Obituary: Roslyn Swartzman, 91, was a respected artist and inspiring teacher in Montreal

/ Janice Arnold

Roslyn Swartzman, a respected Canadian artist whose work is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the Musée des Beaux-Arts du Québec, died on Feb. 5 in Montreal. She was 91.

Swartzman, who was primarily a printmaker but accomplished in other media, taught generations of budding artists, some of whom went on to successful careers, at the Saidye Bronfman Centre School of Fine Arts (SBC) in Montreal.

She was a member of the prestigious Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Swartzman is being remembered as an inspiring, but tough, mentor who demanded the best from her students, as she did from herself. She was a teacher and later head of the graphic arts department at the SBC from the mid-1960s until 2006 when its fine arts school closed.

Informally, she and her late husband Monte were known as generous and vivacious hosts, equally to lifelong friends and new people in their circle.

Born in Montreal in 1931, Swartzman née Sheinfeld began her art education in the late 1940s at the Montreal Artists School studying under the renowned Ghitta Caiserman-Roth and Alfred Pinsky, continuing in the 1950s at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts where she came under the influence of such Canadian luminaries as Arthur Lismer and Jacques de Tonnancour. She specialized in printmaking at Montreal’s École des Beaux-Arts with Albert Dumouchel, one of the most influential Quebec printmakers of his time, in the early 1960s.

Swartzman exhibited her work nationally and internationally in more than 30 group and 20 solo shows, beginning in 1959. In 2006, the SBC (now the Segal Centre for Performing Arts) presented a retrospective of her 40-year career in prints, as well as painting, sculpture and drawings.

A lover of the outdoors, Swartzman often drew upon nature as a theme, such as in the abstract landscape series The Northern Prairies and Prairie Winter, which combine etching with her distinctive embossing.

Her public commissions in Montreal include Oiseau de feu (1991), a 22-metre-long abstract wall sculpture with 81 pieces of brightly painted aluminum that hangs in Place Bonaventure. Others could be found in the Alexis Nihon Plaza, as well as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue and Congregation Chevra Kadisha-B’nai Jacob.

“She was a renaissance woman who loved life, lived intensely and dedicated her life to the pursuit and teaching of art,” said friend Adina Weinstein. “Rama (as she was known by those close to her) was always at the centre of our group of friends, hosting get-togethers, dinner parties, book clubs, weekends in the country and taking up the cause of Israel.”

Friends and acquaintances recall fun-filled gatherings at Roslyn and Monte’s home in Notre Dame de Grace, with good food and music. She and Monte, a talented amateur jazz trumpeter, were married for 71 years until his death in 2021 from complications of COVID.

They were a particularly close couple who met back when they were teens in the Labour Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair.

According to their three daughters, Leora, Mia and Elana, they enjoyed such outdoor activities as hiking, skiing and rowing, and travel to far-flung destinations.

“Her art is a representation of the strong, energetic, beautiful woman that she was,” another friend Eunice Palayew noted.

Among Swartzman’s former protégés who went on to successful careers, artist Shirley Katz said, “She was a truly original and creative artist, and an inspiration to so many students. She was my teacher, co-worker and mentor. Nobody was ever as encouraging as she was.”

Dorothy Grostern, also an artist, commented, “I shall forever be grateful to her. She was forthright, outspoken, always spoke the truth… She was an outstanding artist who loved her creativity, but in all the years I knew her, her three daughters were the first and true love of her life.” n

Janice Arnold has been reporting for The CJN from Montreal since 1976.

To mark Tu b’Shevat, close to 85 people sat down to a kosher vegan Shabbat dinner at Vancouver’s Schara Tzedeck synagogue on Friday, Feb. 3. The chef brought the mushrooms, the potatoes and the fruit from local sources. As for the plates, they were reusable, not disposable.

Then four community leaders led a discussion about environmental awareness and the deep connection Jews share with nature.

The program is part of a year-long commitment by Vancouver’s historic Orthodox congregation to be more environmentally sustainable, according to Rabbi Shlomo Schachter.

“Vancouver is one of the greenest cities, certainly in North America, and in the world. And we had a sense of our community sort of lagging during COVID,” Rabbi Schachter said, in an interview with The CJN Daily. “We’re dealing with single-use paper and plastic. And we were doing all of these things, and I said, ‘Look, we really don’t need to be doing that.’”

That’s why the synagogue signed on last spring, when Vancouver’s Jewish Federation came calling. Schara Tzedeck joined more than a dozen local Jewish sites in B.C. for a yearlong sustainability challenge under the auspices of Hazon, an American environmental charity.

The 14 Vancouver-area sites are part of the first Canadian cohort for Hazon’s “Seal of Sustainability” project. This session wraps up in March.

Other area participants include all three day schools—King David High School, Richmond Jewish Day School, and Vancouver Talmud Torah—plus five synagogues including Schara Tzedeck, Beth Israel, Beth Tikvah, Or Shalom, and Temple Shalom.x-

The JCCs of Greater Vancouver, and White Rock South Surrey are in, too, as are Camp Miriam, Hillel BC, the Jewish Federation and Jewish Family Services.

“The whole cohort has been inspiring to work with. They have brought great passion and commitment to the work,” wrote Bruce Spierer, Hazon’s program manager, in an email.

The Canadian sites each had to set up “green teams,” which then also met regularly as a cohort to share ideas and successes. At the end of the process, Hazon awards them a “Seal of Sustainability” which they can use on their websites. In the past six years, over 200 sites in the United States have completed the program

Some of the initiatives carried out by the cohort included a clothing swap at the White Rock South Surrey JCC, a rain garden at the Richmond Jewish Day School, and an expanded composting program at the Vancouver Federation building, while their daycare has acquired worms to teach children about composting.

At Schara Tzedeck, the 75-year-old building has been undergoing renovations to become more energy efficient. The work included new boilers, some heat pumps, a new roof, low-flush toilets in the bathrooms, and LED lights installed in the sanctuary.

“ I believe that it has dropped the electrical load on them by 80 percent,” said Ariel Greene, who is Schara Tzedeck’s sustainability committee chair (and yes, he does get teased about his last name).

The shul’s Rabbi Schachter has his sights set on the next major project: installing solar panels on the Schara Tzedeck roof, which he expects could generate enough green power to heat the mikveh, and maybe even put some energy back into the provincial power grid.

While support for environment-conscious policies are usually associated with more progressive branches of Judaism, Rabbi Schachter argues that Orthodox congregations like his are simply doubling down on the fundamental principles of the Torah, including tikkun olam.

“If we understand that the will to take care of our planet is just as much part of God’s will as some of the other areas of halakhah, so this becomes an imperative that we need to answer the bell. And we have. And that’s just been the beginning of it,” he explained.

With the Vancouver cohort about to wrap up, Hazon’s next Canadian group begins their year-long journey in March, although the name of the program has changed to Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition. Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal is one of the Class of 2024, along with ten other sites in Ontario and Alberta.

“Since coming back to activities in the building [after COVID], we have also transitioned to non-disposable dishes, silverware, cups and mugs for all our activities, to be more environmentally sound,” said Rabbi Lisa Grushcow, adding that the synagogue had already planted a pollinator garden around the building to attract birds, bees and butterflies.

Their 2023 “Go Green” capital building fund campaign is seeking $3 million to renovate the structure.

Of particular urgency is converting the temple’s heating system to electricity. They hope to install a solar thermal wall that will preheat fresh air. According to the synagogue, this “is projected to save at least 11.5 tons of greenhouse gases per year” while improving ventilation.

Calgary’s Temple B’nai Tikvah will have solar panels installed on the roof of the synagogue later this year, which should provide enough green energy to fill more than 30 per cent of the building’s needs. A local energy cooperative, Bow Valley Renewable Energy, will build and install the solar panels, and sell the power back to the shul at reasonable rates.

Peter Driftmier, who heads B’nai Tikvah’s environmental committee, said going solar was something they have long wanted to do in a province that gets 89 percent of its electricity from burning fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.

“We decided to take this action after many years of informal discussions wishing we could go solar. Our congregation members care deeply about our Jewish community and our local, provincial, and federal communities all taking action on the climate crisis in a way that responds to the urgency of emissions reductions,” he said.

“We hope that more synagogues build solar on their roofs and I hope that more Canadian Jews join renewable energy cooperatives,” Driftmeir said.

After a two-year-long renovation to their 120-year-old heritage building on Brunswick Avenue, the downtown Toronto synagogue reopened Feb. 3 with a more energy-efficient, and accessible site.

“We have an array of brand-new solar panels on the roof that are already generating green power,” said Rabbi Ed Elkin, explaining that the congregation received a loan from the City of Toronto to help them incorporate the panels into the renovation.

Aside from the panels, the restored building has better insulation, sustainable lighting, and efficient appliances. What’s