Community leader Danny Lamm makes aliyah

Former Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Zionist Federation of Australia president Dr Danny Lamm and his wife Rolene are making aliyah, fulfilling an ambition he has held since first spending time in Israel in 1968.

Dr Lamm, who has retired from dentistry and sold his practice, said the couple chose to go “while we could still make a contribution in Israel.”

The move comes as Australian Jewry faces a difficult period, and Dr Lamm acknowledged many are unsettled. But he said that was not what lay behind the decision.

“I do think what I have noticed, people are very disturbed about what’s going on in the country at the moment. That wasn’t the factor that made us make aliyah. The factor that made us make aliyah was a pull factor. I wanted to be in Israel,” he told The AJN.

“We live in a generation where people can actually be part of the Jewish state and be a voting member, which I intend to do in the elections in October, hopefully.”

Asked “Eich haIvrit shelcha?” (How’s your Hebrew?), Dr Lamm answered in kind: “HaIvrit sheli shotefet,” meaning it flows.

“I speak Hebrew every day, practically,” he said, crediting his education at Mount Scopus, decades of contact with shlichim and Hebrew-speaking patients who sought him out as a dentist. He chairs World Zionist Organisation meetings in Ivrit, but still plans to attend ulpan in Israel.

He said he no longer heads the organisations that represent the community to the wider public, but that many people had told him things will not be the same without him. “It’s kind of humbling.”

He said he was proud to have appointed Alex Ryvchin at the ECAJ, and noted that others who came up through the ranks now hold leadership positions at Mizrachi and Yavneh College.

“In each case, it was my responsibility to make sure there was suitable leadership to follow, and I’ve done that each time, and so I don’t think people feel deserted.”

He was hearing from many people, he said, “that they are not happy here anymore, and that they also feel like it’s something they would like to do.” Others his age with family in Australia had told him they could not.

“Now, aliyah is demanding; it’s not a simple thing,” he said, praising the ZFA’s aliyah department as “much better than a lot of other countries have.”

“There’s no question in my mind that the Australian Jewish community is as strong as it is because so many people are so committed to Israel, but at the same time are giving so much to the community here.”

Dr Lamm’s communal involvement began at 14 with Bnei Akiva, and continued on campus through AUJS, then known as NUJS. He went on to roles with UIA Keren Hayesod, Mizrachi and World Mizrachi, the Jewish Agency Board of Governors, the Zionist Council of Victoria and Beth Weizmann, and ultimately the ECAJ and the ZFA.

He also contributed to Kosher Australia, began work on the Melbourne Eruv in 1977, and oversaw the building of Yavneh College’s Elsternwick campus.

He chaired the Jewish Agency’s aliyah portfolio for eight years, during which he said annual worldwide aliyah grew from about 20,000 to 35,000 olim. The current figure, he said, is about 22,000.

“I think people need to think seriously about where they want to be, and where their children should bring up their children going forward,” he said, citing intermarriage and the cost of Jewish education as challenges in Australia.

“There are mitzvot that you can only do in Israel. The Jewish life that one can live in Israel is superb.”

In Israel, Dr Lamm will devote more time to the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, the think tank he heads, and to World Mizrachi, where he is deputy chairman. His wife, Dr Rolene Lamm will run the Lamm Library remotely.

The couple were in Israel on October 7, 2023, staying on five weeks to volunteer. They have children and grandchildren in both countries.

“We’ll definitely come back and visit,” Dr Lamm said. “But we’re going to be Israeli residents.”

He pointed to the 42 stations the Torah lists between Mitzrayim and Israel.

“The primary point is to understand that all these spots are stations to a destination.”