TORONTO — Sue Walsh was director of finance at Robbins Hebrew Academy (RHA) for 15 years until her retirement at the end of August, but it’s the school’s arts program that will benefit from a generous gift in her honour.
Sue Walsh
Although Walsh claims no artistic talent herself, her great-grandfather was renowned Jewish painter Isidor Kaufmann, whose work can be found in museums, private collections and among Sotheby’s Judaica offerings.
Kaufmann – who was born in 1853 in Arad, Romania, part of what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and died in 1921 – was a landscape and portrait artist known for his depictions of Jews in eastern European shtetls.
The art room at RHA’s Beth Tzedec campus will be named in his honour. As well, four monetary awards (two at each of the school’s two campuses) will be presented annually at RHA’s graduation ceremony. One will honour a student’s outstanding achievement in visual arts, and the other will recognize menschlichkeit, tikkun olam and empathy.
The gift is being made available through the school’s Hans and Kitty Schafer fund, established 15 years ago to honour Walsh’s parents.
Walsh, 61, will be honoured by the school at a l’chaim on Sept. 20 at the Elevator Gallery.
Before she joined the staff of United Synagogue Day School, as RHA was known until earlier this year, Walsh was a school parent and board member.
She had been director of finance at B’nai Brith Canada for more than six years when she joined the school as its comptroller (the position was later renamed). Prior to that, she worked in the private sector.
The mother of two grown children and new grandmother of a three-month-old grandson in Israel decided to retire after being diagnosed with lymphoma in January.
Having recently finished treatment, Walsh said in an interview at the school’s Beth Tikvah campus that now is “the right moment to go a different route and be grateful.”
She’s thankful that she was diagnosed early, and credits the school for allowing her to work part-time when her stamina was low.
Walsh said that Jewish education has always been important to her and that it’s been meaningful to work at a Jewish school. “You always feel like the work is worthwhile.”
Over the years, with rising day school fees, she said she has seen more parents not choosing Jewish education because of the cost. “The costs act as a barrier to them starting, and that’s heart-breaking for me.”
A native of London, England, Walsh is a certified general accountant and has a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Leeds.
Her family was close with Walsh’s great-uncle, Philip – Isidor’s son – who was also an artist. As a teen, Walsh used to visit him at his studio around the corner from the famed Abbey Road Studios.
“I used to love to visit him – primarily because I thought I’d get a glimpse of the Beatles,” she said, laughing. “I think I did, once.”
Walsh and her husband, Mark, have been in Canada for more than 30 years, including a three-year stint in Calgary. Her parents, both originally from Vienna, followed them to Toronto 20 years ago.
The arts aspect of the recent gift reflects her family’s belief that “it’s important for kids to have a more rounded education,” Walsh said. “We have a passion for the arts… This seemed like a neat fit.”
As well, she noted, her father, a retired businessman, is a Rotarian and used to volunteer at B’nai Brith. Until last year, he was on the board of George Brown College Seniors’ Association, she added.
Walsh’s mother, Kitty Schafer, told The CJN in a phone interview that her grandfather travelled to eastern European shtetls for several consecutive summers to paint in the late 1800s, at the suggestion of a patron.
“It was very difficult,” she said, explaining that the journey itself seemed like going to the moon would today, and that religious people in the shtetls didn’t necessarily want their portraits painted.
Kaufmann himself was “not really religious,” she said.
Schafer – who was born three months after her grandfather’s death and left Vienna in 1939 for London, England – said that, sadly, she has no originals of Kaufmann’s works.
She thinks the fund is “a wonderful idea” and is pleased that it will preserve the name of her grandfather, who is less well-known here than in Europe.
