A tribute to Mark Baker

Historian, novelist, former ACJC director and community pillar MARK BAKER died yesterday, aged 63. RALPH GENENDE wrote this eulogy with the help of his wife CARON. It will be delivered at the funeral today.

Just over a week ago we visited Markie with the fearful knowledge that this was probably our last visit with our friend. As he sat in pain and obvious discomfort overlooking Luna Park, the sun lingered comfortably over the hustle and bustle of St Kilda beach. How unfair the juxtaposition of his approaching death and this boisterous, bursting life, this life that Mark so loved to wrestle and engage with.

Mark was a vital powerhouse, a dynamo. His intellectual acumen, energy and endurance were only matched by his emotional intensity and passionate immersion in the moment. He was like “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower ... that blasts the roots of trees ... that drives the water through the rocks." (Dylan Thomas).

When you were with Mark, he was with you totally, albeit sometimes briefly, because there was always so much to do, to discover, to read, to write, to imbibe ... like the wide-open entrance mouth to Luna Park. Mark Baker defined and lived that phrase from Psalms: ”Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” (Psalm 81:10).

Mark filled and enlarged the world with his words. He was a mesmerising lecturer at university, taking his students on a journey into the darkness of the Shoah and Rwanda, with the lightning and lightness of his words, the fleetness of his soul. He was a dynamic and demanding founder, leader and lecturer of the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation (ACJC) at Monash. He was a writer and storyteller of renown. His novel, The Fiftieth Gate, opened the Shoah to tens of thousands of Australians, especially high school students who studied it. His memoir Thirty Days, countless articles and scholarly essays seared the soul.