Interview with Roz Usiskin, Session 7
- CA OHCUW 22RE-RUSI-01US-S7
- Part
- 2018-10-31
Part of Nolan Reilly fonds
Oral history interview session (51mm 32ss) with Roz Usiskin, conducted by Nolan Reilly, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2018. Interview is indexed and transcribed in full.
Nolan Reilly, the interviewer, outlines the objectives and procedures for the interview with Roseline (Roz) Usiskin. Usiskin agrees to be recorded. Usiskin begins with reflections of historical and contemporary antisemitism. A recent, deadly attack on a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh prompted this discussion. She expresses concern for her children and grandchildren. Usiskin also raises her concern with the state of Israeli politics which disturbs her greatly. The history of Zionism and Israel is a subject raised on several occasions in previous interview sessions. She next describes teaching at the University of Winnipeg for a number of years after gradation. However, she preferred to work in the community and left academia to become the first Executive Director of the newly created Multi-Cultural Resources Centre of Manitoba. She describes her extensive involvement with this organization that encouraged cooperation among Manitoba’s ethnic and immigrant communities. It was a very active organization under her direction, and she details much of that activity. Usiskin left this organization to become deeply involved through the Jewish Historical Society in the creation of the Jewish Heritage Centre to be located in the newly founded campus of the Jewish Asper Centre in south Winnipeg. She describes how these decisions reflected significant differences among Jews in Winnipeg about their relationship to the broader community. It also spoke to the different aspirations of many Jews who were moving from the North End neighbourhoods of their immigrant parents to the more affluent areas of south Winnipeg.
Reilly, Nolan