Oral history interview with I.W. who started Chess Brothers Wholesale Fruit and Produce Company, which ran for almost 50 years. He lived in the East End of Vancouver, near Heatley Avenue. I.W. and his brother, were among the founders of Schara Tzedeck Synagogue.
Oral interview with Bernard Victor who was born in Gomel, Russia in 1893 and came to Vancouver, on April 15, 1923, from Winnipeg. Bernard was involved with Talmud Torah, B'nai B'rith, and the Jewish Literary Club. He describes living through two pogroms in Russia. He served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in Europe from 1916 until 1919. His father worked for the Russian Vital Statistics Department and noticed large numbers of Jews leaving, encouraged Bernard and Bernard's brother to leave.
Oral history interview with Gertrude Weinrobe and Violet Franklin (sisters). Their brother Nathan has the honour of being the first Jewish person buried in Mountain View Cemetery after catching Diphtheria on train into BC. Violet works for Imperial Oil and and Gertrude is a stenographer.
Oral history interview with Max Poplack who was born in Vilna, Russia in 1898. The family emigrated to the United States between 1909 to 1910, landing on the East Coast than moving further west and settling in Washington. Max speaks of his father's involvement in the meat industry in Russia and Washington and his own involvement as a butcher in Vancouver.
Oral history interview with Robert Jacoby whose family emigrated from Germany to Washington in 1892. Robert's father worked as a jeweler and moved to Vancouver in 1905 to continue, bringing the entire family up in 1912. Robert worked in the jewelry trade as well, eventually going into business with a brother.
Oral history interview with Dr. David Aberle. The interview contains discussions of Dr. Aberle's non-Jewish upbringing, anthropological fieldwork with the Navajo. It includes his experience with Sen. McCarthy accusing him of being a Soviet spy during the Red Scare, his time in the army during the Second World War surveying the results of the strategic bombings of Japan and Germany. Dr. Aberle is the founder of the Jews for a Just Peace. He worked at the University of Michigan and University of British Columbia in the anthropology department.
Oral history interview with Phyllis Serota. Interviewed by Jean Gerber. Phyllis is a painter living and working in Victoria, BC. She graduated with a BFA from the University of Victoria and has shown extensively throughout Western Canada and the United States since 1977.
Oral history interview with Wilfred - born in 1929 in New York - & Phyllis - born in 1929 in Massachusetts - Solomon. Wilfred was a chaplain in the United States Air Force and than a rabbi in Spokane. His wife Phyllis worked developing the Jewish Film Festival.