to her family in her twenties, and her experience with getting married to a man at age 18. She discusses her connections to Jewish community, and how being Jewish was understood by her peers throughout her education. Ruth speaks to her pride in being a doctor and a writer, including having written a feminist Haggadah called ‘Like an Orange on a Seder Plate’. Ruth talks about how writing has become an important outlet for her as she became a wheelchair user. Ruth also discusses queer political organizing in Calgary, and coming to B.C. after ending a serious relationship. She discusses how she went back to school to study palliative care while living on Salt Spring Island, and moving to Victoria once working full time as a palliative care doctor. She closes by talking about being a grandmother, but also the relationship between the Jewish and queer communities.

Oral history interview with Ronald Greene.

Oral history interview with Ronald Greene in preparation for the 2014 Scribe with a focus on Jewish scrap metal dealers.

Part 2 of interview with Reva Hutkin 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. Reva talks about her involvement in a Jewish LGBTQ+ group called HaChud, which was a group active out of Temple Sholom in Vancouver during the late 1970s.

Part 1 of interview with Reva Hutkin 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. Reva (she/her) is a Jewish lesbian who was born in Montreal and residing in Victoria, B.C. Reva recalls her parents and grandparents and their origins in Eastern Europe and livelihoods in Montreal. Reva discusses realizing she was a lesbian while in a heterosexual marriage at age 21 and the distance her family kept when coming out, though finding acceptance being out in her communities, both in person and online. Reva describes her school life growing up with sports and literature, but also antisemitism and fear of communism in Montreal. She talks about university life, working in offices and prominent relationships she hard throughout her adulthood including her current partner Julie. She talks about how she ended up in B.C., how her and Julie met, and having a partner that is also Jewish. Reva talks about her children and grandchildren and how they’ve accepted her as a lesbian, and how they relate to Judaism in their own ways. She closes with the reflection of the importance of self-work and personal change.

Interview with Reva Hutkin as part of the BC Jewish Queer & Trans Oral History Project, in collaboration with JQT Vancouver. In part 1, Reva shares her experience being both lesbian and Jewish in Canada. Reva discusses not being accepted by her family. In part 2, Reva talks about her involvement in a Jewish LGBTQ+ group called HaChud. In part 3, Reva discusses a feminist Haggadah and lesbian Seders.

More detailed summaries are provided on the respective Part 1, 2, 3 pages nested herein.

Part 3 of interview with Reva Hutkin 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. Reva recalls to her time in Montreal being active in Jewish lesbian community. She discusses having lesbian Seders which focused on women’s empowerment and Jewish women’s inclusion concerning Seder. She also participated in Jewish queer writing group that produced a queer Haggadah.