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T THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS 8 Cover Story DECEMBER 28, 2017 ‘We are all grieving their loss’ 7,000 gather to say a heartfelt goodbye to the Shermans RON CSILLAG [email protected] It’s not often that a crowd of 7,000 people are stone silent. Indeed, a pin dropping was about the only sound that could have been heard before and between speeches of high emotion, stories of dignity, charity and family, and even dashes of humour at the memorial service for Barry and Honey Sherman on Dec. 21. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory sat with the Sherman family in the front rows of the cavern- ous International Centre, near Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ont. They were joined by thousands of friends, family and employees of Apotex, the gen- eric drug company that Barry Sherman founded in 1974 and grew into a multi-bil- lion-dollar international business. Company employees wore blue T-shirts with the message, “We will continue your legacy,” written on the back. Two coffins were prominently displayed Honey and Barry Sherman, “loved life so much. They loved to celebrate,” their son Jonathon said at the memorial service. at the front of the hall. Eulogies for the couple, who were found dead in their Toronto home on Dec. 15, mixed stories of their well-known and ex- tensive charitable work, leadership in the Jewish community and business acumen, Our family legacy emerged like with tales of their humanity and foibles. a phoenix from the ashes of the Following readings of Psalm 23 and Eli, Eli by Holocaust-era partisan fighter Han- European Holocaust nah Senesh, the Shermans’ son, Jonath- Jonathon Sherman on Sherman, was joined on stage by his sisters, Lauren, Alexandra and Kaelen. Jonathon Sherman declared that his com- Nothing, he stated, prepares someone “to ments would be “honest and raw and sit down and write your parents’ eulogy.” from my heart.” Jonathon Sherman recalled the zest Choking back tears, he said the past few with which his parents did everything, days had been “a shocking adjustment to including large, boisterous family meals. our reality. Before we can begin to grieve The two parents and four kids made trips as a family and recover in a proper Jewish around the world as “a six-pack,” in which manner, we’ve had to navigate through a his mother would usually lose a litany of terrifying maze of non-information and belongings. Matthew Schechtman relat- unfounded speculation, all while trying ed that Honey once gobbled a boxful of to support each other emotionally.” doughnuts and ordered him to get rid of the He said that the past week had been empty container, he recalled to chuckles. “painful and bizarrely surreal,” and “would “They were funny people and they loved have extinguished my family without the sharing their enthusiasm for life,” said Honey, left, and Barry Sherman in 1992. love and outpouring of support from all Jonathon. “Any event, be it a bar mitz- directions.” vah or wedding or just a simple Passover great Canadian,” he said. Through tears, Mary Schechtman con- The last few days, he said, “have re- dinner, was an occasion to celebrate with He also announced the creation of the ceded to being “confused and dazed and minded us what it means to be a Jewish gusto. Our parents loved life so much. Honey and Barry Foundation of Giving, really angry, and I’m afraid for the shock family: when someone tries to snuff you They loved to celebrate.” which the children have asked Honey Sher- that’s going to wear off and the reality out or eliminate important parts of your Neither parent was perfect, “but togeth- man’s sister, Mary Schechtman, to oversee. that’s going to set in.” family, we rally together and emerge er they were wholly balanced and excep- Jonathon Sherman pledged that the next She recalled that her parents were Holo- stronger than ever. Our family legacy tional,” he said. generation would continue to build on caust survivors (Honey Sherman was born emerged like a phoenix from the ashes of Jonathon Sherman revealed that his his parents’ legacy of “loving life, caring in a displaced persons camp in Austria) the European Holocaust, shattered and father received news just weeks ago that for others and knowing, as our parents al- and that the family was poor, but that the broken only to rise and rebuild – and to he would be named to the Order of Can- ways reminded us, that with great privilege sisters didn’t know it. thrive.” ada. “To our family, you were always the comes enormous responsibility.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 T THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS 14 Cover Story DECEMBER 28, 2017 ‘To know her was to love her’ This is truly a sad day.… We will feel it for years to come. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne From left, Barry and Honey Sherman, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat From left, Shoel Silver, Honey Sherman and Henry Koschitzky attend a cocktail and Yohanna Arbib Perugia, Jerusalem Foundation president, at the reception for the Jerusalem Foundation of Canada in 2015. Jerusalem Foundation of Canada gala in June. offices next to each other for the next 35 Honey Sherman, Tory noted, was “filled CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 man’s children – Matthew, Noah and Reb- years and saw the company grow from with an almost supernatural sense of “All I had was my mother, father and sis- ecca – from close friend Fred Waks and 70 employees in Toronto, to some 6,000 joy and fun and passion. For every bit of ter,” said Shechtman. “My sister wasn’t just from Barry Sherman’s nephew, Ted Flor- across Canada. Barry’s reserve, at least in public, she had my sister. She was my best friend. She was ence. “Barry was just a regular guy,” Kay said, a special kind of energy that more than my other half. We completed each other’s Joel Ulster, who said he was Barry Sher- his voice breaking several times. “He was made up for that. She was on everybody’s sentences.” man’s oldest friend, described him as “the kind of a teddy bear in real life, but with go-to list because she was loveable and Shechtman recalled that when she first smartest person, but much more import- a mind like a steel trap and the stubborn- fun, but also because she got the job done. met Barry Sherman, she thought: “My sis- antly, he had the biggest heart.” ness of a bull. He changed my life.” “What a joy to know her. To know her was ter’s going out with this? What’s the deal?” He said the Shermans gave away millions Tory said he was “profoundly saddened” to love her.” But she soon discovered a “brilliant, won- publicly, but also helped people quietly by the Shermans’ deaths. The couple, the The Shermans “were great citizens of this derful, kind man,” and a role model. and privately. mayor said, helped many people “who city and country, and outstanding mem- Honey Sherman “just wanted to make Apotex president and COO Jack Kay re- wouldn’t even know who they were or how bers of its Jewish community,” Tory said. everyone happy. She wanted to give every- called how Barry Sherman lured him from they were helped by Honey and Barry: In her remarks, Wynne also said that thing to everybody,” said Shechtman. Montreal to Toronto in 1982, to join Apotex the frail senior at Baycrest, the newcomer thousands benefitted from the Shermans’ On some shopping trips, Schechtman re- as a vice-president. “We’ll have a lot of fun using the JCC at the Sherman Campus, the generosity, but never knew it. “I get the called, the sisters did more laughing than and we’ll make some money,” Kay recalled student at York University or the Univer- sense that’s exactly how the Shermans buying. Barry Sherman promising him. sity of Toronto, the people helped by the wanted it to be,” she said. Eulogies were also delivered by Schecht- They ended up working long hours in United Way or the United Jewish Appeal.” CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE From left, Barry and Honey Sherman, Fred Waks and Toronto Mayor John Tory at the Sherman Campus groundbreaking ceremony in October. Jack Kay, left, and Barry Sherman Barry, left, and Honey Sherman THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS T DECEMBER 28, 2017 Cover Story 15 Honey and Barry Sherman, centre, at the opening of York University’s Sherman Health Sciences Research Honey Sherman Centre. Also pictured from York, from left, Stan Shapson, Mamdouh Shoukri and Paul Marcus. Wynne said that one of the tenets of Ju- power of people and in government to do Frum was an anxious flier at the time and The Shermans “loved and respected daism that she finds beautiful is the con- good, to innovate, to do better, to move recalled how Honey Sherman reached out each other deeply and their values effort- cept of tzedakah. our society forward and to make the world and silently took her hand on the flight. lessly aligned,” Frum added. “Whereas charity is understood as a vol- a better place. “I preserve this image of Honey in my Just a few weeks ago, Frum awarded Hon- untary act of kindness, tzedakah teaches “This is truly a sad day. We are all grieving mind, because it is how I will always think ey Sherman a Senate medal in recognition that we have an obligation to help those their loss. We will feel it for years to come.” of her: as a woman who, by natural in- of the couple’s contributions to Canada.

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