- Ottawa Jewish Archives
- Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds
- Interview with David and Diane Kriger
Interview with David and Diane Kriger
Description only — contact the archive8
- Held by
- Ottawa Jewish Archives via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)
- Dates
- July 31, 2005 (indexed as 2005)
- Level
- item
- Scope & content
- David and Diane Kriger’s grandparents are Max and Annie Movshovitz, who were married in Montreal in 1916 and came to Carleton Place shortly after, around 1916-17. Max was born around 1890 in Yakobovi, went to yeshiva, and got his shochet certificate there. He later fled conscription into the zaarist army, riding a horse around Europe before arriving in New York. He came to Canada around 1910/1911 and took odd jobs, such as painting and peddling. When peddling his wares by horse, he would stay with Jewish families to teach their children and help them study for bat mitzvah. He was very educated, liberal, and interested in all sorts of topics- he would read just about anything, from Darwin to the Jehovah’s Witness pamphlet. Annie was born in 1893 in Jorszt, Western Lithuania, and came to St. John’s with a cousin. She is the oldest child, and all of her siblings lived in Montreal, except for her. Max and Annie opened a clothing store together, and were known as Mr. and Mrs. Madison around town. A lot of the Jewish families of the Valley knew each other and would stop by to visit. Their family was a member of the Beth Shalom shul in Ottawa, as well as one in Brockville, which they attended for high holidays and seders. Max and Annie would host the rabbi or the cantor in their home, and Max often volunteered for Yom Kippur. The family would come stay with the grandparents or in a hotel for the holidays. Max was more comfortable being in a small town, he was a quiet, calm individual who was content with himself. He loved to putter around, and had a garden that he was passionate about tending to. Diane remembers planting birch trees with him by the river, which is how she got into gardening. The property was near enough to the river that Annie could look out the window to watch the children swim in the summer. David and Diane’s mother, Shirley Rachel Movshovitz, was born in 1926 and was the youngest of three. All three children attended public school in Carleton Place, spoke Yiddish, and were encouraged to pursue music. Shirley was in Girl Guides, and completed the piano conservatory test in her youth. She attended Queen’s for a General Arts in 1945 for a year, and her brother Abraham also attended on a literary scholarship, before changing his name to Allan and going to McGill. Shirley then moved to Montreal to become a secretary, living with her cousin, and was married in 1949. Diane remembers how her mother was uncomfortable being Jewish in public, encouraging them to try to hide it on trips to Ottawa- to her, being Jewish was something you did at home. It was less the case in Carleton Place, where they did not experience much explicit anti-semitism. Allan was very ambivalent about being Jewish, especially after changing his name and joining high society in Montreal, but later became more proud of his identity after a trip to Israel.
- Location
No place found in this description yet.
Where
More details
- Genre / form
- sound recording
- Format
- Audio
- Language
- English
- Harvested
- 2026-10-17T20:12:50Z · source datestamp n/a · cjhn