50 years since we matriculated in 1969, classmates Dimitri Coutras, Ian Stein and I met last Thursday, 7 March 2019, at Sea Point High School (Sea Point Boys’ High in our time).
We started our tour at 11:30am and met the principal, Ms L Lebreton, librarian, Sharnette Gordon and Marlene Botha
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Basie still dominates!
Straight to the principal, L Le Breton’s office.
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A walk around the quad and corridors, and outdoors
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The school hall
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The library
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Six years ago I met with Phillip Levy and Rodney Goldberg in Sydney. Here is that post:
50 years since we matriculated in 1969, classmates Dimitri Coutras, Ian Stein and I met last Thursday, 7 March 2019, at Sea Point High School (Sea Point Boys’ High in our time).
We started our tour at 11:30am and met the principal, Ms L Lebreton, librarian, Sharnette Gordon and Marlene Botha
<
►
>
Basie still dominates!
Straight to the principal, L Le Breton’s office.
<
►
>
A walk around the quad and corridors, and outdoors
<
►
>
The school hall
<
►
>
The library
<
►
>
Six years ago I met with Phillip Levy and Rodney Goldberg in Sydney. Here is that post:
In Lena Goldstein’s story, we journey from her youth in Lublin Poland, through her life and deathstruggle in the Warsaw Ghetto, to a new life in Australia. Weaving this within the historical context, author Barbara Miller creates a gripping account of how Lena survived the lowest ebb in Jewishhistory. Lena’s story will inspire the next generation to be upstanders, and always to have hope!
Eli Rabinowitz, Educator, genealogist and filmmaker – WE ARE HERE! Foundation
In Australia #WeRemember by singing Zog Nit Keynmol, The Partisans’ Song.
Thanks to Phillip Masel for taking these photos at the ceremony in Mellbourne last night, and sharing them with us
Phillip, 96, was a friend of Hirsh Glik, the poet who wrote the poem in 1943.
Please Learn and Teach the Partisans’ Song to your students and children.
You have a choice of 28 languages, or even combinations, and now even in Noongar, Zulu and Xhosa
We can show you an easy and effective way to learn this before Yom Hashoah on 1 / 2 May 2019!
Learn The Partisans’ Song | tangential travel
Learn The Partisans’ Song | tangential travel
A Project For Your School Recite or sing the Partisans’ Song in your home tongue, or in a language you have learnt. Make a video, which can be as creative as you wish or just a simple recording. For the poem, each verse is made up of four lines. For the song, the last two lines in each verse are repeated. The Power Of Words The background and context The ‘Partisans’ Song’ – Zog Nit Kein Mol–written by Hirsch Glik, 22, in the Vilna Ghetto in 1943 is one of the most powerful songs of resistance and defiance ever written. While Hitler boasted that his Reich would endure for a thousand years, it is the Jewish people who resisted the forces of hatred and have endured, not the murderous Third Reich, which lasted twelve years. Today, 75 years on, long after the demise of Hitler’s murderous regime, the partisans’ song is now sung worldwide to mark the Jewish spirit of resistance. (Michael Cohen, Melbourne)
Listen to the Noongar, an Australian Aboriginal language, version.
View some of our videos of the song:
Videos | tangential travel
Videos | tangential travel
Beis Aharon School, Pinsk, Belarus
Videos of the Partisan Poem and Song Project ORT Compilation videos: Herzl Lyceum ORT, Chisinau, Moldova ORT Tallinn, Estonia Solomo Aleichemo ORT, Vilnius, Lithuania Solomo Aleichemo ORT singing the song during my visit in May 2017 ORT Chernivsti, Ukraine Kiev ORT #141, Ukraine ORT Odessa, Ukraine Moscow 1540 ORT, Russia Kazan ORT, Russia Samara ORT, Russia Mexico CIM ORT Herzlia High School, Cape Town, South Africa King David Victory Park, Johannesburg South Africa Sauleketis School, Vilnius Lithuania Dylan Kotkis of Carmel School, Perth The Poem in English The
WE ARE HERE! for Upstanders is a global program that promotes universal human rights and inclusive development. We are headquartered in Perth, Australia.
Using the stories of the Jewish Partisans, WE ARE HERE! seeks to inspire in young people the confidence and ability to stand up in the face of prejudice and oppression.
Holocaust educator and specialist Nance Adler of Seattle, Washington will visit Australia in August 2019. Nance will present to teachers, students and community leaders involved in education. We will also run workshops.
Nance’s Partisans’ Project and Lesson Plan have already been translated by our global team into Russian, Lithuanian, German, Polish and Spanish, and are available for free! https://wah.foundation/lesson/lesson-plan/
Professor Lynne Cohen, recently retired vice-chancellor of ECU – Edith Cowan University, has joined our project team. Lynne was also Head of the ECU School of Education in Western Australia
Through our network of global collaborators, there are now 27 language translations of the Partisans’ Song. The Partisans’ Song portal: https://elirab.me/znk
Recently we arranged translations into Aboriginal Noongar, Arabic and Xhosa, and soon in Zulu, Mongolian and Ladino.
The Partisans’ Song will be sung in Noongar in July at Ellenbrook Senior High School, with planned national media coverage of this World Premiere!
William Cooper
There is a strong theme connecting the Jewish Partisans and William Cooper, the Aboriginal leader who attempted to deliver his protest to the Nazi consulate in Melbourne on 6 December 1938, just after Kristallnacht. William’s petition was eventually accepted by Germany in 2017: http://www.jwire.com.au/uncle-boydie/
The Gandel Foundation, Melbourne has recently announced two scholarships in the name of William Cooper.
This powerful nine minute documentary film features Uncle Boydie, grandson of William Cooper, and Moshe Fiszman, a Holocaust survivor. https://youtu.be/1N700Olmw-U
Ties That Bind is now part of the USHMM’s – The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s (in Washington) presentation.
We are writing a lesson plan for this documentary. This will be freely available to teachers and students around the world.
Our North Queensland collaborator, Barbara Miller, has written the book: William Cooper – Gentle Warrior
We are also expanding our global online collaboration classes with World ORT and other schools. World ORT is the world’s largest Jewish education and vocational training non-governmental organisation. Several lesson plans will be offered to a global audience.
Recite or sing the Partisans’ Song in your home tongue, or in a language you have learnt. Make a video, which can be as creative as you wish or just a simple recording.
The Power Of Words
The background and context
The ‘Partisans’ Song’ – Zog Nit Keyn Mol – written by Hirsch Glik, 22, in the Vilna Ghetto in 1943, is one of the most powerful songs of resistance and defiance ever written.
Today, 75 years on, long after the demise of Hitler’s murderous regime, the partisans’ song is now sung worldwide to mark the Jewish spirit of resistance.
“Zog nit keyn mol, az du geyst dem letstn veg…….Never say that you have reached the end of the road……
Mir zaynen do! WE ARE HERE!
“This says that although it looks like the last moments of the life of the Jewish people, it is not, and where the blood was shed, will begin a new, a heroic and a wonderful Jewish life!” https://youtu.be/koA7fpGxRgw
If your parents and grandparents lived in or nearby one of the towns mentioned below before 1980 you can read about the Jewish history of the town and there is a good chance they will be mentioned in the relevant volumes of Jewish Life in the South African Country Communities
Five volumes have been published and I understand two more volumes are almost complete.
The names of many of the Jewish residents of each town is listed and if your parents or their parents came from a town in the areas published you can learn more about Jewish life and people in that dorp.
This is an ideal gift or book/s for your coffee table
The best person to contact for your book and for more information is Elona Steinfeld
First time translation and performance of the Partisans’ Song, Zog Nit Keynmol in Nyungar or Noongar, the language of a constellation of indigenous people living in the south-west of Western Australia.
Translation by Jesse John FLEAY – Edith Cowan University, Western Australia on 28 November 2018
Jesse John Fleay
The sound clip:
The translation:
I
Ngay ngayiny birnt
Mari warabiny maar wombar worl djidar mumbakiy
Kaya wanju wanju yakai yey
Budja daaginy Noongar yorga
II
Koorl budjara koorbon
Ngay ngayiny
Mirdap ngoop budja
Yakai kwadjet koorl
III
Ngangk djidar mumbakiy
Waam djenak dja-koorl dhabat
Koora koora nyitting
Koora koora nyitting
IV
Dudjarak ngoop
Dudjarakwombar djerta birak budja
Noongar yorga balay koordidjiny wandanginy
Dudjarak koordidjiny
V
Ngay ngayiny birnt
Mari warabiny maar wombar djidar mumbakiy
Kaya wanju wanju yakai yey
Budja daaginy Noongar yorga
Notes by the translator, Jesse John Fleay:
The universal concepts of the song tie in so well to Noongar songs of despair and war. We don’t believe in evil people, we believe in bad spirits that make people do bad things. So I adapted accordingly.
Also, nothing is ‘hidden’ in the Noongar cosmology, so for concealing, I used the smoke from a campfire, as I believed the masking of the smoke from a campfire worked rather poetically. We also don’t really have palms in the same context of a biblical perspective, so I went with desert (sand plain).
The next stage of the plan is for the choir of Ellenbrook Senior High School to learn and perform the Partisans’ Song in Noongar, under the direction of musical director, Stuart Rhine-Davis.
For more information, including all 25 language translations, visit our education portal: LEARN THE PARTISANS’ SONG
With Jewish Studies teacher, Michele Galanti and retired JS teacher Shirley Atlas
On 6 December 2018
William Cooper’s Legacy
William Cooper’s Legacy
What is that? Well, as you may know, Uncle William Cooper (1860- 1941) was an Indigenous activist and leader of his community, who also saw the injustices of the world around him, at a time when his own people were struggling for acceptance and their place in Australian society. When he heard of Kristallnacht in far off Europe, he organised for a delegation of Indigenous men and women to march to the German consulate in Melbourne, and presented them with a letter condemning the Jewish persecution. The Germans refused to accept the letter, but simply presenting it made Cooper a hero, especially in the eyes of the Jewish community.
Alon Trigger is the composer and Ron Jontof-Hutter wrote most of the text. They both studied at the Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem, where Maestro Asher Fisch of WASO also studied.
The aim of the project is to educate through art. In this particular piece, the heroic and unique efforts of Aboriginal leader William Cooper are highlighted through the intervention of a most unlikely man, deprived of rights himself, protesting to the the German Consul-General in Melbourne, representing one of the most advanced countries in the world. William Cooper is therefore a role model whose activism was virtually a lone voice during Germany’s break from civilization in the Nazi era.
Ron’s grandfather, Otto Jontof-Hutter, was one of those arrested during the Kristallnacht pogrom and sent to the Dachau Concentration Camp that 9 December 1938.
The story of William Cooper and Jontof-Hutter appeared in various overseas newspapers in 2015 which is the basis of the Cantata.
While the Cantata describes the metaphysical bond between those two men, despite never having met, artistic licence is kept to the minimum. People, events and text are for the large part genuine.
The Cantata is scored for a 45 piece orchestra, 10 voice choir/2 soloists and is about 37 minutes in duration.
A mini promo version of the duet between Cooper and Jontof-Hutter is available.
Kristallnacht Cantata promo Full Version
Kristallnacht Cantata promo Full Version
Kristallnacht Cantata; A Voice of Courage On November 10 the Nazi German Government ordered pogroms throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland. Thousand…
There are 3 sections 1- The chaos and creativity of Weimar/Nazi Germany, leading to 2- Kristallnacht and the bond between Cooper and Jontof-Hutter. They sing a duet describing kindness and decency as human values. The last section is about a better world where tolerance and kindness transcend different cultures as common values for all. The Cantata ends with messages for hope and optimism.
The intention is to perform the Cantata in Melbourne around April 2019. There have also have been expressions of interest to have it performed in Zurich, Germany, Los Angeles and Perth.
Alfred (Uncle Boydie) Turner, Cooper’s grandson, as well as Auntie Daphne Milwark his grandniece are both supportive of this cantata.
Viv Parry – Aboriginal People and the Holocaust Programs
Last week I visited the Arthur’s Road Shul in Sea Point, Cape Town, South Africa.
My previous visit was in November 2012.
Both also included research at the Kaplan Centre, UCT and the Gitlin Library at the Gardens Shul complex.
I have a personal interest in the shul as both my grandfathers, Rev. N M Rabinowitz and Socher Zeldin were present on 28 March 1953 at the signing of the documents establishing the shul in Sea Point.
Furthermore, my late cousin, Phyllis Jowell and her husband Cecil were linked with the restoration of the shul in more recent times.
The Shul Today
From my previous posts:
The original shul was in Buitenkant Street. Documents from Kaplan Centre at UCT. Thanks to Veronica Belling.
Framed photos found in the shul under the ladies’ section. Thanks Wendy Berger.
The names of the men in this photo were found in a newspaper article on the same day at the Kaplan Centre, UCT.
Second framed photo found at the shul.
The shul then moved to Virginia Ave, Vredehoek
100th Anniversary Brochure – article by Philip Goldman
The plaque in memory of Lily Segall, mother of Bubbles and daughter of Israel Kellner.
