Interview date: 10/11/2017

Location: Montreal, Canada

Interviewer: Lisette Shahshoua

Total time: 2:31:00

Robin Behar: Born on June 2nd, 1946, in Cairo, Egypt. Arrived in Rome in 1959. Arrived in  Quebec in 1959. 

[00:00:00] Lisette: Hello Robin. 

[00:00:01] Robin Behar: Hi Lisette! Pleasure to be here. 

[00:00:03] Lisette: Thank you. Thank you very much for uh, giving us the interview for Sephardi Voices today. We're delighted to have you. 

[00:00:11] Robin Behar: It's a honour. 

[00:00:12] Lisette: Thank you. Could you please give me your name, your place of birth, your date of birth, if you had a different name when you were born and how old are you today? 

[00:00:24] Robin Behar: Okay, my name is Robin Behar. I was born in Cairo, Egypt on June 2nd, 1946 at the French hospital. And uh, I'm 71 years old and I live in Montreal. 

[00:00:38] Lisette: Wonderful thank you. Can you tell us something about your family's background? About your growing up, your childhood? The history of your grandparents?

[00:00:51] Robin Behar: With pleasure. Yes, my family is originally form Spain. Sephardi Jews. So the name Behar is the name of a town in Spain called Bejar, except its spelled with a "J" and it's, it's, all the Behars around the Behars around the world are from there. [00:01:09] So it was a very heavily Jewish town and when Queen Isabella decided that she didn't want Jews anymore in the country she gave them a choice to either convert to Catholicism or...get their head chopped off, or leave the country. So my family decided to leave the country and they went to, on my mother's side, they went to uh, Italy, Livorno. [00:01:39] France, Turkey, on my father's side. And eventually my grandparents, great-grandfather on my mother's side, grandfather on my father's side, me tin Egypt because the Suez Canal was opened and it was the land of opportunity. It was very prosperous. My grandfather on my mothers - my great-grandfather on my mother's side was an importer of water pumps. [00:02:07] In a country that was short of water. And he made a fortune. He...

[00:02:13] Lisette: What was short of water? Egypt?

[00:02:14] Robin Behar: Yes. Yes, there was just the Nile but the rest was all desert. Just the, the Nile basin was where you had the vegetation and so on but as soon as you went away from the, the Nile basin it was all dry desert. So if you needed water you ere in deep trouble. So water pumps were, were in high demand. And he was so successful, so prosperous they even, he built a mansion that was turned eventually into convent. [00:02:47] And there was even a railway station called Le palais and it was called, which means "the palace" and it was called after his house. It stopped there because of the house. And that's how many people there were. It was, he was, his name was, was Vita Castro - C-A-S-T-R-O, which is Spanish name and uh, my, my mother um, her father was very assimilated to Egypt. He, his favourite outfit was wearing a djellaba at home. He wouldn't wear it out but at home that's what he wore. [00:03:29] My, my mother's grandfather absolutely not. His, his house was something very similar to here, the decor was very similar to here. Very traditional British. He had monogrammed everything. I even have an old prayer book of his that, that is bound in leather with gold and it's got his name on it and that's how his books were done. [00:03:55] And this is just his books, I won't tell you the rest because it's just uh, it's beyond belief. And uh, on my mother's side uh, her father was much simpler and, and but hw was also wealthy. He owned land, he owned manufacture, he owned a number of different businesses. And he went to synagogue every Shabbat. [00:04:17] And his wife didn't but he did and he was observant and his wife not. Which is an interesting combination. Um, on my father's side uh, his father emigrated from Izmir, Turkey to Cairo. Why? Because his brothers were living already in Cairo and hey were in the gold business. They had a, au uh, gold shop. [00:04:46] It wasn't basically a very rich setup. It was very simple shop in the Ahalil [sp?] bazaar and they sold gold chains and this and that to tourists who came. And their claim to fame was that they went to the St-Louis World Fair for six months and, yeah. It was, they had a store there. [00:05:14] And it was six months that there were no tourists in Egypt, in the summertime. The tourists came during the wintertime. So they were able to go to, to St-Louis, open up, and that was very unusual to go all the way to America from, from, from Cairo I was like, "ooh!" big stuff. But, and they came back and they had all kinds of stories to tell and, and it was very warm. My father's side it was very warm, traditional, simple Jewish family. [00:05:45] My grandmother, my father's mother was kosher and strictly kosher. She could tell a piece of meat, whether it was kosher or not, just by looking at it. That's how good she was. 

[00:06:00] Lisette: When it was raw or when it was cooked?

[00:06:02] Robin Behar: When it was raw. Once the butcher brought her a piece of meat , she says, "This is not kosher, you take it right back." And she was right. She could tell the difference. The cut and the thing, the fine - and she was a wonderful cook. Really, really nice, simple, simple Latino [?] foods, healthy and uh, and very, a lot of warmth and a lot of affection. A lot of um, it was, it was a very, it wasn't a rich family but it was rich in - financially - but it was very rich in, in, in feelings. [00:06:37] And that was very important. On my father's side. There were five siblings and on my mother’s side there were also five siblings. My uh, on my father’s side um, they had, they were in different fields. My uncle, his older brother had been uh, wanted to be a doctor but they couldn't afford to send to med school for a long time. [00:07:03] So they decided to send him to Marseille to study engineering and he was, he learned, and all the family chipped in and they all paid for his, for his, for his education and when he came back to Egypt he couldn't find a job. So, fortunately my father was uh, had start an import-export business and he was very successful at it and he said, join me and we'll, you know, we'll make it an even bigger success. [00:07:32] And they worked very well together in tandem and so on my father's side he used to travel regularly to Europe. He used to travel all the time and uh, so it was a very, uh, successful, prosperous business but he worked extremely hard to get there. On my mother's side the, her, her, her mother's brother was the dealer, exclusive dealer for Dodge...cars all over Egypt. [00:08:07] And he used to go to America on a regular basis to, to visit and so on, for business purposes. And they were very worldly, very well-travelled and they had a magnificent house, in, in, in Cairo. Just a block or so from the Nile. The house was so magnificent that um, the person who lived after that was Sadat. 

[00:08:32] Lisette: Wow. 

[00:08:33] Robin Behar: Yeah, after he left. And I have very fond memories because it was very elegant, very uh, British, very, it was, they invited us for lunch every once in a while and uh, and their plates would come heated. I'd never, weren't that fancy at home. We were fancy but not that fancy. [00:08:58] But to be served on a hot plate was like, I’d never seen that before. So it was very, very unique. Um, the uh, the, the household we lived in was, was interesting. It was very um, it was...

[00:09:23] [technical note]

[00:09:24] Robin Behar: Ay! I'm sorry. [00:09:37] We lived, we lived in a, in a very elegant neighbourhood. It was a neighbourhood were there were embassies and when my parents got married it was very difficult to get housing accommodation. It was just after the second world war so there were, there was a lot of demand but my father was a real go-getter and he had contacts and he knew people and he got us a very beautiful place in a ve- [00:10:04] On our left was the, was the uh, Spanish consu- not the consulate, the embassy. And so every day, you know, the doors would open and there would be the car with a little Spanish flag and the chauffeur and the - it was extremely elegant. I mean it was just a whole lot of pomp and circumstance and, you know, I'd look out the window I'd say, "Whoa, this is really nice. One day, I want to have a chauffeur." I never got one but I still enjoy being driven. [00:10:32] But uh, and on our right was, was, was a house that was not inhabited. It was a mansion but it was never, or the person living there was a recluse and we never saw him. The name was Kutsika [sp?], was probably Greek and there were a lot of wealthy people like that who had homes and they didn't occupy them or else, or else they, they were, I was surrounded by people like that in my, as I grew up. [00:11:04] So um, my, my parents decided that they wanted me to, to go to private school um, the Jewish schools had started to close down and uh, already, yes, in, after Israel was formed the Jewish schools started to dwindle. And even if they were open I'm not too sure they would have sent me to a Jewish school because they considered themselves very modern, very assimilated and they were very comfortable in multicultural environments. [00:11:37] So um, I , I started, my parents sent me first to uh, Good sisters Franciscaines and the Good Sisters Franciscaines are just like here in Canada, exactly. They set up, they set up schools, they set up hospitals, they set up, you name it, and they uh, they were very, very successful um, but, my problem was, I didn't like the way they taught. [00:12:07] They were extremely rigid, they were very, very difficult. There was a - I, I, and my parents sent me to school at age three, which is a little young so I wasn't, I wasn't happy or comfortable. Then, my granddads [?] came up with the concept that the kids have to learn English as early as possible. We speak French at home but uh, we have to have English also because English is the language of the world and one day we will not be living here. [00:12:37] So, immediately I uh, I got at the age of four, a British education. They put me into private British school called the Gazira Preparatory school and a lot of graduates from, from, from Cairo have been there, if they lived in Zamalik, which is where I lived. And uh, it was like going to England for the day. It was absolutely incredible. [00:13:07] Actually, the surrounding was similar to this and there was a picture of the Queen everywhere. Every room had a picture of the Queen. And uh, actually, had a picture of the king when I first went and then when he died they replaced him with a picture of the queen. And I remember watching the coronation in film, in 1952. [00:13:31] It was absolutely incredible, just the, and I loved going to school there it was, it was uh, we were 13 in my class so it was a small class and so you got private attention. You were catered to in a way and you weren't just a number. You were a person. And so the teachers made you feel very important and they had high expectations. That I didn't like. [laughs] [00:13:58] Because my creative, my creative edge was sort of,  it was, it was encouraged but not that much. The, the, I learned uh, English, so when I was four and I liked the way the British taught. To me it was, academically, it was more pleasant. I had lots fo friends who went to Lycée Français Laïque, which is the French school that was set up by France. [00:14:27] And it was like going to Paris for the day. And they had French teachers, they had French books, they had French everything. So, and I had other friends who went to École de frères and École des frères is, is the priests. And the priests also uh, they set it up just like they did here, exactly the same thing. The, the catholic priests. So...

[00:14:55] Lisette: Question, was it, the Franciscan nuns, were they separate the boys and the girls, or were they [overlap]

[00:15:03] Robin Behar: Absolutely separate. 

[00:15:05] Lisette: But the English was together?

[00:15:06] Robin Behar: Together. I liked that too. I liked, I liked a mixed school and, and so I found that I was, I liked mixed everything. We had different cultures, One day was, we celebrate India, the next day e celebrated France the next day we celebrated England. It was different, and parents were involved. They brought movies, they brought so I was exposed to so many different cultures. [00:15:34] To my that was the norm. Having the same culture was not, was not the norm. Now, the uh, the uh, would you like to know about Jewish life in, in...

[00:15:48] Lisette: Absolutely. 

[00:15:49] Robin Behar: Okay. We, we celebrated all the Jewish holidays but not to an extreme extent. Uh, for instance, uh, on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah we didn't use the car, we didn't - we only walked. So there was a little synagogue that was formed in somebody’s house in Zamalik and we would go there. [00:16:15] And it was very nice but it was very difficult because it was hot, extremely hot. And you died of thirst by the time you, by the time you, the day was over. So...my friend said to me, you know, we go to, to the big synagogue in Cairo. And I said, "I've been to the big synagogue, I like it very much. I've been there with my mother and so on, I said, I enjoy the atmosphere there much more than the small synagogue." [00:16:46] They said, "We spend the whole day there." I said, "Now you're talking. That's my - I like that. That to me is how it should be done." And they said," Well, why don't you come?" And so my grandparents, both sets, lived within walking distance of, of, of the, and it was called Shaar Hashamayin, just like here, uh, in Montreal, and uh, it was a wonderful, big, magnificent, Sephardi synagogue. [00:17:15] And so they uh, they celebrated the holidays the way there were supposed to be done. It was all done traditionally, perfectly uh, Sephardi. It was extremely, extremely well done. Of course, it didn't hurt that the rabbi, Haham Hamaoui was a very popular guy with the women. [clears throat, laughs] [00:17:43] So, I have to tell you the services were packed, with women particularly, no, men also but he put on a good show. Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, even Saturday night he put on a  - I remember going to the service. It was like, magnificent. It was just, it was bright and it was, there was a choir and there were, oh yeah, it was, children's choir. [00:18:09] And they were all wearing frocks and they were, it was just, it was really, really uh, something to behold and uh, luckily enough that's where I had my bar mitzvah before we left. And uh, it was, it was very nice too and the photographs of my bar mitzvah, I'm going to provide them for you so that you get an idea of, of what it was like. [00:18:34] Very uh, it wasn't showy, it was very austere but it was, uh, meaningful and I like that. 

[00:18:43] Lisette: Questions: Remember you said your, one of your grandfathers had everything monogrammed including a prayer [?] which you have. 

[00:18:50] Robin Behar: Yes.

[00:18:51] Lisette: Have you scanned that?

[00:18:52] Robin Behar: No. But I can. 

[00:18:54] Lisette: Could you please?

[00:18:55] Robin Behar: With pleasure. With pleasure, absolutely. These prayer books were made in Europe and they are leather bound and uh, and yeah, I'll be glad to do that. I have it. 

[00:19:08] Lisette: Tell me about your childhood, your family, your brothers and sisters. 

[00:19:13] Robin Behar: Okay, my family was uh, was interesting. My mother was married first, before my father. My father was a second marriage. My mother was married young, probably about 18 or 19 and she had my sister who is about uh, two years old, one or two years old and then when, they lived in Alexandria and life in Egypt was bittersweet. [00:19:47] In the sense that, granted, we had all the accoutrements of, of very pleasant life but there was the other side of the coin. The other side of the coin it was filthy. It was full of uh, sicknesses and diseases and stuff like that so my mother lived in Alexandria and she had married a wealthy man and she came from a wealthy family herself. It was a good merger. [00:20:14] And uh, and so her husband dies of typhoid fever. Her, two of her servants died of typhoid fever and she found herself a widow at age 21. Which was extremely difficult, you know?

[00:20:33] Lisette: With a baby. 

[00:20:33] Robin Behar: With a baby on top of that. So that was very, very difficult experience for her. However, a couple years later she married, she, she met my father and she was, it was really love. I mean, I've never seen two people who were so madly in love with each other than these two. It as just amazing. 

[00:20:58] Lisette: Where did they meet? How did they meet?

[00:21:00] Robin Behar: They met, my mother's family was prominent. My father was always looking to marry an attractive, prominent person. And, and my mother was the one. And he knew her, her brothers and so her brothers introduced them and somehow they met in Alexandria on the beach. So they made it, I guess they made it look like it was sort of, a coincidence, I don't know whether it was planned or not. [00:21:31] I would have planned it but, you know, I don't know how it was done. If my uncles did it, they probably planned it too, but anyhow they gave my father wonderful references when the time came to, to be serious. My, my father's family was reticent that he would marry a widow with a child. That was a, that was very, uh, they were, they said, well, you know, the responsibilities you're taking on, you're not taking on the responsibilities of the child but also of the whole family. [00:22:02] And that had its own, its own aura. However, my mother was so, she was, my mother was a real lady and she was very respected by everybody. She had a certain diplomacy that very few people have. I wish I had one tenth of the diplomacy she had. but she was very, very loved by her whole, her whole family.  [00:22:25] And her whole friends, her whole, the whole, her staff, everybody loved her. So um, then uh...so she, she uh, she managed to diplomatically arrange everybody and so on and we grew up, felling, my sister, my brother, my sister, me and my brother who came later on, we were close. [00:22:51] We were never felt to be different. And so, so that was, I thought, I think that was, that was wonderful. Both parents made us feel that, that, that uh, we were one family and we were together. Um, when I was um, uh, when I was, when my sister was about 14 she went, she moved to Alexandria to study because the schools in Cairo were starting to become mmm, iffy. [00:23:22] And she was uh...

[00:23:25] Lisette: How far is Cairo to Alexandria?

[00:23:27] Robin Behar: It was only three hours by car, three, three and a half hours by car so it was not that long. It felt like a major trip because you went through the desert and there ups, ups and downs through the desert and it was not, it was not a comfortable ride. But um, and a lot of people got sick on the way there because simply, just, yes, the ups and downs. [00:23:48] And women particularly did not feel, they got carsick a lot. It was like being seasick. And so but uh, on the fun side, when you got to Alexandria, Alexandria was magnificent. Would you like me to tell you a bit about Alexandria?

[00:24:04] Lisette: Of course!

[00:24:04] Robin Behar: Okay. Alexandria was where we spent our summer vacations. My mother, having been from there and having lived there and so on, had a fond attachment to Alexandria and so we ended up, by getting apartments on uh, next to the beach, not on the beach a couple of clocks inland from the beach. It was all desert and the beach. [00:24:29] So, we loved - I loved it. It was a very simple apartment, nothing fancy like what you see in Florida. It was a real beach apartment. Uh, you had the vendors that would come in the morning and they would sell falafel and they would sell all kinds of things and, and you could buy them and bring it, bring it upstairs and all that kind of stuff. So that was very nice. [00:24:50] However, what happened was that not too far away from us, like five minutes away was the King Farouk's summer palace. And when King Farouk was kicked out they turned his summer palace into a...club. And my father, having always, he always liked the best of everything, we became a member of the club. [00:25:21] And here, when you think of it, it was called Montaza Palace and when you think of it I...

[00:25:25] Lisette: Montaz?

[00:25:27] Robin Behar: Montaza. Montaza. And when you think of it, I grew up in the place really, during the summers. Because, because they had, you drove in and first thing you got was the smell of pine trees. It was beautiful pine trees everywhere and you had deer running around. [00:25:52] And you had a private beach and it was ot done just like a private beach, no. It was done Grecian style with columns and with statues and with, with no waves so you could go swimming without worrying about the ocean. Uh, it was totally out of this world. And one little detail. We had access to the king's palace. 

[00:26:19] Lisette: Do you have pictures?

[00:26:20] Robin Behar: Oh Montaza Palace? I'm sure I do but they're in Florida. I don't have them here. But...

[00:26:27] Lisette: But we [inaudible]

[00:26:29] Robin Behar: I, I don't know if I have pictures of Montaza or not. Um...but, but you can find them on the internet, easily. If you like I can, I can give you...

[00:26:45] Lisette: Went...you were a member of that club? 

[00:26:47] Robin Behar: Oh it was, it was fant-

[00:26:48] Lisette: You should have pictures...

[00:26:49] Robin Behar: It was fantastic. Now, so, Alexandria was, was great. My sister went to study there and she stayed with her grandmother on her father's side. And eventually she met somebody, her cousin, who she got married to. 

[00:27:11] Lisette: He cousin from her..

[00:27:11] Robin Behar: Her father's side. 

[00:27:12] Lisette: Wow. 

[00:27:13] Robin Behar: Yeah. And so, so they got married and so um, uh, she got married at 18 and they eventually left for Switzerland and they went directly, her husband was in the cotton business and he, his father had died at, when he was 16. And he was brilliant. He was able to take over, to learn the business and make a success of it and transfer it to Switzerland. So it was a very interesting transition for them. [00:27:48] Uh, back to, back to, to Cairo, during our winters uh, and spring and fall we were members of a club called the Gezira sporting club, which is still around. It was a British club to which they, where they allowed just a few Jews and uh, a few members of the international community, but it was built for the Brits, by the Brits. [00:28:12] Just to give you an idea of what it was, it was, and we felt it, and we appreciated every minute we were there. Example, the club had thirty tennis courts, twenty squash courts, seven swimming pools, croquet, cricket, lawn bowling, horseback riding, nine hole golf course um, hairdresser, uh, library, which I loved. [00:28:44] They had - with all the newest magazines and Reuter ticker-tape coming in all day long. The restaurants? Pff. Uh, beautiful restaurants and the women would go, go there and play cards in the afternoon but I, I knew people who were there...

[00:29:04] Lisette: What did they play? 

[00:29:04] Robin Behar: They played bridge a lot. Um, it was, bridge seemed to be the thing. And uh, and so I knew people who would go to uh, to the club at seven o'clock in the morning and not leave till seven or eight or nine o'clock at night because there was so much to do all day long. And they would change activity every two hours they would be doing something different. They would play tennis early in the morning, then they would have breakfast, then they would go swimming, then they would take a nap. [00:29:37] There were areas where you could take a nap, then they would have lunch, then they would go horseback riding, then they would go...pfff...it was just, how did these people earn a living? Very simple, they owned land, they had crop shares and they basically shared the, the, the profits or parts of the profits with the guys who, who planted things on their land and that was it. [00:30:03] Or they had a factory, they had a manager for the factory and they, their biggest concern was how well did I play tennis today? The factory ran by itself. There wasn't that much competition simply because if you came up with one idea or if you came up with one uh, product that was needed in, in Egypt, you had it made. [00:30:29] Also, they would export all over. All over the Middle East. These countries didn't have so in Egypt they made. They made shirts and they made underwear and they made, they made, you name it. It's…they made it. Food products, so uh, matter of fact, one of the things that my parents used to love doing is taking us visiting factories. We would go visit a farm, farms that were be, had turned into factories. I saw homogenized milk for the first time, in bottles. We used to get our milk form huge jars that came from the farm and they would boil it and so on. [00:31:12] And for the first time in Alexandria I saw a factory making milk in jars. And so, to me, it was like, 'Whoo! Look at that." and then they took us to visit uh, uh, the different, different places where there were, they would have uh, uh mango jams and they would do all kinds of things, jams and so one, that they would export. So you had, there was a certain activity. There was quite, quite uh, quite amazing. Um...that was my world. 

[00:31:48] Lisette: Beautiful world. 

[00:31:49] Robin Behar: It was interesting. It was, it was bittersweet because, let me give you the bitter side. 

[00:31:54] Lisette: You have to. 

[00:31:55] Robin Behar: Yeah. Uh, the bitter side was that for that, all that beauty, there was a price to pay. My mother paid the price because she, she had her husband who died very young and uh, and she got sick also. Matter of fact, she died a year after we arrived in Canada. Yeah. And that was vey difficult. I was only 14 at the time, my brother was only eight so it was really, it was a - we went through a very hard time when we came to Canada. It wasn't like sweet. Would you like to know a little about...how we left Egypt or...?

[00:32:33] Lisette: Yeah. Yeah, definitely but first...oh so you left...

[00:32:38] Robin Behar: Let me tell you about the bitter side of Egypt before we, before we do the departure. 

[00:32:44] Lisette: Anyway, I'll get to that. 

[00:32:45] Robin Behar: Okay. Okay. The, the bitter part was like that. I grew up in - the word stress was daily and constant. I don't think we were ever able to really relax. My parent were, had a very positive attitude and, and very, they were outgoing and they were very sociable and the whole bit. My father knew how to relax and my father knew how to take - my mother too. [00:33:16] But, but um, they knew how to take life in a positive way. But when I was young I was faced with a huge amount of pressure and a huge amount of stress coming from school to begin with. Because, and from outside. I was never considered in. I was always considered out. I was always considered not Egyptian. [00:33:45] When I came to Canada, the first thing that Canadians did was they embraced us. They made us feel welcome and, and so uh, French-Canadians, I spoke to them, it was in French, Jews, I spoke to them, it was in English. Uh, Italians, the few words of Italian, you know? I related to everybody. Because I had different parts of the family who were from areas and so Canada brought it together. [00:34:13] However, in Egypt, although it was very cosmopolitan and very worldly and very, in certain ways, more elegant than it was here uh, absolutely. Just to give you and idea of elegance, before I get to the bitter part, my, my...[00:34:32] I went to the opera for once in Egypt. It was my grand-uncle, my, my mother's uncle who is the car dealer, the Dodge uh...he invited us to go see, to go see La Traviata, Verdi's La Traviata at the opera house in Egypt. And the opera house in Egypt was, it burned down unfortunately, it was magnificent. It was typical of all the opera houses you see in Europe. [00:35:00] It was - whether it's Vienna or France or whatever. It was all gold and all velvet, like the red velvet chairs here and so, exactly like that. Matter of fact, identical to this chair except with gold trimming, we had a loge. And, and, and the loge was the best seats in the house, you were facing the, facing the stage and it was, it was semi-circular and then uh, we sat in chairs like that, not on all the other chairs, we could stretch out, enjoy. [00:35:35] And, and at intermission they came in and they served us orange juice and whatever we wanted to drink. And so uh, I sat there completely mesmerized. Number one was the music and I had a huge musical retention. I could retain music very easily and I could, literally the next a day hum just about half a dozen of those tunes having heard them once. [00:35:58] It was enough and, and, but the whole experience to me was so magnificent and, and I was accustomed to, to that sort of thing because my friends lived in embassies and lived in - their parents were wealthy and they had surroundings like this and so to me it was normal, you know, you went over to a fiends house, it was magnificent so, you know, that was it. Take it for granted. And they had staff? Sure, they had at least two, three staff, you know. [00:36:27] My father built a building in Egypt uh, as an investment with his father-in-law and, and, I'm getting to the stress part, because it's coming and so uh, because he came to Canada in 1952. And my mother's side of the family was already here. And he picked the wrong time. He came in February in 1952. First thing he did was catch a cold. [00:36:53] My aunt and uncle Pardo who were living in upper Westmount at that time, Yves' parents, he stayed with them and, and it was, it was uh, it was quite and experience because he took movies and he showed them to us in Egypt and he said, "This is how, he told my mother, this is how your brother and sister all live." And here was mountains of snow, my aunt huddled in fur coats and, and, and we were sitting in Cairo in our, on our veranda watching the movies outdoors in our own building. [00:37:35] We lived in the penthouse in the building so we had, you know, we were watching the movies and I ran to the fridge and I opened up the freezer and I said, "An I gonna live in there one day?" This is impossible. I mean, how can people live that way? So...we did. But, so my father came back to Cairo and he said to my, my mother, you know, lets not rush. [00:38:00] Although there were all kinds of pressures, that were going on, political pressures and so on, since, since Egypt, since Israel was, was born we had, we started to feel the pressure. Immediately in 1948. Matter of fact, my uncle Pardo, Yves' father, Joseph Pardo um, was put into an internment camp. [00:38:25] Absolutely. Most people don't know, we had concentration camps in Egypt. We had concentration camps that were, that were set up as a result, uh, when Israel was formed. And, and, and they...

[00:38:41] Lisette: It wasn't during World War II.

[00:38:43] Robin Behar: No, it was when Israel was formed and, and, and they decided that, that, no they didn't want Israel to be formed and they went looking for, for my uncle who is a member of the Jewish Y, there was a Jewish Y at the time, just like set up in, like in Montreal. There was a Jewish this, a Jewish that, the Jewish the other. You name it. [00:39:05] The Jewish community was fabulously set up. But as I grew up it started to fall apart, right? So that was the bitter part. But, but they went looking for him and they didn't find my uncle, they took his brother, they took his brother, which is Joseph Pardo. The other one was the younger brother who was in the states at the time. Or in Europe, I don't remember but he was not in the country so they took his brother instead. [00:39:33] They put him in a concentration camp. Fortunately my, my, my, my uncle's uh, father-in-law was a jeweller and he was one of the top jewellers in Cairo and um, and in Egypt. And he had contacts, he got him out of the concentration camp and they left immediately and they went to France for a couple of years. [00:40:01] They, they, then they decided to come to Canada because it was the land of opportunity and...you speak French. And they felt more comfortable in a French-speaking environment so Montreal, to them, was, was, was uh, was home. They made home out of it. And, as you can see, they lived very well right from the start. They lived in, they had a house in Upper Westmount and they, so they lived, they lived very comfortably. [00:40:33] Um, however, when my father came to visit them, he said to them, 'Now how many, how many servants have you got?" 

[00:40:40] Lisette: [laughs]

[00:40:40] Robin Behar: Yeah, that was the answer. The answer was, we have a cleaning lady, she comes in once a day. And she says, "Well how about the rest of the time?" So they go, well no, we don't have. "You don't have? Oh I see, okay. And tell me where is your country club? Do you belong to country club?" "Yes, we belong to Elmridge." How nice, how often do you go? Oh, two months of the year. Two months of the year uh-huh. And how far is it from here? [00:41:08] Well, it's Ile Bizard. Ile Bizard? And he goes, yeah, how far is that? Oh, well it takes us about an hour to get there. In those days there were no bridges, you know those, you have, to get there was a - so he comes back to Egypt and he says, "Not so fast. We're staying here." So uh, until we have to leave. So um, and my, and his father-in-law, my mother's father was also assimilated to, to Egypt. He didn't want to leave. He was very happy there. He had income, he had the businesses, he had, he was, he was...[00:41:43] He was getting older so, so gradually he needed something to retire on. So him and my father decided we're going to build a building to generate income. And they did. The only problem was that when the building was half built the Suez Canal crisis took place and....

[00:42:05] Lisette: In 1956. 

[00:42:07] Robin Behar: '56, 1956 and his father-in-law died. Just after Yom Kippur, two, three days after Yom Kippur he died. 

[00:42:20] Lisette: Natural death?

[00:42:21] Robin Behar: Well, natural death, he was in his early 70's, you know. So he was overweight, he had, he had, he had, what did he have? Something like cerebral haemorrhage, that kind of stuff. 

[00:42:34] Lisette: But he wasn't killed or...

[00:42:35] Robin Behar: No, he was not killed, no, no. No member of my family was killed. We were very lucky from that point of view. No, but he died from a lot of stress. There was very difficult, very, very difficult for him so in the meantime, my father finds himself straddled with a building that's half built, heirs, the children of his father-in-law who were partners with him now. [00:43:06] Who were, part of them were in Egypt and the other part were already in North America. And...no, no, no, no uh, no uh, estate plan and no...

[00:43:22] Lisette: No will. 

[00:43:23] Robin Behar: No will, nothing. So how do you solve that issue? It took, it really took my father a lot of, of courage to, to go, to surmount that. He was able to get, he had such a good reputation, all the suppliers said to him, we'll supply you, don't worry. When the building is built then you can pay us. [00:43:49] It was, yeah, had a very good, solid rock reputation. So and they trusted him. So that's what happened. In the meantime, the tax people said, "You owe us."

[00:44:05] Lisette: Why?

[00:44:06] Robin Behar: Estate taxes. You're not leaving the country so fast. So...stress. And I felt the stress and he felt the stress, everybody felt the stress. So growing up, that was part of the stress. Not only did I, was I not felt, not made to feel comfortable by the Egyptians, I was never made to feel Egyptian. [00:44:37] I was always talked to like an outsider. Hey, we spoke French and spoke English, and Italian and Spanish.

[00:44:45] Lisette: And Arabic? 

[00:44:46] Robin Behar: Ah, a little bit of Arabic, just to the servants. Not much. We're not like the Iraqis who, who were - a lot of the Iraqis spoke Arabic at home and all that. And there were Egyptian Jews who did speak Arabic at home. Not many. But my environment was European. I never felt I was Egyptian. I always felt I was European. I always felt at home in Italy and France, in Switzerland in, in, in England but never in Egypt. [00:45:22] I was, yeah, it's very difficult. It's very, very difficult to, to feel like you're an outsider. Now, all the stresses came along with, with that so they, they, they said to my father, when you pay your taxes then you can leave. So we already planned our exit. We didn't know when but half our furniture was packed in crates and so on and were shipped to Canada. [00:45:51] In the name of, of a printer. It wasn't our name because we weren't allowed to ship anything, send out anything or - so it was smuggled out. [laughs] Let the Egyptians go and get us now for this but, but, uh, but it was, my father had contacts and people loved him and people respected him and people bent over backward for him. Including many Egyptians who were very helpful. [00:46:18] Because there were - friendships were extremely solid, There were not, in the Middle East friendships were like stronger than family. It was really, really solid stuff. 

[00:46:28] Lisette: It's loyal.

[00:46:29] Robin Behar: Very loyal. Everywhere, you had manservants who were, who were so loyal they, they'd do anything for you. So um, uh, eventually, the building was built, it was high-end building, it was, we had people from the embassies and so on living in our building. [00:46:51] So, again, I was surrounded by people from embassies all the time. And so it was really...

[00:46:57] Lisette: A span of how long? A year?

[00:47:00] Robin Behar: What?

[00:47:01] Lisette: The building got built...

[00:47:04] Robin Behar: It took, it took two years I would say, two three years I would say, two, three years to build it. 

[00:47:08] Lisette: By the time it got built.

[00:47:08] Robin Behar: And finished and all that it took a couple of years. It took a couple of years. And, interestingly enough, part of the bitter, we'll get, give you a bit of an idea of, more of the bitter, when I was about ten uh, I said to my parents, "You know, I'd like to go shopping by myself, big man, I want to go buy bread." And they said, "Yeah, you know, the baker is two, three blocks away, here's money, go fetch it." [00:47:43] But you know, we have staff for that, you don't have to go, or we'll go together, we have the car, you know, we'll, we'll go. I said, "No, I want to walk there." I haven't changed by the way, I'm still the same. I want to walk there and, and I want to go buy bread. And they said, okay, do you know what to buy? Yes, I know what to buy. I was pretty, pretty - and they were very liberal. [00:48:06] They allowed me to do things I would never allow my kids to do. Never. I was allowed to go downtown by myself at ten years old. I went to learn typing at ten years old. Oh, my parents said, when my father came from Canada, he said to us, "kids, everybody into the kitchen." And I said, "I'm not even allowed to go into the kitchen. You want me to go into the kitchen?" So, so he says, you're gonna learn to cook. I said, "What for? We have a cook, he cooks so well!" I mean, you know, why bother? [00:48:42] And he says, well, in Canada you won't have a cook. You better go learn how to cook and, and learn everything, including plucking chickens. I learned how to pluck chickens. Argh! And I was squeamish but I learned how to pluck chickens. You want to eat? You do it. Hey, and I did, and I learned and, you know what? It was very helpful. So um, my parents also learned, my sister taught me to make a bed. [00:49:12] I went to visit her in Alexandria when she was newly married and, and she, it was kind of cute. I get and she says, you know, I don't have a maid to, to clean up after you every, every, every day all the time. I share my maid with my mother-in-law, whatever. They were living in the same house so, so you're going to have to learn to make your to make your bed. [00:49:39] I said, "What? Me? Make my bed? It's below my stature. I mean, you know? It's like, no! I mean, you have staff for doing this. I don't make my bed. Anyhow, I learned to make my bed at my sister's. Little did I know that she had instructions from my mother to make sure I learned how to make the bed. She had staff. [00:50:08] But she wanted to make sure I knew how to make a bed. My mother did. And my, so she let my sister do the dirty work.  [laughs]

[00:50:20] Lisette: Question, how many staff did you have in the house?

[00:50:23] Robin Behar: Not many. Um, we had ad doorman downstairs who bowed every time we came in and so on. 

[00:50:32] Lisette: Even when you were a kid. 

[00:50:33] Robin Behar: Uh...before we built our building we lived in a beautiful uh, house that was three stories and, and uh, it was like, we had one floor, somebody else, it was like a triplex but it was huge. I mean, these things were like huge, it was like a mansion, huge. And so we're on the top floor and we had two. [00:50:56] A nanny and cook, cook-cleaner. So we had, oh yeah, we had the doorman also, there was always a doorman. So there was...

[00:51:04] Lisette: Opens the door for you. 

[00:51:05] Robin Behar: And gardening. So there was, there was...

[00:51:09] Lisette: But wait, if you're on the top floor, where is your garden?

[00:51:12] Robin Behar: Downstairs. 

[00:51:14] Lisette: But what about the others?

[00:51:15] Robin Behar: They used the garden downstairs too. And the others also used, the gardener was shared between us. 

[00:51:19] Lisette: So you had to be friends. 

[00:51:22] Robin Behar: Yeah. 

[00:51:22] Lisette: You had to be friend with each other. 

[00:51:23] Robin Behar: Oh yeah, everybody was friends with...

[00:51:25] Lisette: Because you're in the garden...

[00:51:27] Robin Behar: Yeah, yeah, you, you had different hours and you had different, oh it was all done you' you're allowed to do this, you're not allowed to do that. That' why my parents built the building and said, "We're gonna do what we want." It was like a condo you know, you sort of had to careful what you did and what you didn't do. [00:51:44] But in our building we had the doorman, then we had somebody in the garage to wash the car. Our car was washed twice a day. Whenever there was a bit of dust the car would never walk out of the - get out of the garage without being spanking clean. We had, again, a manservant cook and we had a nanny. So that was, that was how, that's how, how it worked. [00:52:12] Now, I decided to go buy bread at age ten. And so I went to buy bread at age ten and on the way back I was shot. 

[00:52:23] Lisette: Shot!?

[00:52:24] Robin Behar: Shot. 

[00:52:25] Lisette: Pow?

[00:52:26] Robin Behar: Pow. 

[00:52:29] Lisette: Did it get you. 

[00:52:30] Robin Behar: Yes. 

[00:52:30] Lisette: Where ?

[00:52:31] Robin Behar: In the leg, fortunately. The, it was kids who were playing with a gun, they had no gun control or anything. People were able to go play with guns. They, they had a gun and they were shooting at birds, this guy is called Robin, they didn't know my name was Robin. But, but, name of a bird but they shot at me. [00:52:56] They, I mean, why?

[00:52:59] Lisette: Because you are...

[00:53:01] Robin Behar: Was, it wasn't because I was Jewish or maybe it was because I was European, I don't know. I, I, you know, I...they were Arab kids so yes, you know, maybe. And they had been watching the news and all that kind of stuff so maybe they figured they'd get one. I don't know. Maybe they figured it wouldn’t, it wouldn't hurt me but it did. The bullet got into my leg and fortunately I was able to get home and uh, and our manservant, loyal went...[00:53:39] They didn't know they hurt me, our manservant went and he got them. He was able to get them and, and it was very, he was from Sudan and these, these people were fantastic, fantastically loyal. Wonderful people. So um, anyhow, that's not the important part. The important part is that we went to the hospital uh, which wasn't too far from where we lived. [00:54:06] And they looked at it, they said, "No, we're going to sew it."

[00:54:11] Lisette: and the bullet is still in. 

[00:54:12] Robin Behar: My father said, "but the bullet is still in." They said, "Well, not really, it probably went out." He says, "No, there isn't a second hole, there's only one hole." Can you imagine the doctor saying that? He says, "I want and x-ray." But the technician isn't in. "I'll go fetch her." He went to her home, he got her, she put on the x-ray machine, she took the x-ray and there was the hole, the, the bullet. So, they operated me the next morning at 7 am and uh, and it was awful. [00:54:44] It was really, really bad because they didn't have all kinds of medications to make you feel very good. Uh, the, stuff they gave you to put you to sleep was like, made you nauseous and made you vomit and made you all kind - it was like, really bad. And, worst part, is that in was infected. It was infected, which means we're gonna have, you're gonna have to come every day and get the wound cleaned and my father would take me to the hospital every day. And um...

[00:55:16] Lisette: With the driver?

[00:55:20] Robin Behar: Hm?

[00:55:20] Lisette: With the driver?

[00:55:21] Robin Behar: No, my parents were modern. We had two cars. We didn't share cars. They didn't have a driver but they had two cars. I would have liked to have one car with one driver because that's all my friends came to school to school with their driver. I wanted to go to school with my drive, no my parents drove me to school, you know. But to them, they were free this way. They were able to go back -my mother drove, my father drove, they went wherever they wanted. So they felt freer this way. [00:55:46] They ones with a driver had to share the car. So, so, so um, anyhow, um, they, we went, to the hospital every day and they were afraid they might have to chop the leg off, amputate. And for three months we didn't know whether it was going to amputate or not. [00:56:07] So you can imagine my poor parents having to go through all this stress of the building and the inheritance and the, and, and the whole situation, the stress of the Arabs making them feel uncomfortable and unwanted and so on. And, and their relatives leaving one by one. And there was a, it was, it was, and to have a child who was, you know, handicapped, wow. Fortunately it didn't get, it didn't get infected. [00:56:37] It, it got, it got, healed, it healed up and, fortunately, by nature I'm healthy so, so it was, it was good. I was very lucky to, to have surmounted that. But, you know, for three months I was handicapped. I was really, it was uh, dragging my foot around and not being able to walk and all that kind of stuff. If - went to the beach, the kids went to the beach I didn't. I had to stay behind. [00:57:02] So I was left out a lot. There was a lot of being left out. 

[00:57:06] Lisette: Because of that. 

[00:57:07] Robin Behar: That's only one of the situations. I also, by nature, I was very creative. I was very uh, interested in, for instance, I grew up with French culture. Why? Because my mother had a huge library at home and you didn't have TV and you didn't have radio. So if you wanted to be entertained you either socialized or you read books. [00:57:30] So I grew up reading my mother's collection of books, all the Molière plays, I read them all. Comtesse de Ségur, I read all her books. All the, all these, these books, you know, travel books and this and that, and I remember I read a book on, on, on Canada and it's first page it says, "Mosquitoes are not unknown in Canada." I said, "Oh no, we have mosquitoes in Egypt, do we need them in Canada too?" We used to sleep under mosquito nets. [00:58:02] And so uh, so, so uh, anyhow, so fortunately uh, we got out of that and we left Egypt and, and now we were supposed to uh, we, I sensed we were going to leave Egypt. We lived in our building, we lived in a beautiful penthouse there which, you, know, was furnished with half our furniture from, from the other apartment and there was plenty for, for, for...[00:58:33] It was three bedrooms uh, two bathrooms uh, big living room, big dining room and uh, kitchen and that was it, and a nice view on the park. So it was very nice, I mean, uh, but it goes to show how big the first apartment was. It was, that had half the furniture, you know. 

[00:58:55] Lisette: [inaudible]

[00:58:55] Robin Behar: That was sent here. So anyhow I sensed that we were going to leave one day. I sensed - I could feel the, the, my parent's didn't know until my father starts to say, "Well, I think we're finally finished with the tax people." He had to go everyday to the tax office. 

[00:59:21] Lisette: For how long?

[00:59:21] Robin Behar: With the bureaucracy, for, it took three years to get out. 

[00:59:25] Lisette: Ah, three years to finish with the tax people?

[00:59:28] Robin Behar: It took three years to, by the time the, the building was done, by the time the taxes were done, by the time the estate was done, it took, it was three years of stress. And I had my bar mitzvah just before we left. And so um, and my sister got married that year too. I mean, there were so many events, phew...[00:59:50] You know, it was, it was difficult, it was, granted, it was very nice but it was extremely difficult experience. 

[01:00:00] Lisette: Now did you, other than being shot...

[01:00:02] Robin Behar: Yes...

[01:00:03] Lisette: Did your family feel anti-Semitism?

[01:00:05] Robin Behar: Everywhere. 

[01:00:07] Lisette: So when...tell me about it. 

[01:00:08] Robin Behar: [overlap] I felt anti-Semitism from day one. Since I was born. I was born in '46, Israel was born in '48, that was the bitter part, bittersweet part of Israel. My father used to go back and forth to Israel, regularly, every month almost. He would supply them with food. 

[01:00:30] Lisette: Food? 

[01:00:30] Robin Behar: Food. And um, and that was in the '40's. And he would take the night train and go from Cairo to Tel Aviv on the night train. I was that simple going to Israel. 

[01:00:43] Lisette: How long did it take? 

[01:00:44] Robin Behar: How long did it take? 

[01:00:45] Lisette: To get there, yeah.

[01:00:47] Robin Behar: Overnight. 

[01:00:48] Lisette: That's it. 

[01:00:48] Robin Behar: Yeah. And it was like Montreal -New York. And uh, and so he would, he, he had um, Ashkenazis who - from Israel who came to see him. His name was Boris Wisebort [sp?] from Tel Aviv. He came to see him at his office, my father was an import-export, all that kind of stuff, banks, selling...[01:01:12] So he uh, Boris Wisebort came to him and says, "You have a fine reputation um, we trust you just based on your reputation. We would like you to supply us in Israel with, with uh, food."

[01:01:29] Lisette: What food did he supply?

[01:01:31] Robin Behar: Ah. Very good question. What food did Israel need? Everything. Israel was a desert. My father and my mother decided in the uh, 40's, when Israel was formed they were going to go to Israel together with my grandfather and uh, they were going to put money in Israel. [01:01:58] Going to invest money in Israel. My father had been going back and forth to Israel all the time and so he felt that, you know...

[01:02:06] Lisette: From what year? 

[01:02:08] Robin Behar: In the 40's, during the war, yeah in, in...

[01:02:12] Lisette: Second World War. 

[01:02:12] Robin Behar: Yeah, Second World War, yeah. And so he was pretty familiar with Israel so thy go, they take the night train and so on and my mother gets to Israel...

[01:02:21] Lisette: And that was legal. 

[01:02:23] Robin Behar: Yes, yes. 

[01:02:24] Lisette: Of course, it's direct.

[01:02:25] Robin Behar: Yes, it was, it was before Israel, it was Palestine at the time I think, if I'm not mistaken. Um, so they go, all three of them and uh, my mother looks at my father and she says, "Do you want us to invest our money in this piece of desert rock?" He says, "Yeah, it's Israel, you know, land of milk and honey." Sure my father was making a lot of money with Israel in those days. [01:02:55] That's how I got to go to private school. But, but, but the, my mother looks at him, she says, "Are you sure?" And my father says, "Yes, I'm sure." So they opened up an account with the Israel discount bank which was a nice Sephardi man my father knew very well called Rick Anati [sp?].  [01:03:17] And uh, he trusted him, again trust, as you were saying earlier and so he trusted them and, and...

[01:03:24] Lisette: There was no signatures then. 

[01:03:28] Robin Behar: Yes there were. There was. 

[01:03:29] Lisette: There was? 

[01:03:30] Robin Behar: Oh yes. It was all in our name with accounts and everything, it was all done in order and, and the money was there just in case one day if we ever had to live in Israel, we didn't want to live in Israel because it as very tough, very. First thing they would do would be take me and out me into the army. Very, very tough. And so, so, so...my mother said no. We're going to go live in Canada, my mother’s' - her family was there, we were gonna live in Canada, not Israel. [01:04:01] So um, they, they went to, to, so they went to Israel, they plonked the money down and wouldn't you know? Turned out to be an excellent investment. Actually, I inherited part of my inher - of my grandfather's inheritance. I wasn't used to inheritances, it wasn't in my, you know, it wasn't in my psyche. [01:04:28] In Egypt, yes. Here? No. It was, you did things yourself. That's how it was done. But anyhow, my, my, uh, my grandfather, when he died had all these heirs. And my mother died a year after we arrived here so I ended up by inheriting a third of the money that was in Israel. However, we didn't know about it. [01:04:58] My father knew about it but we didn't have proof and all that kind of stuff. My aunt Tanya Pardo was at, in Italy at a social gathering and she meets a lady from the Israel discount bank and she says, "Your name is Pardo?" Yes. "We're looking for his heirs. We're looking for Clement Pardo's heirs." And she says, "You're looking at one, you know, that's my husband, his son." she says, I don't believe this, this is unbelievable, this is great. So we ended up by getting, it wasn't huge, but whatever it was because it was split so many ways. [01:05:36] Whatever it was it was symbolic and it was uh, it shows you that investing in Israel was a great investment. And uh, it was nice, it was very nice to...it was meaningful. Anyhow. 

[01:05:57] Lisette: Why are you emotional? 

[01:06:00] Robin Behar: Israel. 

[01:06:01] Lisette: Oh, beautiful. So you go to Israel often?

[01:06:05] Robin Behar: Sometimes. Not enough. 

[01:06:10] Lisette: That's beautiful. 

[01:06:11] Robin Behar: It's beautiful. To me it's meaningful. Anyhow, [inaudible]. 

[01:06:21] Lisette: Okay um, more about anti-Semitism if you can tell me...

[01:06:25] Robin Behar: Anti-Semitism we felt it everywhere. We felt it everywhere. Um, on the streets, um, they always would tell me, the kids would tell me, hey, you're not a real man, you're a Jew and you're European. Real men are Egyptian. We play soccer, we're, we're, we don't have the fine manners that you have. You were brought up to be a, an aristocrat, that's what we want to get rid of. [01:06:59] So uh, and it was true. I was brought up to be an aristocrat. I was taught to eat in, in, uh, in a very elegant manner. I was taught how to set the table properly. I was taught how to entertain. I was taught how to hold a conversation. I was taught how to, I learned all these things. Matter of fact, even my friends would not convert, converse with, with seniors. Um, I would. [01:07:33] Because my friends had not been to British schools. And they didn't have the same upbringing that I had because we were taught to hold the conversation with a, with a senior. 

[01:07:46] Lisette: Your friends. Who were your friends?

[01:07:48] Robin Behar: My friends were Jewish mostly, French-speaking. They were the children of my mother's friends or friends I'd made at the club. But mainly a lot of the children of my parents friends. Interesting enough, rarely did I ever go fetch my own friends. [01:08:07] Why? Because in, in, in, I didn't have to number one. I was all the time surrounded by family and friends and, you know, how much time can you, can you spend? And I liked to read and I liked to, I liked to compose music. I liked to, I was creative so yeah, uh, I would, my musical retention, I played the accordion, I played all kinds of stuff. We had a piano in the house so it was uh, music was important to me. It was, it was, it was part of my culture. I like to go to plays and ballets and shows and folkloric dances and, and I was interested in people's culture and where they came from and their family history. [01:08:45] So to me, to go play with my friends, they were boring. They were boring because, because, because I found that with, with people who were older than me, they had things that they would tell me about their lives which fascinated me. They had travelled all over the world and they had met people who were fascinating people. [01:09:05] My, my contemporaries hadn't done that. So whenever kids weren't allowed, I was the exception. I was always allowed. My parent’s friends loved to talk with me. MY family, my aunt and my uncles, granted, I was the firstborn son, the firstborn male on my fathers side, so I was prima donna. I was like ouf, you name it, I go like this, you know. [01:09:33] And I wasn't demanding by nature. I was a very simple guy, basically as long, of course, uh, everything was done the way it was supposed to be done. [laughs] Maybe I wasn't so simple. No, I was very, with my grandparents on my father's side it was very simple. On my mother's side it was it was, it was a little bit more dressy and I appreciated both but, but um, getting back to the stresses of anti-Semitism. [01:10:02] Um, whenever we spoke about Israel we never used to word Israel. We used the word "chez nous". So it was, this was the code word. Uh, whenever somebody was around, we were very careful to speak in hushed tones. A matter of fact, you find a Moroccan Jews, even today, even the kids who were born here, will hush when they have conversation one to one. [01:10:35] And, for instance, in the sauna, at the, at the sanctuaire where, where, where I belonged uh, the, the, the guys would get together in the sauna and we had two Moroccan guys, they would whisper to each other. They Canadian were pretty open, we talked but the Moroccans, no. They hushed. So everything was said in code words. You always made sure you, I never wore my [gen David?]. No way. And if you wore one you wore it inside your shirt. [01:11:05] And eventually I refused to wear one. I said religion is mine, it's not to be shared, its' not to be publicised and uh, I, I don't want to be the target of. So, and that came very young. Even to this day...I only wear my [magen David] in Israel. It's amazing. Anyhow um...[01:11:35] The uh, the pressures came from even the staff. 

[01:11:41] Lisette: In the house?

[01:11:42] Robin Behar: Yeah. I would hear them talk amongst each other and stuff like that and they would say certain complimentary things about their, the people they worked for. They loved working for Jews but, you know, when they spoke about Israel, when they spoke about Jews in general, it was anti-Semitic. There were also uh...

[01:12:06] Lisette: Do you remember any of them?

[01:12:08] Robin Behar: Yeah, conversations was like uh, show me a Jew and I'll kill him. 

[01:12:14] Lisette: That's not a conversation. 

[01:12:16] Robin Behar: But, but you know what? He's your employer. But that's different, he's my employer and he's wonderful. Ah. [01:12:29] That's how they are. That's how - that's part of the nature and they're in difficult situations. They were in difficult situations themselves, you know. They were going through their own pressures but, but the reality is, that was constant. Constant, constant. Jokes and stuff like that. Anti-Jewish jokes. 

[01:12:48] Lisette: So where are you hearing this since you were in an exclusive...

[01:12:53] Robin Behar: Yes, but, but I was allowed to go on my own. I went to downtown Cairo by myself. I was exposed. I was, my parents didn't want me to be sheltered. They didn't to be exclusive. They wanted me to get out. 

[01:13:08] Lisette: So when you were downtown Cairo, did people know who you are? That you are Jewish, that you are whatever?

[01:13:13] Robin Behar: Oh, I was, I stood out as being European, absolutely. So I heard conversations everywhere. You know, and I understood Arabic, I spoke Arabic, not fluently but certainly, you know enough to understand. 

[01:13:24] Lisette: To know an insult. 

[01:13:25] Robin Behar: Absolutely. Absolutely. And they, they used to joke about insulting Jews all the time. I mean, here, if you ever dream of insulting a Jew, you're in deep trouble. Where, whereas over there it was an honour.

[01:13:44] Lisette: Of course.

[01:13:46] Robin Behar: It was, yeah, well you say of course because you grew up in those surroundings but, but the reality is that it was done all the time. 

[01:13:58] Lisette: How about the media?

[01:13:59] Robin Behar: Constantly. 

[01:14:01] Lisette: What happened in the media?

[01:14:02] Robin Behar: The, everything was, slanted uh, against Israel, against the Jews. Against the this, against that. It was all...

[01:14:10] Lisette: You grew up with Gamal Adbel Nasser. 

[01:14:12] Robin Behar: I grew up with Gamal Adbel Nasser, absolutely. When the king was deposed Mohamed Magim came for two years then Gamar Abel Nasser deposed him and he replaced him. So I grew up with Gam - with all his, his speech against Israel, against the Jews against this against the that and, and all the Jewish community was saying, well you know, he's gonna come around, don't worry he'll, he'll, things will get better. [01:14:38] They were afraid to leave. They were used to their standards of living, they were used to being happy in Egypt. They were used to the weather. They were, a lot of them were assimilated.  A lot of Jews did speak Arabic at home. They weren't internationals like us. 

[01:14:56] Lisette: So how many generations were you in...

[01:14:59] Robin Behar: In Egypt? My mother's side, my great-grandfather was immigrant from Livorno in Italy.

[01:15:05] Lisette: [overlap] Yeah, so a few generations. 

[01:15:07] Robin Behar: On, on, on my father's side it was his father came from Izmir, Turkey. This is the way the immigrants were, came from. And a lot of Jews lived in Izmir, in Turkey. 

[01:15:21] Lisette: Now did you have, did you parents have any Muslim friends, Egyptians?

[01:15:26] Robin Behar: Yes. My father and my mother. 

[01:15:28] Lisette: [overlap] the house and social life?

[01:15:29] Robin Behar: My father and my mother um, had friends everywhere. Different nationalities. 

[01:15:37] Lisette: Did they socialize, like come to your house? Have dinner? Go for dinner together at the club?

[01:15:43] Robin Behar: No. [laughs] No, not really. Not really, not close friends. 

[01:15:50] Lisette: And at the club? 

[01:15:51] Robin Behar: At the club? No, not really. 

[01:15:55] Lisette: Were there Egyptian Muslims in the club?

[01:15:57] Robin Behar: Ah, the Egyptian Muslims who belonged to the club were...

[01:16:04] Lisette: The elites. 

[01:16:04] Robin Behar: Yes. And those are the ones I was exposed to. 

[01:16:10] Lisette: And they, you still experiences anti-Semitism from them? 

[01:16:13] Robin Behar: No. No. Matter of fact one of the people who attended my bar mitzvah was former pasha King Farouk who was the father of, of, of uh, of one of my sisters friends. My sister always had elite friends. She handpicked her friend even to today. Her friends were all handpicked. [01:16:37] And, and, and uh, and that's the way it was. So uh, so whether they were Egyptian Muslim or - their religion didn't make that much of a difference. The culture didn't make - it was the status that made a big difference. 

[01:16:55] Lisette: Okay now let's get to your leaving. You sense you're going to be leaving. [overlap] Year in the waiting, you were trained to do beds now, you were trained to cook. How long were you trained for? That's three years?

[01:17:11] Robin Behar: Uh, we were in and out of the kitchen regularly. It was like, you know, even my father, yeah I'm gonna make you toast but his toast were out of this world, to die for. His stuff was, my father was a very good cook. My mother didn't have to. She had, she had staff. She knew, she was into all the, she would take the French cook, French cookbook and, and make things and so on and she, and she knew how to delegate extremely well. [01:17:38] But her in the kitchen, I don't remember her being in the kitchen. The only time I remember her being in the kitchen was when it was a birthday party or something like that and they made cakes or, you know, decorated stuff and so on. And, and but, the cooks we had in Egypt were so good they competed between each - between themselves as to what, who had the best cook. [01:18:00] So I grew up eating food - I mean, you know, I go to restaurants here now and I go, okay, do we have to eat out? [laughs] It's, it's, I mean, it doesn't even come close, even the restaurants in Egypt, the food was so good. It was because they come from different countries and they were usually the best. [01:18:22] You got the best. They wanted to come to Egypt, it was, it was like a very pleasant surrounding to live in so uh...so we, we… a few days departure I sensed we were going to leave and my parents said to me,  I saw the bags were being prepared. We had 22 bags. And uh, and 22 bags, I'm gonna tell you a little story, you'll appreciate having been in the airline industry. [01:18:51] Twenty-two bags and my parents said, "We can't tell you exactly when we're going to leave but standby." They didn't want the word to get out. And so...two days before we left my parents said, "We're leaving the day after tomorrow. Keep your mouth shut. Don't talk to anybody, anything, any member of the family, do not discuss this subject. Be ready for - our place leave at 7am, first class from Cairo to Rome." 

[01:19:27] Lisette: Now were you given an ultimatum by the Egyptians to leave? 

[01:19:30] Robin Behar: Yes. No, actually, the Canadians gave us an ultimatum. 

[01:19:32] Lisette: Oh. 

[01:19:33] Robin Behar: Or we had, we had put off our immigration so long that, that uh, that uh....they said to us, "Either you take it, or you leave it." So  we took it. 

[01:19:53] Lisette: But I thought Egypt gave you also...

[01:19:55] Robin Behar: Egypt, yes they gave us a release. My father choreographed it extremely well so that we were able to get a release from Egypt. I had three passports when I was born: Italian, French and Egyptian. They Italian passport and the French passport, my mother gave up. She didn't want us to go into the army. And we're coming to Canada anyhow so the Egyptians gave us an ID card that was it. 

[01:20:26] Lisette: No passport.

[01:20:27] Robin Behar: No passport. Which is just as well. I wouldn't want to have an Egyptian passport, thank you. As we say in Yiddish [Yiddish]. [laughs]. 

[01:20:39] Lisette: Which means?

[01:20:39] Robin Behar: Which means, may you be happy. The sense of it is that, may you rot in hell. May you rot in hell. [laughs] So, so uh, so uh, uh, we left with the ID cards, no, so uh, we left in first class and I was accustomed to this, you know. The airplane that we left on was Air India. It was supposed to be KLM, I see this Air India plane coming and I say, "What's this?" [01:21:10] Somehow KLM did the booking but it ended up on an Air India flight, that was the only one that had first class accommodations and, and we had our own little compartment and it was before your time in the old days. Our own little compartment and they served breakfast on a silver tray and it was like, it was delicious. Absolutely scrumptious. It was really nice. So that was a very nice experience, really nice. So that was a very nice experience. [01:21:33] But saying goodbye to my relatives, phew. Because my father's family stayed behind. They hadn't, my mother’s family had left first, my father's family left afterwards. 

[01:21:49] Lisette: What year was that?

[01:21:50] Robin Behar: In, we left in '59. We left September, '59. We spent about two months uh, in, in Europe, a month and a half or two in Europe saying hello to the family and friends and so on and then, and then we came here. Now, we left and when we left, um, my mother, before we left, my mother had taken chairs like that, actual - a large armchair, flipped it over, opened up and she put jewellery inside. [01:22:29] And that furniture came uninsured, nothing, from here and when we arrived here my mother opened the, it was, it was, it was in, in tia Mar, in my aunts garage, she made sure that, that that furniture was not in a warehouse. And so my mother goes, she opens up the chair and there was fur - there was jewellery. [01:22:52] So she was happy to find her jewellery so, so um, but look at the courage it took huh? To, to just pft. And people who we know hid jewellery in their rectums. 

[01:23:06] Lisette: Ow. 

[01:23:09] Robin Behar: You'd be amazed. Women had all kinds of, they, in, I learned, when I was a kid, the most courageous people during wartime are women. The men are out fighting but the women are out doing all the manoeuvring that takes a huge amount of courage. And they, they hid jewellery in the heels of their shoes, the hid, you should see what they did. It's unbelievable. [01:23:36] They had friends who were, who were, my parents sent money uh, uh, using an airline pilot to Switzerland. And the airline pilots would hide it in their caps. And, and it was unbelievable. Not huge amounts but whatever they could get out, they got out. 

[01:23:57] Lisette: When you're talking about the women in the war are you talking about Egyptian jewels?

[01:24:01] Robin Behar: Yes. 

[01:24:01] Lisette: Or talking about women in the war?

[01:24:04] Robin Behar: I would say that he ones that I was exposed to, I was exposed to, you know, the fact that we lived in Egypt was uh, was sort of, you know, coincidental because all the, the women I was exposed to were from different ethnic origins. They Jews were dif - from different ethnic origins. In my family we had Ashkenazi Jews also. [01:24:26] And, and my mother had friends whose parents were Ashkenazi Jews emigrated to Egypt, all kinds of stuff like that. So they, they were European. They were European. They were, they were, so, so I would say, in answer to your question, the, I would say the European oriented Jews who were women were very, very courageous. [01:24:52] It was in their genes. The, now, give you another example. When we were at the airport I went to kiss goodbye my aunt and she slipped something in my pocket. She says, "Give it to your mother when you get there, when you get on the other side." I managed, somehow, to go through customs, they let the kid in and out, you know in Egypt, you know so what difference does it make?[01:25:13] But the kid happened to have a bunch of jewellery in his pocket. I didn't know. She slid it in. She says give it to your mother. She'll know what to do. [laughs] The women...

[01:25:25] Lisette: What kind of jewellery?

[01:25:27] Robin Behar: It was, I don't know. What kind of jewellery do women have?

[01:25:30] Lisette: Diamonds?

[01:25:31] Robin Behar: Yes, diamonds and, you know, and gold and, you know valuable jewellery. It was, it was, you know...

[01:25:37] Lisette: And it belonged to her or to your mom?

[01:25:39] Robin Behar: My mom had sent her stuff here. She had sent it in the furniture. 

[01:25:42] Lisette: [overlap] Your aunt sent her stuff with you. 

[01:25:46] Robin Behar: Yes. 

[01:25:48] Lisette: She smuggled her...

[01:25:48] Robin Behar: She smugg- through me. So I turned out to be an emissary of some kind. So anyhow, we get to, to, to Paris. We went to Rome first, visited Rome. We spent Rosh Hashanah in , in, in uh, in the uh, at the synagogue in Rome, which as magnificent. It was really - I wish I were my age now so I could appreciate it even more. [01:26:10] But I remember it very clearly. It was beautiful synagogue, really nice and then uh, and then, anyhow, we visited the friends and relatives and so on. Went to the French Riviera, the Italian Riviera, not the French Riviera at that time. Then, then we went to Milano, we ended, we almost lived in Milano because my father had business in Milano so uh, and we had an Italian passport. [01:26:39] So hey, you know, could have been done. My mother said no, my family is in Canada, we're going to Canada. And we speak French and, you know, so uh, although she was fluent in Italian, both my parents were fluent in Italian but um, so we get to Paris and uh, they, the airline says to us, 'you have 22 pieces of luggage. Do you know how much that's gonna cost you in excess luggage?" [01:27:08] So they said, "We didn't pay excess luggage on, on, on, on the plane from Egypt. "They said, "Well that was Egypt. You're in Europe now. Welcome. Everything costs much more than in Egypt." So, so, so my, my father looks at the bill he says, "You've got to be kidding. Twenty pei- and they were not little pieces, they were, you know, big so uh, he says, you know, there's four of us, four pieces of luggage, five pieces for each one of us, you know. [01:27:41] It's barely enough. So [laughs] so, so uh, and that was on top of all the stuff we'd sent before. So anyhow um, my um, my, fortunately my, my mother's cousin um, had worked for the, for the airlines and, sorry, travel agency and she had all the contacts with the airlines. [01:28:09] So, but she couldn't do miracles. She said, I can do, you know, your first class tickets? Yeah, we're gonna convert them and we're going to send you by boat on the Homeric to Canada. And you have very nice facilities on the boat, the parents are gonna get first class accommodations, the kids are gonna get economy. [laughs] [01:28:30] Which was fine by me. I had never been on a boat, on a ship in my life so to, except the king's ship because I'd, I'd visited the king's ship but other than that I never set foot…

[01:28:40] Lisette: You visited the king's ship when after he had left. 

[01:28:43] Robin Behar: After he had left. Yeah. 

[01:28:45] Lisette: Did it move or it was...

[01:28:46] Robin Behar: It was uh, it was, no, it didn't move. It was, it was...

[01:28:52] Lisette: You just visited. 

[01:28:52] Robin Behar: I just visited. And uh, um, it was in Alexandria because I remember I think you had to be a member to be able to get in through the palace and the whole bit so it wasn't open to everybody. It was like...selected. So anyhow we, so we left on the Homeric and we, we, we uh, we ended up in Lohavu [sp?] which is where we were gonna get the ship from. [01:29:22] And we, the ship was two or three days late so they put us up in a hotel and my parents said, "Hey, no rush to get to Canada, we're gonna make the best of it." So what do they do? And it's funny because my, my brother and his wife were just like my parents, they're shoppers. [laughs] I go, I look, I take pictures. They shop. My parents, my father says, you know what? We're going to Canada, we don't, you know, they don't have everything there. And he goes, my mother said, "what do you mean?"[01:29:58]  He says, "You know, the fine stuff that they have in France well, we're gonna go shopping. So they ended up getting several cases, and we're allowed, were allowed to take on the ship as much as we want. So they had a field day. They went and they got...patés de fois gras, and brie and, and, and, and, and a huge bottle of Remy Martin and wines and, and you name it. [01:30:31] There was a case of liquors and a case of this and a case of that and, you know. We got to Canada and customs says, "What are you bringing?" Oh this is just our stuff. No, not so fast. [laughs] Not so fast. Do you have any foodstuffs? Yeah. Meats? Out. Cheese? Okay. In those days it was acceptable. In the meantime the brie rotted while we were - so we couldn't eat it. But, but, you know, we had like canned asparagus, white asparagus hey, they didn’t know from white asparagus. Neither did we in Egypt for that matter. We didn't have asparagus in Egypt. [01:31:12] It was, it grows in cold countries but we had artichokes that were very good in Egypt, but that's another story. That's food. Um, but so, so uh we left, we arrived in Canada and do you want to know about our arrival in Canada?

[01:31:30] Lisette: Of course. 

[01:31:30] Robin Behar: Okay um, uh, our arrival in Canada we got, we got here. First thing that we stopped at was Quebec City. And...my brother says ,"Oh look, the little white things coming down from the sky." I said, oh, I think...do you think that's snow? And but it's only October 21st. [01:31:58] And in those days it was bloody cold in Canada in October 21st. It was, winter started very early. And...my parents said, listen, look at the beautiful chateau Frontenac and it, we were, the, the ship was, was moored near the Chateau Frontenac so we could go through immigration because that's where we went through immigration. [01:32:22] And look at the beautiful, it's very nice, it's a hotel and I fell in love with it the minute I saw it. I said, this is so nice. One day I'm gonna go there. And yeah, I went several times afterwards. So I was very pleased to that. And so, so we arrived here in the old port and uh, I think it was dock number 9 and my aunt, my grandaunt, my mother' aunt, my uncle and several members of the family were there to greet us. [01:32:56] And to meet the ship and uh, so we came and uh, my brother and I stayed with my grandmother for a couple of months and my, my parents stayed with her mother, her aunt for uh, for a couple of months also. They had a very nice house on Powell avenue and TMR[?] and uh there was room, you know, it was very comfortable from that point of view and everybody got along. [01:33:24] In those, those days everybody got along well from, you know, from family wise. They were used to staying at each other's homes and we slept in each other's beds and, you know, I mean it was like, it was fluid. Families were like, you didn't say oh you're staying X number of days and I've got appointments. It didn't work that way. It just, it was fluid. Friends also, same way, it was like fluid, in and out. So uh, so we stayed a couple months until my parent's got an apartment in St-Laurent and uh, uh...[01:33:57] In the meantime for two years, two months I went to, to, to school near where my grandmother lived. MY grandmother lived in a Jewish neighbourhood. Uh she, at the time it was brand new, it was Darlington Place which was behind the, the Wilderton Shopping Centre. And in those days it, there was just Steinberg's there. The shopping centre wasn't built. [01:34:24] And uh, and so uh, it was in the process of, it was the new neighbourhood and uh, I went to Strathcona Academy. Shock. Complete shock. First of all, the weather. The little white flakes didn't go away. [laughs] The little white flakes melted but you know, within those two months I remember there were snowstorms, going to school. It was like, putting on all the coats and the jackets and the hats and this and that, you know? I mean, I was used to going to school in this kind of a setup, not, not Strathcona. And Strathcona was 30 boys all Jewish. 

[01:35:15] Lisette: How come?

[01:35:17] Robin Behar: It was the Jewish neighbourhood. 

[01:35:20] Lisette: There wasn't a Jewish school. 

[01:35:21] Robin Behar: It wasn't a Jewish school but a lot of Jews went to Protestant schools. In those days, lots, including my rabbi. Rabbi Shoushat [sp?] Went to Strathcona Academy. He's got the fondest memories of Strathcona. to me it was a nightmare. [01:35:38] Why? I was used to being catered to. I was used to having, you know, kids with fine manners. I was used to being 13, 14, 15 in class at the most. And I was used to, you know, being driven to school, being driven back or walking to school, walking back in good weather. And here I come, all these kids were - a lot of them were immigrant parents so...[01:36:09] They weren't brought up to be aristocrats. [laughs] You know, and they were Jewish on top of that. And I said, to me I couldn’t conceive, number one, of Jews not speaking French because all the Jews in Egypt spoke French. And I couldn’t conceive of Jews not being wealthy, the Jews I was surrounded by were wealthy. [01:36:32] I couldn’t conceive of, of, of them, of having a all boys class. It was in the catholic school that they had all boys class. So, to me, you know, it was like, what am I doing here? So I got depressed. I didn't realize it. Now I look back, my marks went right down. They only topic I did extremely well in was French, which I beat even my teachers hands, you know. [01:37:03] Hey, I grew up with Molière and, and, and Comtesse de Ségur and so on so to me, to write in all kinds of fancy ways that would impress the teachers uh, was easy to do. It was like, big deal, next? And I was good at geometry and algebra because I had studied that in Egypt two years ahead before coming here. So I was ahead. [01:37:27] So uh, to say I could become friends with all these...people? No. And they were to Jewish for me. And they were all Ashkenazi I was [jumbled] Sephardis. And it was, they were very nice, they really were, they were wonderful but I was the one who was not the wonderful one. I was spoiled rotten when you look at it, you know. [01:37:57] So that's the way it was. Then, my parents moved to St-Laurent, oh, breath of fresh air. The school was newer to begin with. It was a mixed school. You had Jews, you had Christians, you had, you had different, different nationalities. Scots, you had Anglo-Saxons, you had, you had different people from different parts of the world and you had mixed classes. [01:38:23] I didn't like being in an all-boys class. It was like, not normal to me. So uh, I was so happy...

[01:38:30] Lisette: How many years were you in Strathcona?

[01:38:34] Robin Behar: Two months. It felt like years. It felt like the end of the world. My world had come to an end. No, it’s funny but you understand what I'm coming from but that's why you're laughing. [laughs] Go ahead, laugh with me. So I get to St-Laurent it was like a breath of fresh air. It was like, you know, my teachers were from England, alright, hallelujah. [01:39:05] You know, one was Scottish, hey, fabulous! Home again. The picture of the Queen was up there. Hey, to me, I was happy. And my marks went right up and I did extremely well and uh, unfortunately a year after I was there my mother died. So that's, that, that was like threw everything out of kilter. Because my, my mother played extremely important role in the family. Not only the immediate family but the whole family.  [01:39:41] And uh, so she, she uh, when she died, everything went out of kilter. Matter of fact, my parents used to keep some of their friends who were, did no have happy marriages in Egypt, would come and consult with them all the time and they kept them together. And when we left, their marriages fell apart, from the stress. [01:40:09] They, in Egypt they just, so I came here and, and a lot of things fell apart. Um, the, the uh, my cousins who, who were older than I was, including Yves, including uh, Ferial, my sister and so - all, all of them, they were all older than I was. I had younger cousins too but the ones I interacted with and so on, were, were older and they go married and...[01:40:45] All their marriages fell apart. All. So I grew up with...

[01:40:54] Lisette: How long after they got married it fell apart?

[01:40:59] Robin Behar: How long did it take for Yves' marriage to fell apart? I think about ten, ten years. 

[01:41:07] Lisette: You know I never asked you the names of your brother and sister. 

[01:41:11] Robin Behar: My, my sister's name is Josianne Argie [sp?] and um, her father's name was Kenazie from Alexandria and my brother's name is Larry Behar and uh, he lives in Fort Lauderdale in Florida. My sister lives in Lausanne in Switzerland. And uh, she um, she continued her Egyptian lifestyle in, in, in, in Lausanne and improved on it. [01:41:44] Fortunately they had the means to do it but it's quite uh, you know, when I tell people the social events and so on that, that my sister put on, jus to give you an idea, when her son got married, son number two, there were 750 ex-Egyptians in Monte Carlo from all over the world. I met movie stars like Roger Moore, Ursula Andress, you name it, people I would ne - thanks to her I met people I would never had dreamed of meeting and they all assumed that I was wealthy like her because I had all the, the mannerisms and everything of a little aristocrat that I had grown up as.  [01:42:34] And, and I would have to tell them, no, we're not, we live in Canada, we're not the same way even you're wealthy, you don't show it that much. My brother is a highly successful immigration lawyer in Florida and he's become quite wealthy, thank god, um, he's my pride and joy. [01:42:52] I uh, I helped him move forward in his career and he was the spitting image of my father. And a very, very self-reliant, very resourceful, he had my mother’s diplomacy and my father's um, uh, joie de vivre number one, and also his, his wherewithal. He knows how to deal with people and he knows how to...and so he deals in very high-end immigration. And so he's been very successful in that he's got a fine reputation and he's been on TV, in radios, in newspapers, in magazines. [01:43:31] Of course, his marketing consultant brother played a certain role and I'm very happy he allowed me to do that. Uh, in, in helping him evolve because it gave me the satisfaction of seeing him evolve. It was like uh, uh...it was joy. It was really good. 

[01:43:53] Lisette: Very proud. 

[01:43:54] Robin Behar: Yeah. 

[01:43:56] Lisette: Okay, and your mom's name? 

[01:43:58] Robin Behar: Lillian Pardo Behar. 

[01:44:02] Lisette: And uh, your dad?

[01:44:04] Robin Behar: Joseph Albert Behar. Except in Egypt, it was Joseph Ibrahim Behar. 

[01:44:11] Lisette: Of course. [inaudible]

[01:44:13] Robin Behar: Exactly. Exactly so his father's name was Albert uh, Abraham was his, his, his uh, his Jewish name and, by the way, we all had European names. And uh, and so uh, my, my parents wanted us to have British names. My sister is Josie, my uh, my, I'm Robin. Why Robin? My sister named me. Why? She had a little boyfriend in school, she also went to private school from England. [01:44:47] He was called Robin and if you knew my sister what she wants, she gets. Nicely or not nicely. She's gonna make sure she gets it. My name was Robin. And it's, it's great because, you know, it was out of the ordinary and, and it was fun. In Hebrew it's Ruven. So that's, that's, that's my Jewish name. [01:45:08] And my brother's name, Larry. My grandmother gave him him his name after the St-Laurence river. Yes. My grandmother used to come and visit my uncle who lived here regularly. She would spend six months in, in Egypt and six months in, in, in Canada. Or, or New York. When my uncle moved to Canada she moved, she came here. 

[01:45:33] Lisette: So at the time they used to fly by plane to Canada?

[01:45:35] Robin Behar: Yes, oh yeah, though, I think they topped for refuelling in Gander or, or, or refuelling somewhere in between, somewhere but I know there was a refuelling stop. 

[01:45:46] Lisette: It must be in Europe somewhere. 

[01:45:49] Robin Behar: Yes, maybe Iceland or...?

[01:45:51] Lisette: No, must be Europe somewhere. 

[01:45:52] Robin Behar: Must be. Anyhow, I know they stopped uh, usually it was like, from, from, it was three hours, four hours to go from Egypt to, to Europe and then another, another eight whatever, nine whatever it took. So um, sorry, go ahead. 

[01:46:13] Lisette: Okay, so now you arrive to Canada, your mom passed away. 

[01:46:17] Robin Behar:  A year after we arrived she had, she, she, she was, my mother was, was a very generous person. She was not showy, she ha a certain elegance about her and, and she had a certain goodness about her. And, for instance, one of her hobbies was donating medications to the poor. And that was, and she took her affluence and , and her, her youth, in her youth as being very, taken for granted. [01:46:51] It was like, you know, that's how it was. But her nature was extremely simple. She loved her in-laws, she related very well to them and she loved her siblings. She related very well to them too. So there were, and they were both extremely different. Her in-laws were simple, her siblings were not. They were also brought up little aristocrats, including Yves' parents. Very much so. [01:47:23] So um, I can say that because, you know, I have hindsight, so uh, my mother decides to, to uh donate blood um and why? Because she was generous. There was a need for blood, she donated blood. 

[01:47:42] Lisette: Here. 

[01:47:43] Robin Behar: Here. 

[01:47:44] Lisette: Is that what hurt her?

[01:47:46] Robin Behar: Pardon?

[01:47:46] Lisette: What, why did she, did she get sick?

[01:47:50] Robin Behar: Well, what happened was that she donated blood and then two weeks later, a week later she caught a cold, it was like, It was January. She died on January 27th so it was January and she caught a cold and then her doctor said to her, "Take some Dimetapp." So she...

[01:48:16] Lisette: Dimetapp does what?

[01:48:19] Robin Behar: Ah, I suspect it killed her. Because she was usually taking aspirin and stuff like that and Dimetapp was new in those days. Dimetapp was anti-congestant, anti-this, anti-that. In the meantime, I read an article in the Gazette many years later that made a study of Dimetapp and they found out it caused cerebral haemorrhages. [01:48:45] My mother died of a cerebral haemorrhage. 

[01:48:48] Lisette: Oh my god. 

[01:48:49] Robin Behar: We were told it was congenital. We were told it was, she was getting headaches because of that, we were told, you know, I suspect he Dimetapp, base don the studies, I suspect the Dimetapp prompted it. So one day she had a cold, the next day she was gone. 

[01:49:11] Lisette: I'm so sorry. 

[01:49:11] Robin Behar: Yeah. So uh, my whole world got...

[01:49:24] Lisette: Sorry. 

[01:49:24] Robin Behar: Ah, it's okay, my father took over. He uh, he was, he was a really, very courageous person, rolled up his sleeves...and said, "Gang, that's it." So...[01:49:47] We did what we had to do. We adjusted. We um, moved closer to the Jewish neighbourhood to be next to my grandmother... and uh, went to, from St-Laurent high school, which is mixed, I went to Northmount High School, which was uh, all Jewish. [laughs] It was okay. 

[01:50:17] Lisette: Mixed?

[01:50:17] Robin Behar: Mixed. No...I was so good at maths because I was ahead, it's not that I loved math so much, I was ahead because, and my marks showed it because I'd taken maths in Egypt before coming here and, and, and so uh, I was ahead of everybody. It's like French, you know. I had, it was like uh, I was ahead. So...[01:50:47] And so they put me into all boys all math class. Again, all boys class. I used to tell, why are we studying all of this mathematical stuff when we should be studying home economics with the girls? They said," But this is for girls." I said, "What? Do you know that everything they're studying in home economics has practical, day-to-day life-saving implications?" [01:51:21] And they looked at me like I a complete weirdo. 

[01:51:26] Lisette: How old were you giving....

[01:51:27] Robin Behar: That kind of advice?

[01:51:30] Lisette: Lectures like that?

[01:51:31] Robin Behar: Lectures like that? I was....sixteen. Because I'd gone through what it takes to survive uh, without a woman in the house. My mother organized everything, you know? My father had to take over and he did a fabulous job. He worked and he cooked for us. He was a fabulous cook. I used to complain about my mother's cooking but my father? Not one complaint. [01:52:01] He was a gre- he was a gifted cook. My brother is also a very good cook. I'm not but they are. I, I, I create, I had, I took one of the books we studied and I made play out of it and it was so good that, that, that they had the whole school listen to it and the whole, yeah. 

[01:52:21] Lisette: At school?

[01:52:21] Robin Behar: At Northmount, absolutely. They were very encouraging and they were, they were wonderful people, great school. I didn't like it. All boys. It was like uh, and all Jewish. I wasn't comfortable. 

[01:52:37] Lisette: That's weird. 

[01:52:38] Robin Behar: Pardon?

[01:52:39] Lisette: That’s weird. 

[01:52:40] Robin Behar: To me it was weird. My brother, no problem. He went to Van Horne school, he grew up with them, you know, there was the Brown Derby across the street and, and, and you know, to him bagel and lox, oh yeah! You know, to him it's, it's, you know. It's not saumon fumé in my book but you know what? Bagels and lox, that's how we grew up, you know? And little did he know, he would end up by marrying the daughter of the owner of the Brown Derby. [laughs][01:53:12] And who fixed them up?

[01:53:14] Lisette: You? How?

[01:53:16] Robin Behar: Very simple. I was at the sanctuaire. I met, I met Claire Fletcher and uh, in the stretching area and uh, and she was uh, and she was very nice and I said, uh, she's..."My brother’s been seeing all these girls in the states, one's a lawyer, the other one is a this, the other one is a that, they're all career women, they're American. They, they're not like us, and I said, my brother needs a nice Ashkenazi girl. [01:53:54] He grew with them, that's what he's comfortable with." And I chatted with Claire several times and I found out, I didn't know at the time, she, she, her parents owned the Brown Derby but I found out that she had fantastic breeding. Her, her, she had gone to uh, she knew how to sail, she knew how to horseback ride, she knew how to play golf, she knew how to - this and that and the other, did ballet, did, a whole bunch of stuff. [01:54:24] And, and, because her mother came form the Cantor family which owned the car dealerships in, in, in Montreal the Cadillac, Leonard Cantor and so on. It was from her, his father and so, so they, they were in the car. So that, to me, hey you know what? My granduncle was in that kind of a business and I knew the kind of breeding you could get from that and I had clients in marketing who were car dealers and I got along very well with them. [01:54:52] And I had clients who were restaurateurs and, and I got very, well, along very well with them too. So I looked at Claire and I said, gee, I really with she would want to go to Florida one day. I'd like to introduce my brother to her. And wouldn't you know, uh, I spoke to him about her and he says no, not really, no. And uh, so I said, one day gets invited to Elmridge to bar mitzvah. [01:55:19] Gerry Levy's son, who lived in Hampstead and...

[01:55:23] Lisette: Gerry Levy...

[01:55:24] Robin Behar: Gerry Levy is, do you know Doreen Green?

[01:55:29] Lisette: I know Gerry. 

[01:55:30] Robin Behar: They all went to school together, university...

[01:55:34] Lisette: I dated Richard, his brother. 

[01:55:35] Robin Behar: You're kidding. Oh my god, what a small world. So it turned out that, that, that, what a small world. So it turned out that he, we used to take videos a lot and I'd take, to me, my bar mitzvah gift, I said, I don't want anything, I want a movie camera. They said you're - a movie camera? What? [01:55:58] It was like asking for the sky. I said, I don't want anything else, I want a movie camera. I got a movie camera. So then my brother gave me a video camera for my birthday when, when videos came out. And then he takes one of the video cameras and - to Gerry Levy's son's bar mitzvah at Elmridge and he's busy zooming in on somebody. 

[01:56:27] Lisette: [overlap]

[01:56:29] Robin Behar: I said, I said, "Larry, how come you're zooming on this pretty girl?" and he says to me, "She's cute eh?" I said to her, I said to him, "Yes, she's cute. I agree with you, you have good taste." and then he goes..."Well, I'm busy, I have a girlfriend." Okay, I said, "What would you say if I told you I know Claire?" He says, "Is that her name?" [01:56:57] I said, "that's her name and I know her. Do you want to meet her?" "No! I have a girlfriend I don't have two at once, never, never, no, no. I'm faithful" I said, "Okay." Turns out...my neighbour down the hall was Claire's roommate. [01:57:16] They had, they shared an apartment, turns out, my neighbour was a very good cook and she's married to, she's not Jewish, she converted and she always felt Jewish and she, she met David Mizrahi, who's from Egypt, Israel, Egypt, Israel-Egypt-Israel, whatever and he came to Canada and, and so, so before she married him they were roommates, the girls were roommates. [01:57:43] And they were students and uh, and then...David Mizrahi's friend, uh wife, introduces her Claire to my brother because he had broken with his girlfriend. 

[01:58:00] Lisette: Wow. 

[01:58:00] Robin Behar: So he ended up by getting, not only introduction from me but from Barbara. And highly recommended. She lived with her. And Claire, her dream was to live in Florida one day. And she had always gone out with lawyers. So...and my brother had written a book and I made sure the marketing man had his picture on the front cover of the book and it was like done the way Americans do their marketing books. [01:58:34] And I made sure that - so he shows her the book, she looks at it, they looked at each other, we're made for each other, we're getting married. [laughs] So that was, that was 23 years ago. And they've been happily married ever since. And Claire is social worker. She is, she's got her heart in the right place, she looks after seniors. [01:58:58] She's got a little dog, Skippy and she takes him to visit the nursing homes and, and she uh, uh, she uh...uh, she boosts their morale. She's - he's a pet therapy dog, he's trained to do pet therapy. And so he's adorable. He's really, really cute dog. So that's what they - my brother has been very uh...very, very uh, generous with Israel. [01:59:30] For different charities, Hebrew universities, not a charity but it's an honour and he's been uh, it was nice to see the plaques he put there in my parent's name. Um, he's been uh, supportive of other charities too. [01:59:54] He had a children’s park in Israel in my parent's name. Whew. That's it. Sorry.

[02:00:11] Lisette: No, I'm sorry. Okay I think we are winding up now. Just very briefly, how did you get your professional development here?

[02:00:28] Robin Behar: Oh, that's easy. That's easy, that there's no emotions. My professional development is, is uh, uh...very simple. I was always oriented toward the arts and I was math, I was good at math too and uh, but, but I was always interested in humanities, people and so on but I could never make a career out of it. [02:00:54] And my father and, felt I needed a profession and he insisted that I go to McGill. And so uh, so uh, I wanted to go to, to what is Concordia now, at the time it was Sir George Williams University but I uh, I found that, no, he wanted McGill. Why? For the brand. And so I said, "Okay." So I went and all my friends at Northmount were all going to McGill. I was in a very bright class. [02:01:23] I mean, I had people who, around me who were like, they were whizzes. They were Ashkenazi Jews who were brilliant. And some of them have major careers that they put together. And so uh, so them I um, I went to McGill and I took a bachelor of commerce degree. I was supposed to be an accountant. The only problem was it was my worst subject. I looked and I said, I don't want to be an accountant. [02:01:55] I want to be a cameraman like him. I want to be behind the camera. I don't want to be, no! I don't want, I want, I want to become a cinematographer, that was my dream when I was a kid in Egypt. And, and I could put things together. I used to put on shows and stuff and oh yeah. And people would love to see my, my shows and my whatever. [02:02:17] And, and so uh, so to me, accounting was not my thing. So then uh, I told my friends and they said, why don't you go to, to the Jewish vocational centre? I said, "What's that?" They said, "Well, they’re going to give you a half hour test and you're gonna make a, a choice of, eventually, if you, you're gonna choose answers to the questions and the answers are going to reflect what your career should be, what you like. [02:02:47] What you really, really like." And I said, "It's only half an hour? Yeah, I said, you did it?" Yeah. And it told you what to do? Absolutely. And you’re happy? Absolutely. Do it. I did it. Results, marketing, advertising, sales. I went, I can do things like that?[02:03:11]  I used to do advertising as a hobby in Egypt. I used to go to my father's office and create ads. I grew up with my father having billboards all over Cairo. Yeah, he imported merchandise, Dogma watches, we had beautiful models, and I grew up with that. I used to go with him to the, to make sure everything was done properly uh, the, the billboards were done properly, they're huge billboards in Cairo. They were, you know. [02:03:41] With his brand and it was like, you know, it was, when I think of it, it was big stuff. 

[02:03:47] Lisette: Billboards for what?

[02:03:47] Robin Behar: For watches. 

[02:03:50] Lisette: For watches. 

[02:03:50] Robin Behar: With this beautiful blonde model holding the watch, Dogma watches from Switzerland and you have to insist that you have a Dogma watch, not Omega, Dogma. 

[02:04:01] Lisette: So he was exclusive with Dogma?

[02:04:03] Robin Behar: Yes, he was exclusive with Dogma. That was one of the businesses he had, aside from the real estate, aside from, he was a really dynamo. Incredible. Absolutely amazing. 

[02:04:13] Lisette: A genius. 

[02:04:14] Robin Behar: Well, he was, he was...resourceful. And my brother is resourceful in the same way. You should see the difficult cases he deals with immigration. He solves them like this. You know, people tell me they've been through six lawyers and they go to him and in a few minutes he's got the problem solved. And it cost them less. [02:04:37] So, you know, so he's, he's good, you know. They're good at that. So in answer to your question, what did I do. So I went to McGill and I said, "Do you have a marketing course?" Yeah, we have one. Oh? One? That's all you got? Yeah, you know, you don't come to McGill to study marketing. Do you have a sales course? Oh, that's a night course. We don't, we don't teach selling here. This is professional. [02:05:03] I said, you know, millions of salesmen in the world, they have to learn to sell somewhere. You don't teach it? Yeah, we have a night course, take a night course. And it's not part of your diploma, we don't give credentials for that. Ok. So do you have anything else? Yeah, you can take management. I said, "Yeah, management I can handle." And so , so I did. [02:05:27] So I took all these, all these uh, uh, management course and, and, and marketing course and I did very well in them. My marks just [points up]. Extremely well. And it was easy. To me it came naturally. Management and organization and that kind of stuff and marketing, easy. So then my, then, then uh when came time to get a job my father would tell me , I want you to work for a large company. [02:06:03] And my aunt Tanya Pardo would tell me, "Don't do that. Even in Canada they're anti-Semitic, they won't let you grow up. They won't let you become a high, high executive in a, in, in a major corporation. You’re never gonna get the job. I'm telling you right now." She was right but in those days. Now it's an honour for them to have a Jew at the head of the corporation. [02:06:28] But in those days it wasn't so it turns out that major corporations came, and my father wanted me to be an executive in a major corporation. He sort of ignored that. And so he wanted me to have the security of having a job. So I said okay. So I went uh, they came to interview us on campus and a company called CIL, s subsidiary of an English company called Imperial Chemical Industries which is a huge, huge, huge company. [02:07:05] They were all over the world and CIL all over Canada and they're still around. They were in the plastics business and I had worked one summer at my uncle's, my mother's brother who manufactured jute bags and plastic bags for asbestos, for, for, for potatoes, for, you name it, all kinds of things like that, raw materials. [02:07:33] So I uh, I knew the bag business and I was always interested in reading and learning and so on and so I was, I learned about the bag business and the new thing, which was the plastics business...in the business magazines there. Also I was used to it because when my father was getting into mergers and acquisitions I would supply him with a lot of information that, the he needed for his deals. 

[02:08:05] Lisette: Here?

[02:08:06] Robin Behar: Yes. He went from real estate to mergers and he would sell major Canadian, Quebecois companies like Victoriaville hockey sticks to the Americans. You had all these Maillot brothers who had created this fabulous hockey stick company, which was world, you know, the hockey world it was renowned and they needed to retire. [02:08:33] They needed somebody to take over and they, they need to cash in basically. And my father brought in - would bring in the Americans and he would, he would, he would sell the company and the Maillots would be thrilled. They made a lot of money. Same thing with St-Elevin [?] uniforms in Toronto and when I looked at the deals, the complexity of those deals! How he did it? I have no idea. [02:08:58] It takes my brother’s finesse. They, they, they, so, but I supported him with a lot of information, with a lot of, I love to do that research. And, and uh, I was persistent of the investment club of McGill. I was good on investments uh, and was offered, thanks to my father, a job at Green Shields, stockbrokers during my summers when I was at McGill. And they, they offered me the, they, they, they said come, we take a few trainees during the summer and I was like, two or three. So I was one and uh, and so I uh, I went there, they had me counting stocks and I made mistakes. A lot of mistakes. [02:09:45] I was bored. There was no human interaction. It was counting, it was like accounting again. I don't like to count. No. I count my money, yes, but counting your, stocks? No. So anyhow, they said to me, how would you like a job in the research department? I said, "Research? Oh." Finding out what companies are doing and how they do it? Uh-huh. And finding out, and, and, reading annual reports? Yes. And reading about the people who made these companies successful? Yes. Do you want to do that? I said, "Boy do I want to do that." So I, two very happy summers at Green Shields doing, doing research. So I learned and when my father got into merges and acquisitions, to me, research was second, second nature. [02:10:36] I had read - my father would bring the Wall Street Journal, we had like, four, five newspapers everyday at home. And I would read through them and - this is good for you dad, this is good for you dad. Put this together. At Green Shields they showed me how to research all these things and here this, this, they're highly likely to go into this direction, why don't you offer this to them? So it was, I was supporting him that way. [02:10:59] So I uh, I, uh ended up, I uh, being interviewed by uh, by CIL on campus. They interviewed 200 people and they chose two. And uh, the year before that they had also chosen two. And one of the people they chose was a young man called Aldo Bensadoun [sp?], Have you heard of Aldo Shuss? Well, he was one of them. [02:11:37] So I have known him for all these years. That's, that's the Aldo story but so, but that's, that's another Sephardi who did very well. And uh, and so um, but he's, he's like, he's a billionaire now. So back to me um, I was interviewed by CIL and I was chosen. [02:12:02] There were tow people they picked, me. Why? I did a reverse interview. I said to them, "Tell me, you're, you're in the plastics business, hm, are you in polyethylene or polypropylene?" They go, oh. We're in polypropylene. I said, "Oh, you mean you're a step ahead of polyethylene." And they go, how do you know? I go, "Well, you know, I happen to have read up a little bit about you and so on. Tell me are you in woven polypropylene or you're in flat?" [02:12:33] And they would go, woven, why do you ask? And I said, "Well, because you know, you're going neck-and-neck poly - Dupont is in Polyethylene and, and you're polypropylene and, and as far as my knowledge is concerned, polypropylene is a stronger material than polyethylene is for what you're doing. [02:12:53] And they went, oh. I said, "Yeah. Did you know that?" They hired me. And so I was, I was marketing assistant there and over the years I was able to develop things like, not long, two and half years I was there. Things like uh, um...plastic bags, freezer bags, shelf liners, all that kind of stuff with brands. And I did the design of the packaging. to me it was second nature. [02:13:25] I would walk into a supermarket and say, "This is how we're going to position ourselves, how we're gonna do it, this and - here, let's do - artists do this. Cameraman do that, take a picture of this." You know, to me I just did. And so I um, so I, I uh, I was quite successful at doing that until they decided they were going to promote me and sent me to Edmonton. [02:13:52] I said, "Paris? Yes. London? Yes. Rome? Yes. Geneva. Absolutely. London? Okay. But don't give me Edmonton. I've been there before, not a fan." But you're gonna get a great career with the company. Not a fat chance. I don't want a great career in Edmonton thank you. [02:14:17] So my friend at the time we're after me. My nice, Jewish boys and they'd been really a fabulous influence on me. Ashkenazi Jews had really wonderful.

[02:14:26] Lisette: The ones you went to school with. 

[02:14:27] Robin Behar: the ones I went to school with. The ones at Northmount and the ones at McGill. And they, they were, they were coming from very, they were immigrant families and they were very um, ambitious and they needed to survive, they needed to succeed, they needed and they said to me, you know, you're a little aristocrat uh, basically, the message they conveyed. It's not gonna handed to you on a silver dish. Go get an MBA. [02:14:54] B Comm is not enough. I said, but you know, look at all these things I'm doing. Get an MBA. So I did. And I said to my father, you know, McGill doesn't accept me because it's - the commerce and the MBA degree are too similar and so, so uh, uh my friends went to NYU, New York University and can I go to New York University? So his, his family on my, on his mother and his sisters, brothers were all in New York. [02:15:30] So, to me, I knew New York and, again, I was, I used to go by myself around New York all the time, you know, even as a kid, it was no problem. So, so I said, "Can I go to New York?" But it costs so he said, "Don't worry, here's a cheque for the difference. What do you need?" So we sort of split it and he wanted me to, to feel that I was doing things myself too and, and uh, and so we split and, and, but he never made me feel like hit was his money and my money. It always felt it was, money was never an issue in our family. [02:16:14] It was a never a point of discussion. It was never, number one, people who are well-off didn't talk about money. It wasn't done. It was just not done. And our family even less. It wasn't done. Uh so, so, so here, you know, you need money to go, and I wasn't the type that went around asking for crazy things like...movie cameras. [laughs] I did it once. 

[02:16:46] Lisette: Only when you were 13. 

[02:16:47] Robin Behar: Only when I was 13. But the rest of the time I, I, I didn't, I was not a demanding child. My sister yes but not me. And so, so I, I uh...I, I...I went to NYU and they said to me, "You know, we're gonna let you in on probation." So I said, "What's that?" They said, "Well, you know, you know, your marks at McGill are not like the marks we have in the States." I said, "I know. McGill marks 10% lower than, than, than American schools do." And they said, "Well, we don't know that." And so they did, that's why we have to let you in on probation. They were used to people coming from McGill. [02:17:36] They said, "We have to let you in on probation." I said, "Okay." In the meantime, NYU was right next to the American Stock Exchange. The teachers I had, it was set up a bit like Concordia. You, people went there for day courses and night courses and that course, different and some of them worked part-time and, and NYU was a very practical university. [02:18:01] And, I fell in love with it. I made Dean's list the first semester. They said to me, they said to me, uh, "Not only are you no longer on probation but you're on Dean's list." I said, "What does that mean?" You're in the top tier. I said, "At McGill I was never in the top tier. I was not considered particularly brilliant except in the marketing areas and management. Never this." [02:18:29] They says, "Yeah, you're in the top tier on everything." They did, they private-schooled me. They, the classes were smaller and they made me feel important. They brought the best out of me. They had teachers who were working during the day and taught for the love of it at night, not for the money of it. [02:18:53] And so I was into that complete environment. They American Stock Exchange, the events that were going on and we're invited to the Waldorf Astoria for, for lunch and things like that, you know. This was, I was, I was exposed to New York’s upper echelon. And that, to me, was like, wow. So um, I did extremely well. We, we used to have cards that, if you wanted the teachers to mail you the, your marks back immediately, it wasn't online in those days, there was no online. [02:19:33] Faxes were a really big deal but uh, but uh, you, you put a card, you  - self-addresses, stamped envelope uh, or self-addressed card with a stamp and I would "Congratulations Robin, your mark for, for economics is -" or "Your mark for marketing is -" and they would write me, "Pretentious aren't we?" And then, and then they'd say, okay so your mark is A minus. I'm not giving you an A. [laughs] [02:20:03] I said, "Good enough. I'll take it." So anyhow, it was, it was uh, wonderful. 

[02:20:14] Lisette: I wanted to know, you graduated MBA.

[02:20:17] Robin Behar: So, I graduated MBA and, what happened next? Next I, very rapidly, I was offered uh jobs here and uh, there were in, in companies that were medium-sized and they were owned by Americans and that kind of stuff and uh, I, I was not comfortable with, with that. I wanted to be the boss. [02:20:44] So my, my father said to me, "You know, why don't you um, why don't you become a marketing consultant? Same thing as you sell for one company, sell it to many different companies." And he was used to interacting with lots of small and medium-sized companies because, because he sold companies that were family-owned most of the time. So then I said, "I can do that?" So he said, yeah, try it. [02:21:15] Wouldn't you know...he, it was the biggest gift he would have given me. Because he set me on 25 years of pure joy. My first client turned out to be my cousin, Yves' cousin, who had a drapery manufacturing company, drapery trimmings manufacturing company and I had worked for the American subsidiary of a drapery trimmings manu - and they saw the work I had done for them and they said, "Can you do it for us?" [02:21:51] I said, "Okay." So I did. And they loved it so I eventually was the first to do telemarketing. Get on the phone, contact small and medium-sized companies and what I did was bring in to the French-Quebecois, family owned businesses American knowledge that I had acquire din New York, though my MBA, through my father's background, through Green Shield's - doing the research and all that, because m perspectives were very broad this way. [02:22:28] North American, not European, North American and, mainly American and so, so I brought in all that, plus my personal creativity en français and in English so my, my clients were thrilled. I had clients we were with them for decades, you know, easily ten years. And matter of fact, um, one of my clients met my brother in Palm Beach and he said, "You know, thanks to your brother I'm here." He says, why? "Your brother built up our whole company image, we were able to sell it and I'm here. [02:23:09] So...uh, I was very, I enjoyed, I worked like a dig, I worked very hard but it wasn't work. It was people, it was creativity. I enjoyed - I did newspaper, magazines, radio, TV, bus board, billboards, you name it. Um, and photo newsletters. I was, we were the first to do all that kind of stuff. And put the whole packages together. [02:23:33] You'd go into the streets on Montreal and you'd see on the backs of busses my ads, on billboards, on the Décarie expressway, you name it, they were all mine. It was my, so to me it was, it was joy. It was really nice. 

[02:23:47] Lisette: And now you're retired?

[02:23:48] Robin Behar: Yeah. 

[02:23:49] Lisette: Now you're retired. 

[02:23:50] Robin Behar: I got into the investment field, the, the uh, investment field um, by chance in a way but I decided not to stay in there because I...prefer to manage my own money and spend, I was making more money managing my own money than, than, than taking care of other people. So I said no and I also stopped working because I looked after my dad. [02:24:18] He got sick when I turned about, around 50 or something so, so I stopped working really, really, really at around 50. So I looked after him. It was a full-time job and I'm glad I did it and I got good results. He was supposed to live two years, he lived 12. 

[02:24:36] Lisette: Wow. 

[02:24:36] Robin Behar: So I'm very proud of that. 

[02:24:38] Lisette: I remember seeing you with him. I remember. 

[02:24:40] Robin Behar: Exactly. 

[02:24:42] Lisette: Okay now we just want to ask, I want to ask you, where do you feel is home for you?

[02:24:48] Robin Behar: Home? Montreal, en français. Home to me is right here. I can live in Florida if I want to, I can live in Europe if I want to, no. I, I, I love French-Canadians, Quebecois. I love uh, uh, Canada. I love the multicultural nature of, of our community, of our society. [02:25:13] I love our Jewish community. I belong to Shar Shamayim, again, I was shopping for, after I went to Israel and you see how emotional I am when we talk about Israel um, I came back to Canada and I said, "I want to belong to the Jewish community and I want to be more active in it." And so, so I said uh, let's uh, let me shop for a synagogue. I shopped everywhere and I said, "Buck stops here. Shar Shamayim" Coincidentally, which is the same name as the synagogue we had in Cairo. [02:25:52] And I like the, the format, the decorum, the everything was very much in keeping with the little aristocrat. [laughs] So uh, I, I like the Sephardic Jewish community. I love my Iraqi friends um, the uh, I, I, doctor Sabah Bekor [sp?] invited me to his home when, one evening he, you know, and Sashoush Hamoun [sp?] invited me several times for the high holidays and that kind - [02:26:24] So we, we get along well.  I have several Iraqi friends and we understand each other. We know where we're coming from. We, we, so but not enough for me to join the Spanish and Portuguese. 

[02:26:41] Lisette: I don't blame you. 

[02:26:42] Robin Behar: Your identity?

[02:26:43] Robin Behar: My identity?

[02:26:44] Lisette: Yeah. 

[02:26:46] Robin Behar: First of all Jewish, second of all I'm Jewish from Spain, third of all I'm Jewish um, multi cultural. I feel, like you said with the spoons, French, Italian, Spanish uh, I feel all these things. [02:27:03] And very much Canadian. I feel, I, I, Montreal, the way it's evolved, not the other cities in Canada but Montreal has given me, I am Montreal. I look at people and I say to them, "Look at me, I'm typical of Montreal today."

[02:27:20] Lisette: Beautiful. Okay, last thing, do you have a message for anyone who might watch this? Do you have a message for somebody? For people to see this. 

[02:27:31] Robin Behar: Inspirational message? Yeah, they should, they should continue watching all the beautiful videos that you're making. The shoah is one thing and they’ve been extremely good at telling their story but Sephardi Voices, and I don't want to make a plug for you, I just want you to understand that today I'm not well and I'm happy, and honoured to be here. [02:28:03] Because, and I'm making the effort to be here because I feel so strongly about what you're doing. Well have to tell our story. The world has to know what we're all gone through. I didn't know many of the stories my Iraqi friends went through. The, they went through hell compared to us. We, I don't know of any Egyptian Jew who got killed. I know many who died of "natural causes" caused by stress, including my, both my grandfathers, including my mother and all that. [02:28:42] That I wouldn't be surprised it, you know, stress had to do with it. But the, the, the reality is that, that's...the, I admire the initiative that Sephardi Voices has taken. I would like it to be broadcast as much as you possibly can. One of the young Vietnamese kids, I have a young, young, young man I mentor who's, who's Vietnamese, was born here but Vietnamese parents and, and he wants to learn all about Jews, absolutely. [02:29:15] You know why? Because the kid sees what Israel is doing, and what Israel has done and, and he wants to know how come. He wants to know where it's coming from. And, and I am in awe and admiration of what Israel has succeeded in doing. The, the, the rock and desert my mother said it was, which it was, and still is in a lot of ways, has been turned to greenery and has been turned to prosperity and, and is now the Arabs are wanting to make friends with us. Again. [02:29:58] Because when we lived in Egypt the Arabs did want to make friends with us as long as they could exploit us. So on that final note...the, the, the Ashkenazi say, "Never forget." I say it's a fabulous slogan and the Sephardis should say the same thing. Never forget and continue telling their story and thank you Lisette for doing such a fabulous job. 

[02:30:29] Lisette: Thank you. Thank you for this wonderful, inspirational interview. 

[02:30:34] Robin Behar: Thank you. 

[02:30:36] Lisette: I am honoured and privileged. 

[02:30:36] Robin Behar: Me too. Me too, thank you so much.