Volume 31 Issue 22 29 Jul 2022 1 Av 5782

Gift of Life

Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations

A week for so many different things

Throughout the world, there seems to a ‘special week’ for a worthy cause week in, week out. Some readers of my page may recall I wrote about Blood Donor Week last month. The Australian Red Cross just announced this week that adults who lived in the UK in the 1980’s and 1990’s and were excluded from donating blood products here in Australia because of ‘mad cow’ bans, are now allowed to do so. This is very exciting news. www.lifeblood.com.au 

Shula Endrey-Walder OAM z”l and Fred Swaab z”l

This week is DonorLife Week 2022 which started last Sunday 24 July 2022 and ends this Sunday 31 July 2022.  It is a week where the aim is to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation.  

There are so many ways to get involved to save lives and for some the donation may be regular blood and plasma donations whilst for others it might mean becoming part of the bone marrow register through the Gift of Life Australia (GOLA), a program established in 1994 and run by the late Shula Endrey-Walder OAM, an Emanuel grandparent, in association with Wolper Jewish Hospital.  This program aims to recruit potential donors to the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) run by the Red Cross. GOLA’s mission is to raise awareness about the life saving potential of Stem Cell, Bone Marrow and Cord Blood transplants and to increase the representation of Jewish people on the Australian Bone Marrow Donor registry. Another of our grandparents, the Late Fred Swaab, was a recipient of bone marrow found by a match through this program. Fred, who was diagnosed with leukemia in October 2010 and in March 2011 underwent a successful stem cell transplant and later travelled to the USA to meet his donor, Dovid. This bone marrow donation gave Fred precious extra years to spend with his beloved wife, Emanuel grandparent Judy and two daughters Nikki and Jessica, both Emanuel parents and their five children, all Emanuel students, until his passing in early 2016.

Serving Israel

We always love to hear about achievements of our past students, most of whom stay living here in Sydney whilst others move interstate or overseas.  A number of our past students have made Aliyah after leaving School, become Israeli citizens and then gone on to join the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). This week we received this email from past parents Kirstyn and Eli Sadra: We thought it might be of interest to let the school community know that our daughter Eden Sadra (Class of 2019) has joined the IDF and has begun her full service in Israel though the Garin Tzabar program. Eden completed and graduated from her Michve Alon (basic training) last night and has proudly taken a place in the International Relations Unit, working with military units and armies from all over the world. We think it’s always important for the school community to know that one of their own has embarked on the noble mission of protecting Israel.

If you also have news about your older children that you’d like to share with us, please let me know.     

Maccabiah Games 2022

As many of us watched the various races/games online over the past couple of weeks, we passionately barracked for individual Australian athletes and teams, many of which included members of our School community. The women’s open futsal team, whose team manager was Emanuel past parent Sharon Schulz, included past students Lara Rutstein, Lara Joffe and Isabella (Issy) Schulz, won gold when defeating the USA 4-3 in a penalty shootout thriller, after it was 3-3 at the end of extra time. Most of our Emanuel athletes have just arrived home and what an amazing experience for them all, to have competed in an international sporting event in Israel, alongside around 10,000 other Jews from 80 countries, in 29 different sports, encompassing a total of 42 disciplines. The Australian team came away with 99 medals and the third in total medals won at these games, behind Israel and the United States. Well done to all of them, to their team managers and to their support crew. A huge thank you to the parents who sent me these photos of some of our Emanuel Maccabiah 2022 athletes.

Before The King – Saturday 27 August 2022

$2.50 of every ticket sold at @thelansdowne on Saturday 27 August 2022 will go to the amazing charity, @sharethedignityaustralia, a woman’s charity in Australia, that works to make a real difference in the lives of homelessness, fleeing domestic violence or doing it tough. Band members, alumni Daniel Radomsky, Gabriel Jammy and Dean Smuskowitz, say we think what Share the Dignity Australia does is fantastic and we want to support them. You can support them by participating in their dignity drive in August or of course, by getting tickets to our show on Saturday 27 August 2022. Book here.

Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) Bnei Mitzvah Program

Did you know the SJM offers a program for bar/bat mitzvah students and their families? The program is held a few Sundays a year in which students and their families (up to three adults or older siblings) are invited to visit the museum for a two-hour program that includes meeting a Holocaust survivor and hearing their testimony, and a tour of the museum (all age-appropriate) at the cost of $60 per family. This program will both educate and inspire as it unpacks the history of the bar mitzvah and explores the ways in which Jewish people maintained a connection to their faith even during great upheaval. There are still a few spaces available in their next scheduled session on Sunday 7 August 2022 (2.30 pm to 4.30 pm). There is also a session on Sunday 6 November 2022. Book here for either of these two sessions.

Sydney Nolan Exhibition SJM – Thursday 21 July 2022 to Sunday 23 October 2022
Shaken to His Core: The Untold Story of Nolan’s Auschwitz

This poignant exhibition officially opened last Thursday evening and has already had raves reviews. In case you are wondering why these drawings are only on show for three months, under carefully controlled lighting conditions, it is because of their fragile nature and susceptibility to fading and discolouration. Works on paper such as these Nolan drawings can only be on show for a maximum of three months and then must be returned to “storage” for at least three years (sometimes five years) after the exhibition before they can be shown again. To book tickets

LimmudOz 2022

LimmudOZ attracts presenters from around the world and our own extended Emanuel community too. This year’s event is on Sunday 11 September 2022 – you can look forward to laughing and learning with some of the most dynamic educators and inspiring thought leaders from around the Jewish world, who are flying into Australia to join us in person for the first time since 2019. Discounted early bird tickets are available now, but only until Monday 1 August 2022.     

Friendship Circle Walk – Sunday 28 August 2022

This will be the first in-person walk since the beginning of COVID. Many of our Emanuel families get involved with this event every year, where funds are raised to help create camps, getaways, social opportunities and vocational opportunities that bring people with and without disabilities together.      

Friendship Circle (FC) camps

If you have older children aged between 18 and 25 who would like to volunteer for FC’s Junior or Teen Getaways in August and September, please let them know. FC is always seeking volunteers for their local weekend day programs too, so your teenage school children may also be interested in volunteering. Please contact www.sydneyfc.org.au for more information. 

Friendship Bakery

If you have never visited Friendship Bakery in Vaucluse, I recommend you do and I promise you’re in for a very pleasant and tasty treat, where all purchases from the Bakery support this amazing social enterprise run under the banner of Friendship Circle. Check out their opening hours and goodies online.  

We look forward to sharing our news and yours, so if you have photos and/or news you would like to share with us, please send to Sonia Newell.  

Shabbat shalom, stay safe, stay warm and have a great weekend.