A tribute memorial service for Rabbi Apple
Sydney’s The Great Synagogue paid tribute to its Emeritus Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple AO RFD at a memorial service last week.
Rabbi Raymond Apple at his book launch in 2016
Rabbi Apple passed away on January 19th in Jerusalem, which became his home after he retired.
Hundreds of people attended, including many rabbis and community leaders. The Chief Minister, Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton, arranged and introduced the service.
Chazan Rabbi Menachem Feldman and The Great Synagogue Choir led the prayers. Maariv was followed by psalms read by former colleagues of Rabbi Apple and contemporary rabbinic leaders, followed by tributes. Rabbi Elton began and was followed by Rabbi David Rogut, a long-standing colleague of Rabbi Apple on the Sydney Beth Din, by Ros Fischl. a former President of The Great Synagogue, Professor Emerita Suzanne Rutland, who spoke about Rabbi Apple as a historian and wider community leader, and the tributes concluded with a message read from Mrs Marian Apple.
In his tribute, Rabbi Elton said: “What did Rabbi Apple achieve? He found The Great Synagogue large and strong and he left it large and strong. He guided many individuals, from a member who needed help to heads of government and state. He made a huge contribution to very many organisations, but ultimately his contribution was less formal. He said in that Neilah sermon in 2004:
‘I have tried to build not edifices but attitudes, not buildings but bridges, not institutions but ethics. If Australians and Australian Jews are a little saner and more tolerant because I happened to be here, then I am content.’
We can answer that his efforts were successful, through ceaseless restatement of the ideas he believed in most: truth, tolerance, respect, integrity, dignity, reason and faith, he made his impact. He should be content and we should be grateful.”
