Nothing is Impossible
Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations
We hope you and your families are well in lockdown. Support from and for our Emanuel community over these past weeks has been exceptional and we thank everyone accordingly – our staff, parents, grandparents and students are caring and sharing on so many levels, whilst socially distancing and in most cases, staying at home. We are indeed a very special community and we appreciate how important it is for us to have and give support to each other, some of whom are totally isolated, living alone away from loved ones. We are indeed very lucky. Online activities have been and will continue to be our saving grace.
Zoom in
If you can, join us for Zoom Emanuel Kabbalat Shabbat at 4.00 pm each Friday you will see the smiling faces of so many members of our School, with students from Kornmehl through to High School as they sing and dance at home in the lead-up to Shabbat, led by our dedicated Jewish Life staff and student leaders. We encourage grandparents to also join us.
Josh New (Class of 2019) and Informal Jewish Life Leader and Coby New, Year 10, leading us in Shabbat songs on Zoom
Tokyo Olympics – Nothing is Impossible
With the start of the Tokyo Olympics last weekend, many of us are glued to the television as we watch athletes from 205 countries, plus the IOC refugee team, compete in the myriad of sporting events. I am sure the Paralympic Games, which start on Tuesday 24 August 2021, will also keep us in front of the TV, especially as we will still be in lockdown then. You may now be hearing the very catchy theme song for the Paralympics but what you may not know, is the origin of this theme song and its connection with our School community. During lockdown of 2020, whilst so many all worked out how to move forward in the new circumstances, Sydney-based musician Ilan Kidron, an Emanuel past parent, zoomed in with the team at JCA The Choice Foundation to see what creative ideas they could come up with together. The focus of JCA The Choice Foundation, an endowment fund that supports people with disabilities in our community, is to educate, collaborate and innovate on projects that focus on inclusion. The outcome of their connection last year was Nothing is Impossible – a song written collaboratively for members, participants and volunteers of The Choice Foundation, which include a number of our Emanuel families. It was an expression of love and fun during difficult times. In a recent interview with J-Wire, the founder of the foundation, Taryn Boyarsky and Manager, Danielle Wakerman (an Emanuel alumna), said of the project: “The hope was to create a song that would unite people in support of people with a disability in the community, once we started this process, the song just poured – cascaded – out!”
Ilan turned the song into a joyous, upbeat anthem, and included the voice of Reigan Derry, virtuoso fiddler Ben Adler (a past Emanuel student) arranged and plays strings, and there are four young Jewish singers in the choir. The Jewish community was then asked to send in footage of them dancing to the song. 160 families, including members of our School community, sent in videos of themselves, and this was turned into a collaborative video, signalling a beautiful coming together of our community.
Channel 7 heard this song and chose it to be the promotional song for the Tokyo Paralympic Games. You can hear it across all Channel 7 media until Wednesday 24 August 2021.
Gotta love a pickle or two
Seventy six families from across our School community – parents, grandparents, alumni and staff – joined us for our online Gesher pickling/preserving workshop last Sunday evening with alumnus Mitch Burnie, Manager of Adamama Urban Farm, who taught us the secrets about pickles and preserves. We were inundated with photos from our workshop participants’ creations, plus really positive feedback about how much everyone enjoyed this session. Mitch said: “I’m always happy to work with the community and teach about fermentation. It’s so easy and can really connect us to the past and traditions. It was wonderful to see so many members of my old school online for this session and I hope you are all eager to continue the pickling and preserving skills I taught you. When lockdown is over, I’d love you to come visit us at the farm”.
Here are some comments from a few of our picklers:
Daniela Freed, parent, Board member and Gesher Committee Chair: “Having never been a pickling household before there was much excitement and curiosity for the workshop in my household on Sunday evening. My eldest daughter and I had so much fun learning something new and creative in the kitchen. It was so wonderful that we were able to bring so many people together from our Emanuel family, participating and enjoying themselves. It certainly was a welcome activity during lockdown. A huge thank you to Mitch Burnie from Adamama for running the workshop and we can’t wait to try our pickled vegetables”.
Ann Newman, grandparent: “It is so special to be part of the amazing Emanuel community. Thank you Emanuel and Mitch from Adamama for providing this session last Sunday. Who would have thought we’d be learning how to pickle and preserve online during lockdown, but we are so grateful for this opportunity”.
Alan Crown, grandparent: “It was lots of fun, very informative and so easy. Now all I need is to find more glass jars so I can continue with these newly acquired skills”.
If you missed our event, it’s not too late to book into another online pickling session with Mitch which you can organise directly with Adamama.
Unlocking The Past
Past parent, Shira Sebban, will review the book she wrote about stories from her mother’s diary on Zoom on Monday 9 August 2021 at 7:30 pm. Book here for this free event online.
Friendship Circle (FC) Walk 2021 – Sunday 29 August 2021
FC will be hosting their 12th annual (and second virtual) Friendship Walk on Sunday 29 August 2021. This is their main fundraiser of the year, supporting their programs and activities for children, teens and young adults with and without disabilities, as well as community initiatives. Members of our School community have supported this wonderful organisation and their events over the years, and it is hoped that we can do so again this year by signing up to join them on the walk. Given the current situation with lockdown, all participants are encouraged to create their own route and walk with FC wherever you are. This year, they will be having an Amazing Race with lots of different fun tasks to complete on the way, such as photo and video challenges, brain teasers, trivia questions and scavenger hunts.
Friendship Bakery
Don’t forget, if you would like to support Friendship Bakery at Mark Moran Vaucluse, a social enterprise initiative of The Friendship Circle engaging young adults with disabilities in the local community through skills development and workplace experiences, please use their contactless ordering and pick-up.
Shabbat Shalom. Stay safe, stay home and have a great lockdown weekend. We look forward to sharing more news with you again next week.
If you have photos and/or news to share, please send to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au