Showing 6 results

Oral history interview with Anna R. Leith who was born in 1923 in Prince George. Studied bacteriology in University and wound up working in Bio-Medical Libraries. Involved in a number of associations, Canadian Society of Lab. Technologists; active in the General B. C. Library Association., president eventually, the B.C. Librarians, and Canadian Library Association. After she retired she joined the National Council of Jewish Women, the Genealogy Association of B.C, the JCC and the Jewish Historical Society.

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.

Oral History interview with Leslie Andrews. Born in 1929, Leslie grew up in a village a few miles out from London, and he speaks about what the Jewish community was like as he grew up. Leslie’s father was a tailor, and he collaborated with Leslie’s mother to start a clothing shop in London that sold waistcoats and petticoats called Andrews and Goldberg. During World War II, they moved their shop out of London to Aylesbury, and had contracts to make raincoats for the British Armed Forces. Leslie talks about the complications he had with both his secular and Jewish education in England. Leslie went to school to become a pediatric pulmonologist and proceeded to work in physical medicine. After the war ended, Leslie met his wife Iris, and became the first person in his family to come to Canada, emigrating to Vancouver in January 1962. He began working at the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Center. Leslie, Iris, and their children attended Beth Israel synagogue, and were quite active in the Jewish community in Vancouver, with Iris working as a secretary and Leslie acting as chairman for various committees at Beth Israel. He talks about how the Jewish community in Vancouver has changed since he first arrived in British Colombia.

Oral history interview with Naomi Katz who was born in Durban, 1924. Her mother, Rachel Newman, was born in 1900 and her father, Emphram Levey, was born in 1895. Naomi's first job was as a stenographer in Vancouver, later she took courses in teaching English as a Second Language, where Naomi found work at the Vancouver School Board. Was head of Directions ESL conference and helped produce 'Blue Brief', presented to the government in 1981, it focused on settlement services in multicultural societies. Naomi participated in the Parent-Teacher conferences ,Canadian Jewish Congress forum, the Jewish Historical Society and started the West Coast Reader for non-native English speakers.

Oral History Interview with Olga Campbell for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Bill Gruenthal. Olga Campbell was born in Iraq in 1943 and immigrated to Canada at the age of five in 1948. She explains her family’s experience with both Russian prison camps and the Holocaust during WWII, where they eventually made it safely to Canada. She discusses her journey as a social worker turned arts professional, including her time spent at Emily Carr and Capilano arts schools. As a second generation Holocaust survivor, Olga discusses how being Jewish and the associated inter-generational trauma of Holocaust survivorship has informed her works. Olga is a mixed-media artist, working in digital and traditional mediums, including collage and sculpture. She also published her art in a book focused on her family’s experience of the Holocaust that has fostered connections to her story, shared herein.

Oral history interview with Reva Checov who was born in a small village in Russia in 1897. Later in life when she emigrated to Canada she went to McGill University and the University of British Columbia. Reva was involved in the Pioneer Women, National Council of Jewish Women, B'nai B'rith; Red Cross, Heart Foundation, Cancer Society ; Israeli Affairs and the Jewish National Fund among an assortment of other roles.