NAJEX Youth Leadership Awards
NSW Association of Jewish Service & Ex-Service Men & Women (NAJEX) has announced that at its communal Remembrance Day Commemoration and Wreath Laying on Sunday 5 November, it will inaugurate the NAJEX Youth Leadership Awards.
These awards, modeled on the Australian Defence Force Long Tan Awards, are intended to perpetuate the memory of Jewish Service Men and Women and the service they gave to Australia and also to inspire Jewish youth to emulate them by seeking out opportunities to participate in service organisations on a full or part time basis.
Initially the awards will be made annually to one student in Year 11 of each of the 4 Jewish High Schools. Each school will choose the winner from its Year 11, based on personal qualities, such as, Integrity, Loyalty, Courage, Innovation and Teamwork, which in the view of NAJEX, the service men and women embodied.
Each award comprises a certificate, a book voucher and the winner’s name being included on an honour board, which NAJEX hopes to have permanently displayed in the Permanent Military Exhibition at the Sydney Jewish Museum.
President, Roger Selby said, “We hope that through this award, students will not only come to understand the enormous service that Jews have given in the ADF, but will also realise that there are excellent opportunities for them to serve our country, full time or part time, whether in the Australian Defence Force or in other community service organisations, such as Fire & Rescue, Ambulance NSW, SES and so on”.
NAJEX Name Change
NAJEX understands that currently there are some 400 Jews serving in the ADF and at its recent annual general meeting, NAJEX changed its name so the association is no longer just “Ex-Service Men & Women”, but is also there for current service men and women. NAJEX hopes to bring them together when perhaps they might not otherwise meet. Often Jews who join the ADF do not have strong Jewish identity and in the post- World War Two years, NAJEX was their only link to the Jewish community.
NAJEX’s constitution now allows for membership by friends and family of ex-service personnel and anyone who supports our goals.
