Reminiscing on the early days at Scopus
To help celebrate 75 years of strength and courage, White, Brott and Bontschek agreed to pose for the school again, this time at the Gandel Besen House campus.
When Noam White, Myer Brott and Robert Bontschek smiled cheekily over the fence of the soon-to-be-opened Mount Scopus College, a Victorian Jewish school for boys and girls in 1949, they could not have imagined what their school would be like 75 years later. The iconic image appeared in The Sun newspaper on February 23, 1949, a few weeks after the college opened its doors at 144 St Kilda Road, Melbourne.
To help celebrate 75 years of strength and courage, White, Brott and Bontschek agreed to pose for the school again, this time at the Gandel Besen House campus.
Reminiscing on their early days at Scopus they recalled the whole school marching into assembly each morning to recite the Shema, the great fun they had on the school bus, and playing footy in the yard. While the school has done away with the marching, it’s heartening to see some aspects of Scopus’s life hasn’t changed.
They recalled Mrs Gelman’s wonderful classes and her caring and nurturing disposition, Dr Randa’s fantastic Hebrew classes, and fondly remembered the celebrations for all the chagim.
They all remembered lining St Kilda Road to welcome the Queen as she drove past during her Australian visit in 1954, and also recalled a school excursion to the MCG to see the athletics during the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.
Observing how different school is now, they told how the friendships made back then and their connection to Judaism and Israel have stayed with them through the years, with each having visited or lived in Israel at various times.
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