Community Connections – Gesher
Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations
Sydney Jewish Museum – Pen Pal project
Our Emanuel Community has numerous close connections with the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM). Alumna Rebecca Kummerfeld (Class of 2003) is Head of Education and current parent, Ilana McCorquodale, is Museum Floor Co-ordinator, Education, whilst many of our Holocaust survivor grandparents and great grandparents are guides at the museum, as are some of our current and past parents. Ilana was interviewed recently by Alice Murphy for Daily Mail Australia, with her article published on 23 May 2020. As we entered lockdown and the SJM closed its doors towards the end of March, Ilana “saw an opportunity for survivors to embrace the nostalgia of letter writing whilst forging new relationships with the children they should have been speaking to face to face”. It was an opportunity to lift their spirits during isolation, and so this project was born.
This heartwarming initiative by the museum has seen a number of Emanuel students from Years K to Year 8 as well as students from other schools, correspond by letter with Holocaust survivor museum guides who, before lockdown, week in week out, shared their stories of survival with students and school groups from all around NSW as well as with other visitors to the museum.
Amongst these guides who are part of the pen pal project are Emanuel grandparents current and past – Paul Drexler, George Grojnowski, Litzi Lemberg, Maurice Linker, Alice Loeb, Kitty Lowinger, Egon Sonnenschein, Helen Studencki and Mimi Wise as well as Emanuel great grandparents Yvonne Engelman, Olga Horak and Eddie Jaku. Emanuel students involved in the project include Jonathan Goldberg (Year 6) and his sister Lara (Year 2), Elyad Rapke (Year 3) and his brother Liel (Year 5), Leah Joshua (Year 5), Amélie Mueller (Year 6), Noa Rosenzveig (Year 6), Jaime Keyser (Year 7), Jayden Segal (Year 7), Inez Calderon-Havas (Year 8) and Summer Fine (Year 8) along with Gabriel Stiassny (Year 8) and his twin sisters Dana and Leah (Year 5). Some of their senior pen pals are from our school community whilst others are not.
For Stacey Greenfield (Year 8), her brother Joshua (Year 5) and younger sister Emily (Milly) in Year K, their pen pals are all Emanuel grandparents – perhaps just a coincidence but nonetheless, how extra special.
You can read more about this project on the museum’s website: Blog, 5 May 2020 – Newfound friendships in isolation.
Karen and Olivia Bowen
Whist we recently celebrated National Volunteers Week (18 May 2020 – 24 May 2020) and at the time we recognised some members of our community for the work they do to help others, I thought it was worthy to also let you know that alumna Olivia Bowen (Class of 2013) volunteers at Asylum Seekers Centre (ASC). She is pictured here delivering food from the foodbank with her mum Karen Bowen, whose youngest daughter Eliza is a Year 10 student.
Pre-COVID-19 Olivia had been volunteering with ASC for over a year, most recently assisting the fundraising team, and before that as an intake caseworker. Since lockdown, she has continued to help with fundraising and doing research projects from home, as well as doing food deliveries each week with her mum and other members of her family. Since the pandemic, Olivia says she has learnt the importance of helping people who are vulnerable in times of crisis. “People seeking asylum don’t have a safety net and are disproportionately affected by job losses. It’s vital that we band together as a community. I really enjoy doing the deliveries. It gets my mum out of the house – she recently lost her job – and we get to spend more time together than we normally would. I have loved volunteering remotely for the fundraising team and taking part in the weekly Zoom meetings.”
If you have photos and/or news to share, please send to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au
Shabbat Shalom and we hope you enjoy the long weekend.