name:"Interviewed by Joe Murray" found 25 records - The Canadian Jewish Heritage Network

Scope and Content: Subject: Morton Taller Interviewer: Joe Murray Date: June 1, 2000 Interview Location: Ottawa Length of Time: Part 1 32:05, Part 2 23:27, Part 3 41:44. Total time: 1:37:16 Part 1- 32:05 - Morton begins the tape by talking about how his family came to Canada. Morton expresses how he wished these i…

Collection: Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds

Description Level: Item

Material Type: sound recording

Physical Description: 2 tapes

Scope and Content: Subject: Morton Taller Interviewer: Joe Murray Date: June 1, 2000 Interview Location: Ottawa Length of Time: Part 1 32:05, Part 2 23:27, Part 3 41:44. Total time: 1:37:16 Part 1- 32:05 - Morton begins the tape by talking about how his family came to Canada. Morton expresses how he wished these interviews were done earlier, as he is unclear about some parts of his story. -Taller’s father and mother both came from Russia, but he is unsure of what part. His father was 21/22 and came to Canada in 1901. -He believes his father left Russia because they were conscripted into the army. -He went to New York, and landed at Ellis Island, where he worked as a cabinet maker. -He went to Canada from Ellis Island. Taller is not sure of the exact information -His father landed in Ottawa, where he had no one. -He got a job on a railroad- In W(?)- 60-100 km north of ottawa -He brought his mother, and Taller’s sister Edith, who was born in Russia, out to Ottawa after finishing working at the railroad. -There were 10 kids, most were born in Canada. -Taller’s brother Norman was born in New york, as was Taller -In Canada his father was farming in Billings Bridge, where he had a 300 acre farm that he did not own and cows, and used to sell milk, door to door and downtown. They were there a number of years, and then they stopped in 1916. -From there, the family moved to New York in 1916, where they rented a farm and stayed there for 5 years. -Morton was born in New york in 1919, his brother Norman in 1921. -Taller’s maternal uncle, and his paternal grandfather were brought out as well by his father -They left Ellenville, New York, which was 100 or so miles from New York city. -His father brought out his Auntie Becky, his Auntie Rachel, his Aunt Eva, Aunt Annie. Along with his Uncle Morris, Uncle Oh(?), who was a tailor and got himself into a tailor shop. -The family lived in Sandy Hill, and some relatives lived along Murray Street -They were the original Jews that came from Russia and congregated on Murray street -The “smaller Taller” is now living in Israel- he married a girl who worked for the Israeli embassy and they’re now living there -The “taller Taller” is living in Israel but is very sick now- he is near the border up north near Lebanon. -His aunts and uncles were not named Taller, but had to take on his father’s name to come to Canada. His fathers name was not Taller either, it was Tallerenski? But they gave him the name Taller when he immigrated. All the people in his family who came to Canada were given the name Taller as well -There were other families who came to Canada. The Tsvinskis? And Sepkas? -Norman and Ralph Sepkas were children who were brought to Canada and Sam Sepkas became a butcher -In Ottawa, Taller was living on Bayview Road. His father bought the corner of Bayview and Wellington. -His father was originally a mattress maker in Europe, so when he came here, he bought that corner, and he started making mattresses -Taller was 2 years old when he came from New York, and they came to Ottawa in 1921 -At that time, they lived above a factory. Their roof leaked, but they lived there anyway. -They later moved down to Cummings Ave, and after that, each family branched out. -His Zeidi (father’s father) bought a horse and a wagon, and he was a peddler who went door to door. When his Zeidi used to come downtown, his Zeidi always stopped to talk to Morton’s father because he was his only son. He always came with cents for the kids, but Morton’s mother didn’t like that as she didn’t want her children to become beggars. -His grandparents were religious. -Zeidi Mayor, was his Mother’s father and Bubby L? -Up in Billings Bridge, his father started a small shul because there were other Jews living there the area. After his father finally moved from the farm to the city, he used to go back up to Billings Bridge all the time. By 1926, his father had a Chevy truck he would use to visit Billings Bridge. -The Greenbergs and Soloways were families there, they also grew vegetables -Mika Greenberg, Sam Greenberg, Johnny Greenberg, and Benny Greenberg are descendants of that Greenberg family -In Billing’s Bridge, H.B. Billings, was the squire who owned all the property. -Not so long ago there was an opening up the hill, and two of H.B.’s daughters were there. One of his son’s got killed in the war. Taller introduced himself to the daughters and said his father farmed the land many years ago. Taller talked with the daughters about how interesting it is to date back how people came here with nothing, and how people either lived, gained, or died. Taller said these are real pioneering stories -Taller transferred to Kanuck Public school in Grade 5, and he was there for about 2 years and then sent to Devonshire public school. -The kids played baseball because a bat and ball was cheap and lasted a long time, and there were outdoor skating rinks that were free. -Taller’s father was a great believer in the second hand stores on Williams street. He only bought second hand. The kids had skates, gloves, hockey sticks from Winnow street second hand stores. Taller said the rich sold them and the poor bought them but it was great fun. -From Devonshire Public School, he went to Glebe highschool, but was not good at school. -After, there was advertising for people to work in the government, so Taller took an exam and passed. He became an office boy at 17, making $35 a month. He mentioned that later when he came back from overseas he got $60 a month. -Taller wanted to be a pilot in the air force, but his mother said he should make some money so he stayed with the Goverment job. He worked there for 4 years. And then the war broke out. -Taller was living on bayview road when the war broke out, and all those 21 years of age and over had to do 4 months. He was called up, he did his 4 months, and he really didn’t know what to do and they were given an option; if they volunteered they could take any service they want. -So Taller volunteered, was sent to Toronto, got in the air force, and was an LAC(?) -While in active service, they gave him a job where he went to Quebec, and he worked in the photography section as a GD, the General Dealer? (unclear). He wasn’t there very long before he was sent overseas. -Joe brings Taller back to his education. Taller went to Devonshire and Glebe highschool. He went to Hader Jewish studies on George street, where Lipschitz was his teacher. Solemski and Raspberg were both teachers there as well. -He remembers Lipschitz taught them, but Taller didn’t do well. Lipschitz was strict on Taller -Lipschitz and Solemski got into a fight with the admin of the school, and started a school on Rideau street. Later they reconciled so they came back to the first school on George Street. -Morton Taller begins telling a story about a boy named Jack who drowned. Jack’s family had a cottage in Old Orchard and he drowned. Taller remembers when they brought him home everyone was wondering what was going on. -Joe and Taller reminisce about how in those days the Rabbis used their fists, canes, whatever, and loved to pull ears. -Izzy Shinder, Louis Fiends, Rubin Fiends, and Dave Fiends were in his class. -Taller doesn’t remember if there were girls in Hader, he doesn’t think they went to Hader in those days, or at least there were none in his class Morton recalls that there were big snowball fights between Jews and others, because Hader backed onto York street, where York public school was so they would meet and fight. -Morton recalls his mother liked having live chickens at home because she liked fresh poultry. -His father bought him a bike and he remembers he used to have chickens in a bag on his back, he’d bring them to rideau where they'd be slaughtered and he'd pick them up after Hader. He would bring them home and his mother would pluck them Part 1 ends with Joe asking about what Butchers there were in Ottawa at the time. Part 2: 23:27 -Joe asks Morton to backtrack to his family, specifically the 10 children. -Morton reminisces on how women today don't have time to clean the floors and do the shopping at the same time, but his mother had time to clean the house, raise 10 kids, do milking on the farm and gather eggs. -He’s the only brother left out of 5 brothers and 5 sisters -He lists his brother; Sam, Moses, Norman, Archie, and himself Morton. He begins to list his sisters, naming only Edith before moving on. -Edith married Mor Sasler, a butcher who wanted to open a butcher shop. -Taller’s family worked with Sasler after he opened his butcher shop, Capital Meat Market on Bell Street. Taller's sister Eva was a cashier and Taller helped in the butcher shop. -Backtracking to 1941, Morton went overseas for 4 years. Archie and Norm also went overseas in the army in 1941. They went over within 6 months of each other, but he forgets the name of the boat he went over on. -Morton remembers when he woke up in the morning, they were surrounded by American war ships; 4 destroyers, 4 battle cruisers. He said it felt good to see them in 1941, considering the North Atlantic was full of German submarines. -Morton landed in Greenock Scotland. They had nothing to eat, and the story was the Germans bombed the gasworks and that was why they had to eat uncooked bread -He went down south to (?) for 17 days, and then he was in the south side of London for 4 months. He was then posted in the 408 squadron up north. -Morton’s brothers were in Europe; Archie was in Italy. Norman never got out of England even though he was first overseas and the last home. Norman got married in London. -Archie almost got married but the CO’s took him off the ground and then he was in Italy for 14 months. He was in the 23rd Ambulance?. Norman was in the 5th CS? -Morton was there until 1944, before he was sent home. -There were a lot of changes when he came back. -Morton got 30 days leave, and they gave him 12 months pay at $100 a month which for him was a big step. He bought a car, a 1941 chevy, and was back to work in the government, but he found it sickening. -Morton remembers he was a driver in the air force, where he was outside all the time and then he had to go back to the government and sit around and everyone looked sick to him. -He left there and went to work for his brother in law Abel Who was a butcher, at the Ottawa meat and fish in the Byward market. -Abel used to yell at his workers because when they picked up the fish they picked them up by the eyes, and then the eyes got squished and it didn't look fresh, so people wouldn't buy them. -Morton worked for Abel for a few months but he was too tough so Taller left and went back to his government job. -After his government job, Archie and Morton bought West End Meat Market. They almost bought the tailor store, but there was something wrong with the lease. It belonged to Zegarman, who was a tough landlord, and someone else he can’t remember. -After West End Meat Market, they went into Albert Meat Market. -Morton’s brother in law Morris owned Albert meat market, and Archie and Morton went in and learned how to Butcher. Morton remembers on Saturdays it was packed. -Archie, Morton and their brother in law Morris were tired of the butcher shop, so they wanted to turn it into a self-serve store on 71 Williams. -While they were building the butcher shop into a self-serve store, Morton made a few trips to other self-serve stores to figure out how to do it. -Morton was 35 when they turned this into a self-serve store. -After a short while, the self-serve made the manual serve look bad with sales, and they went completely self-serve, leading to a spike in sales. -They used to take in about $4000 on Saturdays and went up to $12,000 on Saturdays, because of the self-serve. At the time, they had about 30 employees. -Morton begins to tell a story about Ray who worked at the Schule and was his spare driver. They built the butcher shop across the street where a shoe store was, which is now a restaurant that they owned. The whole top floor was a freezer and downstairs they rented it out to a food store. They kept turkeys across the street in the freezer, so when you wanted a box of turkeys you went across the street. In each box there were 4 15 lbs turkey in a box so 6o lbs per box. The bottom of a box became wet and when Ray picked it up, the turkey fell out and landed on his foot. To this day, Morton says Ray says he can still feel it. -Morton met his wife Sally. She taught school in Ottawa and she lived with his aunt Becky. Morton was introduced to Sally and 6 months later they were married -Morton begins to tell the story of his wife Sally. Sally comes from a farm in Kemptville. She and her sisters and parents came over here in 1939, after they escaped Poland. Canada allowed 50 jewish families from Poland, and they were one of the families picked to come here. -Sally had a brother and 3 sisters. However, her brother was turned away by the immigration officers. They told her parents to take him back to Europe or the entire family had to go back. -Sally was only 9 years old. Her father stayed in Canada with the girls, while her mother took her brother back to Poland. Sally doesn’t know or remember why her brother was turned away. But her mother came back and never spoke of it. -After getting married, Morton and Sally lived on a chicken farm, where they had around 12,000 chickens and used to ship them to Montreal. -Sally and Morton had 4 children, unfortunately their son Jay was 29 when he died. -Morton has 3 lovely daughters. And at the time they had 4 children, so 4 grandchildren for Morton and Sally. Tape 2 ends. Part 3: 41:44 -For the 3rd session, Joe states he was just handed a typewritten sheet, 14 inches long, with all kinds of data that Morton will explain. -Morton recalls he was discharged from the air force and placed on reserve. The reason being the air force had more people than they needed so they were placed on reserve rather than discharged because they were still at War with Japan. The condition of their reserve was if they had to go to war with Japan, Morton would have to go back on active service. -Morton says that luckily for him the Americans ended the war in the Pacific and he did not have to go back. -Joe starts to read some of the volunteer things Morton had done. He was the former chairman with JNF, served with UGA for 20 years, and was the immediate past chairman for the state of Israel bonds -On his support of Israel, Taller says he was always connected with Israel in the fact that he believed in it very much, to the extent now he has a daughter who lives there who has had 3 children born there. She didn’t marry an Israeli but married Professor Steinburg, who is a writer. -Morton also owns an apartment there, and the last time he and Sally were there was February 2000 -Joe asks Morton Taller about his connection with the Bechlem? Congregation and when he came to Machzikei Hadas. -Morton recalls how a friend Zawyer? took them out for dinner and said he had found land for a synagogue. -Sally Taller expresses her gratitude to Rabbi B? For his role in the purchasing of the land used for the synagogue, and helping them to not be unjustly penalized. -Sally mentions how they were still at Bechlem while the land for Machzikei was being built, as they lived there from 1958-1976. -Morton says they chose to build where they did because there was already a Shul in the West end, and as the Jewish community was growing they wanted a new location. The land was available, and it belonged to the United Church who was selling it. -Sam, Archie, Morton, paid $3000 to get the land. -Morton mentions Rabbi Boka, who helped them get the land, after he was, according to Morton, given a bad deal. Morton believed the city did not treat Rabbi Boka with respect, so Morton bought the land. -Joe mentions how proud he was because people used to go to the same Shul as him. -Morton mentioned how not a lot of people had money, but he was always trying to be generous to those who needed help. -Joe asked Morton about his membership with the Royal Canadian air force association, and does he attend any events/meetings? -Morton responds the events are usually friday night -Sally Taller says Morton was in charge of a big dinner for the 45th anniversary, and all members came to Ottawa. -Morton is also a B’nai Brith Gold Menorah Member, a charter member at the Rideau View Golf and Country Club, and a meat packer council member -On the golf course, Morton says there were only a few of us that put the money in there. The land was donated by Alec Betchelmen? He was a great guy. Taller says that before Jews couldn’t get into golf courses but now they could fund it themselves -Archie and Morton were members and then Sam joined later. Morton passed on his membership to his daughter -Morton says at the start of his membership he put in $1000, Archie put in $1000. Right away they jacked it up for charter members for $1500. When he went to transfer his membership to his daughter it was $7000. -Sally begins to retell the story of her childhood and coming to Canada. She was born in Poland, her father left Poland in 1939, he was determined to get out of Poland. They left his mother and his brother and at the time in 1939 Poland was very generous and allowed 50 polish families to go to Canada with the condition they bought farmland -Her fathers brother was in New York and he knew if he didn’t go to canada he’d never see him again -Sally was 9 and they found a farm in Kemptville for $2000, the only money they could bring into the country -Schniderman’s in Kemptville took it upon themselves to help her father and backed him when he was purchasing the land and to this day Sally’s family is very grateful. -Sally said her family were 3 sisters and 1 brother, when they got to Pier 21 in Halifax, for some reason her brother was not allowed. The Polish medical said everything was ok but then said to her parents either you take your son back and leave him or you all go back. -Her mother took her little brother back and left him with her uncle. By the grace of god her mother came back in august 1939. -They came to the farm and didn’t know the language or the farm. It was rough but her parents and sisters were wonderful and her family was very orthodox. -Slowly communities started to get bigger in Kemptville, and she recalls Mister Miller gave them part of their house to make Shul -She graduated from public school and highschool and the teachers were good to them and made sure they learned proper english. -She went to Queens and her parents said whatever you do make sure you have an education and that “You can carry your head like a suitcase stuff it as much as you can” -Her parents moved to Ottawa in 1967, but they still go to Kemptville every sunday to spend time as a family -Sally taught for 2 years and after she got married they wouldn't let her teach in Ottawa anymore. -Sally is involved with Hadas. She’s a life member, Chairman of committees, involved with the state of Israel bonds and still involved with Misrahai? -She felt they were doing a great job at keeping tradition and building a sense of community. -She enjoyed volunteering because you got to meet a lot of people -She was a staunch supporter of jewish education and the Tomatoha board, -She thinks it’s very important to have an education -She sent her kids to jewish camps and taught them at home -Her son graduated MIT as an engineer -They all graduated, her daughter Connie got her masters -Morton says that while he’s not a blackhat he believes in shul, rabbis, he’s more or less religious and he believes in jewish organizations, -He’s active in the Jewish war veterans of Canada, but it takes people; Nat Levinson started it. He was chairman for 5-7 years and he wanted to get rid of it but there were no takers. So they had a meeting and Morton stepped forward. -After Morton became chairman of the board of veterans, they had meetings at his house. -He was chairman for 3-4 years but he got sick leading to an operation on his leg. He wasn't able to chair anymore, but he was still a supporter. -The Jewish War Veterans of Canada put out a book, and are a great source of pride for the Jews. Taller says there’s so many who did wonderful service during the war. -Sally took a lot of pictures so they could share their stories with their kids -Sally talks about her time in a choir started by her Cantor, and said she loved being in the choir. When it started there were very few young people in it. -Sally did more volunteer work when the kids were young and she said they always had their house open. -Morton recalls when they went to Montreal to hear a guest speaker, and Jack Smith offered to take Morton’s family all on the bus. They brought their kids and Morton says that his middle daughter Beverly is active in volunteering because of this experience. -They did their best to teach the kids at home so they would carry on traditions. -Their daughter Connie got her masters at Cornell but had to do more schooling in Israel to get a valid nutritionist license. -They have one daughter, Lynda, who lives close by who comes every Friday night for dinner. -All of Morton and Sally’s kids when to college. Recording cut out at 31:55.

Responsibility: Interviewed by Joe Murray

Date: June 1, 2000

Fonds No.: O0045

Storage Location: vault

History / Biographical: Digitized by: Emma Bower

Name Access: Joe Murray

Archival / Genealogical: Archival Descriptions

Repository: Ottawa Jewish Archives

Interview with Norman Polowin

https://www.cjhn.ca/link/cjhn106355

Collection: Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds

Description Level: Item

Material Type: sound recording

Physical Description: 3 tapes

Fonds No.: O0045

Date: January 2, 2001

Collection: Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds

Description Level: Item

Material Type: sound recording

Physical Description: 3 tapes

Responsibility: Interviewed by Joe Murray

Date: January 2, 2001

Fonds No.: O0045

Storage Location: vault

Name Access: Joe Murray

Archival / Genealogical: Archival Descriptions

Repository: Ottawa Jewish Archives

Interview with Ruth Polowin

https://www.cjhn.ca/link/cjhn106356

Collection: Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds

Description Level: Item

Material Type: sound recording

Fonds No.: O0045

Date: December 7, 2000

Collection: Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds

Description Level: Item

Material Type: sound recording

Responsibility: Interviewed by Joe Murray

Date: December 7, 2000

Fonds No.: O0045

Storage Location: vault

Name Access: Joe Murray

Archival / Genealogical: Archival Descriptions

Repository: Ottawa Jewish Archives

Interview with Sam Shapiro.

https://www.cjhn.ca/link/cjhn106631

Collection: Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds

Description Level: Item

Material Type: sound recording

Fonds No.: O0045

Date: March 15, 2001

Collection: Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds

Description Level: Item

Material Type: sound recording

Responsibility: Interviewed by Joe Murray

Date: March 15, 2001

Fonds No.: O0045

Storage Location: vault

Name Access: Joe Murray

Archival / Genealogical: Archival Descriptions

Repository: Ottawa Jewish Archives

Interview with Sheila Baslaw

https://www.cjhn.ca/link/cjhn106436

Collection: Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds

Description Level: Item

Material Type: sound recording

Fonds No.: O0045

Date: February 20, 2001

Scope and Content: Subject: Sheila Baslaw Interviewer: Joe Murray Date: February 20th Interview Location: Ottawa, ON Length of Time: 55:38 -Sheila’s mom was a Rebnovsky and her family was from Ukraine. She was 1 of 7 children and the family lost their parents early. One daughter, Sophie, came to Canada and met her …

Collection: Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds

Description Level: Item

Material Type: sound recording

Scope and Content: Subject: Sheila Baslaw Interviewer: Joe Murray Date: February 20th Interview Location: Ottawa, ON Length of Time: 55:38 -Sheila’s mom was a Rebnovsky and her family was from Ukraine. She was 1 of 7 children and the family lost their parents early. One daughter, Sophie, came to Canada and met her husband. Her husband grew close to Sophie’s family and brought them all over to Canada. -Sheila’s fathers family was from the small town of Purila Estonia. He had 7 siblings and came to Canada during the depression. -Sheila’s father's Hebrew name was Shika and he was an upholsterer in Ottawa. He owned a shop on Wellington Street where the family lived for many years. Sheila talks about how few jewish families lived in the west end. -Sheila’s father then bought a new house and a Roman Catholic Church in Sandy Hill. He used the church as his workshop and the family moved to Sandy Hill. His new shop was on Clarence and Church. -The family also bought a 4 unit house and rented out the remaining 3 units. Sheila lived here from the ages of 9-15. The family then moved to 265 Wilborn ave. -Sheila had 2 siblings; her brother Norman was born in 1931, she was born in 1932, and her sister Rhoda was born in 1938. -Sheila took music and tap dancing classes when she was a child. -Sheila had always dreamed of becoming a social worker, she went to Carleton University and then the St.Patrick School for Social Work. -Sheila talks about her mother teaching herself to read, walking to Mikkenberg’s(?) for smoked meat on Sundays, and how her brother inspired her with how studious he was. -Sheila has been employed since she was 15 years old. She worked at a daycare for multiple summers and then as a camp counselor in the laurentians. She talks about odd jobs she had as a cashier in various clothing stores. -The family had a summer cottage near woodroffe. They would spend the summer there and only come downtown for special occasions. -Sheila married Morton Taller in 1955 and they had 3 children. David was born in 1960, Lawrence was born in 1961, and Coleman was born in 1963. -Sheila talks about the war years in Ottawa. She was young but she recalls rationing and making a blanket with her friend to donate. Morton was 17 when he joined the air force and was sent to Europe. -Sheila returned to work when her son David was 7. She applied for a job at Northern Affairs setting up counseling services for the indigenous communities in the north. She found this job very rewarding and interesting. She then went to work for the Children’s Aid Society where she set up group counseling for unmarried mothers. She then went to McGill to take a course s=of interest for her work where she then joined a research project. In 1976 she became the head of a project to set up research and resources for child abuse, -Sheila talks of her children and their careers, Morton’s career in art, his teaching at the Ottawa Art School and the families painting trips they would take. -Sheila never got to go to Hebrew school growing up and wanted to, so later in her life she attended Hebrew school and had her Bat Mitzvah. Her and Morton continued to educate themselves and are currently taking skating, skiing, and tai chi classes. END OF TAPE

Responsibility: Interviewed by Joe Murray

Date: February 20, 2001

Fonds No.: O0045

Storage Location: vault

Name Access: Joe Murray

Archival / Genealogical: Archival Descriptions

Repository: Ottawa Jewish Archives

25 records – page 2 of 2.

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