Samuel Mozeson
Samuel Morton Mozeson was born in the town of Silale, Lithuania, in 1907; his father was a Rabbi, Chaim Nossen Moizes, who soon moved his young family to a Yeshiva in Germany.
Conditions became difficult there for Jews, so Samuel’s mother returned with the boy to Lithuania, where he was raised by her family, surnamed Fischel. Rabbi Moizes was killed in a pogrom sometime during this period.
When Samuel turned seventeen -military service age – he was sent to Canada, to Calgary, where relatives Morris Geffin and family lived.
He sailed in 1925 to Quebec City on the Empress of Scotland and soon arrived in Calgary, travelling alone and without money. He lived with the Geffins while attending public school, and continued taking night classes after he started working.
Sam Mozeson soon bought Royal Furniture, later selling it to become a livestock dealer, a common career among Alberta Jewish men at the time.
He worked independently, visiting farmers, buying and shipping cattle to Calgary markets.
He was a well-known, well-respected, honest businessman; his ever- present White Owl cigar was his trademark. Sam was especially close to members of several Hutterite colonies, where he was frequently a dinner and overnight guest.
Samuel met Blanche Gelfond at the Jewish Community Centre, where they were attending a lecture by Rabbi Katz. He took her out afterwards for a ride and dinner at the Palace of Eats. Blanche soon left for Winnipeg to study nursing, and Sam kept writing her, finally convincing her to return to Calgary to marry him.
Blanche Gelford and Sam Mozeson were married on December 25, 1938. They had three children: Barbara (Neville), born in 1939; Zena- Irene (Drabinsky), born in 1943; and Charles, born in 1948.
Sam was a cattle dealer throughout the forties and fifties and into the mid-sixties, when he became a Realtor; he later worked as a maintenance technician at SAIT until his retirement.
Sam enjoyed an active retirement, travelling around Western Canada and to Israel. His sense of humor and his willingness to help friends are both legendary.
Blanche Mozeson died in 1978; Sam married Belya Bazel two years later. Sam Mozeson passed away in 1992 at the age of 84.