ORAH Spring 2022

Lillian Freiman: The Woman Who Inspired Generations to Use Their Power For Good

PART ONE

Henrietta Szold, who founded Hadassah in the United States in 1912, and Lillian Freiman, who founded the organization in Canada in 1917, lived remarkably different lives. Henrietta Szold had her heart broken, never married, never had children, never knew material comfort and lived, at the time, to the advanced age of 84. Lillian Freiman, got married, had children, lived a relatively privileged life, and passed away at the young age of 55.

Both women used their power for good.

Like Szold, who not only founded Hadassah, but also a night school, the Jewish Publication Society, and saved 11,000 orphans from perishing in the Holocaust, Freiman’s work also left a broad and lasting legacy.

Betsy Rigal, Lillian Freiman’s granddaughter, has written about her accomplished grandmother who was born Lillian Bilsky in Mattawa, Ontario in 1885. The family was large and the home was always full of relatives and friends, and open to new immigrants and those in need. As a young woman, she organized the Hebrew Benevolent Society in Ottawa, which foreshadowed her life’s work.

In 1903, she married Archibald Jacob Freiman, who owned the Freiman’s Department Store, and the couple had three children: Dorothy (Alexandor, 1906–2000), Lawrence (1909–1986) and Queene Esther (Luxenberg, 1912–1997). Never letting a busy family life stand in the way of her desire to correct injustice in the world, she turned the family home at 149 Somerset Street West in Ottawa into her personal headquarters, hosting meetings for her countless causes.

Lillian Vineberg-Goodman, who was born in February of 1941, just four months after her great aunt’s passing, describes a matriarch who has been a guiding force in her family for generations: “She was a woman who, if she saw an injustice in the world, would question it as, ‘What are we going to do to correct it? We have to stand up and be counted.’”

When the First World War broke out, Freiman set up sewing machines in her home and organized Red Cross sewing circles to send blankets and clothing to soldiers overseas. She co-founded The Great War Veterans Association, which would become the Royal Canadian Legion, and gathered women in her home to sew cloth poppies. She chaired the Poppy Campaign from 1921 until her passing.

By 1917, the first Canadian Hadassah chapter was founded in Toronto and by 1919, Lillian was elected President of the Dominion Hadassah Organization — after having travelled across the young country raising $200,000 from 120,000 Jews — a position she held until her passing in 1940. In the 1920s, Canadian Hadassah raised funds for the Jewish National Fund and Hebrew University.

In 1921, the same year Canadian Hadassah affiliated with World WIZO and became Canadian Hadassah-WIZO (CHW), Lillian travelled to Belgium. The situation had become so dire after the First World War and the Russian Revolution that Lillian — having raised $100,000 for the mission — oversaw the transport of 150 Ukrainian Jewish orphans to Canada. The Freimans adopted one of the orphans, 12-year-old Gladys Rozovsky.

In 1923, CHW established the first agricultural school for women on the kibbutz of Nahalal. By the mid- 1920s, under Freiman’s leadership, CHW had grown to 4,500 members and 68 chapters across the country. In the 1930s, CHW was the only organization in Canada to champion Youth Aliyah to help children escape Germany.

Freiman’s contributions to welfare causes were so significant that King George V bestowed on her the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1934, the first Jewish person to receive such an honour in Canada.

After their mother’s passing, Dorothy Alexandor served several terms as National Vice-President, Audrey Freiman was President of the Ottawa Council of Hadassah, and Queene Luxenberg was President of a CHW Toronto chapter.

Vineberg-Goodman recalls that her mother, Etta Caplan, her aunts, and all their Jewish Ottawa friends formed the Bertha Slonemsky Chapter of CHW. “My mother ran an enormous city-wide Bazaar every year to raise substantial dollars to support their projects in Israel…. [Freiman] continues to be an important role model for all of us in our family. She was unique in her time, in that she was not afraid to speak up for the underdog or the under-served. She was comfortable lobbying the government, right up to the Prime Minister.”

Today, a passion for CHW is being passed on to the next generation of Lillian Freiman’s descendants. Ruth Alexandor, great-granddaughter of Lillian Freiman, describes her ancestor as “an icon in the family.” Alexandor visited Nahalal in her 20s and “saw some of the fruits of my great-grandmother’s work.”

Over the years, Alexandor would support CHW by attending events, but now being in mid-life, she is looking for a deeper commitment to the organization. She met the new CEO, Lisa Colt-Kotler, who suggested Alexandor use her skills as a leadership coach at the senior level to help CHW facilitate its strategic planning process. Alexandor took on the project in a volunteer capacity.

Alexandor explains, “My hope is to continue to use my expertise in strategy work and team coaching, helping the board be as effective as they can be, and to be engaged and empowered to do the work they want to be doing. That would really be meaningful work for me.”

Ruth Alexandor is carrying on the legacy of her great-grandmother, Lillian Freiman, by using her power for good.

Last Remembrance Day marked the 100th Anniversary of the Poppy Campaign. Lillian Freiman is celebrated as being the Canadian "Poppy Lady," thanks to her long-term role as National Poppy Chair.

Story from ORAH Magazine Spring 2022