Cantor David Aptowitzer Family fonds

David Aptowitzer was born in 1923 in Tarnopol, Poland. He was the youngest of the 7 children of Chaya Jampoler and Yitzhak Aptowitzer, a boot maker. In September 1939, while visiting his sister Bronia and her husband Shmuel, the then 16 year old David got an offer that saved his life. Shmuel’s employer, a Russian railway company, had offered to move its workers and their families to the relative safety of the Soviet Union. Bronia proposed that David come along and he accepted. Germany then invaded Poland and what was meant to be a trip of a few days became a five-year journey filled with turmoil, heartache, and close brushes with death and imprisonment. During these five years David worked as a laborer then was drafted into the Russian Army and later the Polish Army. As the Soviets began to push back the German forces, David began to discover the horrors of the Holocaust. In 1944, outside the Polish city of Lublin, he stumbled upon the concentration camp at Maidenek, a place which he recalled as being “beyond human comprehension,” and once the war ended he learned that virtually his entire family – his parents, four siblings and their families – had been killed. The only survivors were a sister, a brother, and himself. He spent two years in a displaced persons camp in Germany and in 1947, he and 1500 other war orphans sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia, aboard a Canadian navy ship converted to carry refugees. During the voyage he met Gita Adler, a survivor of Auschwitz, and nearly 5 years later in 1951, after a long distance courtship (Gita in Ottawa and David in Montreal), the couple was married. Gita (Gizella) Adler was born in Satmar Nemeti, Hungary in 1931, one of 7 children of Josephine and Joseph Adler, a wholesale raw wool merchant. In June 1944, Gita and her family were sent to Auschwitz. Four months later she was sent to work as a slave laborer in an airplane factory. She survived a death march before finally being liberated by four American soldiers riding in a Jeep, which she recalled as being “a beautiful sight.” Soon after, Gita learned that her parents and 5 of her siblings have been killed at Auschwitz. She and one of her sisters were their family’s sole survivors. Once in Canada David began contemplating his career. At the time, the Canadian Jewish Congress was looking after war orphans who had arrived in Montreal and David express to the Congress his interest in becoming a cantor. He was enrolled in the United Hebrew Teachers Seminary and in Montreal’s Merkaz HaTorah Yeshiva. He also studied music at McGill University, and had the opportunity to study liturgy with two cantors and also studied voice with an opera singer. Following his marriage to Gita Adler, David was approached by Agudath Israel Congregation to audition to be its first chazzan and teacher. David tried out for the job and was offered the position in the spring of 1952 – a position he would hold for 42 years. He was actively involved in the development of the congregation and the services of the Ottawa Jewish community. He taught afternoon school and at Hillel Academy, and also taught choir and helped many youth prepare for their B'nai Mitzvah. David later became a mohel and preformed over 2000 brisses. Cantor Aptowitzer retired in 1994, was honored by the Jewish National Fund 1997 Negev Dinner, and he and wife Gita made aliyah in 2013. They now live in Motza, a community 10 miles from Jerusalem. David and Gita have two sons, Edwin Henry Aptowitzer (b. September 18, 1955), Yitzhak (Emanuel Howard) Aptowitzer (b. November 21, 1960) and a daughter Pnina (Pearl) (b. March 18, 1953) who passed away suddenly in 2001. They have a large extended family in Israel including 14 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren (as of 2013).

Emanuel (Manny) Aptowitzer