The following is adapted from JAHSENA Board Member Barry Zalmanowitz’s speech to the Interfaith Service Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Court of Appeal and the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, Robertson United Church September 26, 2007.
Friedman, Lieberman, established in 1917 by H.A. Friedman and Moses Lieberman, was the first Jewish Law firm in Alberta. H.A. Friedman, a graduate of Osgoode Hall law school, came to Edmonton in 1915 because Moe Lieberman, his close friend from Toronto, got a job as a mining engineer in Saskatchewan and urged H.A. to come west and set up a law practice. H.A. agreed on condition that Moe would practice law with him. Moe Lieberman had a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in mining engineering and at the time there was no law school in Edmonton, but one could become a lawyer by clerking with a lawyer. H.A. came to Edmonton and Moe clerked for him and was called to the Bar in 1917. They established their practice from offices on 97th Street and Jasper Avenue. The firm eventually came to be known as Friedman, Lieberman Newson. Moe was active in the community generally and in the Jewish community and the firm served as lawyers to most of the Jewish organizations. Moe was also a very good athlete, playing football for both the U. of A. Golden Bears (even though he was not a student at the U. of A.) and the Edmonton Eskimos. Moe served on the board of the Beth Shalom Synagogue.
Sam Lieberman, Moe’s son, was born in Edmonton in 1922. In 1940, at age 18, Sam left the University of Alberta to enlist in the RCAF, motivated by his awareness of what Hitler was doing to the Jews and the obligation he felt as a Canadian to serve his country. He rose to the rank of squadron commander and remained in the service until 1945. After the war, he returned to the U of A, completing his BA in 1947, his LLB in 1948 and was called the bar in 1949. Sam articled with his father’s firm.
It was always a given that Sam would article at his father’s firm which had a good insurance practice. In those days, Sam told me, it was difficult for a Jew to get an articling position with the other law firms, so many of the Jewish graduates articled and got their start at Friedman Lieberman.
Sam developed a reputation as a leading lawyer and was active in the community. He held leadership positions with the Kiwanis Club, CNIB, Edmonton Symphony and the Edmonton Eskimos. In the Jewish community he was president of the B’nai Brith and served on the Board of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. Sam also served on the Beth Shalom Synagogue Board. In 1966, Sam was appointed to the district court and in 1970 elevated to the Supreme Court Trial Division and in 1976 elevated to the Court of Appeal. Sam was involved in significant areas of legal reform including legal aid and the treatment of those found not guilty or unfit to stand trial due to mental illness.
Sam retired in 1997 and became Counsel at Miller Thomson (and comes into the office every day).
Sam Lieberman was known as a top lawyer as well as being a well-respected Judge, and we in the Jewish community are proud of him. To prepare for this presentation I met with Sam. He told me more than once not to focus on him because there were many other Jewish lawyers who made significant contributions and urged me to mention them. I will: Max Wershof who became a respected diplomat, Abe Miller who was an MLA and founded what is now the Witten firm, Tevie Miller, the second Jewish Justice, who became Associate Chief Justice, Abe Bercov who was called to the bar in 1924 (probably the 3rd Jewish Lawyer, whose son Sid became a prominent lawyer and who had two children who are both lawyers), Ronald Berger, the third Jewish Justice, Peter Owen, who was rescued from Germany as a child by the Herculean efforts of H.A. Friedman, and who made many important contributions to our profession and community, and Sam Friedman, who in 1970 became the first Jewish Deputy Attorney General of Alberta and then in 1974 became a Provincial Court Judge, also active generally in the community and in Jewish organizations. I am sure it was only an oversight that Sam Lieberman made no mention of the first Jewish managing partner of Fraser Milner Casgrain (myself) who some believe was also the first Jewish Lawyer to run a Marathon in Edmonton in under 5 hours. Or for that matter, my wife, June Ross, who is now the first female Jewish Court of Queen’s Bench Justice in Edmonton.
While things are much different now, it was not too long ago when differences in religion, country of origin, skin colour or gender were obstacles to getting an articling position or becoming a judge. The appointment and elevation of Sam Lieberman was an important bench mark in the history of the courts and in the Jewish community in Alberta that probably turned some heads. I am sure that when Allan Wachowich, a Catholic of Polish heritage was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Queens bench, it too must have turned some heads. However, what it really did was send a powerful message: anybody can be the Chief Justice.
This article was originally published in the 2008 Winter edition of our newsletter. Please view the associated newsletter for photographs related to the original article.