Parramatta Shule stalwart remembered

Edward “Ted” Roberts – in Parramatta Synagogue president Michael Morris’s words “the last of the four forefathers of the shule” – has died in Sydney at the age of 96.

Roberts was farewelled at a funeral service led by Rabbi Roni Cohavi at Rookwood on June 24.

Born Eduard Robitschek in Vienna in May 1930, Roberts’ comfortable childhood was shattered by the 1938 Nazi annexation of Austria.

His family was stripped of its assets, and in 1939 they arrived in Sydney by boat as refugees.

When his father died in 1946, Roberts, then 16, worked at the family’s farm in Plumpton while attending Parramatta High – a burden he carried with a resilience that would shape his unwavering faith.

Roberts went on to study law at Sydney University and, after being sacked from his first job for being Jewish, he established his own successful conveyancing practice in Pendle Hill, which expanded to 20 staff, and he twice was preselected as the Liberal candidate for Wentworthville.

A multiple pennant tennis champion and Maccabi representative, it was on a tennis court in North Bondi where Roberts met his wife, Erica, in 1961.

They married a year later, raised children Karen, Vicky and Michael, and later welcomed six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Roberts was devoted to Parramatta Synagogue – as a key benefactor of its 1977 kindergarten building and expanded hall, as president in the early 1980s, as a decades-long board member, and at 65, a proud bar mitzvah boy!

He also regularly donated to other Jewish causes, including Masada College.

As Vicky recalled at the service of her father, “You came to this country with nothing, and you dedicated your life to helping people.” Michael added, “Dad didn’t just attend the synagogue, he built it, nurtured it, and left a thriving legacy of faith.”

Rabbi Cohavi said, “Thank you, Ted, for your contribution to Parramatta synagogue, and for being such a beautiful and kind man, who will be in our hearts forever.”