Irving and Ruth Aaron fonds

Irving Aaron was the son of Sarah and David Aaron, and had a brother Jack Aaron. In his youth, Irving was an accomplished public speaker who won numerous trophies including the "Moses Bilsky Oratorial Trophy" in 1944. He won the Regional Oratorical championship and received this trophy at a convention in Montreal, which qualified him to go to New York to represent the Dr. Maurice Brodie Chapter of A.Z.A. Irving married Ruth Feinstein on June 2, 1953, at B'nai Jacob synagogue on James Street. Irving would later serve as president of Beth Shalom congregation from 1974 to 1977, and Jack Irving and his brother Jack Aaron donated land in the Craig Henry area for the construction of Beth Shalom West synagogue. His brother Jack Aaron was also president of Beth Shalom. Both Irving and Jack were on the executive committee of the State of Israel Bonds organization in 1970. Irving was a contributor to the Holocaust Memorial erected in 1978. Ruth Aaron was Chair of Beth Shalom's 18th Birthday gala celebration and participated in "Group of 35" activities concerned with the freedom of Soviet Jewry (see 8-005). She was an active member of Hadassah-WIZO and for 25 years organized the hosting program for rehabilitated Israeli soldiers visiting Ottawa. She served on the board of the Jewish War Veterans of Canada-Ottawa Post and was a member of the Ottawa Chevra Kadisha. Irving and Ruth have three sons; Stanley (b. 1956), Jeffrey (b. 1959) and Leslie (b. 1963), and one daughter Carol (Sussman) (b. 1954) and 13 grandchildren (as of 2013).