Episode 36: More Than a Deli: Gail Freiberg, Gruman’s & the Taste of Jewish Memory

This week, Don sits down with Gail Freiberg of Calgary’s beloved Gruman’s Delicatessen for a conversation about much more than smoked meat and matzo ball soup.Gail shares her journey from Montreal to Calgary during the Anglophone exodus of the late 1970s, her first encounters with antisemitism as a Jewish teenager in Calgary, a 30-year career in fashion, and the decision to eventually return west and join the family business.Along the way, we talk about recipes passed from bubbe to mother to daughter, the strange power food has to transport us back in time, and why hearing that your matzo ball soup “tastes like my bubbe’s” may be the greatest compliment a Jewish deli can receive.Gail also opens up about operating a visibly Jewish business after October 7, protecting her staff, and the remarkable support Gruman’s has received from the Calgary community.It’s food, family, history and Jewish Calgary — all around one very full table.