New Search
Photo Search
Audiovisual Search
Mort Abramsky - 17 Oct. 2007
- Name
- Mort Abramsky
- Material Format
- moving images
- Interview Date
- 17 Oct. 2007
- Source
- Oral Histories
- Name
- Mort Abramsky
- Number
- OH 322
- Subject
- Families
- Rotary Club
- retail business
- Synagogues
- B'nai Brith
- Interview Date
- 17 Oct. 2007
- Quantity
- 2 mini-DVs, 2 archival DVDs, 2 reference DVDs
- Interviewer
- Sharon Gubbay Helfer
- Total Running Time
- 1 hr 45 mins
- Notes
- Part of Ontario Small Jewish Communities Project.
- Use Restrictions
- Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.
- Biography
- Mort Abramsky was born in Montreal but spent his life in Kingston. He inherited a family business empire started more than a century ago by his grandfather, Polish immigrant Joseph Abramsky, and his parents, Harry and Ethel.
- Joseph Abramsky turned a door-to-door trade in clothes, sheets and towels into a business empire that at one time counted ten department stores spread across eastern Ontario. It was handed down through successive generations of family who gradually diversified into real estate and property management, as the margins in downtown general merchandise retailing shrank and then disappeared entirely. The flagship of that empire was Abramsky's general store, which closed in 1996, a victim of the poor economy of the time and increased competition from other retailers in the sector.
- Abramsky also owned Mort Enterprises, which managed and developed properties and was responsible for initially bringing chains, including McDonald's Restaurant and Blockbuster Video, to downtown Kingston. He was a philanthropist and tireless booster of Kingston, active with local organizations including the Beth Israel Synagogue, the B'nai Brith and Jewish Council, the YMCA, the Rotary Club, St. John Ambulance, Kingston General Hospital, and the Masonic Order. The family's Abramsky Charitable Foundation has also helped hundreds of local organizations and families in causes large and small, ranging from Queen's campus construction to assisting local families who had been burned out of their homes.
- Abramsky was married to Shirley, his wife of fifty-three years. The couple had three children, Jay, Karen and Leonard, and nine grandchildren. Abrahamsky died in November 2009, aged eighty-two.
- Material Format
- moving images
- Geographic Access
- Kingston (Ont.)
- Montréal (Québec)
- Original Format
- Mini DV
- Copy Format
- DVD
- Source
- Oral Histories