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Judith Carr

(1939-)

Judith Feld Carris a Jewish Canadian musician and humanitarian, who resides in Toronto, Ontario. Judy was born in Montreal, but spent much of her childhood in Sudbury, Ontario. She is best known for smuggling thousands of Jews out of Syria. She did this in over 25 years in a secret operation.

Feld Carr obtained a Bachelor's of Education 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 funds were used to literally buy Syrian Jews passage out of the country. The process took over 25 years to complete. The project was performed in complete secrecy to protect the lives of the Syrian immigrants as well as the leaders of the project. The Jews that were escorted out of Syria migrated to Israel and the United States.

Her work ostensibly focused on creating cells with Syrians temporarily abroad, to develop a reliable and secure information network. Each Syrian Jew was rescued through individual bribes organized 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 Harold Troper's book, The Ransomed of God: The Remarkable Story Of One Woman's Role in the Rescue of Syrian Jews (2007) .

Judith Feld Carr has received numerous awards including the Order of Canada, the Simon Wiesenthal Award for Tolerance, Justice and Human Rights and the Haifa University Merit Award. Feld Carr also received an honorary degree from Laurentian University.


Sources: Wikipedia