Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is rare for the Federation Chamber to be standing room only, but it is a great privilege for us to have members of B'nai B'rith here to be part of this fitting and important tribute to B'nai B'rith's 80 years in this country. I am a product of a community designed and fed by B'nai B'rith. I grew up in Melbourne's Jewish community, which was and still is a vibrant community—one which is full of people who give back to the community and who speak up on its behalf in a way that feeds Australian public life and celebrates multiculturalism and diversity whilst never forgetting the history of Melbourne's Jewish community: one of persecution and one of Holocaust survivors coming and making their place here in this country of ours, finding a safe haven in doing so.

For me, B'nai B'rith is an organisation that helps shape the very vibrant and wonderful community that I'm in and helps shape the identity that I'm proud to have, as a proud Jewish Australian. Since coming to and being established in Australia in 1944, B'nai B'rith has been more than just a community organisation. It has been a home to the largest percentage of Holocaust survivors of any other city outside of Israel, and it has also been a place where the vibrancy and breadth of the activity it's involved in has been truly astonishing.

The first B'nai B'rith youth group was formed in Sydney, followed by one in Melbourne in 1945. The opening of the first offices for B'nai B'rith was in Darlinghurst in 1948, and the Hillel Foundation was established in 1961, serving as a residential campus for Jewish university students. Affordable accommodation for elderly Jewish Australians was set up in Sydney in 1964 and then, a few years later, in Melbourne. In 1977 there was also an opportunity shop known as the B'nai B'rith Bargain Bazaar, a fantastic and catchy title. In 1981, B'nai B'rith organised—as the member for Berowra so eloquently put before—the first-ever Holocaust exhibition in Australia, held at Sydney Town Hall, which I believe was visited by over 55,000 Australians and 12,000 school students. For 80 years, more broadly, B'nai B'rith has comprised wonderful units that are scattered around the country, giving so much to not only each other but the broader community as well.

The highlight for me also, I have to mention, just like the member for Berowra, is Courage to Care, which is a program designed, led and fed by B'nai B'rith, which is all about telling young people in Australia that you must be an upstander against racism, not a bystander in witnessing it. That lesson, as the member for Berowra mentioned before, has never been more important. To have young people in Australia willing to speak up against racism has never been more important. We can write laws outlawing it, we can write laws giving more protection for security agencies, but what actually is our best and most important fight against racism is the collective commitment to fight it as one united society. For young people, that is so important across schools and universities, and that work by Courage to Care is work that I'm extremely proud of. I met with Mike Zervos, our local staff member for Courage to Care, who's a great person and one who believes in this. I spoke to the Armchair Society recently, I've sponsored the B'nai B'rith Jewish youth art competition for many years, and I am so proud to stand in this place to acknowledge, alongside the member for Berowra and the member for Wentworth, the incredible contribution of B'nai B'rith to Australian life.

I'll mention a few people by name so they're etched into the Hansard because they have made an enormous contribution to B'nai B'rith and to our country. To James Altman, Elaine Altman, Peter Cappe, Clare Cappe, Irene Kirschner, Leon Nissen, Deirdre Wainrit, Alan Wainrit, Anna Marks, Denise Monheit, Rosa Schattner and Peter Schattner, thank you. No doubt, whenever you create a list like that you forget many, many people. But to anyone who has contributed to B'nai B'rith; to anyone who has walked inside a unit of B'nai B'rith to engage, to learn, to discuss, to challenge; and to anyone who has been a part of any of B'nai B'rith's programs that have done not only so much for the Australian Jewish community but for the Australian community at large, I say thank you.

I am proud to stand here in the House of Representatives' off-Chamber, the Federation Chamber, to mark 80 years of B'nai B'rith in Australia and as they say in Yiddish, biz hundert un tsvantik, to 120 and more. Congratulations.

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