Local News
Simkin Centre receives $725,000 gift from mysterious donor
By BERNIE BELLAN
(Posted Oct. 29, updated Oct. 30, Oct.31)
On Oct. 21 we received an email from the Simkin Centre informing us that the centre had received a gift of $725,000 from someone about whom they know almost nothing.
This story has now been amended to reflect crucial information that we have obtained about the individual who was responsible for that sizeable donation. If you want to skip to that new information scroll down to the end of this article. If you want to read how the story unfolded – keep reading.
Here is what the email received on Oct. 21 said:
“The Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre PCH Inc. Board of Directors and The Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre Foundation Board of Directors are pleased to share with you the announcement of an unexpected bequest to the Sharon Home in the amount of $725,937 CDN from the Estate of Myer and Corrine Geller of San Diego, California.
“These funds come to the Centre at an opportune time as we are faced with aging infrastructure and equipment, rising costs with freezes or cuts to government funding and ongoing covid related costs that remain unfunded at this time. A portion of these funds (30%) will be used for the immediate needs of the Centre, including support of our fight against Covid-19. The remainder (70%) of the funds will be allocated to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba to create our new Building Reserve Fund. This fund will help to ensure our ability to maintain our building and equipment on a long term basis. The Simkin Centre is a world class facility and we want to do our best to keep it that way.
“All we know about the Gellers is they had no children and Myer was a 1943 graduate of St. John’s High School (Winnipeg). Further, Mr. Geller went to MIT, became a physicist and was granted several patents.
“We have been unable to determine why we were the recipient of this bequest. We hope sharing this good news with the community may give us some insight into the mystery. We hope that the Gellers’ generosity will inspire others to consider the Simkin Centre in their estate planning.”
Upon receipt of this tantalizing news, we began to investigate who Myer and Corrine Geller were and the possible reason that they had decided to leave such a substantial amount of money to the Sharon Home.
Beyond the information that was divulged in the Simkin Centre press release we were able to determine some further information about the Gellers. We were aided in this process by Don Aronovitch, who is Chair of the Simkin Foundation, and by Don Harrison, publisher and editor of the San Diego Jewish World.
Myer Geller was born in Winnipeg in 1926. Although we are not certain who his parents were, a search of various websites, including Ancestry.ca, has led us to believe that his father’s name was Max Geller. There were several Max Gellers who lived in Winnipeg in the early part of the 20th century. Unfortunately, none of the archival material that we searched led to a definite conclusion who Myer Geller’s parents were. We also contacted Rena Boroditsky of the Chesed shel Emes to see whether the Chesed’s records give the names of next of kin of deceased, but they don’t. We also spoke with Shelly Sklover, funeral director of Etz Chayim Congregation, to see whether their records give the names of next of kin of deceased. (Of the many Gellers who are buried in Winnipeg cemeteries, 49 out of 51 are buried in cemeteries now under Etz Chayim’s management.) Unfortunately that information is also not contained within the Etz Chayim’s records.
We also searched the archives of our own newspaper and were only able to find one reference to Myer Geller – that he had a bar mitzvah in 1939. A search of the Jewish Heritage Centre’s archives also led nowhere, but unfortunately their archives do not give very precise results.
An email from Don Aronovitch, however, shed some more light as to when the Simkin Centre first became aware that a substantial donation was about to come their way:
“In early October 2019, Laurie (Cerqueti, CEO of the Simkin Centre) was notified we were the 11% Beneficiary of the Myer & Corinne Geller estate in San Diego. While fabulous news, it was so much ‘out of the blue, that we wondered if it was legitimate. We were sent a copy of the Will and gradually, the prospect of this bequest being real came into focus. After a long quiet period, as the estate was being settled, a cheque for $550,000 USD arrived in August payable to the Saul & Claribel Simkin Centre Foundation. After the standard waiting period to see if the cheque cleared the banking system, our bank gave us a ‘thumb’s up’ and it became the focus of the Simkin Centre’s planning process.
“Our efforts to determine ‘who these people were’ & ‘why us’ drew a blank. We determined that Myer graduated from St. John’s High School the same year as Gordon Pullan and that Buddy Brownstone was editor of St. John’s Newsletter. However, neither Gordon nor Buddy had recollection of a Myer Geller. Similarly, we were unable to determine Corinne Geller’s maiden name.”
In addition to the information contained in the Simkin Centre email that Myer Geller graduated from St John’s Tech in 1943, we were able to learn that he moved to the United States in 1949, became an American citizen in 1950, and attended MIT from 1951-55. A search of University of Manitoba records did not disclose that Mr. Geller ever attended that university, so it’s a mystery where else he might have gone to school following his graduation from St. John’s.
Myer Geller married Corrine Taper (although her name is spelled Corrin on their marriage record) in 1954 in New York state. At various times the Gellers lived in New York, Pennsylvania, and California.
The Gellers moved to San Diego in 1988, which is where they lived until their deaths – Myer Geller in 2018 and Corrine Geller in 2019.We managed to locate a close friend of the Gellers, someone by the name of Mikahil Melsitov. Mr. Melsitov did not know whether Myer Geller had any living relatives, although he did think that he had a brother. We attempted to contact anyone by the name Geller in Winnipeg to learn whether any of them knew Myer Geller, but our efforts proved fruitless.
During the course of our conversation with Mikhail Melsitov, he also disclosed that his wife, Oxana, was a trustee of the Geller Trust, which donated the $725,000 Cdn. to the Sharon Home. Although Mr. Melsitov was quite friendly during our 20-minute conversation and was willing to give us his wife’s cell number, all attempts to contact her proved futile. Further attempts to contact Mr. Melsitov also led nowhere. (Why did both Melsitovs refuse to respond to our repeated attempts to contact them, we wonder, especially when Mr. Melsitov had been so friendly during our only phone call?) Something that Mr. Melsitov did say that aroused our interest though was that representatives of the Geller Trust had difficulty making contact with the Simkin Centre in August 2019, following Mrs. Geller’s death. Presumably that was because they were trying to contact the Sharon Home. After all, Myer Geller had left Winnipeg 70 years earlier and would he even have been aware that the Sharon Home was now the Simkin Centre?
We also attempted to contact various lawyers who were associated with Myer Geller, none of whom responded to our phone messages or emails. We did discover that the Geller home was sold by their estate for $1.25 million in April of this year. The home was not overly large – only two bedrooms and two bathrooms. (By the way, the taxes were only $2,700 on their home. That gives you an idea how high our city taxes are in Winnipeg compared to other cities – as if you needed to be reminded.)
But if the donation to the Simkin Centre constituted only 11% of the total amount left to all beneficiaries of the Geller Trust, the Geller Trust would have been worth close to $7 million Canadian.
How did Myer Geller amass such a large fortune?
From what we were able to determine he was an inventor of extraordinary ability. Myer Geller’s name is associated with 15 different patents. For at least a certain period of his life he worked for a branch of the US Navy called the Naval Operations Support Centre. We attempted to contact a representative of the NOSC to find out if there was anything we could be told about Mr. Geller, but were unsuccessful.
So, the question that tantalizes is: Why would someone who had left Winnipeg 70 years ago want to leave such a substantial donation to the Jewish nursing home (which is now referred to as a personal care home)?
We asked Don Aronovitch whether the Simkin Centre had searched its records to try to find the name of someone who might have been a relative of Myer Geller?
Don responded: “None that we could find. We had very few leads and they all led to a dead end.”
We commented to Don: “It just seems so strange that 70 years after having left Winnipeg he leaves so much money to the Winnipeg Jewish nursing home – and nobody knows anything about him.”
Don Aronovitch agreed: “Very strange but there is a story there. We just do not yet know what it is.”
If anyone reading this is able to shed some light on Myer Geller please contact this newspaper. We’d love to be able to report at some future date that we solved this mystery.
Post script: Since this story first appeared in the Oct. 28 issue of The Jewish Post & News we have received some very intresting responses from a number of different readers.
One reader said they actually had a copy of the 1943 St. John’s yearbook with Myer Geller’s picture in it. We’re reproduced that photo on this site. The caption accompanying the photo says: “Myer Geller – A good man to have around when scholastics come to the fore, Myer is the fellow who has made the Reserve Army what it is today.”
Then we received an email from another reader who has been fascinated by the story and who contacted a friend who is an ardent genealogist. Their friend did some further digging beyond what I had come up with and sent the following information: “Myer died on 12/30/16. He and Corinne, who was born 2/12/26, bought their house at 1622 Plum St. in San Diego in 1993. He got his degree from MIT in 1955 and in 1960 or 1961 moved from a job at Hughes Products to be a senior scientist at the Solid State Division of Electro-Optical Systems in Pasadena, CA. He was a registered Democrat.”
Updated Oct. 30: Reader Ed Feuer came up with even further information about Myer Geller. In a post to our Facebook page Ed wrote that he had found a reference to Myer Geller in the July 5 archives of the Winnipeg Free Press, in a notice headed “City man receives Massachussetts degree” The body of the notice says: “Myer Geller, son of Mr. and Mrs. M. Geller, 284 Bannerman Avenue, has received his doctor of physics degree from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Boston. Mr. Geller attended St John’s technical high school and the University of Manitoba. He received his master’s degree in physics at the University of Minnesota.”
There are only two Gellers in Winnipeg whose first names begin with M who could have been Myer Geller’s father – and both had the first name Max. One Max Geller died in 1956, and one in 1966. Unfortunately neither one appears in the Free Press obituary archives. But – we’ve determined that the Max Geller who died in 1956 was married to Dora, who did live in the Sharon Home. But Dora’s obituary makes no reference to a Myer Geller.
The other Max Geller died in 1966. His wife’s name was Sarah (née Feldman). We haven’t been able to find an obituary for either one. The question is: Did either Max or Sarah Geller live in the Sharon Home prior to their death?
Update Oct. 31: We received further information from reader Ed Feuer, who found Max Geller’s obituary notice in the Winnipeg Tribune archives.
Ed confirmed that Myer Geller’s parents were Max and Sarah Geller. He also disclosed that Myer Geller had two sisters: Frances – who was married to an Edward Jordan in Toronto; and Rose – who was married to Louis Lieberman, also of Toronto.
We will attempt to obtain any information about either sister. But, if anyone reading this does have some information that woud be useful, please contact me at jewishp@mymts.net or call me at 1-204-694-3332.
Local News
New GrowWinnipeg “Grow Together” highlights diverse origins of our growing Jewish community
By MYRON LOVE On Monday, June 11, about 120 younger Jewish Winnipeggers from diverse backgrounds came together at the Asper Campus for an evening of food and music, games and prizes and, most important, the opportunity to socialize with their peers from a growing community that reflects the long term success of our community’s 26-year-old GrowWinnipeg initiative.
“We are gathered here to celebrate your and your parents’ decisions to come to Winnipeg, build families and raise families here,” noted Dalia Szpiro, GrowWinnipeg’s director, in addressing the young adults in attendance.
To summarize, the GrowWinnipeg Initiative arose when our past community’s leadership recognized that our Jewish population was an aging and shrinking community with aging infrastructure.
The first stage was the planning and construction of the Asper Campus, which brought our major institutions and organizations under one roof in an attractive new building.
The next challenge was to attract more people to our community. GrowWinnipeg was created to take on the challenge. The initiative, which was officially launched in 2000, is unique in its efforts to reach out to young Jewish families throughout the Western world.
The first outreach efforts were directed at Argentina’s sizeable Jewish community at a time when the South American country’s economy was going through a very difficult period. Several of our community leaders visited the Jewish community in Buenos Aires and a website was established. Arrangements were made for local families to host Jewish Argentinians here on exploratory visits and the community helped the prospective immigrants navigate the then new Provincial Nominee Program, find jobs and establish themselves here.
Since then, many young families – from Argentina, as well as a great number of other countries – have chosen to make Winnipeg their new home. The young people at the recent GrowWinnipeg evening were reflective of the diversity of our growing community. During the course of the evening, I had the opportunity to speak with not only Israeli-born participants, also young people from Russia and Ukraine, Turkey and Uruguay – and a young lady who grew up in Ottawa.
Naomi Kirshenblatt Palansky originally came here from Ottawa to go to university. She met and married local entrepreneur Noah Palansky in 2023. (We wrote about Noah in the December 19, 2025 issue). That same year, the former competitive swimmer who competed in the Maccabiah Games in 2009 and 2013 served as manager of the Canadian Junior swimming team participating in the games. She is currently the director of operations and strategy for a company called CoinFlip.
Although born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Yael Borovich grew up in Winnipeg. She is the daughter of Dalia Szpiro and Eduardo Borovich (and younger sister of Vanessa) all of whom moved here in 2002. She is a graduate of the Asper School of Business and works as a senior client relationship manager for Scotia Bank’s commercial branch.
Siblings Igal and Edem Avimelek arrived here from Turkey six years ago with their parents, Etel and Moris. Edem is in her second year at the University of Manitoba while Igal is studying engineering at UBC.
They report that their father, Moris, has established the Upperwear Textile Agency – marketing textile products online – while their mother Etel, is senior IT Director, software development and data analytics and enterprise architecture at Standard Aero.
“Our parents were looking to move to a new country and came across the GrowWinnipeg webpage,” Edem says. “GrowWinnipeg has been really supportive of us in helping us move here and become established.”
More recent arrivals Alex Tsmokaliuk and Jane Hin are from Ukraine and Russia respectively and have been together since 2022. “We were looking for a peaceful place to start a family,”: Alex says. “We heard about GrowWinnpeg and here we are.”
Alex is a fitness trainer while Jane is working for WRE Development as a property manager.
Dora Bronstein, who is originally from Beersheva, is also a recent arrival to our community. “I came to Winnipeg because I wanted to get away from war – and I heard about GrowWinnipeg,” she says.
She is currently working for L.C. Taylor Licensed Insolvency Trustee as an estate manager.
Erele Tzidon and Daniel Mejnov
Last October, GrowWinnipeg introduced its new Youth Ambassadors program.
“Since October, we have been working to create an organized system and opportunities to help young newcomers find their people within our community,” wrote Youth Ambassador Erele Tzidon on Facebook.
“Our mission is to help young immigrants find a sense of home in Winnipeg and support a smooth and welcoming transition.
We are excited to help bring our young Jewish community together.
As reported in the Jewish Post about 18 months ago, Tzidon is originally from Moshav Ginaton in central Israel. She came to Winnipeg in 2018 with her parents Ofer – formerly regional manager for a car rental agency in Israel and now an RBC branch manager – and Sharon – an emotional therapist in Israel who is currently working as an educational assistant at Gray Academy – and three younger brothers.
The 20-year Gray Academy graduate has recently completed her third year in Science at the University of Manitoba. For the past three years, she has also been a member of Dr. Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin’s research team at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences (ICS), researching the link between pregnancy complications and the risk for heart disease.
In November, 2024, Tzidon was presented with the Dr. James S. McGoey Student Award – based on the quality of her cardiovascular research at the ICS, which operates out of the St. Boniface Hospital campus’s Albrechchtsen Research Centre.
Tzidon’s fellow Youth Ambassador is Daniel Mejnov. He was born in Beersheva but moved to Winnipeg with his parents, Dennis and Victoria (and younger brother Alon) 14 years ago. He is currently enrolled in an IT program at the University of Winnipeg.
Mejnov welcomed all those in attendance at the celebration and thanked the volunteers who helped him and Tzidon organize the event.
“It has been great being able to bring so many people together,” he said. “This is a good way to unite our community.
Two other individuals of particular note that I spoke with at the event were Orit Agabayev and Alina Plis, partners in three year old A and O Event Décor, who provided the balloon arches and walls, table settings and centre pieces for the evening.
Agabayev is originally from Netanya and Plis is from Yeruham (in southern Israel). The latter has been here for 18 years and operates a daycare. The former came 16 years. Her principal career is working in the field of animal nutrition.
In an Instagram PosI from four years ago, Plis noted that “I have always been passionate about planning parties and events. I started out with planning big surprise birthday parties for my kids. Eventually I began planning and decorating events for family and friends. Now I am taking the next step with my friend, Orit, who shares the same level enthusiasm as me. What drives me to go above and beyond is simply the excitement my creations bring to those who see my work.
On Facebook, Agabayev added that “Alina and I are so excited to start A&O event decor. We both love decorating and planning different events. We hope that you can put your trust in us to create or decorate an event for you. We do Birthday parties, anniversaries, bachelor/bachelorette parties, proposals, weddings and more..
“Message us with your ideas to get a free quote and you’re one step closer to having an unforgettable event.”
Local News
Hungarian Holocaust survivor focus of new documentary co-produced by Winnipeggers Liam Karp and Jamie Michaels
By MYRON LOVE “I Draw Things the Best I Can,” a new documentary co-produced by Winnipegger Liam Karp and former Winnipegger Jamie Michaels premiered June 8 at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
The 40-minute film focuses on the life of Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor Adam Policzer from his childhood hiding with neighbours in Miskolc in 1944, his postwar immigration to Chile to reunite with his father (who came to Chile just before the war but was unable to bring his family out), his imprisonment in Chile for over a year under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinoche following the coup in 1972, his subsequent immigration with his wife and family to Vancouver, and his successful career as an architect.
Earlier this year, Policzer unveiled a new side of himself. He wrote and drew all the illustrations for “The House Across the Street,” the story of his struggle for survival – a memorial he had published in the form of a graphic novel. The book was published by Jamie Michaels’ “Dirty Water Comics” in June.
According to its webpage, Dirty Water Comics is “a boutique publishing house that specializes in literary comics that showcase a unique voice and a talent for storytelling. We publish a selective catalogue, create immersive readings, and pride ourselves on championing the work we curate”.
Michaels co-founded the company in 2016 in order to publish his own first graphic comic –an account of his ambitious journey some years before – along with a couple of high school friends – to travel by canoe down the Red and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico. The launch of that graphic novel was reported in a story that previously appeared in The Jewish Post & News.
The son of John Michaels and Karen Stern then published a second graphic novel recounting the 1933 Christie Pitts riot, which pitted younger members of Toronto’s Jewish community and their supporters against Nazi-inspired thugs.
“The House across the Street” is Dirty Water Comics’ fourth publication. (“The Harrowing Tales of La Coriveau” – the third publication – “is a graphic novel retelling the legend and history of Marie-Josephte Corriveau, a Quebecois woman whom the English executed in 1763 for the murder of her second husband. Following her death, Corriveau was hanged from a tree outside of Quebec City in an iron cage. In the centuries that followed, her story was transformed. She became a caged witch who haunted lone travellers, a reviled murderess, and a victim of circumstance”.)
“I first met Adam Policzer a couple of years ago when he approached me about his book,” recalls Michaels, who recently earned his Ph.D from the University of Calgary, where he currently teaches. (His dissertation was on the evolution of Jewish and Arab nationalism during World War I.) “I reached out to Liam and he and I both thought it was a beautiful story and thAt we should make a documentary about Adam.”
Karp and Michaels have been friends since high school (Grant Park). Over the past ten years, the son of Marcia and Morris Karp has built a successful career as the go-to guy for visual effects for movies and television series being shot in and around Winnipeg. He is currently providing his expertise for the remake of the popualtr TV series “Little House on the Prairie,” which is being shot in and around Winnipeg.
In filming the documentary, Karp and Michaels spent time with Policzer and his family in Vancouver. They also filmed on location in Budapest and visited Miskolc to interview members of the family that hid him during the Holocaust.
Karp and Michaels express their appreciation to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba and Manitoba Film and Music, which provided funding for the project.
Michaels reports that the partners have secured several screenings of the documentary throughout North America. “We hope to show Adam’s story at the Winnipeg Jewish Film Festival next year,” he says.
While Karp and Michaels don’t currently have any plans to collaborate again as yet, they both say that they would like to work together again.
Local News
Former Winnipegger Libby Goszer in need of a kidney donor
By MYRON LOVE It is written in the Mishnah that whoever saves a life is considered to have saved an entire world.
About 18 months ago, Libby Goszer’s kidneys failed and she went into renal failure. She undergoes dialysis – at home – on a daily basis. Her life hangs in the balance and she is reaching out – with the help of first cousins Marnie Ross and Sharon Goszer Tritt – to the community in hopes of finding a kidney donor.
The only child of the late Boris and Eve Goszer grew up in West Kildonan. After graduating with a degree in Psychology from the University of Winnipeg in 1982, she relocated to Vancouver for post-graduate studies and built a life there. She married Doug, had one son, Micah, and practiced clinical psychology for about 35 years.
Her health problems began in 2007 when she was diagnosed with Acute MyeLoid Leukemia. “I underwent a stem cell transplant,” she reports. “As it happens, my donor was Israeli. The operation was successful. I did very well for a number of years.”
(Ed. note: In the June 12, 2019 issue of The Jewish Post & News I wrote about Libby’s having received a stem cell transplant from an Israeli donor. Libby was a featured speaker at a dinner sponsored by an organization know as Ezer Mizion. Former Winnipegger Solly Dreman was instrumental in fundraising for that organization and had played a pivotal role in holding a fundraising dinner in Winnipeg that June to raise awareness of Ezer Mizion.
Here’s what I wrote back then about Libby’s story:
“Libby Goszer told her own heart-rending story of how close shecame to dying when she herself developed acute leukemia in 2006.
“ ‘One moment I was a confident professional, wife and mother; the next moment I was in an isolation room…After treatment, I was given a 60 percent chance my leukemia would return – and it did. I needed a perfect stem cell donor match.”
“In November 2008, fortunately, that perfect match was found in Ezer Mizion’s registry. Transplant recipients aren’t able to find out the names of their donors until a year after having received their transplant but, waiting on the surgical bed that day in November, Goszer said she was overjoyed when she ‘saw a woman come in carrying a bag of stem cells. It never occurred to me though that bag had been transferred all the way from
Israel.’
“In 2012 Libby ‘learned about the donor’s identity’ and in 2013 she and her family flew to Israel to meet her donor, whose name was Moshe, along with his immediate family.
“ ‘They (Moshe and his family) were as excited to meet me as I was to meet him,’ Goszer said. ‘From the darkness of a life-threatening illness has emerged a set of relationships between Moshe, his family, and my family.’
“In closing, Goszer urged members of the audience to think of this ‘night as a night of solidarity where we as Jews will be reminded that we will do what we can to take care of one another.’ “)
Fast forward seven years and Myron continues his story…
“The drawback, however, Libby now notes, is that the immunosuppressive drugs that she had to be on to prevent the rejection of her earlier transplant caused irreparable damage to her kidneys over several years.
I first became aware of Libby Goszer’s plight when – a few weeks ago – I came across an information sheet – prepared by Marnie Ross – while at a community program at the Shaarey Zedek.
“Sharon (Goszer Tritt) helped get the information sheets into the Shaarey Zedek,” Ross says. “I also left copies at the Rady Centre.”
The sheet describes how kidney disease has impacted Goszer’s life – in particular the loss of energy and extreme physical and mental fatigue. Ross has also created a Facebook post (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bj35eg5nz/ which, so far, has generated 76 shares. “We hope that the people who have responded will share the information with their online contacts,” she says. “We want to get the word out.”
Goszer adds that the members of Temple Sholom, the congregation which she has belonged to since 1992, have also been supportive.
She reports that three friends have come forth to test to see if they are a match. One of the three may be and is undergoing more tests to make sure.
“If you want a really thorough medical check-up, “she observes, “I would recommend that you volunteer to become a kidney donor. They test everything to make sure that the donor is in good health and won’t suffer any damage to their health by donating a kidney.”
She further points out that you can live a long and healthy life with one kidney.
Goszer is also listed with Renewal Canada, a Jewish organization that “helps patients and their families navigate the complex process of kidney transplant, from finding a donor to arranging the transplant and beyond”. The organization also provides financial support for donors “to make sure their incredible self-sacrifice is as easy as can be and comes at no financial cost to them”.
Interested readers can contact renewalcanada.org/libbygoszer – or contact the Living Donor Kidney Program at Vancouver Coastal Health at kidneydonornurse@vch.ca (or phone 1-604 875-4111) and include Libby’s name and birthday (July 31,1958).
While Libby Goszer’s friend is a strong possibility, she notes that you can’t be sure until final approval is received.
“I generally am a positive and optimistic individual,” she says. “There are times when I feel down but, overall, I continue to have faith and hope that things will turn out well.”
“I have so much living left to do and I ask you, from the bottom of my heart, to consider kidney donation. I long to return to a fuller clinical practice, resume volunteering and, of course, watch my son wed and raise his children in our Jewish way of life.”
