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Saturday, February 15, 2025
NOTL citizenship judge earns community award
Rochelle Ivri took home the community impact title from the Women in Business Awards. Along with being a citizen judge, Ivri is a committed member of the NOTL community along with her husband and children. SUPPLIED

Citizenship Judge Rochelle Ivri is no stranger to awards.

With an impressive list of honours already, including the Law Society of Ontario’s Lincoln Alexander Award, Ivri last week added the Community Impact title at Niagara’s Women in Business Awards

“I was very impressed with the level of excellence that I saw in everyone who had been nominated, in every category, not just my own,” Ivri, 48, said of the awards sponsored by the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce. 

With so many great women up for an award, the Niagara-on-the-Lake resident said she was honoured to be acknowledged. 

“I was pleasantly surprised and I was shocked. It was affirming for me given all the work I do both locally and provincially and federally,” she said. 

In announcing her award, the chamber noted, “Her role as a citizenship judge is pivotal both in conferring citizenship to our newest Canadians and conducting vital community outreach to encourage active citizenship and civic engagement.”

Ivri holds an honours degree in criminology, is a professor in the paralegal program at Mohawk College and is an adjunct professor at Queen’s University Law School.

At work, she is one of only nine citizenship judges in the country.

“This past August, I swore in my 100,000th new Canadian, which was a great milestone. I’m very proud of that,” she said. 

As to why Ivri she was nominated, her work in NOTL comes to mind, she said.

Her husband Eldean works in finance and wealth management and the work the two do in the community “really sustains us,” she said.

In Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ivri has served on the boards of the NOTL Public Library and Bravo! Niagara. Ivri’s husband Eldean works in finance in town as a wealth manager.

Growing up in North York, Ivri was always told that giving time and giving back is of utmost importance. 

“As we’ve been raising our children and as we’ve grown into our careers, it’s been really important to give back, in whatever capacity we are able to,” Ivri said. 

With an impressive array of awards under her belt, Ivri emphasized that her work is never done with recognition in mind. 

“The way that I was raised is that you are never doing the things you do for accolades. You are doing the things you do because you have a personal responsibility to do them,” she said. 

“It was never an expectation and it’s still not an expectation, so when I do get recognized it’s just so fulfilling and really humbling as well.”

At home, Ivri is passing that community spirit onto her three children, Michaiah, Ezekiel and Zachariah.

“We’re at a stage in our lives where we’re pouring into our kids and I enjoy seeing them thrive and come into their own as well,” she said.

Ivri’s daughter Michaiah is a past-chair of Niagara-on-the-Lake Youth Council as well as president of the Leos club, where Ezekiel was also on the executive.

“I’m just really proud that they, too, are taking on their own way of being responsible for their community,” Ivri said.

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