Dinner Remembers R’ Chaim New

By COLlive reporter

More than 700 people, including communal Rabbis, donors, elected officials, judges and corporates attended the Yeshivah – Beth Rivkah Gala Dinner on Tuesday night at the Peninsula, one of Melbourne’s most expansive event spaces.

Highlights of the “Lighting the Way” evening included Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and Chairman of Yad Vashem, speaking about the importance of Jewish education.

Chief Rabbi Lau asked participants to remember the chilling last words of Holocaust victims calling out to their children as the doors of the trains taking them to their death closed – “gedank uz du bist a yid.. Remember you are a Jew.”

Rabbi Lau said the unbroken chain of thousands of years of the Jewish Nation is not due to our strength or money or intelligence – its Jewish education that is our only hope for continuity, immortality and the eternity of our people.

He begged the community to make Jewish education available to every child, saying that if one Jewish boy or girl is turned away from having a Jewish education because they can’t afford it, it’s the entire community’s sin.

Guest Speaker Morry Fraid spoke warmly about his longstanding and warm association with Yeshivah Beth Rivkah Colleges dating back to when he was a Yeshivah College student.

Fraid recalled his grandfather making his children promise that they would ensure that their children had a Jewish education. Fraid praised the schools, noting his pride in supporting the schools over so many decades – “there is no doubt that a strong Jewish education is key to a strong and engaged future Jewish community. Yeshivah Beth Rivkah Colleges is making a valuable contribution to the community.”

A heartfelt tribute was made by Rabbi Marcus Solomon for Rabbi Chaim New OBM, a longstanding Yeshivah executive member who died unexpectedly earlier this year.

“Chaim was not just a proud and committed Jew and chosid of the Lubavitcher Rebbe,” he said. “He was passionate, indeed zealous, in his personal commitment to, and the promotion of, the interests of the Jewish people and Chabad.

“At the same time, Chaim perceived immense beauty and exhilaration in a wide variety of music, in photography, in nature, in literature, in theatre, on a motor bike in the open air of the Victorian country side and indeed in other societies.

Solomon said: “The Yeshivah Centre occupied his mind, his heart and his soul in a state of perpetual motion, and not infrequently, agitation. Even the term 24/7 is too limiting to characterise Chaim’s commitment. It was unbridled, all-pervasive and entirely giving.”

Solomon presented Chaim New’s son Dovid New of Florida with a plaque to be displayed in the Yeshivah Centre. “To my father, family is everything and the Yeshivah Centre is family,” his son said Dovid in a moving acceptance speech.

“My father had this unwavering commitment and passion for the Yeshivah Centre. My father together with my mother have taught my siblings and I so much, most importantly what it means to help others. They have instilled in us the responsibility that we have to our community and everyone in it. For my father no task was too great, if something needed to be done he would move heaven and earth until it was accomplished.”

Ray Finkelstein AO QC, Chair of the Yeshivah Beth Rivkah Governance Review Panel, spoke of the important steps that the Yeshivah Beth Rivkah has taken to reform their governance structure. He noted that it was a complex task but the panel is satisfied with the result and its success now relies on the stakeholders and members of the Yeshivah Community to take the organisation forward.

The guests were entertained by the Beth Rivkah ensemble, Chazan Zev Muller and old collegian Mordy Levin.

In her address, Beth Rivkah old collegian Sara Bassarabie described her years at Beth Rivkah as a “big, warm, supportive hug that stays with you.”

School principal, Rabbi Yehoshua Shmukler thanked the staff, parents and community for the wonderful success of the schools, with more than 1,300 children from all walks of life currently enrolled.

The Gala Dinner raised much needed funds for the YBR Capital program –constructing new wings to cater to the rapid enrolment growth at the Colleges, and the schools scholarship program, providing open entry to all students regardless of their ability to pay fees.