Recently, Sheldon Wiseman, wait a second… did you know that there are two Sheldon Wisemans? The first one is the Sheldon Wiseman who is Vice President of the KBI Board of Directors; the second one is the Sheldon Wiseman who has been a long-time congregant. The second one sat down with Robert Adeland, a member of the Communications & Marketing Committee, and reminisced about growing up, the stages of life, and the person who has had the biggest influence on his journey. No spoiler alerts here. You will have to read this interview to the end to find out just who that person is! Learn more about the other Sheldon Wiseman in July.
1. What brought you to our congregation?
Although I am not a very religious person, we wanted to give our children, Jason and Samara, a Jewish upbringing while staying connected to the Jewish Community in Ottawa. We started coming to and joined the Synagogue and celebrated their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. I am hopeful that new charismatic leadership at KBI might bring them and many their age, the opportunity to reconnect with the synagogue.
2. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Montreal and attended Outremont High School and then attended Dawson College. After graduation, I started my career with Northern Telecom later known as Nortel. During my time with Nortel, I became familiar with Future Electronics, then a components distributor. They eventually moved me to Ottawa to set up a branch and lead the outside sales team. Our market was “emerging tech companies”. My journey into high tech took off from there. I recently retired from a sales career that had let me travel across the globe with a California Silicon Valley high tech firm that designed and manufactured high-speed memory. Today, they are chips!
3. What is something people might be surprised to learn about you?
My father was born and brought up in Montreal, a first-generation Canadian of Russian and Polish parents. My grandparents had arrived in Canada at the beginning of the century.
My father was a war veteran and served overseas. He met my mother who was from London, England. Even though separated by thousands of miles, interestingly enough, they shared similar ethnic backgrounds. They, like many, got married during the war and decided to stay in London, where my sister was born.
In 1954, they picked up and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I was born! Shortly after that, they moved back to Montreal. So, I guess, that I am an international “man of mystery” with dual citizenship born to British and Canadian parents with Russian and Polish heritage!
4. If you were to have dinner with any Jewish figure, past or present, who would it be?
My choice would be Golda Meir. This magnificent lady was so ahead of her time and had a HUGE influence on the global Jewish population. She was smart, tough and insightful and coincidently spent time in Milwaukee before moving back to Israel.
5. What book is presently on your nightstand?
On Democracy & Death Cults; Israel and the Future of Civilization, by Douglas Murray. It is a very pertinent subject in today’s utterly unstable and antisemitic world.