Doris z”l and David z”l Burstin Scholarship 2026

Kadimah aims to support the next generation of Yiddish teachers and kultur-tuers – those who can teach, create and be active in our Yiddish community for years to come. This scholarship, awarded annually, aims to build Yiddish language and teaching skills within the Australian Jewish Community, by providing Yiddish learners with the opportunity to study Yiddish overseas. With the generous support of the family of Doris and David Burstin, we are excited to announce the second year of a scholarship to support Yiddish learners who want to travel to attend an international intensive language study program.

Doris and David Burstin were deeply committed to Yiddish learning and teaching throughout their lives and this program honours their memories. The successful applicant(s) will receive up to $7500 to further their skills and interests in the service of the Yiddish language through a training or study course. In return, the successful applicant must offer a genuine commitment to return the knowledge and experience gained via the scholarship to the Australian Jewish community via teaching, organising youth activities, cultural programming or similar in partnership with the Kadimah.

This scholarship is administered by the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library and made possible by the generous support of the family of Doris and David Burstin in honour of their contribution and commitment to Yiddish learning and life. To find out more about this opportunity contact Esther Singer, Kadimah’s Yiddish Coordinator yiddishcoordinator@kadimah.org.au

Applications close 3 November 2025.

Justin Foundation
In Honour of Yosef z”l and Mala z”l Orbach

The children of Yosef and Mala Orbach wish to fund a Yiddish class at the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library in the name of, and in honour of, their beloved parents Yosef and Mala Orbach.

Yosef Orbach, born in Sosnowiecz, was a lover of the Yiddish language.  In another life, he would have made a living as a journalist and the soundtrack of our youth is him tapping out an article on his Yiddish Olivetti typewriter for yet another journal in Melbourne and overseas. His passion extended to ensuring that we all attended Yiddish Sunday school and after all he had lost, the need for the language to continue onto the next generation was so important .

Mala Orbach came from Vilna.  She was a Litvak and spoke a beautiful Yiddish.  Our childhood was bathed in lullabies offered in her soothing Yiddish and it was the language we spoke and sang at home as children.

Yiddish Scholarship in Honour of
Shmul-Itsyk z”l Diamont (Samuel z”l Diamond/ Stashek z”l Wroblewski)

Jack Diamond and Renata Singer wish to establish a scholarship for studying Yiddish at the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library in the name of, and in honour of, their beloved father, Shmul-Itsyk Diamont.

Shmul Diamont was born in Zyradow, Poland in December 1916 and died in Melbourne, Australia in December 1977.  Shmul was the only survivor of a large and extended family.  His first wife and young son, his mother and three siblings were all gassed in Treblinka.  Shmul escaped from Majdanek concentration camp.  After arriving in Melbourne with his new family in 1951, Shmul once again threw himself into political life, always working for a shenerer un beserer velt.

As well as his commitment to fighting disadvantage and injustice, the other major thread of Shmul’s all-too-short life was his love of mameloshn – the Yiddish language and Yiddish culture.  Every week the “Yiddishe Neyes”, the Yiddish section of the Australian Jewish News, was read end to end.  Yiddish books, journals and pamphlets arrived regularly in the post from all over the world – Tel Aviv, New York, Buenos Aires.  Yiddish was his first and best language and embedded in his neshome.   Shmul was always involved with the Katzetler Farband, the Association of Victims of Nazi Persecution, and served as its President for many years.

The Nachman z”l Gryfenberg Yiddish Scholarship

נחמן ז’ל גריפענבערג

Nachman Gryfenberg (נחמן ז’ל גריפענבערג) was born in Warsaw in 1907, in an observant Chassidic family. He joined the Jewish Labour Bund as a young man and thus began his lifelong devotion and commitment to issues of social justice and the fight for Jewish survival in dignity, equality and peace. Yiddish and Yiddish culture became his passion and his conviction that this was the path for Jewish continuity.

This belief drove him to the establishment of Sholem Aleichem College in 1975 as a day school out of the then existing tsugob shul, Sunday school. Together with a group of likeminded visionary colleagues he enlisted, they turned the dream into a reality. He was the founding President for ten years and gave up all of his other numerous communal commitments to devote himself to the task of building the Sholem Aleichem College, where children would be able to learn Yiddish and Yiddish culture and would develop a strong Jewish identity. Nachman considered this his life’s greatest achievement, other than his family, and was proud of all the developments of the school and its success.

He was also for many years a member of the Kadimah committee and never failed, with his wife Rywka, to attend all events and activities of the Kadimah.

Nachman Gryfenberg’s daughter, Danielle z”l Charak (דאניעל חר’ג), wishes to establish a scholarship for studying Yiddish in the name of, and in honour of, her beloved father. It is fitting that a scholarship for the study of Yiddish be established in his name at the Kadimah.