Oral interview with Cathy Netter Bregman. Interviewed by Saguna Shankar for SLAIS Oral History class.
A priority for the interview was to record Cathy Bregman's knowledge about traditions and beliefs related to the Jewish life cycle. In particular, the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia (JMABC) specified an interest in documenting the burial and funerary practises in the community. Other topics of interest to JMABC are stories about Jewish faith-based groups, activities, events, and interconnections between community leaders.
The fonds consists of correspondence, meeting minutes, financial records, newspaper clippings, and photographs from the Mountain View Cemetery Restoration Committee (under the Schara Tzedeck Cemetery Board). The fonds includes extensive records of all Jewish families buried in the cemetery, including pictures of their gravestones before and after being restored, family trees, and copies of birth, immigration, marriage, and death certificates when available.
Oral history interview with Fay Riback. Fay Riback knows it takes volunteers to get things done in a community. From participating in activities at her children's schools, to commitments at Temple Sholom, to volunteering with Hadassah-WIZO, Fay Riback has spent 50 years in Vancouver giving back. For Fay, it doesn't matter what you do as long as you do something.
Fay was heavily involved with Hadassah-WIZO in Vancouver. She worked directly with the Hadassah bazaar and the Hadassah golf tournaments. She was also the Hadassah national vice-president. Today she is very involved with Temple Sholom and helps her husband (Bud Riback) run his monthly seniors group at Temple Sholom. Fay is an excellent baker!
Bud and Fay were very instrumental in organizing the support for the Vietnamese boat family who were sponsored by Temple Sholom.
Oral history interview with Flora Bluma Field. She was born in Los Angeles in 1924. She grew up Orthodox. Her father was a tailor and her mother worked with him in the tailor shop they owned. She studied music at UCLA. She moved to Vancouver in 1957 with her husband. They originally come to meet her father-in-law and fell in love with Vancouver. She got involved with the North Shore Jewish Community Association when she moved here. They celebrate holidays and had Bar Mitzvahs there. She has been volunteering with the Peretz Centre for years and been on the programming committee.
Oral history interview with George Weinstein. . George was born in Romania in 1925 and moved to Vancouver as a small child. He talks about his family and his mother’s involvement with the Vancouver Jewish Community. In 1944, he left high school and joined the Canadian Navy. After the war he went to work for his uncle in the scrap metal business driving a truck. He met his life Mildred at a Jewish Youth Group and they had 3 sons together. He talks about his parents coming to Vancouver in 1900 and his mother’s Journey in 1928. He talks about growing up in Vancouver.
Oral history interview with Dan Sonnenschein on his mother Bronia Sonnenschein, who was born in Vienna in 1915. Dan talks about his mother’s experience during the war. She was smuggled into Poland after the annexation but ended up living most of the war in the Lodz Ghetto before being sent to camps in 1944. After the war she moved to Prague, where she worked for the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. She got married in Prague and they moved first to Haifa Israel then Vancouver in 1950. Dan’s Father died in 1952. She got a job and raised her children as a single mother. After she retired, she volunteered with many organizations, including JCC and congress. She did a lot of work for holocaust education in BC by going on tours and giving talks to school groups and other organizations.
