Oral interview with Alex Kliner. Interviewed by Peter Doolan for SLAIS Oral History class. Kliner was born in Philadelphia in 1930. His parents were from Rusia and he talks about his parent’s life and growing up in Philadelphia. At 20 he was drafted to fight in the Korean War. He came back and studied acting at Hedgerow. After he graduated, he went to New York to work on Broadway. Morris Schwartz told him not to go into Yiddish Theatre because it was dying. He talks about McCarthyism and the blacklist in Hollywood and on Broadway. A friend convinced him to move to Hollywood. Here he went to Los Angeles Community College and UCLA and got a master’s degree. His teachers told him not to get his PhD and got into teaching instead. He moved to Vancouver to work at the Peretz School. He then became the program director at JCC. With Tova Sneider he started the Jewish Heritage Theatre Company. Later he became the Executive Director of State of Israel Bond. He also worked with Chelm Cultural Club

Oral history interview with Seymour Levitan who was born in Philadelphia, 1936. Seymour was drafted into the American army in 1961 but missed the Vietnam war, pursuing a Ph.D and teaching English at the University of British Columbia. Seymour helped organize the Jewish Film Festival, helped launch the Chelm Film Series.

Interview with Yosef Wosk, interviewed by Carol Herbert. Yosef speaks about his family’s history in Ukraine and Russia and how pogroms and anti-Semitism led to their immigration to Vancouver, Canada. Yosef discusses his father’s beginnings in Vancouver and the growth of the Wosk business as peddlers in the furniture business, primarily in South Granville. He talks about his upbringing and relationship to his family and their immense presence in both the Jewish and business community. He speaks about his lengthy education at numerous secular institutions and rabbinic schooling at two Yeshivas and with scholars in North America and Israel. Yosef discusses his career as a rabbi in North America and his directing of interdisciplinary programs at Simon Fraser University.