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
Shaarey Zedek announces hiring of Rabbi Carnie Rose as new senior rabbi
Thursday, April 3
In an email sent by Shaarey Zedek Congregation President Fanny Levy to members of the congregation today, it was announced that “After an extensive and thoughtful search process, we are thrilled to announce that Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose has been selected as our new Senior Rabbi, effective July 1, 2025.
“This decision comes after careful consideration, multiple interviews, and a highly competitive process. We sought a leader who embodies the values, vision, and spirit that reflect the heart of our community. Rabbi Rose’s recent visit to Shaarey Zedek was met with overwhelming positivity and his leadership, vision for the future, and commitment to Jewish learning deeply resonated with so many of you. The feedback we received from members during and after his visit reinforced our confidence that Rabbi Rose will be an inspiring spiritual guide for our congregation.
“In addition to Rabbi Rose, we also had the privilege of engaging with other highly qualified candidates. Through the review of twelve applications and seven interviews, it became clear that Rabbi Rose’s approach and values align most closely with the direction we aspire to take as a community. While all the candidates brought strong qualities to the table, we determined that there were some misalignments in vision for the future and values that would not fully serve the needs of our community. We believe that Rabbi Rose’s unique combination of experience, warmth, and forward-thinking vision will best serve the needs of our congregation, and we are grateful to all the candidates for their time and dedication to the process.
“Rabbi Rose brings with him a deep respect for tradition, paired with a creative approach to leadership that encourages innovation and inclusivity. We are confident that under his guidance, we will continue to build a vibrant, welcoming, and spiritually enriching community.”
The email went to note Rabbi Mass’s role as solo rabbi for the past four years. Levy thanked him for “his passion and wisdom,” which “have helped us navigate uncertain times while staying strong spiritually as a community. Under his leadership, we have accomplished so much, and his commitment continues to shape our future. We are deeply grateful for his guidance and his tireless service to our congregation. Rabbi Mass is a vital part of our clergy, and his contributions will influence our path forward as we move through this transition. We are confident that this seamless collaboration will ensure the spiritual and communal well-being of all our members.
Local News
Former nominee for Jewish Athlete of the Year and Canadian Junior Curling champion Kyle Doering is the new general manager of the Granite Curling Club
By BERNIE BELLAN When I was doing a search for Kyle Doering’s name in the Jewish Post archives I discovered that Kyle’s name was actually first mentioned in our paper back in 2003 when he was a student in the Hebrew Bilingual program at Margaret Park School. Kyle, who was then in Grade 2 in the Hebrew bilingual program at that school, had written an explanation why we eat hamentashen on Purim – which was published in a March 2003 issue. (Kyle says that following his completion of the Hebrew program at Margaret Park after Grade 6, he did continue in the Hebrew program at H.C. Avery School until the end of Grade 8.)
Now – in an effort to emulate the style of the late, great Harvey Rosen (and maybe Gerry Posner as well), both of whom would never have missed an opportunity to take an extreme leap from one unrelated subject to another – as both those guys might have written: “It’s not too far a leap to say that a curling rock could be compared to a hamentash!”
And, to further emulate the writing style of both Harvey and Gerry, let me say that Kyle, who is of the “Hebraic persuasion” (as Harvey used to say) – on his mother’s side, has used some of the genes he inherited from his businessman grandfather, the late Bill LIfchus (who used to write a very amusing financial column for the Jewish Post), has now carved a career for himself using the degree in business he acquired from the University of Winnipeg in 2019 to become the general manager of Winnipeg’s oldest, and one of its largest curling clubs: the Granite Curling Club.
A further search of Kyle’s name in our archives reveals that he has been a finalist for Jewish Athlete of the Year twice, including last year, when he was the fifth for Canadian Brier champion Brad Gushue. Kyle had also been nominated in 2017 after his junior team won the Canadian championship and placed third in the world junior championship. (Kyle was also the fifth for Reid Carrothers’ Manitoba team this year.)
Following high school Kyle entered the University of Winnipeg, where he graduated with a business degree in 2019. All the while though he remained a very competitive curler. As a matter of fact, in 2016 I happened to run into Kyle at the Granite club one afternoon (where I am also a member). Kyle was practising mixed curling with his then-girlfriend, Ashely Groff. (Kyle and Ashley actually met at the Granite in 2016, Kyle tells me – when they were curling on separate sheets of ice. They were married just this past December.)
Right: Ashley showing her sleeve with their sponsor’s name (and I never asked them to do that!)
During the course of that conversation in 2016 Kyle asked me whether I would consider sponsoring Ashley and him as mixed curlers? I asked him how much it would cost? He said: “$200” – which was far less than what I was expecting him to say, so I readily agreed.
What I didn’t expect though was that Kyle and Ashley would put the name “The Jewish Post& News” on their curling jackets. That was by far the cheapest form of advertising I have ever encountered!
Upon completion of his business degree at the University of Winnipeg, Kyle went to work for the Humane Society as its community relations officer, where he was employed up until the time he was hired as the Granite’s new general manager.
Kyle wasn’t given the job simply because he’s got such a strong background in curling though. He was among several candidates for the job and did go through an interview process, following which he was told he had been selected for the position.
For Kyle, it’s a dream position. As he says: “I can work in curling – which I love…and in this historic building and club (the Granite is 140 years old) – which has given me so much over the years. I met my wife here, learned to curl here…it’s very cool to get to manage it.”
Readers may be aware that the Granite Curling Club has been in the news a fair bit lately – but not for anything to do with curling, per se. The club is actually situated on land owned by the City of Winnipeg. (It’s a fairly complicated story how that came to be. At one time the Granite owned the land where the club is situated, but it ran into financial difficulty in the 1970s and was forced to sell the property to the city with a “lease back” arrangement.)
The city is currently in the process of redeveloping land on the west side of the club where a parking lot now exists for the purpose of building affordable housing. Most of the spaces in that parking lot are leased out to Canada Life, but the Granite has had 30 parking spaces allocated for members’ use. There is now a proposal to build a 12-storey apartment building on the parking lot. The loss of those 30 parking spaces is of great concern to many members of the Granite Curling Club.
It is into the midst of this imbroglio that Kyle Doering now finds himself. On a personal note I myself contacted the city councillor for the area, Sherry Rollins (who, by the way, also is Jewish), and a spokesperson for Canada Life. There doesn’t seem to be an easy way out to resolve the parking situation – and the future existence of the Granite Curling Club is in peril unless some sort of accommodation can be reached insofar as parking spaces for members are made available.
Kyle may be adept at putting a curling stone on to the button of a sheet of ice, but having stepped in as the brand new general manager of a curling club that has over 1300 members, he may find that the challenges that lie ahead are more than one might have expected just a few short months ago – when the city took the club by surprise when it announced its plan to develop the land where, until now, Granite curlers have been able to park their cars.
Local News
Local MPs nominate additional Jewish community members for King Charles Coronation Medals
A few months back we published a story on this website about several members of the Jewish community who had been awarded King Charles Coronation Medals. That story can be found at King Charles Medals
Since that time it has come to our attention that several other members of our community had also been nominated by local Members of Parliament to receive medals.
Following is an update to that earlier story, which was also written by Myron Love:
The medal, created to mark the coronation of King Charles III, is described in a press release as a “special commemorative honour awarded to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional service and dedication to their communities and Canada through volunteerism, leadership, and acts of courage or commitment, reflecting the values of service and unity upheld by the monarchy. It serves as a lasting symbol of appreciation for their selfless efforts in building a better society”.
At the time, I was working largely from a list of local honorees posted on the Lieutenant-Governor’s webpage. Since then, it has been brought to my attention that other deserving members of our Jewish community have also been awarded the medals. It seems that it was not only the Lieutenant-Governor’s office which submitted a list of prospective honorees, It seems that every Member of Parliament was also encouraged to nominate honorees among their constituents.
Thus, local MPS Ben Carr and Marty Morantz –subsequent to the Lieutenant-Governor’s medal presentations – have released their own slates of medal recipients. Among the new Jewish honorees are two Jewish Federation of Winnipeg leaders – one fairly recently retired and a second who is still actively involved, a retired judge, a musician who has played a leading role in Winnipeg folk music circles, a pioneering veterinarian and a long time advocate for the disabled.
Jessica Cogan was actually presented with her medal (along with Einat Paz who appeared in the original story) – in mid-November in Marty Morantz’ constituency office. Cogan has been volunteering with the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg in numerous capacities for decades. Currently she is the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s Second Vice-President, a member of the board of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and a member of the advisory/organizing team for the Holocaust Memorial Sites Study Tour for Educators. She is a Past President of the Jewish National Fund (Manitoba-Saskatchewan branch) and National JNF board member, as well as a former Folklorama adult ambassador for Shalom Square.
In the wider community, she has served as a director of the Women’s Health Clinic Board and co-chaired their capital campaign.
Elaine Goldstine admits to being “quite surprised” to have been nominated through Ben Carr’s office for the King Charles Award. Like Jessica Cogan, Goldstine has devoted most of her adult life first as a volunteer for the Federation and, over the past 20 years, as a senior member of our community’s “civil service”.
But her volunteer efforts go back even further. As noted in an earlier issue of the Post – in an interview with her two years ago – just prior to her retirement as the Federation’s CEO, as a teen, she was active in USY and was President of the Gabriels Chapter of BBYO. In 1979 she became involved with National Council of Jewish Women, and served as President of the Sarah Branch, President of the NCJW Winnipeg section, and as the organization’s National Treasurer and Vice President. She had also served on the PTA of Ramah Hebrew School, the Business and Professional Development Committee of Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, and on the Board of the Shaarey Zedek Sisterhood.
She began volunteering with Federation after her two sons reached school age. She started as a volunteer with the CJA’s Women’s Philanthropy Division. After a short time, she was offered a job with the campaign. Eventually, she was hired to become the campaign division chair. She assumed the reins of the CJA campaign in 2004 after her predecessor, Gerry Koffman, passed away at a relatively young age.
In 2015, after the retirement of long time Federation CEO Bob Freedman – and a successor who left after a year – Elaine was tapped to become the new CEO.
Looking back over the course of her career serving our community, she feels a sense of satisfaction for a job well done – and gratitude for having had the opportunity.
Madame Justice Freda Steel also notes that she was “surprised and humbled” to have been nominated to receive the medal which, she reports, was presented to her at Ben Carr’s office – along with some of the MP’s other nominees – on Monday, March 3. “I do not know who nominated me for the medal,” she says. “I just got a letter from Ben Carr’s office telling me I was a recipient of the medal and that the medal was for community service.“
As with Goldstine and Cogan, Steel has a long history of leadership in our Jewish community. She has been a board member and/or held leadership positions with the Federation, the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, the Rady Centre, the Asper Jewish Community Campus and the Winnipeg Board of Jewish Education.
In her professional life, she has a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Manitoba and a Masters of Law from Harvard. For much of her career, she was a Professor of Law – first in Ottawa, then at her alma mater. She was appointed to the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench in 1995 and to the Court of Appeal in 2000. She stepped down from the court last year, but remains active as an arbitrator and mediator.
“My parents taught me that it was important to give back to your community and I have always tried to live up to the values that they inspired in all of us,” she says.
“I was honoured to be included along with so many accomplished individuals,” says Karen Dana, who was also one of Ben Carr’s nominees.
The daughter of Nate and Phyllis Dana was recognized for her lifelong contributions to the music scene in Winnipeg. A social worker by profession, Dana’s avocation has been folk music, primarily as a member of the organizing committee of the annual internationally-known Winnipeg Folk Festival. She began volunteering at the festival early on, serving for many years as backstage kitchen co-ordinator. As well, 30 years ago, she established an apprentice program for the festival, aimed at bringing in younger volunteers.
For veterinarian Dr. Jonas Watson, receiving the King Charles III Coronation Medal was “a tremendous honour”. he award, he notes, as presented to him in recognition for his leadership locally, nationally and internationally in animal health and welfare.
In a profile I wrote about Watson for this newspaper six years ago, the owner of Grant Park Animal Hospital in the rant Park Festival Centre on Taylor Avenue spoke about what he referred to as his philanthropic outreach was inspired, he recalled, by his participation in a spay-neuter clinic in the northern Saskatchewan community of Île-à-la-Crosse during his university studies where he saw first-hand the critical need for veterinary services in remote communities.
Among the initiatives he has led over the past few years are regular “0ne health” clinics up combining veterinarians and other healthcare professionals in neighbourhoods that have a disproportionately large number of vulnerably-housed or homeless people – providing vaccinations and deworming for their pets and dental care, flu shots and other services for the pet owners.
As well, he and his team regularly visit isolated parts of northern Manitoba and Nunavut to spay and neuter the dogs in these communities. And , farther afield, he has been recruited to provide his spay and neuter services to underserviced communities in Mexico and villages bordering national parks in the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar– to alleviate the dogs’ impact on endangered species – specifically lemurs,”
The graduate of the Hebrew bilingual program at Sir William Osler (now at Brock Corydon) elementary School points out that “an entire section of Jewish law- the concept of “tsa’ar ba’alei hayim”- prescribes that all animals be treated with compassion, and spared any suffering”.
”This notion has been the driving force behind everything I’ve done professionally over the last 25 years,” he says. “It is in fact the reason I pursued a career in veterinary medicine in the first place. And so, to be awarded this medal for what has been my life’s work is truly humbling. The fact that this work is being highlighted now is, I hope, a promising sign for the animals themselves.”
Among the most recent members of our community to have been awarded the Coronation medal is Dan Saidman, the Gwen Secter’s popular program director.
“I was really surprised,” says Saidman, who was presented with the award this past Saturday by Raquel Dancho, the Member of Parliament for Kildonan-St. Paul.
The honoree notes that he has been recognized for his work at the Gwen Sercter Centre over the past seven years. Previous to coming to the north Winnipeg seniors’ centre, he had served as director of BBYO for a time – followed by programming stints at the Waverley Retirement Home and the Heritage Lodge personal care home.
Saidman describes his time working at the Gwen Secter as the best job he has ever had. “It is a nice working environment and the staff and membership have been great,” he says.
A particularly notable honoree was the recently deceased Shawna (Shoshana) Forester Smith. I only learned about Smith – and her membership in our Jewish community when I was contacted by her husband, Brent, after my original report “Jewish Coronation medal recipients” was published int this paper in early January.
Some readers may be familiar with Smith’s name from the regular column she wrote for the Free Press in her role as an advocate for hospitalized patients like herself in long term care.
Shoshana and Brent became part of the Temple Shalom family about 15 years ago. “It was important to Shawna to explore her spirituality and find the right home and community for that aspect of her life and she found those things with Temple Shalom,” Brent recalls.
“I first met Shawna when I subbed for Rabbi Karen in the Intro to Judaism class at Temple Shalom in 2011,” he says. Longtime Temple Shalom president Ruth Livinston recalled standing beside Smith’s bedside at the Deer Lodge Hospital on the occasion of Smith receiving the Coronation medal . “We had a good connection right from the start. Besides attending services, Shawna came to study watercolour and the read Hebrew program with me, she painted a couple of kippahs and even came to a challah baking class. I had the honour of sitting on her Beit Din and helped her prepare for her Bat Mitzvah. She was a member of Temple Shalom’s Board of Trustees and managed our social media presence.
“When she decided to live at Riverview, she changed our weekly visits to include a watercolour class which she shared with her ward…that went on until Covid. We continued to meet weekly after Covid, including after her move here, to Deer Lodge. I treasure my visits with her – she had become family to me.”
In accepting the medal, Smith recounted her career in management for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority until she became ill in her late 20s and had to go on permanent disability. Once she became a chronic care patient in the care of the health system, she used her public relations and healthcare background to advocate on behalf of patients with some success in bringing about positive change.
Sadly, Shoshana Smith passed away just about a month after receiving her Coronation medal. “Shawna is the bravest person I have ever met,” Livingston says. “In spite of ever increasing disability and agonizing pain, she made the decision to live to the best of her ability, to keep fighting for what she needs as well as for others.
“For one little woman with so many challenges, Shawna made an enormous and important impact on our community and beyond. I am thankful and delighted that she was honoured with the King Charles Coronation medal for her work in advocacy.”
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