PETER KOHN

RABBI Raymond Apple says he is “not a great believer in people writing autobiographies unless they’ve had a very exciting and dramatic life, which I really haven’t”.

So, in shaping his memoir, he resisted the idea of writing a standard autobiography.

“But to amuse myself, I started writing a series of reflective chapters about the involvements and commitments that have been part of my life. And it ended being around 100 such chapters,” said the emeritus rabbi of Sydney’s The Great Synagogue.

Sorted alphabetically, these essays, from Aborigines to Zionism, give a thematic view of the issues that have mattered to him — among them, social justice, Jewish history, the arts, his rabbinic colleagues and sport — rather than a chronology of events.

“If you want to know what I did in a particular year, you won’t find it, but if you want to know the sort of person I am, you’ll get the impression by looking at the book,” the Australian rabbinic doyen, who now makes his home in Israel, told The AJN.

The book, To Be Continued, will be launched by Professor Alan Crown and the Australian Jewish Historical Society at The University of Sydney on February 8.

Both Prof Crown and Rabbi Apple are honorary masters of the university’s Mandelbaum House, where the event will take place.

Describing his writing style as “light-hearted and almost self-deprecating”, Rabbi Apple declared: “I think it’s important almost to be able to laugh at yourself.”

Rabbi Apple was educated in Melbourne, attained his s’micha in London, and took up his post with The Great in 1972.

An Australian interfaith pioneer, he was a founding member and joint president of the Australian Council of Christians and Jews, and has spoken out on social justice issues.

As suggested by the memoir’s title, Rabbi Apple saw his departure from The Great as a chance for continuity.

Living in Jerusalem with his wife Marian, and writing there, has inspired the rabbi, who said he spent a lifetime enhancing others’ religiosity “to work on my own soul”.

Rabbi Raymond Apple’s book, To Be Continued, will be launched at Mandelbaum House at The University of Sydney, on Monday, February 8, at 7pm.