Australia’s oldest Jew mourned
During Leah Haskin’s lifetime the Titanic sank, penicillin was discovered and the modern crossword puzzle was invented.
DURING Leah Haskin’s lifetime the Titanic sank, penicillin was discovered and the modern crossword puzzle was invented.
Born in an age before television and the pop-up toaster, and just five years after the Wright Brothers made their first flight, she survived two world wars, the creation of the nuclear bomb, the Cold War and saw the population of the world grow from 1.65 billion to more than seven billion.
But at the age of 107 Leah, who The AJN believes was the oldest Jewish person in Australia, passed away last week.
“Leah was a woman of principle, courage and integrity with a concern for humanitarian values,” her son Mark told The AJN.
“She was really an incredibly wise, kind, compassionate, honourable, decent and loving person.”
Mark said he will always remember her compassion for asylum seekers in Australia.
“When Leah’s 95th birthday was approaching in 2003, I suggested to Leah that an application could be made, whereby she could receive congratulations from the prime minister.
“Leah’s adamant refusals were based on humanitarian grounds. Leah firmly believed that the mandatory detention of asylum seekers, particularly women and children, by the government of the day was both unnecessarily harsh and utterly unconscionable.”
Leah was born in pre-state Palestine on October 13 in 1908.
In 1909, her family emigrated to Fremantle in Western Australia.
Five years later, after spending some time in the Western Australian goldfields, the family moved to Melbourne.
In 1931 Leah married Henry Haskin at the Toorak Road Synagogue and the couple had three children: Leon in 1933, Ruth in 1937 and Mark in 1943.
They were married until Henry’s death in 1980.
She is survived by her son Mark, daughter Ruth, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
JOSHUA LEVI
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