WINNIPEG – Eden Memorials – which until three years ago was Winnipeg’s last Jewish-owned memorial stone maker – is closing at the end of this month, but a non-Jewish company is confident it can serve the community with the help of two former Eden stalwarts.
With the addition of Clare Walters to its staff along with Lorne Raber as a consultant, Larsen Memorials, one of Winnipeg’s oldest memorial stone makers, is looking forward to attracting most of the Jewish clients who would otherwise have patronized Eden.
“For almost 50 years, Eden Memorials was the only Jewish-owned memorial company in Winnipeg and the only memorial company specializing in Jewish memorials,” said Raber, who owned of Eden until three years ago and was the face of the business.
The company was started by the Juravsky family in 1967. In 1995, Lorne Raber, who was related to the family by marriage, bought the company and continued its tradition of serving the Jewish community, as well as the wider Winnipeg market.
The personable Raber was well known in the Jewish community and was a leader and innovator in the memorial industry. He served a term as president of the Monument Builders of North America.
Also instrumental in Eden Memorials’ success during the latter years of his ownership, Raber said, was his office manager, Walters. She started working at Eden shortly after moving to Winnipeg from South Africa in 2001.
“Clare is one of the most detailed people I have ever met,” Raber said, “and she is very good at dealing with people.”
Three years ago, Raber, who was facing some health issues and aged in-laws, sold his business to a non-Jewish couple and continued to make himself available to the new owners to meet with Jewish clients by appointment.
In December 2014, Walters left Eden to work from her home in Winnipeg with a cousin who operates a software company out of Vancouver.
While Raber doesn’t know why the business ultimately failed, he said demand for Jewish headstones isn’t what it used to be.
“When I started in this business 20 years ago, the number of Jewish burials was between 190 and 215 annually,” he said. “Last year, there were only 135 to 140 Jewish burials here.
“People are living longer, and the Jewish community is skewing younger.”
Last summer, Walters was looking to get back into the memorial business and put out some feelers. She knew all of Eden’s Jewish clients going back more than 10 years, so Larsen Memorials snapped her up.
“We thought that Clare would be a real asset to our firm,” said David Bohn, who along with his brother Dennis and sister Shelly acquired the company from the Larsen family 15 years ago. “ A lot of people know her.”
Shelly Bohn added that “with our design system… we can produce Jewish letters.”
And like he was at Eden, Raber will be available at Larsen to meet with former and current clients to help provide for their memorial needs.
“This is a win-win scenario,” he said.
