Farewelling Shmuel
Tributes have flowed for communal stalwart Shmuel Rosenkranz, who passed away late last month, aged 93.
TRIBUTES have flowed for communal stalwart Shmuel Rosenkranz, who passed away late last month, aged 93.
The Holocaust survivor was a long-time president and a pioneer of the Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC), and took leadership roles in the Victorian Jewish Board of Deputies and its successor, the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV), as well as the Zionist Federation of Australia. He was also a president of Elwood Synagogue.
Born in Vienna, Rosenkranz was an eyewitness to Kristallnacht, on November 9-10, 1938.
“I still weep today for what I saw on that night,” Rosenkranz told The AJN some years ago. “I saw the synagogues of Vienna go up in flames … I was fortunate to escape up into the hills with my late father … we saw the skies lit with the fires of the synagogues.
“The following morning, when we risked coming down and we walked the streets, we saw the broken glass, we saw the looted shops, we saw holy books, we saw Sifrei Torah burned, vandalised, torn.”
Escaping Vienna at 17, Rosenkranz and family members sailed to Australia, settling in Carlton. He quickly became active in communal affairs, collecting for the JNF and helping found a Habonim group.
At Rosenkranz’s funeral, Michael Cohen, the JHC’s community relations and research director, noted his “stellar career” with the Jewish community. As well as being JHC’s president for many years, he was appointed as its inaugural life governor at the JHC’s annual Betty and Shmuel Rosenkranz Oration in 2015.
“Shmuel was also involved, over many years, with Melbourne’s Bialik College, where the Rosenkranz Centre for Excellence and Achievement bears his name,” said Cohen.
JHC president Pauline Rockman said Rosenkranz “was one of the progenitors of the JHC and, in his capacity as president and co-president, for many years provided outstanding leadership. He had a passion for Jewish education, and was committed to Holocaust education for the current and future generations – for all people.”
His vision for the JHC “went beyond the bounds of a museum”, she said. “Part of his legacy was the establishment of the Jewish Holocaust Centre Foundation to safeguard the future of the centre.”
JCCV president Jennifer Huppert lauded Rosenkranz’s “life of service to the Melbourne Jewish community”.
“As a witness of Kristallnacht, Shmuel was deeply committed to the remembrance of the Shoah, and made a lasting contribution to the development of many communal institutions in Melbourne.
“He oversaw the transition of the Victorian Jewish Board of Deputies to the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, serving as president of the two organisations,” she said.
Elwood Synagogue’s president Mark Kuran noted Rosenkranz was president of the former Board of Deputies while he was president of the synagogue, and his prediction in the 1990s that the shul would survive, despite an ageing congregation and Jews leaving Elwood, has since been proven correct.
“Elwood Shule mourns the passing of our long-term member and president of 14 consecutive years,” Kuran said.
PETER KOHN
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