Canvas makes Australian financial history

Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations

This week’s issue of Ma Nishma comes to you a day early because School is closed tomorrow for Shavuot, also known as the festival of weeks. It comes exactly 49 days (seven weeks) after the second night of Pesach, commemorating the revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai to the Jewish people. It also celebrates the grain harvest of early summer in Israel and traditionally many of us prepare and eat dairy foods such as cheesecake and/or cheese blintzes, as a reminder of the sweetness of Torah. There is still time to post your pictures on Instagram and share your recipes for Let’s all ‘Say Cheese for Shavuot’ for the Australian Jewish News.

Fabulous news

A stem cell match has been confirmed for Murray Foltyn, the 41-year-old Sydney father who is battling a rare blood cancer. The father-of-two is expected to receive his stem cell transplant in early June. “We are so relieved to be able to share that a match has been confirmed for Murray, and the process of getting the donor’s stem cells to Australia is well underway,” his wife, Claudia Milunsky, shared on social media last week.

Murray Foltyn and family

Milunsky said the match had been identified, additional testing was complete and the stem cells have been harvested. “The long road ahead continues. But at least now, the key elements are all in place to be able to do a stem cell transplant for Murray. We couldn’t be more grateful for the entire worldwide community who helped us get to this point. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!” After the search for a match was made public in February, thousands mobilised in Australia and worldwide to get tested, with regular call-outs for help from with-in our own School community. Testing sessions were held in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Two thousand people attended a testing event in North London, the UK Jewish Telegraph reported. We wish Murray all the best for his upcoming stem cell transplant and a speedy recovery.

Canvas makes Australian financial history

Tim Moddel, David Lavecky and Daniel Lavecky

David Lavecky is parent of Year 1 student Elisa and her sister Iliana, Year 5. Tim Moddel (Class of 2001) and David’s brother Daniel (who, along with David, are co-founders of the start-up, Canvas), made Australian financial history by facilitating the country’s first Foreign Exchange (FX) transaction using a real digital dollar. Canvas was chosen as part of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s pilot for a Digital Dollar – the eAUD. David says: “We were selected to highlight the benefits of using the eAUD in FX transactions and international remittances. Other noteworthy participants include ANZ, CBA, and MasterCard. The ground-breaking transaction was successfully executed on our platform between two financial institutions trading the eAUD and the USDC last Wednesday, 17 May”.

For a more in-depth understanding of this landmark achievement, you can find the full story in this article.

Putting the Pieces Together

It is just over a week until the 2023 Communal Event on Sunday 28 May 2023, where you will hear alumna Dr Rebecca Kummerfeld showcase the work of the Museum alongside all 25 member organisations of the JCA. Get your ticket today.

Community Art Exhibition
Sunday 28 May – Sunday 4 June 2023

Readers are invited to a showcase of Jewish Artists at the B’nai B’rith Centre, 17 Barker Street Kensington, where more than 58 artists will be exhibiting in this Showcase exhibition. The grand opening is at 11.00 am on Sunday 28 May 2023. RSVP: council@bbnsw.org.au or call 9321 6300.

Limmud in your Lounge
Saturday 10 June 2023 – Monday 12 June 2023

This series of thought-provoking and inspiring conversations about Jewish ideas and culture comes to homes across Sydney next month. Here is the full program where you can buy your tickets , with some of the presenters at this year’s event from our own School community – Adina Roth, Head of Jewish Life plus current parents, Jayme Akstein and Alla Melman.

Experience the future of Holocaust survivor memory

At the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM), history doesn’t only live on the pages of books, or on the walls of exhibitions. It’s brought to life through immersive experiences, many of them powered by the latest AI and app-based technology. This June, why not experience some of the ways SJM is using technology to preserve Holocaust survivor memory? Visit the exhibition “Reverberations: a future for memory”.

My travels

While spending time with my family in Belgium and The Netherlands, I have also managed to visit a number of Jewish sites to help in my role as a volunteer guide at the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM). In Australia, we learn about the plight of the European Jewry in the Holocaust, with an emphasis on Polish, Hungarian and German Jews in particular. I recently visited Kazerne Dossin – a memorial, museum and research centre located at a site of historical significance near Antwerp, Belgium. Between 1942 and 1944, the Dossin Barracks were used by the Nazis as an assembling Belgium and Northern France. 25,490 Jews and 353 Roma were deported from the Dossin Barracks primarily to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only 1,395 of them survived the horror. There is also a temporary exhibition on about the fate of homosexuals and lesbians during WW2 in Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

Now in Den Haag (The Hague), I visited what was the Jewish area before WWII, where now there is a memorial of steel chairs with the first name and age of every Jewish child transported from here by the Nazis, engraved on all parts of the chairs, along with several plaques and memorials. One of the seven synagogues here before the War (abandoned once the Jews were “gone”) is the Al Aqsa Mosque. Current Emanuel grandparent, Sonja Blits Raiz who been a volunteer at SJM for nearly 29 years, was born in Amsterdam and has a cousin living here in The Hague. Avraham Soetendendorp, was born during the War and spent the first two years of his life in a hiding place. He was Rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Congregation in the Hague from 1968 – 2008 and is currently president of the European Region of the World Union of Progressive Judaism and vice-chairman of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders. In 1998 he founded the Hope Foundation for Children for Universal Education and now, aged 80, he has written a book titled Life Lessons from a Rabbi, an inspired book about love, anchoring, about breaking and healing, about resistance, reconciliation and a good conscience. He says sadness and anger do not ultimately prevail, but that the balance tips towards hope and optimism.