Phyllis Spigelman is a rarity in the Jewish community of Winnipeg.

An outspoken activist and tireless volunteer on behalf of several community organizations, Phyllis continues to live in the north end in the very house in which she grew up and, unlike most community members of her generation, is hesitant to sing the praises of the community campus. While she does acknowledge the positive impact it has had, Phyllis worries about the polarization of the Jewish community in the south end of the city and the way in which the campus has centralized so many of the community's activities and programs to the detriment of some other vital community institutions.

Specifically, it is the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre and the Sharon Home that Phyllis is most concerned about — the two organizations to which she currently devotes her greatest amount of time.

After more than 50 years of marriage, Norman Spigelman is used to his wife's devotion to community causes and interests and remains supportive and proud of all her efforts.

Norman was born in Winnipeg in 1925 to Jacob (Jack) who arrived in Canada from Russia as a boy, and to Augusta, who was raised in St. Louis. Jack and Augusta met when she came to Winnipeg to meet her cousins. Jack was one of those cousins, and the couple married in 1924.

As the only child of a single father, Augusta had been indulged in her youth and was used to the good things in life. In Winnipeg, she and Jack moved into a home on Matheson Avenue east of Main, where they raised their two sons, Norman and Melvin. A daughter died in infancy, while Mel passed away five years ago.

Growing up, Norman was friends with many of the children who lived in the Jewish Orphanage down the street and remains friends with many of them today. He had his Bar Mitzvah at the Orphanage shul, was active at the YMHA and with AZA and played a lot of hockey — a sport about which he is still fanatical.

As a father he passed his love of sport on to his family, coaching playground hockey at a time when kids only played on outdoor rinks, and 6-man playground football. One year he took his team of 12-year-olds, including his son, to the provincial championship.

Norman attended Luxton School and St. John's and then joined the Navy because that was what his buddies were doing. He had a "great war" during which he served in Bermuda for nine months. After the war he enrolled at the University of Manitoba but did not complete his studies, a fact which he now regrets.

He then joined his dad — "the greatest guy he ever knew" - in his wholesale meat business for 25 years, proudly shipping the first load of Canadian beef to the new State of Israel in 1948. When the advent of chain stores basically put them out of business, Norman went into the insurance business for the next 30 years.

Norman met Phyllis (Margolese) when he spotted her standing in front of the Good Earth Restaurant and offered her a ride and she accepted. They married at the Rosh Pina Synagogue in 1954 when Norman was almost 30 and Phyllis was just 19.

Norman and Phyllis have three children of whom they are extremely proud. Their eldest daughter Robyn Feuerberg lives with her husband Stanley and daughters Danielle and Amy in Centreville, Virginia. Their son Victor works with IBM Global, currently resides in Collingwood, Ontario and has three children, Jacob, Aliya and David. Their youngest daughter Adrienne lives in New Jersey with her husband Andrew Ross and daughter Elyse, and is a vice president at Bristol Meyer Squib USA.

Victor teaches skiing to physically disabled children and is an avid fundraiser for the University of Manitoba School of Management, even though he lives in Ontario. Both Robyn and Adrienne are very involved with their synagogues and communities, something obviously learned at their mother's side.

For her part, Phyllis credits her intense community involvement to her father's influence. David Margolese was involved in many community initiatives, and held the founding meeting of the Rosh Pina Synagogue at his home on Lansdowne Avenue. He worked as a bookkeeper at City Lumber for many years, and was a worthy, honourable man. An ardent Zionist, he later became the director of the Zionist Organization of Alberta, moving to Edmonton with his wife and two young sons, Martin and Joel, when Phyllis was already married.

Phyllis' mother, Molly Koffman, like her husband David, was born in Winnipeg and attended St. John's High School. She had been raised alone by her father, spent a few years in the Jewish orphanage and then lived with an aunt and uncle. As an adult she was active with Hadassah and was a founder of the Rosh Pina Sisterhood. Now in her late nineties, she resides at the Rosh Pina Housing Coop at the site of the old orphanage.

Phyllis attended the Folk School on St. John's and Charles until the end of grade four — not because her parents were socialists, but because of the school's convenient location. Phyllis then attended Machray for one year, Luxton and St. John's High. She did not attend university, realizing belatedly, like her husband, that that was a mistake.

After high school Phyllis worked as a model and bookkeeper at National Cloaks and then at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange. After marriage and the birth of her children in quick succession, she became involved with National Council of Jewish Women and Hadassah — partly to get out of the house and partly because that was what young married women did. Quickly recognized as 'someone who always said yes,' she was approached to sit on many boards and committees and lead various community projects and initiatives.

Today, in addition to being active on behalf of the Sharon Home, National Council of Jewish Women and Gwen Secter, Phyllis sits on the Winnipeg Regional Health Community Advisory Board. She believes passionately that it is vital to care about your own community and to give back to your own community, but that it is equally as important to work on behalf of and have a vision that encompasses the welfare of those outside your own community. Phyllis and Norman tried to raise their children with the same Jewish values with which they were raised, and believe that they have succeeded in doing so.