PM unveils new library
PRIME Minister and Wentworth MP Malcolm Turnbull reflected on the indelible contribution of Holocaust survivors to modern Australia at the opening of Kesser Torah College's (KTC) new Sam Moss Library last Friday.
PRIME Minister and Wentworth MP Malcolm Turnbull reflected on the indelible contribution of Holocaust survivors to modern Australia at the opening of Kesser Torah College’s (KTC) new Sam Moss Library last Friday.
Honouring the memory and life’s work of Moss, an Auschwitz survivor who passed away in 2016 at the age of 90, Turnbull highlighted Moss’ resolute commitment to supporting Jewish education.
“Sam was an enormously generous supporter of the Jewish community here in Sydney, and especially the education of young Australians,” said Turnbull, who also donated a selection of books from his own personal collection to the library.
With funding provided by Moss’s family and other generous contributors, in addition to a $600,000 federal government cheque, the inspiring vision for KTC’s $1,000,000 library project has become a reality.
The PM knows the Moss’ personally and spoke of his “immense admiration of Sam” before unveiling the plaque for the new library.
Immensely grateful to the contributors, principal of KTC Roy Steinman remarked, “The students and teachers who use our wonderful new facilities will internalise the generosity of spirit that has given birth to today’s achievement, and hopefully they too will carry with them those values of community.”
Referring to a “wonderful moment” in the Torah when pharaoh asks Moses, “How will you go?” and Moses responds, “With our children and with our elders,” Steinman emphasised the connectedness of generations through the passing of knowledge, values and wisdom – an insight to which Turnbull subsequently drew the audience’s attention.
“It is that connectedness that is at the heart of our humanity … When we care for those who are coming after us – for our children and the children of others – and when we honour those who came before us, that is when we show the love that ties us all together, so thank you principal for that slightly sermon part of your address,” said the PM.
A prodigious donor to many schools, Moss helped to bridge the generational gap between young and old, giving generously to educational causes both in money and time.
“He [mentored] 18, 19, 20-year-olds,” Moss’s son and president of the school’s board Meir Moss told The AJN. “[That’s] pretty impressive because that was when Dad was 75, 80 and 85 – he was two or three generations older than the people he was talking to.”
In his address at the school, Meir remarked, “Our father believed in people, especially young people, and he was very interested in education. This commitment towards education was the driving force behind these and many other philanthropic endeavours.”
SOPHIE DEUTSCH
comments