Community activist.
Born at Gomol, Russia in 1889, she came to Canada with her mother and sister in 1905, joining two brothers Samuel and Israel who had arrived the previous year and settled initially at Bender Hamlet before moving to Winnipeg. She began working in various job while becoming active in social causes and Jewish community activities. This included the creation, in 1907, of a soup kitchen on Manitoba Avenue to feed unemployed and low-income families. She helped to establish a Jewish public library on Lorne Avenue and, with Ben Sheps, Fanya Cherniack, Joseph Alter Cherniack, and others, formed the Jewish Dramatic Society in 1907.
On 4 May 1910, she married Jacob “Jack” Plotkin (1884-1969) at Winnipeg and they lived at Swift Current (Saskatchewan) for a year and Medicine Hat (Alberta) for several years before returning to Winnipeg in the early 1920s. Although the couple had no children, they became active in the I. L. Peretz School where she was President of Branch No. 1, Muter Farein.
In 1967, for the Canadian centenary, she was among 23 founders of the Archives Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress (Western Division) which served as a foundation for the future Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada (precursor to the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada). The committee collected photos, archival documents, and artefacts to illustrate the history of Jews in western Canada for an exhibit that opened in September 1967 at the YMHA Building on Hargrave Street.
She died at the Misericordia Hospital on 27 June 1974 and was buried with her husband in the Shaarey Zedek Cemetery. A collection of her materials is held at the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada.
Marriage registration [Katie Prason, Jacob Plotkin], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary [Jack Plotkin], Winnipeg Free Press, 8 October 1969, page 22.
“Youths accused of murder,” Winnipeg Free Press, 9 October 1969, page 52.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 29 June 1974, page 41.
We thank the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada for providing information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 9 September 2022
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