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W W W. J C A . O R G . AU
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Fostering a closer Jewish community
VOL. 40 Friday, 13 April 2018 / 28 Nisan 5778
Free subscription to electronic copy go to www.thejewishreport.com.au
EXPLORING THE CONNECTION BEWEEN PESACH & PAGE 6 REFUGEES
YOM HASHOAH PAGE 12
ISRAEL YOM HA’ATZMAUT PAGE 19 CELEBRATING ISRAEL’S 70TH WITH UIA
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS
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JCA - STRONGER TOGETHER
New exhibition showcasing never-before-seen objects from the Museum archives SYDNEY JEWISH MUSEUM To mark the Sydney Jewish Museum’s 25th anniversary and to celebrate 25 years of collecting, the Museum is launching a new temporary exhibition ‘Unseen Untold: Our Curious Collection’. The Curators have gone behind the scenes, delved into the archive and will showcase 25 never-beforeseen precious and quirky objects, each with a unique story. The Sydney Jewish Museum’s collection of 9,000 artefacts lies at the heart of the institution, and shapes and informs its exhibitions, research and educational and public programs. However, only a small fraction of this material is on display at any one time. The Museum’s Curators Roslyn Sugarman, Shannon Biederman and Rachel Mensforth are taking the opportunity to lift the lid on the incredibly rich archive that they work with every day, and delight visitors in an exclusive peek-in. They will be revealing some undiscussed, unexplored, unique and unusual stories that are housed within the collection. The Sydney Jewish Museum’s collection began with the Australian Association of Holocaust Survivors. They canvassed their
There’s no Place Like Home ... Almost 40 years after Edgar Boehm and his family escaped Germany for Shanghai and later migrated to Australia, he presented his new son-in-law with an unusual, yet meaningful wedding gift: a pair of little red shoes. For the Boehm family, it would seem that humble footwear was a symbol of something entirely more profound: Survival of the Holocaust, the founding of a family and a new beginning. - Unseen Untold: Our Curious Collection
members, looking for objects to form the new museum in the early 1990s. Each item they accessioned into the collection became a touchstone to an individual’s story. From its humble beginnings, the collection has grown beyond the survivor community to
include a significant number of objects relating to Judaism and Australian Jewish history. The collection has a diverse range of objects, documents, photographs, memorabilia and testimony. Whilst there is
a Collection Policy to guide the curators, it is not an exact science; more often than not the curators find themselves overlooking artistic aesthetics or rarity, seeking instead the story of the item – that which transforms an inanimate object into a conduit of narrative. As the window of opportunity is diminishing for collecting undiscovered material from Holocaust survivors and their descendants, the Sydney Jewish Museum is embarking on a collecting campaign. Roslyn Sugarman, Head Curator says “We believe there is still an abundance of material in community hands at risk of remaining undiscovered, and our imperative is to collect now”. One of the core functions of the Museum is to preserve material culture, stories and histories for future generations. It is the collection that drives exhibitions, research, and educational and public programs. Prepare to be moved, provoked and enlightened. Unseen Untold: Our Curious Collection was launched on Wednesday 28 March and will be open until 21 October 2018. Entry to the exhibition is included in the general Museum admission fee.
Inaugural Infertility Awareness Shabbat AJFN - AUSTRALIAN JEWISH FERTILITY NETWORK A number of Sydney synagogues participated in the inaugural Infertility Awareness Shabbat on 17 March 2018, which aims to help break the silence surrounding infertility. With one in six couples experiencing fertility issues, there are many couples in each synagogue who are experiencing the despair of not being able to conceive naturally. The Great Synagogue, Maroubra Synagogue, Or Chadash, Nefesh, Bina, Cremorne Synagogue, JLC, Central Synagogue, Tzemach Tzedek and Mizrachi participated in the Infertility Awareness Shabbat, with the Rabbi’s sharing a message about infertility. Leigh Goldberg, a Fertility Mentor with AJFN spoke to the Nefesh community during the Infertility Awareness Shabbat. She explained that couples’ infertility struggles often happen behind closed doors. “As a society, we don’t like to talk about the hard stuff”, said Ms Goldberg. “On this Shabbat, we let couples know that they have our support.” “I had such a positive response. Many people approached me afterwards to say how grateful they were that we were giving infertility a voice”. The Australian Jewish Fertility Network (AJFN) provides financial and emotional support so that no couple is alone in their struggle with infertility. AJFN has grown to be a major forum to raise awareness of the struggles and hardships of infertility and provide solutions in an open and supportive environment. AJFN also offers a Circle of Support program, offering trained fertility
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mentors to couples experiencing infertility. Rachel Cohen is a recipient of financial and emotional support from AJFN. She grew up as one of seven kids and always assumed she would have a large family of her own one day. Following her marriage, she found herself struggling with the physical and emotional toll of infertility. “At the beginning of my infertility journey, I didn’t know if I would be able to have my own biological children,” said Ms Cohen. “I now look at my three children and I am so enormously grateful for the blessings we have received.” “The work that the AJFN does for the community is amazing. They literally change lives. For more information contact: Shterny Dadon shterny.dadon@gmail.com 0410 348 770
Rachel Cohen and her family. Photo credit Daniella Stein
JCA - STRONGER TOGETHER
Service Coordination a Vital Piece of the Mental Health Puzzle MENTAL HEALTH COORDINATING COUNCIL NSW Mental health service providers in the Eastern Suburbs are invited to meet their neighbours and share information on mental health services and how to best meet the needs of people requiring their support. The peak body representing communitymanaged mental health organisations in NSW, the Mental Health Coordinating Council (MHCC), is holding an introduction and networking event, Meet Your Neighbour, on 1 May in Woollahra. Mental health is now the most common concern raised with GPs and the Mental Health Commission reports that 3.7 million Australians experience mental health conditions. Ms Carmel Tebbutt, CEO of the MHCC said:“Mental health services are undergoing significant change across NSW and there is a growing demand for mental health support services nationwide. The Mental Health Coordinating Council is supporting the community managed mental health sector to respond to emerging opportunities through networking and building connections.
Service providers in the Eastern Suburbs are a diverse group and many go unrecognised. These services reach out to people requiring mental health support, and it is important providers are aware of what other organisations can offer. The MHCC recognises that bringing mental health services together to meet one another and share ideas is a vital piece of the mental health puzzle.” MHCC invites all service providers, consumers and carers in the Eastern Suburbs to the Meet Your Neighbour on May 1, hosted by respected local service provider JewishCare. This event is part of a state wide program by the MHCC to further communication among the myriad of hard working mental health providers across NSW. Strong coordination among service providers ensures that people living with mental health conditions receive the support they need. All mental health service providers in the Eastern Suburbs are encouraged to attend this important event. Meet Your Neighbour May 1, JewishCare, 3 Saber St Woollahra Register at: myneasternsuburbs.eventbrite.com.au
JCA - STRONGER TOGETHER
B’nai B’rith brings “The Goldene Medina” to Sydney B’NAI B’RITH NSW The Goldene Medina: Celebrating 175 Years of Jewish Life in South Africa – A new exhibition opening at the B’nai B’rith Centre in May 2018. Kol Nidre night, September 2016, marked the 175th anniversary of Jewish religious and cultural life in South Africa. To mark this special occasion, the South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town developed an exhibition reflecting of the social history
of the SA Jewish community entitled The Goldene Medina. The South African Jewish Museum, and B’nai B’rith NSW are proud to announce the opening of this unique exhibition in Sydney. This exhibition is a celebration of the birth and evolution of a community. It tells the story of the South African Jewish community from 1841 to 2016; of how early Anglo/ German Jewish settlers, poverty-stricken Litvaks, and the Sephardim of Rhodes Island came together and shaped a shared
identity – the South African Jew. The exhibition is focussed on the lives of ordinary South African Jews. Told via short, anonymous anecdotes, curated from family photographs, first person accounts, unpublished diaries and responses to a social media campaign, a story unfolds of a community that began as refugees but soon grew to become an integral part of the multi-cultural landscape of South Africa. At each turn visitors are presented with stories of South African life experiences that are
familiar and endearing. The exhibition is likely to trigger memory and elicit nostalgia in all South Africans. This exhibition has toured South Africa to wide acclaim. It’s popularity resulting in extended runs at each major centre. The exhibition will be on at the B’nai B’rith Centre (Barker Street, Kensington, UNSW) from 6 May to 3 June. Please contact the office on 9321 6315 or email council@bbnsw.org.au for more information.
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MORIAH COLLEGE BURSARY PROGRAM 2019 ‘Jewish Education is the lifeblood of Jewish survival’
Golda Meir, former Israeli Prime Minister
JCA - STRONGER TOGETHER
It is our belief that every Jewish child deserves the opportunity to access a Moriah College education. Through the generosity of our community and the support of The Moriah Foundation, Moriah College is offering a number of bursaries, granted on the basis of financial assessment, for students wishing to join us in 2019: PRIMARY SCHOOL Entry into Years K-4 for the duration of a Moriah College Primary School education HIGH SCHOOL Entry into Years 7-9 for the duration of a Moriah College High School education Applications close 4 May 2018 To register your interest please visit
www.moriah.nsw.edu.au If you have any questions please contact Stan Goltsman, Fee Support Analyst (02) 9375 1703 sgoltsman@moriah.nsw.edu.au
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS 1943-2018 | 5703-5778
Making Pesach Inclusive COA JULIA GOLDING OAM One of the lessons of Pesach is to be responsible for each other and to include everyone in our community. Our Seder starts with the words “All who are hungry – let them come and eat. All who are in need, let them come and celebrate Passover with us” Our Haggadah text recognises that, regardless of anything else, we all share the human needs; to eat and to belong. COA endeavoured to include as many seniors as we know in our community this Pesach. First we held our Annual Model Seder a week prior to Pesach, so that anyone who did not have the means or mishpocha to make a Seder had a Pesach celebration with all the trimmings; and for those who would be having Seder the next week, this was their opportunity to commemorate the season of our freedom with their COA family. COA volunteers shopped, cooked, served and made sure everything was ready for the Seder, which
was led in fine style by Rabbi Ingram. Then as part of the Hannah Meyer Project COA and Jewish House enlisted volunteer workers from within their ranks as well as Sydney’s shul’s and youth groups, to pack and deliver almost 300 packages of matzoh, chocolates, grape juice so people could fulfil the mitzvah for Pesach, including residents in non-denominational aged care facilities. Then we made sure our Kosher for Pesach Home Delivered Meals were delivered to hundreds of seniors in their own homes all across Sydney. The process started a month prior with notices and a special Pesadic menu going out to all those on the Kosher meals service, as well as to others who only get meals during this special time of year. If you feel that you or your senior loved ones would have benefitted from COA’s contributions for a happy Kosher Pesach, please contact COA to arrange membership, and feel the advantage of belonging to the caring and inclusive COA community.
Mazaltov to the State of Israel on her 70th Birthday
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Seven Things You Should Know About Parents of Children with Disabilities REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM CHABAD.ORG MICHELLE K. WOLF The experience of parenting a child with disabilities has sometimes been described as “extreme parenting” in terms of both duration and intensity. When you meet a mother or father of an older child or teen with disabilities, she or he may seem distracted, tired, or even a little distant. They may seem burned-out, and may not have the energy to engage in much social interaction. And here’s why: 1. They are still dealing with temper tantrums. Most typical children stop having those screaming/yelling fits after ages 5 or 6, but they linger on throughout adulthood with children who have disabilities. This is especially true for children who have limited verbal or other communication abilities. Often, the triggers are something new or unexpected, since most children with disabilities crave routine and predictability. 2. Life is constantly throwing them a curveball. Just when you think you’ve figured out
how to keep your child with disabilities calm, safe and happy, something new pops up, such as a child developing seizures in adolescence. This is hard for any parent, but it’s even worse for one who already feels stretched. 3. Medical professionals don’t talk to each other. In our current healthcare insurance system, both private and public, there’s no money to pay for medical professionals such as pediatricians, specialists and speech therapists to talk to one another about the same patient, so parents end up having to fill the role of medical navigator/ case manager as well. 4. Quality aides cost money. Even if parents are able to cut through the red tape and paperwork and get government-funded services, the hourly rates are usually too low to attract and keep quality aides. Many parents end up supplementing those rates out of pocket to retain the best help for their children so they can participate in school and community settings. 5. Please ask your children to smile, not stare. Most children who attend Jewish day
The NSW Friendship Circle THE NSW FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE
the chance to interact with regular daily life. Each of our programs and activities
Friendship Circle’s mission is to empower the next generation to shape a world in which people with special needs and their families experience acceptance, inclusion and friendship as contributing members of society. At Friendship Circle we don’t have carers, we engage young volunteers from the community to become involved and critical to Friendship Circle is the harnessing of our volunteer’s energy, personality and interests to bring real care, concern and friendships. While at the same time the volunteers experience personal growth, maturity and benefit from understanding and learning about disabilities in our community. All Friendship Circle programs have been designed to allow our individuals
are planned by age group with the goal that they would be considered relevant and interesting for all abilities – disabled
schools never have the chance to meet a classmate with a severe physical disability or who “looks” very different. They therefore tend to stare when they meet a child or teen with those disabilities out in the playground or store. Please use that time as a “teachable” moment, and ask your child to smile or say “hi” if they see a child in a wheelchair or using an assistive communication device. 6. Include all of us. Our son with physical and intellectual disabilities loves nothing better than a big party with music and dancing. When we get invited to a simchah without him, it just doesn’t feel right. If you were planning to invite other children of a similar age to ours to the simchah, please extend an invitation to him as well. 7. We are more than just parents of a child with a disability. Although we are very focused on the health and wellbeing of our child with a disability, we are also interested in other things—from the latest new novel to what’s happening in Israel. Just as our child is much more than his or her disability, we are also much more than our roles as parents of a child with disabilities.
THE NSW FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE On Sunday 25 March our teen group got together to cook Pesach treats. We made Matzah Shnitzel, shnitzel coated in matzah crumbs. We had a fantastic time learning to use the blender to crush the matzah and following the recipe. The main skills we focused on is to crack eggs and to check for blood spots.
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Exploring the connection between Pesach and refugees NEW ISRAEL FUND AUSTRALIA In the lead up to Pesach young adults in their 20s and 30s joined the New Israel Fund Australia, Stand Up, Habonim Dror and Netzer youth movements to learn more about the refugee situation in Israel and Australia and its relevance to the festival of freedom, Pesach.The evening was focused on learning more about the situation for refugees and those seeking asylum but also offered concrete ways that people can make change. “Accepting refugees and those seeking asylum remains contentious throughout the world, particularly as numbers eclipse 65 million, however the particularly draconian responses of both Israel and Australia to this humanitarian crisis leave a lot to be desired,� said New Israel Fund Naomi Chazan Fellow Graham Kaplan.  His session focused on the 38,000 largely Eritrean and Sudanese refugees who are living in South Tel Aviv, many of whom now face deportation by the government to Rwanda or Uganda. He also spoke about various groups of Israelis who have chosen to challenge the government’s decision including Holocaust survivors, rabbis, El Al pilots who are refusing to fly the deportees and many others.  These actions have helped deliver a temporary halt to the deportations. The young adults rotated through three stations focusing on the refugee situation in Israel and the work of the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, youth refugees and modern day connections with the themes of
this is
the seder. “The Pesach seder is a format where the rituals and liturgy of the festival are democratised. Families are invited to be the authors of their own freedom narratives, and the content of the conversation is all user generated,� said Sydney Stand Up director George Schneider. The motivation for “this event was an opportunity to give people tools and content to bring the global refugee crisis to their seder table. It might not make the front page of the news, but for participants of this event this modern day exodus will certainly be part of the discourse,� he added. Following the rotations, Sudanese refugee Ahmed Yehya Tigani spoke of his harrowing journey to Australia via Manus Island. This was followed by a number of volunteers from SASS (Supporting Asylum Seekers Sydney) who spoke to the group about visiting Villawood Detention Centre. “It was really important for members of the Jewish community to engage in a discussion about refugees issues, both in Israel and Australia. Whilst the night had some heavy and somewhat demoralising themes, I left the evening feeling really optimistic that our Jewish community would help embody the idea of ‘never again’ and make this an election issue so that these atrocities stop happening� said Reuben Challis, Sydney treasurer for Habonim Dror. Earlier in the day Challis and a number of other Habonim Dror leaders had attended a refugee rally in Sydney.
Refugee event organisers Ianir Lewin, Sharon Berger, Reuben Challis, George Schnieder, Jordan Werner-Hall
SASS volunteers and Sudanese refugee speaker
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We think your family belongs here too, come along and see for yourself. Queens Park Road, Bondi Junction, Sydney, Australia Tel: (02) 9375 1600 | Fax: (02) 9387 3490 Email: info@moriah.nsw.edu.au | https://www.facebook.com/groups/moriahcollege/ | www.moriah.nsw.edu.au
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Bar/Bat Mitzvah’s at The North Shore Synagogue NORTH SHORE SYNAGOGUE Our Bar Mitzvah program is based on four pillars. • Prepare each Bar Mitzvah boy for his Parasha. This includes a CD with all the prayers, Maftir and Haftarah. This is tailor made for each boy depending on his level of Hebrew and abilities. Your son spends time reviewing his homework with the Rabbi Lewin or Chazan Zvi, receiving instruction and goals for the next week. • Group Session. Each week there is a 30 minute learning session with all the boys. Topics discussed include: siddur geography, what is in a Shul? The basics of Judaism practice and philosophy. Symbols of Judaism: Tefillin, Tallit, Magen David. • Shul attendance. Each boy is rostered on as a Shammash to assist in the running of the Shabbat service. This helps to familiarise them with the Shul service and what happens in Synagogue on a weekly basis. They are also rostered on to recite the Friday night Kiddush, Yigdal and Anim Zemirot. • Shabbatons and excursions. An opportunity to enjoy a Shabbat with their cohort or go for an outing. The importance of building a friendship with the other
boys in the group creates a friendship which will last long after the Bar Mitzvah is over. Bat Mitzvah program at The North Shore Synagogue. The intensive 12 month course includes: · Shabbat and festivals · How to run a kosher kitchen · Mother and daughter challah baking · Jewish women in Jewish history · Shabbaton at the Rebbetzin’s home – this is often the highlights for many girls, where they enjoy a full Shabbat, laugh, sing, eat and learn. The girls enjoy both private and group sessions with Rebbetzin Tayla Lewin, either at her home, or at the shul. In the lead up to the Bat Mitzvah, girls are invited to attend our synagogue on a Friday evening and light the Shabbat candles before the Kabbalat Shabbat service. The Bat Mitzvah girl is then sung into the shul with Baruch Haba and then present their D’var Torah to the congregation. At the conclusion, parents are invited up to the Bimah to give their daughter the traditional blessing. The cost for both Bar and Bat Mitzvah courses is $1250 for members and $1750 for non-members
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Everyone Loves an NSTE Bar/Bat Mitzvah! NORTH SHORE TEMPLE EMANUEL Families love celebrating b’nei mitzvah at North Shore Temple Emanuel! Teens, parents, grandparents, younger children, visitors, and members alike – all join in the excitement of the morning and leave glowing, with joy and with pride. Reflecting our movement’s egalitarianism, boys and girls engage in the same activities on the day: chanting from and carrying the Torah scroll, leading the congregation in prayer, and sharing a d’rash. Mums, dads, sisters, and brothers, all sit together in the congregation, and both male and female family members share in the honours, including aliyah, hagbah, and g’lilah. The voices and ruach of our volunteer choir add to the special feel of the day in the sanctuary, and when we retire to our modern function centre next door for kiddush, many celebrate with Jewish/Israeli music and dancing. There is no greater uplift than to see young and old alike, linking hands for the hora, and linking to our tradition. But at NSTE, bar/bat mitzvah is not just about the big day. In the year leading up to the celebration, students join in a weekly class with the Rabbi and Cantor, called Al Shlosha Devarim, designed to help them grasp the meaning in the blessings they
recite on the day, the narrative of the Torah and where their specific parasha fits in, and the importance of social justice and being a Jewish leader. During the year, Al Shlosha Devarim students participate together in our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, the highly acclaimed “Stand Up ABC” program, Courage to Care, and sessions with leaders from our Reform Zionist youth group, Netzer. All the while, our children are building lifelong friendships with each other, attending each other’s b’nei mitzvah, and forming lasting connections with their shul and clergy.
What happens after? At NSTE, the bar/bat mitzvah celebration is not a culmination but a beginning. Every bar/bat mitzvah returns the following week to present the Megillat HaDorot—a special “scroll of the generations”—to the next bar/ bat mitzvah. Each child then becomes a member of our esteemed “Teen Torah Tag Team,” returning as a group every few weeks to lead our Shabbat morning service and Torah reading, and enjoying a special group Aliyah and blessing, along with our signature Tim Tam Kiddush! Who are our bar and bat mitzvah
students? Many have grown up in our Hebrew School, while others attend Jewish day schools like Masada College. Still, others come to us without Jewish schooling, and our tutors get them up to speed quickly. A number of our bar and bat mitzvah families are interfaith members of our community. Some students have special needs or learning disabilities. Some have complex family situations. Some live at a distance and study with us by Skype. All, however, have a warm and embracing experience, in a supportive and loving community that “feels like family.” Our b’nei mitzvah tutors are active members of our Temple family— knowledgeable, devoted, caring, and flexible. Students and parents meet for quarterly progress checks with the Rabbi. As tutoring begins one year prior to the big day, and students need to read Hebrew fairly comfortably before starting these lessons, we urge all those interested in celebrating bar/bat mitzvah at NSTE to contact us as early as possible. An NSTE bar or bat mitzvah is transformative and unforgettable. Contact us early to reserve your child’s spot. We look forward to welcoming you to our NSTE family!
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Sydney’s North Shore? We love the supportive Jewish community and excellent education that the North Shore offers.
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Religious freedom does not include the freedom to discriminate
LETTER TO THE EDITOR JAINCE GELB The Australian Jewish Association’s statement in the March 2018 issue regarding the Act enabling same-sex marriage made two key contentions. First, that the Act’s exemption should also include “the freedom to withhold services for an SSM wedding whether it be catering, printing, photography or venue hire or the like.” They further claimed that it potentially forces individuals “to participate in an activity which offends his/her genuine religious or conscientious convictions.” Providing goods or services does not cause such a wedding to take place, and not providing them would not stop it from happening, so no such convictions are being contravened. And just because a business provides a good or service
for a fee does not indicate that it is morally condoning the occasion. Moreover, odds are, for example, that a baker who is asking for such an exemption has not refused to provide a birthday cake for a child whose parents aren’t married, or a bridal shower cake for a pregnant bride, or an anniversary cake for an unwed couple, which are also contrary to the owner’s personal religious beliefs, because the personal situation of customers is *none of their business*. Customers of a business open to the public should not have to wonder whether the owner will refuse their business due to personal religious beliefs. The business owner is refusing to provide a specific customer with a good or service that they are in business to sell. Such discrimination has no place in the public sphere regardless of whether the basis for the discrimination is racism, sexism,
or private religious belief. The AJA goes on to say that “parents should have the right to exempt their children from education programs promoting SSM.” First, the programs in schools do not “promote” same-sex marriage. It is important to make a distinction between whether schools are teaching that homosexuality is a natural variation of human sexuality, which every mainstream medical and mental health organisation agrees is accurate, and whether they are making a moral judgment about whether homosexuality is sinful, which are not the same thing. Second, such programs have the wider goal of teaching students about societal diversity so they can be functioning members of a diverse society, and of trying to combat bullying of those who are
different, just as they teach students that they should share with others, or not cheat, or not hit other students. Teaching students that there are many different types of people in the world and that people all deserve respect even if their lives or values are not like yours should not be objectionable to any parent. Framing these issues as being a fight for religious “freedom” is a misnomer: people are still free not to engage in homosexual acts themselves, to provide religious instruction to their children that they believe homosexuality is sinful, to state such a belief, and to refuse invitations to same-sex weddings. None of the examples mentioned contravene any individual’s personal religious beliefs or the ability to practice them.
JCA - STRONGER TOGETHER
Jewish Care Victoria & Montefiore Sydney Recognised At Australian Healthcare Week Awards The wellbeing of the Melbourne and Sydney Jewish communities is in good hands, with Jewish Care Victoria’s Bill Appleby announced winner and Montefiore Sydney’s Robert Orie runner up in the Aged Care CEO of the Year category at the inaugural Australian Healthcare Week Awards, held on March 21. Judges noted that in his seventh year as CEO of Jewish Care Victoria, Bill has led the organisation successfully by delivering on several key strategic and
operational goals that have enhanced and informed the future of what is a 170 year old organisation. Mr Orie, too, was recognised for his more than 17 years of leadership at Montefiore, which has seen the 125 year old organisation add home care and retirement living to its continuum of care alongside residential campuses. Both leaders spoke of the importance of a genuinely engaged community and Board in supporting these organisations to lead the way
with innovative, high quality and person-centred services for older people. Says Mr Appleby of Jewish Care Victoria about the CEO of the Year Award: “It is an absolute privilege to lead this critically important organisation. It is wonderful to see our transformative work being recognised through this industry award. Ultimately, this is a team award. We need everyone on the same page so that together, we can build and support a healthy,
resilient and inclusive Jewish community.” Montefiore Sydney also received Honourable Mention as Best Aged Care Facility for the Randwick Campus, with Mr Orie saying: “This category is about more than just the grounds and facilities, but all the care, clinical, allied health and other staff who make Montefiore Randwick a special place to live for the residents. Our whole organisation, as well as the broader Jewish community, can be proud of this recognition.”
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It’s in your hands The Hon Alan Tudge MP
WIZO NSW DIANE SYMONDS PRESIDENT OF WIZO NSW For just $3 a day, or less than a cup of coffee, you have the power to change a child’s life in Israel. WIZO NSW has distributed 30,000 coffee cups to local cafés in and around the Eastern Suburbs and the North Shore in the hope of raising awareness of the ‘Sponsor a Child in Israel’ campaign. The response from the community has been outstanding and 21 coffee shops and their branches have joined in support of WIZO. Israel is turning 70 and yet there are still 872,000 children in Israel living below the poverty line. That means that every day, one third of Israeli children go without adequate food, shelter, education and other basic needs. In fact, Israel has the second highest poverty rate amongst OCED countries, ranking only behind Mexico, according to the latest report by the United Nations Agency for Children. WIZO NSW President Diane Symonds said “Everybody buys a coffee most mornings these days, and for just $3 per day - less than the cost of a cup of coffee you can sponsor an Israeli child in need and really make a difference”. This year we ask you to think about Israel. But not the Israel you know. The Israel that
Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs
HAPPY PASSOVER As Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, it is my pleasure to send my warmest greetings to Australia’s Jewish community on the celebration of Passover or Pesach this year. Passover celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people. The fact that Jews in Australia are still celebrating Passover after thousands of years, demonstrates the strength and endurance of the Jewish people over the centuries. It is important that the story of the Exodus and the freeing of oppressed people is not forgotten.
needs us now, more than ever. WIZO’s Sponsor a Child in Israel Campaign this year is in honour of Marianne Van Der Poorten who was a devoted WIZO woman. Supporting WIZO’s vital welfare work in Israel was her life-long passion and she celebrated every birthday until she was 103 by requesting donations to WIZO projects in Israel in lieu of personal gifts. Everyone who knew Marianne would remember her personal motto of ‘live today’. And that’s why this year the Sponsor a Child in Israel campaign is in her honour. We want to help children in need ‘live today’, with all their basic needs provided for. To make a difference to a child’s life in Israel visit www.sponsorachildinisrael.com or call the WIZO office on 93873666 All sponsorships are fully tax deductible.
Today Australia has a vibrant Jewish community of well over 100,000 people. The significant contribution of the Jewish community to the life of our nation is worthy of recognition. Australian Jews have made important contributions to Australia in the fields of industry and technology, the arts, and commerce and trade. Through interfaith dialogue, the Jewish community actively promotes harmony and cross-cultural understanding in this nation. Australia’s cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, based on the successful integration of migrants, is one of ours greatest strengths. Celebrations like Passover contribute to our rich multicultural tapestry. I send my best wishes to all Jewish Australians as you celebrate Passover. Chag Sameach
ALAN TUDGE
70 Years... and still going strong!
Sydney’s North Shore
Celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut at North Shore Temple Emanuel
Excellent Jewish childcare and schooling options for all ages and affiliations in the public and private sector.
Friday 20 April 6:30pm
Israeli-inspired Shabbat Groove Service 3-Course Israeli Dinner Israeli Dancing
BOOK TODAY! Visit www.nste.org.au or call 9419 7011
go north
Learn more today! Visit:www.gonorth.org.au or Facebook.com/GoNorthCampaign
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April 2018
A letter from a granddaughter to her Omoma CHANA R FRIEDMAN This speech was written in the form of a letter by Chana Raizel Friedman and was used in her speech at a recent NSW Jewish Board of Deputies communal Yom Hashoah event. Dearest Omoma, I had a nightmare a few weeks ago. I was shouting and screaming on the top of my lungs, and no one could hear me. I was telling the world about the plight of Jewish men, women and children and no one could hear. When I woke from my dream I realised that for a few brief moments I had imagined what it must have been like for you living in a world from 1939-1945, where you were not considered human. Where your every human dignity and rights were stripped away and replaced with pain, barbarity and death. In June 2017, my father took us, Leuchter family to trace the path that you did‌ We arrived in Berlin, and went to Dachau and Ravensbrook Concentration camps. In Winter of 1945, you were marched on the infamous death march from Auschwitz, in Poland to camp after camp until you were marched to Germany. We were there in Summer. It rained heavily. All I could see, feel and invision was, “Omoma, How did you do it? How were you here, in this concentration and death camp? in the snow? with lice? and typhoid? with the piles and piles of dead bodies, with the smell of burning human flesh? While starving and enduring forced labour? How could my most precious, beloved and beautiful Omoma have been forced to live in these sub-human conditions? How did you survive? How did you go on to LIVE? To immigrate to Sydney, Australia,
Chana Reizel with her Omoma Pic: Ofer Levy
Alice before the war marry, raise a family and work? How did you LIVE? Our group of 13 of your 48 direct descendants travelled to your birth town. It was Summer. And the drive from Germany to Czech to Slovakia was beautiful. We passed fields and fields of magnificent sunflowers, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The countryside was breathtaking. Were these the same Carpethian Mountains that is a popular holiday destination? Did this forest we drove through witness Jewish blood being shed? Why did the Nazis search the entire world to find the ONE Jewish family in Bunkovce, Czechoslovakia? Your family!!? Why and how could they have really cared about the annihilation of the Herman Family? We arrived to a banquet of local delicacies at the Bunkovce Town Hall. Cabbage rolls, rocket cromplie, chicken paprikash, breads and wines. The local councilmen and women welcomed our Jewish family of 13 with tears in their eyes. They introduced us to the 94
year old daughter of the housekeeper of your parents. With so many tears and so much warmth did they hug us. The Herman family was beloved by their neighbours. We visited your home, Omoma. We hugged your tree. We danced with the new occupants. We brought back some glass spice dishes that we were told were your mothers. We were welcomed with love. What a special name your dear parents, Moshe Leib and Bluma Shoshana A�H must have had. I couldn’t help but think, 75 years ago you and your dear parents, your sister, Fridka, were ordered out of your home, to pack your precious few belongings into a small case. What should you pack for an unknown destination? Where were the Hungarian Fascists taking you? When could you return to your beloved farm and home??? We danced with your old neighbours and their descendants, all the while thinking, did you get to dance here as you were being
forcibly removed? Did you get to eat the cabbage rolls your precious muther had prepared for dinner? Did you get to say goodbye to your friends and neighbours? Did you get to hug your special tree? We, 13 people could only return to your home – because of you. Because you rebuilt your life that was stolen from you and burnt in the ash of the Crematorium. In 2017, your descendants returned as free human beings, free to practice our Judaism, free to enter the town and free to pray on the ground on which you were raised. I prayed to your parents, that they know that their family came back. To mourn them. To remember them. To connect to them. Yes, they were gassed in the inferno of Auschwitz – Birkenau. They are two out of 6 million precious martyrs that our people have. And before they were gassed, they were alive. They lived. They were yourparents, and they CONTINUED PAGE 13
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A letter from a granddaughter ... FROM PAGE 12 were farmers, and they were landowners and business people. And they were frum Jews who raised their children with the highest level of respect and dignity that one can raise their children. And we returned to honour their humanity. And to give thanks. Thanks to G-d, and most importantly, thanks to you. Omoma, Alice, Esther, Herman, Leuchter, Adamek, you were taken to Uzhorod Ghetto (now Ukraine), on Pesach of 1944. You lived in vile conditions until you were rounded up onto the infamous cattle carts and taken to Birkenau. You and your parents arrived at night on the second day of Shavuot, 1944. Immediately, Dr Josef Mengele, the doctor of death, selected your parents to the right and you and Fridka to the left. You didn’t know what that meant, only that you didn’t want to be separate from your dear parents. The last words you heard your mother speak were, “Dear G-d I don’t care what happens to me, but look after my children!”. In the first few hours and days of your internment in Auschwitz, you kept asking those around you while choking on tears, “Where is my muther? Where is my fater?” “You see the smoke, you see the ashes? You smell the stench? There are your parents! And there you will end up.” You were roughly told. In June 2017, I brought my then 4 month old baby son, Judah – Yehudah Isaac, to the holiest place on earth. The place where our family, our people were systematically destroyed by Zyklon B gas and murdered purely because they were Jewish. Auschwitz
Alice after the war – the holiest and the most hellish place on earth. We entered the gates, “Arbeit Macht Frei” “work makes us free” with kippot on our heads, Tzitzit on our backs, Magen David’s around our necks, and with two infants, descendants of those murdered. We made our memorial service at the site of Crematorium IV, where most of the Hungarian and Slovakian Jews were gassed in 1944. We met a group of Israelis who helped us make a minyan to say Kaddish. We returned to where you were tortured to near death - with our Jewish babies – your great- grandchildren. Why did G-d allow me to be born in 1988, and to have a baby son born in 2017, he who would be able to enter these gates of hell in the comfort of a pram, in the arms of his loving parents? Why were there Jewish babies, just as precious, just as beautiful
New Holocaust Museum & Education Centre To Open in Adelaide REMEMBER THE HOLOCAUST COMPASSION FOR ALL FOUNDATION SUE DRENTH “The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing” - Edmund Burke The launch of the capital campaign to fund the establishment of the Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Steiner Education Centre will be on Sunday 25 March 2018 at 2.30pm at the Fullarton Park Community Centre, 411 Fullarton Rd, Fullarton, South Australia. Adelaide Holocaust survivor and educator Andrew Steiner OAM is developing a Holocaust Museum and Education Centre in Adelaide. The Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Steiner Education Centre will be located in the historic Fennescey House, at 31-33 Wakefield Street Adelaide. It will offer Holocaust education and remembrance for future generations and commemorate the six million Jews and other innocent victims murdered by the Nazi’s between 1933 and 1945. This unique museum will work closely with the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne to offer the best educational experience and ensure the intergenerational transfer of stories of survival to future generations. Links with other diverse communities in Adelaide who have fled persecution and/or genocide, with a goal of promoting tolerance, compassion and human rights will be developed. The Keynote speaker is Alpha Cheng, a high school teacher, Multiculturalism and Diversity Advocate and 2017 ACT Young Australian of the Year Finalist and son of the late Curtis Cheng who was tragically shot by a 15-year old extremist outside NSW Police Headquarters in 2015. Alpha participated in the Gandel Holocaust Studies Scholarship for Australian Educators that year and through this experience of meeting Holocaust survivors, Alpha was inspired by their strength to spread the message of hope and
tolerance. Now an advocate for gun control and speaking out against racism, hate and prejudice, Alpha is the inaugural Ambassador for Courage to Care Victoria, championing Holocaust education for a modern audience. Exciting Lead Pledge Announcement The Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Steiner Education Centre Trustees are thrilled to announce that Gandel Philanthropy has generously pledged to match all donations, dollar for dollar, up to $100,000 to launch our fundraising campaign. This significant leading pledge comes from one of Australia’s largest independent family philanthropic funds based in Melbourne. We urge the community, businesses and individuals to help us raise the matching funds that will enable the establishment of a Holocaust Museum and Education Centre in Adelaide, South Australia in 2018. We are so pleased that John Gandel AC and his wife Pauline Gandel, and the Trustees of Gandel Philanthropy share our vision and are supporting the development and establishment of this Centre. As a leader in Holocaust Education, Gandel Philanthropy sees this Museum and Education Centre as vital to ensure all people, particularly students, learn about the Holocaust, its relevance today, and Human Rights in general. The matching grant from Gandel Philanthropy will fund the design and fit out of the Museum\’s main gallery and the permanent Holocaust exhibition. The Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Steiner Education Centre plan to raise a total of $270,000 with public donations funding the renovations and fit out of the two smaller galleries. With rising tensions across the world, the need to educate future generations about the Holocaust and ensure the message of ‘Never Again’ is instilled in young people is more important than ever. For more information or to make a donation please contact Sue at admin@ahmec.org.au
who just 75 years prior were torn from their mother’s bosoms, and thrown into fiery pits? WHY, G-D, WHY?!!? HOW, G-D, HOW??!! We will never know the answers to this. The intensity of the emotion I felt by bringing my baby to that place is something I will never forget. And yet, I was lucky, my mazel as you always say was shining strong. Because I could come to this place and I could bring my baby, and I could walk OUT of that place with my humanity. And I could ONLY DO THAT, because of you, Omoma. Omoma, one woman, two children, 11 grandchildren, and 25 great grandchildren so far. One woman – you produced 38 souls. Omoma, I have asked you, how did you survive? How did you rebuild your life from the ashes? Usually you answer me, “there was no thought of survival, it was just, keep going, keep going, or I will end up in the Crematorium. It was just luck.” Other times you tell me, “I was so starving that my stomach was eating itself but I told myself, “I am not hungry. It was a mental war where we had to keep our minds strong.” Omoma, you survived the war, you returned home to find nothing waiting for you and you made your way as an orphan to Australia. You struggled to work, work, work, to support your family. You married a fellow survivor, Tibor Leuchter, who contracted a lung disease after fighting for Israel in the 1948 War of Independence. You had your two children and your husband died of a heart attack in 1965, and you were left as a widow with 6 and 7 year old children. You were evicted from your home with your children.You taught your
children that being honest, fair, and working hard and saving is the most important thing in life. You remarried Simon Adamek and together worked very hard to “put bread on the table”. “Chana’le” you tell me, “I didn’t have parents to help me, we had do everything ourselves. You once again became a widow in 1994. And you didn’t ‘retire’ like others may have. No. You allowed your children to live with you in your home for 6 years and then you moved into my parents home and helped raise us Leuchter kids. You still today – at age 92 – “K”H” – help raise us and now you help raise my kids. You cook and contribute to the household. And I am so grateful for this greatest lesson. In our society hard work and the value of raising a Jewish household is under valued. You, Omoma, show me the greatest thing in life is to be able to work. Be able to love. Be able to give and contribute and that talk is sometimes cheap, but it is ones actions in life that speak the loudest. Omoma, you still believe. My favourite childhood pastime was sleeping in your room, and as you shut the light off, hearing you whisper the Shema. That YOU can say the words, “Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohainu Adonai Echad”. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One”. My dear grandmother, how can I thank you for bringing life to my father, Ari and my aunt Diana? And therefore bringing life to me? How can I thank you enough for being our rock, our strength, our guide in this world. You give me strength. You give me love. You brought life to me. You are my everything Omoma. I love you forever.
Sydney’s North Shore
Take a Look. Feel the Warmth.
Make the Move. go north
Learn more today! Visit:www.gonorth.org.au or Facebook.com/GoNorthCampaign
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I met a Survivor SYDNEY JEWISH MUSEUM In the week of Yom Hashoah it seems timely to reveal a new and exciting project of the Community Stories department of the Sydney Jewish Museum. We are creating a photographic book to serve as an entry point for a conversation about the Holocaust between parents or teachers and children. The project is a collaboration between Elyse Chiert, mother of two young children, Jacqui Wasilewsky, Community Stories Manager, Rony Bognar, Volunteer manager, Jewish Museum and Nadine Saacks, award winning photographer. Elyse, as a South African who had not previously met many Holocaust survivors, has been so inspired by the survivors she has met since she immigrated, and realised that her young children might not be so lucky as to do the same when they grow up. She came up with the idea of doing a book of photos taken of survivors with
April 2018
JCA - STRONGER TOGETHER
young children, who are not family members and generally have no familial connection to the Holocaust themselves. The team, all working as volunteers, have amassed beautiful photos of more than 50 survivors and children to be used in the book, together with drawings done by the children and inspirational messages from the survivors. The Community Stories writers are currently working on producing condensed versions of the survivors’ stories to be included at the back of the book. This will ensure that the revelation of sensitive information can be monitored and controlled by parents and teachers. We hope to publish the book and have it be available for sale within in a year. For more information about this remarkable project please contact Jacqui Wasilewsky by email at communitystories@sjm.com.au
Quotes from Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel was a Nobel-Prize winning writer, teacher and activist known for his memoir Night, in which recounted his experiences surviving the Holocaust. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Lucy and I wish the State of Israel and the Jewish Community Mazel Tov on the
70th anniversary of Israel’s independence. May this special anniversary strengthen those enduring bonds between Israel and Australia as we look forward to the next 70 years of a modern State of Israel.
MALCOLM TURNBULL MP Federal Member for Wentworth Prime Minister of Australia Ground Floor, 287-289 New South Head Road, Edgecliff NSW 2027 9327 3988 malcolmturnbull.com.au www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm malcolmturnbull Authorised by Malcolm Turnbull MP, Liberal Party of Australia, 287-289 New South Head Rd, Edgecliff NSW 2027.
The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.
When a person doesn’t have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.
Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.
I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory.
No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.
I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead. And anyone who does not remember betrays them again.
Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.
I would like to see real peace and a state of Israel living peacefully alongside a state of Palestine.
Peace is our gift to each other.
There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.
Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies.
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JCA - STRONGER TOGETHER
Remembering the Holocaust Continues to Remain of High Importance to our Community JCA One of the many interesting findings to come out of the preliminary report of Gen17, launched by JCA to the NSW community on 22 March, was the importance of Holocaust remembrance to the respondents’ sense of Jewish identity. According to the survey, conducted by JCA and the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation (ACJC), Monash University, Melbourne, when asked ‘How important or unimportant are each of the following to your own sense of Jewish Identity?’ the majority of respondents cited ‘Remembering the Holocaust’ as the most important. The Sydney Jewish Museum’s mission, according to its website is “to commemorate the lives of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, honour the Survivors and pay tribute to the Righteous Among the Nations.” It, as one of JCA’s 23 Member Organisations, serves a crucial purpose in our community. The activities of the Museum have grown enormously in the past 5 years. It
has become a communal hub of activity with cultural and educational events every week, and student visitor numbers constantly on the rise. Rikki Gold was an Observer on the Board of the Museum as part of the Observership Program in 2017, and is now a fully-fledged member on the Board. Her involvement reinforced the significance of Holocaust memory “as a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors I could see the importance of what they do to remember the Shoah, to preserve its memory and to educate people.” Rikki cites the role of the Museum as a source of education about the Jewish community and says that JCA’s support is vital to ensure “that we’ve got a place that people can come and visit and learn about the Jewish community, because that breaks down barriers”. JCA’s support, directly and through the initiatives of its strategic partners such as The Giving Forum, will be instrumental in assisting the Museum to secure its future for generations to come, reinforcing a sense of Jewish identity.
Together, we join with Israel to celebrate 70 years of independence.
I N V I T E S YO U TO A N E V E N I N G O F
www.mountsinai.nsw.edu.au
www.masada.nsw.edu.au
www.emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au
Kesser Torah College
www.moriah.nsw.edu.au
www.kessertorah.nsw.edu.au
Proud members of the JCA family of organisations
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Emanuel celebrates 35 years EMANUEL SCHOOL Emanuel School students and staff celebrated the School’s 35th anniversary at a special assembly, along with Rabbi Brian Fox AM, the School’s Founder, Mrs Dina Fox and other VIPs. There was much singing and expressions of connection with the School’s past and present. Emanuel’s Principal, Andrew Watt, delighted the students with stories and anecdotes about the School. He shared photos of the old school uniform which changed to the current uniform in 2002. The School’s archives uncovered that the old uniforms were donated to a school in East Timor instead of being discarded – an early commitment to reducing, reusing and recycling. The School has grown exponentially since it first opened in 1983, with 53 students and 9 teachers. The site has expanded since then and the new Innovation Centre which will include specialist Hospitality facilities, a MakerSpace and flexible open spaces is due to open in Term 3. The experience of the 35th anniversary assembly showed Emanuel School to be a product of several lifetimes of serious thought, from the school song to the National Anthem, to the cross-school relationships and learning opportunities. The School revelled in what it liked to do most - being itself, Emanuel. Andrew Watt shared with the assembly: “Whilst our numbers have grown and our facilities have been developed, the
Cutting of the 35th anniversary celebration cake with High School Head Madrichim Genevieve Goldman and Gabriel Wolf; Andrew Watt; Rebecca Lacey-Ehrlich, Primary Head Madrichim Alice Milner and Jack Goldberg with Sam Nathan in the front. ‘essence’ of Emanuel – that which makes it special – has remained unchanged. “We have maintained our position that there is more than one authentic way to be Jewish, maintained our strong connections to Israeland our pride in our Jewish culture and identity. We have remained a place where the individual excels, yet balanced this with a strong collective culture of belonging and sense of community.” Plans drawn up in 1893, show the current administration building as the grand residence of Mr John Watkins. Known as
Aston Lodge, Andrew Watt’s office was the dining room and the reception area was the drawing room. The building, which is heritage listed, still remains a focal point of our campus. Janice Narunsky who was the School’s 1st Head Madricha and now has 2 children at Emanuel, spoke to the students about life at Emanuel in the 1980s. There were 17 students in her Year 12 class, including Katie Narunsky who now teaches Mathematics at Emanuel. There were no computers, iPads, digital watches or mobile phones, yet
somehow the students survived and thrived! “There was no email, no internet, no google. When we had an assignment, we had to go to the library and look up reference books and encyclopedias which made this made it a bit difficult if we’d left our work to the last minute and the library was closed!” The large 35th celebratory cake was cut by Andrew Watt and Deputy President of the School Board, Rebecca LaceyEhrlich with Primary and High School Head Madrichim and Kornmehl’s young Sam Nathan looking on. At recess, each student received a celebratory cupcake. The Joint Junior and Senior Choirs sang Lo Alecha while the Advanced Jazz Ensemble and Senior Stage Band played the processional and recessional music. Rabbi Brian Fox AM commented: “The 35th anniversary celebrations showed Emanuel School to be a product of several lifetimes of serious thought, from the school song to the national anthems, to the cross-school relationship and learning opportunities. The School revels in what it likes to do most – being itself, Emanuel.” The next major event at Emanuel School will be the opening of the new Innovation Centre in late July – an event that we will record for posterity. One day, at our 50th anniversary, the stories will have a similar thread as for the 35th but who knows what fantastical learning tools the students will have.
Comfort in Confrontation KEHILLAT MASADA Story of a Refugee- the title of the second debate in an ongoing series of lectures and programs focusing on the topic of conflict - was held recently at Kehillat Masada. Facilitated by Rabbi Gad Krebs, over 200 people came to hear Hilmi Dabbagh’s personal narrative as a refugee expelled from pre-state Israel, raised in Syria and always longing to return to his family’s homeland. Audience members shuffled in their seats and murmured under their breaths as the questions posed by both sides were hard hitting, uncomfortable and at times even difficult to listen to, but also engaging, insightful and meaningful. From directly asking if the Palestinian world wants peace to the overall crisis of leadership and totalitarian ideologies, the debate was raw and real but respectful and focused. “Conflict is often seen as a
negative concept, something we try to avoid as much as possible. However, it is through conflict that we can grow. It is the confrontation with conflict that moulds character and strengthens faith and purpose,” said Rabbi Krebs. Ultimately, there was not an audience member who left without something to think about on their drive home, and perhaps that, as Mr Dabbagh said, the most hopeful path to peace is through engagement from the bottom up.
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Companionship and comradery with the Boomers NORTH SHORE TEMPLE EMANUEL Now with more than two years of event offerings, it is clear that North Shore Temple Emanuel’s (NSTE) Boomers and Beyond initiative is meeting the needs of the congregation’s mature-aged members and beyond. Launched in early 2016 and designed for the ‘Baby Boomers’ by the ‘Baby Boomers’, the aim is to attract, retain, and better engage with this demographic. “The Boomers and Beyond initiative has been successful on so many levels,” says NSTE Vice President, Ruth-Anne Cohn. “On one level, the Boomers’ leaders engage with NSTE to identify which programs should be on offer so that they have relevant appeal. By doing so, they provide opportunities for people to engage with our community who may not otherwise.” “The participants encompass a mix of both members and non-members,” adds NSTE Community Administrator, Gail Fox. “In the past 12 months, there have been a few participants who are in their first year of mourning and found companionship within the groups. More recently, we’ve had people come along who aren’t on our mailing lists. They have just heard about our excellent programs via word of mouth!” The initiative, supported by the NSTE Directors and office support team, currently consists of five programs; Walking Group, Book Club, Film Group, Schmooze Outing
Group and Platinum Club. Led by longstanding NSTE members, programs are offered throughout the Sydney area, on a monthly or quarterly basis, and are often during daylight hours on a weekday or Sunday. Feedback from attendees has been very positive. Leader of the Walking Group, Vera Cranston, says “On each of our recent walks, new people have joined in; sometimes
meeting old friends from many years ago. Whilst we were out of our usual territory, the important things remained the same; good exercise, good company, good scenery, and a good feeling of being with people of shared background and interests.” The benefits for participants range from enhanced Jewish education, through to encouraging a healthy way of life, and providing entertainment options via the use
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of NSTE’s state-of-the-art Valerie Jaye Hall and other resources. There has also been an increased sense of comradery among NSTE members and non-members. For further details about the programs and offerings, visit: www.nste.org.au/boomersandbeyond or call the NSTE Office on 9419 7011.
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Musical Evening at Kehillat Kadimah KEHILLAT KADIMAH Kehillat Kadimah had the pleasure of hosting a wonderful women’s musical soiree evening. Performances from Women in Harmony and the KTC Girls’ Choir, solos from Tessa Rosenberg, Lisa Nailand and Esther Leuchter, as well as audience participation in the Kumzitz made for a very happy, enjoyable evening. Bo’i B’Shalom, Yachad, Katonti, and Eyshet Chayil were some of the wonderful melodious songs on the night. Singers came from shuls far and wide including JLC, Tzemach Tzedek, Mizrachi, Kadimah, Maroubra, and Chabad Double Bay. From the excellent food, the raffles, the giveaways and of course the outstanding entertainment, the atmosphere created by the women was exactly what the program suggested - B’Yachad - Together. Nissa Niasoff outdid herself with her organisation and musical prowess. The audience response post-concert has been amazing – “Nissa!!!! So well done it was just beautiful
- everything - the programming choices the voices, harmonies and your song were exquisite. Encore! ( but okay not till after Shavuos). Thank you and mazal tov you did a wonderful thing xxx” “Kol HaKavod to everyone for a wonderful evening - harmonious ladies, beautiful and talented KTC girls, wonderful soloists all came together B’Yachad.” “Well done to all the behind the scenes people who brought it all together!” “Well done to all involved... such a good relaxing evening.”
PRIME MINISTER
MESSAGE FROM THE PRIME MINISTER PASSOVER 2018 It is with great pleasure that I send my greetings to Australia’s Jewish community at this special time of celebration. For Jewish people around the world, Passover is rich in historical, cultural and religious significance – a time to gather around the Seder table, give thanks for one’s blessings and recall one of humanity’s greatest stories of liberation. The spirit and message of Passover has resonated down the ages, strengthening and inspiring the Jewish people and reminding them of their commitment to one another and to tikkun olam. In Australia, Passover is also a reminder of our great fortune to live in a land of peace and prosperity – the wondrous achievement of generations past whose vision of a better future we now inherit. All Australians should carry forth the ideals of justice, courage, and freedom that made this legacy possible. Together, we should endeavour to make a better world for generations to come, and for all humanity. With these thoughts in mind, I wish all members of Australia’s Jewish community a joyous and uplifting Passover. Chag Pesach Sameach.
The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP Prime Minister of Australia 28 March 2018
Sing a song of Seder - Ma Nishtana HUG-A-BUB LESLEY SHNEIER From King Achashveirosh to King Pharoah - the children have enjoyed the last few weeks hearing the Pesach story, making Matza with the Model Matza Bakery, singing many songs and creating various artworks depicting this Chag. The children of Hug-a-Bub showed off their understanding and knowledge of the Passover story as they helped re-tell the story of King Pharoah being a mean and cruel King in Egypt, how he wanted to hurt the Jewish people and the hero of the Story was Moses who helped lead the Jewish people out of Egypt - they were no longer slaves and now they are free! Together with the educators and volunteer family members, Hug-a-Bub held it’s very own Seder where the children pretended to be the slaves working very hard, we acted out the Ten Plagues and even followed Moses as we crossed the Red Sea. We
asked the 4 questions and sang the Ma Nishtana with much gusto. The highlight of our Seder was eating the delicious Matza ball soup and also trying the different Seder plate foods. The children’s faces told it’s own story as they dipped the parsley in the salt water. After eating all the tradional Pesach foods and drinking the 4 cups of wine, we were so excited to play “hide and seek” and look for the Afikomen. From the Staff and Children of Hug-a-Bub - we wish everyone a Happy and Kosher Pesach.
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My Kabbalah Tour of Israel ELISE HAWTHORNE Arriving at Tel Aviv’s airport propelled me towards what would become a very personal spiritual journey which also felt like a homecoming of sorts. I was also about to mix it up with a delightful group of travel companions which was an unexpected joyful part of my inaugural trip to Israel. I was lucky to have been included in the Land and Spirit Kabbalah Tour of Israel organised and led by the delightful and wise Rabbi Dr Orna Triguboff. Rabbi Triguboff serves at the Emanuel Synagogue in Sydney and is the Spiritual Director of the Neshama Life Association, an organisation that fosters spiritual development through Kabbalah. Diving into the warm Mediterranean water at Tel Aviv’s Gordon Beach washed away my jet lag which prepared this Sydney girl for a 10-day mind, body and spirit adventure like no other I have encountered. The first unexpected bonus was meeting up with fellow traveller Pippa just before our tour commencing. We breakfasted with her friend Meira Priuman one of the leaders of the Woman Wage Peace group, and it is fair to say they are both my kind of women. The tour kicked off in Tele Aviv; we dived right in when we arrived at Independence Hall to relive David Ben Gurion’s declaration of the State of Israel. I marvelled at the spirit of the brave men and women who were determined to build Tel Aviv on the sand dunes outside the old city of Jaffa. Our group of twenty-three then travelled by coach to the beautiful hilltop town of Zichron Ya’akov. It was such an honour to spend Independence Day in this picturesque part of Israel. We moved on touring the Ramat Hanadiv Gardens visiting the tombs of Baron Edmond de Rothschild and his wife; learning about their enormous contribution to a movement promoting the Jewish peoples return to Zion. We studied the Kabbalah at the Ein Tzur Spring with Dr Yossi Chajes of Haifa University and sang in two-part harmony with the delightful Josh Laufer. We then ventured to the much-revered gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, credited with writing the Zohar, the lead book of the Kabbalah. Next up we spent three days in the mystical town of Tzfat where we visited synagogues, art galleries, and some of us
Tzfat, Israel. Photo: David Goldman
ventured to the only Hungarian Museum in Israel, which was fascinating - my AustroHungarian heritage was awakened so far from home, and I only wished that my father was with me on this tour. We walked along an at times challenging Rosh Pina trail and learnt Jewish martial arts with Golan Ben Chorin. We visited a Rosh Pina beit midrash, where we were warmly welcomed by the local Jewish Reform community. Other highlights included... The delicious food, the people - the joy of seeing Jews, Muslims and Christians living side-by-side just going about their daily lives in harmony and the pleasure of hanging out with my tour mates; hearing
their stories, sharing our experiences. A surprise bonus was that we were blessed to be in the company of the delightful Emanuel Lieberfreund, a very talented musician and composer who played his many instruments accompanying mediation sessions, moments of quite reflection and at various celebrations along the way. We were also lucky to have musician and photographer David Goldman accompany us on our very own magical mystery tour. Attending a Shabbat service in Jerusalem at Shira Hadasha, a pluralistic Orthodox congregation where women can lead services. Visiting the Israel Museum - seeing the
Dead Sea Scrolls up close at last! Exploring the Western Wall Tunnels and the Jewish and Muslim Quarters of the Old City in Jerusalem. A nature walk and study in the Sataf with Avraham Leader. Meeting Rabbi Roberto Arbiv, Sufi scholar and pluralistic rabbi who has opened a synagogue as a secular oasis in Tel Aviv. Having the pleasure of travelling to the Negev and partaking in a Bedouin lunch at the Joe Allon Centre followed by a visit to the Desert Stars leadership high school for Bedouin youth sponsored by the Triguboff Foundation. Visiting Masada - a lesson in heroism I’ll never forget. Floating in the Dead Sea at Neve Midbar - I haven’t laughed so hard in ages. The Tower of David Nighttimes Spectacular - with the help of light projected on to this ancient fortress, we were transported back in time, reviewing the history of Jerusalem. Visiting Jerusalem was my favourite part of the tour. Seeing the ruins of King David’s palace was both mind-blowing and a great honour. Visiting the Kotel once on Shabbat and a few days later my thoughts went to my family members who perished in the Holocaust - I must admit I cried and I found it hard to stop. Another special moment was when walking away from the Kotel, Orna, myself and Lynda, one of my travelling companions, linked arms, standing in a tight knit-circle we sang in Hebrew; it makes me weep as I write this sentence. I felt lucky to be able to walk in the Old City; many have died so that my generation and future generations can do so in peace. Interwoven in our journey was Rabbi Orna’s Kabbalistic teachings which not only taught me about the ancient mystical aspects of Judaism but it also brought the tour participants closer together via so many shared meaningful moments. We were all far from our family and friends, but we created our own little travelling family in the land of our forbearers. I can trace my family heritage back to 13th Century Spain and then as rumour has it back to the House of King David so walking Israel’s ancient pathways was a feeling hard to put into words - the words pure joy is as close as I can get. To find out about the next Land and Spirit Kabbalah Tour of Israel visit: www.neshamalife.org
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T
he Israel Study Tour experience forges a deep and long-lasting sense of Jewish identity in all those who participate and this immersive program is pivotal in securing the future of our Jewish community. One of IST’s primary aims is to consolidate much of what the students have learned throughout their school career as the capstone Jewish program. Participants begin with one week in Poland where they are exposed to the stark contrast between the vibrancy of Jewish life that once was, and the death that accompanied one of the greatest atrocities that humankind has ever known. Their journey continues with six weeks in Israel through a wealth of fun, educational and spiritual encounters. IST offers the opportunity for students to hear from world-class educators across the spectrum, from inspirational madrichim to seasoned teachers and fascinating personalities, encouraging conversations and the development of meaningful relationships through peer-based education.
Day 9: Lehava, Israel Jessica Fittinghoff and Mikayla Edelman After a long and emotional week in Poland, we can both say with confidence that the whole IST group was eager to leave the gloomy atmosphere of Poland to arrive in the beautiful country of Israel. The excitement on the flight was evident among us all as we landed in the Holy Land. As soon as we left the airport, the fresh Israeli air hit our faces and we all felt excitement as our Israeli journey on IST truly began for the next five weeks. After collecting our luggage and new sim cards, we boarded the buses and prepared to see the Kotel. As soon as we arrived, we were surprised by visits from our Israeli madrichot from past years, and were filled with joy and excitement. The atmosphere felt surreal and we couldn’t believe that we were finally looking at the Kotel, the very Wall that holds so much history and importance to the entire Jewish nation. While standing in front of the Wall with our peers, Ilan Lavan shared a few emotional and inspirational words of wisdom that made us feel connected to the land and proud of our Jewish identity and heritage. For many of our friends, it was their first visit and it was so special to witness their reactions as we helped remove their blindfolds to see the Wall for the first time and to share their emotional connection with them. After taking many photos, praying and seeing tears of joy being shed, we made our way to the nearby Montefiore restaurant where all of us indulged in the Israeli food that we had been dreaming about. Maybe our opinion is a little biased due to our comparison of food in Poland, but we feel like it is fair to say that this meal was the best one we’d had in a very long time. We all enjoyed reuniting with the other side, seeing our old friends and meeting new ones. After an extremely exhausting yet eventful long day, everyone was eager to arrive in the hotel and finally have a well-deserved sleep. Although daunting, finding out who our new and random roommates are for the next 2 days would prove to have a positive outcome, causing everyone to step outside their comfort zones and create new friendships. Overall, Israel has been unforgettable so far and we both can’t wait to be spending 5 weeks in this beautiful country!
Day 14: Zoe Said Our first Shabbat in Israel was extremely different to last week in Krakow, mostly due to the excitement of being up north and having our side close together, strengthening our bond. Wake up was thankfully later then usual at 9:30 (for those who didn’t attend Shachrit). It was a long-awaited sleep in and for me it definitely revived and replenished my tired and restless body. For those dedicated Shachrit attendees they were fortunate to receive and experience an Israeli style Kiddush that I heard was filled with potato kugel, herring and delicious chocolate croissants. Following the scrumptious Kiddush, everyone made there way to
Mussaf led by one of the exceptional Na’aleh participants Jacob Steinberg. With a meaningful shule service completed we were then spilt into family groups for a tochnit on the refugee crisis in Israel. We discussed and debated whether Israel is obligated or advised to let in Syrian refugees to Israel. Using quotes from former Israeli prime ministers, statistics, Jewish history, testimonies and our own political knowledge we deliberated and shared our personal thoughts. Following the heated tochnit, we were presented with an array of different salads, meats and cholent that satisfied our Shabbat wants and needs. Everyone was unitedly chatting, singing and eating together which led to an amazing and special atmosphere. Excited for a 3 hour chill time, everyone broke away to have time to themselves doing their own thing. Some people used this time to shluf, learn torah, dam (deep and meaningful) with the madrichim and for most bond as Netzach through various games. For me I spent most of my time playing jungle speed and cards in the lobby with people I wouldn’t usually be with at home. Shabbat gave us the opportunity to branch out and speak to people that may not be part of our ‘circle’. As well as this, during this break, David Wolfowicz the Rosh of Na’aleh, organised a reunion and chill for the Na’aleh students of Netzach. It was so special but also emotional to spend time together again as a group. Our chill time shortly transformed into a discussion about the impact of this program on our IST experience. I believe it impacted positively as it gave me a base knowledge and start into my Jewish journey. For others, some believed that it also impacted positively and a few had mixed thoughts. While I was involved in this reunion, I also had the chance to observe all my other friends who were laughing and trying to respect the idea of Shabbat to the best of their abilities, which was so special as it showed the uniqueness of this experience. Seudah Shlishit the third meal of the day, was accompanied by three diverse Ted talks by Ilan Lavan, Rabbi Noah Kunin and David Wolfowicz. All three were completely different and focused on other area of Judaism and everyone was surprisingly interested and involved. With a quick Maariv and Havdalah service, it was a little emotional and depressing for Shabbat to end as it was a special time where we could disconnect from our phones and technically be forced to speak to one another. Now that Shabbat had finished, it was time for what other years had said was one of the most exciting nights of IST. Our Saturday night was spent all as one - after 5 days apart, on a boat in the Sea of Galilee. With the music pumping loudly and the boat a little rocky, we sailed through the Kinneret dancing and catching up with Lehava. It was honestly a really fun night being together, letting loose in a beautiful atmosphere with the sea breeze. With the 40 minutes up, we all walked to El Ranchos for a delicious meat meal awaiting the arrival of the Band Tour kids. As with the conclusion of Band Tour today, we were all ecstatic to be able to spend the next 3 weeks with the most incredible and talented musicians. For me and I am sure for many others, I was really intrigued to see how the Band Tour kids fit in and transform from a music brain into a Jewish based journey.
It was therefore after another tasty Israeli dinner with pita, salads, meat and of course hummus, where we all chatted and discussed our past 5 days with the other side that we welcomed the Band Tour kids with open arms. Finally with ALL 160 of us together for the first time it was incredible to see how we took up the whole entire restaurant. We all filled our stomachs full with food before once again having to say bye to Lehava. I found it really sad to say bye to my friends but knew that we were luckily going to be spending Tuesday at Masada and the Dead Sea all together. We also had our new Band Tour members to keep our spirits high and so, as we travelled back to Chispin, Mimi Schlessinger humorously welcomed the 5 new students joining us after their amazing experience in America. After a vibey and joyful night we arrived back at the hotel right as curfew hit, which was at 11.00. After a long but special day it was the first time that we weren’t bothered to go to bed with the knowledge that the next day was going to be packed full, insightful and extremely enjoyable!
Day 16: Alon Pajor and Jessica Shub Our Monday morning started off bright and early when we were abruptly awoken at 6.45 again. Everyone slowly made their way down to breakfast and despite all of our puffy eyes and tired faces, we were ready for an exciting day. We were all very upset to leave our little home at Chispin, but we were all packed and on our way by 8.15, ready for the full day ahead. Bus 1 and 2 parted their ways, so my bus (2) started our drive on the way to Rosh Hanikra. Little did we know that it would be one of the most beautiful views some of us had ever seen. All forty of us got in different cable cars to go see a documentary about the place and also have some time to look around caves. The first cave we went into was a cave with a projector where we watched a documentary about how the body of water is maintained, what animals live underneath the water and all about this specific tourist attraction. We finished this at around 11.00 and then had quite a bit of free time to look around. In classic style, most of us went straight for the convenience store to get snacks and slushies to keep us cold as it was a very hot day. With ten minutes left of free time myself, along with four other girls, went into the grottos, which are cave with the body of water flowing through and various lookouts of the clear, blue water. After finishing up there, we caught another cable car back to our bus and were on our way to lunch. My bus (1) was very excited and happy to endure another day in Israel. We went down for breakfast and had the typical Israeli style breakfast that consisted of salads, eggs, and chocolate yogurt. After that we all boarded the buses and I got into my bus excited for an eventful day ahead. We first went to an Ethiopian Kibbutz, into an Ethiopian lady’s house, where we heard about her eventful Aliyah story to the land of Israel and the different challenges that she, her family, and her community had to face in order to get to the holy land of Israel. We arrived at the Kibbutz, exhausted after a long bus ride and a big night before. As we walked
April 2018 into the lady’s house we were warmly greeted and given delicious hot tea and coffee with traditional Ethiopian bread. We sang songs, ate and drank and then got ready for our next activity at the Ethiopian house. We got to play dress up, and all found ourselves rummaging through a box filled with ancient Ethiopian clothing. Unfortunately, I along with a few other boys received female outfits and sadly I had to wear an Ethiopian style dress, which was very pretty if I may say so. When everyone was all nicely dressed up we then stood again in a circle and we were taught a traditional Ethiopian dance that required a lot of skill in order to dance it in the correct way. We were then taken into a common traditional Ethiopian home that was made out of clay and wood and all other materials. After being exhausted from the dancing we got to sit down in the house and listened to the Ethiopian lady’s story as a little girl and all of her experiences and hardships that she had to face in order to come to the land of Israel. Her story was so interesting and inspiring, to hear how, as a young girl, she was able to walk from Ethiopia to Israel all on foot with no food and water. This, despite the terrible losses of members in her family and members of the community. When both buses arrived at lunch, we were presented with an array of different pizzas, made right in front of us. Everyone indulged in all the different types of pizzas and afterwards we were all popping as everyone was so filled from our delicious lunch. Our buses split up again and did the reverse of what the other bus had done in the morning. As all of our experiences were slightly different, everyone had a great day, learnt so much and was ready for our long drive to our next destination. We were sleeping at the Bedouin tents that night, but before we needed to endure a four hour bus ride. On my bus (2) instead of taking this time to sleep, we played music loud on our speakers, involved ourselves in conversations with our madrichim and peers on the bus, and had many bathroom/ food stops on the way. Most people were quite apprehensive about sleeping in the tents but when we got there it was only excitement for the experience ahead. We got there quite late, so we went to go put our stuff in the tent and went straight to dinner. We were treated with a traditional Bedouin dinner. We had Israeli salads, pickles and olives, hummus and tachini, shawarma and pitas. With full stomachs we made our way to our tents for bonfires and chills with everyone before bed.
This experience was both unique and incredible as it gave us a whole new perspective on life and the world around us. After we had our lunch, we were split into our different options. The options were MDA, Start Up, museum tour or a graffiti tour. I chose Start Up which I think was a good decision. It began with a small introduction into ‘ Start Up’ from our guide. We split into teams and were given multiple missions to complete and was told that the winning team would be given a prize. Some of the missions were completely random, although some gave us the opportunity to learn more about Israeli startups. Later on, both sides joined up for movie and a dinner which was very nice. Lehava and Netzach were so excited to see each other as we had not seen been together since free weekend. We all saw Justice League and got a complementary popcorn and drink, which is always appreciated. After returning from dinner everyone was on a high as it was the first time both sides were staying at the same hotel in Israel. It was very nice having all of my friends from the other side staying with us and having the opportunity to be together. Overall today was one of my favourite days of IST and I hope we have more like it coming! :)
After all the eating we have done over the last few days, I decided to start the day early at the gym with a couple of friends. It was hard getting up at 6:30, but was definitely worth it as while I was running I could finish my episode of “Stranger things”. After a delicious breakfast with a variety of different options, we went on a 10 minute walk to the Carmel Shuk, chatting and bubbling with excitement. As soon as I walked in, I saw a bottle of red, juicy pomegranate seeds and I knew I wanted to try them. After an hour of walking around through the crowded markets we all met at the meeting point. Everyone had bought a variety of different things. Some had bought lollies, some had purchased jewellery and others bought some random presents for their secret maccabee. While on the bus we were all fascinated with Hannah’s present as she got a giant kinder surprise. We were headed off to the Blind Museum; a place which almost everyone had been looking forward to for a long time. Each group went in one at a time and while we were waiting to go in, our guide played many different games with us to try and replicate the experience of being blind. As soon as I stepped inside the specifically crafted maze of rooms, it was pitch black and I was instantly nervous. It was very hard because you had to trust everyone around you and rely solely on sound and touch. We were in there for about an hour and as time went on, it got a little easier.
ing option we thought we had picked. Every 5 seconds a kid told you in Hebrew to start running after them and for us teenagers, it really isn’t up our alley, every 10 seconds a kid will come up to you and jump on your back and tell you to run and “Dai” meaning stop, and every minute a kid would pull you towards their classroom to get water. Besides all the love the kids gave to us (and we gave to them) we experienced quite emotional experiences ourselves; two tween girls acted like wolves and pushed us and locked us in a synagogue, where they wanted us to play a game where we had to be blind folded in the dark, with our arms tied up behind our back. The game stopped when we begged for them to “dai”. This experience for us changed how we think and how we act. Not all children are privileged and have the same opportunities as us, however they all want the same thing; to be happy. All the children that we met had troubles and hardships that they experienced, however many of them have so much good in them. It was clear to see what type of human being they were and how they would each make a mark on the world.
Day 40: Sabrina Zulman Day 33,34,35: Courteney Zoellner an Jordana Cohen We started our second option which was volunteering in Afulfa at a place called Emuna.
Day 22: Lara Kaplan
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When we arrived, we took one look at the place and before even entering, immediately thought that this was going to be a long three days. We met a few of the Sheruti’s, who welcomed us in with open arms, and soon after struggling to lift our suitcases up the stairs, we were shown our rooms. Four of the girls were placed in a small bedroom, while Jordana and I were placed in a classroom, as there was no room in the bedroom. After settling in our rooms, we had a small tour, and a very poignant talk with the leader of the organisation. We were told a story about a father who landed up in jail, but once he went to jail, he was still the glue that held his broken family together. Unfortunately, circumstances eventually left the younger child alone, lost and in the dark. This story moved me, as I could not even bear to imagine what a young child in this situation would be feeling, how unwanted he must feel. However the organisation stepped in and ensured that this child would be looked after, would feel wanted and accepted and like a normal loved child. After a few success stories and background information, we had lunch, time to organise ourselves and finally we were split into three groups. Jordana and I were put with the children with ages ranging from 5-12. At first it was incredibly difficult, due to the language barriers. However, we soon found out that all the children desired was someone to play with, and maybe to pull a funny face once in a while. The children’s adorable giggles and cheeky smirks, made me think why they were at this organisation. I wished to know their individual stories - whether they have experienced hardships, Were they were all abandoned, or were their parents simply unfit to look after them, and if so, why? I recall chasing the children around for a possession of mine that they decided to “steal”, however even if I did not catch them they would always return my possessions. Besides all the traumatising information we had to encounter about the kids lives and experiences when we started our day in our groups, we realised that each child had a unique story that has impacted them in different ways and that these stories will surely continue to impact them forever. After we met all the adorable kids in our group we began an extraordinary 2 days of volunteering, it slowly took a while for the kids to open up and talk to us but once they felt more comfortable around us, we could see who they truly were. Volunteering really turned into hard work and not a relax-
As I awoke on the last day of IST, I was filled with a whirlwind of emotions. The past six weeks would soon come to an end in a matter of hours. In a mad rush to find all lost belongings amongst the balagan (mess) of our hotel rooms, surviving despite extreme sleep deprivation and a wave of illness plaguing almost all the IST members, we began our final day. We shared our last tochnit (activity) which constituted a final round of encouraging our eager minds to make Aliyah. We lapped it up with a healthy dose of enthusiasm and exhaustion! Thereafter, we made our way to Machane Yehudah (marketplace) to enjoy a final delicious Israeli meal. In an emotional gathering, we then visited Ammunition Hill where we learnt about the heroic Israeli soldiers that fell for our country. Finally, to conclude this most memorable trip, the whole of IST united as one at the Kotel (Western Wall). As we sang the Israeli anthem, Hatikvah, goose bumps creeped up my arms as I soaked in the final moments before leaving my homeland. So how can one sum up the journey of IST, the most memorable six weeks of our lives? Was it praying at the Kotel, being uplifted by inspiring speakers, soaking up the buzzing life in Tel Aviv, partying on the Tiberias cruise, engaging in intense learning at Midrasha or forging unbreakable bonds with incredible peers and madrichim? Perhaps it was transitioning from the (and I quote the infamous Rabbi Benji) “lowest of lows in Poland, to the highest of highs in Israel”? I believe I cannot choose any one of these options, but rather the amalgamation of all these experiences mixed with the privileged ability to share it with our friends. IST is not a mere six weeks of life that have just passed – IST has served as a transformative experience, shaped me as a person, opening my mind to the wonders of Judaism, Zionism and my own values and beliefs as a young Jewish person. No doubt, it is has been a unique, transformative experience for all of us. I would like to conclude this blog with a quote from the book ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel – a Holocaust survivor. “Have faith in life. Above all else, have faith. Drive out despair, and you will keep death away from yourselves. Hell is not for eternity. And now, a prayer - or rather, a piece of advice: let there be comradeship among you. We are all brothers ... Help one another. It is the only way to survive.” During IST, I believe we have been exposed to the full spectrum of Israeli society and culture and have learnt of the challenges we have faced as a people throughout history. Weisel’s profound words continue to ring true – in order to continue as a unified Jewish nation we must hold each other close, and march forward - proud advocates of our inheritance, our beloved land and our people.
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Support UIA, Support Israel in its 70th Year UNITED ISRAEL APPEAL This year, Yom Ha’atzmaut is not only the time to celebrate Israel’s 70th anniversary and the State’s endless triumphs over the decades. It is also a time to celebrate Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal (KH-UIA), which has been at the forefront of Israel’s growth for almost a century. Founded in 1920 as the fundraising arm of the Zionist movement, KH-UIA played a key role in allocating the resources needed to establish an independent State. With the help of donations from around the world, KH-UIA has brought hundreds of thousands of Jews who fled Europe to Israel, helped absorb them and started over 900 urban and rural settlements. Today, in partnership with the global Jewish community in over 45 countries worldwide, KH-UIA helps further the national priorities of Israel. Most importantly, this includes rescuing Jews living in danger, encouraging Aliyah and absorbing new immigrants, as well as other vital programs that strengthen disadvantaged populations. With your support, KH-UIA continues to support projects which meet the constant challenges facing Israel and world Jewry. Your support is also a source of strength to Israel and a reaffirmation of the unshakeable bond connecting the Jewish people to its homeland. Here are ways you can help Israel through KH-UIA to ensure its strength over the next 70 years: You can experience Israel on a KH-UIA mission where we will give you an insider’s view of Israel. Enjoy an exciting, first-hand encounter with the Jewish State, learn about
the latest developments from the people who are making them happen and see the impact of our work directly. If you are short on time, UIA for a Day provides a first-hand glimpse of the impact of your contribution at UIA-supported projects. During this extraspecial year, KH-UIA is hosting two Yom Ha’atzmaut missions, which will include even more festivities to celebrate Israel’s 70th. Celebrations will continue throughout the year with five other missions in 2018,
including Medical & Dental; Singles with JJunction, Golden Age, Women’s Division and a December Family Mission. You can support Israel financially through KH-UIA. Your support helps address the priority needs of Israel and the Jewish people: rescue, Aliyah, strengthening weak sectors of society and building solidarity among Jews around the world. You can volunteer if you have some spare time and make a great difference to
those in need. We offer various options for volunteering. You can leave a legacy to KH-UIA by remembering Israel in your Will, which will help secure Israel’s future while linking your name to the Jewish State in perpetuity. For more information, contact UIA NSW on 9361 4273, info@uiansw.org.au or visit uiaaustralia.org.au
Why Ronald Lauder is wrong about Israel ISRAELSEEN.COM BARRY SHAW Billionaire and philanthropist, Ronald Lauder, a regular and massive contributor to Jewish and Israeli charities, made the most bewildering statement in the New York Times; …the Jewish democratic state faces two grave threats that I believe could endanger its very existence…The first threat is the possible demise of the two-state solution… The second, two-prong threat, is Israel’s capitulation to religious extremists and the growing disaffection of the Jewish diaspora. – Ronald S. Lauder, New York Times, March 18, 2018. As Martin Sherman, head of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies rebutted, “this is an utterly false dichotomy.” I would go one step further and invite Mr. Lauder to view some of the pictures and videos in our IISS archives to see the vulnerability of Israel’s sensitive central infrastructure to clearly understand the grave threat that the “two-state solution” that he advocates would be for Israel. Surely Lauder cannot believe that Palestinian leaders would suddenly become models of enlightenment, liberalism, and democracy because the world forces Israel into relinquishing territory and withdraws behind indefensible border to give rise to a Palestinian state? As I have repeated preached, in such a situation, by the ballot or by the bullet, Hamas or something worse will usurp power and become an even bigger danger to the resultant rump state of Israel. The construction of yet another wall would not stop a Palestinian with a shoulder-held rocket launcher from blowing up a plane
on the tarmac of Israel’s only international airport which would lie exposed below his feet. When that happens, who will fly into Israel on the morrow? Would Mr. Lauder come and apologize for his egregious error of judgment? Does he naively believe that the Palestinians will give up their claims to the rest of Israel simply because he and the world would impose a state in territories surrendered by the Jewish State? Does he not realize that an emboldened Palestinian political divide would demand the “liberation” of the rest of Palestine for, as they say, they want it all “From the River to the Sea” and they would see the inviting sea from their vantage points overlooking Tel Aviv. Their quest to eliminate the rest of Israel, their ambition to remove the rest of the “occupation,” would appear to be temptingly within reach. They would come to liberate the Israeli
Arabs whom they poetically acclaim to be “the Palestinians of the Interior,” or “the Palestinians of ’48,” meaning those who remained to protect Palestine after the establishment of the Jewish State. This is what the radical Arab Member of Israel’s Knesset, Haneen Zoabi, meant when she recently called for “the final stage, the total withdrawal, and the end of occupation.” People like Ronald Lauder and other may prefer to believe that she meant an Israeli withdrawal from fictitious 1967 borders in the cause of peace, but the truth is that Zoabi, the Palestinians, the Muslim world, and the radical left intend nothing less than a Palestine established on all the land, and the annihilation of Israel. They say so, daily. Why isn’t Mr. Lauder listening? I am bewildered how Ronald Lauder, who professes a deep love for what he calls “our beloved nation,” would pursue such a perilous future for our country. Does he not
know that there are adequate alternatives to an obvious two-state failure? Or does Mr. Lauder line up with too many otherwise intelligent people who are stuck in this twostate mode afraid to contemplate that they might be wrong? As for his fear that Israel will capitulate to religious extremists, and Israel turning from a liberal secular society into a theocratic state, does he not see Israeli society every time he visits to Israel? Israeli roads, restaurants, coffee shops, bars and beaches all packed on a Shabbat bear witness to Israel’s modern society. Yes, there are elections, and yes the religious parties get their share of Knesset seats, as do Israeli Arabs. This alone is proof that the Jewish state remains the only real democracy and open society in the Middle East. Mr. Lauder! You have nothing to fear on this issue. What you do have to fear is the drift away from Judaism in the United States. With that comes the lack of care about the Jewish State as American Jewish youth get sucked into gender politics and intersectionality as the guiding principles in their lives. The radical left and the BDS exploit these issues to ostracize and outlaw Israel supporters with their rancid totalitarian hatred disguised as liberal thought. While that is going on, we in the Jewish State will do what we have to do to defend and protect our beloved nation. Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies. He is the author of ‘BDS for IDIOTS,’ and ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS, and Antisemitism.’
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Shaare Zedek at the frontline AUSTRALIAN FRIENDS OF SHAARE ZEDEK MIRIAM PACANOWSKI For over 100 years, Shaare Zedek has played a crucial role in every aspect of Jerusalem’s turbulent modern history. During the June 1967 Six Day War, the hospital itself was within the line of fire, serving as a front-line military hospital. In an article on www.timesofisrael.com, Mayer Fertig describes how Shaare Zedek which was located in its original home on Jaffa Road, was the hospital closest to the combat — just a few short kilometres from the front and under frequent Jordanian fire. The hospital’s archives describe how in the early hours of Monday, June 5, 1967, the telephone hotline from Israel’s military headquarters rang at Shaare Zedek, then located on Jaffa Road. The Hospital’s well-oiled “State of Emergency” apparatus was activated. Phones soon rang at the homes of the hospital’s administrative and medical staff. Ambulances rushed out of the gate with urgent messages. Dr. Falk Schlesinger, the hospital’s director-general, arrived within minutes. Activity was intense. Groups of volunteers began to take up pre-assigned duties. The emergency generator was activated. Windows were covered with blackout material, sandbags strategically placed. Beds replaced desks. Even the hospital’s main corridors were soon lined with extra beds and stretchers. The Brith Milah hall, classrooms in the School of Nursing and the nurses’ own dormitories were soon converted into emergency wards. Just two hours after the military hotline first rang, Shaare Zedek was fully prepared — a
civilian hospital now transformed into a frontline military hospital with a greatly increased bed capacity. The underground operating theatres and teams of surgeons were ready for action. At about 11 o’clock in the morning of June 5, the Jordanians began to shell Jewish Jerusalem and blast border areas with machine-gun fire. Shaare Zedek received the first casualties of the war, among them a young mother who had been carrying her baby as she searched for shelter near the Old City. Tragically, she never made it; her baby was an orphan. The Israel Defense Forces replied to the Jordanian attack. Jerusalem echoed with the noise of war. Wounded soldiers were brought in by military and civilian ambulances — more than 150 on the first day, alone. Surgeons operated nonstop for the next 70 hours under
the bright lights of the underground surgical suite, performing many amputations to save the lives of soldiers. The soldiers, many with severe wounds, were very brave. They did not shout or cry. Some asked that their comrades be treated first — “I can wait, only a few [pieces of] shrapnel…” All present admired their wonderful spirit… soldiers of Israel. Quite a few defied doctor’s orders and after receiving treatment rushed off to rejoin their comrades on the front. Hardly a day had passed and Shaare Zedek had already received over 150 wounded. Jordanian prisoners were treated, too, as was eleven-year-old Hadiya Abu Gardia, an Arab girl found with a wound in her neck. She was found by the IDF in the Deir Abu Tor Quarter of Jerusalem and was brought to Shaare Zedek. She suffered cardiac arrest on the operating
table but survived. With the fighting only a few kilometres away, some shells fell very near the hospital. The Shaare Zedek campus sustained three direct hits during the hostilities, including one that struck the roof to the left of the main entrance, just above a nursery ward with eighteen babies. Miraculously, the shell did not explode, and no one was hurt. Doctors, nurses, and volunteers at Shaare Zedek worked around the clock for the duration of the war, performing more than 200 operations and saving many lives among the 450 wounded soldiers and civilians they treated in just 70 hours Finally, in what might certainly be taken as a sign from Above, after the war ended, a very curious thing happened on the Shabbat that immediately followed. The number of births — which averaged three a day at Shaare Zedek at that time — shot up to 24, nearly one an hour during a single Shabbat! Perhaps more incredible is the fact that this year some 60 babies, on average, are born each day at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, including its Bikur Cholim City Center Campus. That’s well over 22,000 births a year. Dr. Allan Garfield, chairman of the Australian Friends of Shaare Zedek notes, “The dedication, professionalism and lifesaving skills that were displayed by Shaare Zedek staff during the Six Day War permeate every aspect of the hospital’s functioning even today. We pray that in future, the hospital only has to serve its citizens in times of peace.” www.shaarezedek.org.au facebook.com/shaarezedek
I N V I T E S YO U TO A N E V E N I N G O F
THOUGHT PROVOKING SPEAKERS W I L L E N L I G H T E N + E N T E R TA I N Y O U
W W W. J C A . O R G . AU
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10 ways Israel’s water expertise is helping the world WWW.ISRAEL21C.ORG ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN Using ingenuity to overcome its serious water challenges, Israel has become the go-to expert for a world facing an impending water crisis. This year’s WATEC expo and conference, to be held in September in Tel Aviv, is expected to attract 10,000 stakeholders from 90 countries seeking Israeli solutions for water issues. Israel exports $2.2 billion annually in water technology and expertise. In addition, these commodities are shared on a humanitarian basis through training courses, consultations and projects. Keren Kayemeth L’Israel-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) often hosts delegations from around the world – most recently, from California, Argentina and the European Policy Center – to see how Israel’s system of treatment facilities and 230 reservoirs has achieved the world’s highest ratio of wastewater reuse. About 92% of Israeli wastewater gets treated and 75% is used for agricultural irrigation. Israel plans to recycle 95% of its wastewater for irrigation by the end of 2025. “During the 1980s, recycling wastewater was a revolutionary concept and many people were skeptical. Today, nearly half of the irrigation in Israel comes from recycled wastewater,” says KKL-JNF Development Project Director Yossi Schreiber. Large Israeli water-tech companies such as Mekorot, Arad Technologies, Tahal Group, Plasson Industries and Ham-let – plus many smaller Israeli firms – are planning and building agricultural and municipal water infrastructure in countries including Angola, Ghana, Serbia, China, Spain and the United States. On World Water Day, which was celebrated on March 22nd, ISRAEL21c salutes the Israeli governmental and non-governmental organizations that share advanced homegrown water technologies for irrigation, purification, filtering, desalination, conservation, monitoring and recycling. Here are 10 recent examples. 1. The nonprofit group Innovation: Africa won a UN award for transforming lives in seven African countries using Israeli technologies such as Netafim irrigation systems enabling farmers to grow more crops with less water; and solar energy systems that pump water from aquifers, saving villagers (mostly women and children) countless hours previously spent finding and fetching water. 2. IsraAID launched its WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) project about four years ago to tailor-make solutions for communities from Fiji to Haiti to Myanmar. In the rain-dependent South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, a March 2014 cyclone contaminated reservoirs and destroyed water harvesting systems. Among other steps, IsraAID strategized the engineering of a low-tech gravity system, built and maintained by locals, to bring water from mountain springs down into two villages encompassing more than 600 people and one school. IsraAID is working with the World Bank to construct three more gravity systems.
Top Photo: During an installation of a solar water pumping system at Nyanza Village, Uganda, Innovation: Africa’s engineer and project manager celebrate as clean water flows. Photo: courtesy. Bottom: IsraAID water expert Ben Gido, center, demonstrating an Israeli ultrafiltration unit to the Water Authority of Fiji. Photo: courtesy In Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp and Uganda’s Gulu township, which struggle with waterborne disease and water contamination, IsraAID trains unemployed or underemployed people to be water technicians. Graduates work with local NGOs or water companies, or start their own businesses, to contribute their new expertise in anything from drilling wells and building latrines to teaching hygiene. 3. A massive landslide in September 2015 damaged a major irrigation canal partially built by Israeli NGO Tevel b’Tzedek in an impoverished Nepali village. Tevel staff repaired the damage with funding from the Rochlin Foundation and Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, and worked with the local water council to strengthen the
canal walls, reestablishing and assuring water supply to 224 households (about 1,300 people) and subsistence farmers. Also in Nepal, Tevel is fighting the effects of flash floods – which deplete water available for drinking and irrigation — by building irrigation pools and setting up zero water waste systems enabling villagers to conserve water through Israeli methods, including drip irrigation learned by Tevel’s native Nepal director at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Tevel also is teaching village farmers less water-intensive professions, such as beekeeping. 4. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has partnered with Caesarea-based G.A.L. Water Technologies (gal-water.com) to provide free
water-treatment products to African nations for more than 20 years. In 2016, MFA donated G.A.L. mobile water purification, storage and distribution vehicles to drought-stricken Papua New Guinea and to the Pacific Marshall Islands. 5. Earlier this month, the MFA’s MASHAVIsraeli Agency for International Development Cooperation established the Kenya Israel Drought Resilience Agriculture Center to help in capacity building with the latest Israeli irrigation and water-resources management knowhow. 6. MASHAV’s special envoy for water and food security went to Swaziland last week with the director of overseas training, programs and research at MASHAV-affiliated Center for International Agricultural Development Cooperation to conduct a water survey by request of Swaziland’s prime minister. The experts are identifying possible areas of cooperation in combatting drought and a shortage of water for agriculture. 7. Following a May 2016 earthquake in Ecuador, IsraAID brought a new Israeli water-purification technology from NUFiltration to several affected villages. Instead of having to buy bottled drinking water, residents can use the NUF system to turn washing water into purified drinking water without electricity. NUF was first piloted by the company in Ghana as a humanitarian project to prevent diseases from contaminated water. 8. The Tel Aviv University chapter of Engineers without Borders designed and built a rainwater collection and purification system in a Tanzanian village where the drinking water had dangerously high amounts of fluoride. Since the project was finished in 2014, it has been supplying safe drinking water to more than 400 children daily. 9. The Technion Engineers without Borders chapter designed and implemented a safe drinking-water system serving more than 600 Ethiopian schoolchildren in a rural village with no reliable source of water for drinking and handwashing. The Israelis taught the older children how to maintain the system and treat the water, and continue to provide support to assure a safe and sustainable water supply. 10. In June 2015, the Israeli Ministry of Economy committed $500,000 to the World Bank Group’s Water Global Practice to help developing countries overcome complex water security challenges. The agreement has included two years of study tours and other activities for World Bank staff and officials of various governments. “Israel has had to manage water services while operating under extreme scarcity conditions, and has done so very impressively,” said Jennifer Sara, director for water at the World Bank, at the agreement signing in Washington. “Its innovative practices are globally recognized — both from technological and institutional perspectives — and will undoubtedly carry lessons for many of the World Bank Group’s clients facing water security challenges.”
Dayanu RABBI GAD KREBS People often form a jaundiced view of society as a result of lacking historical context. Our local media focuses on infidelity, corruption and partisan politics. The financiers prophesize of an impending doomsday. Abroad we fear war with North Korea and a fractured American political system. Europe, once the centre of the civilized world, has become a greenhouse of fundamentalist ideologues; nationalists on the right and radicals on the left. Israel is under constant attack; missiles from Gaza, stabbing in Tel Aviv and condemnation
in the United Nations. Israel is becoming more irreligious and more Charedi- at the same time. One is left in a state of despair. That being said Harvard Psychologist and best-selling Author, Steven Pinker writes in his book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, that contrary to the impressions given in the news—that we’re living in a time of epidemics and war and crime—the curves show that humanity is getting better. We’re living longer, we’re fighting fewer wars, and fewer people are being killed in the wars. Violence against women is down. More children are going to school, girls included. More of the world is literate. We have more leisure time than our ancestors did. Diseases are being decimated. Famines are becoming rarer, so virtually anything that you could measure that you’d want to call human well-being has improved over the last
two centuries, but also over the last couple of decades.” Our wholesale ingestion and digestion of news, has made us to lose touch with reality. The world is a better place than it’s ever been; even Israel. According to the Midrash when Hashem split the sea the Israelites complained bitterly to Moshe that there was mud under foot. When you are immersed in a story you miss the bigger story. But a step backwards can allow you to appreciate the great gift that is Israel. If He had just allowed the Jewish people to survive the evil of Hitler - Dayeinu If He had brought them to Israel but not created a state- Dayeinu If He has created a state but not allowed ingathered the exiles -Dayeinu If He allowed the state to prosper but not allowed Judaism to flourish-Dayeinu
If He had allowed Judaism to flourish but not brought peace in the region - Dayeinu We are only 70 years into the song of Israel’s “dayeinu”. When we complain of the “mud underfoot” we miss the great accomplishments, contributions and miracles that are the modern state of Israel. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks commented that the difference between optimism and hope is that optimism is the belief that things will get better whereas hope is the belief that, together, we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope an active one. It takes courage to have hope. “Knowing what we do of our past, no Jew can be an optimist. But Jews have never – despite a history of sometimes awesome suffering – given up hope” With hope we will build the next verse in Dayeinu.
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How Facebook and Social Media Promote Terrorism WWW.GATESTONEINSTITUTE.ORG UZI SHAYA The nature of Islamic terrorism throughout the world has changed in recent years. Alongside the established and organized groups -- such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and even ISIS -- a new and different type terror has been created, one that is nourished ideologically, spiritually, and intellectually by these groups, yet shows no connection -- organizationally or operationally -- to them. This terror is defined by what we refer to as “lone wolves.” These are individuals whose nationalistic motives, religious incitement or psychological needs propel them to commit acts of terror without being a member of an organized group or cell. The one unifying aspect for all these lone wolves is social media. Social media networks enable any individual to have his voice and his opinions heard so that his proclamations can resonate with audiences that are far-reaching. Unfortunately, the existing freedoms on social media have been manipulated by terrorist groups to create a threat that poses a clear and present danger to citizens around the world. Terrorist groups around the world have recognized the potential of social media and these networks have become an essential component -- in fact, an unhindered course of action -- in allowing the global terrorist networks greatly to expand the operations of terror groups and their supporters worldwide, and affect billions of people around the world. These operations and activities include disseminating “open messages,” the recruitment of new members and supporters, but most importantly to advertise and promote the essence of their terror movement and the glorified aftermath of attacks that they
have perpetrated. In the process, the terrorist groups can reach a potential army of a million possible soldiers without any direct connection to them. This is how lone wolves are born. Under the guise of protecting free speech, the social media conglomerates have not risen to the challenge of stemming the use of their networks and platforms by terrorist entities and have, instead, turned a blind eye to the growing and menacing phenomenon. Equally harmfully, under illusion of virtue-signaling and “political correctness” to show they are not “racist,” they have been censoring material that warns the public about these current dangers. As a direct result of several high-profile terrorist attacks and the outcry from victims, along with an increased global profile of ISIS and subsequent legal action brought against these
companies, social media networks have only marginally addressed the issue of limiting terrorist recruitment and incitement on their platforms. Sadly, it must be noted that these efforts are neither timely nor aggressive enough to stop the use of these platforms to promote terror, and stem solely as preemptive efforts to stop public outcry and legal action. The social media networks have the ability and the means dramatically to limit the manipulation of their services by terrorist groups, but they do not exercise this control. Instead, they rely on users to report any unsavory activity. The social media networks continue to permit terrorist groups to use their services openly and brazenly to promote their groups and their hate-filled doctrines. The propaganda arms of many terrorist organizations continue to use the social media networks,
primarily Facebook, to spread their messages to ever expanding audiences. Organizations and individuals who are designated as terrorists on U.S. and international watch-lists are able flagrantly to open social media accounts even though virtually all the social media companies are headquartered in the United States. The conclusion is that the social media companies are adopting an adversarial caseby-case approach to enforcing a ban on terror incitement on their platforms. Beyond the rhetoric and the pleas for action, the social media applications have not -- and it appears will not -- self-enforce common-sense restrictions prohibiting terrorist groups from disseminating their radical messages and criminal exploits online, and they continue to shirk their own responsibility for these posts. The failure by the social media networks to enforce the prevention of terror-related content on their sites is, in fact, a direct violation of the Antiterrorism Act and the Material Supply Statutes; the general public is also in its right to have the protections of the Community Decency Act of 1996 cover content on social media. It goes without saying that the laws along with their subsequent enforcement must adopt to this fairly new mass communications and mass media reality to force these platforms to assume complete responsibility or else be regulated by the government as if they were a utility, so that this unmitigated threat to the safety of millions of people around the world can be stopped. Uzi Shaya is a former senior officer in the Israeli Intelligence community; former head of financial warfare operations in the Israeli intelligence community and an expert in social media warfare.
Yisrael Aumann on Gaming Israel’s Future ISRAELSEEN.COM STEVE
Yisrael Aumann is an Israeli-American mathematician and a professor at the Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Aumann received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2005 for his work on conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis, sharing the prize with Thomas Schelling. In this interview with Fathom Deputy Editor Calev Ben-Dor he discusses how Game Theory can help Israel’s negotiating position, while insisting that Israel must preserve its sense of the sacred if it is to survive in the long-term. Calev Ben-Dor: In 1948 you were enrolled at City College in New York. What are your memories of the establishment of the State of Israel? Yisrael Aumann: I remember I was standing on a street corner in New York City when I heard the partition decision by the UN on 29 November 1947. I was very moved by it and it was around that time that I made the decision to move to Israel and make my life there. Like many Orthodox Jews, we had previously not been supportive of Zionism, associating it with the absence of Jewish observance. But that changed after the Second World War when the spirit of the creation of the state caught us and I became determined to move to Israel. My brother made Aliyah in 1950 and I in 1956. CB-D: Before the Six-Day War, you were living in Israel as a husband and father, with war looming. You have summed up your thinking at that time in these terms: ‘Nobody knew what was going to happen and people were very worried, and I, too, was very worried. I had a wife and three children and we all had American papers. So I said to myself don’t make the mistake your father made by staying in Germany [in
the 1930s]. Pick yourself up, get on a plane and leave, and save your skin and that of your family; because there is a very good chance that Israel will be destroyed and the inhabitants of Israel will be wiped out totally, in the next two or three weeks. I made a conscious decision not to do that. I said, ‘I am staying…’ As someone who has spent much of your life discussing rational action and decision making, can you expand on what your thoughts were then and why you made the decision you did? YA: Well, one consideration was that we may be killed. The entire country was preparing for war, and we placed sandbags by our apartment. It took some deliberation and doubts, yet ultimately the reason we decided to stay is that this wasn’t like Germany – it’s our country. The attitude was: if we don’t stay and defend it who will? Israel won the war, but it could have gone very differently. Later that summer I went to the US and worked for RAND Corporation, and the people there told me, ‘Robert, we were never worried about you. We knew you guys would come out on top’. I said: ‘If I
would have been sitting in Santa Monica and you would have been sitting in Jerusalem, I wouldn’t have worried about you either.’ But it really could have gone differently. CB-D: Let’s jump to 2005 when you and Thomas Shelling received the Nobel Prize for Economics in recognition of ‘having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis,’ i.e. your mathematical studies of how individuals and governments react to other people’s actions including in war. You are only one of a few Israelis to have won the Nobel Prize – especially if you take away the politicians. In addition to the personal achievement, to what extent do you also view this award through a national (or religious) lens? YA: I was actually very moved by the Israeli angle. I remember staying at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, which is the place where all the laureates stay. Someone told me one morning, ‘as you go out of the hotel look up at the roof’. And on the roof they were flying seven flags, the Swedish flag and the six flags of the nationalities of the laureates that
year, and right next to the Swedish flag was the Israeli flag. For me, that was moving. CB-D: Your academic expertise is in game theory. Can you explain how this work relates to negotiations Israel has conducted? In your view, what has Israel been doing wrong in its negotiation stance? YA: If Israel wants to live in peace with its neighbours, it’s actually doing everything wrong from the point of view of game theory! A very large component of game theory is about giving people incentives to do what you want them to do. So how does this work with peace? Well, study the ‘world champions of peace,’ Switzerland. The Swiss have been at peace for close to 450 years. A year ago I was vacationing in Switzerland with my grandson and saw military jet planes overhead. My grandson asked me: ‘Why do the Swiss need fighter planes if they’ve been at peace for so long?’ I responded that that’s exactly why! They have peace because they are strong. The runners-up to the Swiss are the Romans, who had a Pax Romana which lasted for about 230 years and who had a maxim: ‘If you want peace, prepare for war.’ Yet while Israel does prepare for war, it’s not getting peace. That’s because while we may be preparing for war in hardware – investing in the tools of war such as tanks, missiles, ground forces and drones, we are failing to prepare for war in software – deep down in our hearts. To fully follow the Roman axiom, a country has to feel deep down that it is ready to fight. But our heart isn’t fully in it. Deep down Israeli society has to be able to say ‘we want peace. But if you want war, let’s go for it’. Only then does one ultimately not have to go to war. But if a country constantly sends doves into the air and says how tired it is of war, and how deeply it seeks peace, the other side picks up on it. It’s not just that we don’t broadcast the right messages. But
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Israel Praises US for ‘Record Breaking’ Missile Defense Aid UNITEDWITHISRAEL.ORG AP AND UNITED WITH ISRAEL STAFF Israel’s defense minister has thanked the US for including a “record-breaking” $705 million to aid the country’s missile defense in the spending bill passed last week. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Monday that the aid will be used for the development of Israel’s air defense system. “Our enemies will be surprised by the capabilities we have developed,” Liberman said. The Arrow 2 and Arrow 3, the highly successful Iron Dome system and David’s Sling are all part of Israel’s multi-layered defense system. They provide an almost hermetic defense against a wide array of ballistic projectiles, with eyes on the Iranian ballistic threat and those posed
by the Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. The US provides $3.1 billion in military aid to Israel each year under a 10-year security arrangement. The $705 million is a separate allocation and is up from the $600 million provided for missile defense last year. US President Donald Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill on Friday that provides billions in new funding for the military and national security. The bill includes $47.5 million for joint anti-terror tunneling technologies – a $5 million increase from last year. The bill was also the vehicle for Congress to pass the Taylor Force Act on Friday, legislation that cuts funding to the Palestinian Authority if it continues paying terrorists and their families – a practice that incites terrorism.
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Yisrael Aumann ... FROM PAGE 25 inside of us we don’t feel that we are ready to fight. For example, take our current negotiation positions. Our claims to this land are not based on our history in the coastal area but rather in Judea and Samaria. Yet for 50 years, this area has been under military rule. When you say such areas are under a military (rather than a civilian government), you’re ultimately saying it’s not yours and that long-term you don’t belong there. If we don’t belong in places like Gush Etzion and Ariel then we don’t belong in Tel Aviv either. The fact we have had a military government [in the West Bank] for 50 years is really excessive and is what keeps the other side going. If we don’t feel we belong in these places then we should get out. It doesn’t advance the cause of peace or understanding when you don’t say what you want. CB-D: There is a scenario you use – two people in the room who need to agree on dividing £10,000, yes? YA: Yes, I tell that story a lot but it’s often misunderstood. Imagine that two people are given £10,000 to divide between them, but only if they both agree. The first person, the ‘rational one’ says let’s divide equally while the other demands £9,000 or threatens to walk out (and they’ll both receive zero). The first will most likely knuckle under, as he’d rather have £1,000 than nothing. So it turns out the seeming ‘irrational’ one comes out on top. The response of the first one should be ‘I want £5,000 or I’m walking out. Now you decide’. Game theory understands this as a battle of the wills, and it is essential that each player convince the other that he is serious, that he’s willing to walk out unless his demands are met. Yet, in order to convince the other side that you are serious, you have to first internalise it and believe it yourself – otherwise convincing the other person will be impossible. It’s not a theatre; you can’t do make-belief. For the first person to be successful in the story, he has to deeply believe that he is not walking out of that room with less than £5,000. If he’s going to be ‘rational’ about it then he’ll lose out. How does this work in the real world? 30 years ago an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) senior general came to discuss the negotiations between Israel and Syria with me, and said ‘the Syrians will never give up one inch of land because they see the land as holy’. So I told him this story and explained that the Syrians have managed to convince themselves that they cannot
give up any part of the land because it is holy and that is why they have succeeded in convincing you. That’s the point of the £10,000 story. That you first need to convince yourself of your red lines. The danger for Israelis is that nothing is sacred. We have no built-in redlines. Yet unless a country has red-lines – something that under no circumstances it is prepared to cross – it will be unable to convince the other side of its seriousness. And that is why we can’t get through to the other side that we think we belong here. CB-D: In 2006, at a conference for Bnei Akiva, a youth movement connected with the national religious, you said that Israel was ‘in deep trouble,’ adding that ‘perhaps only national religious Jews… can salvage the situation.’ You also said, ‘I fear the Satmars (an ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist movement which opposed Zionism because it was primarily secular) were right. As God was not involved in the building of the home, the Zionists’ work is in vain.’ What did you mean? And as Israel approaches its 70th birthday do you still feel that way? YA: The original leaders of the Zionist movement such as David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann were secular but came from a religious background and felt attached to the Jewish people. But their mistake was to believe that it was enough to pass on a feeling of Jewish nationality without religion. But it turns out that they were wrong. To a large extent, many Israelis who don’t have the same background don’t really feel that a deep connection to this country. They feel Israeli and want to live here, but often not at the cost of being killed. But the only way for Israel to survive is if one feels really strongly about it, which more often than not comes from a religious background. This doesn’t sound right or logical, but these things are not logical. The statement, ‘As God was not involved in the building of the home, the Zionists’ work is in vain’ is based on a verse from Psalms Chapter 127 which says ‘unless God is involved in the building of a project, it will ultimately be for nought’. In other words, unless there is something sacred in the venture, things will collapse. When I said the Satmar movement was right, I didn’t mean I shared their antiZionism, but rather their analysis that Zionism as a primarily secular movement wouldn’t have a future.
Israeli Breakfast INNA MERKIN Yom Ha’atzmaut means the Day of Independence and it is a celebration of when Israel declared its independence in 1948! If you have event been to Israel, you will know that with every meal they serve the most amazing breakfast. So to commemorate Israel’s Day of Independence I always have an Israeli breakfast. Its so easy and delicious to make that everyone in my family enjoys it. So here is my version of an Israeli breakfast, maybe you can try making it for your family. Ingredients: Hummus Bread 4 eggs 3 tomatoes 2 cucumbers
1 red onion 2tbsp olive oil Salt Pepper 50g Fetta/goats cheese cubed Olives Chilli Method: First to make the green Israeli salad cut up the cucumbers, tomatoes and red onion and mix together in a bowl. Add the olive oil, salt and pepper to your liking. Then make eggs the way that you love best, me I prefer fried, so I fry my eggs and I start to lay out my breakfast buffet. Place the fetta/ goats cheese in a serving dish, the salad, the olives and then the eggs with a side of slice of toast. How you display it is up to you, I promise it won’t change the taste of the food and then enjoy!
A year of wonderful birthday celebrations Israel is celebrating 70 years The Sydney Jewish Museum is celebrating 25 years The Museum Board, staff and volunteers send best wishes for Israel’s milestone birthday. Mazal Tov.
Care as individual as you At Montefiore, we believe that we must look after each other as we age. As one of Australia’s leading aged care specialists, we are committed to delivering quality care that helps everyone live a fulfilled life with choice, dignity and wellbeing. That’s the Montefiore experience.
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Waterfall by Crown Group part of a natural living revolution CROWN GROUP A highly anticipated new residential development in Waterloo has been launced. This is part of a natural living revolution close to the heart of Sydney. The $395 million Waterfall by Crown Group which features lush, tropical landscaping and beautiful water gardens plus a unique seven-storey waterfall, Australia’s largest man-made waterfall ties in with the growing awareness of health benefits of nature and plants within and around the home. Recent research from scientists at RMIT University and the University of Melbourne shows plants are beneficial for improvement of air quality, health and happiness. Leading Australian property developer Crown Group embraces the concept of bring natural living back to the heart of Sydney, with its highlyanticipated Waterfall by Crown Group being part of a natural living revolution. Waterfall by Crown Group also features 331 apartments a tranquil recreational deck, an infinity rooftop pool and a secluded bamboocovered walkway. Residents will also enjoy a state-of-the-art cantilevered gym, a rooftop cinema, function room with a catering kitchen, music room, and onsite retail. A new public park adjoins the development, adding to the health benefits of the development as a whole. Crown Group’s Director of Sales Prisca Edwards said Waterfall by Crown Group was inspired by the power of nature and its natural elements make it unique. “We are so proud to bring a ‘natural living revolution’ to Waterloo, which is close to the heart of Sydney,” Mrs. Edwards said. “With this design, we are breaking with tradition. The greenery plants and natural
elements bring this development to a whole new level and create a luxurious, balanced environment for residents to relax and recharge,” she added. The research which analyses 101 scientific articles and research reports, highlights two major benefits of having plants at home or a workplace; Firstly, plants help to improve air quality. According to RMIT, it is reported that plants can abort and remove air-borne toxins created by paints, furniture finishes and air pollution, such as particulate matter, inorganic compounds such as carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). By adding one or two plants, air quality starts to be increased significantly at your home. For instance, one plant helps to improve the air by 25%, and a few more can do even more. Secondly, plants can improve human
wellbeing by creating feelings of relaxation, positivity, and inspiration. Both direct and indirect mental health benefits of having indoor plants were investigated by RMIT. Results shows clearly that wellbeing can increase significantly by adding more variety of sizes and species to your home. Having plants in your place can bring direct mental health benefits, including improved mood and concentration, as well as indirect benefits, including productivity and positive social behaviour. The key is “complexity”. That is to say, the greater the mix of sizes and species, the greater the benefits. Wellbeing can be increased more quickly by adding a number of different plants compared with just one or two plants. The more plants, the more relaxed, inspired and positive you feel. The size of the plants also matters. Generally, bigger leaves and bigger pots
have better ability to improve air quality in your home. As for outdoor spaces, a good array of plants can also improve air quality and wellbeing significantly. A famous NASA experiment in 1989 also pointed out plants can purify the air. Plants help to provide cleaner air, lower risk of illness, boost mood, and enhance concentration and memory. This research shows having plants in outdoor areas of an apartment development could boost residents’ overall health and happiness, said Mrs. Edwards. “Plants have the enormous power to improve air quality, human wellbeing and happiness. Waterfall by Crown Group is set to provide a ‘natural living’ to its residents, to move people, to inspire people and to affect their surroundings for many decades,” Mrs. Edwards said. “At Waterfall by Crown Group natural living could not be easier,” she said. Under construction at 18 O’Dea Avenue Waterloo, Waterfall by Crown Group comprises three seven-storey buildings and an iconic 20-storey sculptural tower including studios, one, two and three bedroom apartments, courtyard apartments and double-storey penthouses. Interiors offer fresh, natural modern luxury, utilising stone, timber and subtle hues. The construction of Waterfall by Crown Group is scheduled for completion in 2019. A premium range of apartments is now available for sale ranging from $702,000 to $1,495,000. For more information please visit www.crowngroup.com.au or call 1800 827 696.
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Haunting and Poignant 1945 (M) ALEX FIRST A superbly rendered tale of loss and guilt, the black and white cinematography (Elemér Ragályi serves as director of photography) and melancholy score (Tibor Szemző is responsible for the music) are among the highlights. On a summer day in 1945 an Orthodox man and his grown son return to a village in Hungary while the villagers prepare for the wedding of the town clerk’s son to a peasant girl. The townsfolk – suspicious, remorseful, fearful and cunning – expect the worst and behave accordingly. The town clerk István fears the men may be heirs of the village’s Jews and expects them to demand their illegally acquired property back. Director Ferenc Török, who also co-wrote the piece with Gábor T. Szántó, based upon Szántó’s short story Homecoming, paints a complex picture of a community trying to come to terms with the recent horrors they’ve experienced, perpetrated or just tolerated for personal gain. The director determined quite rightly that less is more when it came to his representation of the two Jews who arrive at the train station on a mission and throw the villagers into apoplexy.
By that I mean they say very little, rather remain dignified and stoic throughout. Around them there is chaos, centred around the town clerk who is arrogant and bombastic, and who is out to protect his ill gotten gain. Péter Rudolf does a mighty fine job in his portrayal of the villain of the piece. We know that something is about to give. It is just a matter of when. There is a dark cloud that hangs over proceedings.
Fun, Funny and Mischievous PETER RABBIT (PG) ALEX FIRST Old Mr McGregor (Sam Neill – Hunt for the Wilderpeople) can’t stand the thought of pesky rodents invading his precious vegetable garden and stealing his produce. He is always on the ready to take drastic action. But Peter Rabbit (the voice of James Corden – The Lady in the Van) has always thought the garden was fair game and takes great pride and pleasure in outsmarting Old Mr McGregor. All that changes though – at first for the better and then for the worse – when Old Mr McGregor kicks the bucket (a victory Peter is all too happy to claim for himself). Initially the garden becomes Peter and his family and friends free for all, but then Old Mr McGregor’s great nephew Thomas McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) arrives, having inherited the place. Thomas is not about to stand for Peter’s antics any more than Old Mr McGregor did, but in Thomas’ case his arsenal is far more dangerous. Of course, the delightful rabbit-loving Bea (Rose Byrne – Bad Neighbours) is always on the rabbits’ side, but the question is will her support be enough? I walked in with low expectations about what Beatrix Potter’s beloved tales would look like on the big screen and exited the cinema elated and proud to be an Australian because so much Aussie talent was involved
in this production. This is not the relatively genial version of Peter Rabbit I was anticipating and nor is it merely a kids’ film. Rather, it is a very cleverly conceived and executed family comedy that has something for all generations. It is fun, funny and mischievous. The seamless integration of live action with animation is as good as I have seen. You swear that Peter Rabbit and his family are alive. I love the fact that Peter is a deeply flawed hero, who regularly mucks up. The physical humour – the knocks and falls and scrapes – that abounds reminded me of Home Alone. Above all what impressed me was the irreverence of the storytelling. This is a film that doesn’t signal its punches, as so many do. It surprises and delights in spades. An example of that is a rooster incredulous at the repeated breaking of dawn. That is but one of a number of ongoing sight gags that work a treat. The voice talent is tremendous and Rose Byrne and Domhnall Gleeson (Brooklyn) are well cast as the leads. Co-writer and director Will Gluck (Friends With Benefits) has given Peter Rabbit an outrageous and endearing “X” factor that elevates it far above the ordinary, so much so that it is a picture that you can readily see more than once. I already have. Rated PG, it scores an 8½ out of 10.
new characters. There is something deeply tragic about the events that unfold and all of it goes back to a lack of backbone and taking advantage of a dramatic situation that happened earlier – which we don’t see – but which has left a lasting impression. So, too does the film itself, which is something very special and is handled with sensitivity and aplomb. Rated M, 1945 scores an 8 out of 10.
The black and white rendering, the shadows, give the film an edge which may not have been achieved had it been shot in colour. It is clear that this is a town living a lie, holding onto a dark secret. Török has done a fine job translating the short story, which was a 10-page novella. It presented situations with no dialogue by way of a ballad and he and Szántó managed to maintain that feel while creating
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THE SLEEP COACH CHERYL FINGLESON Good health is almost impossible to achieve unless we are well rested. So why is sleep so important and how can we get more of it? The Sleep Coach, Cheryl Fingleson has the answers We all ignore the tell tale signs - shadows under our eyes, excessive yawning, that craving for a sugar treat to wake us up - but having too little sleep is a common habit for many of us. Yet sleep is so important. Having too little (and sometimes too much) affects our physical well-being, mental health, weight, memory and even how long we live. But for many children and adults, the sleep habits we carry through our lives are not always good ones. So what are some of the wonderful things that a good night’s sleep can do for us? Sleep improves memory Scientists have discovered that sleep - in particular deep, REM sleep - protects new memories which helps you learn new things. And of course sleeping well makes us more alert so that we function more effectively. Sleep helps us live longer A body’s organs replenish themselves when they are at rest: blood pressure lowers and the body heals. It truly is a wonder drug. Sleep helps fight illness Sleep plays an important role in reducing inflammation which is linked to stroke, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and other diseases. Lack of sleep leads to increased levels of cortisol and adrenaline - the stress hormones. Sleep helps with weight control When we don’t sleep, we eat more, it’s that simple. The hormones that stimulate and suppress appetite - ghrelin and leptin - are disrupted when we don’t get enough sleep. Sleep helps relationships Studies show that couples who sleep more are happier, relationships and sex life improves, by simply getting your zzz’s. You will be amazed how quickly other aspects
of every day life become easier to negotiate. Sleep deprivation can mean you’re more likely to argue and less likely to respond with humour. Sleep can get you promoted! Without sleep we are less innovative, less able to process information, more distracted and more likely to take risks and make mistakes. So working late and skipping sleep to finish that project isn’t such a good idea. Sleep training for adults and children Thankfully, as I’ve proved with young and old in my job as a sleep consultant, change is possible. In fact, the same advice I give to parents struggling with children who sleep poorly, also applies to adults: 1. Make your bedroom an oasis: no TVs, no bright lights at night, no devices, have a cool room and bedding to promote good sleep. 2. Have a wind down routine that is the same, which act as a trigger for our sleep hormone melatonin to be released in our body at the same time every night. Perhaps this means having a shower then reading a book or doing some gentle yoga or meditation. 3. Get up at the same time every morning. Babies and children need routine and so do you! 4. Don’t panic. It’s perfectly normal for adults to take around 20-45 minutes to fall asleep. It’s also very common to have periods of sleeplessness, often during times of stress or upheaval. While it’s important to have a good sleep routine throughout your life, starting when you’re a child, and continuing through adolescences and adulthood, it is never too late to reshape bad habits. Your body will thank you for it. Cheryl ZZZ For more sleep tips and advice, please visit www.thesleepcoach.com.au Or why not like our facebook page? www. facebook.com/thesleepcoach Cheryl Fingleson is a paediatric sleep consultant. As a mother of two, she very well knows the feelings of agony and desperation when you have a child that struggles to settle and sleep. She doesn’t believe in leaving babies or children to cry it out, nor in the practices of controlled crying. Her approach is to empower parents with the right tools and techniques to teach their babies and children to go to sleep calmly, happily and independently.
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CANDLES Friday, April 13, 2018
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SO EXPLOSIVE
AARON DAVID MILLER
is above all a matter of faith, of belief and of religion. The notion that the three Abrahamic faiths -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism -share common values concerning peace, Even back in the days when you could still social justice and humanity may well be use the term “peace process” true. But that has never with a straight been the case when face, the odds of solving the Jerusalem issue it comes to this city. History is filled with were already pretty long. Then, I would have claims, conquests, crusades, occupations, put those odds a bit north massacres and violence of impossible and in the name of a little south ofI 14, 5774 Things hopeless. possessing Jerusalem, are even 2014 / Adar not sharing it. worse now. Friday, 14 February And nowhere has the religious complexity FREE VOL. 1 I remember day eight of the Jerusalem issue of the Camp David been clearer than summit in July 2000, when on the question of who discussion turned controls and what to Jerusalem. That day, will happen to the Haram it was clear to me al-Sharif (Noble that as far Camp David Enclosure) and Har was concerned, it Habayit (Temple was game over. There Mount). That platform, were some intriguing situated within the moves on Israel’s part, walls of Jerusalem’s Old but nothing that could City, is in essence a have settled the issue. physical manifestation Indeed, Ehud Barak, of overlapping sacred but globally, too; and as Yasser Arafat and Bill the last few months space. Clinton could have but not always a result suggest, it is also fallen into the yawning of the perception a matter of security Atop activities gaps that separated sits the goldened Dome among Palestinians Tu B’Shevat of the Rock, fraught and framed now Israelis and Palestinians that including Israel is trying aNSW by an intimacy of Boardcentury Islamic seventh on this issue and to change the activities, shrine built by by the killing reflected in the never have been heard status of some slayings of Israeli and aspect of the Caliph Abd al-Malik from again. a project initiated Jerusalem. The and that houses the Palestinian teens this Fast forward a decade reason for this latest past summer and of round foundation and a half, and stone, a massive rock that figures of tensions, violence of Deputies. last week’s savage Palestinian being a part not much has changed. and ourselves on Jerusalem is still attack on a a perfect is prominently in Jewish and Islamic pride bloodletting report but synagogue in west Jerusalem. tradition. storm of We weAnd insoluble we it now seems factors that include on which news’ butand nearby there’s a site of the more explosive sense of isolationtheand communities even greater news is good then ever.inSoa what don’t pretend frustration on theandsignificance is it about Jerusalem/ that They say ‘no -- the al-Aqsa mosque part of the Palestinians be everywhere We believe PROXIMITY CAN BE started Yerushalayim/al-Quds we can’t of East Jerusalem by Caliph Abd lot DEADLY. that makes it so think differently. there is a al-Malik in the seventh who don’t have the know everything. Ben Franklin quipped that community potentiallyitcontentious to benefit of the social century.bravery, to the will proximity breeds and deadly? thriving Jewish services and economic Quran, it is reputed a story of dedication, According children, and contempt, Three things stand out: and that sharing If there’s advantages of towhich too. In this regard, be theinspires ascension point where Israelis in the west; Israel’s of good news; even further. the Prophet achievement, Jerusalem is unique in or to effort that it is one of the Mohammed expand also leadership our community inspire others. rose to heaven on his Jewish their communities and strengthen it will only places where Israelis growing Night IT’S A PERFECT STORM OF been chances are and Palestinians Jerusalem; in East Journey. a vibrant and Below you, presence COMPLEXITY. (the you’ve the platform are the remains Sydney has connected Hamas’ efforts to know. vast majority who aren’t Similarly, if Jerusalem us are is a microcosm of almost Arab citizens the flames; forgotten Let us incite and fan of both temples, which housed or Jewish but few of or all of Israel) mix and the grim the the community issues in the Israeli-Palestinian bureaucracy, every day and have realization relationships that over by the Ark of theIf Covenant there’s and the Holy almost future seems immediate packed conflict unrestricted of Holies. know. almost walked certain to be more access to one another. beyond our into While letofus The one small place that is participate. area is so the It is a the same. With marked stunning by the system, in which we by a big to a sector of sensitive to Jews that they the Israel-Gaza testament to the pragmatism be well war sub-groups were until or enjoined not campaign a over enable us history. It combines territory (who self-interest and the next round, ourto set foot on the Mount cause, throw internet a and and will the should of control West often Israelis and Palestinians Bank relatively out of fear that they could the news we areland in the east and west, not you think we -- as quiet, it’s Jerusalem be treading on that citizens’, well as the imbalance And if you community to mention that has emergedlet know. ground. the four quarters -of power -- that the as us sacred informed ‘global Jewish, city has remained the epicenter of unrest. what is happening or want to weight behind, unaware ofMuslim, Armenian, as quiet and functional down Christian -- of the It is quite completely some advice extraordinary that despite as old it has these many few Ithouses living a city). involves have a solution, years given such passions incidents community political identity (conflicting Telling of violence -- October important an to someone OVERLAPPING to bridge!). and politics. 1990, SACRED claims to the city as a your voice over the add SPACE. September 1996, September to change capital); it is driven by Things in Jerusalem would (never mind 2000 and of But it should be no us know. course one way letenough be bad (see below) involving surprise that given if stories isreligion and children what’s and debate, transpired in recent not just Jews, those shuls the perfect each other’s year --begins storm were driven weeks politics and passions Muslims and Christians new by attend different that the themselves thatmembers As the only Jerusalem area has not been a proximity as well as nationalist Report, in the Middle East, has often become scene of this. alike are opening a bloodywhen and political and strengthen flash point, often conflict. Sydney Jewish adults the and and But that inaugural enlighten was not to be. Jerusalemchapter of learning Continued on page In compiling of schools. create a newspaper 34 from this, our • Connect, Page 20
Except where expressly stated otherwise, content in The Sydney Jewish Report is provided as general informations only. The articles in this paper have been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content here are presented solely by the author, and The Jewish Report assumes no responsibility for them. It is not intended as advice and must not be relied upon as such. You should make your own inquiries and take independent advice tailored to your specific circumstances prior to making any decisions. We do not make any representation or warranty that any material in the papers will be reliable, accurate or complete, nor do we accept any responsibility arising in any way from errors or omissions. We will not be liable for loss resulting from any action or decision by you in reliance on the material in the papers. By reading the papers, you acknowledge that we are not responsible for, and accept no liability in relation to, any reader’s use of, access to or conduct in connection with the papers in any circumstance. Photographs submitted by individuals or organisations are assumed to be their property and are therefore not otherwise credited. All articles in this paper have received the expressed consent of the author to publish in this paper. The Jewish Report; ISSN 2204-4639 Publisher: The Jewish Report Pty Ltd (ACN 167302981) Comments or suggestions to: editor@thejewishreport.com Article submissions to: prepress@sydneyjewishreport.com Advertising: Stacey Potash e-mail: stacey@sydneyjewishreport.com, Phone no: 0416 353 086 Website: www.thejewishreport.com.au Printer: Spotpress Pty Ltd
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April 2018
Celebrating Israel
T
hese images from PrintIsrael.com highlight the diversity of nature and culture in this beautiful land.
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Wishing Israel a very happy
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