Groberman Family
Sarah and Harris Groberman raised ten children in Manchester, England. In 1904 the parents moved to Calgary with Barnet and Edith, their youngest.
Harris operated a second-hand furniture store in East Calgary, and became active in the growing Jewish community. He helped organize the first Hebrew School and was known for helping immigrants, regularly meeting new arrivals at the CPR station.
Harris Groberman died aged 74 in 1927; Sarah, matriarch of the huge family, died in 1936.
Eldest son Morris Groberman (b.1880) followed his parents to Calgary in 1906; he was by now married to Hilda Goodman. Morris Groberman operated Dominion Furniture and Dry Goods on 8th Avenue and 1st Street E. until 1934, when he moved to Vancouver. There his family ran National Furniture stores.
Hilda and Morris Groberman raised five sons in Calgary: Cyril, Sydney, Alfred, Jack and Cecil. Only Alfie Groberman, of Vancouver, survives.
Morris was ex-officio “President” of the Calgary Jewish community for many of his years in Calgary. He served as President of the House of Jacob Synagogue for several years, and was a Talmud Torah leader, helping to reactivate the organization and house it in a new school building in 1920.
From 1926 to 1930 he was head of the Calgary Jewish Community Building Fund, a group that was able to build the House of Israel Building and see it open as a community centre in 1930.
Charles Groberman (1885-1964) married Bessie Samuels and emigrated to Canada in 1910. They had two sons, Maurice and Sidney. Maurice was a Rhodes scholar and, tragically, was lost at sea when his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine while the Calgary scholar was returning home from England in 1940. Sidney Groberman still lives in Calgary.
Abe Groberman (1892-1965) married Lily Ziselman in Calgary in 1921. They had two sons, Lionel and Herbert, and operated Standard Furniture Store.
Barnet Groberman (1898-1974) was an auctioneer until 1937, when he purchased Sykes Imperial Furniture. He later ran Nielsen’s furniture and Dry Goods. He married Rose Bercov; they had two children, Annabelle and Harold. Annabelle married Benjamin Gurevitch and is still active in Calgary Jewish life.
Edith (b.1896) married Leonard Jacques and operated the Chesterfield Shop. Their son Vincent continued in the family furniture tradition; daughter Pat married Sam Sanford.
The remaining five children of Sarah and Harris Groberman stayed in England for most of their lives, although most moved to Western Canada after the Second World War.
They were Ellen (b.1876, married David Weller, seven children); Charna (b.1878, Isaac Kay, five children); Jane (b.1884, David Hatterstone, three children); Mendel (b.1890, Mary Drucker, four children); and Meyer (b.1894, Miriam), Meyer died in Calgary in 1980.
The descendants of Harris and Sarah Groberman continue to enrich Jewish communal life in Calgary, Vancouver and elsewhere.
