Gelfond Family
As related by Sara Drabinsky:
“My widowed great-great-grandmother, Chaya Sara Gelfond, her sons Nathan and son John, and her three daughters, Bessie, Layah and Libby of Shedrin, Byelorussia, took advantage of Baron de Hirsch’s offer to relocate Jews from Eastern Europe to Western Canadian homesteads.
“The Gelfonds did not all travel together, but all arrived in Calgary between 1905 and 1908 from Minsk, Russia. Reunited, they settled on a homestead near Rumsey to try farming. Nathan and Annie Gelfond were married in Drumheller on June 5, 1911. Annie, Nathan’s childhood sweetheart, had come over earlier in 1911.
“Chaya Sarah was a midwife, and upon arriving in Alberta, assisted in the birthing of many children of pioneers, including all five of her grandchildren. She died at the age of 96 in 1941.
“Nathan Gelfond, the man of the family, was not at all knowledgeable about the skills of farming. His father had been a teacher, and Nathan’s strengths lay in reading and writing Hebrew. Nonetheless, after two years of cultivating his 160 acres, he received his title to the land, built a solid one-storey wooden house, and began to raise his family.
“Nathan was probably best remembered in the Rumsey area for building with his brother John, the Rumsey synagogue. Nathan and Annie continued to farm and lived in their original home until1947, when they moved to Calgary.
“Nathan was a proud, independent man, who felt he was still young, healthy and strong, even refusing to wear glasses despite poor eyesight. Tragically, he was struck down and killed by a truck in December 1948. After his death Annie moved from their northwest home to a house on 15th Avenue W. She passed away in 1954.
“Nathan and Annie Gelfond had five children: Blanche (1912-1978), Samuel (1913-1936), Sadie (b.1916), Maxim (1922-1946), and Benard (b.1919). The oldest child, Blanche, my grandmother, had a hard workload on the farm.
“Blanche had come to Calgary at the age of fourteen to complete her schooling, as there was no high school at Rumsey. In Calgary she boarded with the Sam and Lena Hanen family and attended Crescent Heights High School.
“During her grade twelve year she was hospitalized with rheumatic fever, but was “saved” by her math teacher and principal, William Aberhart who came to her hospital room every day after school to tutor her and help with other teachers’ assignments. Blanche never forgot the kindness of William Aberhart, and not only graduated but became a staunch supporter of his later political career as Premier of Alberta.
“After high school, my grandmother Blanche went to Winnipeg, took nursing training and worked at the Winnipeg Jewish Orphanage. She returned to Calgary to marry Sam Mozeson in 1938.
“Blanche and Sam Mozeson had three children: Barbara Neville, Zena Drabinsky, and Charles Mozeson. Barbara and Charles live in Edmonton, Zena in Calgary. Blanche Mozeson died of cancer in 1978. Sam Mozeson died in 1992.
“Sam Gelfond, very ill as a child, suffered from heart illness and stayed on the farm. Later, in his twenties, he completed his education and was to begin training as a barber in Calgary. He died, however, in Drumheller in 1936 at the age of 23.
“Sadie Gelfond left the farm to go to school in Big Valley, and later completed high school in Calgary, returning to the farm during the war years. In 1943 she met and married Albert Swanson. They had three children: Betty Helen la France, Donna Smalley and Robert Swanson. Sadie was widowed in 1993 and lives in White rock, B.C.
“Max completed high school in Big Valley, joined the RCAF in 1942 and served as a wireless operator in Labrador. After his discharge, he entered Brandon College to study dentistry. Only a few months after beginning his studies Max Gelfond was killed in a motorcycle accident on May 30, 1946.
“The youngest, Bernard (Ben) Gelfond, left the Rumsey farm to join the Canadian Army in 1940, and worked as an X-ray technician. After being discharged, he returned to Calgary. Ben married Thelma Nadler in 1953. They have one daughter, Nadine Drexler, of Regina.
“The descendants of the pioneering Gelfond family are proud of their family’s deep roots in this province and their dedicated contribution to Western Canadian society.”
