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July 30, 1999/17 Av 5759, Vol. 51, No.43
Australian Jews remember Maccabi victims on anniversary of tragedy
JEREMY JONES
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
SYDNEY, Australia - Some 800 local Jews turned out to remember the Australian athletes who were killed or injured two years ago during a bridge collapse at the Maccabi Games in Israel.
Local public officials also joined the Sunday, July 25, dedication of a nature reserve to the victims of the tragedy. The reserve was named in honor of Warren Zines, one of four members of the Australian team who died in the bridge collapse during the games' opening ceremonies.
Peter Wertheim, president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, the umbrella organization for 40,000 Jews, spoke of the personal qualities of those who lost their lives and the trauma and hardship endured by their families.
He also spoke of the 70 team members who were injured when the bridge collapsed, plunging them into the Yarkon River outside the Ramat Gan stadium. Among them is Sasha Elterman, a teen-age tennis player who has had more than 30 operations to solve problems associated with her fall into the polluted river.
A number of speakers, including Wertheim, repeated the Australian Jewish community's demand that the leaders of the Maccabi World Union step down until the completion of an inquiry into the cause of the bridge collapse. They expressed concern that other national Maccabi associations had not supported Australia's call.
Zionist Federation President Ron Weiser said the refusal of Maccabi organizations in the United States, Britain, Canada and elsewhere to back Australian Jewry's efforts was "to their undying shame."
The ceremony included recitation of the kaddish (prayer for the dead) and a tree planting.
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