I arrived in Winnipeg in the early 1970s from the U.S. desert southwest along with my mother, Ronnie Abrams. This followed the earlier arrival of my maternal grandparents Sylvia and Nat Hart (z"l), the latter who was drawn to Winnipeg from the U.S. to be the founding co-owner of the Ichi Ban restaurant downtown. The children of immigrants from Warsaw and Galicia, respectively, Nat was the son of Louis and Dora (Wels) Hart (z"l), and Sylvia was the daughter of Samuel and Rose (Shostak) Moses (z"l), the owners of a bed and breakfast lodge in New York and in Florida. Nat and Sylvia met in 1930s when, in a twist of fate, Sylvia quit working as the bookkeeper for her parents and was hired at a competing lodge where it so happened that Nat was boarding. They were married in 1938 and were inseparable for nearly 60 years until Nat's passing in 1995. Together they were devoted to each other in raising a family; in advocacy, leadership, and philanthropy for many Jewish and general causes; and in the betterment of the community at-large wherever they found themselves. Among their many acts of service, Nat served as Charter Chapter President of his local B'nai B'rith Men's Lodge, and Sylvia served as President of her first local Hadassah chapter. Throughout his famed six-decade culinary career, Nat fluidly traversed from worker, to restaurateur, chef, builder and visionary, and corporate hotelier food and beverage executive, at times concurrently, always with Sylvia at his side. After their short stint in Winnipeg, they returned to the U.S.

My mother and I initially deplaned in late October, with colder temperatures rolling in. The first order of business was the purchase for me of a purple full-body skidoo suit with hood and industrial-strength zippered boots that together probably weighed more than I did. Added to this ensemble was a red knit scarf so widely wrapped around my face and head that practically not an inch of my body was exposed to the elements or visible other than my eyes. Such were the memories of a first winter on the prairie.

I was immediately enrolled at I.L. Peretz Folk School on Jefferson Ave, where in the mornings I attended Grade 1 Judaic Studies for Yiddish language basics, including the alphabet, reading, and writing. In the afternoons, I attended Grade 2 General Studies with my regular-age cohort. In that first year, I also was tutored by the amazing Betty Warshawsky (z"l) who helped me to surpass both Grades 1 and 2 Judaics more than prepared for the start of Hebrew and French instruction in Grade 3. We lived across the street from Peretz Shul, where at the time also lived the school principal and artist Shimshon Heilik (z”l), his wife Ida (z”l) and their daughter, Esther. To this day, I treasure my personal copy of his book, Dos Lebedike Folk, or as we simply called it “our history book,” replete with hand-drawn color maps of the world and with a special inscription to me in his beautiful flowing script.

I am forever grateful for my Peretz Shul education. It was there that the values taught to me at home were reinforced by way of a modest, down-to-earth, and nurturing ethos and the highest of both Judaic and General educational content and standards. My teachers were so very dedicated and while I appreciated them and knew of some of their life stories at the time, including survival from the Shoah, in many cases it was not until many years later years that I learned about the backgrounds and personal stories of perseverance about many others through their Endowment Book of Life entries.

My small but mighty class was hard-working and super smart, albeit occasionally too smart for our own good. In those cases, any one person’s missteps were handled with communal discipline, such as everyone having to stay after school to “write lines” (it’s no wonder I became such a quick note taker!). For me, every Peretz Shul classroom was fun, interesting, and challenging. It was an environment that was at once outward looking and inquisitive, yet rooted in history and particularistic. Through my education, I fell in love with global geography, cultures, and languages of the world, while strongly anchored in my own self-identity and the calling to help others. This became the hallmark of my professional career in advocacy, international development, and intergovernmental and multilateral affairs, while at the same time I was constantly grounded in the pride and responsibility of being a Jewish woman in a larger world.

Life with my classmates was also fun and I am grateful to them for being so accepting of me. Among favorite pastimes include recesses spent building (and knocking down the opposing team’s) ice forts; playing soccer and football on the ice; floor hockey tournaments in the auditorium; school (crossing guard) patrol; class Hanukkah parties always at my home; Model Seder; mandatory music education and folk choir assemblies under the direction of Avivah Katz (z”l); and, along with other grades, putting on plays for special occasions held at Peretz Shul and around town, such as the Eisenstein Cantata ”Zieben Goldene Kneplech” (Seven Golden Buttons) performed at Rosh Pina.

Other favorite Winnipeg childhood memories include ice skating and snowshoeing at Kildonan Park; Brownies/Girl Guides in the basement of the West Kildonan Library (not to mention loads of check-outs from the book collection); Sunday afternoons at the YMHA on Hargrave; being in Junior Chai Dancers and performing at Folklarama; attending Junior Congregation at the Ramah School; visiting seniors at the Sharon Home; and shopping at Omnitzky's butcher on Main St. at a time when the bill was still written by hand with an oversized peel-off pencil and added up on a brown paper bag. I was also fortunate to attend BB Camp in Lake of the Woods.

I am grateful to my grandparents and to my mother who, after their return to the U.S., made the decision to stay in Winnipeg for the time being with its cold because she valued my Peretz education.

It is indeed my honor and privilege of a lifetime to enter the Endowment Book of Life. Here I join with so many others before me, including those who I knew when I lived in Winnipeg, to give back to a community that helped to shape who I became and how I have chosen to engage with others in the world. I entrust the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba in its stellar stewardship and wholeheartedly encourage others to support its mission to plant today for the future so as to ensure a vibrant Jewish presence and life in Manitoba and elsewhere in perpetuity as well as to help the general community.

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