Boris Moroz: Celebrating the centenary of a community builder in every sense of the word – The Suburban Newspaper

I first met Boris Moroz when I was a youth member of the Canadian Jewish Congress Eastern executive and he was one of its leaders. The 1970s were stormy years in Quebec from the FLQ Crisis to the election of the first PQ government. And CJC was right in the middle working to protect the interests of the Jewish community. What Boris taught - drawing from his own life of overcoming challenges - was how to deal with authority with pragmatism not dogma and where everybody comes out with something. Everyone is perceived as winning something. His lessons were not lost on me through my years of public engagement. Last Wednesday Boris celebrated his 100th birthday in fine form and as sharp as ever. His has been an exceptional life of an exceptional man.

Boris Moroz was born on April 21, 1921 in a small town in Poland called Gabin. He lived in the industrial city of Lodz growing up, which was the second largest in pre-war Poland and a European centre of the textile trade. The population was fairly even split between Poles, Germans and Jews. His family lived in the German area and so they spoke as much German as Polish. Boris was educated at a Hebrew school.

As far as he can remember, his family always wanted to immigrate to Canada where his mothers two brothers had settled and opened a printing business called the Service Linotyping Company. Although his family had visas to emigrate in the late 1920s, due to the stock market crash in 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, immigration to Canada stopped. It did not re-open until 1935,when Boris family was able to leave for Canada. They arrived in November when Boris was 14 years old.

He had always wanted to be an architect. He loved to draw ands went to art school in Poland. In Montreal while in High School, Boris attended classes at Lecole des Beaux Arts and took art courses which were a pre-requisite for architecture. After finishing high school, Boris entered McGill University in 1939 in the School of Architecture. However, with the prevailing conditions at that time due to the outbreak of World War II, it was not a good time for architecture, with only six new students enrolled in the program. McGill was to discontinue the school and so, on the advice of architects and engineers, Boris switched to engineering and entered the first year pre-engineering program.

Boris spent five years at McGill, four of them in Mechanical Engineering. He did well scholastically receiving the honor of being named a University Scholar and graduating in 1944 with the Gold Medal.

Engineering students at the time had to take summer jobs in their field. After spending a month in survey school, his professor suggested Boris join a war-time emergency job surveying for an oil pipeline from Portland , Maine to Montreal East.

At that time the Germans were sinking our oil tankers with submarines at sea. Boris continued working on the construction of the pipeline in Canada. He wrote a paper on his work which won him a prize and was published. He went on to work at the Dominion Bridge Company, where he worked on design and construction of moveable bridges. Boris was always interested in construction, and as soon as the occasion arose, he took a leave of absence from Dominion Bridge and started his own business and built his first set of duplexes on Somerled at the corner King Edward in NDG.

Boris began drawing plans from his own duplex that he owned and began building on Lacombe Avenue next to where he lived. When his father in law Karl Kussner, moved to Montreal from Northern Ontario, Karl joined Boris in the business. Together they built duplexes on Maplewood, Van Horne, Carlton, Mckenna, and apartments on Decelles and Decelles Place.

Boris first began building in Hampstead with duplexes on MacDonald Avenue between Hampstead Road and Dupuis. Karl Kussner and Boris Moroz formed a partnership with Joel Sternthal and his son in law Aaron Gelber under the name of Planned Homes and bought a farm in Cote St. Luc adjacent to Hampstead. They built homes on Pinedale, Alpine and Kay Roads. This was the first development in Cote St. Luc with sewers instead of septic tanks. They put in their own domestic sewers and street drainage lines on these streets.

Boris then bought land in Hampstead, part private land and part from the sale of the Golf Course. He designed and built custom homes, south and north of Fleet Road, including his own at 300 Dufferin Road, where he lived for more than twenty years.In later years, Boris formed a realty company named Hampstead Realties and after his move to Florida, opened a company called Hampstead Realties of Florida.

But Boris never forgot the importance of giving back. He was always active in community affairs. He started his volunteer service in the 1940s and for over 30 years was active in Bnai Brith , Hillel, BBYO, Camp Bnai Brith, worked on fundraising drives , was Vice- Chairman of Israeli Bonds , formed the Eastern Regional Council of Bnai Brith with 31 Lodges, and became the 11th President of Canadian Bnai Brith (District 22), Chaired the League for Human Rights and the Soviet Jewry Committee, and was Vice President of the Eastern Region of Canadian Jewish Congress.

Frank Diamant , the long-time Executive Director of Canadian Bnai Brith said, As a leader in Bnai Brith Canada District 22 he will always be remembered for his strong activist positions on behalf of Soviet Jewry. He was a champion, advocating on behalf of the Jews, trapped behind the Iron Curtain. His strong leadership was also evident in both the Canada-Israel Committee and the Joint Community Relations Committee, which oversaw the battle against anti-Semitism in Canada.

On this the occasion of his 100th birthday, may he continue to be blessed with the love of his family and the knowledge that the Canadian Jewish Community appreciates his great contributions to its welfare. The name of Boris Moroz is synonymous with proud national Jewish leadership.

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Boris Moroz: Celebrating the centenary of a community builder in every sense of the word - The Suburban Newspaper