- CA JMABC A.1971.001-20.01-03
- Stuk
- January 11, 2000
Part of JHSBC Oral History Collection
Oral History interview with Iris Andrews. Born in 1933, Iris lived in London before moving to Vancouver once war broke out in 1940. Iris’s maternal grandfather was the first in her family to come to Canada, arriving in Vancouver in 1911. He opened a kosher bakery called Mother Hubbard Bakery on the corner of West Broadway. Iris’s maternal grandparents belonged to the Beth Israel congregation prior to the construction of the synagogue on Oak St. Her paternal grandparents were from Balaya Tserkoff, Russia (Now Bila Tserkva, Ukraine). Her paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Russian Army in the calvary before being designated a free man. Iris’s paternal grandparents arrived in England in 1903, where her grandfather began to works as a cigarette maker. Iris lived in Vancouver from 1940-1945 as war evacuee, and later returned to the city with her husband and two children in 1962. Iris was very active in the Jewish community; she was involved with Sisterhood at Beth Israel, she joined the Nordau chapter of Hadassah-WIZO, she worked as a Rabbi Secretary at Beth Israel, and she was on the committee for the Beth Israel museum.