[Fdu] ben shek

[p.fitting at utoronto.ca]

Ben-Zion Shek 1927 - 2011

> From blacklisted high school teacher to a Fellow of the Royal  
> Society of Canada

The Royal Society of Canada (RSC), the Canadian institution devoted to  
recognizing excellence in learning and research, as well as  
recognizing accomplishments in the arts, humanities and sciences,  
since 1882.

Dr. Ben-Zion Shek, Emeritus Professor of French, University of  
Toronto. Author of Social Realism in the French-Canadian Novel,  
Montreal: Harvest House, 1977, and French-Canadian and Québécois  
Novels, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1991, and numerous articles  
in learned journals in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. A specialist in  
Québécois literature, he has given papers and lectures throughout  
North America, Europe, Australia-New Zealand, India and China. He has  
also edited several important books, and was twice Associate Editor of  
the University of Toronto Quarterly. Dr. Shek was elected a Fellow of  
the Royal Society of Canada in 2002.

A Life Travelled . . .

Ben-Zion Shek 1927 - 2011

Eulogy by David Abramowitz

At a graveside ceremony 11 .a.m. Thursday, June 30, 2011. Bathurst  
Lawn Memorial Park, Toronto

Ben's parents, Bella and Sol, emigrated from Poland to mandate  
Palestine where Ben-Zion Shek was born in June, 1927. Because they  
were disenchanted with circumstances there at the time they returned  
to Poland. Yet, as things were also not promising in Poland, and  
because Bella and Sol had family here, they migrated to Toronto in 1934.

Seven-year-old Ben found a vibrant Yiddishist left-wing community that  
first summer at the Labour League's Camp Naivelt; the subsequent  
kinship lasted for 77 years in several branches of the organization.

During his high school years at Harbord Collegiate, Ben participated  
in a summer Yiddish teachers' training course at Camp Naivelt in 1943,  
after which, with several Harbord colleagues, he taught at the Morris  
Winchevsky School. He was my grade two teacher in 1944; I've known Ben  
for 67 years.

His parents, joined the United Jewish People's Order (UJPO), successor  
to the Labour League, and the Frayhayt Gezangs Fareyn (the Freedom  
Singing Society, now the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir).

Ben attended the University of Toronto, and, subsequently, became a  
high school teacher.

With his spirit of social responsibility and activism Ben participated  
in left-wing youth organizations and activities, becoming the leader  
of the first Canadian delegation to the Federation of World Youth  
Conference. He was the English page co-editor, and later editor, of  
the Canadian-Jewish Weekly (Vochenblat) and editor of "Champion", the  
newspaper of the National Federation of Labour Youth (NFLY).

Probably because of these and similar activities he was clandestinely  
persecuted by the Canadian security establishment resulting in his  
firing as a teacher. Not to be a victim-loser, Ben furthered his  
university studies acquiring his PhD. in French and subsequently,  
developed into a popular French professor at the U of T, thus  
triumphing over those who had persecuted him.

Romance didn't elude Ben either. He had very high standards I learned.  
But when Ben met Jean Alderwood, he found his ideal. They did nothing  
to refrain from having a family; Jean's planned pregnancy resulted in  
a son, Elliot. To ensure their ideal family would be achieved they  
chose to adopt and were very proud of their new daughter Ghitta; now  
their family was
complete.

Ben and Jean had joined Ben's parents in the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir  
and later became among its significant supporters and leaders as its  
older generations succumbed to natural forces.

Long after retirement Ben continued to mentor many U of T students.  
The U of T, Jewish music, and French were three of Ben's other loves.

It would take too long to list his numerous awards and honours here.  
As a retired Professor Emeritus of French, possibly his most proud  
achievement and honour was the recognition of his dedicated  
pedagogical skills and contribution to Canadian society when he was  
named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He authored two books  
on Québécois literature as well as twice being Associate Editor of the  
"University of Toronto Quarterly". Till now he was also an Associate  
Editor for Outlook Magazine to which he contributed and also reviewed  
Jewish films. He was interviewed on radio and television - some are  
still available in archival collections that you might find on the  
web. He hosted radio and TV interviews.

He and Jean visited Cuba more than 30 times together and, on several  
occasions, Ben taught courses on French-Canadian literature there. He  
acquired a difficult to obtain electron microscope for the children's  
optical hospital in Havana whose director he and Jean hosted on her  
visits to Canada.

He's lectured internationally on the role of the French-Canadian novel  
in Quebec and in Canadian society; he wrote articles and papers on  
French-Canadian (and French-Canadian Jewish) writers and English and  
Jewish writers from Quebec.

For a couple of decades Ben was a highly regarded secretary of  
UJPO-Canada who would often have difficulty reading his own written  
notes to transcribe them into minutes. At the time of his death he was  
UJPO-Canada's Vice-President.

Above all, he was a truly great "Mentsh" - a humanist "par  
excellence", unwilling to compromise his principles for anything,  
which sometimes made him seem like a curmudgeon. His signing of  
numerous petitions for progressive causes in which he ardently  
believed, his attendance at peace marches and demonstrations of many  
types, even when in poor health, whether they were anti-war or for  
Middle-East peace, epitomizes how he was dedicated to and sought to  
uphold his secular, humanist, and progressive principles and to  
contribute to make this a better, more just world for all.

And to those who were fortunate to be closer to him, whether a  
life-long friend and ally or a more recent colleague, he was the  
truest friend one could have, checking to see how you were if he had  
learned you were under-the-weather, visiting those with more serious  
ailments, and encouraging a speedy recovery - something none of us  
were able to do for him given his many increasingly complex health  
challenges in recent months and weeks.

To Elliot and Ghitta, our condolences on your, and our, mutual  
profound loss. Though we will miss him immeasurably, he still will  
exist in our memories and influence our conduct, and, in honouring his  
name and reputation, his influence will live on in those whom he  
affected, and I hope, will thus be passed on to future generations.

And, as nature continues to take its course, it's not farewell, dear  
friend, but "au revoir".

Ben-Zion Shek died Sunday 26 June 2011 at Sunnybrook Hospital,  
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

http://www.lexpress.to/archives/6581/
http://www.truenorthperspective.com/Friday_08_July_2011/ben_shek