Happy Women’s History Month! Help JWA continue to lift up Jewish women’s stories, this month and every month, by making a gift today!
Close [x]

Show [+]

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth

1923–2005

by Michael Brown

In Brief

A well-known Canadian artist whose landscapes and images of people reflect her personal experiences and feelings as well as her social concerns, Ghitta Caiserman-Roth was born in Montreal, which was her life-long home. Caiserman-Roth studied at Parsons School of Design in New York, the École des Beaux-Arts in Montreal, and at the American Artists’ School in New York. Caiserman-Roth presented her work in Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, and New York. In 1967, she received the Centennial Medal, in 1975 the Purchase Prize and Best Graphic Images Award of the Ontario Society of Artists, and in 2000 the Governor General’s Award for Visual Arts. She served as vice-chair of the Commission on the Status of the Artist and on the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts council.

Article

A well-known Canadian artist whose landscapes and images of people reflect her personal experiences and feelings as well as her social concerns, Caiserman-Roth was born in Montreal, which has been her life-long home. Her mother, Sarah (Wittal) Caiserman (1893–1967), was a homemaker active in community affairs who immigrated to Canada in 1918 from Romania; she was one of the founders of the Voice of Women, active in Hadassah, and a personal friend of Golda Meir’s, and she also founded, owned, and ran a children’s wear company called Goosey Gander. Her father, Hananiah Meir Caiserman (1881–1950), was one of the early Canadian Jewish community professionals who had immigrated to Montreal from Romania seven years earlier. Caiserman began his public career in Canada as a union organizer and Po’alei Zion (Labor Zionism) activist. Just after World War I, he was instrumental in the founding of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society (JIAS), which he served for many years as honorary president, and the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), which he led as general secretary for almost two decades before his death. Caiserman represented Canada at Zionist congresses; as CJC general secretary, he led the campaign for a boycott against German products in the 1930s, and as JIAS president, the campaign for a more open Canadian immigration policy in the 1920s. Although Caiserman’s career was Jewish communal service, he had broad cultural interests and authored a book (in Yiddish) on Yiddish poets.

Following in the cultural footsteps of her father, Caiserman-Roth started painting as a child. Educated at the Parsons School of Design in New York (BA, 1961) and the École des Beaux Arts in Montreal, she also studied under realist artist Moses Soyer (1899–1974) at the American Artists’ School of the Art Student League of New York. She has taught at Concordia University, John Abbott College, the University of Quebec, and the Saidye Bronfman Centre of the YMHA in Montreal, the Nova Scotia College of Art, and Mount Allison and Mount Saint Vincent universities in Nova Scotia, the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, and the Ottawa School of Art.

Over the years, the artist had shows of her paintings and drawings in Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, and New York, and her works have been purchased by galleries and museums across Canada. In 1967, Caiserman-Roth received the Centennial Medal in recognition of her achievements; in 1975, the Purchase Prize and Best Graphic Images Award of the Ontario Society of Artists; and in 2000, the Governor General’s Award for Visual Arts. In 2002, she served as vice-chair of the (federal) Commission on the Status of the Artist, and she was a council member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Together with Friedhelm Lachs, Caiserman-Roth published Creativism (1980) and with Rhoda Cohen, Surprises, Insights, Discoveries: Drawing from the Model (1993). Her own work is presented in Ghitta Caiserman-Roth: Drawings and Paintings by Friedhelm Lachs (1988).

In 1945, Caiserman married Alfred Pinsky. The couple had one daughter, Kathe, in 1954, but divorced in 1959.  In 1962, Caiserman-Roth married the well-known Montreal architect, Max Roth (1914–2001). The artist’s siblings are Nina Kellin and Nella Laks.

Have an update or correction? Let us know

Donate

Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women.

donate now

Get JWA in your inbox

Read the latest from JWA from your inbox.

sign up now

How to cite this page

Brown, Michael. "Ghitta Caiserman-Roth." Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. 31 December 1999. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on March 28, 2024) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/caiserman-roth-ghitta>.