Raised with love and Judaism

REBECA KUROPATWA

Back in the day when Winnipeg’s North End was where most Jewish locals called home, Salomon Benarroch and Mary Muyal, now both in their 80s, were busy digging in roots after having moved halfway around the world with their young sons.

Arriving in this country on Canada Day in 1963, Salomon and Mary recall liking Winnipeg immediately. “Everything is good here. We even like the snow,” Mary said about their thoughts upon arrival. About their first winter in Winnipeg, she said, “Salomon woke me up at six in the morning (around when he would leave the house for work) to show me snow. We had no snow in Morocco except on the mountain tops.”

At the age of five, Mary moved with her family to Tangiers from her birthplace of Casablanca. In her early 20s, while at an outdoor café with friends, she met her future husband, Salomon. “We had a good life in Morocco,” she said. “People didn’t want us to leave. But, when the state of Israel was formed, things became different for the Jews in Morocco. We weren’t allowed to go out wearing kippot or other traditional Jewish dress. The Arabs wanted the schools to be all Arabic. When we left, we had to just close the door behind us and leave everything.”

Salomon found a job working as a shochet (ritual slaughterer), which he kept up until his retirement a couple of years ago. Still involved in his adopted Jewish community, Salomon regularly attends synagogue and reads from the Torah.

Mary has always loved working with children. For many years, she ran a day care out of her home. “Many families ... liked bringing their kids to me because we’re observant Jews.” Later, she was a teacher’s assistant at the local Talmud Torah, and then she worked at the Aleph-Bet Child Life Enrichment Centre day care located at Rosh Pina Synagogue. Mary is also a longtime member of Emunah Women of Canada.

The couple raised four boys – twins Yamin and Yosef, and Michael and Al. The brothers attended Talmud Torah and Joseph Wolinsky schools, and grew up to be observant Jews, each involved with the community and Jewish education. Interestingly, the twins both ended up as rabbis.

“Our sons are wonderful,” said Mary. “They all worked very hard and put themselves through school by driving taxis, painting and working on houses, and working for companies. I give them love and respect, and they’re all so polite and good.”

Yosef was five years old at the time of his family’s move from Morocco to Winnipeg. “We moved to Winnipeg when the local shochet passed away,” he recalled. “There was a job waiting for my father. We took a boat across the Atlantic and from Halifax came by train to Winnipeg.”

The Benarroches first lived on Alfred Street and went to the Ashkenazi synagogue. “I remember the old men crowding around my dad and speaking to him in Yiddish. When he told them he was Sephardic and didn’t speak a word of Yiddish, they couldn’t believe he was Jewish,” recounted Yosef. “But, over the years, my mother learned to make knishes better than all the old-timers.”

In fact, said Yosef, “When my good friend, Eppy Rappaport, took over Omnitsky’s in Vancouver, he phoned her and said, ‘Mrs. Benarroch, I want your knish recipe.’ She obliged, and he’s using the same recipe to this very day.”

After graduating from the University of Manitoba, Yosef made aliyah. He still fondly remembers singing in Cantor Benjamin Brownstone’s choir, and periodically goes back to Winnipeg for visits and as a scholar-in-residence at Herzlia-Adas Yeshurun Synagogue.

Returning to Canada, Yosef spent nine years as the spiritual leader of Vancouver’s Congregation Beth Hamidrash, the city’s only Sephardi synagogue, and still has many links in the community. Moving back to Israel a decade ago, he now runs a Sephardi seminary for women in Jerusalem’s Old City and serves as the school’s senior rabbi. He and his wife, Elana, have seven children and two grandchildren.

“My family is everything for me,” he said. “I’m blessed with parents dedicated to their children. From my mother, I learned to love and sacrifice for family, and to have faith in even in the most difficult situations. From my dad, I learned the power of faith and religion. When the family gets together, we sing Sephardic songs and talk Torah.”

When his father was recently ill, Yosef said, “I called my mother from Israel.... I will never forget her words. She said, ‘Pray for your father. He can’t go to shul, and for your father, shul is everything. His life is going to shul.’

“My parents are simple people. They just made a living. Their names aren’t on any buildings or plaques, but they’re Jewish role models in Winnipeg.”

Yosef recalled a Sukkot snowstorm in Winnipeg one year. “We woke up in the morning to find that the wind had blown the sukkah, in pieces, clear across the yard. I said, ‘There’s no sukkah this year.’ My father got dressed and, like a lion, ran outside and rebuilt the sukkah. What a sight that was!”

Yosef’s twin, Yamin, grew up to become an educator and a rabbi, as well. After teaching at Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate for four years, he moved to Montreal, where he has been living for the past 20 years. Married with four children and one grandchild, currently, Yamin is a teacher and administrator at Hebrew Academy High School, where he serves as the HAHS elementary school principal.

His fondest memories of growing up in Winnipeg are going to Talmud Torah Synagogue and singing in Brownstone’s choir. “This experience has shaped much of my life. I’ve been a ba’al tefilah [prayer leader] and served as chazzan [cantor] on the High Holidays for the past 30 years. My years teaching in Winnipeg were extremely rewarding, giving back to the school that gave me so much.

“My parents were extremely dedicated to me and my brothers. They came to Winnipeg as immigrants and life was very difficult for them at first. Thank God, today we’re all very successful professionals who are deeply committed to Jewish values, Torah and the community.”

Michael shares similar sentiments. “We’re a close-knit, observant family that spends a lot of time together, and is very involved in synagogue and Jewish school life. My parents played a big role in the way we all feel about Judaism and family today.”

Growing up, Spanish was the language spoken in the Benarroch home and, Michael noted, “My parents spoke Spanish at home and, in Morocco, the language at the school was French. When we had a school break, we used to travel as a family by train to Montreal to visit my mom’s family. As a kid, it was a great big adventure – great memories.”

After earning his PhD at Carleton University in Ottawa, Michael moved back to Winnipeg with his wife, Kim Bailey. Today, the couple live in River Heights and have two children. Michael is dean of business and economics at the University of Winnipeg and, among other community involvements, he is a member of Herzlia, and the Gray Academy Grade 11 and 12 basketball coach.

Although Michael said there are quite a few challenges to being an observant Jew in Winnipeg, what he loves about the city is “having family around, the available professional opportunities and the lifestyle.”

Al, the youngest of the Benarroch boys, was the only son born after the family moved to Winnipeg. He said, “Most of our childhood we lived at 348 Landsdown, right by Talmud Torah. We grew up in a religious, North End social circle – us, the Rappaports, Roses, Sabans, Rabers, Grismans and Laxers. All our cousins lived within a two-block radius of us, and our grandparents lived just across the street.

“We had constant traffic of visitors,” he continued. “On Shabbat, we’d have our lights on timers. So, when we had visitors over, we’d all be hanging out and talking when suddenly the lights would go out. We’d just continue talking by the light of the Shabbat candles.”

Al also recalled feeling that he was “always in the minority” growing up as an Orthodox Jew. “Right now, there seems to be a resurgence of Orthodox Judaism, with the opening of [the Jewish Learning Institute] and Herzlia’s growing membership. It’s getting to be like the old Jewish community vibrancy in the North End.”

Today, Al lives in the South End and is married to Brenlee Sucharov. They have two daughters. He took up his current role as Jewish Child and Family Services clinical director in 1999. Before that, he did private contracts for nine years exclusively with First Nations, running counseling clinics in schools.

“My parents were never wealthy, but growing up, there was always food on the table, smiles on their faces, and we’d celebrate together on Shabbat and the holidays,” said Al. “For my parents, and for me and my brothers, family is everything.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer. A version of this article appeared in the Jewish Post & News.

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