Survivor leaves lasting legacy

WITH the passing of Sophie Caplan on January 19, the Sydney Jewish community has lost another precious Holocaust survivor, living historian and pillar of the community.

Caplan – a child Shoah survivor – migrated to Sydney with her family and became actively involved in Jewish communal life and the Zionist movement from a young age.

Passionate about Jewish education, Caplan and her husband the late Leslie Caplan were instrumental in helping to establish Masada College in the 1960s.
“Sophie was involved in the establishment of proper educational guidelines and helped to shape the modern focus of Masada,” commented one of the founding members of the college, Diane Shteinman.

Dedicated to preserving the memory of her family members who were lost in the Shoah, Caplan was the Australian corresponding member of Avotaynu, the publication of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. She then founded the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society and edited their publication, The Kosher Koala, for more than 10 years.

“Sophie’s story became one of renewal and triumph over adversity,” remarked Anton Block, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ). “She had a special passion for modern Jewish history, and a talent for evoking, in her writings and talks, the flavour of pre-war Jewish life in Europe.”

Walt Secord, deputy chair of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel, who first encountered Caplan when he worked as a journalist in the late 1980s, also paid tribute to Caplan. “Mrs Caplan’s knowledge of Jewish history was encyclopaedic – and at times, profoundly amusing … She always had an interesting anecdote or observation to liven up the article.”

Together with Professor Suzanne Rutland, Caplan co-authored With One Voice, the history of the JBOD, on which she served as a deputy.

Similarly invested in leading the community, Leslie served stints as president of the ECAJ and JBOD.

Caplan was an active committee member of the Australian Jewish Historical Society for many years and served as its president from 2004 to 2011, before being presented with life membership in 2016 – “in appreciation of the service and commitment to the society over many years”.

“With Sophie Caplan’s passing we are witnessing the close of another chapter in the history of the Australian Jewish community. The Jews who arrived in Australia from Europe from the 1930s onwards revitalised Jewish life in our community and established the major institutions that have been the backbone of the Jewish community ever since,” commented executive director of ECAJ Peter Wertheim. “We will not see their like again.”

SOPHIE DEUTSCH