Yom HaShoah Commemoration at AJAX Footy

Over the weekend, AJAX Football Club players, families, supporters, and 14 Holocaust survivors came together to commemorate Yom HaShoah in partnership with #JustLikeYou.

Mel Raleigh, an incredible volunteer and driving force behind the #JustLikeYou campaign, helped organise the event and spoke on the day. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivor Tuvia Lipson, she shared her grandfather’s powerful words:
‘6 million is not just a number for me. 6 million is my father, my mother, my sister, my aunties and uncles, my cousins and schoolmates.’

This sentiment captured the heart of the afternoon: that every number represents a name, a life, and a story.

Representatives and members from the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, Maccabi Victoria, Prahran Football Club, VAFA, and the AJAX community stood alongside survivors, acknowledging the deep intergenerational connections within Melbourne’s Jewish community — a community shaped by survival after the Holocaust.

Post WWII, Melbourne had one of the highest numbers of Holocaust survivors per capita outside of Israel. Almost everyone in the Jewish community has a connection to Holocaust survivors.

Several speakers, including Alida Lipton (AJAX Football Club President), Sharon Roseman (Maccabi Victoria Co-President), Michael Debinski OAM (Melbourne Holocaust Museum Co-President), and AJAX players Noah Michmacher, Jonathan Machlin, and Nick Lewis, shared personal reflections, each highlighting that the only reason they were standing there was because their parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents had survived the Holocaust.

The commemoration honoured the presence of Holocaust survivors aged from their 80s to 100 years old. Survivors Wolf Deane, Abe Goldberg OAM, Ester Braitberg, Joe Szwarcberg, Henry Ekert AM, Rona Zinger, Paul Grinwald, Cera Neuhouse, Peter Gasper OAM, Joe Nowoweiski, Rachel Kalman OAM, Henry Buch, Eve Graham, and Kurt Langfelder stood surrounded by players from AJAX FC and the wider community — a powerful symbol of resilience and continuity.

The ceremony also acknowledged the historical connection between sport and the Jewish community. Before the Holocaust, many Jewish people competed in sports, just like the players standing on the field today. During the Holocaust, they were stripped of that right and much more, forced to wear the yellow star instead of the colours of their teams.

Today, Jewish players proudly wear their AJAX club jumpers — the red, white and black — honouring those who were not afforded that freedom.

The commemoration also served as a reminder that, following the events of October 7, 2023, antisemitism has again reared its ugly head, even here in Melbourne. Mel reflected on the troubling rise in attacks against Jewish communities, making it clear that ‘Never Again’ is not just a slogan but an urgent call to action.

The commemoration concluded with a moment of silence, remembering the six million Jewish lives lost, and reaffirming the community’s commitment to ensuring that the stories and lessons of the past are carried forward.

In the words of the survivors who share their testimony every year: ‘Never again must mean now.’ Their voices are a call to action — not just for remembrance, but for vigilance today.