Barrie and Ellen Yackness Endowment Fund

When my elderly mother, Hanna Yackness, was basically housebound, the Jewish Family Service Agency provided volunteers to visit and telephone her on a daily basis. She very much looked forward to these visits and phone calls; they brightened her day. We wanted to help the JFSA brighten the days of others in the community, and, therefore, decided that an endowment fund for the JFSA would be an appropriate way to provide funds in perpetuity.

Ellen’s parents, Hilde and Karl Breuer, fled Germany and then Holland, and eventually settled in Toronto in 1940. My mother, Hanna, was born in Hirsch, Saskatchewan. My father, Joseph (Joe) came to Canada in 1907 as a very young child, with his siblings, from Ukraine.

Our parents were most grateful to have made their new homes in Canada, and showed their appreciation through volunteer and financial support of Israeli, Jewish and local institutions. Ellen and I continue our parents’ examples of supporting Jewish organizations in Vancouver and Israel. We hope that our children, David and Cathy, and Cathy’s husband, Toby, and our grandchildren, Jacob and Ryan, will continue our family’s tradition.

Barrie and Ellen Yackness