Montreal's Jewish neighbourhood of Papineau
 



Bar Mitzvahs, intermarriage, divorce, food

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Q: What about things like, uh, did anybody marry someone who wasn't Jewish?
A: You asked me about the Herman family. Somebody that married who wasn't Jewish,
   and it was Really bad.

Q: "Really bad" meaning people would..?
A: Like, "would you believe that?" That kind of thing. And I know Archie Cohen, who was a friend
   of mine, he lived on De La Roche St., his mother was French-Canadian and his father Jewish,
   and everybody knew it, I mean, nothing, y'know, but...

Q: Had she converted?
A: I think so.

Q: ...but it was a big deal. What about divorces? Are they around then?
A: (Pause) I dont think I know of one divorce.

Q: What about people getting pregnant?
A: Well, uh, Madeleine, an Italian girl on Cartier street, got pregnant before
   she got married, it's Madeleine or Margaret, I think Madeleine. Margaret was the one that Dave
   Kunigas had a picture of.

Q: You said there were Bar Mitzvahs?

A: Oh, well, Bar Mitzvahs were like a, a religious thing... (pause) there's no such thing
as non-bar mitzvah.

Q: They had a big celebration or not as big?
A: Not, nothing like now... myself i just went up and said my thing.

Q: And was that common?
A: Particularly, in my case i think more than others, because my mother gave birth to judy about the same time.

Q: What about your friends?
A: No, they're all small, yeah, small things.

Q: Was there such thing as klezmer music going on? Recognizable as that ?
A: When i hear some klezmer music now, there's some of it that my mother used to sing and dance to.

Q: At a wedding - did you go to any weddings? While you were a kid, before you were marrigeable age yourself?
A: (Pause) Would you believe, I don't think I ever went to a wedding.

Q: Ok, weddings for your friends: what music would people play? What would they listen to? Was it
  Jewish stuff or stuff on the radio?
A: I think Jewish stuff, yeah.

Q: You don't know of any tunes?
A: No.

Q: And food. what was, like, what did you usually get? Boiled chicken, like we used to get from Muriel?
A: Boiled chicken, gefilte fish, flanken, uh, borscht, um, halashkes, particularly us because we were
   Russian, you know, we were immigrants. So... all of that.

Q: At klezklamp they're constantly making jokes about chullent. Did you get that?
A: Chullent, yeah. What did they say about that?

Q: How bad it is, you have to make it well ahead of time, I don't know why it's the butt of jokes.
A: ...and my mother would make cherry jam that i flipped over, and apple pie, and when we were up in the 
   country we'd pick chokecherries, they make wonderful jam.









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