He served on the boards of multiple Jewish institutions, headed one of Toronto’s most prestigious law firms, mentored hundreds of lawyers during a 75-year legal career—and he was a former president of this publication, The Canadian Jewish News.
Donald Carr died in Toronto on Nov. 18. He was 96.
The co-founder of the firm Goodman and Carr also relished his role as a father of six and husband to Judy Feld Carr, a community activist who spent three decades secretly arranging the rescue of the Syrian Jewish community.
“There was almost no Jewish organization that was not positively influenced by his leadership and advice,” his son Jon told The CJN. “He assumed senior positions or became counsel for institutions including the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, United Israel Appeal, Beth Hatefusoth, Haifa University and the United Jewish Welfare Fund.”
Donald Carr was president of the Canadian Jewish News for more than 20 years and served as chairman emeritus and was president of the board of directors of the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto (now known as TanenbaumCHAT) from 1980 to 1982.
His father Harry had previously lived in Toronto and served overseas during the First World War—circumstances that led to him meeting his British wife, Florence. Although they moved back to Toronto as newlyweds they soon returned to England where they reunited with Florence’s family and started a family of their own.
Their son Donald, who was born in Leeds, England, and raised in Cheltenham, referred to his mother as a ‘reverse war bride’.
As a teenager he joined the Federation of Zionist Youth where he was editor of a magazine called Young Zionist—which was the beginning of his passion for language and grammar. At age 18, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps. With his keen attention to detail, he became an expert in aircraft recognition.
With the end of the Second World War, a Canadian uncle invited Donald to Toronto to live with his family and find work.
“He thought he was going to come here and become a journalist. He had a whole new family in Canada with his Uncle Sam, Aunt Reba and two cousins. They took him in as a son,” Jon said.
His uncle was a lawyer and suggested he consider law school. Carr applied to Osgoode Hall Law School and following his 1951 graduation joined his uncle at his law firm. The firm eventually became Cohen, Carr, Casse and Fine, and later Goodman and Carr—an operation where he concentrated on estate planning, trust administration and charities law.
In 1953 he married Chana Eisen. “She was a university graduate and worked at University of Toronto in the department of Epidemiology and Biometrics. She was very smart, very quiet and very family-oriented. And she was happy to be ‘manning the family’ while he was starting his career,” said Jon.
As his law practice grew, Carr moved into leadership positions in the community, serving as counsel for United Israel Appeal and chairman of CHAT.
In 1976 his wife died, leaving him with three young sons.
But his life changed when his children were attending United Synagogue Day School (USDS, now known as Robbins Hebrew Academy) in Toronto, and he met Judy Feld.
“Everybody knew who Donald Carr was, I’d heard him speak at Beth Tzedec. He was ‘Mr. Jewish Community,’” she said.
“I was 33 and widowed and Don was widowed. We both had two little boys at USDS who had something in common —they were the only kids in the school who had lost a parent. My son told me, ‘Adam Carr’s father can put up a badminton net and you can’t.’ And Adam told Don, ‘Gary Feld has a mommy.’
“The boys made a decision, and we met each other. It is a love affair that lasted till the last minute. It was a miracle for both of us.” Carr’s three boys and Feld’s three children joined forces under one roof. There was one rule: Judy made dinner every night for the family, and they were always expected to be there when she served it between 6 and 6:30 p.m.
In addition to being credited as a brilliant legal mind, Donald Carr was respected as a teacher, mentoring his colleagues who benefitted from his vast knowledge and his principled approach to the profession. He also spent considerable time on civic commitments and pro bono legal work in the Jewish community.
“Despite his many accomplishments as a lawyer and community leader, which included his appointment as King’s Council and being invested with the Order of Ontario, my father eschewed the limelight,” son Jon said. “He hoped others would receive acclaim and he would enjoy their triumphs.”
“He made house calls,” said wife Judy. “He went to nursing homes. He knew it was hard for these clients to come to a meeting. He could have sent a junior lawyer, but he went. He said that 50 percent of his practice was psychiatry. He was one of the best in Canada in charitable law, but he also was renowned for estate planning. With big estates, kids often fight. And there was Donald Carr ‘making the shalom,’ but quietly.”
Donald Carr was involved in a multitude of Jewish communal projects, said his wife. He helped found Mazon Canada and One Family Fund and chaired and was honoured at JNF Negev Dinners. He chaired the Canada Israel Committee’s 16th parliamentary dinner in Ottawa with Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien and Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres and, along with his wife Judy, was honoured by the Canadian Centre for Diversity. He was on the board of Haifa University and set up the Bible Lands Archaeology Foundation in Jerusalem.
Carr was also president of The Canadian Jewish News and in addition to believing that the newspaper was vital to the Canadian Jewish community, he was also able to revisit his passion for journalism, writing both editorials and investigative articles. “When we were in Israel there would always be an article for The CJN,” said Judy.
“He had so much commitment to what he was doing. When he took on a project he finished it. He never left anything undone. There was only one thing he wouldn’t get involved in and that was the shul board. He said ‘I come to pray. I don’t want to know the politics.’ He left that up to me.”
Judy Feld Carr, who made her own further impact in 1982-83 as the first female president of Beth Tzedec Congregation, summed up his approach to transcending sometimes-divisive denominations: “He had respect for every group in the community—Orthodox, Conservative, Reform. They all came to him for advice and help. Don was one of the few leaders in the community who was respected by all segments. He was a quiet powerhouse.
“Neither of us could have ever imagined that after the losses we suffered we would have, what we called, a ‘love affair.’ I was told that we were the ‘power couple’ but each of us did our Jewish missions quietly and separately.”
“My father was truly and selflessly devoted to Judy, to his family, to the law, to the Toronto Jewish community and to Israel,” his son said.
Donald Carr leaves his wife of 47 years Judy Feld Carr and children Aaron, Jonathan, Alan, Gary, Adam and Elizabeth, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is predeceased by his first wife Chana.
- READ MORE: The CJN’s past-president and current board member Elizabeth Wolfe pays tribute to Donald Carr
