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July 29, 2011
Jewish history of Richmond
Current JMABC exhibit at library is small but interesting.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Nestled on the second floor of the Brighouse branch of the Richmond Public Library is a warmly lit, comfortably furnished and well-used reading room. Here, visitors can sit down with one of the more than 1,000 books that comprise the Ben and Esther Dayson Judaica Collection. They also can peruse the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia exhibit Exploring Richmond’s Jewish History, which is on display in the Ben and Esther Dayson Reading Lounge until Dec. 31.
The four-panel presentation briefly describes how the Daysons met and how they started their business legacy in British Columbia; early Jewish settlement on Lulu Island, and in Richmond and Delta; antisemitism in the Lower Mainland; and the postwar population boom. It includes several photos, as well as nine diverse pins from Jewish organizations that Esther Dayson, who passed away in 2005, helped from the mid- to late-20th-century; Ben Dayson died in 2007.
“Esther Dayson (née Nemetz) was born in 1909 in a small village near Odessa (Ukraine),” reads the first portion of the exhibit. “Esther, the youngest of nine children of Abraham and Toby Nemetz, came to Canada at the age of 15, first settling in Watrous, Sask., and, soon after, joining her older siblings in Vancouver.
“Named Baruch Deezik, Ben Dayson was born on June 4, 1907, in the village of Svatatroiske, near Odessa. In 1928, after spending a year in Rotterdam, Ben immigrated to Canada. He joined the Schwartzman family in Camsack, Sask., where he began his new life on a farm, later moving to Myrnum, Alta.
“Seeing a photo of his childhood friend Esther Nemetz in a Vancouver newspaper in 1931, Ben quickly contacted her and a courtship began. Ben and Esther were married in 1936 in Vancouver and settled in Viscount, Sask., where they remained for 13 years.”
After a year in Saskatoon, the Daysons moved to Vancouver with their children Philip and Shirley, explains the exhibit. They bought the Western 5 & 10 cent store in Marpole and, six years later, Ben Dayson founded Dayhu Investments Ltd., which remains a prominent real estate development company.
As for Jewish life in the Richmond area, the exhibit discusses the agricultural and fishing history of the region and how Lulu Island, Richmond and Delta came into being. The second panel then notes, “By the 1890s, there were three Jewish storekeepers servicing the Steveston area: Simon Petersky, Israel Rubinowitz and Henry Sisson.” It highlights Petersky’s general store, which “was the largest in the village, stocking groceries and provisions, tobaccos and cigars, temperance beer and gents’ furnishings. When fire ravaged Steveston in 1918, including the Petersky store, development shifted to the northern side of the island.”
Jews also farmed in the area, with Jacob and Meta Zalkowitz from Lithuania establishing a farm on Westminster Highway in 1941, for example. Visitors to the exhibit can also read a bit about Julius Jaffe, who owned a peat farm; Jack Bell, the “Cranberry King”; and Ezak Nep, who started Coast Poultry Farm.
The section on antisemitism explains the origins of the Richmond Country Club, which go back to the mid-1940s, as well as the difficulties that Jews and other minorities had buying real estate in an “era when [their] owning real estate in certain areas was still prohibited.” And the final panel provides an overview of the growth of the Jewish community in Richmond and the start of several Jewish organizations in the city.
Given the modest size of the Exploring Richmond’s Jewish History exhibit, it’s not really a worth a special trip to the library just to see it, but, if you’re in the neighborhood, it’s definitely worth a visit. And, while you’re there, you should consider checking out some of the books in the Dayson collection.
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