Judy Feld Carr: The Toronto Music Teacher Who Rescued Syrian Jews
From the Jewish Women's Archive
For almost thirty years, a music teacher in Toronto ran one of the most remarkable rescue operations of the twentieth century. This entry from the Jewish Women's Archive tells the story of Judy Feld Carr, who secretly arranged the escape of more than 3,000 Jews from Syria.
How it began
Coded messages to Damascus
Born in Montreal in 1938 and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, Carr studied music education and married a physician, Ronald Feld. In 1972, after reading about the plight of Syria's Jews, who were barred from leaving the country, the couple formed a committee to help. They reached Rabbi Ibrahim Hamra in Damascus by sending religious books, and soon Carr and the rabbi were exchanging messages coded in references to Jewish texts. After her husband died suddenly in 1973, she carried on the work while raising three children.
The rescues
One person at a time
Carr raised money in Toronto and built a secret network inside Syria. She negotiated with officials, paid bribes and the deposits Syria demanded as a guarantee that travelers would return, invented reasons for trips abroad, and paid smugglers to guide people across the border into Turkey. Most of those she rescued settled in Israel, Brooklyn, and South America. When Syria eased its rules in the early 1990s, she sped up her efforts, and the last family she helped arrived in the United States on September 11, 2001.
Saving books too
The Damascus Keter
Carr also helped smuggle out rare Hebrew manuscripts, including a twelfth century Bible known as the Damascus Keter, now in the National Library of Israel. Her work, kept secret for decades, has since been honored with the Order of Canada and Israel's Presidential Award of Distinction, among many other awards.
Read the full entry at the Jewish Women's Archive →
This summary was written by JIMENA and is based on “Judy Feld Carr” by Harold Troper, with updates by Susan Landau Chark, in the Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, published by the Jewish Women's Archive. The original entry belongs to the Jewish Women's Archive.
