Scouting – Jewish style

PETER KOHN

LEON Waxman, group leader of the 3rd Rose Bay Judean Scouts, speaks of Skype replacing “ham” radio when scouts from various countries talked to one another at the annual Jamboree of the Air, an Australian and international scouting summit held every October.

Gary Brand of Melbourne, who leads Jewish scout group the 10th Caulfield, says solar-powered LED lanterns have replaced old-style torches when his unit goes on hikes. Scouting today is more about Google than woggles.

Waxman became a cub at eight and grew up in Sydney’s Jewish scouting scene. He was drawn back into scouting when his son joined the 3rd Rose Bay eight years ago.
Jewish scouting in Sydney — and Australia — has a history that caught the eye of the Sydney Jewish Museum, which is planning an exhibition on it.

In Sydney, Jewish scouting began in 1927 with the formation of the 1st Sydney Judean troop, which met at The Great Synagogue. Over the past eight decades, there have been several Jewish groups, including 5th Maroubra, 4th Lindfield and 8th Sydney. But 3rd Rose Bay, which resulted from a merger with 2nd North Bondi in the 1980s, is the only group remaining.

“Some parents who have brought their kids into our group didn’t realise we were still around,” said Waxman.

Third Rose Bay has become the hub of an informal social network of some 120 scouting parents, which gives the troop a family atmosphere. A ski trip for scouts and their families is being planned.

Now with 91 scouts, 3rd Rose Bay sent a record 18 representatives to the annual jamboree last year.

“The philosophy of scouting in general is to develop good citizenship, leadership, and to reinforce respect for the community, for parents, for teachers,” says Waxman. “And for the environment.”

Scouting has traditionally been associated with conservation, long before it became fashionable, and much of 3rd Rose Bay’s activities, especially at the more senior levels, is outdoors.

The unit’s boys and girls regularly take part in camps, which include bushwalks, sailing and rock climbing, as well as visits to an airbase at Camden.

While Scouting Australia regards itself as “non-denominational”, it fosters communal groups that provide scouts of a particular ethnicity or faith with a greater understanding of their heritage. There are Vietnamese, Latvian and Coptic groups affiliated with the NSW and Victorian branches, and there used to be Catholic scout groups in NSW.

But, casting aside stereotyped visions of helping elderly shulgoers cross a busy street, what makes Australia’s Jewish scouting Jewish?

Waxman sees 3rd Rose Bay as an integral part of the NSW Jewish community. The troop provides a colour party at the annual NSW Association of Jewish ex Servicemen & Women Anzac Day wreath-laying, scouts spend Remembrance Day with residents of the Montefiore Home, and can earn badges for learning about Judaism. The group also takes part in mainstream events such as the annual Walk for Hunger.

“We have members from across the spectrum of observance, from the Emanuel School to Kesser Torah. We try to strike a balance, but our philosophy is to make it possible for even the most observant young people to be able to join in. All food at our activities is kosher. We have a Shabbat dinner on our camps and we sing Shabbat songs around the campfire.”

Waxman reflects that scouting has to stay relevant to compete with a plethora of after-school activities competing for the attention of today’s youth and their parents.

“We emphasise skills that kids can learn, activities that involve using your hands, physical activities in the outdoors, which is a far healthier alternative to sitting in front of the internet,” he said.

IN Victoria, Jewish scouting has a strong presence, with 15th Brighton, 10th Caulfield and 4th St Kilda Guides.

Third St Kilda, which began in 1924 with the support of St Kilda synagogue’s Rabbi Jacob Danglow, was Victoria’s first Jewish scout group, and became known as “Danglow’s Own”. Among its founders was Trevor Rapke, later a County Court judge and Jewish Board of Deputies (now Jewish Community Council of Victoria) president.

Spokesperson Graeme Nathan says the unit will be relaunched by Jewish Care as a group for scouts with disabilities.

Jak Grimm, group leader of 15th Brighton, concurs that the centenary has boosted interest. So has an awareness campaign at Jewish schools, and word-of-mouth. The ranks have swelled by a fifth over the past two years.

Grimm, who joined 15th Brighton as a 10-year-old, now has both his children involved, and his wife was a venturer.

“Some of the kids are from second and third generation scouting families.”

Gary Brand, a Bialik College educator, spent part of his childhood in cubs at 3rd St Kilda and returned to scouting as an 18-year-old, joining 10th Caulfield in 1979, which he now leads.

The troop has 34 scouts and more than 20 cubs, a boost in numbers from three years ago, after Brand approached Jewish schools and offered to run information sessions.
In look and spirit, 10th Caulfield is a far cry from the outfit founded in 1954 — gone are the khaki uniforms and felt hats, replaced by blue and fawn, with baseball caps that double as head covering for boys when the troop recites brachas.

Old enough to remember when scouting had only “AJAX football and Habonim” to compete with, Brand acknowledges the challenges of drawing in young people in this age of high-tech distractions.

Brand’s formula is simple. “If you provide a good program, keeping it fun and interesting, it will be a drawcard.”

The 10th Caulfield and 15th Brighton groups occasionally combine their activities in the 28th Glen Eira Venturers.

Scouting has been mixed-gender since the 1980s, but a 4th St Kilda Guides group caters for girls.

Guide leader Michelle Hain said 4th St Kilda provides an environment for girls in observant families seeking a girls-only group for their daughters, but it has members from a rainbow of Jewish backgrounds.

Hain, whose mother was a guide, joined 4th St Kilda two years ago. She is keen to rebuild its numbers to double digits, not an easy task in an age when time pressures are far greater than 74 years ago, when communal icon Betty Casper founded the group.

But interest lingers, and after their bat mitzvahs, some girls who have left the guides return to become ranger guides and rangers. The group caters to girls aged six to 11 for junior guides (formerly brownies), and five to 18 for guides.

They meet weekly and work on skills and awards programs that encourage environmental care, teamwork and self-reliance, says Hain.

“A kosher-catered Harry Potter Hogwarts Express Camp was a recent highlight on the program.”