and Jewish Life
How true a reflection of the Afrikaner-Jewish relationship was the pre-1948 antisemitism of the Afrikaner Press and Politicians? ((Part 1) – SA Jewish Board of Deputies
Ivan Kapelus considers the respective histories and complex relationship between of two distinct South African communities
Jill and my three day trip to Kalgoorlie by train
The Prospector Train
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalgoorlie
Arrival and walk about town
The Mining Museum
Around town
Kalgoorlie Hotel – thank you Afranio
Thank you Gaye and Wendy in the office
The Super Pit and Boulder
At the Palace Hotel with Toni
About town
Online Jewish genealogy resources to be focus of Jewish Genealogical Society talk on 23 May 2021
Online Jewish genealogy resources to be focus of Jewish Genealogical Society talk on 23 May 2021
Eli Rabinowitz, a board member of the IAJGS who lives in Australia and is from South Africa, will speak on “Journeys from Shtetl to Shtetl” for the Sunday, 23 May 2021, virtual meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois. His live streaming presentation will begin at a special time: 7:30 pm CST.
8:30 pm ES 5:30 pm WST
Monday 24 May 2021: 10:30 am Sydney, 8:30 am Perth, 3:30 am Israel, 2:30 am South Africa, 1:30 am UK
Registration https://jgsi.org/event-3988686
After you register, you will be sent a link to join the meeting. This webinar will be recorded so that JGSI’s paid members who are unable to view it live will be able to view the recording later.
For more information, see https://jgsi.org or phone 312-666-0100.
In his presentation, Rabinowitz will explain how to trace our past and plot our future, using 88 KehilaLinks, over 800 WordPress blog entries, Facebook posts, and other social media. He will also discuss heritage travels in the actual and virtual worlds.
In his talk, Eli will describe special events including commemorations and reunions of descendants. “An important activity is to visit a local school—either physically or online, to engage with students, especially in towns where a few buildings with Jewish symbols, or cemeteries that often contain illegible matsevot, are the only tangible memories of a once thriving community,” he said.
It is also important that family histories should be documented and shared at the same time as the special events, Eli said.
Examples of such recent ceremonies were the Bielski partisans’ descendants’ reunion in Naliboki and Navahrudak, Belarus; the new memorial for victims of the massacre that took place near Birzai, Lithuania; and the groundbreaking ceremony for the Lost Shtetl Museum in Šeduva, Lithuania.
Eli Rabinowitz was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and has lived in Perth, Australia, since 1986. He has researched his family’s genealogy and associated Jewish cultural history for over 30 years. Eli has travelled extensively, writing about Jewish life, travel, and education on his website, Tangential Travel and Jewish Life (http://elirab.me). He writes and manages dozens of JewishGen KehilaLinks and more than 750 WordPress blog posts. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy. Eli has lectured internationally at educational institutions, commemorative events, at IAJGS and other conferences, and online.
He is a board member of the IAJGS—The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, an independent non-profit umbrella organization that coordinates an annual conference of 84 Jewish genealogical societies worldwide.
Eli also advises on Litvak and Polish heritage tours.
He writes and manages 88 KehilaLinks—Jewish websites for JewishGen.org, the world’s largest Jewish genealogical organization, with a database of 500,000 followers. His KehilaLinks include sites in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Germany, Russia, China, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa and Australia.
The Jewish Genealogical Societyof Illinois is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping members collect, preserve, and perpetuate the records and history of their ancestors. JGSI is a resource for the worldwide Jewish community to research their Chicago-area roots. The JGSI motto is “Members Helping Members Since 1981.” The group has more than 300 members and is affiliated with the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.
JGSI members have access to useful and informative online family history research resources, including a members’ forum, more than 65 video recordings of past speakers’ presentations, monthly JGSI E-News, quarterly Morasha JGSI newsletter, and much more. Members as well as non-members can look for their ancestors on the free searchable JGSI Jewish Chicago Database.
New Memorial Orla Poland 2021
N E W M U S I C A L T H E A T R E P R O D U C T I O N ,
T H E H O L L O W C A U S E , R E L E A S E S O F F I C I A L S I N G L E :
“ T H E W O R L D B E L O N G S T O M E . ”
The Hollow Cause cast teamed up with The West Coast Philharmonic Orchestra to perform “The World Belongs to Me”–the first song release from the upcoming musical, The Hollow Cause. Filmed at The Perth Hebrew Congregation, the clip features the dynamic and powerful voices of Vin Trikeriotis (Jesus Christ Superstar) and Morgan Cowling (Phantom of the Opera USA Tour), singing a love ballad between two headstrong main characters that allow themselves to become gradually more vulnerable as the song progresses.
The West Coast Philharmonic Orchestra’s conductor, Sam Parry, became involved when The Hollow Cause musical production creator, Keshet, reached out simply for professional revision. Parry was so impressed with the quality and freshness of the music that he suggested a collaboration between the stage musical and The West Coast Philharmonic Orchestra.
When asked about the selection of the largest WA synagogue, The Perth Hebrew Congregation, as the choice for the video clip setting creator Keshet responded;
“Our location was selected for two reasons:
1) Orchestral music tends to be recorded in big halls, and churches are quite a popular choice but recording in Synagogues is not something that is explored much. The Synagogue provided unique acoustics for our song recording. 2) The Hollow Cause is a Jewish tale of surviving during the Holocaust. We felt that recording in a Jewish sacred place, coupled with the fact the stage we performed on was donated by an Auschwitz survivor, created an amazing connection to the music we generated.”
The official clip is being released today, 21 May 2021
The cast of The Hollow Cause and The West Coast Philharmonic Orchestra have united to capture “The World Belongs to Me”; performed at the historic Perth Hebr…
VIDEO – Source: youtu.be/-zo0hblniTA
The song will also be available from May 21st on all streaming platforms, including BandCamp.
CONTACT
For more information please email hollowcauseopera@gmail.com
Eli Rabinowitz
eli@elirab.com
Celebrating what would have been my mother Raele (Ray) Zeldin Rabinowitz’s 102 birthday. Ray was born on 11 May 1919 in Dvinsk, now Daugavpils, Latvia.
These colour photos were originally in b/w. I used MyHeritage.com’s Colorized to bring them to life!
The photos below are in their original colour.
Ray passed away on 24 July 2001 in Cape Town.
The last photo
Sad news: Monica passed away last night in Melbourne Australia – 14 April 2021
Funeral today, 15th, at 3:30pm, at MCK Lyndhurst Cemetery.
Prayers at Central Shule Chabad at 7pm
Here are some memories!
One of a kind!
Muizenberg KehilaLink
Kimberley KehilaLink
Perth, 14 April 2021
The Ark, Melbourne
Video from Seattle
William Cooper’s family, Richmond FC, Melbourne
Ralph Salinger & Michael Leiserowitz in Warsaw
Muizenberg SH, South Africa
Apr 12, 2021
Nance Adler is a Jewish educator. She is a Teachers Fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum as well as a Powell Fellow at the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle. She is the educator and curriculum designer for WE ARE HERE! Foundation for Upstanders. Nance has received many accolades and awards and is published both for pedagogy and curriculum development.
She has taught for the past 16 years at the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle where she focuses on inspiring a love of Judaism and using one’s “Jewish lenses” as a way to approach the world to make it better for all Creation.
Katie and Andrew talk with Nance about what it means to be an “upstander”, the importance of telling resistance stories, and even Holocaust movies. Thank you Nance Adler for being our guest on The Well QA!
Also, watch Nance’s keynote speech in Perth, Australia in 2019 about “What I Teach and Why”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdXbdRucP78
The Invitation
The Protocol
ROYAL FOIL
As you may already know, my brother Neil won the Beazley Medal 1999 which is awarded to the top student in Western Australia. Among his many honours was a chance to meet the Queen on her recent visit to WA.
We received the special VIP badges and all the pertinent regal details for the correct protocol in the mail and excitedly waited for the evening where we would stand with other important guests to see the Queen. Neil was only allowed to bring one guest to the event so I was the lucky one, Mum and Dad opting to watch their sons venture into the royal sphere. The only problem was that the event was on Shabbat, so we decided to walk the three hours back from Government House in the city to our house in the ‘burbs.
So on Friday night Mum and Dad took a million photos as we dressed in the best suits we could muster together: unfortunately the best was unmatching jackets and pants. So an hour before Shabbat came in we were dropped off at Government house and waited with another 600 people to be escorted to the gardens. Needless to say, our first hitch came at the entrance to Government House where we were the only pair questioned by the guards as to whether we were meant to be there. Producing the little invitations proudly, they hesitantly let us in. One point that must be noted is that both Neil and I have eye-brow rings: a feature that will play a more significant role later in this little yarn.
We walked into the gardens and they had set up a huge marquis with a dais and three aisles marked out by large gold ropes. We assumed that the aisles were for the royal party, while the areas behind the ropes were reserved for the privileged plebs: us! But as we got to the entrance to the marquis, we noticed that unlike the majority of other guests, our name badges had a little gold star in the corner. Before we knew it we had been escorted into the aisle area and were being briefed on royal protocol. It was then that we realised that we were among the ‘honoured’ list of guests! What that meant was that we would get a personal introduction to the Duke of Edinburgh as he and the Queen walked down the aisle to the dais.
Ok… so this is what happened. After waiting for 45 minutes for the Queen to arrive we were becoming more and more anxious and excited. We stood there dead-straight at attention for quite some time, practising the correct manner of addressing the Duke: Your Royal Highness, Your Royal Highness, Your Royal Highness (again and again under our breaths).
Finally the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh arrived, accompanied by the Premier of WA Mr Richard Court and his wife Mrs Court. After a rendition of G-d Save the Queen and a few speeches, the Queen and Duke were asked to meet the honoured guests: the Queen was meant to walk down one side of the aisle while the Duke was meant to walk down the other side. Evidently no one had briefed the Queen about what she was meant to do, because before we knew it she was walking down the wrong side and the wrong way down the aisle.
Now Neil and I had been positioned at the very end of the line so that we would meet the Duke of Edinburgh last, but the Queen was now approaching us first – obviously believing that we were the most important people at the ceremony: Neil and I were the most honoured guests!
So as she walked down towards us, I quickly reminded Neil that she was Your Majesty and NOT Your Royal Highness! Unfortunately, however, while the Queen believed we were the most important people, our Premier Mr Court had no idea who in the world we were! He was only equipped with the list of names on the opposite side of the aisle and was totally unprepared to explain to the Queen who we were. So when she finally reached us and stood just a foot in front of me waiting to be introduced to the most important Western Australian, the Premier just stood there, pale-faced and in a panic.
So here we are. The tiny 4 foot high Queen with 1 foot of blue hair, the confused and anxious Premier, and the two oversized Jewish boys with big colourful kippot, eye-brow rings and unmatching suits. The Queen waited. We waited. The Premier looked down at our name badges at RABINOWITZ and deciding not to dare attempt pronouncing it, he waited too. So Neil and I did the only thing we thought appropriate. Simultaneously we attempted a little bow. The Queen looked at us and nodding at first, she freaked out. Obviously feeling a bit intimidated, she ran off to meet some people of less unordinary appearance on the other side of the group..
Anyway, if you thought that the Rabinowitz boys had stopped at just intimidating the Queen, be prepared.
The Duke arrives a few minutes later (approaching from the correct direction), accompanied by Mrs Court who has all the names of the people he’s meeting in front of her. Upon reaching Neil, Mrs Court introduces him as the Beazley medallist. Now as you already know, the correct manner of addressing the Queen is Your Majesty and the Duke is Your Royal Highness. So as Neil is introduced he throws out his hand to the Duke and shaking it he says:
“ It’s an honour to meet you, Your Majesty”
Quickly I stick out my hand and say:
“Your Royal Highness”
hopefully just muffling the insult that Neil had just inflicted on the man. So already we had started with him on a bad note.
Anyway, the Duke didn’t seem to notice that Neil had just insulted him so he continued to ask Neil who he was… that is, what school did he come from. So Neil replies:
“Carmel School, it’s a PRIVATE Jewish DAYSCHOOL”
Now in England, to cut a very long explanation of the school system short, private schools are the equivalent of Australia’s public schools and state schools in England are called private schools. So basically, in English terms, Neil had just said that he attended a private school that was also public: an impossibility in England.
“I think you’re mixed up, young man. You can’t have gone to both a state school and a public school” says the Duke to Neil. He tells Neil, the “smartest” kid in Western Australia that he is wrong. And Neil is stumped. He doesn’t know what to do.
Well, for anyone who knows me, you would know that I can NEVER resist an argument.
“No no no,” I say, “In Australia we call your public schools private and your private schools public. In England they’re mixed up”
The Duke just stood back aghast… he couldn’t believe that I’d talked let alone the fact that I’d contradicted him. Added to the fact that he has just been called Your Majesty by Neil, the Duke was obviously a bit miffed.
So a very serious expression suddenly crosses the Duke’s face and looking dead into both of our eyes (if that is possible with only one pair to him) he lifts his index finger to us and shaking at us he says:
“No no… I think you’re mistaken” and walks off in a huff leaving the Premier’s wife standing there, open-mouthed in surprise.
The Duke, making his way back to the dais, the Queen disappearing on the other side of the crowd, Neil and I burst out laughing. We had managed quite successfully, although obviously unintentionally, to snub and intimidate the Queen and then insult and contradict the Duke. We downed a couple of orange-juice and champagnes before the long walk home.
DEAN RABINOWITZ
Also pulbished in the InReview Magazine
The Invitation
The Protocol
ROYAL FOIL
As you may already know, my brother Neil won the Beazley Medal 1999 which is awarded to the top student in Western Australia. Among his many honours was a chance to meet the Queen on her recent visit to WA.
We received the special VIP badges and all the pertinent regal details for the correct protocol in the mail and excitedly waited for the evening where we would stand with other important guests to see the Queen. Neil was only allowed to bring one guest to the event so I was the lucky one, Mum and Dad opting to watch their sons venture into the royal sphere. The only problem was that the event was on Shabbat, so we decided to walk the three hours back from Government House in the city to our house in the ‘burbs.
So on Friday night Mum and Dad took a million photos as we dressed in the best suits we could muster together: unfortunately the best was unmatching jackets and pants. So an hour before Shabbat came in we were dropped off at Government house and waited with another 600 people to be escorted to the gardens. Needless to say, our first hitch came at the entrance to Government House where we were the only pair questioned by the guards as to whether we were meant to be there. Producing the little invitations proudly, they hesitantly let us in. One point that must be noted is that both Neil and I have eye-brow rings: a feature that will play a more significant role later in this little yarn.
We walked into the gardens and they had set up a huge marquis with a dais and three aisles marked out by large gold ropes. We assumed that the aisles were for the royal party, while the areas behind the ropes were reserved for the privileged plebs: us! But as we got to the entrance to the marquis, we noticed that unlike the majority of other guests, our name badges had a little gold star in the corner. Before we knew it we had been escorted into the aisle area and were being briefed on royal protocol. It was then that we realised that we were among the ‘honoured’ list of guests! What that meant was that we would get a personal introduction to the Duke of Edinburgh as he and the Queen walked down the aisle to the dais.
Ok… so this is what happened. After waiting for 45 minutes for the Queen to arrive we were becoming more and more anxious and excited. We stood there dead-straight at attention for quite some time, practising the correct manner of addressing the Duke: Your Royal Highness, Your Royal Highness, Your Royal Highness (again and again under our breaths).
Finally the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh arrived, accompanied by the Premier of WA Mr Richard Court and his wife Mrs Court. After a rendition of G-d Save the Queen and a few speeches, the Queen and Duke were asked to meet the honoured guests: the Queen was meant to walk down one side of the aisle while the Duke was meant to walk down the other side. Evidently no one had briefed the Queen about what she was meant to do, because before we knew it she was walking down the wrong side and the wrong way down the aisle.
Now Neil and I had been positioned at the very end of the line so that we would meet the Duke of Edinburgh last, but the Queen was now approaching us first – obviously believing that we were the most important people at the ceremony: Neil and I were the most honoured guests!
So as she walked down towards us, I quickly reminded Neil that she was Your Majesty and NOT Your Royal Highness! Unfortunately, however, while the Queen believed we were the most important people, our Premier Mr Court had no idea who in the world we were! He was only equipped with the list of names on the opposite side of the aisle and was totally unprepared to explain to the Queen who we were. So when she finally reached us and stood just a foot in front of me waiting to be introduced to the most important Western Australian, the Premier just stood there, pale-faced and in a panic.
So here we are. The tiny 4 foot high Queen with 1 foot of blue hair, the confused and anxious Premier, and the two oversized Jewish boys with big colourful kippot, eye-brow rings and unmatching suits. The Queen waited. We waited. The Premier looked down at our name badges at RABINOWITZ and deciding not to dare attempt pronouncing it, he waited too. So Neil and I did the only thing we thought appropriate. Simultaneously we attempted a little bow. The Queen looked at us and nodding at first, she freaked out. Obviously feeling a bit intimidated, she ran off to meet some people of less unordinary appearance on the other side of the group..
Anyway, if you thought that the Rabinowitz boys had stopped at just intimidating the Queen, be prepared.
The Duke arrives a few minutes later (approaching from the correct direction), accompanied by Mrs Court who has all the names of the people he’s meeting in front of her. Upon reaching Neil, Mrs Court introduces him as the Beazley medallist. Now as you already know, the correct manner of addressing the Queen is Your Majesty and the Duke is Your Royal Highness. So as Neil is introduced he throws out his hand to the Duke and shaking it he says:
“ It’s an honour to meet you, Your Majesty”
Quickly I stick out my hand and say:
“Your Royal Highness”
hopefully just muffling the insult that Neil had just inflicted on the man. So already we had started with him on a bad note.
Anyway, the Duke didn’t seem to notice that Neil had just insulted him so he continued to ask Neil who he was… that is, what school did he come from. So Neil replies:
“Carmel School, it’s a PRIVATE Jewish DAYSCHOOL”
Now in England, to cut a very long explanation of the school system short, private schools are the equivalent of Australia’s public schools and state schools in England are called private schools. So basically, in English terms, Neil had just said that he attended a private school that was also public: an impossibility in England.
“I think you’re mixed up, young man. You can’t have gone to both a state school and a public school” says the Duke to Neil. He tells Neil, the “smartest” kid in Western Australia that he is wrong. And Neil is stumped. He doesn’t know what to do.
Well, for anyone who knows me, you would know that I can NEVER resist an argument.
“No no no,” I say, “In Australia we call your public schools private and your private schools public. In England they’re mixed up”
The Duke just stood back aghast… he couldn’t believe that I’d talked let alone the fact that I’d contradicted him. Added to the fact that he has just been called Your Majesty by Neil, the Duke was obviously a bit miffed.
So a very serious expression suddenly crosses the Duke’s face and looking dead into both of our eyes (if that is possible with only one pair to him) he lifts his index finger to us and shaking at us he says:
“No no… I think you’re mistaken” and walks off in a huff leaving the Premier’s wife standing there, open-mouthed in surprise.
The Duke, making his way back to the dais, the Queen disappearing on the other side of the crowd, Neil and I burst out laughing. We had managed quite successfully, although obviously unintentionally, to snub and intimidate the Queen and then insult and contradict the Duke. We downed a couple of orange-juice and champagnes before the long walk home.
DEAN RABINOWITZ
Also pulbished in the InReview Magazine
