Gita Smolar

Gita Smolar, “Baba Gita” or just “BBG,” passed away January 11th, 2023, having recently celebrated her 102nd birthday.  BBG was widely regarded as a sweet, kind, and gentle woman who always offered a bite to eat, a coffee or other food to any visitor or other person on the street.  She was never satisfied with taking ‘no’ for an answer.  At the age of 21, BBG cared for and transported young Russian children and orphans from the battlefront of World War II to relative safety deeper inside Russia.  On one occasion, her train was bombed by the Germans, and she suffered lasting injuries that caused her daily pain; that said, she never complained.  In her 40’s, BBG saved her late husband of 64 years, Jakub Smolar z”l, through cunning and guile, from a Russian Gulag.  BBG and Zaidy J, along with their children Sophie and Leon, fled from Russia to Poland, through Italy and finally landed in Canada.  In Canada, BBG lived a humble life, always working hard to ensure that her children and grandchildren would have a better and easier life than that which she endured.  BBG would later be instrumental in bringing her sister Rosa and her family from Russia in the 1980s.  My BBG is survived by her elder sister, Rosa; her children Leon (Dora) and Sophie (Lester); her grandchildren, Ross (Jordana), Tina (Paul), Liron (David), and Eitan; her great-grandchildren Nate, Mitch, Jesse, Marlee, Ozzy, and Avigail, as well as her many nieces and nephews. We, and her enormous extended family all across the world, already deeply miss her, her smile, and her unassuming ways and feel the world is a little bitter duller and a little bit sadder without her.