Helping hand for veterans

AN organisation dedicated to looking after ex-service personnel in financial need has had strong Jewish involvement down the decades.

In an address titled “Lest We Forget the Living”, Simon Bloomer, president of Carry On (Victoria), told the annual Anzac Day service of the Victorian Association of Jewish Ex- and Servicemen and Women (VAJEX) that his organisation, founded in 1932, has a proud record of looking after any surviving ex-service personnel and their dependants not eligible for support from government departments or other welfare agencies.

Welcomed to the service by VAJEX president Harry Lubansky, Bloomer said Carry On (Victoria) has had a lengthy tradition of Jewish participation in its ranks.

Master of Ceremonies Julie Leder, VAJEX vice-president, introduced Dr Michael Cohen, who recited Psalm 23, after which the Anzac Centenary Remembrance Prayer was recited.

Representatives from all seven Melbourne Jewish day schools and UJEB were in attendance, with students from three schools – Sholem Aleichem College, Leibler Yavneh College and Bialik College – among organisations and individuals laying wreaths.

With Yvonne and Felix Sher looking on, recipients of the annual Greg Sher Memorial Shield Awards were announced. The awards honour the memory of their son Private Greg Sher, who was killed on active duty in Afghanistan in 2009.

After the reciting of the Ode, musician Sam Lappan and the Australian Army Band (Melbourne) performed the Last Post and Rouse, interspersed by a minute’s silence. Cohen then led the service in Kel Malei Rachamim and Jack Smorgon recited Kaddish.

Lubansky told The AJN afterwards, “I have been very pleased with the number of comments and emails that I have received from people telling me how meaningful it was, and such a beautiful service.”

PETER KOHN