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DAVID BEN DAVID z”l

d. March 29, 2008

 

 

David Ben David, when he studied in Melbourne, was a frequent visitor to Yosef and Dora Steiner’s house and attended many Betar activities including all the Betar camps in Melbourne.
At these camps he was the behind the scenes “organizer”, the man who made sure everything ran smoothly.
My friendship with David started at Kinglake West camp where he taught me everything I ever learnt about being a Madrich Toran. From then, over the years, my respect and affection for him continued to grow.
May he rest in peace!

Danny Rosing

 

(Adapted from David’s son, Eliran’s graveside eulogy, on Sunday,23rd of Adar Beth 5668, 30th of March 2008).

One of the fateful decisions that shaped David’s life and later that of all his family was the decision of a young mother, just before the Nazis’ entry into Poland, to send her only son, alone, on a transcontinental journey by train and ship to the Land of Israel. That young mother was Rivka, David’s mother. Did she know, that evening when she brought David to the train , that she will not see him again and in later years know his children and grandchildren?
My grandmother, David’s mother, was killed a short time later by the Nazis, but her decision gave David and his family life.

David had an amazing life, with many difficult times; he knew how to overcome all of these – he was curious, an activist, autodidactic scholar and in-depth researcher. He experienced every aspect of life – from being a leader in a Jewish students union in Australia to working as a forest ranger there, a journalist, from pearl trader in Africa to Lt. Colonel in Israel’s military intelligence. His activity in the Mossad is well known to many but the operations are still secret. At the signing of the peace agreement with Egypt David left his workplace, at the request of his friend Eliyahu Ben Elissar, to volunteer for the taskforce that was set up to organize Anwar Saadat’s visit to Israel. He put in a lot of work into activities for society, among them heading the Rotary Club in Savyon; and the list is still long, very long.

David was proud of being of the “1948 generation”, he was a member of the Haganah, a fighter in the Palmach, an officer in the Givati Brigade, took part in the fighting to secure the south of the country and Jerusalem, three times he was wounded, once close to death.

David was always surrounded by books, often falling asleep at 3 in the morning, with a book in his hands. David’s warm and empathic personality, with a highly ingrained sense of humour endeared him to almost everyone he came in contact with; he had the ability to communicate with everyone and was loved by many, from the most powerful to the simplest of workers.

He was a loving father to his two sons and deeply beloved by all his family, especially his grandchildren, of whom he was very proud.


(Adapted from David’s cousin’s graveside eulogy):

It was easy to love David, he was more than a cousin, he was a dear friend, fascinating, charming, wise and generous (sometimes overly so). He was a man of letters who knew many languages and had a deep knowledge of history, science, cultures and Judaism.
David was assertive and liked to argue, especially about national issues – he was a stubborn patriot who defended his patriotic views passionately and uncompromisingly, but always with reserve and respect for the views of others.
David was born in Russia and came to Israel at the age of three; he was then taken by his mother to Europe and returned at the encroachment of the Holocaust, an event that had a profound influence on his personality and beliefs.
His warmth, his sense of humour, his practical jokes and talented stories will be missed by all his friends and family, who saw him battle in silence and with courage, for many years, the deadly disease that finally overcame him.

May you rest in peace, David, and we will remember you always as you were at your best, with your mischievous smiling eyes, full of love and humanity.

 

IMMANUEL HOLDING z”l

Stone Setting March 31, 2008

 

SAM OFFMAN z”l

31.viii.1937 - 05.iii.2008

 

 

Eulogy
By Aaron Ninedek

I first met Sam when we both went to University High School back in about 1952.

I was a year or two ahead of him and Sam had this theory that people in more senior years ignored people in junior years.

While this possibly may be true it certainly wasn’t in Sam’s case. He was impossible to ignore. He was not the sort of person who would NOT be noticed.

It was not so much his red curly hair as the temperament that went with it. Not temper – but animation would be a better way to describe it. He loved to participate and enjoyed being part of the action. If there weren’t any action he would create some but never anything bad enough to get him into trouble.

We used to live near each other. I had to walk past his place in order to catch the bus, or the tram, or when we went to the footy (carna blues) or to meet up with our very good friend Phillip Mirjam. We called Phillip, FARPILLARPIP, using the code speak popular at that time. If Sam could hear us now I am sure there’d be a big smile on his face as he remembered FARPILLARPIP who died back in 1957.

While we were still at Uni High the famous card school started. Living near us were Ron Segal, Harry Scaife and Ernie Frederick. We became the core group and over time it expanded to include Ken Hamer, Mel Black, Daryl Burr, Roger Morris and numerous others who came and went.

We played cards together every week for more than thirty years and would you believe that we told the same jokes every week and we laughed at them every time. We had a reunion at Ron’s place in October 2004, about twenty years after we stopped playing regularly. Again we retold the same jokes and again we laughed at them.

Sam was there. He had a wonderful time, as did we all. Sadly, Harry Scaife was no longer with us for that night and since then we also have lost Daryl Burr. Ernie couldn’t make it that night but seven of the original group were there as well as Steve Leighton who joined in.

Phillip Mirjam was never part of our card school but he was an active member of Betar, a Zionist youth movement. Phillip was a charismatic personality and persuaded Sam and me to join. We became active members. In 1956 I was chosen to go to Israel on a year-long leadership training course at an academy known as the Machon. This was quite an honor because only four people were chosen to go from the whole of Australia in my year and expenses were fully covered by the Zionist Federation.

As I was coming back to Australia at the start of 1957, Sam was on his way to Israel. He was the next person from Betar chosen to go so I didn’t see him for two years – my year away plus his year away.

On our return we became even more active and rose to quite high leadership positions.

Apart from High School, the card school and Betar, Sam and I were good friends in other ways. Most of Betar’s activities happened around St Kilda and Caulfield so we people from Carlton had to hang out together a lot getting there and back and in between meetings. We’d also go to the footy together and on trips in his car – first a pale green FX Holden then later a darker green Ford Zephyr.

We’d also walk a lot. One year, we decided to go to Shul (i.e. synagogue) on Jewish New Year. Not allowed to drive or take public transport we walked. Someone asked us whether we went to Shul and we replied, “Yes we did.” And then we were asked, “Which one?” and we answered, “All of them!”

This was only a slight exaggeration because we started out from Sam’s place in North Carlton and walked to Talmud Torah or Tummo as we called it, which was only a short distance from his place. Then we walked from there to Carlton Shul, then to East Melbourne Shul, then all the way to Toorak Shul and eventually to St Kilda Shul. A total distance of some 10-12 km. I can’t remember if we went any further or how we got back. I suspect that we went on the second day, waited until dark and then caught a tram.

We also got good exercise throwing boomerangs. Yes, we made them come back. The only trouble was they usually came back to some place 100 meters away so we had to chase them. Or they would come back straight at us so fast that we had to make some pretty fast moves to get out of the way.

For as long as I knew him Sam was always turned out well. He even looked good in the school uniform and in the Betar uniform. He was popular, well-liked by all and made a tremendous first impression. He was well spoken, well-meaning, with considerable musical talent and an excellent leader.

We lost touch for a few years – he lived in Sydney for a while and also in America. But we picked up the friendship again over the past few years. The Betar youth movement created an enormous extended family and many of us are still in contact after more than 50 years. We even have our own website and CD where Sam is mentioned many times. We all remember the good bits and if there were any bad bits they have been forgotten.

Sadly, Sam is the third member of the card school that we have lost since 2000. Even though we don’t play much anymore, I feel certain that at some future date we’ll all be up there somewhere, sitting around the table, playing cards, still telling the same jokes that we always told and what’s more – still laughing at them.

 

IMMANUEL HOLDING z”l

31.i.1924 - 29.ix.2006

ADRIAN RAWLINS z”l

13.xi.1939 - 12.ix.2001

(Recently discovered obit. from Australian newspapers)

Also see www.milesago.com/Misc/Rawlins.htm

Statue photos inserted on April 23, 2007. Photos by Aaron Ninedek.

NAOMI KRONENBERG z”l

[8.xii.1940 – 11.iii.2004]

 

We are here not to mourn but to farewell Naomi--to complete a long and poignant leave-taking.

As a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend she was ever the well-named Naomi/ימענ: "pleasant to me", "my pleasantness", "the pleasantness of my life".

Naomi was a beautiful child, a graceful young lady, a woman of wisdom and judgment, of radiant tenderness and quiet strength.

She should have lived to be a serene and wise old woman, a mother-elder of her camp and tribe.

She, and we to our great loss, have been deprived of that.

She was, as we all knew her to be, far more than her modesty and diffidence permitted her own estimation to acknowledge.

She was in all things, as she was most evidently--both personally and professionally--with her words, in her use of language: precise, subtle, fastidious, ever thoughtful.

Not much more than that really needs to be said. To attempt to say more would be both inadequate and excessive, futile and diminishing.

And we all--husband, son, brother, family, friends—we have all seen her too much diminished lately to do that.

So pleasant, graceful and gracious a person deserved a gentle end.

But that [with the notable exception, thanks to the wonderful people at Clare Holland House, of her last 24 hours], that--a gentle end--she did not have.

Yet, right to the end, her going was her own project, her final work, undertaken in full character: work that she did, as always, well--with clarity and insight, discernment and courage, with will (understood not as "willfulness" but a finely focused intentionality) and dignity.

" ... םענ יכרד היכרד"

: םולשל וישכע "הביתנ ךרדו ..."

[Proverbs 3: 17 & 12:38]

All "her ways were the ways of pleasantness", and "her path", after great travail, has now led her to peace.

CSK

11.iii.2004/16.iii.2004

18 Adar 5764/23 Adar 5764

 

 

 

[From Sue Doobov in Israel March 11, 2004]

It is my sad duty to inform you that Naomi Kronenberg (Kessler) passed away mercifully and gently on March 11, 2004 at 6pm.

Naomi's funeral was held on Tuesday 16th March, 2004,  at the Woden Cemetery [Canberra, ACT].

A wonderful person no longer with us.

We wish Vernon and family 'long life'.

 

 

Friends,

 

For your information, below [and attached] is the text of the brief remarks I made at Naomi's funeral in Canberra yesterday.

As I have noted elsewhere, "the funeral, at long last, was yesterday. [I have just returned to Sydney.]

"A very large and diverse crowd was there, a great tribute both to her range of acquaintances and activities and to the depth of Naomi's impact on and contribution to them, their human indebtedness to her.

"It was done well.

"People stayed, didn't want to leave, and we all felt greatly consoled.

"Given what she was facing and we we told to expect, her affliction could all, quite easily and awfully, have gone on for another 6 hours, or 6 days, or 6 weeks, or 6 months--or more.

"All she would have had from that was more pain, more distress, more humiliation, more impairment and loss of dignity.

"She had passed lately beyond the point where even she could any longer make any good, humanly resourceful use of her time.

"It was a blessing and a mercy that she was able to get out when she did.

"That is my consolation."

 

 

Some of you [especially some overseas family and friends] may be puzzled or troubled trying to understand the nature of the funeral itself.

First, it was unusually delayed.

Naomi died on Thursday evening, too late for a funeral to be arranged according to custom/law for the following day, Friday, before Shabbat/the Sabbath. And it was also a holiday weekend in Canberra [the Monday being the Canberra City anniversary day], so the break extended for 3 days from Saturday to Monday. The cemetery and its staff were not operating over that period.

Apart from the timing, the character of the service may seem odd to some of you. It was not an orthodox or even traditional or conservative funeral.

In Canberra there are no full-time Jewish clergy of any kind.

The service was conducted by an old friend of Naomi, Vernon and myself named Raffi Lehrer, who on a part-time basis serves as the principal officiant of Canberra's "liberal" and "reform" Jews.

You should all note: it was held on a beautiful, sunny day under the broad and high Australian sky.

I was as much an Australian as a Jewish occasion. While the local Jewish community was there in strength, so many of those attending were from her public service, academic and other diverse community networks built up in Canberra over nearly 40 years. [Many old personal and family friends and professional associates also came from Sydney for the day.]

Because of the "non-orthodox and "non-traditional" nature of the occasion, there as no customary "hesped" delivered by others addressing Naomi's family.

Instead, I was asked to speak.

Naturally this was not easy for me.

Also, I did not want to say very much.

And I did not want to say anything that would have offended Naomi--with her keen distaste and sharp eye for any hint of sentimentality, self-pity, futile reproachfulness or maudlin cant.

So, as you will see, what I said was quite basic.

Whatever my own, or Vernon's or Adam's special feelings and quite particular perspective and distinctively individual loss, I felt that what I should say should be fully and equally true for all her many relatives and friends who were there.

That simplified things greatly, and enabled me to reduce the task to the essential elements and to very tight proportions.

To those of you who were there, thank you; to those who were not, we all thank you for your thoughts and support, in recent times and throughout this long impending loss.

Best wishes,

Clive

 

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