From Michigan the Horwitz family moved west to Bellingham, Washington. Unable because of the family financial situation to attend university, Abraham apprenticed in his father's furrier business.

      On April 17, 1910, Abraham married Bertha Budashov, who had come from Odessa to Portland, Oregon, in 1905. At the time, he was working for a cousin, travelling the countryside buying scrap metal.

      During a working visit to the British Columbia interior, he met a Mr. Gesheit, who had a scrap metal business in Calgary and was looking for a buyer.

      By this time, Abraham and Bertha had two children, Annette and Cecil. When Abraham asked Berta about moving to Calgary, a city she had never heard of, she assured him: "Wherever you go, so shall I."

      So in September, 1918, the family arrived in Calgary. Their first home was a small bungalow on the corner of 13th Avenue and 11th Street W. Abraham's business was started as Calgary Scrap & Metal Co., on 2nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues E.

      Abraham and Bertha immediately became active in Jewish communal affairs. Bertha helped form the first Jewish Ladies' Aid Society, an immigrant welfare group, and Abraham became involved as an expediter of Jewish immigration to Alberta.

      Keenly aware of the pot-war plight of European Jews clamoring to move to Canada, Abraham Horwitz became an associate of M. A. Gray of Winnipeg as an agent for the Baltic American Steamship Line.

      Horwitz found immigration work demanding but satisfying. There was considerable paperwork, arranging visas, underwriting fares, and personally supplying guarantees of work for many hard-pressed immigrants. Many Western Canadian Jews owe a debt of gratitude to the work of Morris Gray and Abraham Horwitz, without their efforts these immigrants might have remained in Europe to be counted among the Holocaust victims.

      Abraham Horwitz remained a community leader until his death in 1951. He was an active member of the House of Jacob Congregation, and was a B'nai B'rith stalwart. He was presented with a gold disc as a B'nai B'rith Honorary President for 1920-21. Bertha died in 1981, at the age of 90.

      Cecil Horwitz was born in Bellingham, Washington, in 1911 and moved to Calgary in 1918 with his sister Annette and their parents Abraham and Bertha Horwitz.

      During his teenage years, Cecil was counsellor for the first Jewish Boy Scouts in Calgary. In 1926 he helped form AZA Chapter #31, the first to be established outside the USA.

      In 1937 Cecil married Ida Baltzan of Edmonton. They had three children: Joel, Frances and Marvin, and subsequently five grandchildren - Howard, Caroline, Alissa, Cecil and Danielle.

      It was in the late 1930's that Cecil Horwitz went into the scrap iron business with his father. During the war years the iron and metal was converted into guns and ammunition. When other scrap metal became scarce, farm machinery was bought and broken down into metal.

      After the war, the business sold new farm equipment, Horwitz & Sons became Calgary Farm Machinery.

      Cecil was elected General Committeeman of the North West Canadian Council of B'nai B'rith, as well as President of the lodge's District Six. In May, 1953, he attended an international BB conference in Washington, D.C., with his wife Ida and mother Bertha. He was official representative of Chicago-based District Six.

      The Horwitz family met Richard Nixon, then a young senator and guest speaker at the closing ceremonies. Wives of the delegates toured the White House and were presented to First Lady, Mamie Eisenhower.

      In Marc, 1949, Cecil and his B'nai B'rith committee brought Elenor Roosevelt to Calgary for a fund-raising affair.

      Cecil Horwitz was the first Jew to be named General Chairman of the Calgary Brotherhood Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. One of his first actions was to bring in as a guest speaker a young baseball star, Jackie Robinson.

      He and other community leaders joined to organize the Meadowlark Curling Club, Calgary's first Jewish curling rink.

      In 1950 a dream Cecil had - of a Conservative congregation being formed in Calgary - finally came true. The first meeting of Congregation Beth Israel was held in the Horwitz home. Over time there was heated discussion among the many interested persons. It was an uphill battle, with a splinter group breaking away.

      A nucleus committee was formed with Bill Guss as President. The first services were held in the basement of the unfinished community building. E. Ebner was first Rabbi.

      With frustration, with anxiety - with a fabulous group of hard-working determined men - dedicated - knocking on doors - raising monies - land was bought on 66th Avenue near 14th Street.

      Building began in 1960, with Cecil Horwitz overall Chairman of the building project. The committee worked day and far into the night with architects, designers, planners, and finally a beautiful synagogue emerged.

      Rabbi Joe Weisenberg was the first to conduct services in the new synagogue. Cecil Horwitz was first President with Murray Fromson as Treasurer.

      The Governor General, Roland Michener, and Mrs. Michener were guests of honour at a ball held to honour the opening of the new Beth Israel Synagogue. (Perhaps the honour should have gone to Cecil Horwitz.)

      Cecil Horwitz died in 1968.

      Harry Isenstein was born in 1891 in Aubanakan, a small village in Russia. He came to Calgary on December 3, 1907, with a group of seven "landsmen". Among them was Sonia Belkin, her cousin Henry W. Belkin, and a brother and sister, Tevie and Elka (Caplan) Hanen.

      Harry's first job in Calgary was in 1908 at the Burn's packing plant. After a year and a half he went to work for the CPR, starting as a labourer at 12 cents per hour. The superintendent, J. C. Boyle, took an interest in Harry and railroading "got into his blood". He advanced to locomotive fireman and eventually to engineer.

      In 1911 he helped organize the Jewish Cultural Club. Many of the single young men knew Russian classics and enjoyed intellectual discussion. He also joined a Jewish free-loan association which was formed to help immigrants.

      After his marriage to Dora Ashkenazy in 1913, he moved from the General Hospital area to a cottage on 8th Street.

      With financial assistance from established immigrants, Isenstein returned to post-revolution Russia in 1922 and brought back a group of 35 people, including his parents and many relatives.