Old School Ties
Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations
Do you still have your School tie?
Alumna and current parent Michelle Levitt (nee Drexler), Class of 2000 recently donated her old school tie to our archives. It is pictured below, along with our current school tie, which is worn by all students from Years 5 -11 and then in Year 12 students receive a special tie for their final year of School, which is featured on the right hand side of the photograph. If you have any old records, photographs or other items of interest from the early days of the School, you might like to lend them to us so we can include them for display at events we are planning to hold this year as part of our celebrations of 40 Years of Emanuel School.
I am also sharing a photograph from the 2003 YearBook, celebrating 20 years of the School. You might be able to see in small print where then Emanuel parents Diane and Paul Drexler say “Mazal Tov. Only wish that our girls could begin at Emanuel again!” – better than that they have returned as grandparents at School, with daughter Michelle’s children now in Year K and at Kornmehl Pre-school. Keynote Speaker at High School Speech Night in 2003 was Justice Ronald Sackville AO, KC, whose youngest granddaughter Calliope Owen is now in Year 10, with her sister Saachi finishing Year 12 in 2019.
The importance of geneology tools for tracing family roots
Many of our families have parents and grandparents who were born in Poland, some of whom managed to escape the horrors of the Holocaust whilst many other family members were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.
A lecture, “Navigating Polish Ancestry” by Michal Maiewski on Sunday 26 March 2023 at the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) may be of particular interest to some of our readers, both as parents and/or grandparents, especially those of Year 7 students, as you prepare to help them with this year’s Shorashim, where the students delve into their family roots. Perhaps some of our older students might also be interested in attending this free lecture. Michal, a historian and professional genealogist, will share his knowledge of the best websites, records and most recently digitised archives relating to the shifting borders of Greater Poland.
If you cannot make this lecture, there are many other lectures and exhibitions that may be of interest at SJM another time. Perhaps a tour of the Museum and/or for the amazing interactive high-tech exhibition “Reverberations: A Future for Memory”, which shines a light on the humanity and life experiences of 43 Holocaust survivors, who have shared their stories with visitors to the Museum in recent years. These survivors include many from our own School community including great grandparents Olga Horak OAM, Yvonne Engelman OAM, the late Eddie Jaku OAM and the late Lotte Weiss OAM as well as the late George Grojnowski and the late Helena (Lena) Goldstein plus current Emanuel grandparents Paul Drexler, Litzi Lemberg, Alice Loeb, Kitty Lowinger, Egon Sonnenschein and Mimi Wise.
Of the Body – Wednesday 5 April 2023
Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House
Alumna AJ America (Head Madricha, Class of 2012), founder of Luminescence Chamber Singers, will be performing at this unique event at the Sydney Opera House.
Maccabi LIFE
Connecting our Jewish community through sport and wellbeing
The next major community event is the Maccabi Life FUN RUN – open to all ages.
Following several successful events for over 60s last year, the first Senior Walkie Talkies event for 2023 is on Saturday 18 April 2023. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to enjoy meeting new people over a walk and a talk.
BRAVE TALKS
BRAVE TALKS is back after a sold-out event last November.
JewishCare NSW together with JCA bring our community four new speakers sharing their stories of anxiety, trauma recovery, overcoming adversity including a Paralympian, growing up with a parent experiencing depression. Join us on Thursday 30 March 2023 at 7.45 pm for our BRAVE TALKS event. Together, we have the courage to change the Mental Health conversation.
Book via the link.
Gift of Life
Still looking for a blood match for member of our Community
As many of you will know by now, we want to spread the word to help a member of our community, Murray Foltyn, the 41 year old brother and uncle of an Emanuel family, who has a rare blood cancer and requires an urgent blood stem cell transplant to help save his life.
Here’s how everyone can help:
If you fit the heritage criteria, please check your country’s age limit and the testing process below. Most countries are an easy mouth swab kit at home!
Australia: https://www.lifeblood.com.au/ .If you’re having trouble booking in please call them on 13 14 95.
🇺🇸 US: https://my.bethematch.org/s/join (18-40) – cheek swab
https://www.giftoflife.org/swab
https://www.dkms.org/register-now
🇬🇧 UK: https://www.dkms.org.uk/get-involved/become-a-donor (18-55) – cheek swab
🇮🇱 Israel: https://www.ami.org.il/ (18-45) – cheek swab
🇿🇦 South Africa: https://sabmr.co.za/ (16-45) – cheek swab
🇸🇰 Slovakia: https://swabtheworld.com/en/country/slovak-republic (18-45)
🇷🇺 Russia: https://swabtheworld.com/en/country/russia (18-45)
🇨🇦 Canada: https://www.blood.ca/en/stemcells/donating-stemcells/stemcell-eligibility-and-registration (17-35)
🇳🇿 NZ: https://www.bonemarrow.org.nz/#join-now (18-35)
🇨🇿 Czechia: https://www.darujzivot.cz/how-to-register (18-40)
🇲🇽 Mexico: https://bethematch.org.mx/
🌎 Other: https://swabtheworld.com/en/become-a-donor
A match overseas is as good as a match in Australia, as a donor’s stem cells can easily be sent to Australia once they’re on the worldwide register.
Careers Space 2023
If you have older children who are Emanuel graduates, we ask you to please pass this on to them. “Dear Emanuel graduates who finished school between 2007 and 2021, would you like to be involved in sharing your career story with our current students? Would you like to help shape the workforce of tomorrow? We are looking for Alumni who would like to come in to School and share those stories in an informal Q&A style setting. If you have had a messy or zig-zag path to your current role, even better. We would love to hear from you.
Details are:
Date: Friday 19 May 2023
Time: 8.30 am – 11.00 am
Where: Meet at Emanuel School Reception
Register: Please register your interest via this link
What: No preparation or presentations needed. Conversational style event.
Contact: Claire Pech
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 it to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au
Shabbat shalom, stay safe and have a great weekend.