It is hard to be a Jew… especially if you're the only Jew in town. Our parents, aunts and uncles however, who came over from Europe in the 20's and 30's, to earn their living operating stores in the province of New Brunswick towns of Grand Falls, Edmunston, Campbellton, Dalhousie and Bathurst, gave a pretty good account of themselves living good Jewish lives in spite of their isolation.
A Mikvah of course is central to Jewish family life. The married woman living in towns where there was no mikvah, had to drive, or be driven, to the nearest communities where one was available. However, as far as I can remember, a mikvah was constructed in the basement of the Litwin's home in Campbellton. Of course when I was a little kid, I didn't know what it was for… but that's another story. Later I recall a mikvah was also built in the basement of the Sand's home in Bathurst. The alternative to a mikvah of course, was to take a late night skinny dip in a local river.
Kosher food in the grocery stores of these New Brunswick towns was of course unheard of. Purchasing fruit, vegetables, milk and fish in those stores was no problem. However, what about chala, chicken, meat and other delicacies which would normally be served on the dinner table of a Jewish home? I remember in Dalhousie, mom slaving over a hot wood stove in the kitchen, baking cakes in the oven. The cake I best remember was a marble cake, which smelled so delicious even as it was being taken out of the oven.
Aunty Regina was famous for baking chala. I seem to remember Uncle Julius packing the cooled down chalot in plastic bags and putting them in a large wide freezer that opened from the top. Theirs was the first freezer of that type I had ever seen.
Once a week, I remember Mom putting a phone call through to Mindes' grocery store on Park Avenue in Montreal. She would order the chicken, meat, gefillte fish and all the other kosher food not available at Loggie's Food Store on William Street in Dalhousie. Mrs. Mindes would then pack the food in a large cardboard box, add dry ice and ship the package on one of the two nightly CNR trains that departed from Central Station in Montreal to the Maritime Provinces. The next day the food package would arrive at the little railroad station in Dalhousie, in time for the chicken to be cooked for Shabbat. That's the same Mrs. Mindes by the way, who was killed when an El Al aircraft, flying from Montreal to Israel, was shot down over Bulgaria in 1957.
A daily prayer minyan or even minyanim for Shabbat were not possible because of the lack of a quorum in each individual community, but on the high holidays, the Jews of Campbellton, Dalhousie and Bathurst, would rent a hall in one of the communities, import a cantor from Montreal and hold prayer services "kehalacha".
I know that on Yom Kippur on September 23rd, 1939, the services were held in a hall in Campbellton. How do I know? Because, from what I was told, mom went to Kol Nidre Services on Yom Kippur Eve and later that night entered the Soldiers' Memorial Hospital in Campbellton. At around 6 o'clock in the morning, I was born. I think that year I made my mother break her Yom Kippur fast!
Having a brith in Northern New Brunswick in those times was no problem… it only cost money. A mohel would be hired from Montreal, he would travel to the New Brunswick town by train and perform the brith in a room made available at the hospital. Again, the Jews from the other towns would come to the brith to ensure a minyan.
