Papineau
People
KAUFMAN
- Philip Teitelbaum's taped recollections (also on this segment: Herman and the cheder)
Philip Teitelbaum's taped recollections
Note: audio is ON
Philip: Herman. Herman lived on ah Marquette Street, on the uh south east corner. Yeah, Marquette street.
And I just remember that they were in the taxi, that they were taxi drivers of that family.
I mean, I see them, you know?
Peter: Remember the kids?
Philip: I see two kids but I can’t remember much. The kids were a lot older than me. I mean I see two
son a lot older than me.
Peter: Like how much more?
Philip: Much older than me.
Peter: Because I wondered about another family here in Ottawa but that wouldn’t be the case. And Kaufman?
Were there Kaufman’s on Marquette?
Philip: Yeah, there was a Kaufman on Marquette who was right across with Talmud Torah, or the cheder. Um,
and had like a store where you could buy coffee and cokes and chips and… like a little general store.
Peter: That cheder, was that just an afternoon, after-school thing?
Philip: It was an afternoon school thing.
Shirley: It was a lunchtime thing too.
Philip: A cheder?
Shirley: Oh sorry, I thought you were talking about the restaurant.
Philip: No. The cheder was um, an after… it wasn’t a… I don’t know, nobody went there fulltime, but it was a
large place.
Peter: Empty during the day?
Philip: Empty during the day. I only remember it was empty during the day. Kids went after.
There was a basement and there was a cheder with rooms and there was a hall. And um… there’s another
fact. I remember Morris Bryant who’s at Hillel now, coming there as part of AZA giving a talk there
at that cheder.
[Note this may be the Y. Herman who wrote "The Pinkas", an account of the comings and goings
of the Red Shul.]
The teacher's name was Elimelech. Once Hillu Diamond came to the door and asked for Rabbi Elimelech and
squirted him with a water pistol. Hillu ended up as a terrific violinist. I remember the father chasing
through the all of Papineau looking for him because the teacher was there but Hillu wasn't.
A bit wild but a terrific kid.
I'm not sure if we learned Hebrew only at Mrs Wolofsky's or here too.
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