Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni and Community Connections

We hope you had a good break, celebrating Pesach as we have never celebrated it before. Zoom certainly proved to be a popular way for many families and friends to share their Seder tables and read the Haggadah together, even when we could not do so in person this year. For those members of our community who celebrated Easter, we hope you too were able to share this important time with family and friends via virtual connections.

COVID-19 has provided us with time to ponder about life, family and the world at large, and to appreciate all the wonderful people in our lives, even when we can only do things such as give grandparents and friends and other loved ones a virtual hug and kiss for now. As of today, 1 May 2020, NSW residents can spend some time with two other adults not from their own household – this is a wonderful move but as we all know, for grandparents and other vulnerable adults and children, it is not a time to forget the profound enormity and implications of this current pandemic, whilst social distancing rules continue. 

What a time we have had over the past couple of weeks. 21 April 2020 was Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day, where we remember the 6 million Jews who were murdered by Hitler and his collaborators, just because they were Jews. Instead of thousands of members of our community gathering at a Sydney venue to commemorate this sombre occasion, as we usually do, we had the opportunity to join the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies virtually to do so. Yehi Zikhronom LeVirachah – may the memory of all holocaust victims be for a blessing. We must never forget. Last Saturday, the 25 April 2020, we commemorated Anzac Day 2020 – that was certainly different this year. It is the day all Australians come together in remembrance to honour our veterans and service members, but this year Australians paid their respects from home amid coronavirus lockdown. The national Anzac Day ceremony was broadcast from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and watched by thousands on TV. Some people stood in their own driveways to pay their respects at dawn, and the Last Post was played all around the country including at the Sydney Opera House. 

Earlier this week we welcomed back our students and staff to the start of Term 2. Yes, the majority of our students will continue their studies online for now, and most of our staff will be working from home, as our teachers and other support staff have been busy preparing for another exciting school term. On Tuesday, we commemorated Yom HaZikaron, when we commemorated all those soldiers fallen for the State of Israel, and victims of terror, and then on Wednesday we celebrated Yom Ha’Atsma’ut, Israeli Independence Day, this year celebrating 72 years of the State of Israel – Happy Birthday Israel!  For something fun, for anyone interested in numbers, Yom Ha’Atsma’ut actually started on Tuesday evening, 28 April 2020, and this adds up to 72!

Don’t forget about our Emanuel Shuk Facebook page that parents (current and past), alumni and grandparents can use to buy, to sell or request information. Join it here.  

I am currently preparing the next edition of our bi-annual newsletters, so if you have some news to share in these publications, please let me know as soon as possible. For those interested in reading past issues, click here to see all our alumni and grandparents & friends newsletters.

We love sharing our School-related news not only with you our parents, but also with grandparents, so please make sure we have correct grandparent contact details and then they too can receive relevant School updates including our bi-annual Grandparents & Friends newsletters and Ma Nishma if they would like to read that as well. I know we also have some very keen great-grandparents who wish to stay connected with us too, so their details would be great to have as well. Please send these updates to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

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

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend. Stay well and stay safe.