Rosh Hashanah greetings from leaders
GREETINGS for a happy new year from political and religious leaders to the Australian Jewish community.
Kevin Rudd
Prime Minister of Australia
IT gives me very great pleasure to send my best wishes to the Australian Jewish community, and to all the readers and staff of The Australian Jewish News during the celebration of Rosh Hashanah.
This celebration provides an opportunity to gather with family and friends to reflect on the past and prepare for the future. At this important time in the Jewish calendar, the wider Australian community joins with the Jewish community in celebration.
I hope the year ahead is a good year for the readers of The Australian Jewish News and all those celebrating Rosh Hashanah.
Malcolm Turnbull
Leader of the Opposition
IT gives me great pleasure to wish the Australian Jewish community a happy and prosperous new year and well over the fast.
Rosh Hashanah is a time of thanksgiving, reflection, celebration and recognition of the value of family and friends. It is a time to reflect on past actions, to make commitments to achievements in the year ahead, and to demonstrate a renewed commitment to faith.
May the promise of the new year be bright with hope and filled with peace and security for Israel.
Shimon Peres
President of Israel
HOPEFULLY, the coming New Year will be marked by the realization of our aspirations: attaining peace, increasing security, promoting economic growth, safeguarding the future of the Jewish people and strengthening the ties between Israel and our Jewish brothers in the Diaspora.
The opportunity to attain peace is beckoning, and must be seized, even at the cost of painful concessions. The Arab world’s intractable position to say “No” to negotiations, “No” to recognition of Israel and “No” to peace, has today been replaced by the three-fold “Yes” to the Saudi Initiative.
The international community is keen to support endeavours to move the peace process forward, and I am confident that, with concerted efforts, the vision of a comprehensive peace can be realized. This will create stability, tranquility, security and prosperity for our children and their children after them.
It is vital to build with our brethren in the Diaspora ties based on solid foundations of partnership and education. Indeed, the role of Jewish education in the Diaspora cannot be overestimated. It serves as the very building-blocks of the bridges that connect the Jewish communities abroad and Israel.
Yuval Rotem
Israeli Ambassador to Australia
ROSH Hashanah is traditionally a time when we reflect on the past year’s achievements, and the goals and hopes of the new year.
Although we may have had a challenging year, and may have an even more difficult year to come, we must not forget that our strength, courage and spirit will overcome these testing times.
I urge you in the new year to embrace the wisdom of our common experience to enable us to bring renewed promise and energy to our work. May we all continue in our efforts and prayers for peace and prosperity in the Land of Israel.
John Brumby
Premier of Victoria
I WOULD like to extend warm greetings to the readers of The AJN, and to all members of Victoria’s Jewish community at this special time. Rosh Hashanah is an important time of congregation, reflection and renewal.
This year I would like to again thank Victoria’s Jewish community for its work in promoting cultural and religious harmony in our diverse state. Earlier in the year, I was touched by the generosity shown by the Jewish community towards those who suffered loss during the Black Saturday bushfire disaster.
I wish you, your families and friends a shanah tovah u’metukah!
Nathan Rees
Premier of NSW
IT is a pleasure to extend my best wishes to the Jewish community on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.
Marking the beginning of the two most holy days of the Jewish calendar, the new year is a time for introspection, looking back on the past year and making plans for the future.
It is also a time when the worth of family, friends and community is reaffirmed, values which are of great importance to all of us.
On behalf of the New South Wales Government, I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous year ahead.
Ted Baillieu
Victorian Opposition Leader
ROSH Hashanah is cause for feast and celebration, and a time for reflection and renewal.
We should take this opportunity to look ahead and imagine the ways in which we can improve our lives and those of others, and contribute to shaping the future in a positive way.
On behalf of the Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition, I wish our Jewish community a happy new year, peace, prosperity, health and happiness, and well over the fast.
Barry O’Farrell
NSW Opposition leader
MY warmest wishes for a shanah tovah, a healthy and joyous new year, to the Australian Jewish community. My participation in many Jewish community activities has strengthened friendships, furthered understanding of traditions, and reinforced admiration for your contribution to all aspects of Australian life.
Rosh Hashanah and the high holy days provide the opportunity to pray that peace and security finally come to Israel. It is a chance for individual reflection and thanksgiving for being with family and friends.
When you hear the sound of the shofar, may your prayers be answered and may you be inscribed in the Book of Life. May 5770 bring good health, happiness and contentment -— and be a year as sweet and enduring as the honey in which you traditionally dip apple and challah.
Rabbi Dovid Freilich
President Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia
TO relay blessings of peace, contentment, health, parnasah and nachas would be futile, as over this period of yamim noraim we will be continually asking Avinu Malkeinu (Our Father, Our King) for these divine gifts, which are only in His power to grant or otherwise.
More importantly is what we can do for Him.
Our duty as Jews is to sanctify Him (kiddush Hashem). We sanctify God by behaving in a way that is moral, honest, truthful and full of integrity.
Sadly, over this past year, the behaviour of some our fellow Jews, both rabbis and laity, some ritually observant, some not, has caused chillul Hashem (profanation of God’s name).
If indeed we want blessings, not only from the Almighty, but from the nations of the world, it is up to us to behave and conduct ourselves in such a way that we will deserve those blessings.
We must be more scrupulous than others in our business dealings, upright in all our contacts and uphold the truth and integrity in all that we do.
Let each of us help re-establish the Jewish peoples’ credentials as an am kadosh (a holy nation) and an or la’goyim (a light to the nations), and by so doing we will bring about, as the Hebrew letters of this year (5770) imply, teshua -— universal salvation!
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