A moving Jewish Anzac service
The service included moving tributes, a wreath laying by community members and politicians, and memorial candle lighting.
In a moving tribute to her Melbourne cousin Private Greg Sher – killed by a Taliban-fired rocket on January 5, 2009 in Afghanistan – Moriah College student Lucy Milner told hundreds attending last Sunday’s Jewish Anzac Day service at the Sydney Jewish Museum of his “heroism and bravery”.
Milner said it was Sher’s Jewish values, evident in his volunteerism for the Community Security Group, and his natural leadership, selflessness, and strength, that prepared him to join the 1st Commando Regiment.
“I was far too young to understand it [in 2009], but my entire family suffered immensely from his passing, and still do,” Milner said.
“Greg taught me to value my community, and the love that binds us together – a love for each other, for Judaism, and for Australia.”
Milner, and fellow Moriah student Zac Grossman, delivered the service’s inaugural student Anzac tribute – a new segment introduced by the NSW Association of Service and Ex-Service Men and Women (NAJEX).
The service’s keynote speaker, Dr Howard Roby, drew on vivid examples of service by his parents in World War II, and his own, having retired last year after two decades as a military critical care air transport specialist in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
Roby’s father, Alex, by his 21st birthday, was a lieutenant serving in Papua New Guinea as an engineer, who later became president of NAJEX, and its Queensland equivalent. Roby’s mother, Pat, met his father while preparing meals in Hyde Park for soldiers on leave.
As a doctor working at St Vincent’s Hospital, Roby would often receive a phone call from his RAAF squadron’s operations officer, who’d say, “There’s a flight to the Middle East leaving this evening, and you’re on it!”
His work for the RAAF also involved treating injured Australian civilians in disaster zones, such as the 2019 White Island volcano eruption.
“A sense of service comes from a philosophy that you’re part of something bigger than yourselves,” Roby concluded.
The service included wreath laying by community members and politicians, and memorial candle lighting.
Meanwhile, in timely related news, the shipwreck of Japanese transport ship, the Montevideo Maru, was discovered last week after an extensive search, at a depth of 4km offshore from the Philippines, 81 years after being mistakenly torpedoed by the US navy.
That catastrophe killed about 1060 people on board, including 979 Australian troops and civilians.
Among the dead were two Jewish Diggers – Sydney’s Private Albert Fernandez and Melbourne’s Private Harry Bernstein.
Moriah College students Zac Grossman and Lucy Milner deliver the service’s inaugural student Anzac Tribute. Photo: Shane Desiatnik
Guest speaker Dr Howard Roby. Photo: Shane Desiatnik
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