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Frum

FRUM, Canadian family. BARBARA ROSENBERG FRUM (1937–1992), radio and TV journalist, was born in Niagara Falls, New York, and educated at the University of Toronto. She wrote for numerous magazines and performed on TV and radio, but was best known for hosting CBC Radio's popular current affairs show As It Happens. From 1982 until her death she was a host of The Journal, CBC-TV's nightly current-affairs program. Barbara Frum received the Order of Canada in 1979 and the National Press Club of Canada Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Journalism in 1975. Following her death from leukemia in 1992, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Toronto and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television John Drainie Award for Distinguished Contributions to Broadcasting.

Her husband, MURRAY FRUM (1931– ), was a real estate developer and arts patron. He was born in Toronto, Ontario, and received his degree in dentistry from the University of Toronto in 1956. He began his career in property development soon after graduation and became chairman and CEO of the Frum Development Group. A long-time patron of the arts, Frum chaired the Ontario Arts Council Foundation and the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, and was a trustee of the Art Gallery of Ontario. The Frum Collection of Primitive Art and Sculpture has been exhibited at such prestigious institutions in Canada and the U.S. as the National Gallery in Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Smithsonian Institute and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Frum was awarded the Order of Canada in 2001.

Their son DAVID FRUM (1960– ), author, journalist, and political pundit, was born in Toronto, Ontario. He received simultaneous B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from Yale in 1982 and graduated cum laude from the Harvard Law School in 1987. Between 1994 and 2001, he was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research, and from January 2001 to February 2002, was economic speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He wrote for The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Weekly Standard, The New York Times, and Canada's National Post, and published five books. Frum was the Reader's Digest resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing editor for National Review, writing a daily column for National Review Online. He regularly appeared on National Public Radio and contributed to Britain's Daily Telegraph.

Barbara and Murray Frum's daughter LINDA FRUM (1963– ), author and journalist, was also born in Toronto, Ontario. In 1984 she earned a B.A. in arts from McGill University. Her work appeared in many Canadian publications, particularly the National Post, and she published two books, including a memoir of her late mother, Barbara Frum: A Daughter's Memoir (1996). She was appointed chair of UJA Federation's Women's Campaign & Advocacy and was a member of the board of directors of the Canada-Israel Committee.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.