Judy Feld Carr
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Judith Feld Carr, CM , LL.D (born 1939) is a musician and humanitarian, who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Judy was born in Montreal, but spent much of her childhood in Sudbury, Ontario. She is famous for smuggling thousands of Syrian Jews out of Syria to safety. She did this over 28 years in a secret operation.
Feld Carr attained a B.Ed in music from the University of Toronto. Originally trained as a musician, Feld Carr taught music in Toronto for many years.
Feld Carr used funds from the Dr. Ronald (Rubin) Feld Fund for Jews in Arab Lands (established in 1973), donated privately, to negotiate the release of Syrian Jews from the Syrian government. The process took over 25 years, in complete secrecy to protect the lives of those in danger. The Jews were escorted out of Syria, after which some migrated to Israel. Feld Carr recalled, "We were buying Jews, one by one, from a hostile government. It was the best-kept secret in the Jewish world."
Her work ostensibly focused on creating cells with Syrians temporarily abroad, to develop a reliable and secure information network, with coded language based on Chinese cuisine and alcohol. Her nickname was Gin. Each Syrian Jew was rescued through individual bribes organised by Feld Carr. In certain cases, she arranged successful escapes when bribery failed.
It is estimated that, in all, Judy Feld Carr facilitated the escape of 3,228 Jews.
The tale of her humanitarian work is detailed in Toronto academic (and co-author of None is too Many with Irving Abella) Harold Troper's book, The Ransomed of God: The Remarkable Story Of One Woman's Role in the Rescue of Syrian Jews. She is also the subject of Robert Ginty's 2-hour CTV movie, Mrs. Judy. [1]
Judith Feld Carr has received numerous awards, including the Order of Canada, the Simon Wiesenthal Award for Tolerance, Justice and Human Rights, the Haifa University Merit Award as well as an Honorary degree from Laurentian University.
