Roses departure leaves void in Winnipeg community

Rabbi Neal and Carol Rose

WINNIPEG — Rabbi Neal and Carol Rose’s pending departure for St. Louis is going to leave a large void in the Winnipeg Jewish community.

Over the past 45 years, the Roses have been an integral part of the community. As a community rabbi, Rabbi Rose has officiated at numerous weddings and funerals. He has filled in as spiritual leader at different times at the city’s major synagogues when they have been between rabbis, in addition to his many years of teaching at the University of Manitoba. Most recently, he served as spiritual leader at the Simkin Centre before retiring last fall.

Rabbi Rose and Carol Rose, together, have created a long-lasting chavurah. Their annual Yom Tov Family of Roses service in the basement of Congregation Etz Chayim is just one manifestation.

“It’s hard leaving,” says Carol. “Winnipeg has been our home for the past 45 years. We’ve raised our children here. We have many close friends here. Winnipeg gave us the opportunity to be the best we could be.”

Rabbi Rose said, “We feel like we grew up here, too.” 

What they don’t have there any more are their five children and 14 grandchildren. For the past few years, they have been spending the winters in St. Louis where their second-oldest son, Carni, and his family live, and where Carni serves as spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Amoona.

The Roses originally came to Winnipeg from New York in 1967. Rabbi Rose had been recruited to teach in the Judaic studies department at the University of Manitoba. Carol Rose was just 21 at the time.

She notes that she actually first visited Winnipeg a few years earlier – when she was 16 – to visit Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, who was the Hillel director and teacher there for 25 years.

“Right from the beginning, we worked with Zalman to start a community which became Bnai Or [later renamed Pnai Or],” she recalls. “We started by inviting students and faculty over for Shabbat and holiday meals, as well as including clergy from other faith communities. We had programs at Winnipeg Beach during the long summer weekends. We shared kosher meals together. We did Tashlich together over the lake. We got together for sedarim, inviting students or people who did not have family in the city. We developed naming rituals for baby girls before it was done anywhere else.

“Our experiments in creating an intentional Jewish community here in Winnipeg… is the model for what became the Jewish Renewal Movement.”

She also co-founded a long-running women’s Rosh Chodesh group, with which she was involved for more than 30 years.

Then there is their alternative yom tov service, which they have been leading for more than 30 years. The service, which generally attracted about 100 worshippers, included poetry, creative Torah interpretations, songs and original liturgy. 

Some of the regular participants are talking about continuing the service with leadership being provided by volunteers.

The Roses were also greatly involved over the years in interfaith dialogue and consider many members of the interfaith community as their friends.

The plan, Carol notes, is for the couple to move to St. Louis for a year and see how it works out. They will be staying in a residence that is attached to a traditional shul.

Rabbi Rose will be teaching Yiddish at Washington University and working with Jewish seniors through St. Louis’ Jewish Family and Children’s Service. Both the rabbi and his wife will be involved with alternative Jewish education in that city.

Those who want to wish the Roses a fond farewell can drop in at Congregation Shaarey Zedek, where a goodbye party is planned for them on Aug. 30.