Volume 31 Issue 32 21 Oct 2022 26 Tishri 5783

My Two Lives

Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations

International Short Film Festivals

The film “My Two Lives, Creative Response to the Holocaust” produced by Sydney-based film maker Sarita Gold is about one of our most treasured members of the Jewish Community, Emanuel great grandparent, Lotte Weiss who sadly passed away last year aged 97.

Lotte, a Holocaust survivor was one of the Founders of the Sydney Jewish Museum and a volunteer guide there for most of the past 30 years since the Museum opened in 1992. This film was originally created for a NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Shoah event, and since then, Sarita has modified the original and added additional footage plus an epilogue after Lotte passed away.

The film has been selected for 17 international film festivals in the last two years, including most recently for Topaz Film Festival in Dallas. Lotte was one of our Living Historians at school for the Year 6 Project Heritage on several occasions over the years, even before her great grandchildren Nava Weiss, Year 5 and her sister Kayla, Year 1 were students here.  

Lotte’s daughter-in-law, Emanuel grandparent and artist Thea Weiss says “We are so proud that darling Lotte’s legacy and story continues to be heard and seen all over the world.”

You can read more about “My two Lives”  here as well as a list of all the film festivals at which it has been shown.

CHUTNEY and beyond

Some of you will have seen and heard past student Ben Adler play violin at Emanuel Synagogue or at Dover Heights Shule, or perhaps at other venues over the years.

He has also presented at Limmud Oz and is part of the well-known Klezmer group CHUTNEY. Ben says “I started learning violin at Emanuel and I remember those times fondly. I’ll be playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra (SUSO) on Sunday 30 October at 2.00 pm, at the glorious Great Hall of the University of Sydney.

Mendelssohn is easily one of my favourite composers and his concerto is amongst the most passionately emotional and sublime pieces I know. This will also be the first time I’ve played a concerto with a symphony orchestra since 2007! So I’m beyond excited. SUSO will also play music by Respighi and Saint-Saens.” Book tickets here 

Ben Adler

Sculpture by the Sea 2022
Opens today, 21 October 2022 – 7 November 2022

After three years, Sculpture by the Sea is finally back. Alumnus Joel Adler (Class of 2011), winner of the People’s Award in the 2019 Sculpture by the Sea for his piece “Viewfinder” has another entry in this year’s exhibition. His latest work titled “Lens” is a giant spherical mirror, created to highlight its position along the Bondi-Bronte walk. As reported in this week’s Wentworth Courier, it reflects another version of its spectacular backdrop.

Joel says “when you have a different view of something, you appreciate it in a different way. It’s so easy to become desensitised to how beautiful and insane this view is. My work is trying to remind people how beautiful the environment is and from there you can draw your own conclusions about protecting nature, the environment and climate change”.

Sydney Jewish Museum

The powerful exhibition “Shaken to The Core” ends this Sunday. This ground-breaking collection of works by the iconic Australian artist Sir Sidney Nolan has been on show over the past three months, displaying 90 pieces of his works for the first time in Australia. The exhibition has being promoted widely around Sydney and beyond, including on NSW Transport Light Rail and has been seen by thousands of local and interstate visitors to the Museum. as well as many international travellers. This powerful landmark exhibition showcases the very works Nolan created in direct response to the trial of Adolph Eichmann, the high-ranking Nazi official accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against the Jewish people.

If you have children approaching the ages of 12 or 13, you may be interested to know more about the SJM Bar and Bat Mitzvah Program to be held on Sunday 6 November  2022 at 2:30 pm.

Swim School Awards 2022

Mazal Tov to Emanuel parents Dan and Jo Glass, Directors/owners of Fit2Swim who recently took out the prize for “best medium-swim school in the whole of Australia”. Dan says “it was truly an honour to receive this recognition and even more exciting to have the award presented to us by Australia’s greatest ever Olympian Emma McKeon.” Dan also adds “Please excuse the floral clothing – the theme for the night was Hawaiian.”

Dan and Jo Glass with Olympian Emma McKeon

The Ballad of Mauthausen
30 October 2022

Listen to a conversation with Emanuel grandparent Anne Spira, Chairperson of the Sydney Jewish Choral Society (SJCS) interviewed recently on SBS Hebrew Radio by Nitza Lowenstein, Executive Producer at SBS, and an Emanuel grandparent.

Book tickets for the concert here: $60, concession $50

Solo Watercolour Exhibition
1 November 2022 – 11 November 2022

Past Emanuel Principal and past parent David Solomons attended the Class of 2000 reunion last Sunday afternoon, having a break from his latest passion, painting. He will be holding his first-ever solo exhibition starting on the 1 November 2022 at a local gallery on Clovelly Road,Randwick and he would love to see members of our School community pop in. 

Ma Nishma is read each week not just by parents but also by many of our grandparents, as well as other members of our extended Emanuel community, and we welcome any news you would like to share with us.

Shabbat shalom, stay safe and have a great weekend.