Jean Rose fonds

Jean Rose (née Jean Robinstone, b. Manchester, England) was a Scottish-Canadian social worker involved with the War Orphans Project coordinated by the Canadian Jewish Congress, which worked to bring young Jewish people from Europe to Canada during the 1940s and 1950s. She held leadership roles in the National Council of Jewish Women and the Canadian Jewish Congress and was the first female vice president of the Canadian Jewish Congress’s Pacific Region.Born in England to Betsy and Louis Robinstone, Rose and her family moved to Glasgow, Scotland when she was one year of age; she remained in Glasgow until her marriage in 1918 to Benjamin Rose, a Canadian serviceman. In 1919 the couple moved to Vancouver, Canada, where they had and raised two children, Jack Jr. and Doreen.In the 1920s and 1930s Rose became increasingly involved in Jewish and non-Jewish charitable organizations; this work gathered momentum during the Second World War, when Rose spearheaded a group of Jewish women within the Canadian Red Cross to work for the benefit of overseas servicemen. Rose continued to work with immigrants, helping to relocate Hungarian refugees of the Soviet invasion in 1956, and was active as late as the mid-1970s, working with immigrants from the Soviet Union.Rose was predeceased by her husband Jack in 1972 and remained involved in charitable causes until her death in 1986.

Records were donated by Valerie Rose in 2012.