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The B’nai B’rith Raoul Wallenberg Unit in Melbourne is commemorating its 30th anniversary in 2015 with a stamp that honors its namesake, available through the lodge and at post offices across the country.

Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat to Budapest during World War II, saved tens of thousands of Jewish lives by providing shelter and issuing papers that protected Jews from deportation to concentration camps. 

He disappeared while in Soviet custody in 1945, but his legacy has lived on in the Jewish community.

In April 2013, he was named Australia’s first (and so far only) honorary citizen, after prolonged advocacy from members of the B’nai B’rith lodge. Advocacy efforts also produced several rounds of limited edition stamp sales, but the one set to be released in October is the first mass-distributed Wallenberg stamp in Australia.

Read more about his life and enduring legacy courtesy of The Australian Jewish News:


The 70c Wallenberg stamp will be available as a first-day cover and card, and will come in various groupings.

It is due to be issued on October 5. Israel, Argentina, Canada, Hungary, Sweden and the United States have already issued Wallenberg stamps.

[…]

A MASS-circulation Australian postage stamp honouring Raoul Wallenberg…is set to be issued next month, after a long personal campaign by Judi Schiff of Melbourne.

[…]

In 2010, Wallenberg appeared on a limited-edition stamp sheet issued in conjunction with Melbourne philately company Max Stern & Co, marking the 25th anniversary of B’nai B’rith’s Raoul Wallenberg Unit.

But Schiff campaigned for Wallenberg to be recognised on a standard Australian stamp, using online petitions platform Change.org, where she gathered more than 520 signatures. Her involvement with the B’nai B’rith Raoul Wallenberg Unit inspired her tireless drive for a Wallenberg stamp.

“I’m over the moon that this has finally happened after repeated submissions and requests over decades,” Schiff told The AJN, saying that for years she had been told it was Australia Post policy to only use Australians on stamps, with the exception of the Queen.

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