Thanking Lamm after eight years

AFTER eight years at the helm, Dr Danny Lamm was set to step down as president of the Zionist Council of Victoria (ZCV) on Wednesday evening.

Dr Lamm, who will take up the position of president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) at the end of this month, was due to be succeeded by Sam Tatarka.

Speaking to The AJN in the last days of his presidency, Dr Lamm said it had been an “honour and a pleasure”.

“I leave it not because I have an aspiration to do something else,” he said. “I’m leaving because I believe lay leadership ought to change.”

He continued: “It so happened that I was asked to take the presidency of the ECAJ,” but that was “not the main driver”.

Throughout his lengthy term, the long-time community volunteer explained he had offered to step down every two years, only to be asked by the executive to continue his work.

After thinking for a while about the biggest challenge during his reign, Dr Lamm said it had been Israel’s relentless enemies.

“The challenges to Israel are not going away,” he said. “We have enemies that are not ‘placatable’.

“They are our sworn enemies and that will not change.”

He paid tribute to both the ZCV’s executive and also its staff, and said he had worked hard to ensure all the organisation’s affiliates — from the left to the right, the Orthodox to Reform — were included.

“I’ve only got good memories of the whole exercise,” he said, adding that he had run the Zionist organisation with the mentality that the only limit on what could be achieved was how much effort was put into it.

While leading the ZCV, Dr Lamm was also president of Beth Weizmann Community Centre. He said the purchase of the adjoining property on Hawthorn Road, Caulfield, was his biggest achievement.

“To be able to see that has been a dream come true.”

Dr Lamm was expected to be thanked in front of Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem, local politicians and community dignitaries at the ZCV annual assembly on Wednesday evening.

NAOMI LEVIN

PHOTO: Danny Lamm