Honey and Barry Sherman’s son builds a hockey arena in their memory for Toronto’s Jewish community

Construction has begun at the site of the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Jewish Community campus in Vaughan, Ont. for the Honey and Barry Sherman Arena. The $52 million dollar arena–to be attached to the existing JCC complex–is a gift from their son Jonathan Sherman to the Toronto Jewish community. The late Sherman’s three surviving daughters are not participating. It would make the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto the only JCC in Canada, and in North America, to own its own indoor ice hockey arena. With two NHL-sized rinks, stands, dressing rooms and a kosher snack bar, the arena is designed to provide badly-needed ice facilities for Jewish youth players and figure skaters, too. It will also be open to rentals by the wider community, where ice time is at a premium. Jonathan Sherman admits the announcement brings “heavy emotions” because the 2017 murders of his billionaire philanthropist parents have not been solved. But on this day, Sherman says he wants to focus on continuing their legacy of community building. On this episode of The CJN Daily, we hear from Adam Minsky, the CEO of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto; Christopher Ainsworth, the city councillor for the City of Vaughan where the project got the green light, and words from Jonathan Sherman himself.

What we talked about

• Read about the construction of the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic campus in Vaughan over the years in The CJN, including the official opening in 2012.
• After the murders of Barry and Honey Sherman in 2017, their legacy of philanthropy was in the spotlight, in 2018 in The CJN.
• Learn why the northern campuses of TanenbaumCHAT high school and Leo Baeck day schools closed in 2017 and 2019 respectively, at the Lebovic Jewish campus, in The CJN.

Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamachhane @jesterschest. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.