October 18, 1920 – February 9, 2013

Susie Raphals liked to say the she had to re-invent herself every ten years. By the time she passed away on February 9, at the age of 92, she had done this many times. Born Sara Levine to Morris Levine and Annie Rotter in Detroit, she spent her early years in New York City (the Bronx), before moving to Chicago in 1926. Her parents were both immigrants: her father from Poland (Bialystok), her mother from Ukraine (Vinnytsia). Morris came to America to escape serving in the Czarist Army; Annie came in search of education.

Her family’s circle in America was formed of fellow immigrants, primarily members of the Bund, a Jewish Socialist organization. Susie took this tradition to heart even more than her parents, and from the age of ten was an active member of a series of Socialist parties in the U.S. As a member of the Young People’s Socialist League (the Yipsels), she literally stood on soap boxes to argue in favour of free milk for school children. The Depression hit her family as hard as any and by 1933, they were on the road, spending time in a Michigan farming cooperative (a formative experience for her) and among the auto workers of Detroit, before heading west to California.

Susie spent her teen years in Los Angeles, where she finished high school and two years of junior college while immersed in the schisms and realignments of the Socialist movement during the 1930s. She finally became a member of the Workers Party, an anti-Stalinist party with Trotskyist roots. This didn’t prevent her from getting a job at Lockheed aircraft assembling aircraft instrument panels after war broke out in Europe in 1939.

In 1941, she moved to New York, becoming part of the bohemian scene there and working actively for the Workers Party. World War II saw her operating a milling machine making parts for airplane gyroscopes at the Ford Instrument Company. She was one of the first women in the factory, but nevertheless quickly became union shop steward.

After the war, her life changed. She left politics to become a mother. Her husband, Victor Raphals, was several years older and had spent five years working as a mechanic (and ballroom dancing teacher) in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. A welder during the war, he spent the early years of their marriage as a salesman before becoming an executive with the American Council for Judaism, a Jewish antiZionist organization based in New York.

Susie raised their children, Lisa and Philip, first in Chicago and later in New York. When her husband became seriously ill, she went back to school to be able to each elementary school, in case he didn’t survive the surgery. He did, and Susie and Vic retired to Berkeley, California in 1980, where Vic died in 1982. Susie remained there for the next 20 years, leading an active life, including a memorable trip to participate in International Women’s Day celebrations in the Philippines.

At the age of 84, she immigrated to Montreal to join her son Philip and his family, which includes her only grandchild Victor Olivier, named after her late husband.

Susie remained active until the end, as a board member of Santropol Roulant and with RECAA, a group that uses popular theatre techniques to raise awareness of elder abuse. Recently, she also organized an exhibition in Montreal of her husband`s photographs.

In 2010, Susie testified before the Quebec Select Committee on Dying with Dignity, arguing passionately for the right of choice for the elderly. She spent her last year writing a book, “An Ordinary Family,” detailing her remarkable life and that of her husband, which will be available shortly.