Ruth Kron Sigal and her family in Canada
On March 11, 1951, the Kron family arrived from Europe in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and travelled on to Montreal.
Ruth’s father Meyer spent three months in hospital with infectious hepatitis. An attempt to operate a new tannery fell apart but her mother Gita prepared for a new career as a teacher attending the Jewish Hebrew Teachers’ Seminary.
Heading west
Meyer left Montreal in March 1952 to operate a government run tannery in Regina and the rest of the family joined him at the end of the school year. The factory burned down in May 1953. A client in Winnipeg offered Meyer work at the J. Leckie Company, in New Westminster, near Vancouver, where he stayed until 1964 when he moved to his final job at B.C. Fur before retirement.
Gita obtained a teaching post at the Beth Israel Religious School and Talmud Torah Day School, in Vancouver. Meyer died October 10, 1986, and Gita on November 10, 1994.
Ruta’s new life
Ruta – known better as Ruth in her adopted country – obtained a degree in Bacteriology at the University of B.C. Ruth’s brother, Leo, graduated medical school at UBC, before training to become a child psychiatrist in New York. He lives there with wife Jill Rubin and they have a son, Josh and a daughter, Emily.
Ruth subsequently married Cecil, a successful dermatologist. They had three children Marilee, Elana and Michael, and all live in Vancouver. Marilee married Avihu Nachmani and had Tamara, Benjamin and Naomi. Elana married Dana Prince and had Zachary Meyer (died age 16, leukemia) and Joshua. Michael married Bibi Fishman and had Aaron.
Return to UBC
After doing research and social work for 10 years, at 39, Ruth went back to UBC and got her second degree in Counselling Psychology. Ruth was the Director of the UBC Women’s Resources Centre for 25 years.
Before and after her retirement, she received a number of notable awards including the YWCA award for lifetime achievement, UBC President’s Award and Gold medal, the Canadian Government award for contributions to Canadian society as a Hidden Child Survivor of the Holocaust and the UBC Alma Mater Society Great Trekker Award.
Ruth was also a cofounder of the Vancouver Child Survivors of The Holocaust group. In 1996, she had a kidney cancer removed. In 2007, she was found to have widespread metastases and died on December 16, 2008.
On April 9, 2025, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim proclaimed that date, Ruth Kron Sigal Day in the city in recognition of her contributions to her adopted community.