On Friday 13 March 2020, the South African Friends of Beth Hatefutsoth will be hosting a presentation by Eli Rabinowitz, from Perth.
Eli, who is the founder of the education project the We Are Here Foundation, will be giving a talk accompanied by video footage about the programme for youth across the globe. The foundation focuses on the importance of educating Jewish youth about the Jewish partisans during the World War II. He will be giving an update on the success of this project, which is funded by the US government.
The project which started at schools in Australia is now functioning in Belarus, Lithuania, Israel and the USA. Communities across the globe have been taught to sing the famous Partisans Song (Shir HaPartizanim).
His message is loud and clear: WE MUST NEVER FORGET!
WE ARE HERE! An Education Program That Inspires Upstanders
With Barbara Miller and Ken Wyatt, Federal Minister 2019With Vince Connelly MP 2020
Kristallnacht Cantata Melbourne – World Premiere 2019
With Benny Rabinowitz in Birzh, Lithuania 2019With Ambassadors of of China, Israel and Japan in Birzh, Lithuania 2019Ground Turning at Lost Shtetl Museum, Seduva LithuaniaWith Finnish, UK and US Ambassadors in Lithuania 2018Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 2019With Ian Stein and Dimitri Coutras at Sea Point School in 2019At Beyachad meeting in 2019
#WeRemember – Eli Rabinowitz & Rabbi Shalom White – CHABAD WA
Holocaust Remembrance Day – The Words THAT Matter!
Words can make a difference – both for good and evil. ORT students have been using the defiantly optimistic words of Vilna poet Hirsh Glik to inspire themselves and others as part of our ongoing campaign to bring Zog nit Keynmol to new generations. This video shows just a few highlights of their stunning recitals of Glik’s lyrics to the song, which is renowned as the anthem of the Jewish partisans.
Maryusya Zarembo, student at ORT de Gunzburg School #550 in St Petersburg, Russia, is in awe of Hirsh Glik’s defiantly optimistic lyrics to Zog Nit Keynmol, the anthem of the Jewish partisans.
“This is the first time I’ve read or heard the poetry of someone from that time. It’s hard for me to imagine how he could have found the time or energy to be creative in those circumstances, but he did. And his verses are very powerful and life-affirming,” Maryusya said.
Learning the lyrics, Maryusya said, had made her think about the Holocaust and its lessons for humanity.
“We have to learn that a person must not be humiliated or destroyed because of their ethnicity, faith or politics,” she said. “We can’t expect everyone to be a saint but the more we protect each other, the more tolerant we are, the stronger humanity will become. The alternative is extinction.”
The Partisans’ Song in English
by Hirsh Glik, as translated by Aaron Kremer
Never say that there is only death for you,
Though leaden skies may be concealing days of blue,
Because the hour we have hungered for near;
Beneath our tread the earth shall tremble — we are here!
From land of palm tree to the far-off land of snow,
We shall be coming with our torment and our woe;
And everywhere our blood has sunk into the earth,
Shall our bravery, our vigor blossom forth.
We’ll have the morning sun to set our day aglow,
And all our yesterdays shall vanish with the foe;
And if the time is long before the sun appears,
Then let this song go like a signal through the years.
This song was written with blood and not with lead;
It’s not a song that summer birds sing overhead;
It was a people among toppling barricades,
That sang this song of ours with pistols and grenades.
Never say that there is only death for you,
Though leaden skies may be concealing days of blue,
Because the hour we have hungered for is near;
Beneath our tread the earth shall tremble — we are here!
Ellenbrook Secondary College and Carmel School
Western Australia
The World Premiere – the four language Partisan Song
In Yiddish, Hebrew, English and Noongar (Aboriginal)
The World Premiere of the four language Partisan Song
Ellenbrook Secondary College & Carmel High School At Ellenbrook Secondary College
Using memory and legacy to educate the generations that follow, and to create upstanders out of bystanders!
The William Cooper Legacy is gaining momentum!
Special events celebrating William Cooper were held in Melbourne over 5 days in December.
These events connected Upstanders from diverse backgrounds, from the William Cooper Institute at Monash University to the Richmond Football Club, and from The Ark Centre in East Hawthorn to Temple Beth Israel.
Below is my selection of photos which highlights these events, and connects our WE ARE HERE! Human Rights and Social Justice project to the growing world of Upstanders influenced by William Cooper’s once long forgotten protest way back in 1938.
I have also incorporated parts of Barbara Miller’s report into this post. Barbara is William Cooper’s biographer. Thanks Barbara!
The Events- 2019:
Barbara Miller Book Launch
The William Cooper Dinner at Richmond FC
The launch of the William Cooper Institute at Monash University
The special Shabbat at The Ark Centre
The interfaith youth seminar in Ascot Vale
A visit to William Cooper’s former home in Footscray
Some William Cooper icons around Melbourne city
The World Premiere of the Kristallnacht Cantata
The Barbara Miller Book Launch
White Australia Has A Black History is available as a paperback from Barbara Miller’s website, and Barbara would love you to review it on Amazon and/or Goodreads.
Barbara giving a talk on William Cooper at an Author Event at Lamm Jewish Library in Melbourne 3 December 2019
Shattered Lives Broken Dreams is at the printer – almost ready to be released!
Barbara on the radio
Barbara Miller:
David Jack interviewing Barbara on J-Air Jewish Radio in Melbourne on 4 December 2019 with Maurice Klein working the desk. The topic was Kristallnacht and William Cooper. It was on the Beersheba Vision program run by Peter Kentley.
My slide – thanks to Stuart Rhine-Davis of Ellenbrook Secondary College
Barbara Miller
The Richmond Football Club and the William Cooper Legacy Project convened by Abe Schwarz hosted a seminar and dinner on 5 December 2019. It announced a new William Cooper Centre which will integrate sport, culture and diversity as the home to the Korin Gamadji Institute emerging Indigenous leaders program, the Bachar Houli Academy, Melbourne Indigenous Transition School (MITS) and women’s and community football.
There were four speakers at the seminar – Barbara Miller, biographer of William Cooper, Mike Zervos CEO Courage to Care, a teacher from Parkdale College called Natalie Baker and Eli Rabinowitz, founder, the WE ARE HERE! Project. Nola Kelly, the great-granddaughter of William Cooper, Leonie Drummond, Uncle Boydie’s daughter, shared briefly. Barbara is pictured speaking. A mural of the Tigers AFL players on the wall.
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Richmond Tigers
The Table List
Eli Rabinowitz, singer Lior Attar, Tali Kellman and Alex Kats
Professor Jacinta Elston, Monash University and William Cooper’s great grandchildren, Leonie Drummond and Lance Turner, with Eli Rabinowitz
David Jack
Eli, Rabinowitz, Professor Jacinta Elston & Abe Schwarz
Jamil Tye, Roberto D’Andrea & Aunty Di
Eli Rabinowitz, dancers, Abe Schwarz
Eli Rabinowitz, Uncle Boydie Turner, Alex Kats, Kevin Russel, ?, David Jago
Monash University Clayton – William Cooper Institute Launch
Eli Rabinowitz, Bill Appleby of Jewish Care & Norm Miller
Eli Rabinowitz & John Gandel
Barbara Miller, Minister Ken Wyatt & Eli Rabinowitz
Leonie Drummond
Dancers
Andrew Markus, Pauline Gandel, Simone Markus & Eli Rabinowitz
Eli Rabinowitz & Vedran Drakulic
Eli Rabinowitz & Professor Susan Elliott
Eli Rabinowitz & Professor Jacinta Elston & Associate Professor Chivonne Algeo
L-R photos – The Hon Minister Ken Wyatt with Barbara and Norman Miller at Monash University, the Unveiling of the plaque at Monash Uni with Uni staff, Cooper family and the Minister, and the Millers with Dr John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel.
On 6 December 2019, the 81st anniversary of the 1938 AAL protest, Monash University launched the William Cooper Institute. The Gandel family’s philanthropy made the centre possible. Stirring speeches were made by the Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, Mr Ken Wyatt, Chancellor Simon McKeon, the Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Jacinta Elston, Dr John Gandel AC, and Leonie Drummond, Uncle Boydie’s daughter.
Minister Ken Wyatt said that William Cooper cut a pathway for people to follow and showed bravery in the face of opposition. He said William Cooper stepped out and left footsteps in the sand to follow. He said he had recently returned from Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a speech, had paid tribute to William Cooper.
The Ark Centre – Cross Cultural Shabbat
Rabbi Gabi Kaltman and the ARK Centre held an Indigenous themed Shabbat service and meal honouring William Cooper on 6 December 2019
Eli Rabinowitz, Viv Parry, Lisa Naphtali, Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann, Kate Brocker, Shane Charles & Abe Schwarz
Shane Charles & Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann
A Very Special Duet by Shane Charles & Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann
A Very Special Duet by Shane Charles & Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann
The Ark Centre Aboriginal Kabbalat Shabbat In Honour of William Cooper Melbourne, Australia 6 December 2019
The Interfaith Youth Human Rights Seminar in Ascot Vale
Elana Saks
A visit to William Cooper’s House in footscray
The Footscay Railway Station
Eli Rabinowitz & Christine Newman, owner of the William Cooper house.
The William Cooper Justice Centre
The former Nazi Consulate in Melbourne where William Cooper marched to, and left his petition
Kristallnacht Cantata – Temple Beth Israel
The Kristallnacht Cantata: A Voice of Courage held its world premiere on 8 December at Temple Beth Israel St. Kilda, Melbourne. The strident music of the orchestra conveyed the build-up to the Night of the Broken Glass and the shattering of glass and lives that took place. A tribute to William Cooper, the Cantata imagined a moving duet between Cooper and Otto Jontof-Hutter who was arrested in Stuttgart during Kristallnacht along with thousands of other Jews.
Otto’s grandson, world-famous violinist Ron Jontof-Hutter, active in the Berlin-based World Doctors Orchestra but living in Melbourne, conceived the Cantata. An Israeli composer living in Melbourne, Alon Trigger, collaborated with Ron as the lyricist and world-famous conductor Dr David Kram, as musical director, to put the Cantata together.
The event was held in Temple Beth Israel synagogue and Barbara was asked to read a scripture and she chose Isaiah 62:1-7. There was a beautiful performance by the Yeng Gali Mullum Indigenous Choir.
Photos L_R, Uncle Boydie watching the orchestra of the Kristallnacht Cantata and the Yeng Gali Mullum Indigenous Choir.
For the start of the Kristallnacht Cantata, scroll to the 1 hr 41 min mark
‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’ – Edmund Burke, philosopher.
CONTINUE TO REMEMBER AND TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Today, 10 November, we commemorate Kristallnacht, also called Night of Broken Glass or November Pogroms, when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property in Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland on that date in 1938.
The Perth ceremony will be held at Perth Modern School at 5pm tonight. The keynote address will be delivered by Malcolm McCusker, the former Governor of WA, who will speak on:
“Evil Creeps Back, If Good People Stand Aside”.
The final item on the program is the Partisans’ Song, to be sung in four languages, Yiddish, Hebrew, Noongar and English, by the joint choirs of Ellenbrook Secondary College and Carmel High School, under the direction of Stuart Rhine-Davis. The song was originally written as a poem by Hirsh Glik in 1943. Jesse John Fleay, a lecturer at ECU translated it into Noongar, and Suzanne Kosowitz re-arranged the music by Dmitri Pokrass to fit the Noongar. Michele Galanti coordinates the Carmel School Choir.
The joint Ellenbrook Secondary College – Carmel High School choir first performed this inspiring anthem on 5 August at Ellenbrook Secondary College in front of 2000 people, and then repeated it at Carmel School on 7 August. The original recordings are here: https://wah.foundation/program/
The Kristallnacht ceremony this year will be attended by Lance Turner, son of Uncle Boydie Turner and great grandson of William Cooper, the indigenous Australian, whose protest against the pogroms, at the Nazi consulate office in Melbourne, was finally recognised by the German government in 2017, 79 years later!
Eli Rabinowitz
Perth, Australia
Show your support for our growing band of Upstanders here in Perth WA
‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’ – Edmund Burke, philosopher.
Each year on 9/10 November, we commemorate Kristallnacht, Night of Broken Glass or November Pogroms, when Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property in Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland on that date in 1938.
Some 30000 Jewish males were rounded up and taken to concentration camps. As a result of Kristallnacht, the Nazis ordered the Jewish community to pay one billion Reichsmark as compensation for the damage, and introduced many anti-Jewish laws.
Kristallnacht was a turning point or watershed in the Holocaust. It was the first time that violence against Jews was coordinated on such a large scale in Nazi Germany.
This year, the Perth Kristallnacht Commemoration will be held at Perth Modern School. It is being organised by the CCJWA – Council of Christians and Jews of WA. The keynote address will be delivered by Malcolm McCusker AC CVO QC, a former Governor of Western Australia. The title of his address is: “Evil Creeps Back, If Good People Stand Aside”.
The final item on the program is the Partisans’ Song, to be sung in four languages, Yiddish, Hebrew, Noongar and English, by the joint choirs of Ellenbrook Secondary College and Carmel School, under the direction of Stuart Rhine-Davis.
The song was originally written as a poem by Hirsh Glik in Vilnius in 1943. Jesse John Fleay, a lecturer at Edith Cowan University, translated the poem in 2018 into Noongar, a Western Australian indigenous language. Perth composer Suzanne Kosowitz skilfully re-arranged the music by Dmitri Pokrass to fit the Noongar words. Michele Galanti coordinated the Carmel School Choir performance.
Hirsh Glik
The Partisans’ Song has been sung since 1943 as the anthem or hymn of the Partisans and since the Holocaust by survivors. Traditionally sung in its original Yiddish, the poem is now available in 28 languages, including Noongar.
Abba Kovner & The Vilna PartisansBielski Partisans, Belarus
Carmel School welcomed at Ellenbrook Secondary College
The joint Ellenbrook – Carmel Schools Choir first performed this stirring anthem on 5 August at Ellenbrook Secondary College in front of 2000 people, and then repeated the performance at Carmel School on 7 August. The original recordings can be seen and heard here: https://wah.foundation/program/
The Kristallnacht ceremony this year will be attended by Lance Turner, son of Uncle Boydie Turner and great grandson of William Cooper, the indigenous Australian leader who marched the 10 km from his home in Footscray to the Nazi consulate office in Melbourne, to protest against the Kristallnacht pogrom. William Cooper’s petition was ignored, and was only recognised by the German government in 2017, 79 years after his march!
The Argus, 7 December 1938Eli Rabinowitz, Lance Turner, Stuart Rhine-Davis, Nance Adler & Jesse John FleayEli Rabinowitz & Uncle Boydie Turner in Mooroopna VICStatue of William Cooper in Shepparton VICPlaque in front of the statueGiant Mural Of William Cooper In Shepparton VIC
The US government funded our WE ARE HERE! Upstanders Project for educators in 2019. This enabled us to bring Seattle based educator, Nance Adler to Australia to headline our project. This was most successful, and opened the door for teachers and students around the globe to use our free resources. More information to follow.
Presentation In Novogrudok, Belarus
Nance Adler, Aron Bell (Bieski), Henryka Bell & Eli Rabinowitz in Novogrudok, BelarusMaty Belsky & Eli Rabinowitz in Forest Jerusalem, Naliboki, Belarus
WE ARE HERE! Perth Team Lisa Marino – US Consulate Perth, Eli Rabinowitz – founder, Jill Rabinowitz, Suzanne Kosowitz – composer, Stuart Rhine-Davis – Music Director Ellenbrook Secondary College, Richard Cohen, Professor Lynne Cohen – retired Vice Chancellor and Head of the School of Education at Edith Cowan University, Anne Rhine-Davis, Michele Galanti – Jewish Studies Carmel High School, Shirley Atlas – Educator at the Holocaust Institute WA & Bob Marino
Richard, Lynne, Anne, Michele, Shirley, Bob, Lisa, Eli, Jill, Suzanne and Stuart (absent Jesse John).
Come join us at Perth Modern School on 10 November.
Featuring a special performance of the Partisans’ Song in Yiddish, Hebrew, English and Noongar by the joint Ellenbrook Secondary College and Carmel High School choir.
Choir Performances | WE ARE HERE!
Choir Performances | WE ARE HERE!
At Ellenbrook Secondary College 5 August 2019, and encore performance at Carmel School on 7 August 2019.
WE ARE HERE!- Professional learning event for teachers
WE ARE HERE!- Professional learning event for teachers
ECU’s School of Education is proud to host a free professional learning seminar to introduce teachers and educators to a social justice project designed to inspire young people with the confidence and ability to be “upstanders” rather than “bystanders”; to stand up in the face of prejudice and oppression in their communities. The WE ARE HERE! project is sponsored by funding provided by the United States Government. Using the stories of the Partisans in the forests during World War 2, WE ARE HERE! empowers young people to take steps to confront and combat acts of discriminatory prejudice and injustice with their voices and their actions. WE ARE HERE! aims to enable the individual to make a real difference towards the goals of social justice. For more information about WE ARE HERE! please visit the WAH Foundation website. About this seminar The seminar will be facilitated by Nance Adler, a highly experienced educator from the U.S. Nance is a Museum Teachers Fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a Powell Fellow at the Holocaust Centre for Humanity in Seattle.This professional learning seminar will also feature the short film “Ties That Bind” – a conversation between Aboriginal “upstander” William Cooper’s grandson Uncle Boydie and a Holocaust survivor . Attendees will be provided with a lesson plan and other resources to incorporate WE ARE HERE! into your classroom activities. This is a free professional learning event. Registrations and afternoon tea will begin at 3.30pm and the seminar will commence at 4.00pm – 5.00pm.
Abe Schwarz
Eli Rabinowitz, Barbara & Norm Miller
My slide – thanks to Stuart Rhine-Davis of Ellenbrook Secondary College
Barbara Miller
Richmond Tigers
The Table List
Eli Rabinowitz, singer Lior Attar, Tali Kellman and Alex Kats
Professor Jacinta Elston, Monash University and William Cooper’s great grandchildren, Leonie Drummond and Lance Turner, with Eli Rabinowitz
David Jack
Eli, Rabinowitz, Professor Jacinta Elston & Abe Schwarz
Jamil Tye, Roberto D’Andrea & Aunty Di
Eli Rabinowitz, dancers, Abe Schwarz
Eli Rabinowitz, Uncle Boydie Turner, Alex Kats, Kevin Russel, ?, David Jago
William Cooper’s family
Eli Rabinowitz, Bill Appleby of Jewish Care & Norm Miller
Eli Rabinowitz & John Gandel
Leonie Drummond
Dancers
Andrew Markus, Pauline Gandel, Simone Markus & Eli Rabinowitz
Eli Rabinowitz & Vedran Drakulic
Eli Rabinowitz & Professor Susan Elliott
Eli Rabinowitz & Professor Jacinta Elston & Associate Professor Chivonne Algeo
Eli Rabinowitz, Viv Parry, Lisa Naphtali, Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann, Kate Brocker, Shane Charles & Abe Schwarz
Shane Charles & Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann
Elana Saks
Eli Rabinowitz & Christine Newman, owner of the William Cooper house.
Carmel School welcomed at Ellenbrook Secondary College
