Obituaries
JOE COHEN
Dad’s beautiful soul transitioned peacefully to heaven on Thursday May 10 with Harvey and Marilyn at his side.
He was determined to make his life and the life of the family he created into something special, exciting and adventurous.
He will be sorely missed and forever loved by son Harvey (Faye), grandsons Binyamin, Yitzchak and Meir, daughter Marilyn (Alex) and granddaughter Cara (Steven) and great grandchildren Corinna, Luzy and Zackery.
He was driven by a work ethic strong and determined, in order to provide generously for his family.
Born in September 1925 to factory working class parents in Manchester England he aspired to become a Rabbi, his Jewish education and devotion to Judaism a focal point of his life.
The oldest of four siblings and the longest surviving, Joe gave up the rabbi dream and took employment as a cutter in the local garment factory. But he never gave up his active pursuit of his Jewish faith through study, Shul attendance and davening. This was his foundation for the rest of his almost 93 years.
His dedication and adventure started when he volunteered for the Royal Air Force at the age of 17 and served his country for several years during world war 2 as an aircraft mechanic where he serviced Lancaster and Halifax bombers.
He travelled across Europe with the RAF and undertook responsibility , hard work and adventure as he served his country proudly .
After demobilization Joe married our mum Louise in 1946 and they were together until mum passed in 2015 after 69 beautiful years.
How dad missed mum so much these last three years and longed to be with her again!
As much as he loved us kids , grandkids and great grand kids and loved spending fun times he heeded her call and got his wish to be reunited again.
Mum and Dad started their married life in Manchester until Dad responded to the opportunity to emigrate to Australia and start an adventurous new life there in 1949.
A new clothing manufacturing facility beckoned and also the beaches of Melbourne and St Kilda.
But our mum became homesick for her family in Manchester and after a year and a half they returned.
Dad only wanted for mum to be happy and so he respected her feelings of isolation from family despite his spirit of adventure for Australia.
So they boarded the boat and headed back. A sea journey of several weeks.
Back in Manchester Dad resumed his factory work Monday to Friday and his work ethic and desire to provide saw him working on the open markets most Saturdays selling fancy dry goods such as ornaments, trinkets, lamps and toys.
And if that wasn’t enough, he would retreat to the little back shed on Sunday afternoons to do some custom cutting work.
Always striving to to work hard and make a few more shillings to supplement the family income.
Marilyn came along in 1951 and Harvey followed in 1956. I was the big sister to my baby brother and we all enjoyed the fruits of our dad’s labour.
When the sixties rolled around, dad started thinking about making a better life than the factory drudge with limited opportunity for economic or lifestyle advantage.
So when employment opportunity in the Winnipeg garment industry was advertised in a Manchester newspaper and the sponsor has connections to the Jewish community , Dad decided it was time to embark on another adventure .
So in December 1967 he gathered his family and we flew to Canada, first to set foot in Montreal and then off to Winnipeg in the winter!
Dad’s experience in the Winnipeg garment factories was not as pleasant as he expected and working conditions were less than ideal, however he determined that Canada would be our home from now on and 50 plus years later we are ever grateful for his spirit of determination to make life better for his family.
All his efforts resulted in the enrichment of our opportunities as his beloved children, grandchildren and great grandchildren here in Canadian society.
Striving even higher, Dad then decided that the factory life and “working for the man” wasn’t sufficient and subsequently embarked upon a retail clothing career by establishing a high end menswear store called Colliers Gentlemen’s Apparel which was located in the Scotia Bank concourse at Portage and Main.
Taking a chance on business with mum at his side in the store was his great accomplishment of the 1980s!
He so much enjoyed shmoozing with the professional crowd and office employees and others at this prime location and he was at the pinnacle of his working life having achieved status as an independent businessman.
He was a sharp dressed man and totally enjoyed recommending styles and fabrics to his clients as he measured them up for their chic custom made suits.
And beautiful shirts, ties and accessories decorated the walls and fixtures of Joe’s perfectly appointed location in the concourse.
Those years were just exhilarating for dad and mum together.
During the course of dad’s successful retail management career he made friends and acquaintances with many customers , business contacts and manufacturers agents.
His ability to connect with people through genuine interest and concern about others and his ability to debate in politics, sports and global matters set him apart as a highly respected member of the community.
In his retirement he loved to read books and newspapers, keep up with the news on tv and spend time with mum on numerous travels back to England to visit his siblings who still lived there and were unable to fly to Canada.
Their journey to the land of Israel to see Harvey and explore our beloved Jewish homeland was a wonderful memory they made together.
He always longed to return.
Hours spent with the beloved grandchildren and great grandchildren were most precious to dad for whom family was absolutely top priority.
Dad loved being a part of the Gwen Secter Centre and his weekly trips to the Wednesday program where he made new friends and led the minyan service before lunch.
He especially loved David and Margo with whom he created a special bond of love and friendship based on common life experiences and yiddishkeit.
Above all we are thankful for the love and care dad received at the simkin Centre over the last seven years.
There are not enough words for me to express our appreciation to the staff on Weinberg1 and also Simkin 1 for the respect, patience, honour and care they extended to our parents.
Theirs is a labour of love.
Dad was totally supported in his physical, emotional and spiritual needs as Harvey and I worked in partnership with these loving and kind staff members.
You know who you are!
Dad guided us with his love, his wisdom and his understanding, but he was firm and disciplined when and as necessary.
He set an example for how to live life in accordance with the laws of Torah, the moral code for our actions and treatment of others.
He always wanted the best for us and encouraged us to work hard, do well and always “save money”.
We will be eternally grateful for the ethics he instilled in us .
Rest in eternal peace Dad.
You are reunited with Mum now.
We will always love and honour your memories.
“I’ll Be Seeing You” – ?Vera Lynn
Donations in memory of Joe Cohen would be gratefully appreciated to the Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre and/or the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre.
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.