October 2024
Wendy Schneider

Tom Weisz, husband, father, grandfather, brother, community leader; Born June 12, 1946 in Moson Hungary; Died July 7, 2024, at age 78.

Danna Horwood’s phone rang at 7:30 a.m. on the long-awaited morning of May 2, 2024. It was her father, Tom Weisz, calling to tell her he wasn’t sure he had the strength to make it to the grand opening of the Margaret’s Legacy Holocaust and Jewish Advocacy Centre, a project on which she had worked tirelessly with the Hamilton Jewish Federation to honour the memory of her grandparents, Arthur and Margaret Weisz.” “Dad, you have to,” she told him. “You’re the reason for all of this.” 

Resilience and stoicism were in Tom Weisz’s blood. The first Jewish baby born in the town of Moson, Hungary after the Second World War, his parents, Arthur and Margaret Weisz beat the odds by surviving the Holocaust and opening a business in their hometown, only to risk their lives again two years later by fleeing Hungary’s repressive communist regime in the dead of night to reach the Austrian border and a safe haven in a displaced persons camp. 

When the Weiszs were finally granted admittance into Canada in March 1951, they settled in Hamilton, where Arthur Weisz’s first job was as a bricklayer’s assistant. Half a decade earlier, he had been one of Hungary’s wealthiest citizens.  

Tom and Janet Weisz, like so many children born to Jewish immigrants of that era, lived up to their parents’ expectations by excelling academically. Weisz married his high school sweetheart Sasha Swaye, attended McMaster University, stood first in his final year at Osgoode Hall Law School, and attended Harvard University, while his sister became a doctor. 

In 1978, Tom and Sasha Weisz returned to Hamilton, where Weisz and his father would co-found The Effort Trust Company. Over the next several decades, in addition to running his own law firm, Weisz would help transform the family business into one of Ontario’s largest privately owned property management, real estate and development companies. 

Hamilton lawyer David Smye, who met Weisz during those years and became one of his closest friends, remembers being the only non-Jewish member of a group of lawyers and businessmen who met for lunch every Friday afternoon at either Shakespeare’s or Lo Presti’s to discuss everything from law gossip to business. Weisz, who may have been the youngest member of the group, which included prominent lawyers Bill Morris, Gerry Swaye, and Stan Tick; judges Norman Bennett and David Steinberg; and local businessmen Bernie Katz, Ernie Mason and Phil Leon, somehow always ended up at the head of the table. 

“That just seemed to emerge,” said Smye. “Maybe we just bowed to his considerable wisdom and common sense.  He certainly was a leader and was usually first there.”

Years later, after Smye and his wife became Tom and Sasha Weisz’s next-door neighbours, the two men would regale each other with stories while sipping a cocktail in their respective backyards.  

“Tom loved to hear stories,” said Smye, “and he loved to tell them —a lot of them.”

Smye speculates that Weisz’s character was undoubtedly influenced by his being the child of Holocaust survivors. “It carried a tremendous sense of responsibility ... Tom’s own history, the incredible story of how his father left communist Hungary and a DP camp to build a real estate company like Hamilton has never seen. All of that imbued him with a sense of responsibility.”

While his friend certainly had “big shoes to fill,” in joining the family business, Smye remembers Arthur Weisz’s focus being more on business, while his son took his community responsibility to another level. “The phone didn’t stop ringing for Tom to contribute to the cause of some organization or other. He took it extremely seriously and believed he had an important role to play in Hamilton … The Tiger Cats, the redevelopment of the community, the waterfront … all those boards that he sat on.”

Weisz’s hands-on philanthropy gained him universal regard and respect in the greater Hamilton community, where he served on the boards of McMaster University, St. Joseph’s Hospital, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, but the impact of his philanthropy on Hamilton’s Jewish community is nearly impossible to measure. Its reach extended across the denominational spectrum to touch every aspect of Jewish life in this city. Hamilton Jewish Federation CEO Gustavo Rymberg has felt that impact on both a professional and personal level. 

Shortly after assuming the city’s top Jewish communal position in 2017, Rymberg developed a close relationship with Weisz, whom he thought of as both mentor and friend. Rymberg described Weisz as “a great listener” who seemed genuinely interested in hearing his stories about leaving Argentina for a new life in Canada and starting a new career in Jewish communal work. Rymberg recalls one meeting in the early days of his tenure, when he approached Weisz with the idea of creating JHamilton, the community hub on Main Street West.

“I think it’s a great idea,” he remembers Weisz saying. “It’s great for the community, but it’s my role as a community leader to make you happy too, because we really want you to succeed.”

Rymberg remembers that day as a turning point in their relationship.   “For me, that was really, really important. We became partners.” 

In addition to the creation of JHamilton, that partnership gave birth to Federation’s 2022 #nomoreantisemitism conference and the recent establishment of the Margaret’s Legacy Holocaust and Jewish Advocacy Centre.

When Rymberg conceived of a conference on antisemitism in Hamilton, many expressed concern about where funding for such an ambitious project would come from. “It was a huge investment for Hamilton and the Federation, but Tom was the first to support it,” said Rymberg. “He knew it was important to be the first one in order to create interest among other groups, and it allowed me to say we had the support of Effort Trust and the Weisz Family Foundation before going to other places to ask for funding.”

Weisz was equally forthcoming with advice when he felt Rymberg was not on the right track. 

“Tom knew how to say no and when he didn’t believe in something, he had no problem saying so,” said Rymberg, recalling Weisz telling him about one issue or another, “Gustavo, my advice? Don’t get involved. It’s not Federation’s place for that ... It’s going to be complicated.”  

Invariably, said Rymberg, Weisz’s advice would prove to be right on the mark. In fact, Weisz’s up-front style was one of the things about his mentor that Rymberg most appreciated.

“If he didn’t like something that I did or said, he would call me and tell me, while always being very respectful,” said Rymberg.

David Horwood, married to Tom and Sasha’s daughter Danna, used similar language when describing Weisz’s workplace persona. His father-in-law could be “quite tough or direct,” to the point of coming across as dismissive. “The lucky part about it,” said Horwood, “is that he was normally right. He just told it straight like it was.”

Horwood, who has worked at Effort Trust for the last 27 years, says employees, business partners and politicians alike “knew that they were in the presence of someone who was extremely bright .... and always two or three steps ahead” in grasping the essence of any given issue. He also believed Weisz valued Horwood and others in the business whom he trusted to handle the details.  

While Weisz’s untimely passing is a source of great sadness, Horwood said the family is committed to building on his legacy. “He was quite clear on that. Truthfully, there really isn’t an agency where one of us hasn’t had a major leadership role over the last 15 years, and that isn’t by accident ... We really do recognize that we have a responsibility to give back and to be engaged in ways that will help support the community.”

The greatest gift Tom Weisz was given in his final years was time. When he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer nearly three years ago, his doctors predicted he had only a couple of months to live. 

“We were given such a gift of time with him and that’s why we’re all okay,” said his daughter Danna Horwood, when the HJN reached out to her shortly after the 30-day mourning period. “What we’ve done the last two-and-a-half years together, it’s beyond.” She said her father’s passing leaves a huge void in her life.  

“He was the one I went to for advice, when I was broken or when I had the most exciting, fun things to share because he would be so excited for me. He was the one who I drank a martini with every Shabbat. I really lost my best friend.”

Danna says she’s thankful that her father got to spend so much time during his final years with his beloved family in the places he loved most—at her parents’ Hamilton and Florida homes and at the family cottage.

During the last three weeks of her father’s life, Danna Horwood asked her father “every question you could ever imagine—about the business, about the family, about my children, about my husband ... He spent days talking to me about the family foundation and where he thinks we should put the money going forward ... He helped me figure out the future of Margaret’s Legacy.”

David Horwood describes those weeks as “an amazing long goodbye.” “We spent some incredible time together while Tom could still really be engaged. And those are memories that I will recall forever. It’s amazing how much we did together, for how long, and how big a person he was in my life. “The loss is really quite profound.”

Tom Weisz never disappointed his family, and during the morning and evening events that marked the opening of Margaret’s Legacy Holocaust and Jewish Advocacy Centre, it’s unlikely that the hundreds of people in attendance imagined that the man of the hour, glowing with joy and pride and greeting everyone with a huge smile, was feeling anything but the strong community leader they had come to know, love and respect.

Gustavo Rymberg, watching Weisz closely that day, sensed it was to be his mentor’s last community event. Months later, reminiscing about Tom Weisz and their special relationship can still bring tears to his eyes.  

After every meeting, Rymberg’s parting words would be, “Tom, I love you. Thank you for everything,” and this straight-shooting, no-nonsense, powerful and eminent presence of a man would always reply, “I love you too.”

Photo by Cathie Coward, courtesy of The Hamilton Spectator

Photogallery of Tom Weisz in the community