For more than four decades, Jeremy was a faithful servant of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community and a con­sum­mate pro­fes­sion­al. There is hardly any area of Jewish communal life that did not benefit in some way from his expertise and ded­ic­a­tion, and he worked in a range of key communal organ­isa­tions.

He was a former President and Honorary Life Member of the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ). He had a special passion for building rela­tion­ships with other faith and ethnic com­munit­ies and won over many friends, both per­son­ally and com­mun­ally.

He was the first Aus­trali­an to serve on the Board of the Inter­na­tion­al Jewish Committee for Inter­re­li­gious Con­sulta­tions (the Jewish worlds inter­locutor with the Vatican, World Council of Churches and World Muslim League) and was the Chair of Inter­faith Dialogues rep­res­ent­ing the ECAJ nation­ally.

Jeremy was also a fearless opponent of antisemitism and indeed all forms of racism. He was a long-standing advocate of recog­ni­tion and rights for First Nations Aus­trali­ans, and made a point of wearing kippot and ties decorated with indi­gen­ous artwork.

Jeremy’s work in promoting inter-communal harmony was offi­cially acknow­ledged in 2007 when he was awarded the Aus­trali­an Human Rights Medal, and again in 2016 when he was awarded New South Wales’ most pres­ti­gi­ous honour, The Stepan Kerky­ashari­an AO Medal for Community Harmony. He was also made a Member of the Order of Australia.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Stephen Rothman and I had the honour to represent Jeremy in a legal capacity in some long-running lit­ig­a­tion which he pursued in the Federal Court on behalf of the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry against two well-known anti­semites. Both cases were won, and both defend­ants were effect­ively put out of business, but the strain took its toll on Jeremy work-wise and emo­tion­ally.

Jeremy’s untimely passing is sad news for all of us. He leaves a legacy that will serve as an example to the next gen­er­a­tion of Jewish communal activists.

Our heartfelt con­dol­ences go out to his wife Naomi, his children, the whole Jones family and all those whose lives Jeremy touched. May his memory be a blessing.