Australia remembers our most recent fallen
ON the eve of Remembrance Day, the father of fallen Jewish Australian soldier Private Greg Sher has come out in support of Australia's role in Afghanistan.
ON the eve of Remembrance Day, the father of fallen Jewish Australian soldier Private Greg Sher has come out in support of Australia’s role in Afghanistan.
Felix Sher told The AJN that a premature troop withdrawal would leave a vacuum for the Taliban and al-Qaeda to harvest new recruits and do even more harm.
He said it would take time to educate and train the Afghan troops to stand up to al-Qaeda and the Taliban on their own. “Until that momentum of confidence builds up, the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), which includes Australian troops, must remain to provide the relevant protection,” he said.
Remembrance Day officially commemorates the end of World War I, but is a day when soldiers who have died or suffered in all wars and conflicts are commemorated.
Private Sher was killed in a rocket attack in Afghanistan on January 4, 2009.
On the night of his death, his comrades built a Magen David so that his coffin would not lie next to a crucifix in the chapel.
And the paramedic who rushed to Private Sher’s side after he was hit has just named his son after him.
“He was such a wonderfully kind, considerate, thoughtful individual,” Sher said of his son. “He would be an inspiration to anyone, he really would.”
Chief Rabbi to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Ralph Genende said Private Sher’s death had¬†an impact on Jews across Australia.
“[There was a] realisation of the fact that there are Jews in the ADF, which many people found surprising even,” he said. “And also Jews who are taking on some of the more onerous and dangerous tasks of what that implies today.”
As chief rabbi to the ADF, Rabbi Genende sits on the Religious Advisory Committee to the Services, which advises on all religious matters in the defence force.
With the help of fellow chaplains Rabbis Yossi Segelman and Dovid Gutnick, he ensures the needs of hundreds of Jewish soldiers are tended to where possible.
“A majority are not going to ever land up actually being in an operational area,” Rabbi Genende explained. “But I think some understand and some deliberately want to join the special forces.
“Jewishly, we’ve always seen it as part of our responsibility to contribute and be part of any society in which we live, and part of that contribution is contributing towards the security and welfare of that society.”
GARETH NARUNSKY
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