Volume 31 Issue 20 30 Jun 2022 1 Tammuz 5782

Before the King

Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations

With the end of Term 2 upon us, I want to say a huge “thank you” to those readers of my page who have been in touch to share their news and photos over the past weeks and months. I hope you all have a great term break and I look forward to sharing more of your news and ours again next term.

Alumni and their music
Adam Harpaz (Class of 2013)

Adam is an independent singer-songwriter and, when he’s not surfing the waves at Byron Bay where he lives, he’s off touring with his music. He has been featured on Triple J, performed at major festivals such as Splendour in the Grass/Falls Festival and has had sold out shows across the country. On his debut European tour prior to COVID, he played 30 shows in 10 countries and is now back in Europe for what looks like another amazing music tour. This is such a fabulous opportunity for Adam and we wish him all the best as he embarks on travelling through Europe again.  He says “from Icelandic fjords to the Italian Alps, from the Mediterranean to the gateway of the East, I promise to perform with all my heart at every show”. Click here for more information about Adam and his music.   

 

Before The King

Members of the band Before the King are four shaggy-haired garage-rock revivalists from Sydney’s Inner West, three of whom are school mates – Daniel Radomsky, Gabriel (Gabe) Jammy and Dean Smuskowitz (all from the Class of 2016). They formed the band whilst here in High School, winning the B’nai B’rith Battle of the Bands in 2016, with their prize being a guest appearance at the Jewish Music Festival Shir Madness at The Bondi Pavilion that year, as they were all preparing to sit the HSC. They continue to have success with a big year from recording with Chloe Dadd at Sydney’s Golden Retriever Studios, to hosting a sold-out fundraiser gig for the NSW floods, to releasing their debut EP Different Combinations of the Same and squeezing in a quick tour to support it – the band hasn’t slowed down.

Now, they’re set to release their next single, Cold Shoulder, out tomorrow, 1 July 2022. This will be the first single off their sophomore EP, All That You Know, out on the 5 August 2022. To support all this, the band is embarking on a nine-date regional tour, culminating in a massive hometown bash at the newly-reopened Lansdowne Hotel. We wish the band continued success and hope they might come back to school one day soon to perform for the students. 

March of the Living (MOTL) 2023

MOTL is an annual educational program that brings individuals from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hatred. Participants spend a week in Poland culminating in marching down the same 3km path leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), as a tribute to all victims of the Holocaust, followed by a week in Israel during Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day).

The Year 11 MOTL Australia program started in 2001, with over 1500 students participating over the years, including many of our Emanuel students. However, our numbers dwindled quite dramatically after the start of our amazing Chavayah – our end of Year 10 six-week Israel program. Sadly, this High School MOTL program will no longer be offered to any Australian students.  Next year’s MOTL Australia 2023, after a three-year break because of COVID-19, will coincide with Israel’s 75th birthday and MOTL’s 35th anniversary, and will focus on the Young Adult (18-35) and the Adult (36 plus) programs. For readers here, please note expressions of interest to join up for one of these two programs next year are now open.   

Adamama community events

Did you know Adamama, Australia’s first ever Educational Urban Farm, was inspired by Jewish values of healing the world and nurturing the community?  It is based at the Randwick Sustainability Hub, where you can discover your eco-passion and get involved in an array of their programs, including Permabee for adults every Friday morning – a work session to help plant, weed and compost; working bees on the first Sunday of each month from 10.00 am – 12.00 pm; various workshops for adults and for children, including school holiday camps. Adamama Manager, Emanuel alumnus Mitch Burnie, would love to see more Emanuel families partake in some of these wonderful opportunities. From time to time they also offer Fermentation and Pickling Workshops, so check their website for new dates. There are still limited spaces available at some of their upcoming school holiday camps.    

Citizen science coming to a school near you!

Past parent, Dr Judy Friedlander, heads an organisation that is going to literally blitz schools around Australia. The ‘B&B BioBlitz’ as the organisation’s initiative is called, is Australia’s first national school citizen science project and is being supported by the Department of Education, the CSIRO’s Atlas of Living Australia and LandCare. The BioBlitz is taking place in schools during National Biodiversity Month (September) in the week of 7 September 2022 (National Threatened Species Day). Judy says “Various scientific bodies and papers including Australia’s Strategy for Nature 2019 – 2030 and Chief Scientists’ reports are calling out for every day Australians to take observations and upload them to free apps such as iNaturalist and the Atlas of Living Australia. 

“These citizen science observations help scientists to fill information gaps, identify species, understand species’ declines and help regeneration strategies.” 

Friedlander’s organisation, PlantingSeeds, also runs the multi-State B&B Highway, an educational and practical initiative that creates regenerative corridors through plantings and habitats at schools. She continues “with 100 B&Bs (Bed & Breakfasts for Bees, Birds and Biodiversity) implemented by year-end and thousands of school children from Pre-school to Year 12, having experienced the four-part practical and educational sessions. The B&B Highway works to empower students and biodiversity and connect schools. It responds to the alarming research showing we are losing plants and pollinators and that collaborative action instils hope and counters biodiversity loss. Many participating schools are Independent or part of the Catholic system, and interestingly, one of our first hives was at Emanuel Synagogue, although we did not implement a program for the pre-schoolers at the time. We would love to see Emanuel School join us too.”

Judy says “The PlantingSeeds’ team works with scientists, academics and Departmental educators to ensure programs are evidence-based. The citizen science component is now attracting much attention with the Australian Museum showcasing the B&B BioBlitz at Science Week and Dr Karl Kruszelnicki helping to promote it.

“BioBlitzes and citizen science help develop STEM skills, with links to the curriculum in many areas such as in science, mathematics, humanities and social sciences and technologies. Citizen science has valuable learning and teaching outcomes for school students in Years K-12. Parents interested in volunteering at PlantingSeeds to provide support with school implementations, educational sessions, plantings, habitat construction or citizen science, please email info@ps.org.au

Judy and her husband Anthony’s children, Jordan and Joshua Kahn, are both ‘blitzing’ the science fields with Jordan (Class of 2010) now a physician working in Melbourne and specialising in infectious diseases and general physician work and Joshua (Class of 2014) an aerospace engineer working for space company Fleet Space in Adelaide. Another Emanuel connection for the Kahn family is Anthony’s sister Jennifer Udovich, who is a Hebrew teacher here in Primary School.

Community Theatre Group

Past parent, Vivienne Radomsky, Marketing and Development Manager B’nai B’rith NSW, says there is still time for members of our School community to email her with expressions of interest to join the B’nai B’rith Players, a community theatre group with Director and Producer Moira Blumenthal: vivienne.radomsky@bbnsw.org.au or call 9321 6307.

Save the date 

2022 Friendship Circle Walk – Sunday 28 August 2022
Grandparents and Friends Day – Friday 16 September 2022

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 term break.