Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations

We celebrated the festival of Shavuot at the start of this week and, as most of you know, that traditionally includes eating certain foods such as cheesecake and cheese blintzes. We all have our favourite recipes and recipe books, some of which have a special connection with our School and extended community. The Family Meal, Emanuel School Community Cookbook has a recipe for Yummy Baked Cheesecake from the kitchen of the Carpenter Family.

Just Add Love, Holocaust Survivors Share their Stories and Recipes, by Irrit Makler and beautifully photographed by Emanuel past parent David Mane, is a work of history and photography, a cookbook and a testament to the last generation of Survivors in Australia, as they transmit history, culture, sustenance and love through the powerful ritual of food, and it too has a wonderful Baked Cheesecake recipe.

We certainly don’t need to wait for a Chag to make these and the many other yummy recipes when we have such wonderful cookbooks available. 

Mazal Tov!

When your dad goes to the Rabbi for a chat and ends up getting Bar Mitzvah’d

It is never too late to do anything, and although most Jewish boys are Bar Mitzvah’d when they turn 13 sometimes circumstances do not allow that. This is a lovely story posted on Rabbi Levi Wolff’s FaceBook page about one of our grandparents, Tommy Silver. Tommy, whose three daughters Monika, Anita and Cherie are all Emanuel alumni, is now an Emanuel grandparent. Two of his daughters, Monika Silver (Class of 1998) and Anita Clark (Class of 1999), have their own children here as students at the school, whilst their younger sister Cherie lives in London.

On his post Humans of My Day, Rabbi Levi Wolff writes:

Tommy Silver with Rabbi Wolff

Today I met Tommy, he is 83 years young. Today, Tommy put on tefillin for the very first time in his life! You see, Tommy was born in Hungary in 1938 and was only told he was Jewish when he turned 13. His parents were understandably traumatised from the Holocaust and feared repercussions if they revealed his religion of birth. Flash forward almost three decades, Tommy valiantly attempted to escape Hungary via (what was then) Yugoslavia. He suffered setbacks as he was caught en-route, yet finally landed safely here in this Great Southern Land.

Eighty-three is special. After all, it is 70 years post-Bar Mitzvah – yet the effects of the Shoah proved a great disruptor to Tommy’s world. Tommy has roamed far and wide, but today Tommy finally had an opportunity to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah!

To paraphrase the famous Qantas advertisement “But no matter how far or how wide I roam … I still call my Yiddishkeit home.”

Mazel Tov Tommy – Until 120!

National Volunteer Week

17 May 2021 – 23 May 2021

The theme this year is Recognise. Reconnect. Reimagine.

We have so much to be thankful for – to the many volunteers who help our School and our extended community every single day.  We have parents and grandparents who are members of various committees here at School, we have others who regularly participate in our PSG (Parent Security Group), helping to keep our students and staff safe. Many of our alumni volunteer for CSG (Community Security Group) to help keep our synagogues and other communal organisations, personnel and buildings safe. Students and alumni volunteer at Friendship Circle and other groups that help children and young adults with disabilities. Many of our parents and grandparents volunteer as guides at The Sydney Jewish Museum. The list goes on and on, and we say a huge “Thank You” to all of you and acknowledge the work you do in all your volunteering efforts.

Limmud Oz 2021 – a community-wide festival of Jewish ideas and culture

13 June 2021 – 14 June 2021

Parents past and present, including Estelle Rozinski, Geoff Sirmai, Jayme Akstein, Sharon Berger, Shirli Kirschner and Kerri Sackville, alumni Mitch Burnie, Sean Torban, Matt Friedman, Julia Sussman, Zac Levi and Eve Altman, and staff member Oren Thaler, are amongst the presenters at this year’s Limmud Oz, an annual event to be held this year at The Roundhouse UNSW and Moriah College. 

Private Art Gallery tour with a difference

We hope you will join us on the morning of 16 June 2021 for our Gesher private tour of Salon des Refusés 2021 (the alternative Archibald and Wynne Prize selection) at the S.H. Ervin Gallery, Observatory Hill (The Rocks), with parking available onsite. This event is open to past and current parents, grandparents and alumni as well as friends.

Bookings open soon. Please email your interest to attend. 

If you have photos and/or news to share, please send to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend.