Papineau
 

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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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