Kriger Family fonds
Extent and Medium
B.4.4
Biographical History
Akiva Kriger and his wife Shirley Kriger (nee Shirley Movshovitz) grew up in Carleton Place and Brockville in the Ottawa Valley. In 1989, about a month before the fall of the Berlin Wall, they and another couple, Morton Taller and Sally Taller, took a trip to the USSR and wrote a lengthy article about it for the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. Akiva and Shirley had a son, David Kriger (b. 1956), who was married to Susan Kriger (nee Susan Ain). Shirley's father Max Movshovitz (b. Yakobovi, Lithuania ca. 1887 - d. 1981) was a merchant in Carleton Place. Max and his wife (b. Gorzdh, Lithuania) would get their kosher meat from Ottawa and it would be delivered by bus or by train. The one exception was poultry which Max slaughtered himself (the Archives has his shoichet knife). This is how it was up until about the 1940's. Max has a shoichet's certificate (now lost) in Yiddish which he received from his local yeshiva in Lithuania some time before he came to North America through Ellis Island ca. 1910. The Movshovitz's lived in Carleton Place from 1917-1976.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of: A newspaper article on Diane Kriger winning a 1950's Ottawa Jewish Bulletin "Beautiful Baby" contest; A ritual shoichet knife used by Max Movshovitz when he was a shoichet in Carleton Place; Two email printouts discussing Kriger family history - 2011/2012; A letter in Yiddish along with its translation. The letter was used to wrap up the shoichet knife. It asks for people to come hear a man who witnessed first hand the horrors of a Russian death camp - 1944; Maps, tickets and other souvenirs from Maynard and Shirley from their trip to the USSR - 1989; A prayer book given as a Bar Mitzvah gift to Akiva Kriger or Maynard Kriger. The book seller is Tzvi Gozowitz (Gosewitz). - 1934 or 1937 Two Ottawa Kosher Catering seals A blue Hillel Academy sweater owned by David Kriger c.1968 6 pins owned by Dora Lepidus Kriger for various Jewish organizations.
Jewih Hospital of Hope - Life Member
Womens War Work - CRCS
Mizrachi Hapoel Hamizrachi - Mother in Israel
Mizrachi Hapoel Hamizrachi - Life Member
Hadassah Wizo 40 years
Hadassah Wizo MOA Ma' Alot Slide rule owned by Akiva Kriger
Note(s)
Fonds mvoed from Individual folders to its own box with addition of prayer book, 2022.
- When the shoichet knife was donated to the Archives it was wrapped in a typed Yiddish letter inviting all who wanted to, to come to a Montreal synagogue to listen to an eye witness from the Holocaust tell of the horrors he has seen first-hand - 1944. 2. Diane Kriger was the posthumous author of a book called, "Sex Rewarded, Sex Punished." 3. Bar Mitzvah book and Ottawa Kosher Catering seals donated by Susan Kriger, Dec. 2021 4. Sweater, pins, and slide ruler donated by David and Susan Kriger Feb. 2022