Obituary

Born in Israel in 1934, Zalman Amit immigrated to Canada with his family in tow, in 1961. He eventually returned to school as a mature student completing a PhD in Psychology at McGill University and then joining Sir George Williams University (which subsequently became Concordia University) where he pursued a distinguished career studying the neurochemical and behavioural mechanisms of drug use.

Along with his academic career, Zalman was also engaged in a clinical practice with his late wife, Ann Sutherland. Throughout his life, he maintained a passionate interest in and committed engagement with politics and current events as an author and activist. But it was an interest in Canadian folk art that brought Zalman and Ann to Nova Scotia. They fell in love with the South Shore, purchased an old farmhouse and became full time residents when they retired. On retirement, Zalman trained as a woodturner and never looked back. He displayed the same curiosity and experimentation that had animated his research career in developing his skills and artistry as a woodturner. After losing Ann in 2009, it was the hours spent in his woodturning workshop that afforded him solace and joy until the day he died on October 5, 2024.