How great - a new beginning.

And whilst we are here to mark the end of an era, we most importantly are here to celebrate the beginning of a new and hopefully vibrant period of our community as we grow from strength to strength.

What a couple of weeks – floods, cyclones, school openings, schul services in Remuera.

Two things made an impression with me over the last two weeks.

The Jewish Chronicle (the UK one) had an interesting article about how for generations we as Jews had looked in, we wished above all else to be secure, to be safe and where else could that occur other than amongst and with our own.

But today, post covid, religion is struggling and we as Jews are no different – but with Israel, please G-d secure, and all Jews despite what is going on around us, feeling good about ourselves.

We need to move from security to vision – to look out to survive and prosper.

And this is what Remuera is about – the future.

Some of us were lucky enough to be at Kadimah for the coming together with Ngāti Whatua two weeks ago.

It is appropriate to just consider what their outreach into all communities is about. It is about entrenching their identify first with their Rangatira, and Mokopuna, then with those who have, let us say, strayed far from the marae and finally with those who are not Māori.

We need to learn – we need to focus on entrenching our identify with us firstly and then with those of us who have strayed from the ark so to speak.

So, why are we here – for sometime pre covid Sir Noel Robinson, John and I had been talking about vision. What can this community do to be here for generations to come. Noel as the Chair of the the Sir Woolf Fisher Trust was going to help, but not just for a remake, or what we do day after day – but only for a game changer. And for Noel a game changer is a game changer – let us be in no doubt. So, as we end one era and start another we need to acknowledge the vision of Sir Woolf Fisher and family for making orthodox Judaism part of their legacy and to Sir Noel for his vision and determination to get us onto the new site. Without you and your family we would not and never be here.

Strangely enough I would now like to refer to a discussion I had with Robert Lerner pre covid, as some of you know he was a nephew of Sir Woolf – Robert, as many of you know, had a sharp tongue but also a clarity that many don’t.

So, over a Chinese meal Robert said to me this community is not going to survive in Greys Ave – that’s a given. It may not survive in Remuera. What we are really doing is giving us all a chance, an opportunity to flourish. It will or it won’t work.

Succinct and to the point as he always was.

For those of you in schul last week, Garth spoke in the same vein in a more eloquent way than Robert. He spoke about Remuera being a house that we had provided/obtained but it was not a home. To be a home it needed us all to make it one – with Kadimah, a phenomenal deli, Jewish Auckland, a preschool and of course a synagogue, it can be our home, it has all the facilities we need.

If we only visit the site on Yom Kippur and hope we get a minyan on every shabbat – it will never be our home – the community may survive.

But, if we all step in, if we all make a conscious effort to be part of our community, then and only then will our home be in existence, and we will grow and prosper as a community.