Meeting with Royalty
Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations
Meeting with Royalty
We congratulate Emanuel parent, Andy Kuper, founder and CEO of Leapfrog Investments, who was just one of 20 global CEOs and chairs invited to join King Charles and President Biden to discuss their shared passion – protecting our environment. Not too many people can say they have met and had lunch with a King and a President. If you missed Andy’s interview in the AJN recently, you can read it here.
Note: If you read the whole article you will know Andy’s thoughts about the lunch on offer at this auspicious event. Some of our readers may recall that Andy was Guest Speaker at our High School Speech Night in 2019, where he told the students and other guests in the audience: “I am standing here tonight because I went out into the wide world and experimented, searched, stumbled and leapt across boundaries that pretty much every adult told me were impossible to cross…Don’t plan your life, plan your adventures in living”. If you have a copy of the 2019 YearBook, you can read Andy’s full speech on pages 178-179 which he finishes by saying: “Graduating Class of 2019 and all Emanuel students at the end of a big year, a hearty mazal tov. Thank you for your inspiration and energy. I’m so excited to see the paths you lay down. We can all live in hope if we can follow where you lead. Good luck! Go plan your adventures”.
Australian Emerging Motion Awards (AEMA)
Alumnus, Ethan Cohen (Class of 2017), will be launching a new initiative next month – a competition designed to connect emerging motion designers aged 25 or younger. Ethan, together with fellow alumnus and current parent, Danny Stern (Class of 2004), a motion designer and director, will be judging this competition, which will be open to High School students. Ethan says: “Danny and I haven’t worked together directly but it’s a very small industry in Australia, so we met up once just to chat and worked out very quickly that we are both Emanuel graduates – small industry and small world!”. Watch this space for more details about the competition.
Are you running City2Surf on Sunday 13 August 2023?
Alumna Rikki Stern
Alumna Rikki Stern (Class of 2016), cancer survivor and Founder of Cancer Chicks, has asked our SchoolCommunity to support her worthy cause if we can. Rikki says: “If you are planning to run or walk this year’s City2Surf and would like to join our Cancer Chicks team or make a donation to help us raise money to launch the Cancer Chicks Navigational Carer Program and Re-Employment Initiative, I would be so grateful.” Please click this link.
Sydney Jewish Writers Festival (SJWF)
Wednesday 23 August 2023 – Sunday 27 August 2023
This year’s festival, to be held at Bondi Beach Pavilion, promises to be an amazing event held over five days and is less than a month away. The three streams of exceptional writers, poets, musicians, playwrights, comedians and thinkers promise to challenge us to explore the theme of identity from every angle. Presenters include members of our Emanuel School community – parent Kerri Sackville, author, columnist and social commentator; parent Lee-Anne Whitten, Senior Educator at Sydney Jewish Museum; Kim Slender, past Emanuel parent and was also our School Counsellor for many years, now Psychology and Education Consultant at The Sydney Jewish Museum and past parent Joanne Fedler, an internationally best-selling author and past parent. This event is powered by Shalom.
Friendship Circle (FC)
There are numerous volunteering opportunities with FC for adults and also for your High School children and older children too, be they as a one-off or on a regular basis including Day Camps, Sunday Circle, Weekend Getaways and Sports Clubs. They also have a Parent Support Group for parents of children with disabilities. Check it all out here.
Friendship Circle Walk – save the date
Sunday 27 August 2023
Friendship Circle with this year’s Walk theme: Friendship, is represented by its AUSLAN sign. They say friendship is at the root of everything we do, and truly what Friendship Circle is all about. We provide opportunities for friendship and connections among children and young people with and without disabilities. And often, parents become friends too after getting to know each other as they drop off their child at a program or meet up at one of our Parent Nights. Over the years, we have been able to create our own inclusive community where everyone feels welcome.
Ready to hit the big screen
Alumna Lexee Gordoun
Alumna, Lexee Gordoun (Class of 2017), a passionate writer, producer and film director, has already won a number of international awards for her film-making. Here is the synopsis of her latest short film Sasha’s Game: When a young Jewish boy Sasha is caught in the midst of WWII, his desperate mother Larissa sorts fake papers for them to forge their identity, however, in order for this to work, Sasha will have to battle his identity in a vital growth period in his life to survive the war as a female, Sala.
This film is based on a book called ‘I AM SASHA’ written by Anita Seltzer, the daughter of the Holocaust survivor, Sasha. Lexee says: “I was approached by the author with a copy of the book to create into a film that will raise awareness for her father and grandmother’s story and their hardships throughout the terrors that was experienced during WWII. This short film is a proof of concept for a feature film.” Here is the official trailer.
It will shown at the Melbourne Jewish Film Festival on Tuesday 31 October 2023 and introduced there by fellow Emanuel alumnus, Simon Holloway, (Class of 1997) now Manager of Adult Education and Academic Engagement at Melbourne Holocaust Museum and it will then be screened at the Sydney Jewish Film Festival on Saturday 11 November 2023.
Lexee says: “As a young Jewish woman, raised on the stories of my ancestors constant struggle against adversity, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust which wiped out six million Jewish people, I feel responsible as a story-teller to speak for those who no longer can tell their stories, and survived the horrors of such events.”
Primary Grandparents and Friends Day
Friday 8 September 2023
Please make sure grandparents of students in Years K – 6 have this date in their diaries – it is an event not to be missed. Details will be out soon.
Remember September 2023
Founded by alumnus Ben Wilheim (Class of 2008), Remember September is leading the charge to find a cure to pancreatic cancer. Ben hopes our School community will get behind this campaign and choose one of their challenges during the month of September to help raise awareness of this dreaded cancer and funds for research that will hopefully help find a cure.
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 and have a great weekend.