From the Principal

Anne Hastings – Principal

New Principal, Andrew Watt, to start in January 2018

I was delighted with the announcement of Emanuel’s new Principal from 2018 earlier this week and suspect that the grapevine of communication has been buzzing with people trying to find out as much about Andrew as possible!

The process of selection was rigorous as the committee underwent a wide search for the School’s new leader. They did me the honour of keeping me apprised of their progress as they underwent this important task. The field was very strong, with a number of excellent candidates who would undoubtedly do fine job of leading the School into the next phase. While not knowing Andrew personally before his selection, I know that his colleagues hold him in very high regard and believe that his attributes, values and philosophy match closely with that of our School. He also comes with extensive experience in a number of leadership roles.

Leaving the beautiful community of Emanuel School at the end of this year will be a difficult and emotional experience for me, as the past eight years have been very rewarding and inspiring, and I’ve connected with so many people. However, retirement from this intensive role beckons, and moving into the next phase of life is something I’m also looking forward to with anticipation and excitement.

I have great confidence that, through Andrew’s leadership, he will ensure the continued success and high standing of Emanuel School. I will be pleased to introduce him to the community in coming months and will do everything possible to ensure a smooth transition of leadership for our School.

Staff Development Day

All of our staff were involved in Child Protection training on Monday, our Staff Development Day. This 4-hour course, Obligations in Identifying and Responding to Children and Young People at Risk, was presented by the AIS (Association of Independent Schools). School staff members are Mandatory Reporters of any situation where a child might be at risk of significant harm and it is essential that we ensure our staff’s awareness and vigilance in relation to the behavioural and physical indicators for children who may be at risk. Our community, supportive and protective of our children as it is, is not immune to being in situations that put children at risk of harm and we must be continually ensuring our students are in a safe and supportive environment and without risk of significant harm. This is our moral, as well as legislated, responsibility which we take very seriously.

Reports

Parents and carers should have received a report for each child at the end of last term. If you did not, please ring the School and speak to Reception on 8383 7333. Please take the time to read carefully and discuss these reports with your children, helping them to identify areas of focus for their action plan for this semester. Teachers put a great deal of time and energy into writing these reports so that they are helpful to both you and your child in continuing to improve their learning.

Online ordering for the Canteen

A reminder to parents, including those of High School students, to use the online ordering system for the Canteen through Flexischools, a link to which is on the parent and staff portal. Many Primary students are using this system but only a few High School students, who can avoid having to queue for their food at lunchtimes by pre-ordering.

Mazal Tov to

• Each of the successful Emanuel students in the Maccabiah games in Israel (see the page on
  

  Students raising money for the Gildapil village in East Timor

  Connecting our Community for details)
• The students who will be travelling to East Timor and who ran a very successful fund-raising day yesterday for the school of Gildapil village.

Coming up

• Year 9 Ski Camp, 23 – 28 July
• Leo Baeck students arrive, Sunday 23 July
• High School Madrichim Induction, Tuesday 25 July, 8:15 am in the MPH
• East Timor Trip, 30 July – 9 August
• HSC Trial Examinations 31 July – 11 August
• Year 8 Subject Selections meeting for Year 9 2018, Tuesday 1 August, 7 pm
• Breakfast with Emanuel, The Little Space Bondi Junction, Wednesday 2 August, 7:30 – 9:00 am

Quote of the week

‘Diligence is the mother of good luck’. [Benjamin Franklin]

Best wishes for an enjoyable and relaxing weekend.

Shabbat Shalom

From the Primary School

Natanya Milner – Head of Primary

Term 3 goals

Welcome to Term 3! I hope you all had a happy holiday break and enjoyed spending time with your children. We have had a wonderful start to the term and have enjoyed hearing all about the adventures of the past fortnight. Mrs Clemens and I started the week by sharing an organisational and a learning goal with the children in Years 3-6. I thought it would be worth letting you know what we have shared with them.

Mrs Milner’s goals for Term 3

Learning Goal – I would like the children to focus upon innovation. We discussed that innovation is about improvement. This could be in any area – Science, English, Maths, Hebrew, Art….anything! We talked about not accepting our first attempts but to rethink, reconsider and redesign in order to come up with a better, more efficient or more creative solution or product.

Organisational Goal – My organisational goal was about punctuality. It is important that all students are on campus by 8.15 am each day and ready for the 8.20 am start. Too often, students are arriving late, missing important announcements and beginning the day in an unsettled manner. Whilst we understand the occasional appointment, illness or delay, it is important that the children are organised the evening before and leave in plenty of time to manage reasonable traffic delays and morning hiccups.

Mrs Clemens’ goals for Term 3

Learning Goal – Mrs Clemens asked the students to consider the challenge of becoming more resilient this term. She offered examples of when things may not go well the first time (either academically or socially) and the importance of ‘bouncing back’ in order to grow and learn through these experiences.

Organisational Goal – Mrs Clemens’ organisational goal was about wearing the correct uniform to school. She asked students to ensure they are in full school/sport uniform each day and consider the smaller details such as removing bracelets and nail polish, wearing the correct earrings and hair ties. Boys are reminded to have kippot available.

We appreciate and thank you for your support in encouraging your children to focus upon and achieve these goals.

Amazing debaters

The list of Best Debaters from the HICES South Sydney Region/Regional Rounds has been published. These students will be receiving certificates at the Awards Ceremony following the Grand Finals. Well done to the following students and also a HUGE thank you to Lauren Wigan, Suzanne Plume and Jemma Lopis for all their work to train and support our debaters. What an outstanding result for our Primary School team!

Junior results:

   1^st: Jake Newfield 

   3^rd: Ethan Zines 

   4^th equal: Eden Levitt 

   5^th: Miriam Stubbs-Goulston 

Deborah Blackman – Keep Them Safe

This term, Deborah Blackman will be working with Years K, 1, 3 and 5 to ensure that the children have a strong understanding of protective behaviours and child protection issues. She offers practical advice on good and bad secrets, how to manage difficult situations and ensuring children have a list of safe adults from whom they can seek support. Deborah offers a parent workshop and I encourage all parents to come along (feel free to come for a refresher if you have been before). It is one of the most important courses any parent can do in order to support their children to be safe and open with these matters. The workshop will be held on 10 August from 7.30-8.30 am in the Primary School Library.

Building works

Calendar links

Next Week’s Calendar Link

2017 Calendar Link

 Term 3 K-2 assembly Items

• 28 July (Week 2): Puppet Club
• 11 August (Week 4): 1B Miss Hynek’s Class
• 25 August (Week 6): YK Hebrew
• 8 September (Week 8): KH Ms Yunis’ Class
• 22 September (Week 10): School closed for Rosh Hashanah

From the Primary Library

Ginette Cameron-Gardner Primary Teacher/Librarian

Welcome back to school. I hope that you had a wonderful vacation and travelled the world through the pages of the books you read. There are many new books in the Primary Library and one of my favourites is The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by New York Times bestselling author Meg Wolitzer.

If you enjoy Scrabble, Chess or any other board game that has a National Championship then you will relate to this book, as 3 children who have nothing in common except Scrabble come to the Tournament with the aim of winning. They have very different backgrounds and different reasons for wanting to win. 

April Blunt has three sporting champions as brothers. She is not at all sporty and is trying to find a way of achieving. Nate Saviano would rather ride his skateboard but his father is trying to live vicariously through him and pushes Nate to win the Championship that he lost 25 years before. Duncan Dorfman has moved to a new town, his single mum’s old hometown, and is trying to fit in. He discovers that, not only is he good at Scrabble, he can actually feel what the letters are through the pouch, which gives him an unfair advantage if he uses it. This gift is the touch of magic in the book.

This is a well-structured story that has shrewd observations and wry humour as it explores how these preadolescent boys and girls search for identity.

Readers will be anxious to discover who will take home the grand prize of $10,000, but there’s much more at stake than winning and losing.

NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge 2017

Online Student Reading Records need to be completed by 25 August 2017

Mazal tov to the following students who completed the NSW Premiers Reading Challenge by entering their reading records over the vacation:

Year 6 students: Allie Armstrong, Benjamin Brock, Toby Danon, Alexis Demos, Sophie Freedman, Ashley Goldman, Ella Hart, Aiden Merten, Tali Yedid and Ethan Zines.

Year 7 students: Myles Cohn, Anna Davis, Nathalie Freed, Eden Glass, Jesse Keyser, Matthew Lowy and Year 9 student, Miriam Itzkowitz. 

I am hoping that there will be a flurry of students entering their reading soon as there are only a few weeks to go. The Emanuel community members are great readers but not so great at entering reading. Some students only need one book entered to complete their record on the NSW Premiers Reading Challenge. 

Primary Library Friday closing hours

The Primary Library will be closing at 3.30 pm during Term 3 on Fridays for Shabbat.

Primary eActive

Term 3 extra-curricular clubs

Emma Hill | Primary Teacher and Extra-Curricular Leader

All Term 3 clubs can be viewed online through the Parent Portal in the ‘extra-curricular’ tab (see below). Parents are now able to enrol students online for the majority of paid clubs using our Parent Portal link below.

myportal.emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au/parent/extra-curricular/

If you click on any of the clubs or classes that are underlined, you will be redirected to that club’s booking or information page.

Please note classes have minimum enrolment numbers.

Mondays

Advanced Junior Engineers in Year 5 Netanya from 3.40 – 4.25 pm. More students needed. Hopefully resuming in Week 2 (24/7/17)

Beginners Junior Engineers – More students needed.

ChiFUNese Mandarin (Beginner) in 5 Yavneh from 3.35 – 4.35 pm – Commences Week 2 (24/7/17)

Tuesdays

Typing4Kids in Year 6 Yad Mordechai from 3.45 – 4.45 pm – Commenced Week 1 

JeSTAR in the Millie Phillips Theatre from 3.45 – 5.00 pm (First Tuesday lesson will be 25/7/17)

Wednesdays

Dramatic Action in The Aron Kleinlehrer Performing Arts Centre (PAC) from 3.30 – 4.30 pm – Commenced Week 1 

Thursdays

JeSTAR in the Millie Phillips Theatre from 3.45 – 5.00 pm – Commenced Week 1 

Please contact clubs directly if you have any questions. For all other queries please contact Emma Hill – ehill@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

Extra-curricular news

Travels and travails from the Head of Jewish Life

Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Travels and travails

This week’s parashah is fittingly called Mas’ei, Journeys/Travels, as it concludes the book of BeMidbar, reviewing the wanderings of the Israelites in the Wilderness.

I recently returned from Ladakh (in Northern India) whose population is largely comprised of Tibetan refugees who fled their homeland in the 1950s, following the Chinese occupation. I made my way to this difficult to access yet beautiful and intriguing land to experience and gain a better understanding of Tibetan culture.

Prior to visiting Ladakh, I had been in Tibet which, on contemporary maps, often appears as part of China, reflecting Chinese control of the Tibetan homeland since 1959. In Tibet, it is a criminal offence to own a Tibetan flag and Tibetans are required to fly Chinese flags on their houses and residences. Visiting Tibet and then Ladakh, one could understand the Tibetan sentiment that they are in ‘exile’ at home and at ‘home’ in exile.

I visited several refugee communities in Ladakh, the largest, Choglamsar, on the outskirts of Leh, as well as several communities in the Pangong Lake region, which Nomadic families call home.

A 73 year old man who fled Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, as a child, without his parents who were killed by the occupying Chinese forces, proudly brought me to his ‘free settlement’ over which he flew his large Tibetan flag and indicated, in pointing to the mountains through which he made his way to freedom, that one day his people, if not he himself, will once again fly their flag over their homeland.

In Choglamasar, which was given the name Sonamling Tibetan Settlement by the Dali Lama, who fled to India with 80,000 of his countrymen in 1959, and, with them, still remains in exile, I met a Tibetan refugee who together with his son were the only surviving members of his large family who made the journey to freedom in the mass exodus of his people. I spoke with the grandfather and grandson who worry for the future of their people and if they are living in the age of the last Dali Lama.

In his book The Jew in the Lotus (echoing the Tibetan mantra “Om mani padme hum”- Praise the Jewel in the Lotus), Roger Kamanetz describes Dali Lama’s historic meeting with a group of Rabbis and his great desire to understand how our people survived and thrived in exile and how his people might be blessed with the same good fortune.

Mas’ei records the travels and the travails of the Israelites at the same time as it points to the promised land the people will soon enter. I wonder if the Tibetans likewise will experience the triumph of hope upon the heels of more than half a century of travel and travail. I hope the words of the Dali Lama night prove prescient: “It is difficult to violently suppress people in the long run, as the example of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries has shown”.

Year 11 Tikkun Leil Shavu’ot program

The Lion, the sheep and Noah’s ark

Our Year 11 Tikkun Leil Shavu’ot program afforded our students the opportunity to explore and share their ideas of God and revelation with their peers and their teachers.

The reflections of our informal Jewish educator, Daniel Samowitz, following his experience that night, appear below. The thoughts of “Samo” are in the spirit of our tradition, “I have learned much from my teachers, more from my peers but most of all from my students”.

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Daniel Samowitz – Jewish Life Madrich

I learn so much from my students

It’s easy in days like these to fall into despair about the world and its goings on. At times the Trump administration makes me wish for Frank Underwood (President from House of Cards). A refugee crisis is exploding around the world, and borders are getting tighter – that begs the question when people say “never again”, what do they mean?

When it comes to peace in the Middle East, one is left speechless, because it’s all been said and nothing changes.

But every now and then you need to cherish the moments in which you are reminded of the arc of history and you see in future generations connections to our vibrant story and more tools to deal with the dilemmas of the future than we had.

It’s not uncommon to hear murmurings of the God debate in the hallways of Emanuel, a debate I’ve chosen not to deal with for years. I remember the night when I was 18 that I stopped my conversation with God. I felt immature, I felt like I needed to grow up. I remember the questions:

• If there is a God, why do bad things happen?
• What about science?
• How did the lion not eat the sheep on Noah’s ark?
• Also speaking about Noah, why did God kill everyone? Do I want to believe in a God that conducts itself in that way?
• If I was born in Pakistan would I still believe in this one true God? How would I look at the world?
• Did God really write a book? And did she really think homosexuals should die because they wanted to be who they were?
• Who and what was I talking to?

We live in an age of choice. We live in a postmodern reality that seems to have no place for a God.

It used to be that believing in God gave you a certain amount of certainty, safety and security. Now not believing feels more logical. Science answers most questions except for why and even then it sometimes does too.

I write all this because this Shavuot I had a revelatory experience. I went into a situation where I, the educator, brought a conversation about how as individuals and a community we relate to God.

That day I found God in my students. I found God in the next generation’s abilities to dream, to think, feel and delve into the depths of their souls and make themselves vulnerable to each other, from humanity to justice, to truth, to a higher purpose. I found people with a maturity that could teach a thing or two to leaders in the world today. I found people with questions and I found people confused.

My students taught me that the way I have been relating to the God question has been incredibly flawed. They taught me belief isn’t immature, they taught me God can be spirituality, connection and justice. My students taught me to answer my 18 year old questions in a way that I feel comfortable and true to myself.

I was and am still deeply moved by the younger generation in our community. People sometimes feel uneasy with the perceived apathy of the younger generations and I do understand where they are coming from. I don’t think liking a post on Facebook is a form of social protest/Tikkun Olam! But I am excited by this new generation of young people who are answering the age old Jewish question of “who, if not I?”. They have taught me to believe again, believe in myself, to believe in a better world and a brighter tomorrow, to believe in starting a conversation that I stopped a long time ago. 

Israeli teenager finds cure for Anthrax

Daphna Levin-Kahn – High School Jewish Life Co-ordinator

Israeli teenager cures Anthrax

This week the Year 11 students were privileged to hear from a young and brilliant scientist, interested in the field of biomedicine. Medical technology and its study are advancing at rapid rates and many of us would have heard about today’s bacterial infections and their increasing resistance to antibiotics – quite a scary thought. This inspirational talk was given by Sarit Sternberg, a truly remarkable young scientist who also happens to be a 16-year-old school student like many of our students, and how she is changing the face of Medicine.

Her study examined bacteriophages, a type of virus that infects and replicates within a bacterium, thus destroying the infection. After many hours spent analysing and testing different samples she discovered the bacteriophage killed bacterial infections such as Anthrax (she named it SNα320). Although Anthrax is not common these days and can be prevented by vaccination, it is still a vicious and life-threatening illness and is used in biological warfare attacks. This treatment will help defend against these attacks by treating those affected. Sarit’s presentation was especially motivating considering her age and that she is still a school student, and also because of her determination to make a positive change and succeed. In doing so, she accomplished not only her own goal but has also made a significant impact on Medicine and improving people’s lives.

Edan Amsalem

Sarit was absolutely inspiring to listen to. At multiple points during the speech I had to remind myself I was listening to the words of a 16-year-old and not a university graduate! Her drive to make people’s lives better, commitment to the project and ultimate success in finding the phages are inspirational at any age, but particularly relevant to those of us still in High School. It’s not often that we see examples of people our own age going out and achieving great things. One mindset that I’ve found to be particularly common is that we’ll finish school, get a degree and then we’ll start making a difference. However, the key message I got out of hearing Sarit speak was that if you have the capacity to do something, and everyone does, you should do it, regardless of your age or anything telling you that you can’t.

Sienna Amoils

It is very inspiring seeing people my age who manage to accomplish projects which people can spend a lifetime on. The one thing that I find truly amazing is the opportunity that Sarit was offered by the Hebrew University, being able to develop and work on a project at the level of a professional whilst still being able to balance school life. I learnt so much about phages and how they can possibly be more successful than antibiotics. The talk was very inspirational and I’m so glad I was given the opportunity to listen to it. 

Aron Jaffe

Sarit has been accompanying Hebrew University President, Professor Menahem Ben-Sasson on a fundraising and awareness-raising visit to Australia, as guests of the Australian Friends of Hebrew University. Following Sarit’s fascinating lecture, Professor Ben-Sasson encouraged our students to be an active part of a better future for themselves and the world.

This amazing young lady and her visit to Emanuel School even made a brief appearance in the SBS evening news!

www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/07/18/16-year-old-israeli-behind-anthrax-killing-virus

Liron Smith, Sienna Amoils, Sarit Sternberg, Michal Wolstein and Edan Amsalem

Connecting our Community – Gesher

Sonia Newell – Development Officer

Medals and memories galore

In my “Connecting our Community” page just before the term break, I highlighted Emanuel community members who were heading off to Israel for Maccabiah 2017.  What an amazing experience it was for them all – 18 current students as well as parents and alumni.

It was also a sombre time for some participants who had also been part of the Australian contingency 20 years earlier, with the Maccabiah Bridge disaster and subsequent deaths of four Australian athletes – Greg Small, Yetty Bennett, Elizabeth Sawicki and Warren Zines – and serious injury to many other athletes including Sasha Elterman, Emanuel alumna (Class of 2000), then a 15-year old student and top tennis player.

The 2017 Australian team which included around 30 members of our School community, entered the Teddy stadium in Jerusalem for the Opening Ceremony on 6 July, led by Emanuel parent and Team Captain Sean Bloch carrying the Australian team flag, with cheering from all corners of the stadium filled with hundreds of Australian supporters!  Sean went on to win two individual silver medals and a bronze team medal in men’s cycling.

History was made for Australia during these games in a number of sports. The junior girls football (soccer) team is the only Australian Maccabi football team ever (male or female, senior or junior), to reach a Maccabiah football semi finals. The team which included five Emanuel students – Nadia Coburn, Lara Joffe, Isabelle Shulz, Lara Rutstein and Jordan Weizman, only just missed out on the bronze medal, but they had the best result ever, well done girls!.

The Junior Netball team was undefeated throughout the games, and went on to win Gold – two Year 11 Emanuel students, Gina Seligsohn and Shai Stern are members of this team.  I am sure the girls will bring their gold medals to school to show their fellow students, as will all our medal winners!

From our parents, Trevor Sidley won gold in the Mens Open Golf and bronze in the Mens Open Golf Team event, whilst Daniella Goodridge won gold in the Masters 50m Freestyle event and bronze in the Masters Swimming 50m Backstroke.

Leo Lipman (Year 10) comes home with a silver medal – Junior Boys Cricket team, whilst Amy Collins (Year 11) has a bronze medal as a member of the Junior Girls Basketball team. Alumni Robbie Ezekiel (Class of 2013) and Bradley Sarif (Class of 2015)  won silver medals as members of the Open Mens Futsal team. 

Parent Phillip Behr won bronze in the 1.5km open water swim. 

Apologies in advance if I have missed other medal winners. You can see a list of all Australian medallists at: www.maccabi.com.au/Maccabiah/News/6416/MEDAL-ROLL-OF-HONOUR-Every-medallist-listed.cfm

Here now are just a few of the many very special photos from the games:

• Gina Seligsohn and Shai Stern (Year 11) with their gold medals – Junior Netball champions
• Gabriella (Gabi) Goodridge (Year 9) and her father Anthony who was Coach of the Junior Swimming Team, of which Gabi was a member and medal winner. They are pictured together with her gold-medal-winning mum, Daniella, a member of the Womens Swimming Masters team and Daniella’s first cousin, alumnus Shaun Jankelowitz (Head Madrich, Class of 2004), a member of the Australian Rugby team.
• Jared Elbourne (Year 10), three bronze medals (swimming)
• Danielle (Dani) Rutstein (Year 9) – silver medal 4 x 100m relay; bronze medal 4 x 400m relay; bronze medal high jump.

We are so proud of all our Emanuel Community sportsmen and women who participated in Maccabiah 2017, medal-winners or not.  Well done to you all!

If you have more Maccabiah photos you would like to share, please send to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

Goodridge family and Shaun Jankelowitz (right)

Jared Elbourne in action

Gina Seligsohn and Shai Stern

Danielle Rutstein

Breakfast with Emanuel

Waverley Depot Lost and Found – thank you!

Thanks a million

Ben Rozen and Noah Klein visited the Waverley Bus Depot to offer a gift and thanks to the staff at the Lost and Found Property Office who so kindly contact the School when students leave their ‘stuff’ on the buses.

Pictured are Ben Rozen (he had his blazer posted back to the school), Noah Klein (who received a call and a claim number to retrieve his blazer) and Stephen Kho from Waverley Lost Property and one of the many drivers who drive Emanuel students on the School Specials. We also thank Deborah Shoer (not pictured) who has also been ensuring Emanuel students’ lost property gets back home.

From the Parents and Friends

Ruby Berkovic and Jennifer Opit

Welcome back to Term 3! We are halfway through the year. Hope you all had a lovely term break.

 

Hopefully most of you have heard about the big event we’re hosting this year: our “Comedy for a Cause” Comedy Night. It is at the School on Saturday 19 August. The Canteen will be open for you to purchase a light supper and there is a fantastic line up of comedians (see the poster below). We will have auction prizes and it’s an amazing opportunity to mingle as well as support the P&F and the School.

 

We really hope to see you there. This is the link to book: comedyforacause.net/ES

 

We hope everyone has had a nice first week back

Jen and Ruby