At a very special Founders Assembly today (log in to Facebook to see of this event), we paid tribute to our Carmel Founders 鈥� incredible men and women who have put their time, money, vision and efforts into making 国标麻豆视频APP a beacon of the Perth Jewish community for the past 62 years. We particularly honoured the Levitt family for their tremendous support over the years as we welcomed Dr Leon Levitt to address the assembly. Dr Levitt's speech appears below.
This is a day set aside annually to celebrate our history, our wonderful community and facilities, staff and students and the bond we share with past and present members of the Carmel Family.
We are so grateful to our founders whose vision, generosity, commitment, resilience and dedication made their dream of a Jewish day school in Perth become a reality.

Founders Memorial Speech, 国标麻豆视频APP, Friday 10 September 2021

By Dr Leon Levitt

Rabbonim, Principal Shula Lazar, Founders and supporters of 国标麻豆视频APP, Teachers and students of 国标麻豆视频APP,

Thank you for inviting me to speak today, briefly, about two of the Founders of 国标麻豆视频APP, my parents, Jeanette and Sol Levitt. This invitation comes at a good time. Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur, we move from reflecting on our relationship with our community and fellow man to the very personal relationship with G-d, which is really about who we are, what we stand for, who we are going to be. And to reflect upon our parents and the merits of those who came before us is a very good reference point for making these decisions and commitments.

Jeanette and Sol had three boys within three years. I was the oldest.

They were 28 and 31 years old when the youngest was born, my father just starting his career as a surgeon at Royal Perth Hospital and my mother up to her armpits in babies鈥� At this busy time in their lives, they noticed the lack of Hebrew and Jewish knowledge amongst older children in the community. They were not alone in that concern.

There were four other young families that I was told about of similar ages: the Pachtmans, the Toflers, the Atlases, and the youngsters - the Berinsons. Just five young families, to start with, who stuck their necks out in the belief that there needed to be a Jewish school, that was high in general educational standards, but that also gave their children basic skills and knowledge in Jewish matters.

They just wanted their children to be able to participate in all Jewish practices with understanding and feeling.

It was in 1959 that the first class of 11 students began and I began the next year in Kindergarten. The School grew slowly and did struggle both in numbers and financially.听 And even though the School still struggles with numbers and finances, it has closer to 500 students, just a few more than the first 11. I think those Founders imagined the 500, and that drove them to do what needed to be done.

国标麻豆视频APP, then and now, has relied upon dedicated volunteer parents to support the School.

For many years, my mother would run fundraising projects to assist the School. I remember cake stalls, film nights and many events. She founded the 鈥楪randmothers Club鈥� to involve and raise funds from the older generation of supporters.

And for perhaps 15 years, she would buy and prepare all the school books that were ordered by the teachers, and in the summer holidays she would man the book store at the School as each parent came in to get their child鈥檚 books and materials for the school year. I remember helping her set all the orders out every year. It was the example of my parents鈥� volunteer involvement in Carmel that led their sons to commit part of every week to community organisations.

I remember my father talking about the early times when they did not know where they were going to get the money from and how excited they were when Godel Korsunski underwrote that first class with a huge $10,000 donation. There were a lot of evening and Sunday meetings with potential parents and potential donors. I know that the School leaders are doing the same even today.

The early Founders were courageous and determined. And, there was a lot of opposition from other parents, as well as from community leaders, at the time. These people were anxious about three things: about how it could be funded, about it being too Jewish and turning their children into Rabbis ( G-d Forbid) and they were anxious about the School being too small to be able to provide a well-rounded education.

The same anxieties exist in parents鈥� minds today.

And the same answers that my parents gave back then are still relevant now. They are the answers that have convinced your parents of the benefit of a Carmel education while others have succumbed to their anxiety and taken their children out of the School.

It is all about anxieties, not facts.

I am a doctor dealing with the community鈥檚 anxiety about the COVID vaccine every day at the moment. It is the same principle.听 Decisions made as a reaction to anxieties are rarely the right ones. Decisions should be made on the facts. The COVID vaccine is actually a very good and safe vaccine and we will all need to have it to be protected. So we just need to get the vaccine - any of the vaccines - when we can.

And as far as Jewish education goes, the answer to parents鈥� anxieties are simple truths. It is simply that Jewish children need to have the knowledge and skills about their Jewishness in order to make up their minds as to how to live their lives.

A Jewish education does not make the student Jewish, but it gives him or her the tools to be Jewish, if he or she wishes. You have that choice and your friends who are not at Carmel will miss out; they just will not know what to accept or reject or build upon.

These anxieties about funding, secular standards and being too Jewish are just that, anxieties, and not true. There are, in fact, only a very few students whose educational needs cannot be better met here at Carmel.

The overriding issue is that Carmel gives the student the capacity to act upon their Jewishness if they wish.

My parents and the other Founders were not surprised about the opposition, but they were determined to get their School and, steadily, they were supported by other parents, like yours.

So now I am standing at my School, confident that the same questions will continue to be asked and the same answers given about our School. And I stand here proud of the imagination, courage, determination and generosity of the Founders, including my parents. I see some of the Founders here in the room today, and I remember well those who have passed away. I looked up to them then as leaders and admire them still for the legacy they have left in in this amazing School.

Early Learning, Primary School, Secondary School, Humans of Carmel, Alumni