Obituaries
SYLVIA POSNER
The following eulogy was written by Sylvia Posner’s son, Matthew:
It is a solemn yet daunting task to compose a eulogy for a parent. On the one hand, you seek to highlight the qualities and extol the virtues of the person who gave you life and nurtured your development, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. On the other hand, you recognize your innate deficiencies in being able to fully encapsulate the essence of someone’s being in a concise synopsis, and fret over your inability to adequately honor their many contributions to this world. Within the context of this quagmire, I offer the following thoughts of my mother, Sylvia Shaw Posner.
Sylvia Shaw was born on August 29th, 1926 to Morris Shaw and Dorothea (Petal) Shaw. She was the middle of three children, having two brothers, Marcus the elder, and Harvey, the baby. They were the first Canadian-born generation of their lineage. The early years were spent in Edmonton, but the formative years of their childhood materialized after they had relocated to Montreal. Mom’s dad worked as a traveling salesman, which required her mother to shoulder the lion’s share of the responsibilities of raising the children. When my mom was 14 years old, tragedy befell the family when her father passed away. This calamity was compounded by the fact that World War II was raging, goods were in short supply, and society at large had yet to embrace women in the workplace, with the notable exceptions of teachers, nurses, and secretaries. Borne out of necessity, and armed with gumption and a steely resolve, my grandmother went to work and ensured that her children wanted for nothing, and received a well-rounded education. I believe that these life-changing events from her early years are the source of my mother’s fierce independence and legendary coping skills, courage and perseverance in the face of hardship, overarching sense of self-sacrifice and responsibility for others, and humble spirit and kind heart.
Soon after the war ended, my mother and father, Edward Neil Posner, met, and following what in contemporary times would be considered a brief courtship, they married on February 22, 1947. They settled in Winnipeg, my father’s hometown. In short order, they added branches of their own to the Posner Family tree. They raised five children, Miles, Cynthia, Stephen, Alex, and Matthew. Like her mother before her, Sylvia applied her can-do attitude and prodigious work ethic to all of her innumerable responsibilities and commitments. She worked tirelessly both in and out of the home, with the latter inadvertently becoming an outlet to develop and showcase my mom’s talents at professional baking. Weekdays, during school hours, my mom would work at Sharon’s Linens, first on Bannerman, and later on Main Street. Her only quiet times were the pre-dawn hours, which were spent laboring at crossword puzzles or a game of solitaire while enjoying a cup of black coffee, piping hot. The weekends were claimed by the Sildor, the family business that served as a banquet hall for the community. My mom would sell liquor tickets for the Friday evening socials until the wee hours of the morning, and on Saturdays would prepare desserts for hundreds of people that would attend weddings being held later that evening. Sundays were devoted to family, with the early years of married life being a time when the extended clan would enjoy an impromptu gathering simply to visit. Over time, the arrival of grandchildren enriched family time, and many happy hours were devoted to babysitting. The number of progeny swelled through the years that followed, and the final tally included nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. In later years, my parents opened a delicatessen out of the Sildor that operated during the week, affectionately called Pal Joey’s after my dad’s favorite movie, and unsurprisingly, my mom created all the baked goods sold there. After the Sildor was sold, my mom and her first cousin Debbie Israel started up a business together, baking high quality desserts for many local restaurants and private affairs. Some of you may recall the name of their business…Sinfully Delicious. Indeed it was, especially their cheesecakes. As an aside, when my wife Brenlee and I moved away from Winnipeg in 1987, my mom lovingly put together a book containing all of her prized recipes so that she could start a business of her own. As many of you know, Brenlee and Sylvia shared an inseparable bond as well as a birthday, and out of an abiding sense of love, gratitude, and respect, my wife called her business Syl’s Secrets.
What I have shared with you thus far amounts to the structural framework of what you shall see was an exemplary life, distinguished by chesed and measured by the fulfillment of the sacred mission of Tikkun Olam. Let us turn our attention to more substantive aspects of my mom’s life whereby her character and values can be appreciated. This is where the divine spark of Sylvia Posner resided, and illuminates the impact that she had on the lives of countless individuals. My mother Sylvia was one of the most exceptional and endearing people that I have ever met throughout my life. During childhood, there is a naive tendency to take one’s parents for granted. Time, maturity, life experiences, and the transition to parenthood cause us to become more reflective, and comprehend, with a renewed perspective, the various dimensions of their character, values, priorities, and personal qualities. The delicate interplay between these entities define and determine how one interacts with, and is perceived by the outside world. Through the lens of adulthood, we see our parents anew, and become acutely aware of the full extent of our good fortune. As a young man, I realized that I was profoundly blessed to have Sylvia Posner as my mom. This conviction has only strengthened over the years, and will forever enshrine her as my first, and most enduring hero and exemplar.
My mom had several gifts, and it is debatable as to which one was the most iconic. She had this uncanny ability to instantly put people at ease, making them feel welcomed and valued from the moment she made their acquaintance. She was unpretentious, authentic, and possessed a knack to always see the hidden potential in people that had escaped the recognition of others. This may explain her lifelong staunch support for the underdog and disenfranchised. Her natural tendency was to effusively praise and graciously elevate others as she understood the power of kindness to boost self-esteem, dignify one’s spirit, and transform pernicious attitudes. Her kindness, generosity, and hospitality knew no bounds, and it easy to see why our home was the preferred place for our friends to congregate.
Always thinking of others, and never one to complain or adopt a woe-is-me mindset, Sylvia was a continuous source of inspiration for others. Hers was not an easy or charmed life, but there was always joy in her heart. She confronted the struggles of life with steadfast determination and savored the joys associated with its simple pleasures. Syl was an avid reader with mysteries being her preferred genre, and I would be remiss if I failed to mention her affinity for scrabble, where she garnered the reputation of a formidable opponent. My mom was never bored and filled her days with an endless array of activities. The consummate social butterfly, she would often host friends and family in her apartment at the Portsmouth Retirement Residence. Her solitary pursuits enabled her to indulge her creative instincts which centered around knitting. This was likely an extension of her artistic tendencies that first manifested as a teenager, when she would produce advanced oil paintings. Knitting was a hobby that provided endless satisfaction, and the quality of her creations could easily sell for a small fortune. I still treasure things that she made for me over four decades ago, and they remain in pristine condition. She delighted in her children and grandchildren and celebrated their every activity and accomplishment, but her main source of pride derived from their menschlichkeit. Her friendship was warm, genuine and loyal. I can’t count how many people over the years have shared with me how special my mom was, or that she was their favorite, or that her hearty laugh and incessant good cheer were positively contagious. Syl had a larger than life personality with a sense of humor, razor-sharp wit, and affectionate and expressive disposition to match.
Another aspect of my mom’s narrative relates to her sense of responsibility and penchant to serve others. At times, this took the form of being there physically for others during a period of need, without hesitation or reservation, despite tremendous personal hardship and sacrifice. On other occasions, she was simply available to offer a sympathetic ear or supportive shoulder. Of course, there were plenty of situations where her wise counsel and honest assessment were sought, and this need, I surmise, may have served as the impetus for the development of speed dial. Regardless of the circumstance, my mom was a reliable and consistent source of comfort, encouragement, and sagacity. As long as Syl was available, you never felt overwhelmed or alone. She was trusted and trustworthy. Sylvia’s humility sometimes veiled her savvy, though her posse was well-acquainted with her towering intellect and capacity for nuanced thinking and creative problem solving. My mother, ever the selfless caregiver, insisted on caring for my father and grandmother in their homes as failing health hijacked their independence and vigor. She would not allow others to care for her loved ones as long as she had the physical strength to do so, for she couldn’t be assured that they would safeguard their precious dignity during this most vulnerable phase of life. On September 17, 1999 Sylvia bid farewell to Eddie for the last time, after 52 years of marriage. It would be accurate to describe my mom as a truly selfless human being. Unicorns may actually exist after all.
My mom was a proud and independent woman, whose biggest fear was to develop dementia and become dependent upon others. It is the cruelest fate that robbed this giant of her cognitive faculties in her twilight years. True to form, in the early stages of her decline, with a full awareness of her condition and prognosis, my mom accepted her situation with an abundance of grace, dignity, and humility that was both sublime and edifying to behold. Her kindness only increased. Her concern for others only magnified. And never did she submit to bitterness or engage in self-pity. Her courage, a consistent feature throughout her long life, was unfailing and on full display during this final titanic struggle. I remember having lunch with her during a visit to Winnipeg, and witnessing the grace with which she conducted herself as she interacted with others. I learned through her powerful example, to accept each phase of life with serenity, and that within the act of acceptance, there is a dignity bestowed upon the human spirit. Fear dissolves when denial and resistance are extirpated. My mom was a shining light for me and countless others during her life, guiding us along the uncertain and precarious path. We honor her memory when we incorporate her teachings and examples into our everyday demeanor. As we accept the torch from her noble hands, we shall aspire to be a light unto others, so that her legacy of goodness and giving may be perpetuated through the generations that follow. You have my eternal love, gratitude, respect and admiration. May G-d rest your blessed soul mom. Shalom.
Obituaries
MORLEY JACOBS APRIL 16, 1941 – JUNE 26, 2025
With deep reluctance to post his passing, our adored Moishe who fought to stay as long as possible, left us, in the early hours of June 26th; while his presence resides in memories, the activities he pursued in the purposeful life he lived, remain.
He never lost the use of his affable charming smile under his blue eyed gaze; an intent listener, even in his last days, who made you feel seen and heard. To be known by Morley was a privilege; to have been his friend often felt like walking with a prince of angels, when he spoke less and listened more.
Dr. J as his students over the years would tell you, he was the kind of mentor you could trust. His passion for excellence in education was intense and generous, inspiring his students with their own potential to realize a career.
A PhD in Biochemistry, Morley lectured in classes and labs at RRCC, where he connected one by one, year after year with a multitude of young people. Reaching beyond this, Morley successfully petitioned the provincial government and won the retention of the Biochemistry Department at RRCC, following which he expanded the opportunities for students on practicum in this field, through a Jobs co-operative program. In the Biology/Chemistry Departments at U of W, as the Co-op Coordinator, Morley developed the program within the province and beyond for graduate students in applied Sciences Degrees.
In subsequent years, he connected graduates of the RRCC course, who wished to continue in Biochemistry in a reciprocal agreement to earn and achieve a Bachelor Degree in Biochemistry at University.
For 13 consecutive years, between1989 to 2002, Morley served as an elected School Trustee in the Seven Oak School system. He was an educational activist working on multiple committees, knew the principals and teaching staff at each school, always searching for increasing student successand a long time proponent for Year-round Education.
Through those years, Morley attended dozens of schools, personally documenting results of their YRE programs.
Selected to serve as the chairperson on a variety of boards, including the Seven Oaks School Board, he took on each role with dedicated time, organizing, improving, and encouraging an elevated standard of public service. His days were filled well into the evenings, with volunteer work and on weekends when he decided to partner with like minded friends, he brought computer tutors and kids together with an early learning education opportunity.
Along with all of that work, Morley found time to run the Boston Marathon to raise funds for the I.L. Peretz School in 1978 was a long time member of the CIC and served as Mid-Canada AOAC President. A lifetime believer in blood donations, Morley was honored as a distinguished citizen with humanitarian recognition, for the number of donations he gave over the years. On retirement, he researched and developed a Greenhouse Nutrition project to improve food sourcing for Northern communities and in that same period, spent 8 years writing a book, he hoped would be a legacy for people to understand the biochemistry of nutrition, “The Guide: To Understanding Nutrition and the Body’s Response to Food”, which he published in 2018.
He was still busy enjoying his first years in his eighth decade, planning future trips, and long walks with whomever wanted to come along, staying fit and eating well on his early morning rise, when he would be proactively planning the day; he loved life.
He believed each day was the privilege to make choices that made a positive difference to the people you loved and the work that you did. Through all of those decades, the longest number of them, he spent as a playful guy with our adored kids and grandkids. In hundreds of family photographs, he was the playmate in any game, goofy in every dress up, airplane ride giver, stellar hide and seek player, breakfast every morning maker, unabashed Karaoke singer, and the guy you wanted when you needed someone to make things right.
Born in Portage la Prairie, the third child of Abraham and Rebecca Jacobs, in 1950, Morley
moved with his family to Winnipeg, his older siblings, brother Joe (OBM), sister Toba Isler (resides in Florida), settled in at 529 Rupertsland, where he made many lasting friendships over his lifetime. Raised with strong Jewish beliefs in an observant and caring family home, he studied at Talmud Torah, excelled at school, and acquired the foundations for community, family, honorability in character, and the value of knowledge.
Morley considered it fate that we met on his 18th birthday at a Rec-room party in 1956. Nine years later, we married at the Shaarey Zedek, on May 2nd, 1965.
Husband who treasured the miracle of us, who supported the fulfillment our mutual dreams, he was my person who stepped up in all of our critical hours, my trained Lamaze partner for the birth of our children; we were two young people, who raised each other higher as we grew older together. When we met it was instantaneous friendship and when we married, it was a bond of mutual adoration, with all of those glorious years together, sixty nine of them, whatever happened, our togetherness was a state of being that nurtured us all.
Beloved by his nieces, Pam Weinroth (Robert), Rhonda Kupfer (Sam), and nephews, Scott Jacobs (Heidi) and Mark Jacobs, for whom he was an active uncle, visiting whenever he could as they grew up and married, happily around long enough to play with their children.
Mahjong sit-in player for any game, Morley was a cribbage master, who did a daily Sudoku-chess and a cipher quiptoquote, while at the same time; he was a researcher par excellence who was able to make the most complex biochemistry understandable. Strong and agile, he was an athlete from youth, a track star and marathon runner, in high school a basketball player while through his life a huge fan of baseball and hockey, he was noted in his early teens as an avid ping pong player.
For all the years people knew him he was humble with his own notable achievements academically, but remained generous with intellectual sharing, correcting only with honorable concerns. It was his ease in praising and engaging in progressions that valued excellence, through all of his years, daily, Morley was the legacy of his smiles of confidence for others. Morley was a guy who frequented the pleasure of being forever joyous with children, and as every family pet could avow, he was the doted upon favorite.
His time here blessed everyone and everything, and we know he would hope to inspire that in others.
Etched into our collective family sharing of him, we are his memory keepers held to our own souls with enduring honor for how he conducted himself in his life, evermore: Children, Stephanie Jacobs-Lockhart and Morrison Jacobs; our son-in-law, Darwin Lockhart and daughter-in-law, Jennifer (Lisakowski) Jacobs; and our grandchildren, Jonah Samuel Lockhart, Elle Talia Lockhart, Adli Jayden Jacobs, Mazie Carolyn Jacobs, and me, Bev (Berkal) Jacobs, the woman who had the privilege of him for all of those years, nothing to mourn and everything to remember with joy.
Services were held at the Chesed Shel Emes, and the Shaarey Zedek Cemetery, officiated by Rabbi Matthew Leibl, attended by pallbearers, Morrison Jacobs, Adli Jacobs, Darwin Lockhart, Mark Makarovsky, Michael Meyers, and Mark Kogan.
Donations in memoriam may be made to a charity of your choice.
We know his spirit will continue to be a blessing for all, if there was a way his neshamah would find it; to be the valiant progenitor for a great renewal in this world, in peace, love and humanism.
Obituaries
ETTIE (EDDY) WERIER
Ettie Werier passed away in her sleep on July 25, 2025, at the Shaftesbury Park Retirement Residence in Winnipeg.
She will be hugely missed by her many friends and her family. Eddy was predeceased by her husband Lawrence, her younger sister Naomi (Wolfe), her older sister Sherry (Chochinov), her parents Max and Annie and her beloved grandson Koby.
Born Ettie Rubinfield in Ustryke Dolne, Poland in 1928, Eddy arrived in Winnipeg in 1931. She spent her childhood in the North End, where her parents ran a little grocery store on Alfred Avenue. She grew up to be a beautiful young woman with a warm smile and a quick mind.
She met Lawrence Werier, the love of her life, on a train ride to Winnipeg Beach. Eddy obviously wanted adventure, otherwise she would not have chosen Lawrence to be her beloved husband of more than 75 years, because he was always unconventional, but somehow this fit her perfectly. They were married in 1949 and started a family in 1952. While raising three children in River Heights, Eddy often travelled the world with Lawrence, visiting countless out-of-the-way beaches and dozens of countries.
Eddy had a quiet charisma. Maybe it was the mischievous sparkle in her eye or some droll bit of storytelling but all were attracted to her goodness, kindness and wit. Eddy was known for her intelligence, competitive spirit, and love for her family. She was an accomplished bridge player, and whether competing online or with her “bridge ladies,” she played to win, even on her last day. She was never an athlete, but at the age of 50 she took up tennis and became a force to be reckoned with until she retired her racket due to bad knees at the age of 85.
Eddy spent the last few years of her life enjoying the community at the Shaftesbury Residence and developed a strong and loving relationship with her companion and caregiver Tess Braun who is grieving the loss alongside the family, including Eddy’s surviving brother Jack Rubinfield. The family will especially miss the generous love and support she gave her children Kerry, Clifford and Jodie and their life partners Suzanne, Sabrina and Michael, and her grandchildren, Cynthia, Alex and Koby. Whether chatting with Grandma on Facetime or hugging her in her Shaftesbury suite, her family treasured the moments when we could come together in Winnipeg and bask in her smile. If you feel inclined to make a donation in Eddy’s memory, please choose a charity of your choice.
Obituaries
Dr. VELIMIR KON B.Sc., B.Ed., M.Sc., Ph.D. September 18, 1950-June 27, 2025
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Dr. Velimir Kon, or Shlomo, beloved husband of Branka and father of Deborah and Lea. Velimir was an accomplished teacher and academic, and he was renowned for his intellectualism, humility and humanity.
A gentle soul who was always sociable and who genuinely loved people, Velimir was equally at home in the university classroom as a professor and as a secondary school Biology, Chemistry and Math teacher in Northern Ontario (Big Trout Lake) and Manitoba (God’s River, Berens River). Velimir made a difference to many First Nations students throughout a career that spanned decades. He was dedicated to his students, colleagues and family. An adept and talented pianist, Velimir enjoyed the arts and of course Jewish humour. He was an avid shul goer and supporter of Israel and enjoyed his duties in shul as a Kohayn. Velimir was a man of faith who was able to fuse his love of science and Judaism.
Born in Croatia, Europe (the former Yugoslavia) to Shoah survivors Rose (Rochel, ne Lederer) and Arnold Kon (Ariel), Velimir immigrated to Canada with his wife and girls in 1988, making many personal sacrifices along the way to ensure a peaceful and safe life for his family. Adaptability and optimism characterized Velimir. Known for his heart of gold, Velimir touched the lives of all who had the privilege of knowing him. A love of Jewish values, family values and life-long learning and education characterized Velimir. With his charming, outgoing and friendly personality, Velimir welcomed everyone into his life and into our home.
His kindness, humour, generosity and goodness will be deeply missed by his family and friends in Winnipeg, Victoria, B.C., Guelph, ON, Osijek, Croatia, Belgrade, Serbia, Los Angeles and Boston, U.S.A., and Israel, Jerusalem, Haifa and Karmiel. Baruch Dayan Haemet.
A traditional funeral was held on June 30, 2025 at the Hebrew Sick Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can still be made to Chabad Lubavitch of Winnipeg, B’nai Brith or the JNF.
Velimir will be forever missed and cherished by Branka, Deborah and Lea.