VAJEX pivots to include younger generation

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The Victorian Association of Jewish Ex & Servicemen & Women (VAJEX) has a new mission – renewal.

Its new president, Janice Furstenberg, told The AJN, “VAJEX was established 96 years ago by Sir John Monash, to honour our ex-servicemen and women in the armed forces in Australia. Many of the ex-servicemen and women are now getting quite old, so there are many people in our community who don’t know about VAJEX.”

The organisation’s patron, Major General Jeffrey Rosenfeld, expressed confidence in the new appointment.

“We need to rejuvenate VAJEX because our members are growing older and fewer,” he said. “Our most important function is to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice – Jews who served Australia.”

Furstenberg, who previously served as the first woman president of the St Kilda Hebrew Congregation, was instrumental at her first AGM in introducing a broader membership, inclusive of Jewish non-service members and friends of VAJEX.

Rosenfeld said she has the capacity to grow VAJEX and build up its strength, to protect it for the future and to help keep the memories of our veterans alive.

“I think that the military is not thought about very much by the general Jewish community. It’s really got a very low profile in the Jewish community, and very few young Jewish men and women will join the ADF,” he said.

Rosenfeld said in fact, there are a regular number of young Jewish men and women who do join, but they prefer not to advertise that because they don’t want to be seen as a separate element in the ADF.

VAJEX is holding its annual Anzac service this Sunday at 10.30am at the Glen Eira Town Hall.

AUJS Victoria president Sara Lupton, who will be representing Victorian Jewish students at the event, said, “It is an honour for Jewish students to be involved in the communal Anzac Day remembrance ceremony – as we, the next generation, pay tribute and remember those who served.”