An Emanuel great-grandmother is the subject of a winning 2017 Tropfest Award

Olga Horak

Canberra filmmaker Cecilia Rumore has won this year’s People’s Choice award at Tropfest in Sydney last weekend.  Her four and a half minute documentary, Another Olga, was the first recipient of the award to be decided via Facebook poll at the short film festival. The film centres around Holocaust survivor Olga Horak who migrated to Australia in her 20s after living through the horrors of Auschwitz, Dresden and Belsen concentration camps. www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-13/canberra-filmmaker-takes-out-tropfest-peoples-choice-award/82652488

Olga is the great grandmother of Maddison (Maddy) and Hannah Green, who both attend Kornmehl Pre-school.  Another Emanuel connection for the girls is that their father Ben Green is an Emanuel Alumnus (Class of 1999) whilst their uncle, Jake Green, Ben’s brother, finished Year 12 here last year.

Aged 91, Olga has written a book titled Auschwitz to Australia and she still volunteers at the Sydney Jewish Museum three times a week, where she speaks to High School students and other visitors about the Holocaust and how we must never forget.

An Emanuel grandparent helping our environment in the wider local community

Cedric Amoils

EVERY morning, as the sun rises over Bondi Beach, Cedric Amoils voluntarily spends hours picking up rubbish left behind on the sand. From children’s toys, cigarette butts, coffee cups and even a kitchen scale — the unsung hero has seen it all. The retired Bondi resident said it all started three years ago when his doctor told him he should start exercising. “I started walking on the beach but I hated what I saw,” Mr Amoils, 80, said.  Wearing plastic gloves and carrying a bag, Mr Amoils began picking up everything he found on the sand and never stopped. “It’s mainly discarded water bottles, coffee cups and plastic,” he said.  “Sometimes there are shoes too. In the early morning, you can see the high water mark so I walk along and pick up everything. I leave the toys on a bench near the children’s pool and the cuttlefish bone on the north end for people who have birds. My message to people is to please be aware that the beach belongs to all of us and try and take with you any little thing that you find on the beach.

Mr Amoils said he donated undamaged items he found on the beach to the Wayside Chapel for the homeless. “When I find money, I put it in a little jar at home and when it gets up to $20, I go give it to the homeless,” he said. “I do the same with sunglasses or goggles I find.” (Shaya Laughlin, Wentworth Courier, 2 February 2017)

Note: Cedric’s grandchildren are triplets Ashne, Sienna and Joshua Amoils in Year 11.

We love to see photos of our second generation Emanuel students and I featured some of these new students in the last couple of editions of Ma Nishma. Another second generation student is Alicia Butt who has just started Pre-school at Kornmehl.  She is pictured opposite with her parents, alumna Samantha (née Finger) Class of 1998 and Daniel Butt and her sisters Emma in Year 3 and Lexi in Year 1. The Finger family has a long history with the School – Michael Finger, Sam’s father, was a member of the first Emanuel School Board and her brother Adam is also one of our alum from the Class of 2001.

Grandparents Committee

We are seeking expressions of interest from our grandparents to join a Grandparents Committee that will meet as often as required (probably about once per term) at the School. The purpose of the committee is to consider how to build the network of grandparents and help them feel more connected to the School. This may involve consideration of ways to enhance communication between the School and our grandparents, furthering our database of grandparent contacts, organising a grandparents’ event or advising/giving feedback on our current Grandparents’ Day. 

The Grandparents Committee would be a sub-committee of Emanuel’s Gesher Committee, which is charged by the Board with bridging the School and the community, including alumni, parents, grandparents and friends. The remit of the Grandparents Committee is not prescriptive. The Chair of the Grandparents Committee would be a member of the Gesher Committee and attend the Gesher meetings (six times per year). 

Please pass this information on to grandparents and if they would like to be involved, please ask them to email: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

Don’t forget our upcoming afternoon of live jazz, food and much more.
Jazz on the Hill, Sunday 26 March 2pm to 5pm.  

Bookings online:  http://tinyurl.com/JOTH2017

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