22 minute read
Remembering a few honourable menschen
Lives recently remembered at The CJN
RABBI BENJAMIN FRIEDBERG, 94
He came to Beth Tzedec Congregation in 1956, the synagogue’s first year, as assistant rabbi. Rabbi Benjamin Friedberg went on to serve pulpits at Or Shalom Congregation in London, Ont., the former Agudath Israel Congregation in Ottawa, and in Rochester, N.Y. before returning to Beth Tzedec as senior rabbi from 1974 to 1992. Upon retirement, he was conferred the title Rabbi Emeritus.
He took over the spiritual leadership of Canada’s largest Conservative synagogue from Rabbi Stuart Rosenberg, whose contentious departure the year before and subsequent legal action threatened to split the congregation into two warring camps and which rankled the whole community for years.
Rabbi Friedberg’s appointment as Beth Tzedec’s senior rabbi “helped bring a sense of security, strength and healing to the congregation after an extended period marked by factionalism and confrontation,” the synagogue stated in an online condolence following his death in Toronto on March 30.
He did not succumb to “pulpit chill,” his funeral heard, often speaking his mind regardless of controversy or pushback, and sometimes even chided his fellow rabbis for not being pro-Israel enough in public statements.
He was also a rarity in this country: A Canadian-born and bred pulpit rabbi.
An astute observer of human nature, Rabbi Friedberg believed that values and prejudices were different sides of the same coin.
“Prejudices are values we don’t like,” he explained. “Values are prejudices we do like.” n
RABBI DOW MARMUR, 87
The respected scholar and activist, who served for 17 years as spiritual leader of Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, died in Jerusalem on July 17.
Known by congregants for a stentorian speaking style, perhaps acquired by serving pulpits in England, and for punctiliously starting programs on the precise stroke of their advertised time—to the consternation of latecomers—Rabbi Dow Marmur was a prodigious writer, teacher and advocate who lived his Reform Jewish principles by implementing initiatives at his temple despite early resistance.
His peripatetic life took him from wartorn Poland to Siberia, Uzbekistan, back to Poland, Sweden, England, Canada, and finally, to his beloved Israel. As his daughter Elizabeth eulogized at his funeral in Har HaMenuchot, in the hills of Jerusalem, “my dad had an accent from no one place.”
She recalled an atypical father, one “with no discernible hobbies,” who didn’t barbecue or tinker in a garage. “My dad was a scholar, a mentor, a leader. My dad had presence and substance. He was as stern as he was soft. He was as demanding as he was forgiving. My dad wasn’t like other dads. (He was) a workaholic and a homebody.”
Rabbi Marmur “was both traditionalist and pragmatist, teacher and preacher par excellence,” wrote the late Irving Abella in a brief history of Holy Blossom.
“His major concern was adult education—when teaching his congregants the value of Reform Judaism, his emphasis would be on the noun, Judaism, not the adjective, Reform.” n
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SHIRLEY GRANOFSKY, 98
When she died on May 17 at the age of 98, the Toronto Jewish community lost one of its most generous benefactors.
And yet, she was in her mid 80s before donating to causes and organizations became a central focus in her own life.
Shirley Granofsky’s husband died when she was in her early 70s. And over the course of a nearly 50-year marriage—like many women of her generation—she generally deferred to him on fi nancial matters, including philanthropic ones.
At fi rst, she did not feel comfortable taking on those responsibilities.
“She was afraid. She was nervous. She never made those decisions. It was always my father who was the architect of their philanthropy,” said their daughter, Maxine Granovsky.
“(My husband) Ira and I would talk to her, and it took years for us to convince her. ‘It’s OK mom, you can do it.’
“And then once she started, it was like a drug. It was like, ‘Oh my God, this is so amazing. It’s so wonderful. It’s so great.’
“We knew that she was probably going to leave some money in her will to charities. And we said to her, ‘Mom, do it now, so you can see the difference you’re making. Why wait until it’s too late and you’re gone?’ After many conversations, we would talk and leave it with her, she fi nally said, ‘OK, I’m ready.’” n
MAX EISEN, 93
He was a Holocaust survivor who wrote an award-winning memoir, travelled across Canada speaking about his experiences in Auschwitz and was a witness at the trial of two former SS guards. He died in Toronto on July 7.
Max Eisen’s memoir, By Chance Alone: A Remarkable True Story of Courage and Survival at Auschwitz, was shortlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize in 2017. The book won the 2019 edition of CBC’s Canada Reads.
Eisen was born in Czechoslovakia to a large and well-off Orthodox family. When he was a teenager, they were deported to Auschwitz. He survived horrifi c conditions in several camps and a death march from Mathausen, Melk and Ebensee. He was liberated by the 761st Black Panther Battalion of the United States in May 1945. Only two cousins from his extended family of more than 60 people survived.
He came to Canada in 1949 as a displaced person and eventually started a successful manufacturing business. But he was best known for the passion he exuded while speaking to students, and in later years to law enforcement personnel, about his experiences in the Holocaust.
In 2015, Eisen and other survivors testifi ed at the trial of former SS guard Oskar Groening, who was convicted of thousands of charges of being an accessory to murder. A year later, he testifi ed again at the trial of Reinhold Hanning, who was also convicted. n
SHEILA GOLDBLOOM, 96
She was confi dent that she was destined to make a contribution to society when she graduated from Mount Holyoke, a prestigious women’s college in Massachusetts, in 1947.
Unlike other elite schools of its kind at the time, Holyoke groomed its students to make the world a better place through real-life work, rather than fi nding a suitable husband.
Sheila Goldbloom, who died at age 96 on July 3, fulfi lled that promise spectacularly over her long life, as a social work professor at McGill University and as a community volunteer, a term that does not begin to convey her ground-breaking services to a multitude of educational, social, philanthropic and governmental organizations.
She was a mentor to generations of professionals and volunteers, especially women, and is credited with elevating the status and infl uence of the non-profi t sector in Quebec—in both the anglophone and francophone communities.
Like her late husband Victor Goldbloom, she was, in her understated way, a bridge-builder between peoples of different faiths, languages and cultures. One of her causes in recent years was the restoration of the historic Christ Church Cathedral, acting as honorary co-chair of fundraising.
Goldbloom was one of the early champions of the McGill Middle East Program for Civil Society and Peace Building, known today at the International Community Action Network (ICAN), which since 1997 has brought together Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians to improve the lives of disadvantaged people in the region. n
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BORIS BROTT, 78
Bringing high quality classical music to as wide a public as possible was his goal, never more so than since he became conductor and artistic director of the Orchestre Classique de Montréal, previously the McGill Chamber Orchestra, which his parents founded in 1939.
Montreal-born Boris Brott conducted on stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Covent Garden, before royalty and even a pope, and was also a composer and violinist.
He was artistic director and conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra from 1969-1990, taking it from an amateur ensemble to a professional one with a popular subscription season. Early in his career, Brott also conducted orchestras in smaller cities across Canada, and produced and hosted many radio and television programs on CBC.
He was later founder and artistic director of the National Academy Orchestra of Canada and Brott Music Festival, both based in Hamilton, where he died in a hit-and-run accident on April 5. n
MALCOLM LESTER, 83
For the last 14 months of his life, the renowned publisher was a regular participant in Jeopardy games at Terrace Gardens Retirement Residence in Toronto.
He was so dominant that the other residents wanted to ban him from playing.
Malcolm Lester died on April 1 at age 83. He was best-known for establishing Canadian publishing as a player in the industry, both at home and abroad, and for promoting Canadian Jewish literature, such as the 1982 book None is Too Many about the relationship between Canada and European Jews before, during, and after the Second World War.
Lester grew up in Toronto and at one point was studying to be a rabbi in Cincinnati. When he fell sick with mononucleosis, his brother Brian drove through a snowstorm to pick him up and bring him home. During his convalescence, he realized his true love was publishing, so he decided to quit rabbinical school to pursue his passion. n
JOE SEGAL, 97
Born in Vegreville, Alta., he began his business career as a 14-year-old selling frozen fi sh door-to-door on his bicycle to make money after his father died.
Joe Segal served in the Second World War, after which he established an army surplus store in Vancouver, which evolved into the Fields department store chain with more than 100 locations across Western Canada.
Fields acquired a majority stake in Zellers in July 1976, which was followed by a reverse takeover. Two years later, when Zellers was sold to Hudson’s Bay Company, he became one of its major shareholders.
The billionaire businessman, philanthropist and Order of Canada recipient died May 31 in Vancouver.
Gary Segal’s eulogy found him recalling a valuable thought from his father:
“Money is only worth something if you do something good with it. Spend some on yourself, do some good for others while you’re alive. If you put it under your mattress, your mattress gets lumpy.” n
HELEN WOLFE, 69
Determined. Indomitable. A smasher of norms. Defi nitely not shy.
People who knew Helen Wolfe tended to use the same words to describe her.
A teacher, writer, advocate and world traveller who had a lifelong physical disability that required the use of crutches, a scooter or wheelchair, Wolfe not only did not allow obstacles to get in her way, she seemed to relish toppling them.
“She grew up in a time when people with disabilities were segregated and of whom little was expected,” her death notice stated. “From childhood, she had a fi erce determination to live life to the fullest. Helen upended social norms and surmounted obstacles which stood in her way.”
Wolfe died of cancer in Toronto on Aug. 17. She was 69.
Her last book is slated for posthumous publication next March. World Changers will comprise biographies of women from around the world who have done things that have transcended the norm. n
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Kurt Rothschild, who died July 17, 2022, at age 101, was one of the sharpest, most indefatigable, and loyal soldiers to have blessed the Jewish people over the past century. Hundreds of Jewish communal and Torah-educational institutions around the world benefited from his leadership and philanthropic activism.
A modest and diminutive man, Kurt was nevertheless a giant in stature, beloved and respected as few are in today’s Jewish world. He was a model of respect for and toward all Jews, a profound believer in Klal Yisrael—the unity of the Jewish people.
Born in Germany in 1920, his parents sent him to England in 1937. With thousands of other Germans, he was banished in 1940 to New Brunswick where Canada interned him for 18 months behind barbed wire. After studying electrical engineering in Ontario (where he had to repeat courses when he refused to write exams on Shabbat), Kurt began a business career, first in Montreal and then in Toronto, marked by scrupulous honesty alongside energetic leadership of the religious Zionist (Mizrachi) community.
As an Orthodox Jew, he believed in the importance of central involvement in community frameworks and institutions. This led him to lifelong activity in numerous Canadian and Jewish non-profits.
He was instrumental in helping Jewish day schools across Canada access Jewish community funding and supported Jewish educational initiatives in former Soviet Union countries.
He and his wife of more than 70 years, Edith, made aliyah in 2012. Kurt began to devote time and attention to young communities in Israel’s periphery, including towns established in the Negev where many of the Israelis displaced from Gush Katif by the Gaza withdrawal have sought to rebuild their lives.
Until COVID hit two years ago, Kurt, then well into his 90s, arrived daily at his World Mizrachi office in Jerusalem to make and field hundreds of calls. He was accessible to every leader across the ideological spectrum, including secular and haredi institutions. Here, he was completely colour blind.
When Kurt believed in a project, whether help for farmers or handicapped children, or construction of a new synagogue, he got it done. Pronto, personally. He was the consummate man of action, eager to help and to see each project through.
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Kurt was in direct contact with Israel’s leaders. He regularly faxed them his views and, from the late Shimon Peres to Benjamin Netanyahu, they almost always responded. Those letters focused on the importance of settlement throughout the land of Israel and the dangers of undue concessions to the Palestinians.
He also emphasized Jewish unity, which to Kurt, meant meaningful and respectful dialogue—and adherence to principled standards in matters like conversion and IDF service.
In short, nothing disturbed this diminutive – but titan—man’s focus on ensuring Jewish continuity through Jewish education and strengthening the State of Israel.
Kurt believed that Israel was nothing less than a nes min haShamayim, a Divine miracle, and he reminisced about dancing with joy in the streets of Canada upon Israel’s establishment in May 1948.
Kurt mentored me in Zionist activism, guiding me in professional positions at the Canada-Israel Committee (when he was president of the Canadian Zionist Federation), and at Bar-Ilan University.
I also was privileged to pray alongside Kurt on Yom Kippur at Yeshivat Hakotel in Jerusalem’s Old City almost every year for the past 25. I will forever treasure the meaningful conversations I had with this righteous man on the holiest night of the year.
To me, Kurt Rothschild stands as the ultimate exemplar of selfless Jewish commitment, Zionist steadfastness, and national unity. n
David M. Weinberg is Israel office director of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).
Honouring Kurt Rothschild Z”L
Kurt Rothschild’s remarkable legacy in the global Jewish community will be felt for generations to come as his impact has touched the lives of millions of Jewish people. He was a former Negev honouree and man of action, which was evident in his commitment to the community. JNF extends our heartfelt condolences to the Rothschild family. May they be comforted among all who mourn for Zion and Jerusalem.
Canadian. Jewish. Jewish. Advocacy. Advocacy.
CIJA mourns the passing of Kurt Rothschild z”l
Canadian. Canadian. Jewish. Jewish. Jewish. Jewish. Advocacy. Advocacy. Advocacy. Advocacy.
Kurt Rothschild stands as the ultimate exemplar of selfless Jewish commitment, Zionist steadfastness, and Israeli national unity. steadfastness, and Israeli national unity.
Yeshiva University Mourns Kurt Rothschild z”l
Yeshiva University and its affiliates, the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and Canadian Friends of Yeshiva University (CFYU), mourn the passing of Kurt Rothschild. A Holocaust survivor, he served on the Board of RIETS and was a past president of CFYU. In 1997, Mr. Rothschild received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Yeshiva University. Together with his wife, Edith, Mr. Rothschild was a significant philanthropist, inspiring others to support the needs of World Jewry in Canada, the US, Europe and Israel. Heartfelt condolences are extended to his wife Edith and their children, Lenny and Esther, Michael and Chani, Naomi and Rabbi Nosson Weiss, and to the entire family.
Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman
President of Yeshiva University and RIETS
Rabbi Dr. Herbert C. Dobrinsky
Vice President for University Affairs
Rabbi Stuart Haber
National Director CFYU
Irving Abella, 82: The historian who revealed why Canada kept Jews out during the Holocaust
Irving Abella, who with fellow historian Harold Troper, became a household name in Canada for his withering indictment of this country’s warera animus toward Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Europe, died July 3 after a long illness. He had just turned 82.
The title of Abella and Troper’s 1983 bestseller, None is Too Many, entered the Canadian Jewish lexicon as bywords for Ottawa’s dismal policy of barely admitting any Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and occupied Europe before, during and even after the Second World War.
Contrary to some beliefs, the since-popularized phrase did not come from then prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King or the director of Ottawa’s immigration branch, Frederick Charles Blair, but from an unidentified bureaucrat who was asked by reporters in early 1939 how many Jews would be admitted to Canada, and then gave the infamous reply.
Though considered a compassionate and open country, Canada effectively shut its doors to Jewish immigration at the time, admitting a “paltry” 5,000 Jews between 1933 and 1948, Abella and Troper’s seminal book noted. Canada’s record was “the worst,” it boldly stated.
In 1968, Abella married Rosalie Silberman, who would take her husband’s name and go onto a storied, 17-year career as the first Jewish woman and refugee to serve as a justice on Canada’s Supreme Court. They were among Canada’s best-known Jewish “power couples.” She retired from the court last year, when she turned 75.
Irving Abella “was among the first generation of professional scholars to take up Canadian Jewish subjects, and his writings and findings left an indelible print on the now-mature and professionalized field,” lauded David Koffman, holder of the J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry and an associate history professor at York University, in a tribute to Abella, on his 80th birthday.
“Abella is arguably the scholar with the largest imprint on Canadian Jewish studies.”
A professor of history at York University from 1968 to 2013, Abella helped pioneer the field of Canadian labour history. His published works included Nationalism, Communism and Canadian Labour (1973) and On Strike: Six Key Labour Struggles in Canada 1919-1949 (1974). He co-edited the volume The Canadian Worker in the Twentieth Century (1978). In 1990, he published A Coat of Many Colours: Two Centuries of Jewish Life in Canada to accompany an exhibit of the same name that year at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. Abella served as president of the Canadian Jewish Congress from 1992 to 1995. In 1993, he was inducted into the Order of Canada. “His writings and lectures have helped us to appreciate the rich and diverse roots of our country, and broadened our understanding of the contributions generations of immigrants have made to Canada,” the award noted. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and also chair of Vision TV.
Abella will be remembered for both his scholarship and his community activism, said Ira Robinson, distinguished professor emeritus in the department of religions and cultures at Concordia University.
“As a scholar, he will be most remembered for None is Too Many, co-authored with Harold Troper. Clearly indicting the Canadian government of the pre-Second World War era with callousness (to say the least) toward Jewish refugees from Nazi domination hoping to come to Canada, None Is Too Many is one of the very few academic books that influenced Canadian national discourse and policy-making in the area of refugees.
“Abella was a Jewish community activist as well,” Robinson said. “He will perhaps be best remembered for his leadership of Canadian Jewish Congress, but he was equally significant as one of the prime builders of the Centre for Jewish Studies at York University.”
Author Franklin Bialystok recalled Abella as a “scholar, teacher and most significantly a mensch.”
“Irving took me under his wing, introduced me to scholars and historians, wrote to Oxford on my behalf where I spent a year on sabbatical, and ultimately was my supervisor for my doctorate, Delayed Impact: The Holocaust and the Canadian Jewish Community. Irv was patient, and saw the thesis through its publication.”
Abella was born July 2, 1940. The couple has two adult sons, Jacob and Zachary, both lawyers, and several grandchildren. Funeral services were held July 5 in Toronto. n
IN HONOUR OF IRVING ABELLA z”l, an esteemed scholar, community leader, and longtime professor in the Department of History at York University’s Glendon College. Professor Abella had a tremendous impact on his students and made an enormous contribution through his many scholarly works and achievements, especially in the areas of Jewish Studies and Labour History in Canada, both fields that he pioneered more than forty years ago and that continue to thrive today. His extraordinary dedication to excellence in higher education and communal service spanned four decades, and his drive represented a passion for positive change that will live on for generations to come.
