Remembering our Emeritus Rabbi, Rabbi dr raymond apple
For many people in The Great Synagogue, Rabbi Apple was an integral part of their Jewish lives for 10, 20 or even 30 years.
“I have preached righteousness in the great synagogue. I will not withhold my lips. O Lord, You know.” Psalm 40:10
As we woke up last Sunday morning we learned the sad news of the passing of Rabbi Apple. As the rabbi who occupies the pulpit he filled with distinction for 32 years, I have been thinking deeply about his life and legacy. For many people in The Great Synagogue, Rabbi Apple was an integral part of their Jewish lives for 10, 20 or even 30 years.
He was there at their naming, bar or bat mitzvah, and wedding. He performed the funerals of their loved ones and inspired them in his sermons and articles. So many of us have strong and warm memories of him, what he did for us and what he meant to us. In all of his work he was supported by Marian, who was a much-loved and widely respected leader of the congregation in her own right, and she is now in our thoughts.
Rabbi Apple was involved in a huge range of activities including academic writing and teaching, interfaith work, leading rabbinic bodies and advising lay bodies, as a member of the Sydney Beth Din, military chaplaincy, giving halachic guidance to the Sydney Women’s Tefillah Group, as a Freemason, founding Mandelbaum House, and endless acts of private advice and mentoring. He became the primary rabbinic voice in Australia, filling a role that was held by Rabbi Porush before him but will probably never be found in one person again.
This meant that Rabbi Apple had a tremendous impact on very many Jews and non-Jews all across Sydney and beyond, but none of this work distracted Rabbi Apple from his primary responsibilities as our chief minister. In the years after his arrival in 1972, The Great Synagogue reached its congregational peak, marked by events included in the centenary celebrations in 1978 and the opening of the Education Centre in 1981. When Rabbi Apple decided it was time to retire in 2005 the synagogue he bequeathed was large and strong, and he had made it warmer and more progressive.
Above all, he had been a faithful custodian of the congregation he had inherited. His love for our synagogue was obvious from the care he took over every aspect of its activity and the research he undertook into its history, culminating in his 2008 history of the congregation.
Although mobility restraints meant that Rabbi Apple had not been able to visit Sydney for some years, he remained a cheerful and responsive source of advice and information until the very last weeks of his life, and yet he never interfered or intruded.
I will always remember him fondly and with gratitude. I was delighted to spend time with him when I was in Jerusalem last July. The Great Synagogue was proud to issue a collection of his writings in the weekly sedra last year, to mark 50 years since his induction in 1973. His Torah will live on.
We extend our deepest sympathies to Marian, their children and children-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. There will be a memorial service at The Great Synagogue with tributes to mark Rabbi Apple’s Shloshim (30 days since his passing) on Thursday, February 22 at 6.30pm. We hope as many community members as possible will attend as we pay our respects to a great leader of Sydney Jewry, in the place that was the centre of Rabbi Apple’s ministry.
We have lost the man who led and tended to the Sydney Jewish community with love and dedication for so long. May his example inspire us and may his memory be a blessing.
Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton is rabbi of The Great Synagogue.
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