Mayer Kirshenblatt, who died on Nov. 20 at age 93, will be remembered for becoming a self-taught artist at age 73.
Born in Opatow, Poland – he emigrated with his family to Toronto in 1934 – he worked in a sweatshop and as a house painter, and opened up his own paint and wallpaper store, before beginning his “second career” depicting Jewish and non-Jewish life in Poland before the war.
Eventually he collaborated with his daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, on a a book, They Called me Mayer July: Painted Memories of Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust.
He was nicknamed Mayer Tammuz, or Mayer July, as a boy in Poland, because he was known for being hotheaded.
In her eulogy, Kirshenblatt-Gimblett said how fortunate it is that “he has shared those memories for all the world and for all time through his paintings and stories, his book and exhibitions, his blog and Facebook page.
“He graced the lives of so many people with the gift of his memory, his wit and his indomitable spirit.”
Her father is the last of the generation born and raised in Poland before the Holocaust, she said. “Mayer’s passing marks the end of an era. Surrounded by our memories of him and his memories of a lost universe, we celebrate a life well lived and the precious legacy that he has bequeathed to his family and the world.”
Daughter Elaine Silver said that it was a “daunting task to distil a force like our dad into a few phrases. He was certainly larger than life – if not in stature, then in personality.
“We are all in awe of his prodigious memory – his capacity for detail, [and] his ability to describe his memories in such a way as to make us feel we are right there.”
She said that he created a lasting chronicle of a lost life in Poland so vividly that “it will set a standard to memorialize lost civilizations and cultures. We can picture his own joy and excitement with his creations. Having started late in life, he made it his mission to capture as much as he could of his childhood and share it with everyone he encountered.”
His family, she said, was his “pure pleasure. We’re all grateful for any time we spent with him. He was Zaide to all – friends, friends’ children, friends’ friends – no matter how remote the relationship, he had a particular regard for young people and made sure that they all knew how special they were to him.”
Speaking on behalf of Kirshenblatt’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Corey Brozovsky, husband of granddaughter Lisa Silver, said that “Zaide had infinite curiosity and a love for learning, which he imparted on all of us. He would teach us how to make the toys that he made when he was a kid, and was most proud about having taught everyone how to ride bicycles.”
In their eyes, he said, he could accomplish anything. “No task was too daunting, no skill unmasterable. He never felt he was too old to start something new.”
Brozovsky said that when their grandmother – Kirshenblatt and his wife, Dora, were married 69 years – began to lose her vision, “Zaide took over household responsibilities, including the cooking. He adapted her [recipes] to include apples. [He made] muffins, soups, salads, all with contraband apples ‘borrowed’ from the neighbourhood trees. He wouldn’t climb the trees. He just collected the ones that had fallen to the ground. He would say that it was a shame to see things go to waste.”
Kirshenblatt leaves his wife Dora, and was father and father-in-law to Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Max Gimblett; Elaine and Marv Silver; and Daniel and the late Anne Berlin.
