Jewish Online News from Australia and New Zealand
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May 25, 2010 by Agencies
Sydney’s Masada College has unveiled a memorial to the children who perished in the Holocaust.
Marika Weinberger
Guest of honour Marika Weinberger told the audience at the launch that one and a half million Jewish children died at the hands of the Nazis. The Sydney Jewish Museum is also exhibiting butterflies and she expressed her pleasure at the fact that Masada College has also supported this idea. Masada College believes it is the first Jewish Day School in Sydney with a Holocaust Memorial to the Children who perished in the Holocaust.
Next to the memorial is a plaque on which the poem The Butterfly by Pavel Friedman who died in Auschwitz in 1944. is engraved.
The memorial depicts the railway lines which took the children to their deaths and on the wooden tracks are engraved the children’s names which have been etched into the wood in reverse. When reflected in the wings of the butterfly the names can be read correctly. When viewed from different angles the colours change depending on the reflection and this gives the impression of something dynamic and changing rather than something static and dead. The aim is that every year the Year 10 Living Historian group will be able to add a butterfly in the name of their cohort.
This idea was initiated by Wendy Barel Principal of Masada College and was transformed into reality by Masada friend, Sherna Teperson with the aid of Head of Creative Arts, Daphne Flax. The memorial is open to the public.
April 29, 2010 by Henry Benjamin
Philanthropist Frank Lowy has been made a Life Governor of Sydney’s Masada College.
School captains Tahlia Bleier and Jarron Aizen with Frank Lowy
Frank Lowy received the Life Governorship from Masada President Marlon Teperson
More than 500 parents, teachers and pupils together with leading members of Sydney’s Jewish community packed the Lynette Phillips Hall for the ceremony.
Rabbi Paul Lewin parodied Frank Lowy’s support of Jewish education with the biblical story of Zevulun and Yissachar…two brothers, one who studied as the other one worked and how they supported each other.
School captain Tahlia Bleier told the story of Lowy’s life from his childhood days in Slovakia to wartime Budapest and the 73 missions he fought with the Golani Brigade in 1948 as Israel battled for her independence. She mentioned the foundation of the Westfield Shopping Centre empire and his early days with co-founder John Saunders and brought the audience up to date by mentioning Lowy’s current commitment to the Socceroos …and his absolute support for Israel.
Following a rousing performance by the Junior School Choir accompanied by the Senior School Orchestra, Masada President Marlon Teperson made the presention of the Life Governorship of the school to Frank Lowy.
Lowy told the audience that it had been difficult to start the Jewish education system in Sydney but now “it is the envy of the world”. He added that the the children experiencing the Jewish education system are “the future upholders of Yiddishkeit”.
He made mention of a recent memorial dedication at Auschwitz and that the Sydney Jewish education system avenged the death of the Hungarian Jews in the Holocaust and that he felt “humble and proud to accept the honour”.
The school also presented the shopping centre magnate with his specially prepared family tree.
The school’s principal, Wendy Barel, said the evening was a celebration of the whole Masada community and made mention of its vibrancy and inclusiveness. She also paid tribute to Frank Lowy’s wife, Shirley, calling her “the power behind the man.”
