Julia Koschitzky was an internationally recognized philanthropist and community leader in Canada. She died of cancer on March 21 at the age of 78.

Koschitzky has been described as Jewish royalty, a giant of activism and philanthropy. She spent many years as a leader with Toronto’s United Israel Appeal, raising money in annual campaigns to pay for community services such as schools, summer camps, libraries and Meals on Wheels for Holocaust survivors. In the 1990s, she helped raise US$100 million dollars from Canadian donors alone to help fly hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews to new lives in Israel.

Messages of condolence and appreciation came flooding in after her passing, including from the president of Israel, Issac Herzog, and also Nachman Shai, Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, you’ll hear stories of her life and accomplishments from six people who knew her well, including Gerald Sheff, a Toronto businessman and philanthropist; Daniel Held, a longtime executive director of The Julia and Henry Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education; Linda Frum, a former senator and the board chair of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto; a grandson, Yaniv Koschitzky; and two of her four children, Jonathan and Sarena.

Listen and subscribe to the podcast above.

What we talked about:

• Read her obituary at thecjn.ca
• Watch her funeral on YouTube
• Transcript of the interviews
• Watch the full interview with philanthropist Gerald Sheff below:

Credits

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.