CHW in Winnipeg: The Legacy of Sally Gotlieb By Ruth Kahane Goldberg
As Winnipeg Council President from 1933-1935; and National Vice-President for the Western Canada division from 1935-1937, she was strongly influenced by Henrietta Szold, the founder of American Hadassah and Youth Aliyah. After hearing Henrietta speak at a Hadassah conference in the U.S. in 1934, warning of the possible annihilation of one million European Jewish children, Sally “came home terribly moved and decided to organize the first Youth Aliyah group in Canada with representatives from all Jewish women’s organizations in Winnipeg.” She travelled across Canada to raise funds and organized the women’s division of Youth Aliyah in Canada. Her first trip of many to CHW’s projects, such as CHW Nahalal Youth Village, was in 1937.
Sally Gotlieb being honored at CHW Nahalal Youth Village in 1955
Sally Gotlieb (Mrs. D.P. Gotlieb) of Winnipeg is remembered for bringing the Youth Aliyah movement first to Winnipeg, and then across Canada, to aid in the rescue of children orphaned in the Holocaust, resettling them in Eretz Yisrael. Her term as National President of CHW, from 1951-1955, brought widespread recognition to CHW Winnipeg as a top centre of organized Jewish life in Canada. Sally, with her own funds, spent two weeks out of every month during her tenure, working out of the CHW Head Office, which was located in Montreal at the time. It was during her presidency that CHW first reached a membership of 7,000 women nationally, including women of all classes of the Jewish population; it had the largest membership of a Jewish women’s movement in Canada. Just as Winnipeg was recognized as the hub of CHW in Western Canada, Sally herself developed a strong presence, accentuated by the classic dress suits, hats, and string of pearls she would wear when dedicating a CHW project or presiding at a national convention. However, when she joined the Ezra Chapter in Winnipeg at 21 years old, and was elected its president one year later, she said she had felt “very nervous not knowing how to open her mouth in front of all those people.”
Sally Gotlieb (left) welcoming new National President Lottie Riven in 1955
Sally followed the philanthropic Zionism of CHW’s founding National President Lillian Freiman and that of notable pioneers from Winnipeg: Sylvia Wilder, Rose Rady, Rose Halparin, and Sara Bernstein, who helped organize a total of 39 Chapters in the Prairies by the organization’s silver jubilee in 1942. This infrastructure in Prairie cities west of Winnipeg, such as Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary and every small town that had a Jewish population, such as Portage La Prairie, Dysart, Vegreville, and Drumheller, “opened up the West” for CHW and provided a fundraising base during the major challenges of the Depression, World War II, and Israel’s War of Independence. During World War II, CHW sold Youth Aliyah certificates costing $360, for a child to enter England and be secreted to Palestine. Across Canada, during Sally’s watch, thousands donated to Youth Aliyah. David Gotlieb, Sally’s husband, chaired the first annual Men’s Youth Aliyah dinner in Winnipeg with over 400 people in attendance. Their daughter, Eunice, made aliyah in 1949 and her son, Allan, became the Canadian Ambassador to the United States (1981-89). Sally was a CHW pioneer and an inspiring leader. The history of CHW Winnipeg wouldn’t be what it is without her.
Sally Gotlieb receiving her farewell gift as National President in 1955
L-R: Anne Eisenstat, Sally Gotlieb, and Lottie Riven unveiling a plaque in 1956 ORAH Magazine Summer 2018
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