Volume 30 Issue 26 27 Aug 2021 19 Elul 5781

Seeking grandparents

Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations

We hope you and your families are well as we continue to spend these challenging times in lockdown. Some of you live in LGAs of concern – we hope you are all doing OK and not finding the curfews too difficult.

I am so proud to be part of Emanuel School where our teachers and support staff continue to be amazing, caring human beings as are all our students and their families, helping each other as best as we can within the limitations of the lockdown rulings. 

We should ALL be so proud of ourselves and of each other! As we know, the COVID rulings change all the time – by checking this link, you can see the latest updates.

Grandparents – where are you?

Grandparents are important vital members of our School Community, and we hope many of them take the opportunity to read Ma Nishma each week. It is a great way to stay connected with us all, especially whilst we are in lockdown, but also anytime. Unfortunately, we are missing up-to-date email contact details for many of our grandparents, so please send through grandparent contact details so they too can read about what is happening at School, albeit it all online for now. 

They will also receive our Grandparents and Friends newsletter. You can see past issues of this newsletter along with our alumni newsletters online. Living interstate and/or overseas, means some of “our” grandparents never have an opportunity to come to School, so connecting electronically can be really meaningful and a great way for them to see what their grandchildren are doing at School in spite of the distance apart.

Don’t forget to join us for our Zoom Emanuel Kabbalat Shabbat at 4.00 pm each Friday, when 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.

Last chance before sunset today

A message from JCA and the Australian Jewish Historical Society

This is your chance to be part of history in the making! COVID-19 is one of the most significant events in our lifetime and in order to document the lives of the Sydney Jewish community, the Australian Jewish Historical Society and JCA want to know what an ‘ordinary day’ in lockdown looks like for you! 

Today, Friday 27 August 2021, between sunrise and sunset, SMS (0410 689 394) or email one picture from your day to become part of historical record #ordinaryday

Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020/2021

Did you tune in to the Opening Ceremony of The Tokyo Paralympic Games on Tuesday evening? As I watched our Australian team enter the stadium I felt a huge gush of pride, just as I did a few weeks ago when I watched the Australian Olympic Team do the same at the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games. Lucky for us here in Sydney, Tokyo is only one hour time behind us, so watching the Games should not cause any of us to become sleep-deprived. We are excited to see the many inspiring stories of these athletes for us to appreciate as we cheer them on from our televisions here in Sydney. From 24 August  2021 to 5 September 2021, students across the country will be cheering on local athletes in the Paralympic Games.

For fictional Australian stories of children with disability achieving in sport, see #RockyAndMe and #TheLegendOfBurnoutBarry from the DisRupted series of short films. Find out more here.

Such a busy weekend, even in lockdown:

  • Friendship Circle Virtual Walk The race is on this Sunday, 29 August 2021, but it’s important to stay safe! Please follow all directives from NSW Health as advice keeps changing. 

This event is FC’s 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.

  • Online annual commemoration of the Sanctum of Remembrance Reading of the Names Reading of the Names, held jointly by the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) together with the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors & Descendents on Sunday 29 August 2021: rsvp@sjm.com.au

Scrolling of Names: 3:50 pm
Events begin: 4:00 pm

Guest speaker will be Sam Weiss (Emanuel alumnus, Class of 2012), the composer in residence with the Sydney Children’s Choir, which has a cultural partnership with SJM for 2021. Sam will share his deeply personal compositional journey, which includes his composition entitled “Deine Mami”, in memory of his grandmother, Holocaust survivor Nelly Weiss. Sam will also discuss the importance of the next generation passing on the memory of the Holocaust

An inspiring afternoon with Steve Solomon

It’s not too late to register for our special event with Australia’s 400m Olympian, Steve Solomon on 1 September 2021. Steve will be talking to our students, staff and the Emanuel community about his incredible journey to the Olympics.  

Date: 1 September 2021
Time: 2:15 pm – 3:15 pm
The Zoom link will be shared closer to the event.
RSVP is essential 

Remember September

As we fast approach September, alumnus Ben Wilheim, founder of Remember September, would love us to join in this year’s event, to raise awareness and funds for research to find a cure for pancreatic cancer. A new challenge has been added this year, the walking challenge, which is the most popular so far – GIVE IT UP and MOVE IT. Ben says “this year with nearly two weeks out from the challenge starting, we have more than 1,200 challengers and have raised $238,000.00 already. See here to sign up.

A most unusual Rosh Hashanah 2021/5782 

Rosh Hashanah is less than two weeks away and as we will still be in lockdown then, most of us will be cooking and baking for far less people than in previous years, given that sadly we cannot have any visitors to our homes. There are numerous Facebook posts of Zoom events to help us prepare for Yom Tov, including one organised by “B’nai B’rith (BB) WOMANPOWER”, a group to which some of our parents are members. Here is a message from past parent Vivienne Radomsky, Project Manager BBNSW: join us next week Tuesday (31 August 2021) for a Rosh Hashanah cook off and message with Rabbanit Judy Levitan. Grab your ingredients and make a Honey Cake and Moroccan Carrot and Date Salad.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85676342717
Meeting ID: 856 7634 2717
Passcode: 193927

 

The Facebook group “Friday Night”, now with more than 14,000 members world-wide, started by Emanuel parent Susie Rosen has some wonderful Yom Tov recipes.

 

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. They are also baking special Rosh Hashanah hampers for which orders must be placed by the 31 August 2021. 

Jewish Changemaker Awards 2021

Many of our current High School students and past students in the Jewish community are making the world a better place through their amazing volunteering efforts. If your children or grandchildren fit this brief, please nominate them to win.

Through the Jewish Changemaker Awards, JNF Australia, B’nai B’rith NSW and The Australian Jewish News are honouring individuals in our community who have made a difference. Seven incredible young adults aged 14 to 36 from around Australia will be recognised for their outstanding contributions to Jewish Community, Australian Society and to Israel.

We would love to see more of our students recognised for their wonderful volunteering efforts, so please send through  nominations!

If you have a special online activity, photos or news you would like to share with us, please send to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

Shabbat Shalom. Stay safe, stay home and we hope you all have a good lockdown weekend. We look forward to sharing more news with you again next week.