St. Catharines was always a very strong Zionist community. There were individuals from the beginning that felt the pull of the Zionist idea and supported it in Canada or actually made Aliyah to live there. From the beginning, those who stayed in St. Catharines encouraged a strong connect. R. J. Hoffman was a staunch Zionist and his family became leaders in the Zionist community in Canada. Emanuel, one of his sons, brought Young Judaea to St. Catharines. Young Judaea was the youth arm of the Zionist Organization of Canada. Over the years our community birthed several very prominent leaders – Doris Adelstein, John Devore, Sol Granek, Mirial Hoffman Small, to name just a few.
Locally from 1934 onwards there was always a Hadassah chapter that met regularly, convened an annual bazaar, sponsored the publication of a calendar with ads and life cycle dates on each and every day of the year. It sponsored many events and contributed a great deal. leading the campaign for Israel bonds and so forth.
However, no one contributed more than Doris Adelstein, Z’L, who sat every year on Yom Kippur to collect funds for Israel and throughout the year ensured blue boxes were distributed and collected again filled with coins. The Nation Jewish National Fund Organization honoured Doris with her own Negev Dinner for her tireless efforts leading to the collection of over $250 000 on her own in small coins.
Hadassah Executive, 1974 / 75