Torahs paraded through city park
Sydney’s Hyde Park out on an unusual show for its visitors on Thursday evening as two new Sifrei Torah were danced through the part to The Great with klezmer music accompaniment and under a chuppah made by the congregants.
Gloria Goldstein and Louise Rosenberg parade the Torahs
One scroll was presented in memory of Morris Forbes OAM from his estate, and the other by Gloria Goldstein and the Goldstein family in memory of Col Goldstein.
As Morris Forbes had no relatives in Sydney, his friends from the Australian Jewish Historical Society of which he was patron attended in his honour.
Many members of the Goldstein family, from Sydney and Israel, attended in Col’s honour as well as old friends from The Great, the North Shore Synagogue, his workplace and the many charitable organisations which he supported.
Morris Forbes was “a man of principle and of tradition, supported by a real knowledge of Jewish law, as well as secular law, and ever hungry for greater knowledge”, Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence said.
Col Goldstein was visionary, enterprising, hard working and generous and in a very real sense, “a builder of synagogues and a builder of Israel”.
“Col Goldstein and Morrie Forbes were people of principle and people of discernment – proud Jews, proud Australians, proud members of the community.
“They lived the lives they believed, were true to their principles and promoted them,” Rabbi Lawrence said.
“In sponsoring Sifrei Torah they continue to highlight the values they cherished and will live beyond their lives.
“And in commissioning for themselves Sifrei Torah, they give us an opportunity to perform the mitzvah of ‘writing a Sefer Torah’,” he said.
The Goldstein family sponsored a number of letters in Col’s Torah in honour of his family and friends and many letters, words and parshiot were sponsored in the Forbes Torah.
The Rabbi’s auctioning of the last letters in the Forbes Torah was entertaining, and all the congregation joined in the dancing and celebration afterward, to the voices of The Great Synagogue choir.
A Kiddush, sponsored by Gloria Goldstein, rounded off the evening.
