Proofread by: Rebecca Lash
Transcribed by: Temi
Interview date: 12/6/2017
Location: Toronto, Canada
Interviewer: Lisa Newman
Total time: 43:29
Joseph Zagury: Born in Morocco, September 23rd 1943. Arrived in Israel 1957. Arrived to France 1966. Returned to Israel 1974. Arrived to Canada 1979.
Joseph Zagury (00:16):
[LN: And you are?] My name is Joseph Zagury, born in Morocco in 1943, September 23rd. I live in Canada now in, uh, in Ontario. I'm very happy. I am Israeli too. And I'm a American to US citizen. And I have a French citizen too, that I give up.
Lisa Newman (00:47):
Tell me about your family. What were your parents' names?
Joseph Zagury (00:50):
My parents names, my father was Meir, and my mother was Rachel
Lisa Newman (00:57):
And we will see some photographs of them later. When were they born? Do you know?
Joseph Zagury (01:02):
My mother was born in Safi and my father was born in Casablanca.
Lisa Newman (01:09):
When?
Joseph Zagury (01:11):
When? I will tell you that in a minute
Joseph Zagury (01:31):
Okay. My father was no, my father was born in Safi. I'm sorry. In 1920, 17 of April, 1920 in Safi. And, uh, my mother was born... Where is my mother?
Joseph Zagury (02:03):
Uh, my mother was born in, in Safi too, 2nd of January, 1918.
Lisa Newman (02:13):
What was your mother's maiden name?
New Speaker (02:15):
Abeccassis. a, b, e, c, c, a, two s, i, s.
Lisa Newman (02:24):
Tell me who else was in the family? Your brothers?
Joseph Zagury (02:28):
I have three brothers and one sister who passed away. [LN: and their names?] Okay. The first one is Shal- Shalom. The second one is Moshe. The third one is Leah, [Lillial] who passed away. And the last one is Gabrielle.
Lisa Newman (02:50):
The ones who are alive, now, where are they?
Joseph Zagury (02:53):
They are all in Montreal.
Lisa Newman (02:54):
And you as a child, you went to Alliance?
Joseph Zagury (03:00):
Well, I grew up in Morocco. I was a toddler going to kindergarten with all the kids and everything to leave the parent free. And then my first school, it was ecole [sansol] we call it, it was a French school and my second school, when I finished to the eighth grade, it was Ecole Alliance Israelite de France. [LN: and then what?] And then I emigrated in Israel. I stay a little bit at the Yeshiva [Otzarah Torah] with my grandfather. Then after my Bar Mitzvah, I emigrated to Israel by myself. With [Aliyat Hanoar] I got to Israel. When I becoming a kibbutz, member of a kibbutz, [Mapam], Hashomer Hatzair, and I grew up there until I went to the army. I did the two wars and.
Lisa Newman (04:05):
Tell me, the decision to go on Aliyat [Hanoav] how did that come about?
Joseph Zagury (04:10):
Okay. Wha- that it was my, a big story. I was, a boy scout, boy scout called the Eclaireurs Israelite de France.
Joseph Zagury (04:26):
And, uh, then when the King died in 56, they wanted us to become Eclaireurs Israelite du Maroc. And we didn't like it because, uh, we didn't want to be under the command of Muslim and everything. And, uh, as that way, I, I left Morocco because I hated the Arab. I was fighting with them all the time and I left Morroco to go to Israel. [LN: What was your parents' thought about that?] Nothing. The only thing when my mother took me to my father's store, it was early in the morning, around 7:30. And she said to my father, okay, your son is going to Israel. Can you give him something? He open the cash register. It was what they call one diram, the equivalent of 25 cents. And he said, if you can do something here, good luck. That's it. [LN: Were you expecting more help?] No, no, no, because I knew that my parents cannot give me more than what I needed. And then I was going to receive everything in Israel, as I didn't need it anything I wanted just the blessing of my father. [LN: What did your father do?] My father has a hardware store.
Joseph Zagury (05:58):
Uh, his specialty was the, how they call it the blind and everything. Plus all the, the, the handle for the doors and nails and screws and everything, whatever it needed at home. That's what my father was doing. [Did your mother work in the store?] My mother never worked in the store. My mother was, uh, how they call, uh, we call it in French couturier. That's when she was sewing dresses and everything. And one part of her life. She was the dressmaker of the queen of the kid, queen, uh, the girls. [LN: And did she sew for, for you children as well?] [overlap]
Joseph Zagury (06:48):
Well, for us, yeah, she, she did clothing. Uh, what, uh, because we didn't have store like here, Walmart and everything. As the parents they, they have to do our clothing. They were doing our shorts, our shirt and everything, the apron to go to school, because in that time we have the apron, we had to have enough to change almost every day. And that's what she was doing. You know, she was, uh, a home wife and a home mother and, uh, and cooking and preparing everything. And that was her life. [LN: You said that you hated the Arabs. Tell me about that. What were your experiences with Arabs?]
Joseph Zagury (07:29):
My experiences as a kid, like going to school, all the Arab kid they were at attacking us, you know, we were going in a group of Jew, because like, we're not living at the school. We have to go pass through different, uh, the street. They never think that belong to the Arab and everything. And, uh, the Arab, they were attacking us. And, uh, me, I was the stronger guy of the, of the kid, and they call me the gorilla. You know, I was [impersonates a gorilla]. Okay. As I was always at the end of the row, protecting from the kid that they were attacking us. And my brother who's uh belong to me. He got a stone from the Arab and, uh, they cut his lip. [LN: what did you do?]
Joseph Zagury (08:27):
Me? I beat the Arab, but my father punished me because I didn't do enough to protect my brothers. You know, that is the unexpected. When you get to the stone, you know, like David and Goliath, you know, he didn't expect it to get that, uh, the stone to his, uh, [LN: were you hurt?] no me no hurt. But me, I was fighting with them all the time. All the time I was coming home, my shirt, my apron, they were ripped and everything, but I was fighting to protect all the kids at school. [LN: did you speak Arabic?] I spoke Moroccan, Arabic. Yeah.
Joseph Zagury (09:08):
That we learn at home because we had maid that they were Muslim Arabic. And, uh, we were talking to them as we learn with them to speak our mother tongue it was French at home. [LN: you spoke French with your family?] Yeah. Yeah. We all speak French. [LN: Any other language?] I speak Hebrew. I speak English. I speak Italian. I speak Spanish, little bit Yiddish and Arabic, you know. [LN:how did you learn Hebrew?] I was in Israel. I was in a kibbutz. [LN: But before that you didn't know?] No, before that I knew how to read and everything, how to learn the Gemara, the Yeshiva. But nobody taught to talk Hebrew, because in the old time they were telling us that the language of Kodesh, we cannot speak with it until we go to Israel and then they show us the way we can pronounce the word by putting them together. And that is the way we, we learn Hebrew after that.
Joseph Zagury (10:15):
[LN: I wanted to ask you about earlier generations. What do you know about grandparents or earlier generations?] I- earlier generation, like I told you before [coughs], sorry, we don't know much. And, uh, because they were not open to us as, culturally they were not open to us other than what they knew. Okay. And that's the, that way as they wanted to go school, they were following us at school and everything, but that was stopped there. Family, mother, who is, who we know the uncle, the cousin and everything. But above that, we didn't know nobody. [LN: grandparents?] Grandparents we know them. I, I met my mother uh parents. I met my father parents, but other than that, we didn't meet anything else. We, we it was, like I said, culturally, they were not open to the outside. [LN: What did you call the grandparents? What did you call them?]
Joseph Zagury (11:29):
Papa. You know, grandpa were calling them in Hebrew, Savta and Saba. And, uh, that is the father it was Papa Maman. That's it, that is the way we we call them. [LN: Did you get together with the aunts, uncles, cousins?] Not much because they were living, uh, in Safi. The one that were in Casablanca. They were a little bit far away. I met them exactly before I went to Israel. And then I met all of them when they immigrated to Israel too. And there, I saw them and I see them and I talk to them every week. I don't have any problem with that. But in Morocco, we didn't have that contact because we have only one uncle, my two aunts, one went to Israel very early with her husband who was a rabbi in Kiryat Gat, and the other one went after and went to live in as all those cousins we met, I met them,
Joseph Zagury (12:42):
I met them, not my family, but to me, I made them in Israel. And we, we keep, uh, how they call growing together in Israel. [LN: Your parents are both from Safi,] Yeah. [LN: and did they meet there?] They meet there and they married there. My grandfather was from Masagal [ph], okay. And, uh, he went to Safi to, to teach. And, uh, that's why my father born. My mother was living there. She had the whole family in Safi, and her, her last brother still in Israel is almost dying, is like 93, 94 is [inaudible] on his bed and he's dying. And, uh, that's it. Other than that, uh, [LN: what brought them to Casablanca?] It's like I say, the work. Okay. My father and my uncle, they were associated, they have a store together. They have two store. And they were making a furniture too, as they were working that was bringing them to brought them to Casablanca.
Joseph Zagury (14:01):
Because in Safi, the only thing you could do is fishing. It was a port fishing. And I have a cousin who has a big store of fishing equipment. And you have boat that he was sending out to two fish and bring the Sardine to the port. That said, that is the only thing I know. [LN: Did you eat a lot of fish at home?] Yes. The only fish uh, I liked all the time it was a sardine, fresh sardine on the barbecue, on a fry pan, anywhere dry. That is the most beautiful fish you can ever have better than salmon, better than anything. [LN: What other foods do you remember from home?] [overlap] My mother was a very good cook and she was, she was cooking a lot like meat, fish, chicken. She was cooking everything. You know, we were very well fed and a lot of salads, and she was specialized of doing salad. And on the holiday there a plate of salad, they were so colorful that it like, look like a rug. We say it, you know? And, uh, but it was her time. We couldn't learn that because we were young at [now today I'm] trying to do it but it doesn't work [chuckles].
Joseph Zagury (15:37):
[LN: Do you remember celebrations for instance, Rosh Hashanah?] The- All the holiday, we were all together because we were young kids and we were all together sitting at the table with my grandfather because my grandfather was living with us. My uncle, he was with his family. [LN: This is your mother's brother] No, my father, father. Yeah. And, uh, and that is the, the way [LN: and how did you celebrate Rosh Hashanah?] Like everybody celebrate Rosh Hashanah with all the fruit on the table and the honey and everything, you know how we go to the shul. We had our family shul where we're going. And, uh, and this is it. This is the way, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Pesach,
Joseph Zagury (16:30):
all those holiday. You have to know that the, the Moroccan Jew in Morocco, in some way, they were very well treated by a certain community of Arab, that they were not like Muslim, Muslim. The only Muslim they come is after the death of the King, then they started to, to get worse. That's why people start to move. And, uh, on our holiday, the Arab, they were having this store with everything like on Sukkot they were bringing the schach [ph] because we had the fresh schach [ph], like branches and everything. And they were selling the fruit and everything and they knew for the Jew like they need it and they were doing, it was their business too, to make money as they were working with the Jew to celebrate together. And that it was the life, is, holiday, Shabbos whatsoever Shabbos we had what they call a city oven, or I call it more, a rural oven that it's a big oven, very deep.
Joseph Zagury (17:48):
and, uh, we're bringing our bread and our chulent and everything and putting it in the town, like close to our house. We had that. And, uh, we were putting the chulent and the bread and everything. And they were cooking in the oven, and the person was working there, knew each person, each family, which dish is belong to them. He knew everything and same thing. You bring the bread, he put the bread in the oven and they give you your bread after 20 minutes, 30 minutes. And he knew to bread to each one and everything never mix up, never anything. [LN: this was an Arab?] Yeah, they but they were the only one who could go to the oven inside and bring the pots and everything, because with the thing he could not move the pots bringing as they were putting like a, how you call that uh putting cover over their heads and on their knee.
Joseph Zagury (18:54):
and they were going inside and bringing [inaudible] the, the staff. [LN: Did you have a non Jew who would come into your house to do things?] We never had a non Jew coming to our house. And even today, my brothers, the only non Jew they go to their house is only a worker go to repair whatsoever. Other than that at the table or whatsoever, or inviting them to wedding or brit whatsoever. Never non Jew. [LN: And what about you and your family being invited to Arab houses?] Uh, only me, nobody else. [LN: Tell me about that] Because me, I learned that tradition. I learned their way of living. And in some way, when I was out of the house, I was not so Kosher. And because they were eating what they call Halal today, because they were buying the meat from the Jew and everything, the, what, it was Kosher slaughter, but they were cooking it with butter and everything. As a, as I knew their tradition, I knew what they were doing and everything as [inaudible], going to them. It was no problem for me. I tried to, uh, to live with the people because like, you know, hating the people when I was young, going to school and growing up, like in age, little bit more, you learn how to live with the people because you don't have any choice. You cannot fight all the time. [LN: Did you have good friends? Arabs?]
Joseph Zagury (20:39):
Yeah. Until today I have good friends Arab, yeah, no problem. [LN: Tell me about your Bar Mitzvah] Okay. My Bar Mitzvah was a problem because when, uh, I was supposed to do my Bar Mitzvah, my, my grandmother passed away as [LN: your father's mother?] My father. Okay. And, uh, as we have to postpone the Bar Mitzvah and to do it year after with my brother, what my brother didn't like it too much because he wanted to have his own party and everything. And, uh, me after that, like two days after that, I disappear. I said, I leave you everything. And I'm gone. And, uh, as I did my Bar Mitzvah, I like everybody does. We, uh, we go Thursday to the Shul, we put the teffilin with all the family and everything. And then Saturday, we, we read the Haftarah, part of the Parashah and, uh, and that we were confirm as a good boy [chuckles] [LN: who taught you the Haftarah?]
Joseph Zagury (21:47):
My grandfather, he was a rabbi. And he was a teacher as a, like, actually on the picture, [LN: did you have to give a speech?] every kids in the whole world has to give what they call a small, the drasha [ph] in whatsoever on the Parashah on the, on the life, on the school, on whatsoever. And we all had to do it as in some way, because I remember we were not very well on, uh, uh, writing and everything. As my parents were writing the speech, what we were saying, and then we were reading it. Because at that time we didn't have computer. We didn't have a phone. We didn't have anything. We were all like, [inaudible] [LN: you told me you studied in Yeshiva] Yeah. Atzeret Torah [ph] in Morocco before my Bar Mitzvah. Yeah. [LN: and how long did you stay in Yeshiva?] I stay in Yeshiva three years. And then I have two here and today I return to the yeshiva at my age [chuckles]. They can see like 60 years after.
Joseph Zagury (23:07):
[LN: Do you remember any special things about Pesach? The Seder and] What- the Pesach, what we're doing in Morocco, we were doing the Korban Pesach, that's mean we were doing the barbecue outside on the 14 of Nissan. And, uh, that it was, uh, our start of Pesa.ch And then the Arab, they were coming and we were selling them all the chametz, because we were emptying all the house. No chametz was seen in the house. Okay. As they were coming, taking that. And then bring, getting back at the eight days and that they were doing that every year where, we didn't have any problem that they're going to steal whatsoever. Cause anyway, it was food and we were changing all our dishes, everything, everything was, the house was clean, [tented], wash top to bottom, the kitchen and everything that it was a Pesach.
Lisa Newman (24:14):
Tell me about Shabbat. What did you do on Shabbat at home?
Joseph Zagury (24:18):
What every Jew do. The parents, they prepare it the [chamin], the choulent, or what you call it in Moroccan [Shkinah] and go to the shul, come back as, uh, my grandfather was coming back for the shul with, uh, uh, people from the shul they were following him because they wanted to do the kiddush, uh, at home with my grandfather, as it was a festive what they call sometime, my grandfather was saying to some people next time, go eat at home and then come to the appetizer because like people, they were coming and eating like a nonstop. And it was a joke of the thing. Uh, and, uh, and that it was our Shabbos. Like everyone, you come, you eat because at the shul we were- we didn't have no kiddush no nothing. People they were going to houses being invited whatsoever. Cause they were living so close. It was no problem.
Lisa Newman (25:16):
Your grandfather was a very respected,
Joseph Zagury (25:19):
He was very well respected. And my grandmother too, I have their picture in my other room. I will show them to you after.
Lisa Newman (25:28):
And where did he study?
Joseph Zagury (25:31):
In Morocco. In Morocco. In yeshiva too, like everybody. And he become a teacher. Like you saw the picture with the kid at, uh, the school,
Lisa Newman (25:41):
Did he have any, uh, community position in a formal way?
Joseph Zagury (25:47):
Well, he was a rabbi, but you know, like every rabbi has, uh, has his shul and uh, and he has his classes because he was going to the school. He was part of the school and [that what is, uh, is finished]. And then he was writing the ketubot and everything. He was doing the sofer and he was doing everything, marrying people and everything. And he was a shochet too. As for Yom Kippur we were doing the kaparot at home, that's mean, we have a big yard in the back and we were buying all the chicken that we need. Each one has his own chicken and he come and slaughtered the kitchen, do the kaparot and then throw the chicken and then we give it to the poor and some we eat. And, uh, this is the way it was done. [LN: Was that scary when you were little?]
Joseph Zagury (26:47):
No, no. Nothing is scary. No, because you know, you see the first one and then it's finished, you know, uh, you see nothing happened to you as a, you know, it's not, uh, [LN: do you remember ever being at a wedding in Morocco?] Yeah. Yeah. It was very nice. Like, yeah. Like every wedding, you know, with the simcha, the Maroccan people they have before the wedding, they have what they call the henne. Okay. What is oriental thing we, we dress the, the color with oriental clothes, what they call the caftan and, uh, and, uh, and the groom, we did gelaba with the turban and everything and people, they were too getting dressed like Moroccan and making a festive that it was the henne. And then we had the wedding, like everybody coming with their suit and tie- [yells] come in! And, uh, and that it was a way wedding is a wedding like everywhere. You know, it, uh, you read the ketubah, you break the glass and, uh, and by love, is it,
Lisa Newman (27:59):
Do you remember being at a funeral?
Joseph Zagury (28:02):
funeral, the only funeral I went is my grandmother and, uh, that they didn't want to take me to the cemetery as I took my bike and I followed the [quarter] to the cemetery to be there when she be buried. Everybody was at me but mad at me, but this is it. [LN: were you close to her?] I was very close to her. She died in my hands. I was lying down on the bed with her and she died in my hand. [LN: how old were you then?] I was younger. I was like 11, no, I was at 12 because my bar mitzvah was at 13 and I was that age, my bat mitzvah.
Lisa Newman (28:48):
So your bar mitzvah over, you prepared to go to Israel?
Joseph Zagury (28:54):
I didn't prepare to go to Israel. They prepare for me, with the only take I have my mother make me a suitcase. And that's it.
Lisa Newman (29:03):
What do you remember about that trip?
Joseph Zagury (29:05):
The trip it was on the boat. Okay. From Casablanca to Marseilles. And that it was a hell of it because we were in the [car] of the, at the bottom of the boat, like, uh, how they call it, uh, [overlap]. And, uh, and we pass through the detroit of Gibraltar when, uh, the weather was very bad as we had all the floating and the jumping and everything until we got to Marseilles people like puke, everything you want, you had it, smell and everything, but we were kids, you know, we try to, to get over it [LN: how many kids?] On the boat where approximately 70 family. Yeah, I was alone. I had a few kids with me, but they were family with their kids and everything. And they're all packed in the bottom [LN: and in Marseilles what happened?] In Marseilles they come with the truck and they took us to a camp that camp, I stayed there six months.
Joseph Zagury (30:22):
It was very nice because we did the Hachshara [ph] of the Mapam and it was an experience to meet all the people and to see the people cooking for their family, with small primos [ph] and everything. It was very nice. It was an excellent experience with the rain, with the boats, with everything. It was fantastic. And then we took the boat to Israel, what it called the Flaminia. It was an Italian boat and the rabbi of the boat. It was Rabbi Goren, who was the rabbi of the army. It was fantastic. And you have to hear him like speaking Italian, like trying to gather the kid to go to eat in the dining room. Because after the experience of the first boat, people, they didn't want, they were afraid of the big boat that something happened. And it was fantastic. When we go to Haifa, then we had the truck like, uh, when I say truck like the Masayot [ph], picking us and bringing us to different places to, as me, they brought me to my uncle in Ber Sheva, is the brother of my mother, the one who is still alive, the last one. And from there, the kibbutz come and pick me from there and brought me to the kibbutz when we gather with the Garin and everything. [LN: What year did you arrive?] Arrive in Haifa around 57.
Joseph Zagury (31:57):
[LN: and what kibbutz did you go to?] The first kibbutz it was Kibbutz Hatzor. I stayed there for six months until my friend come to Ruhama [ph] from the Hachshara [ph], and then I joined them in uh Ruhama. And I had my first girlfriend, there, as we, we got all together. [LN: what did you do on the kibbutz?] I did everything, everything that it was supposed to be done, I did it. [Haklaut, inaudible Hebrew] chicken, uh, uh, [falcha], everything, uh, pruning the trees, picking up the fruit. Every, we, we didn't have anything to say, whatever the kibbutz was sending us, it was, we were doing it, and we were doing with, uh, with simcha, that one of the best time it was the cultivating the kutnah [ph]. I don't know if you remember that, but the kutnah, it's uh, it was fantastic because like, we were supposed to start like around the eight, nine o'clock when they kutnah dry from the middle of the night and we can, uh, pick it up and then on the truck trying to pack it as much as we can.
Joseph Zagury (33:20):
and, uh, and after that, uh, sitting, having lunch and, and, uh, cleaning the combine, it was because we were all the group together as we were hh, uh, working, uh, very well. [LN: Were you able to communicate with your family in Morocco at that time?] Uh, in Morocco no my mother come to visit me once and, uh, mostly she came to visit her family than me because me in the kibbutz, she said, okay, you are okay, no problem. And she was going to visit her family on her side. And, uh, and that is the way, like we grew up. What's happen in the kibbutz they give us family, with whom we were attach, as we had everything cover. If we can see [you left the kibbutz what year?] Okay. I left the kibbutz exactly in, uh, 66 because my parents came to France, as they send me a ticket to France.
Joseph Zagury (34:32):
And I come and I meet them in France, there where I saw them. And then I couldn't stay without working or nothing. You know, in kibbutz, we were like, uh, working 18 hours a day. And then you come like, who care about tourists whatsoever. And I had friends in, uh, in Paris, from school, from they pick me at the airport. And the joke is they recognize me because when I passed the custom and the custom officer said to him, do you have something to declare? And I raised my hand, like the prisoner dude, [chuckles] nothing. I said, Oh, he's Joe. And I was in short, cabin shorts, you know, I had the kid bag and, uh, cause I didn't plan to stay longer. And that it was the thing. And, uh, [LN: how long did you stay?] In France? Okay.
Joseph Zagury (35:32):
15 days after I arrive, they present me to a doctor, who has what they call a clinic. The clinic is like a small hospital where they do operation and everything. And he asked me if I knew medicine, I said, I know medicine. I said, did you ever work in an operating room? I said, yes. I took me to the operating room and start to test me. What is this? What is that? And I was telling him everything. Do you know how to do the operation? I said, yes, no problem. [LN: Where did you learn?] In Israel, In Ber Sheva at Ben Gurion. And uh, and I was [inaudible] in the army too when I need it. And then he said okay if you want to stay and work here, I can make you the paper you can start right away. I said, no, I have to see with my friend what's doing with my parents and everything. Two days after I started to work.
Joseph Zagury (36:36):
And, uh, I stayed there as 67 came. I was calling the army as I went to the army. And I wa- and I work at the hospital at Yechilov [ph] in the operating room. Instead of going, I went to Sinai, I worked there for three days. I was transferring the prisoners to Egypt. And after that come back to the hospital and took care of the patient and everything. And then they send me to take care of the prisoner. Cause we have a hospital for the prisoner. We were operating them and guarding them and everything because I was speaking Arabic and French, as I could communicate with, uh, with everybody.
Joseph Zagury (37:24):
When I finish, come back to France in 68, I met my, uh, first wife, who was my, uh, friends at school. We were in school together as we met. And, uh, you know, things happened. We got married, we had two kids, the kid, they live one live in France and one live in Argentina now. [LN: what are their names?] One is, uh, Yves the big one he's in Argentina. And the youngest one is Robert. He live in Paris and he has a beautiful family. And, uh, this is the, this is the way. And then, uh, in, uh, 1979, uh, in 1974, I went back to Israel. I was called and I did Yom Kippur. I was at the hospital and then I didn't want to come back to France [inaudible], myself in the army. And I was one year in Hevron. Cause I did want to come back to my wife, we have problem and everything. When I finish and I came back, then we divorced and in 79 I came to Canada and since then I'm traveling to Israel and I'm staying here and contact with the family by phone, all off them taking a,
Lisa Newman (38:59):
You met your second wife.
Joseph Zagury (39:01):
My second wife, I met her in the operating room when I was working at the Jewish hospital is the same thing because the to have the competition of diploma and everything was very difficult here in Quebec, like in France. But I succeeded to have my thing and a friend of mine was working as an accountant at the hospital who know me. I said, I'm going to present you to a doctor. That doctor was his name was Dr. Garzon [ph]. And he took me to the operating room and him, him too he tried to test me. And then he brought me to the head nurse who was speaking, only English. She was black, but she was very nice lady, and asking me all the name in English as me, I have to think, okay, this is that the, and I give them, okay, when you want to start, you have to have a, how they call a month of, uh, practice at the hospital before you become full time, I said, okay, on meantime, I was working at Notre Dame hospital in Montreal and I was working in psychiatry as I was working between two hospitals until I finished one.
Joseph Zagury (40:22):
and I went to the other one. And then I met my wife in the operating room because we were working together. She's a nurse too. And, uh, we got married in 68 and we have our daughter who born in, uh, 1968 in 84, 83. My daughter born in 84 and my daughter [and I] work in Montreal at the hospital too. And this is it. This is the story of the family.
Lisa Newman (40:53):
And do you now live in
Joseph Zagury (40:55):
Toronto, [name of address] you saw my house. What I have is here. I have two rooms, kitchen, dining room, living room and a.
Lisa Newman (41:07):
So let me ask you a final question. If you had a message for people in the future, watching this tape, what would you like them to learn from your life?
Joseph Zagury (41:21):
Uh, first I want them to learn about their family, okay. To know what exactly the root of their family and everything, what we didn't have a chance to have it. And that is very important. People forget that, uh, who are the great, great, great grandfather whatsoever. We didn't have that because we were closed, like learning to write and everything. Like, even if you take a Hasid [inaudible] today, you ask him, he will know he know his grandfather whatsoever, but he will know nothing. He learned what he learned. And this is it. As that is one of the important to know the root of their family, where they come from the language or the [inaudible], you have people that are coming from Russia, from Poland, from Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Morocco, France, everywhere. And that's, it's a primordial in life. And then try to learn as much as you can.
Joseph Zagury (42:24):
Language is culture of the people, because that is very important. It's not only in your home, but when you find yourself outside and you know, the culture of the other people, the contact is much easier. Okay? The contact is much easier. Me I remember when I was photographing wedding and I was going to the church on Saturday morning to photograph the mass, the wedding, the priest, they knew me who I was and everything. And when they're doing the [ceremony] they were looking at me and everybody was turning the head see to who's that person. And you have to learn the culture of the people. If it's Muslim, Catholic Protestant, or whatsoever, you have to, that is something very, very important. Not only your own culture, what is already difficult to learn it, but the culture of others and that make the contact much easier. [LN: Thank you] You're welcome. It was my pleasure.