It’s not often that we get to celebrate a 100th Birthday of a dear friend.

on Wednesday Regina/ Gina Stark celebrated her 100th birthday Bh!
A Holocaust survivor, founding member of our Shule, and a dear friend to many in our community.

I had the privilege and honour to visit Regina just before her birthday and wish her Mazal tov. While she had received so many letters of congratulations from dignitaries, such as the King of England, the Prime minister, and others, she was very humble about it all. All she said is that she is happy to be supported by family and close friends.

I really felt inspired by her simplicity and gratitude for what’s most important in life.

The Parsha this week talks about the story of Noach and the flood. Noach and his family were survivors, who went on to rebuild civilisation. It is very befitting that we celebrate Regina’s birthday this week, as she did the very same, surviving the holocaust, and then coming to Australia, where she helped build and start off our community and Shule.

Her family put together some thoughts for her milestone birthday.

Gina is a true survivor- she survived the ravages of the Shoah by cheating death many times over, suffered the loss of many family members, experienced years of insurmountable pain and sorrow, yet she had the tenacity and will power to endure and be the glue that has held her family together over the years.

After surviving the Shoah, witnessing the most horrifying events and suffering such pain and sorrow, Gina like many hundreds of other survivors who arrived in Sydney, still had unbelievable faith and belief in Ha’ Shem, that they found it an absolute necessity to establish our Kehilla- Kehillat Yeshurun- later known as Maroubra Synagogue.

From the many hundreds of founding members, Gina is the only one still alive today.

She has always been the epicentre of her family life- the backbone- the spine that epitomises strength, courage, perseverance and tenacity.

Like many Shoah survivors, their stories are filled with luck, and divine intervention- our family and the broader community are so blessed and filled with gratitude that Ha’ Shem allowed her to survive, thrive and reach this incredible moment in time.”

As Regina has reached this incredible milestone may this inspire us all to continue to grow and thrive with more Jewish pride and joy.

Shabbat Shalom