
5 minute read
JCA PHILANTHROPY
AROUND THE COMMUNITY
JCA
Mervyn and Lorraine Basserabie have long been synonymous with philanthropy in the Jewish community. Through their generosity, the lives of many have been enriched and the good deeds of others honoured.
Over the years, JCA and its member organisations have been grateful beneficiaries of the Basserabies' goodwill. "JCA cares for its community," said Mervyn recently. "It gives us much pleasure seeing how JCA cares and plans for the wellbeing of future generations and Jewish identity."
To help ensure the long-term continuity of the community, Mervyn and Lorraine have embraced JCA Generations. This community-wide initiative encourages everyone to consider leaving a modest percentage of their estate to JCA in their wills.
Mervyn said: "We have decided to include JCA in our wills because it will be part of our legacy and we would be happy knowing that we have continued to help JCA do its good work."
The Basserabies hope their example will encourage others to join those who have already committed to the program. "We believe that if many feel the way we do and if they provide for JCA in their wills, Jewish wellbeing and continuity will be assured,” Mervyn said.
In 2015, he kick-started JCA's campaign with a $1 million donation. At the time, he said that much of his motivation when giving was the sheer joy of doing so. He considered it an honour and privilege to help fellow Jewish families. Mervyn said that his benchmark for giving is that if a substantial donation can change other people's lives whilst not impacting his wealth and lifestyle, there is no reason not to give. He also said that people should consider their financial situations and posed the following question, "will I rather be remembered by what I made or by what I gave? I know one thing for sure … everyone in this room would rather be a giver than a receiver." He has always urged fellow givers to consider what they can give to the community with an open heart.
Bequests to JCA can make a lasting difference in various sectors and can include: • Providing aged and community care for disadvantaged, disabled and vulnerable members of our community. • Preserving Holocaust memory and Jewish history for future generations. • Making Jewish education available for more children. • Advocating for our community, combatting antisemitism and ensuring our safety and security. • Supporting cultural and outreach programs that enrich our Jewish life.
JCA close to their hearts
Lorraine and Mervyn Basserabie
If you would like more information about leaving a legacy to JCA, please phone Debbie Edinburg on 9360-2344 or email debbie@jca.org.au

Generations
JEWISH HISTORY
DR. YVETTE ALT MILLER COURTESY: AISH.COM
Olivia Newton-John’s grandfather was a Nobel Prize-winning Jewish physicist
Olivia Newton-John is being mourned across the globe as a charismatic singer and the star of the 1978 hit movie Grease. Starting out in a teen band that she created when she was still a schoolgirl in Melbourne, Newton-John wowed audiences the world over, in a career that spanned decades.
Yet the girl next door image that Newton-John cultivated in her long performing career hid the fact that she was a highly idealistic woman who hailed from a distinguished, intellectual family.
Newton-John was the granddaughter of one of the 20th century’s greatest scientists, the German Jewish physicist Max Born, who worked with Albert Einstein and won the Nobel Prize (along with Walter Bothe) in 1954. Her family tree included professors and at least one rabbi.

Max Born and Newton-John’s Jewish heritage
Max Born was born in 1882 in the Polish city of Breslau, into a highly cultured, academic Jewish home. His professor father hired tutors to teach Max privately and Max soon distinguished himself in math and physics, gaining a PhD at the University of Gottingen in Germany in 1908.
His friends and colleagues read like a list of some of the greatest scientific minds of the modern age. Born was good friends with Albert Einstein and is credited with developing modern quantum mechanics, along with Erwin Schrodinger and Werner Heisenberg.
Max married a brilliant mathematical student named Hedwig Ehrenberg, who had some Jewish heritage. Though she wasn’t Jewish herself, Hedwig was a descendent of Rabbi Philipp Ehrenberg, a German jurist and spiritual leader. Max and Hedwig had three children – two girls and a boy – though their marriage was a troubled one and they later divorced. Their daughter, Irene, was Olivia Newton-John’s mother.
The family originally lived in Gottingen, where Max completed his PhD and received a job as professor. He taught there until April 1933, two months after Hitler became leader of Germany. That month, all Jewish academics in Germany were summarily fired from their jobs. Born accepted a temporary lectureship at the University of Cambridge, a position that saved his life and the lives of his family. While he taught, Hedwig became active in trying to find jobs for the Jewish refugees who were streaming into Britain throughout the 1930s.

Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge
Olivia Newton-John’s mother Irene married Brinley Newton-John, a quickwitted intellect who worked as a codebreaker during World War II, helping Britain’s MI5 break the Enigma Code in Bletchley Park. After the war, he became a linguist and professor of German. Their daughter Olivia was born in Cambridge in 1948. When Brinley accepted a job teaching German at the University of Melbourne in 1954, their family relocated there. Olivia left behind her Jewish grandfather and built a new life in Australia.
Spokesperson for idealistic causes
As Olivia Newton-John became a superstar, she used her fame to speak out on environmental issues. After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, she worked tireless to support cancer charities. In 2012, she endowed the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne to help other cancer patients.
Olivia Newton-John’s idealism has much in common with her grandfather Max Born, who also used his renown to speak out about the crucial importance of working towards global peace.
Max Born is credited with saying that “those who say the study of science make a man an atheist, must be rather silly people”. In his later life, Born wrote a great deal, urging people to work to make the world a better place. His talented granddaughter Olivia similarly used her platform to help make the world a little sweeter as well.
