JEWISH FEDERATION OF COMBINED JEWISH APPEAL / GROW WINNIPEG / NEXT GENERATION INITIATIVES / HATIONAL AND ISRAEL AFFAIRS July 31, 2009 Mrs. Diane Kaufmann Tobin Adam, Amy, Sarah, Aryeh, Mia and Jonah Tobin c/o The Institute for Jewish and Community Research 3198 Fulton Street San Francisco CA USA 94118 Dear Mrs. Tobin and Family We are writing on behalf of the Winnipeg Jewish community to express our sincerest sympathies on the recent passing of your husband We were saddened to learn of Gary's passing. We had the good fortune to work with him in the late 80's and thought you and your family would like to know the critical role Gary played in the revitalization of our Jewish community here. To that end we've enclosed an excerpt from a book written by a local author and recently published. The book is entitled Coming of Ago: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba and Gary's involvement is described in this particular chapter which deals with a pivotal time in our community's history. We are very sorry for your loss. May you know no greater sorrow. Sincerely, Mar bh Bob Freedman, Mrs. Marjorie Blankstein, C.M. Chief Executive Officer paar ann ennChapter Twelve — Go South, Young Jew “If it wasn’t me, someone else would have done it.” ~ Sheldon Berney, 2007.” « We were in Drexp: is how Marjorie Blankstein remembers the late 1980s, using the Yiddish for a bad situation. “Registration at the schools, especially in the North End, was dropping. Membership ac the YMHA was down. Our commu- nity buildings were deteriorating, We were losing people; the city’s Jewish population was about 15,000 and not looking good.” Thac was putting ic mildly. Between 1971 and 1991, Winnipeg's Jewish popu- lation declined by eighteen per cent. By 1988, ‘Vancouver, with 20,000 Jews, had replaced Win- nipeg as the city with the third-largest Jewish pop- ulation in Canada, a position Winnipeg had held since the 1880s. Blankstein had returned as WJC president in 1986-1987, when Mendel Meltzer was unable to complete the second year of his term due to personal reasons. In the meantime, Bob Freedman had agreed to cake on the WICC executive director’ job in 1986 on condition that he would have support from the board to reverse the downward tend plaguing, the community. That spring he travelled to New York and met with the Council of Jewish Federa- tions. Officials there put him in touch with Gary Tobin, a social demographer then working at Bran- dis University, and an expert on Jewish communi tics in Norch America. Tobin agreed co come to ‘Winnipeg, provided that Freedman supplied him with the all the information he requited about Winnipeg and agreed to convene a mecting with 3s many of the community's leaders as possible Tobin soon arrived in the city. Fora few days, he studied the community's Jewish institutions, examined the various organizational figures, held a few workshops, and then wrote a report. One of the individuals who attended the prominent leaders’ ‘meeting was Marjorie Blankstein. “He came back to us,” she adds, “and said, ‘Look, you are not Toronto or Moneréal, but you are larger than two-thirds of the Jewish communities in North America. You have two choices: do nothing or do something.’ We decided to do something.” ‘That “something” was the construction of the Asper Jewish Community Campus ~ 2 pipe dream in 1987, but a reality a decade later. The process began slowly. “We had to instill pride back in the community,” says Freedman, “because without pride you can't accomplish much.” After Tobin's meeting swith community leaders, Freedman had asked Blankstein what she thought about the presentation She told him she was excited about the prospects. “Are you excited enough to chair a commietee2” he inquired. She agreed and became the chair of the long-range planning committee. A forty-cight-page feasibility study was conducted by Touche Ross Management, at a cost of $115,000. In the spring of 1988, Touche Ross prepared a report in which the major recommendation was the development of | a central Jewish “campus”. This campus was to serve as the new headquarters for the YMHA, Ramah School and Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate (ar least at first), and most other Jewish organizations. The proposal was approved by the WJCC board, and Blankstein (volunteered by her husband, Morley) now became chair of the fundraising committee She and Freedman next recruited Sheldon Berney 399to become one of the main leaders of the project. He was in his early fifties and his family had recently sold its business, Reliance Products. Initially, Berney sought counsel from his friends to ensute the project was viable, because he had no intention of failing. “I hhad the time to do it, the enthusiasm and the com- ‘mercial background,” Berney says, “but ific wasn't ‘me, someone else would have done i.” Freedman, Blankstein, Bemey and several other WICC members visited Jewish community centres in the United States and plans were sce in motion, One trip to Kansas City, Missouri, where a sparkling new Jewish Community Center had been built, Marjorie Blankstein and Bob Freedman convinced them chat a Winnipeg campus must have a stand-alone board rather than merely being a sub-commitece of the current community council In that way, major donors as well as the key organi- zations would have a say in the campus’ furure ditection, ‘The Kansas City centre also had a day school attached to it, 2 unique fearute that appealed to the Winnipe Inicial estimates suggested that the Winnipeg project would cose about $12 million, Gradually that figure rose to $18 million and finally to $28 million — an enormous sum to raise, especially given the poor economic climate in the early 1990s. The fire fundraising study undercaken indicared that the WICC could likely obtain $10 million from local donors and the sale of properties such as the YMHA's Hargrave Street building. In fact, $12 mil lion was raised quickly, and there was much more COMING OF AGE: A History ofthe Jewish People of Manis Indeed, wichin a relatively shore period, the major donors (with gifs ranging from a quarter of a milli toamillion dol- lars), whose names now grace the cam- pus, came Forward, Among them were members of che following familics: Asper, Berney, Gray, Blankstein Rady), Simkin, Kives, Kroft, Kaufiman (and Silver- berg), Vickar and Freeman. Many more members of the community contributed lesser amounts, and somehow, by the time the campus opened, more than $20 million had been donated. Much of this success was owed 10 the diligence of the fundeaising committee. “Bob Freedman and I put together a “dog and pony show,” says Marjorie Blankstcin “We mustve spoken to every Jewish oxganization, chapter, and group in the city, anyone who wanted the facts and figures.” When he was first approached, Izzy Asper said he would commie to a gift of half a million dollars. After a round of discussions with Sheldon Berney, Bob Freedman and Harold Buchwald, he finally agreed to increase his donation to $2 million, the price the campus board had put on the naming rights to the entire institution. Initially, Asper regarded such an idea as overly pretentious. But as Buchwald related, “When I rold Izzy chat ‘other major donors, such as Marjorie and Morley Blankstein were making a donation of $1 million in honour of her parents, Max and Rose Rady; a light bulb went off in his head. And he decided, 100, to make his donation in the name of his and Babs’ parents —as well as all ofthe Jewish pioneets of Manitoba.” There was a bit more negotiating, however, before the deal was done. In typical Asper fashion, Asper had his lawyer, Richard Leipsi, prepare @