Museum of Jewish Montreal Collection

MOROCCO

Georgette Bensimon: From Agadir to Montreal – Part 1

Georgette Bensimon: In search of a Jewish identity – Part 2

Georgette Bensimon tells her life story in English and French. She arrived to Montreal in 1958 among the first Jewish Moroccan immigrants

De Casablanca à Montréal: récits d’immigration et d’intégration

Originaire du Maroc raconte son parcours de vie. Réflexions sur la judaïté, l’identité et l’immigration

EGYPT

Vivianne Schinasi-Silver: 42 Keys to the Second Exodus

Vivianne M. Schinasi-Silver is part of the last wave of Egyptian Jews who immigrated to Canada after the 1956 Suez Crisis. Fifty years later, in 2007, Schinasi-Silver published her first memoir, Forty Two Keys to the Second Exodus. She is a member of the executive committee of L’Association des juifs originaires d’Egypte.

Sharon Gubbay Helfer: From Calcutta and Alexandria to Montreal– Part 1

Sharon Gubbay Helfer: Oral History and Dialogue Work– Part 2

Sharon Gubbay Helfer recounts her family’s history, going back to the Jewish Baghdadi community in Calcutta, India, and to Alexandria, Egypt, and further back to Turkey and Georgia.

IRAQ

Gladys Mooallem: From Baghdad to Tel Aviv– Part 1

Gladys Mooallem: From Baghdad to Tel Aviv– Part 2

Gladys Mooallem recounts her early life and education in Baghdad, Iraq

Lily Dangoor: Memories of leaving Iraq

Lily Dangoor (nee Shina) recounts her childhood in Baghdad, Iraq, her memories of the 1958 revolution, and her ultimate escape to Tehran, Iran. She tells her story first in English, and then in literary Arabic

Sami Sourani: From Baghdad to Montreal

Sami Sourani tells about his family’s journey from Baghdad to Montreal and the persecution faced by the Iraqi Jewish community in Baghdad from the 1940’s onwards