Geddy Lee is mourning the loss of his mother and Holocaust survivor, Mary Weinrib, who passed away on July 2 at age 95.
Lee shared a tribute to his mother via Instagram. The tribute is as follows:
“Mary Weinrib, whose life was an inspiring story of perseverance, survival and triumph, died Friday night, July 2, 2021 a few weeks short of her 96th birthday. Manya (Malka) Rubinstein was born in 1925 in Warsaw and grew up in Wierzbnik, a Jewish shtetl that was part of Starachowice, Poland, which was occupied by the Germans beginning in 1939. Mary endured the labor camp at the munition’s factory in Starachowice and the concentration camps at Auschwitz, where she met and fell in love with her husband Morris Weinrib, and at Bergen-Belsen, where she was finally liberated in April 1945.
Reunited and married in 1946, Mary and Morris emigrated to Canada. After her husband Morris’s sudden death in 1965, Mary was left with three young children and a variety store that her husband had owned and managed. Mary was determined to learn the business; and, against the advice of well-meaning friends, she took over managing their store in Newmarket, and she successfully ran the business until she retired.
People were drawn to her zest for life, her sense of humor, and her compassion and generous spirit. There’s a customer for everything, Mary would say, and if you couldn’t find it at Times Square Discount, you didn’t need it. Preparing family meals at Rosh Hashanah and Passover was a large-scale labor of love for Mary, who cherished her family above all; and after full days running the store, Mary would cook and bake over several nights, making everybody’s favorite dishes and desserts.
The mother of Rush bass player and lead singer Geddy Lee, Mary was an early supporter and fixture at Rush concerts. When the first Rush album was released, Mary plastered the windows of her store with Rush posters and gave albums away to any kids who wanted them but didn’t have the money to buy them. Among the longest living Holocaust survivors, Mary lived to see her family grow and prosper.”
Geddy and Mary were featured in the Paramount+ show From Cradle to Stage, a docuseries from Dave Grohl and his mother, Virginia Hanlon Grohl. The series, based on Hanlon Grohl’s book of the same title, examined the relationships musicians have with their mothers.
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