Editorial (November 6, 2009)
A toast to a Bondi icon
LAST drinks were called, the final pokies coins were inserted, the last boardroom meetings were held, and the ultimate poker hands were dealt at Sydney’s iconic Hakoah Club in Bondi.
In 1975, a huge building opened atop Hall Street, just a stone’s throw from Sydney’s sweeping Bondi Beach. The building -— at the time a modern marvel -— included a state-of-the-art gymnasium, picnic grounds, a large ballroom and, what was described at the time as “the absolute height of fine dining”, Jaffa’s Restaurant.
It was a facility that the Australian Jewish community had not previously known and it served as the ultimate hub of Sydney Jewish life.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. The community’s needs changed, but Hakoah remained largely the same. Financially, an underused facility on prime real estate was a wasted resource, and even with plenty of poker machines, the club was losing millions.
In 2007, 90 per cent of the 700 members voted at an extraordinary general meeting to sell the Bondi building. Even club icon Frank Lowy admitted with a heavy heart that the property was no longer viable.
At the time, president Phil Filler hoped the club would be out of the building by the end of 2008, after it had been sold for $19 million to the Toga Group.
A year after that deadline, and more than two years after the property was sold, Filler and his board have failed to find a new home for club members.
Hakoah’s board is continuing to ask for members’ money, but has so far failed in its duty to re-invest the money from the sale into a new club headquarters.
On this same page, on October 5, 2007, there was a familiar line: “To date, there has been vague talk of a more streamlined operation at a location not too distant from its current home, perhaps in partnership with Maccabi.”
Twenty-five months later, that statement is still the standard line. Rather than vague indications, Filler and his board need to do the right thing by club members and the wider Jewish community -— all of whom are potential club members -— and find a new home with haste.
A club without a home is liable to wither and die, and for the sake of history and the community, this is a prospect no-one wants to consider.
Justice shall you pursue
SHOCKING is clearly the word of the week — and certainly not only regarding the lucky equine that took home the Melbourne Cup. For the Jewish community, there was shocking news concerning something far more grave.
From Israel, we received word that the police and internal security services were holding a Jew they alleged had confessed to heinous nationalistic terror activity spanning more than a decade. Elsewhere in Israel, a Russian immigrant has reportedly confessed to butchering three generations of a family over a workplace grudge.
The crimes have stunned the nation and, indeed, all Jews are touched by the magnitude of these separate events.
While those charged will have their day in court as the justice system does its work, the question we need to ask is how to make sense of the senseless and find a moral to incidents of unspeakable immorality?
We can look to our appointed judges and leaders for guidance. Israeli Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Rivlin, in Australia this week, reminded us that in the eyes of the law, there are no distinctions between backgrounds of those who commit acts of terror —- all must face swift and equal judgement.
And speaking at a memorial for slain Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in the Knesset last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged to confront violent elements in society that disregard the rule of law and democracy.
Rivlin and Netanyahu have got it right.
The crimes of the accused have raised troubling questions, but it’s the answers that can be taken to heart. Jewish sages teach about the evil inclination that exists in all humanity, and it’s not something that can be confronted passively. On the contrary, it must be fought aggressively.
Only a society that toils to confront the evils that lurk within it has earned its solid footing on the high ground of morality. Even in the face of our best efforts, evil will inevitably occasionally surface. Society’s test is how it responds to this evil.
In this regard, Israel can take pride and solace in its excellent police and court systems, which are shouldering the load of keeping society moral and just, even as depraved individuals test their mettle.
From that perspective, the feelings of shock and revulsion experienced this week are not at odds with the words of Jewish terror victim Professor Ze’ev Sternhell, who called the Jewish terror suspect’s arrest “a great day for democracy”.
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