Ben Apfelbaum

LAW TERM OPENING @ THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE

It has been a tradition going back many centuries that the judiciary barristers and solicitors attend a religious service where they pray for wisdom in the dispensing of justice. Earlier courts were more overtly religious with the creation of Ecclesiastical courts presided over by priests, cardinals and monks.

in Sydney, there are three Law term opening services, in the Sydney CBD, the Catholic service, Red Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, an Anglican service at St James Church and the jewish service at the Great Synagogue.

The jewish service which I attended was held in the presence of the Chief Justice of New South Wales The Hon. T.F.Bathurst AC, together with representatives of the Judiciary, law officers, leaders and members of the legal profession. Some of the distinguished leaders included Mark Speakman SC MP, Attorney General, the President of the Court of Appeal, The Hon. Justice Andrew Bell, The Chief Judge of the New South Wales District Court The Hon. Justice D.M.Price, The Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia and The Hon. Justice James Allsop AO who read passages from the Bible or recited psalms with a legal theme.

The assembled members of the Judiciary and legal profession were addressed by Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton, Chief Minister of the Great Synagogue, accompanied by Rabbi Philip Kaplan, Cantor and Associate Rabbi of the Great Synagogue and the choir of the Great Synagogue, conducted by Justin Green.

At the lower floor of the Great Synagogue the Chief Justice of New South Wales addressed the packed hall, thanking the synagogue for hosting the service as well as the remarks of Rabbi Elton and also gave a brief overview of the jewish community’s contribution to the legal profession., including the first Australian Chief justice of the then High Court, Sir Isaac Isaacs and a predecessor, Chief Justice James Spigelman.AC. A further remarkable statistic that he presented was the fact that although the jewish community represented only 0.4% of the Australian population, members of the jewish community received 4% of the awards handed out at the recent Australia Day awards.

Featured image : Rabbi Ben Elton, Chief Justice Tom Bathurst, Justice Nigel Rein, Great Synagogue Vice President Max Freedman. All pics by Ben Apfelbaum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.