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October 15, 2010
Oldtimers in Saskatchewan
Writer meets with the three Jews who still live in/near Estevan.
CHANA THAU
Today, we think of Canadian Jews as living in the large urban centres. In fact, many started out in rural settings, although few remained there.
As part of an oral history project for the Jewish Heritage Society of Western Canada, which received funding from the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba and Manitoba Heritage Grants Program, I set out in mid-August on a road trip to Estevan, in southeastern Saskatchewan, to interview Gertie Lev, the last Jew still living there. Before I left, I asked her what was left to see in Hirsch, which lies 18 miles east of Estevan – the Hirsch Agricultural Colony, funded by and named for the French Baron Maurice de Hirsch, was established in 1892. “Oh,” came the reply, “there are the bachelor brothers, the Kleimans.”
And so it was that I also came to visit Harvey and Jack Kleiman, whose parents had been part of the Hirsch colony. The brothers, now in their eighties, still live independently in the small farm house where they were raised. They have a second, newer home but that is “for guests.” Although they no longer farm but rather lease out their land, they are far from retired. “Just tired,” quipped Harvey. I interviewed them in the kitchen, an odd mix of old and new, accompanied by the hum of a huge Massey-Harris chest freezer. (The family used to sell Massey-Harris farm machinery, among their many business endeavors.) They have a fax/photocopier and a laptop for their oil business.
When questioned about growing up in Hirsch, both mentioned that, early on, there had been “a lot of Jewish people – maybe as many as 250 at one time.” There were three synagogues and two kosher butchers. “We had fresh meat twice a week” and, since there was no refrigeration, the meat was kept “down the well or in an ice house.”
The colony had a rabbi and Jewish teachers. “We wouldn’t get home until six,” Harvey recalled, since they had two hours of Jewish school after public school every day except Shabbat, and two hours on Sunday morning. Sometimes, the Judaics teacher would come to the house, and sometimes their family would board a teacher. Many of the secular school teachers were also Jewish.
Harvey had his bar mitzvah and continued to “leig tefillin” daily with his maternal grandfather for a couple of years. Unfortunately, by the time it was Jack’s turn, there was no longer a rabbi or teacher, so he did not have a bar mitzvah.
The colony’s school had two rooms, with 60 students and two teachers. Harvey completed Grade 12, although the higher grades had to be done by correspondence, with assistance from the teacher. Then the war came, and Jack was needed on the farm, so he did not get to complete high school. When asked whether they ever thought of leaving the farm, the response was, “We were always too busy, that was the problem.”
Although they have connections with other Jews in Regina and with their three married sisters in Winnipeg, they rarely leave the farm these days. Various Jewish people come to visit the cemetery and, having heard of the Kleimans, drop in on them, too. “We might move to Estevan, for the winter anyway,” said Harvey. “We can’t shovel the snow anymore.”
Gertie (née Kaminsky), the only other Jew in the area, is a petite, outgoing woman. She welcomed me warmly to the yellow bungalow where she has lived since her arrival in Estevan 39 years ago at age 50. What brought her there? Her marriage to Morris Lev, her third husband, a farmer in Hirsch. How did they meet? Gertie was a widow and a friend suggested she date an uncle who farmed near Hirsch in the summer and worked at a garage in Winnipeg for the winter. She recounted wryly, “I says, ‘Where’s Hirsch?’ and she says, ‘In Saskatchewan.’ ‘And where might that be?’ ‘Next to Manitoba.’ ‘You know, I’m not really interested in being courted again.’ ‘You don’t have to marry him.’ And she roars with laughter!”
Gertie was raised in a non-religious home; she attended Shalom Aleichem School for a couple of years, where she learned to “write and speak ‘Jewish,’” but it was her move to Estevan that brought out the Jewishness in her. Although her parents did not observe the High Holidays, she has been to services since she moved there, and every Friday, she lights Shabbat candles and says the blessing. When asked whether she has thought of moving to a place where there is a Jewish community, she said she sees no need. She travels to visit her daughter in Arizona and other family in Winnipeg, where she goes every year for Rosh Hashanah. She has a community of wonderful friends, including neighbors, who mow her lawn and shovel the snow, and help with grocery shopping.
As has been the Kleimans’ experience, Gertie and Morris also never encountered any antisemitism. On the contrary. They were charter members of the Estevan Multicultural Council, formed in 1977, and Gertie proudly reported how she was invited to participate in the opening ceremonies of this year’s Folklorama cultural festival in Winnipeg. Since it was Friday night, she brought her lace teichl (kerchief) and candelabra and did the blessing. She is very proud of the Israeli pavilion that she and Morris established, where visitors have seen a Pesach table and sampled her Jewish cookery. As she put it, from her first day there, “I didn’t hide my Jewishness. I brought it forth to show them that we are pretty good.”
Gertie has always been independent and resourceful. You have only to tour the “museum” in her house to learn the extent; it is chock full of photos, documents and medals honoring her for her volunteerism. From the day she arrived, she said, “[I] joined everything there was to join. And that’s how come I didn’t make Morris miserable. I occupied my time while he was farming,” which was six months of the year.
Her self-authored Life and Times of Gertie Lev is a four-page, typed, single-spaced summary of her life. She joked that it is “too long to be read” in its entirety as her obituary. Among her volunteer activities, she has spoken to school and church groups about Jewish holidays and rituals. In 1980 and again in 1990, she helped bring the Chai Folk Ensemble of Winnipeg to Estevan. One factor in this, added the proud baba, was that her grandson, Jeff, was in the ensemble.
Gertie has always supported the arts: she did fundraising for the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM), going door to door to sell “bricks” at $5, and was a mainstay of the S.K. Junior Concert Society. She has volunteered at the hospital and at the nursing home, where she still volunteers, sewing vests for the Valentine’s Day King and Queen of Hearts. Among the awards displayed
are the Canada Commemorative Medal that she received in 1992 from the governor general for her work in the community, and a Heart of Gold Award from Air Canada and the community newspaper, which earned her a trip for two to Europe in 1988. She was also nominated by the EAGM to be one of some 78 women across Saskatchewan honored as “a woman of influence.” Her house overflows with photos of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, whose achievements she proudly recounts.
Gertie’s involvement in the restoration and rededication of the Jewish cemetery at Hirsch was a significant contribution to the preservation of Jewish history in the area. When she first saw the four-acre cemetery, which dates back to 1894, it was neglected and in a state of disrepair. On one of her visits to Winnipeg, she contacted the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, told them of the situation and got them to help restore it, make it look menschlich (presentable). She and Morris arranged a tea in town for people who came from all over North America in 1980 for the cemetery’s rededication and its designation as an historic site. She also arranged for information on the now-defunct Beth Jacob Synagogue of Estevan to be posted in the building that once housed it.
Sadly, Morris passed away in August 1988. “He was a wonderful husband, very kind, very giving, very loving,” said Gertie, who carried on with her volunteer activities “to help fill the void.” She loves telling a good joke and, reflecting on her life, concluded, “I’ve lived a life of happy happenings, with a few sprinkles of sorrow, but what life goes without that?” She prays for health and strength to enable her to carry on the work she does in the city of Estevan and, to that, let us say, “Amen.”
Chana Thau is a freelance writer living in Winnipeg. A version of this article appeared in the Canadian Jewish News.
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