Mendel Switzer Family
Mendel was the oldest son of Wolf Baer Switzer, patriarch of the Switzer family. He married Bella Rosenzweig in 1887; only five of their ten children survived. All came to Calgary from Radom, Poland, between 1912 and 1923.
Mendel helped raise his sister Bella, who came to Canada with her husband Osher Singer in 1905.
As soon as she was able, Bella Singer started to bring her family to Calgary. The first to come,14-year-old Charlie Switzer (b.1898) was the third son of Mendel and Bella.
Charlie worked in Calgary as a tailor, later operating his own men’s clothing store. He was a founder of the Peretz School and of the Polish Jewish Family Loan Association, and was active in B’nai B’rith.
In 1920 Charlie Switzer married Ida Wolfe. They had three children, Jack Switzer (married Peal Hoffman); Morris Switzer (Alice Ostrovsky); and Frances (Mal Panar).
Charlie is Calgary’s oldest continuous Jewish resident, and is now married to Chana Davids. (Born in 1898, he was 97 in 1995)
Next to emigrate to Calgary was the oldest son, Meyer (b.1889) who came with his wife Etta Bleviss, brother David Switzer, and younger sister Lily (Horodezky). The parents, Mendel and Bella Switzer, followed in 1923 with the youngest brother, Ralph Switzer.
Meyer was in the furniture businesses; he ran Capitol Auction Rooms, and later Capitol Furniture. Meyer and Etta Swizer had six children. Meyer was very active with the Chevra Kadisha and was a founder of Shaarey Tzedec Synagogue.
A daughter, Lily, died in 1931. Their daughter Betty married Max Yan in 1944 and had five children. Dinah married David Spindel in 1946; they have two children. William Switzer married Frances Regenstreif; they have a son and a daughter.
Ann Switzer is married to Eddie Brodsky and has four children. The youngest daughter, Miriam, married Arnold Winston; there are five children.
Lily Switzer, only daughter of Mendel and Bella, married Nate Horodezky shortly after her arrival in Calgary in 1923. Nate had been an early homesteader near Rumsey, starting to farm there as a boy in 1907. He became a merchant in Calgary, running Imperial Clothing.
Lily was an active Peretz School and Pioneer Woman supporter, and for many years headed the Chevra Kadisha Women’s Auxiliary. Nate died in 1986, Lily in 1990.
Nate and Lily had one daughter, Bertha, who married Abe Gold. Dave Switzer (1906-1954) was also in the furniture business, first operating Princess Furniture, and later Show Home Furniture. In 1928 he married Ruby Hanson. There are three children, Sema (Morris Belzberg); Patricia (Michael Bruser, Tom Rogers); and Samuel Switzer (Ida Shulder).
Ralph Switzer (b.1908) was a men’s clothier. After the war, he took over his brother Dave’s business, Princess Furniture. He married Florence Gibbs; they have three children, Maynard Switzer, Eric Switzer and Linda (Isaac Rotstein).
The well-known 1932 photo of the founders of the Polish Jewish Family Loan Association includes several members of the Mendel Switzer family. In the front row are seated brothers Ralph, Charlie and Meyer Switzer. Next to them is brother-in-law Nate Horodezky.
In the back row is their white-bearded father, Mendel Switzer. He and Bella lived all their Calgary years with Lily and Nate Horodezky. Mendel died in 1943 and Bella in 1954.
