Judy Field Carr

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Judy Feld Carr (born December 26, 1938 in Toronto ) is a Canadian musicologist who managed to enable more than 3000 Jews to flee Syria between 1973 and 2002 .

Life

Together with her younger brother Alexander (1942–1999), Judy grew up in Sudbury, the daughter of Russian- born Jack Lev (1898–1983), a fur trader and leader of the Jewish community, and Sarah, née Rivers from Brooklyn (1917–1983). 1986). After graduating from high school in 1957 , she studied music at the University of Toronto , where she received both a bachelor's and master's degree in music education and musicology. She then specialized further at the Ontario College of Education . In 1960 she married the doctor Ronald Feld (1933–1973), with whom she had three children: Alan Harold (* 1961), Gary Alexander (* 1965) and Elizabeth Frances (* 1969).

At the end of the 1960s, the couple got involved with the Jews in the Soviet Union , but their work soon concentrated on Syria, where 6000 Jews lived at that time. The two founded an aid organization that tried to make known the fate of the harassed minority. They secretly arranged meetings with leaders from the Damascus community , and later from Aleppo . At the same time they tried to bring money there. When her husband died in 1973, friends set up a charity fund in his memory.

In 1977 Judy Feld married Donald Carr (* 1928). They tried to bring a rabbi from Aleppo who had cancer to Canada. This was done under strict secrecy and by means of bribery. As a result, Carr received names and contacts from Jews who also wanted to leave the country. The Syrian incumbents viewed the money supply as a kind of security for the return of the Jews going abroad, but apparently everyone involved knew that the refugees would never return to Syria. Most of the refugees went to New York, because emigration to Israel was threatened by the Syrian state with penalties for those who stayed behind. In emergencies, they were also illegally smuggled out of the country into Turkey , which in turn had to find men who were willing to take the risk (for a fee).

In the early 1990s, when there was hope that Israel and Syria would reach a peace treaty, the Syrian government emigrated most of the Jews, with bribes continuing to flow in. That was the end of Carr's 30 year job; she received honors from Jewish and Israeli organizations, including the Saul Hayes Human Rights Award in 1995 from the Canadian Jewish Congress and an honorary doctorate from Laurentian University in 2000. In the same year she was awarded the Order of Canada . She also received the Medal of Valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles in 2001 and the Abraham Sachar Medal as Woman of the Year from Brandeis University in 2002, as well as an honorary doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York in the same year .

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personal data
SURNAME Carr, Judy Field
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian musicologist and escape agent
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto