TORONTO — David Woolf remembers being 21 years old and taking a job, along with his wife, Fran, teaching Jewish studies and Hebrew at the Talmud Torah in Windsor, Ont., where he was doing an MBA.
“We were newly married,” Woolf said, “and somebody there advertised an NCSY Shabbaton happening in Cleveland. NCSY [the international youth movement of the Orthodox Union] wasn’t doing much at the time in Canada. So we went, and were blown away by the informal education that was happening there at a much faster rate than we could do formally in the classroom, in terms of making kids proud of their Judaism and heritage.”
Some 50 years later, David and Fran Woolf are being honoured by NCSY at its 20th annual Ben Zakkai Honor Society’s national scholarship reception, Feb. 8, at New York City’s Jewish Heritage Museum.
The Fran and David Woolf Legacy Fund, which will provide scholarships for NCSY programs, will be inaugurated at the reception, and the Woolfs will receive the Enid and Harold H. Boxer Memorial Award, named after the original NCSY founders.
In a statement released by NCSY Canada, the couple is being recognized for their “lifetime of dedication to the Jewish future.”
In 1971, after moving from Windsor back to Toronto, where both grew up, the couple worked to help establish Toronto as a full-time region of NCSY, which was founded in the United States in 1954 and divided into different geographic regions throughout North America, and to contribute to the expansion of NCSY Canada, which now spans the country.
They helped develop programs including Torah High, which offers Jewish studies courses for Jewish public school students.
“There were some programs [in Toronto] but it wasn’t a full-time, dedicated operation,” David said. “We took it to the next level… [NCSY Canada] has become much bigger than we thought… and has had a tremendous effect on teenagers – a very difficult time in one’s life to address things like heritage.”
David, who worked for 36 years as a sales manager for Royal Group Technologies, became chairman of the board of NCSY Canada, a post he recently retired from, after 40 years.
Rabbi Glenn Black, CEO of NCSY Canada, referred to the Woolfs as “pioneers in the kiruv [outreach] movement… In all walks of life, they have clearly demonstrated their devotion to traditional Jewish values, and they stand as exceptional role models to our young people.”
David, who was born in England and came to Canada in 1950 with his parents, attended Eitz Chaim Schools, Ner Israel Yeshiva and William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, and did his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto.
His involvement with the Jewish community has included a tenure as vice-president of the board of JF&CS in the mid 1970s, executive board membership at COR and active involvement at his synagogue, Congregation B’nai Torah.
Fran, who was born to Holocaust survivors in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp, attended Associated Hebrew Schools and the Anne and Max Tanenbuam Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto.
She subsequently worked as a teacher in the Windsor public schools system and at the Talmud Torah in Windsor’s Shaar Hashomayim Congregation. She has also taught cooking classes through COR kosher certification and at Ulpanat Orot High School, as well as privately.
“It’s sort of humbling,” David said of their being honoured. “We did work hard, but we weren’t the only ones doing it. It’s a big honour for us that they’ve singled us out, and if it’s a way to encourage others to get involved and work toward a goal, then it’s worth it.”