Betar turns 90 in new bayit

NINETY years on from its establishment, Betar Australia has opened the doors of a new home for future generations of the movement, in a ceremony drawing 200 people.

The Beth Jabotinsky Centre – which includes a hall, three meeting rooms, an office, a storage room and a kosher kitchen – has been built on the site of newly-developed Central Shule Chabad in Caulfield South after 10 years of planning, negotiations and building by the movement’s parent organisation, the Friends of Likud Australia. The new centre will be the base for both Betar Australia and its parent body.

President of the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA), former Betar member Danny Lamm – also the son of staunch Betar supporters Erwin and Ilse Lamm who were present at the event – said that “one of the important aids for any movement is having a bayit (home).”

Reflecting on his own experience growing up in a home that was a base for visiting Israeli dignitaries including former prime ministers Ehud Olmert and Menachem Begin, Lamm said he and many of his Betar contemporaries were imbued with “the history and ideology of [Ze’ev] Jabotinsky, and of the great civility and leadership of Begin”. He added: “As I stand here as president of the ZFA, the representative of the entire Zionist community, I can say that the heart that beats inside this community is truly a Likud heart.”

Visiting from Israel for the event were chairman of the Likud-Beytenu faction in the Knesset, Yariv Levin and head of World Betar, Neriya Meir.

Levin told The AJN that Betar’s ideology equips its members with “better tools to live a much more productive and meaningful life in the future … I hope this centre will help provide that.”

President of Friends of Likud Australia Alex Goodman, who joined Betar in 1977 and donned a chultzah (shirt) at the ceremony, said Betar’s numbers had doubled since the movement started working out of the new centre early last year.

One room in the new centre has been dedicated in memory of longtime Betar supporter, Dr Eric Stock, and another was dedicated to Isaac and Fay Schwartz and family.

Politicians present at the event included Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition Michael Danby, Member for Higgins Kelly O’Dwyer, and State Member for Caulfield David Southwick.

TIMNA JACKS

Neriya Meir, David Southwick, Alex Goodman, Yariv Levin, Danny Lamm and Central Shule’s Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Riesenberg. Photo: Peter Haskin