Eat Pray Naches
Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations
Rosh HaShanah like no other. Shana Tova – 5782
We hope you and your families had a good lockdown Rosh HaShanah. Some innovative Zoom sessions meant most families could partake in the festive celebrations with family members online no matter where they all lived, given we were unable to sit around the same table. Some families organised for all family members to be able to eat the exact same meal but in their own homes. I’m sure many a honey cake was baked with love and passion and eaten all over Sydney, along with the many other traditional Rosh HaShanah foods. Our Sydney Jewish community was given special dispensation by the NSW authorities to allow COVID-safe gatherings in selected parks to hear the Shofar-blowing. Although not the same as celebrating the New Year with family and friends in your home, this gave us the most moving opportunity to hear the shofar and to also see some friends and family from a distance. Yom Kippur this week will also be an occasion where we cannot pray in Synagogue, but will do so at home just with family members who live with us. We wish you and your family an easy and meaningful Fast. For those who are not fasting but are observing Yom Kippur, we wish you a good Yom Tov.
Many of us are very excited that as of Monday this week, if we are double vaccinated, we can now, still with social distancing, enjoy the company of four others who have also been double vaccinated and live within our LGA or 5km radius, unless you/they live in an LGA of concern. As the weather continues to get warmer, we will most likely see many picnics with families or friends. Enjoy this special time and stay safe. As we know, the COVID rulings change all the time – by checking this link, you can see the latest updates.
Remember September 2021
As we approach half-way through September, alumnus Ben Wilheim, founder of Remember September, and his committee are so proud about this year’s month-long event and its accomplishments so far. More than 2,500 challengers have signed up so far and Ben is ever-grateful for our School Community’s support to raise awareness and funds for research to find a cure for pancreatic cancer. It’s not too late to sign up.
Eat Pray Naches
Some years ago, Waverley Council launched a unique project to celebrate Waverley’s Jewish Community by preserving and sharing over 100 stories of its post-war immigrants and their families. The project was co-ordinated by Emanuel past student Simone Collins (Havas) who at the time was Project Lead and Cultural Programs Producer at Waverley Council. Eat, Pray, Naches featured a number of our own School community families, some of whom are readers of Ma Nishma including grandparents, Diane Armstrong and Vic Alhadeff, past grandparent Eleanor Saul, past parents Susan Bures and Miriam Guttman-Jones as well as alumnus Leon Goltsman (Class of 1990) and his sister Lana, both of whom along with Simone Collins, started at the School when we opened in 1983.
Unfortunately, this amazing project was “lost”. However, last Friday on Facebook, Leon Goltsman, who is a member of Waverley Council, posted “During my previous term of Council as Chair of the Multicultural Advisory Committee, I was fortunate enough to be a part of this fantastic project which acknowledges the extraordinary contribution and experience of Waverley’s Jewish Community. Sadly, the material has mysteriously vanished from our website for many years, and links were no longer active. Following years of the tremendous amount of effort to relocate the material, I’m pleased to report that it’s finally been found and uploaded back onto our council digital archive. I hope our community group and members enjoy exploring the content”.
Grandparents – where are you?
We acknowledge that grandparents are important vital members of our School Community, and we hope many of them take the opportunity to read Ma Nishma each week. It is a great way to stay connected with us all, especially whilst we are in lockdown, but also anytime. Unfortunately, we are missing up-to-date email contact details for many of our grandparents, so please send through grandparent contact details so they too can read about what is happening at School, albeit it all online for now. They will also receive our Grandparents and Friends newsletter. You can see past issues of this newsletter along with our alumni newsletters online. Living interstate and/or overseas, means some of “our” grandparents never have an opportunity to come to School, so connecting electronically can be really meaningful and a great way for them to see what their grandchildren are doing at School in spite of the distance apart.
We also hope our grandparents will join us for our biggest and brightest event, Emanuel B’yachad – Emanuel Together on Sunday 17 October 2021 at 7.30 pm, with RSVP required by Wednesday 6 October 2021.
Jewish Changemaker Awards 2021 – nominate our young volunteers online
With so many of our current High School students and past students in the Jewish community making the world a better place through their amazing volunteering efforts, they deserve to be nominated for these awards. If your children or grandchildren fit this brief, please nominate them. Through the Jewish Changemaker Awards, JNF Australia, B’nai B’rith NSW and The Australian Jewish News are honouring individuals in our community who have made a difference. Seven incredible young adults aged 14 to 36 from around Australia will be recognised for their outstanding contributions to Jewish Community, Australian Society and to Israel. We would love to see more of our students recognised for their wonderful volunteering efforts, so please send through their nominations.
If you have a special online activity, photos or news you would like to share with us, please send to Sonia Newell
We look forward to sharing our news and yours next term. In the meantime, we wish you all a good and safe term break.