Interview with Shaira SD Holman 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. SD identifies themself overall as queer, but also as a butch dyke and genderqueer. SD talks about being raised as a secular and cultural Jew. SD talks about growing up in LA to a single parent and eventually moving to Rock Creek, BC becoming a cowboy on the countryside. SD shares about being ‘out’ as queer in high school and eventually going to Emily Carr for arts upon moving to Vancouver. SD talks about not feeling at home in Vancouver’s Jewish community as compared with the working class Jews in LA or their Jewish leatherdyke community in San Francisco. SD talks about their late wife Catherine, and how they were each others’ sanctuary where Catherine was encouraging to their arts endeavors. SD talks about the Pride in Arts Society, and creating the Queer Arts Festival. SD also talks about opening the SUM Gallery as a place for queer artists to be themselves and kickstarting queer recognition in Vancouver's arts scene. SD closes by giving the advice that life is not a sprint, but a marathon; to keep learning, and remember the history that comes before you.
Interview with Jack Huberman 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. Jack (he/him) is a gay Jewish man born in Calgary, Alberta. Jack talks about his family’s origins in Poland and his parents’ livelihoods as grocers and property owners upon immigrating to Canada. Jack shares he realized he was gay very late in life, and how little dialogue about being queer and Jewish at the time made him reluctant to ‘come out’ within his Jewish community in Vancouver. He discusses the writing and mentorship of Rabbi Gil Steinlauf as a catalyst for understanding his sexuality within a Jewish context, though shares how ‘coming out’ did not make him feel welcomed across all parts of his Jewish community, including his own congregation. Jack talks about his desire to foster a greater awareness and acceptance for queer Jews. He discusses his experiences through school, including how he eventually became lawyer, and volunteering throughout the Jewish community in Vancouver. Jack closes by talking about his immediate family, including his husband, children, and grandchildren, and the importance of treating others equally and maintaining good relationships with those around you.
Oral history interview with Harvey Gerber, who worked at Simon Fraser University as a logician when it opened in 1965. Harvey relates attaching himself and his wife to the Vancouver Jewish community, opening up a Peace in the Middle-East chapter at SFU and overall the academic climate towards Israel.
Oral history interview with Joshua Wapp who was born in Ontario, 1969. His parents are both American but left for Canada due to politics. He works as a Cartoonist.
Oral History Interview with Mia Weinberg for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Bill Gruenthal. Mia was born in London, England in 1958. She describes her life as a child of German-Jewish refugees post-WWII, growing up in England and the role this had on her life, including her art work. She discusses her transition from a materials technologist in England to an immigrant in Vancouver, going to art school in her 30s and becoming an independent working artist. Mia is known for working with unconventional materials in her works, most often sculpture and installations.
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 Tanya Bub for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Daniella Givon. Tanya was born in Minnesota in 1969. Tanya speaks about her family history and her upbringing in Beit Yanai, Israel as a child as well as London, Ontario. Tanya discusses her life in academia while also focused on parenthood and finances, and how she transitioned into an art career in Vancouver. Tanya describes her art as part of the ‘eco-art’ genre, as her mediums are often natural, like driftwood, or recycled and/or found materials. Tanya tells stories of finding community by creating interactive sculptures, especially driftwood people and animals, shared through public art installations across B.C.
Oral Interview with Jessica Freedman for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Daniella Givon via remote Zoom call. Jessica was born in Montreal, but recalls moving around as a child to Israel and back to Canada where she grew up in Calgary. She explains immediate family history which included her mother who was a professional actor, and her father and brother who are musicians. She was primarily introduced to the arts through dance and music, though eventually was trained in visual arts at Simon Fraser University. She describes her different careers as a dancer, choreographer, accountant and yoga studio owner and instructor, but pursued arts full time after quitting her job to take care of her mother who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Jessica explains how her painting style transitioned from realism to more expressive abstracts over time, and how she is inspired by emotions and colour. She also discusses how she is motivated by nature and chaos, collaborating on commissions, and the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, having her art contribute as a light to the world.
Oral Interview with Suzy Birstein for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Carol Herbert. Suzy was born in Toronto, ON and she describes her family history within Toronto and origins in Eastern Europe. She describes growing up with artistic influences from her parents who liked classical painters and attending art galleries and her aunts who would knit and embroider. It wasn’t until college that Suzy saw herself as an artist; through working as an artist model, she was exposed to various studio spaces and art classes. Suzy speaks about her experience at Emily Carr, in learning hand building pottery, and being a full-time artist while balancing motherhood both in Toronto and in Vancouver. She also talks about her artistic style, including the influences of Kahlo and Picasso and prominent themes including feminism, resilience and expression; These can be seen in her Frida Kahlo inspired exhibition and in her Ladies Not Waiting series. Suzy discusses the highlights of her career including her work for the 2008 Academy Awards and her teaching of workshops at an artist residency in Greece. She also talks about her teaching at Arts Umbrella and within the wider community
Oral Interview with Lori Goldberg for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Daniella Givon. Lori, born and raised in Vancouver, talks about her family’s history in BC and abroad, her childhood, and early artistic influences in her family. She also discusses how she was introduced to visual arts through attending classes at the Vancouver Jewish Community Centre and her education at Langara and the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. Lori describes how she struggled to find her footing and artistic identity in college and how it affected her mental health, but prompted her to return to Vancouver and get her own art studio on Granville Island. Lori talks about her development as an artist, becoming a teacher at Emily Carr, and continuing art education as a single mother. Lori discusses how travelling to Bali and seeing the country’s spirituality concerning objects inspired her future art projects that addressed meaning and memory in kept things, but also offered her a new outlook on the mundane, like using dryer lint as an art medium. She also talks about being able to do charity in Cambodia through art, and how observing discarded objects influenced the creation of a new exhibit centering environmentalism. She closes with talk about her work with galleries and experiences with commissions.