Irena Karshenbaum
History
Irena preserves history.
Irena conducts oral history interviews for the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta, which are held in its Oral Histories Collection. She interviewed:
Dr. Goldie Morgentaler (2024), daughter of Dr. Henry Morgentaler and author Chava Rosenfarb, and is her mother's literary translator from Yiddish to English
Lady Esther Gilbert (2024), widow of Sir Martin Gilbert who wrote 88 books on history and was Sir Winston Churchill's official biographer
Ann Dancyger (2022), Holocaust survivor
Morris Dancyger (2022), Holocaust survivor
Dr. Noel Hershfield (2022), gastroenterologist and a member of The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which was awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
Irena contributed as a translator (Russian to English) to Voices of Resilience, a collection of oral history stories from Holocaust survivors from the Former Soviet Union who settled in Calgary. Published by Jewish Family Service Calgary (2010). She translated:
My Family’s Fate in the Russian Tragedy and the Holocaust by Joseph Averbukh
Children of the War: Our Contributions to the Victory by Efim Galperin
What I Remember by Olga Groysman
Memories of the Past by Alexander Oussatinski
The School of My Life by Leib Treitman