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Obituaries

LEON RABER

raber leonThis eulogy was delivered on May 29, 2017 at the Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Synagogue in Winnipeg, Manitoba:

It is with immense sadness and yet great pride that I am able to write these words to honour our father.
Our father was a man of great integrity, courage and strength. He lived at a time when the world and humanity was at its worst. Yet he managed to survive and act with kindness, compassion and sensitivity. His is a life that must be told and recorded.  For he is truly an example of how we should all live and aspire. For this reason I use this opportunity to tell his story.
Our father was born Eliezer Katz in Rovno, Ukraine on August 4, 1918. Shortly thereafter the family moved to the shtetl  Ludwipol also in Western Ukraine.
My grandfather Shmuel Katz died in 1925 when my father was only 7 years old. He grew up without a father and his only recollection is of holding his father’s hand walking down the street.
His widowed mother was left with 5 children Chaim, Laizer, Beryl, Leah, and Shmuelik.
The family had a yard goods store on the main market street and there my father worked from the time he was a young teenager to the time of the liquidation of the town in August of 1942.
Growing up he played soccer, was active in Shomer Hatzaear, learned Hebrew and developed a strong love for Israel.
His great math skills were well utilized in running the store and the store did well with his involvement. He developed good relationships with the Ukrainian farmers and other gentile neighbours. This would later be crucial in his survival. He treated everyone fairly and honestly and was therefore well respected in the community life of the Shtetl.
With the onset of World War II and the Nazi Invasion of his area in July 1941 life changed dramatically. The Germans created a ghetto of the town and movement was greatly restricted. Food became scarce and Jews were forced into labour battalions, everyone had to work.
My father was a slave working on the building of a road the Germans needed for their military. Those who could not work adequately were shot and some were buried into the road. If someone tried to smuggle food back into the Ghetto they too were shot. Food rations were minimal. At the Passover Seder when we say “We were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt”, my father was a living example of that slavery.
In order to provide food for his family and others, he and his brother Chaim would sneak out of the ghetto in the middle of the night and buy or barter with the Ukrainian farmers. Dad would say that it was not uncommon for him to carry 100 lb sacks on his back for 10-15 km and then sneak back into the ghetto. Imagine the courage and strength that this would take.
On one occasion a Ukrainian patrol (keeping in mind that the Ukrainians were complicit with the Germans in persecuting the Jews) stopped my Dad as he was crossing a bridge. He could have been shot on the spot or turned over to Germans. They knew him from having played soccer with him and from the store and said that he was a good guy and let him go.
On another occasion the Germans were patrolling streets in the town and some of his Ukrainian friends shielded him from the Germans so that he would not be caught.
During the summer of 1942, Dad would have been 24 years old, it was clear that German intentions were to kill all the Jews. Many Jews began to escape and cross the Slutch river that ran near the town and into the thick forests on the other side. By August the situation became desperate. His younger brother Beryl had previously fled to Russia some time before and his older brother Chaim also had run away. His younger sister Leah ran away on August 20, 1942.
On August 22, 1942 my father pleaded with his mother and youngest brother that now is the time to run.  My grandmother felt she was too old to be able to survive the life in the forest. His younger brother Shmulik who would have been 17 or 18 at the time, refused to leave his mother.
My father ran away that day, German troops saw him and started firing, he swerved around trees and managed to avoid being hit and made it to the thick forested area on the other side of the river. He was barefoot and just had the clothing he was wearing.
His mother and brother were rounded up by the Germans with the other Jews who remained, and were shot in the soccer field near the town and buried in a huge pit.
That day and the next he was on the run, trying to find food, water and shelter. He found his brother Chaim and sadly found the spot where his sister Leah had been killed either by the Germans or their Ukrainian accomplices. Dad did not get a pair of shoes until November of 1942. With his brother Chaim they would steal turpentine and make shoe polish in order to sell it for food. Starvation was prevalent, Dad would say that if you found a potato or an onion you ate it right away.
Dad joined Partisan units in the forest and was part of groups that destroyed railway tracks, telegraph lines and burned buildings. There were occasions where they would come under German or Ukrainian fire. Many people died.
One day he came upon two girls hiding in a barn. One of the girls was sick with Typhus. Dad brought them food and water. Miraculously, one of the girls survived the war and currently lives in Montreal. Thanks to the kindness and courage exhibited by our father she survived. There is another example, Boris Edelman of Florida ,would say that he owes his life to my father for saving him from the Germans in August of 1942.
After a year in the forest, the Russian Red Army had moved further west and were occupying the area. Dad was conscripted into the Red Army and he changed his name to Vasil Ivanovich. His basic training was with a single shot rifle with no bullets. That was the state of the Red Army at time.
He was fortunate to be transferred to the south of Finland for the balance of 1943 and into summer of 1944. The Finnish front was very quiet and relatively safe.
Beginning however in October of 1944 he along with the First Belarussian army division began its push through the Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. He was a Sargent in the army responsible for ensuring that telegraph communication lines would remain intact. On numerous occasions on patrol they would come up against German troops. On one instance, they were under fire and he told the soldiers under his command to stay low and do not stick your heads out. The soldier next to him needed to look and he was decapitated by a mortar shell.
Moving westward in the fall of 1944 the Red Army was approaching Warsaw. There they halted and allowed the Germans to burn Warsaw to the ground while they looked on. Dad was part of the Red Army that at that time consisted of several million soldiers on the Eastern front. As he would often remark he was lucky to be at the back of this huge number of soldiers.
As the Red Army approached the Polish/German border they were preparing to cross the Frankfurt/Oder river. To test German resistance, the Russians would send what Dad would refer to as the “inferior races”, Mongolians for example. Casualties for the Russians were very high. Again by sheer luck Dad was more to the rear of this onslaught and by time he crossed the river German resistance was light. I must add that Dad walked from Finland to the German border, there were no transport vehicles or trains.
Upon entering Germany, and particularly Berlin, buildings were routinely booby trapped. For example when he entered Berlin in January of 1945, his platoon was required to take Goebbels ministry of communication building. As the Russian troops were entering the building, it blew up. Dad was at the doorway and the explosion threw him 10 meters against a wall. Fortunately, he was not hurt. In fact he survived the war with just a scar over his left eyebrow from a bullet that narrowly missed him.
From Berlin he was transferred to Dresden. He would comment that even though Berlin had been bombed severely the devastation of Dresden was even worse.
In Dresden he would dea
l in cigarettes and other commodities to accumulate items of value. He kept them hidden in a suitcase in the barrack until one day a superior officer inquired as to whose suitcase it was. Fortunately no one spoke up, for it could have been the Gulag for my father.  The officer obviously took it for himself.
Before closing on this chapter of his life, I would recommend that you watch two movies “Defiance” and “Europa Europa”. Both  films depict the life in the forest of the fleeing Jews, and the battle for Berlin by the Russian Army.
After the war Dad worked for the Jewish agency escorting Jews from Europe to transfer points on their continuing journey to Israel.
There is one story when during one of these trips he was crossing the Czech border by train. The Czech border guards were notorious for extorting money and jewelry from the Jewish passengers. A young woman with a small child approached my Dad and asked him if he would hide her few valuables for her so that the guards would not get them, it was all she had. She said to Dad that he had an honest face. Sure enough Dad hid the valuables in his hat.  After they crossed the Czech border and were off the train, Dad found this woman and returned the jewelry to her.
The Jewish Agency sent Dad to Brussels to help dismantle army barracks to be shipped to Israel. Dad was sick of war and did not want to go to Israel, so he and his brother Beryl remained in Brussels. There he worked in a sewing factory making purses. The woman sewing next to him asked him his name, he said Leizer. She said no that won’t do, I think your name should be Leon, and so it remained.
In 1947 in order to come to Winnipeg, where he had family, his mother’s cousins would sponsor him. Their last name was Raber, my grandmother’s maiden name.
The law at that time was only very close family members could come into the country, so his cousins in Winnipeg said that he and Beryl were brothers. Thus, Leizer Katz became Leon Raber.
Dad arrived in Winnipeg in October of 1947 with $10 in his pocket and a debt to the Royal Bank of $375 for his transportation costs to Winnipeg.
Here he worked as a sewing machine operator until he started his own factory “Sabina Sportswear” in 1952. He operated this business very successfully for 25 years.
Dad was well respected by the other members of the garment industry. They would often meet in his boardroom to arbitrate conflicts. His keen judgment and sense of fairness earned him the title of Rav Leizer.
Although Dad had witnessed the horrors of war and depravity, he always maintained an aura of kindness and gentleness.
He married my mom on March 13, 1949 and they celebrated 68 years together.
Dad realized how important it is to be able to help others.
When a cousin did not have money to buy coal to heat their house Dad looked after it. When his brother- in- law Shika needed money Dad helped him.
When his nephew Sheldon needed a guarantor for a bank loan to start his dental practice, Dad looked after that too.  
I could go on with many other stories, suffice to say, that my sister and I are incredibly fortunate to have a father who taught us to be strong yet gentle, to be decisive yet fair.  We love him very much.
I truly hope that in the world to come and the Garden of Eden where Dad deserves to be, he will meet his mother and father. They will be so proud of him, as are we.
Internment followed at Shaarey Zedek Cemetery.
Survived by his wife, Faye, children Frayda ( Charles), Label (Lynn), grand-children, Josh, Yossi (Julia) and Michael and great-granddaughters Samantha and Emma.
Pallbearers were Label Raber, Charles Wiseman, Josh Raber, Yossi Bokhaut, Michael Bokhaut and Joseph Gorenstein.
Honorary pallbearers were Sammy Katz, Burt Gorenstein, Dr. Jay-David Lifshen, Mark Cohen and Herb Grosney

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Obituaries

JACOB (JACK) KLEIMAN FEBRUARY 8, 1927 – AUGUST 19, 2024

It was with great sorrow that we announced the passing of Jacob (Jack) Kleiman (Jacob ben Moishe) on Monday August 19, 2024 (16, Av) in his 98th year.
He was predeceased by his parents, Maurice and Rose Kleiman, his brother, Harvey, and his sisters, Florence (the late Louis Selby), Betty (the late Joseph Gilfix) and Ruth (the late Ben Aisenstat). He is survived by his sister Ann of Bethesda, U.S.A. (the late Harold Eist). He will be missed by his many nephews, nieces, grandnephews, grand-nieces, great-grandnephews, and great-grandnieces.
Jack’s maternal grandparents were among the pioneer families established in the then Hirsch Colony (founded 1892) by the Jewish Colonization Association in the Southeast corner of Saskatchewan. Jack and his late brother Harvey lived and farmed on the same land purchased by their parents in the area.
In later years he and his brother developed many business interests: initially farm implement and automotive sales and later oil exploration companies including Poplar Developments Ltd., drilling locally. They were well known in the surrounding community and were generous supporters of local charitable initiatives such as the Estevan General Hospital.
Jack and his brother were the last Jewish farmers in the Hirsch area and over the years were the subject of many literary articles and television interviews. Jack and his brother helped to maintain the Jewish cemetery in the Hirsch area until it was taken over as a historical site by the province. Due to advancing age, the family farm was sold in 2016 and both retired to Calgary to be nearer to family. This marked the closing of one chapter of Jewish history in Canada.
Jack was a talented mechanic who remained married to the land and devoted to his family. He was ever of good spirit. Although frail in body, Jack remained active mentally and involved in life until the end being always interested in the happenings of his extended family.
It is hard to adequately sum up a long life marked by both hard work, dedication to family, and good humour. The entire family remember him and honour him with love, affection, and good memories.
The family wishes to thank the many friends and neighbours in the Estevan area who provided help and support during his last years and especially to his dedicated care givers in Calgary.
The funeral was held in Calgary on August 22, 2024, at the Chevra Kadisha Chapel with interment at the 37th Street Jewish Cemetery.
The unveiling will take place on July 27, 2025 at 11:30 AM at the same location. Donations may be made in Jack’s memory to the charity of your choice.

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Obituaries

EDITH LANDY

June 30, 1920 – July 2, 2025

After a long and fulfilling life, our Mother passed on July 2, 2025. Born in Winnipeg, she grew up as part of a large extended family.

Mother was predeceased by her parents, Joseph Mayer Freiden and Rivka (nee Fordman), our father, David Landy, and her sisters Syma Katz and Jennie Rich. Edith is survived by her five children and their families: Laurie Landy and Nora Spinks, Barbara and Paul Livingston, Bob and Rhonda Landy, Mark Landy and Jenifer, and Martin Landy, her grandchildren Saralyn, Adam, Alex, Joshua, Ethan, Caitlin, David, Alicia, Lily, and six great-grandchildren, her cousins Norma Chernick and Shlomo Mayman and her many friends and relatives.

Mom grew up as part of a large extended family in the North End of Winnipeg, guided by her father’s values of service, community and the importance of family. She entered the School of Nursing at the Winnipeg General Hospital, now the Health Sciences Centre. She progressed from general duty nurse to nursing supervisor and served as the Assistant Director of Nursing for 15 years until her retirement in 1983. Over the course of her five-decade nursing career, she raised five children, managed a household, cared for many extended family members and remained actively involved in the community.

Community was a foundation of Mom’s life. Mom was very proud of her volunteering at the Winnipeg International Children’s Festival, Winnipeg Folk Fest and other community events. She and David were patrons of the arts, including the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and the Manitoba Opera. In 2024, she was recognized as the longest continuous subscriber to the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

The North Centennial Seniors Association played an important role in our parents’ later years. She ran her kitchen crew, supervised Hot Dog Day and provided food for many bus trips. Mom’s legacy was the Grandma Grandpa Swim Club, which she established, raised funds for, and built into a strong organization.

After a long and remarkable life of service and giving care, Mom accepted the need to receive care. The Family would like to thank Melita and Nelissa for their care and dedication, as well as the staff of the Simkin Centre, especially on Weinberg 2.



We cannot put into words how much she will be missed.



In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the Joseph Freiden Scholarship for Jewish Studies at the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.

A service was held July 4, 2025, at Chesed Shel Emes – Winnipeg.

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Obituaries

SUSAN DIANA FRANKEL

In the kitchen above her to-do list, Susan Diana Frankel kept a comic strip of a mother bird encouraging her baby to take its first leap into flight. “Go for it!” reads the speech bubble above the mother bird. But a second bubble shows her thinking silently to herself: Just don’t go too far.

I’ve always thought that image perfectly captured our mom. She was our biggest cheerleader and greatest supporter – and out of sheer love, she wanted to spend as much time with her family as possible: Matthew and Elly, Robby and Rae, Jed and Eugenia, and our devoted dad, Harvey, her partner of 45 years. In addition to being a loving mother and spouse, she was a perfect grandmother – or “Boba” – to her three granddaughters: Romi, Esti, and Aria, whom she loved obsessively. Our mom passed away at home on June 4. She was our best friend, and to say we are devastated or that we will miss her greatly feels wholly inadequate.

Predeceased by her parents Max and Esther Weinstein and her older brother Joel (Cathie), she will forever be loved and remembered by her brothers Sidney (Grace) and Barry (Sharon), her sister Ronni (Michael), her confidante Edie (Marcel), as well as dozens of nieces, nephews, cousins, and very close friends.

Susan was born the youngest of five children on February 8, 1958, in Winnipeg. The Weinstein family lived in Melville, Saskatchewan, until 1963 before settling in Winnipeg for good. She spent summers in Gimli and at BB Camp, attended both Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate and the University of Winnipeg Collegiate, and later earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Manitoba (as well as spending a semester at the University of Miami while visiting her parents at their winter condo in Florida – Go Hurricanes!).

My mom married our dad, Harvey, in 1981. They were a shining example of a loving partnership – completely devoted to each other in sickness and in health. They raised us three boys to be close and family-oriented. It feels strange to reduce some of my mom’s favourite places and memories to a list, but that list would include: the family cottage in Gimli, traveling to Palm Springs, Florida, Toronto, Hawaii, Italy, and Las Vegas, shopping and dining with friends and family, playing Mahj, chatting about movies and shows, dragging my dad to social outings and making him change his outfit before they left the house, watching Winnipeg Jets games, and constantly rewatching videos of her granddaughters.

Our mom had a way of making people she’d just met feel like part of her inner circle. She was genuinely interested in what you were doing, how it was going, and how she could help. She asked questions (sometimes a few too many!) because she cared – never because she was nosy. She had a wonderful sense of humour and truly loved to laugh. When something was really funny, you’d sometimes get a snort and even a tear or two. She was simply the best.

Our family would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support we’ve received during this extremely difficult time. A special thank-you to the healthcare workers who gave our mom such a remarkable quality of life despite living with stage 4 cancer for more than seven years: Dr. Marshall Pitz, all the nurses and staff at CancerCare, her homecare worker Lisa, and our family’s incredible friend and caregiver, Gemma Marciano.

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