The Honourable Richard McGarvie, formerly Governor of Victoria
I am honoured to make some contribution to the memory of the man that we knew at the Bar and admired as Ash. First I would like to accept Barney Cooney's invitation and confirm what Barney said about his role in the Labor Party. My twenty-seven years in that party I had not gone to an Annual Conference until 1962. I then found that those who had taken control of the Labor Party in 1955 when the split occurred had, as humans tend to do, come to believe that the future of the party depended on them remaining permanently in control. In that year and the following year, I went to conference in 1963, there were only two who were prepared to criticise what was a disastrous course for the Labor Party because they were quite out of sympathy with the ordinary elector and they were giving at least implied, often express, approval to the running of 'unity tickets' in the unions between Labor members and communist members and that of course was electoral death. So Labor couldn't win while that executive was there and there were only two people in those years who were prepared to take a very unpopular course of criticising that. One was Maurice Ashkanasy and the other was Barry Jones. 1964 others of us became involved, including Barney Cooney who is here, Howard Nathan who is here, many others and that goes right to participants' organisation which was influential in obtaining federal intervention in 1970. I think it is fair to record that it was Ash and Barry Jones who carried the beacon until then.
Some other things. I speak here with a consciousness of deep guilt. I would like to tell you why. I went to the Bar in 1952 after having the advantage of an excellent Articles with Alex Masel, who has already been mentioned. When I finished reading with George Lush I suffered the fate that other young barristers suffer of going out into the corridors of Selwyn Chambers because there was no accommodation. Every year the Chairman of the Bar Council at the meeting used to say 'We must do something about that', but nothing was done. Then a coup occurred, I wasn't involved in the coup. But Ash and a number of his allies won seats at the Bar Council elections and everything changed dramatically. Ash became Chairman and he personally gave evidence in Magistrates Court to get possession of premises and ultimately accommodation was made available in Saxon House where I shared rooms with two other barristers then, in Eaglestone Chambers and other places. Ash was the absolute hero of the junior Bar.
I'd like to tell you how difficult it was to practice in the corridors of Selwyn Chambers. Very early in my career I had been in a very small, unimportant case out at Mooney Ponds called an 'incompleted summons', a dispute about who was the owner of a motor car. For a whole lot of reasons it became terribly important, it turned into an unlawful dismissal case. I was being led by John Starke QC and it was necessary to have a conference with those who claimed to be the owners of the vehicle, a company of money lenders in Sydney. John Starke was too busy for this so he asked me to have a conference. So I went to my clerk, Jim Foley, explained that I had this very important conference with these Directors, the money lenders from Sydney, and of course I had nowhere to see them. And he said, 'You can have Stanley Lewis' room,' because Stanley Lewis had a lovely room and he didn't practice much. So they arrived and I was sitting back in this great big room with papers all around me and my money lender directors were there and were going into this very well and suddenly the door opened and in came a man. He said, 'Who are you?', I said,'I'm McGarvie, Jim Foley said I could use this room'. 'Well, I'm Stanley Lewis and its my room and I want it.' So I had to explain to my Directors that I did not have a room, I went to Jim Foley, there was no other room in Selwyn Chambers available. On the first floor of Selwyn Chambers there were big broad wooden seats so I sat myself on one of these big broad wooden seats with a hard faced money lender Director on my right and my left and conducted my conference and if ever a barrister looked as important as I really was it was me then.
So Ash was my hero. Now I come to the aspect of guilt. He was Chairman, I think for two years. There was a Bar Council election, I was on circuit at Shepparton. I came back for the weekend, there was a number of things to attend to including voting for the Bar Council and I forgot to vote. In the election Ash came level with someone else, they tied, and the Bar Council of the day decided, it was decided, I'm not sure who decided, that Ash should not be elected, that someone else should be brought onto the Bar Council. I have for ever felt guilty because if I had voted Ash would have certainly been Chairman for another year.
Ash had some interesting ideas. When I first went onto the Bar Council the four young men who tended to talk a bit too much for themselves were Ninian Stephen, Leo Lazarus, John Bland and myself. Well I tended to talk more than the rest and the Chairman asked me would I redraft the rules of the Bar which hadn't been redrafted since the start of the century. And an Advisory Committee was set up which included Ash and other distinguished people. There was quite a controversy there as to the way that the Victorian Bar should go. Ash was very strong in the view that our Bar should become like the Sydney Bar where you had a legal right as a barrister to be the only one to appear, whereas it is not so in Victoria. There was quite a division, I must say that I did not agree with Ash on that and Ash was not successful.
Ash was a very wily opponent. I remember once as quite a junior barrister being against him and our case didn't come on. We came down to Selwyn Chambers and we were talking settlement. It was a very very cold day, talking out in the draughty Selwyn Chambers, Ash said, 'What are we standing out here in this cold for, come into my chambers.' I seized the opportunity, yes, good idea, so we all went into Ash's chambers. There was a great big fire, we all sat down, Ash appointed himself chairman of the meeting, he settled directly with my solicitor without referring to me, on terms I would not have dreamt of.
Ash had a sense of humour and was prepared to put himself down. I remember hearing him tell this story; at one stage in Melbourne during the summer months there was a racket being run in conjunction with tram rides. A series of pickpockets were going on the trams. Being summer all the windows were open and pickpockets would pick a person's wallet, there'd be a car with open windows travelling along, level with the tram at the same speed, they would throw it out of there and it was gone. This happened to Ash and I heard him tell the story and his comment was, 'I didn't mind losing the wallet but I had a sentimental attachment to the fifty pounds.'
Neal Ashkanasy
I came along a little bit later than my sister and brother Ö My strongest remembrances of my father were those kinds of pranks with the family. How many people in this room know what 'FABOC' stands for? One person knows. Yes, it is the Frankston Anglers' and Boat Owners' Club. Vivianne has already told you about the little putt-putt and in fact my father had this great commitment to the chasing of those blackhead and the snapper. The number of clubs and associations that he founded throughout his life is absolutely startling. You've already talked about the founding role he had in the Maccabean Association and Ajax in Victoria. The love of his life was not in courts or fighting for Zionism etcetera, it was this vision, the Frankston Anglers and Boat Owners Club. I remember going along when they built their clubhouse on the creek, just near the pier. It was really a major achievement. It is surprising. At that stage he was representing Australia very strongly in the international Zionist movement and he started making trips to Geneva. On one trip he did not notice that there was glass in the door that he stepped through and got himself a little injured walking through a glass door. But he certainly had a major influence with people like Bob Hawke etcetera in that movement to free the Jews of Russia.
I also mentioned that he was one of the founders of the Judean League, I think it was called, it became Ajax. In this room last night we had the Ajax Sportsman of the Year which my son won. As Vivianne said, to both of us it was a touch of sadness that when we managed to achieve out doctorates and in my case a professorship as well my father was not there to see our achievements. In that respect I know that he would have been very proud. It is interesting the extent to which he discouraged all the members of his family to pursue the law. In fact I have an idea that I would have made a very good lawyer, but both my brother and I pursued an engineering career. My brother pursued it for a while before his inventiveness got the better of him and he went on to join some partners and founded the very successful Danish Deluxe Furniture Company until unfortunately his untimely passing. I went on to an engineering career and did that for a few years before I got sick of that and decided that an academic career in management was where I was going to go and that is where I am now. Vivianne went on to change over from being a housewife, I suppose, to pursue an academic career as well. In fact I don't have a job, I have a fun hobby that I pursue.
I think also from my father's point of view he really did not have a job either, he just simply had a passion and he would pursue his various passions. I think probably much the same as Vivianne and I and Neville did, we have all been passionate people in that regard. We have all done - all the family - what we think is the right thing to do. I certainly understand, and you would have gained from the speakers who have come before us, that, for my father in particular, principle was everything. It did not matter what damage he did to his career it was mainly the principle that he was interested in. I think in that respect he set a role model for all of us that I hope we will continue.
Geoffrey Bloch
I must admit that about eight years of age siting on our jetty at Frankston when an old timer with a weather beaten fishing hat and an old fishing boat came putting down the creek and asked me if I wanted to go fishing with him. He said go inside and ask your dad. Dad came out on the verendah and it amazed me that he said yes, you can go fishing with him. I concluded that he had pity on a lonely old man and he was sending his son along to keep him company. It was many years later that I found out that it was Maurice Ashkanasy, QC CMG. For the next three or four years, two or three times each summer I became his regular fishing companion and we would go out together. You might be interested to know that he was able to relate to an eight year old boy intent on nothing but fun and having a good time. And it would seem to me that he was having an equally good time. I look back on those days with nostalgia and gratitude that he took the time to befriend me and I really did enjoy those encounters.
Alan Goldberg
There is an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography on Maurice Ashkanasy and it is written by someone present here tonight, Sir Zelman Cowen. Perhaps, Sir Zelman, you might have a few observations to make.
Sir Zelman Cowen, formerly Governor General of Australia
Mr Chairman, Sir Ninian, ladies and gentlemen. I have listened to all of this with great fascination. It is a story of parts I know, certainly other parts that I do not know. One name that has kept on crossing my mind as others have talked is the name of my father. I think Israel Kipen knows much about this. My father was much involved in Jewish welfare and also Jewish politics and the Jewish Board of Deputies and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. The name of Maurice Ashkanasy crossed our front door more than once. My father was always second to Ash. But one of the interesting things and this set me thinking very much responding to tonight, was how little I knew of my father. I knew that he was intensely interested in and involved in Jewish politics and the name of Maurice Ashkanasy was heard on many occasions. But my father didn't carry any politics into the house. It was, as it were, that at the front door it stopped. So that I can say of my father, I don't know really where he stood in terms of party politics and I did not know how my father voted. In a sense his politics, his Jewish politics particularly, were his, my mother's. I often think listening to such events as this excellent night, I didn't know my father. In that respect he was a very private man but he was intensely involved in these things. He certainly did not diverge from his relationship with Maurice Ashkanasy other than to be second to Maurice Ashkanasy. He respected him very deeply, he respected his ability and I cannot say any more about my own father.
Phillip Symons
My first recollections of Maurice Ashkanasy: as a young man I went to the Victorian Jewish Board of Deputies, which then met in the communal hall of the Toorak Synagogue, representing the Melbourne Jewish Youth Council - these things don't exist any longer. My first impression was that Maurice insisted that we would be unlike any other Jewish organisation and we would start on time and at 8 o'clock on the dot the meeting started. There was one meeting, Maurice was obviously running late and he walked in with a minute to 8 taking off his overcoat, and as he threw it off he said at 8 o'clock we start.
Maurice Ashkanasy was a giant, in my opinion, of the organised Jewish community of Melbourne. Because of the time [limitation] Israel unfortunately had to miss out many things which I think should be mentioned, he was such a remarkable man.
The Judean League which he set up was the first communal body that had a whole range of organisations - it had sporting organisations, it had social organisations, it had two Zionist organisations Ö. This was in the early '40s, not quite accepted by the establishment, but already that was part of the community and from there of course the Board of Deputies was set up and the whole organisation of this community I believe depended on and was set up by Maurice Ashkanasy.
His desire was to organise the community and in those days the community interest was much discussed and debated. Meetings started at 8 on time, they had to be stopped at 11 o'clock because debate went on and on. There were annual meetings which went for two days, they started Saturday evening and then on Sunday. The great thing was Maurice Ashkanasy's garden party on Sunday afternoon at his home where all the electioneering and factionalism and branchstackings and matters of importance took place.
Maurice Ashkanasy demanded, for instance, that there be a Jewish stockbroker, there had not been one, and Maurie was prepared to organise the whole community and all sorts of things were threatened and eventually there were Jewish stockbrokersÖ.
And of course Mount Scopus College, he was a driving force. Everybody now takes the credit for having started Mount Scopus, but Maurie Ashkanasy pushed very hard, he got a huge amount of money, the first time from the Claims Conference, for Jewish education and he was again a driving force that we had then. He set up the constitution. It had to be an outstanding school, firstly a leader in Victoria and open to people of all faiths. What I learned of organisation spirit and how to run things I owe to Maurice Ahkanasy. I think the community and organisations do not quite realise the debt owed to Maurice Ashkanasy.
Alwyn Samuel
You might remember, those of you do remember, that Maurie Ashkanasy was chairman of almost everything else. He was certainly the President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and President of the Victorian Board of Deputies for many years. About 1953, when I was the second President, I used to have many a tussle with my late brother-in-law, and don't ask me whether I ever won any of them, but one thing Ash would always do was give you a good hearing. I can remember I came into his chambers and he sat back and he listened and he listened and he listened and when I finished he said, your projects have been noted, and considered, and dismissed.
Ron Krongold
Ö what has not been mentioned tonight is the very close bond between the late Mr Ashkanasy and my father. They were business partners and worked very closely together for many years. In our house I don't think a day went by when I didn't hear sentences with the words Maurie, Maurie this and Maurie that, it was always Maurie. I always referred to him, of course, as a young kid, as Mr Ashkanasy, and that word Mister carried an aura about it that came before Ashkanasy, and I always remember that Ö There is one event I would like to recall. The late Mr Ashkanasy had a passion for the Senate, he wanted to be a Senator in a Labor Government, but however, because he was considered amongst his colleagues to be a capitalist his ticket position was changed from two to three and, if I understand correctly, please bear with me if I have some of the facts slightly wrong, the late Mr Sam Cohen was given the higher position and as a consequence a rift developed between the two.
My father said that the 'Jewish News' fuelled that rift and made it very very bad within the community. My father wanted [to bring the two of them] Ö to make peace and he just could not seem to get anywhere with Mr Ashkanasy in that, although he was talking to him every day.
Eventually there was a breakthrough, and I don't know exactly how that breakthrough came about, but it was on a Saturday, on Shabbat, and Mr Ashkanasy being an observant Jew did not do anything on the Sabbath. My father was able to speak with the late Sam Cohen and arrange for him to write a letter, a note. My father took the note, on a Saturday, and went to the Ashkanasy residence, went in there, placed it on Mr Ashkanasy's desk, and as he walked out he said to him, and I've got to be careful with the words because I wanted to use the word 'told', but I don't know if one ever 'told' Mr Ashkanasy anything, even my father, I will use a softer word, he said to him to come to his place at the end of Shabbat.
After the lighting of the candles my father was there, Sam Cohen was there, my father was also a very close friend of the late Arthur Calwell, he was there. The fourth person to come was Syd Einfeld who was coming down to Melbourne that evening or late afternoon for a welfare meeting with the late Leo Fink. So my father asked him to bring Syd Einfeld from the airport to the home. When he brought him to the home only Syd Einfeld was allowed to come in, so there were four people in the house, together with my father five, and at that point the peace was made. My father felt that that was one of the proudest moments that he experienced, because he always believed that Mr Maurice Ashkanasy and Mr Sam Cohen were jewels in the Australian Jewish community.