Through discussion and conversation we will explore Jewish sources, young and old, and challenge ourselves to some questions, including:
What does Judaism have to say about protecting the environment?
Can I express my Jewish practice by Reducing Reusing and Recycling?
What takes priority – humans or nature?
Nancy Gilbert, wife of US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, Mark Gilbert, speaks about the creation of one of the most expansive, ambitious travel projects in history, and the role she played in it. Birthright, a ten-day, free trip to Israel for Jewish students between the ages of 18-26, was the brainchild of a special community of educators and Jewish leaders from academia and government in Israel and the United States. Once the idea was created, there was need for input and guidance from specialists in the travel field to make their idea into a reality. Gilbert and a team from her Israel travel company created the programs for the initial Birthright group, the first to land in the Holy Land in 1999 as part of the Birthright program. A story of how luck, timing and expertise placed Gilbert in the midst of this extraordinary moment in Jewish history.
Where can women be found in the Bible? What is the significance of the repeated idea of the Biblical woman who stands at the window? Is she watching/waiting/about to escape? And what happens when she does go out...?
This is a search. The search began upon discovering the final resting place of Kiwis and Hebrew soldiers in Krakow. This gave rise to the question did they get to know each other? Three months later a newspaper article shed light on a connection between the father of Shimon Peres and an unknown New Zealand soldier. This brought about the question - Did Kiwis and Hebrews cross paths during World War Two?
The rest is a short compilation of different moments during the war when the forefathers of the IDF and Kiwi troops marched together.
“In LIMMUD we believe that every Jew should be a student and any Jew can be a teacher”
After 28 years as a public speaker, Mike has learned that if you’re a student, you learn best in moments of enjoyment and if you want to be a teacher, you must be an effective communicator.
Mike is going to take us on a journey across many lands, from Israel, Spain, through Austro-Hungaria, Russia, Ireland and New Zealand; through time, way back to the Spanish Inquisition and on the way entertain and inform us in an interactive session with his ideas on how to help us develop listening and communication skills and be an excellent student and/or teacher.
The Jewish King Lear-A Comedy? In 1892, Jacob Gordin updated Shakespeare’s King Lear by staging a Jewish version. He created a “comedy” with a happy ending and a profound social message to the new generation.
His aim was to blend Western and Yiddish culture and transform Yiddish theatre. We will look at this extraordinary, unique period piece (in English translation) and see if he succeeded.
Life in Stills (2011) is a documentary written and directed by Tamar Tal. Rudi Weissenstein was a famous photographer in Israel. Not only did he run an active photographic studio, but he took pictures of some of the most important events and people in Israeli history.
The film follows several years in the lives of Weissenstein’s 96 year old widow--Miriam--and his grandson – Ben - as they try to make a living selling Weissenstein's photographs while saving their photo shop from demolition.
Under a cloud of a family tragedy, a special relationship is forged between Miriam and her grandson, Ben, as they join forces to save the shop and its nearly one million negatives that document Israel’s defining moments
Despite the generation gap and many conflicts, Ben and Miriam embark on a heart-wrenching journey, comprising of many humorous and touching moments – a journey that requires a lot of love, courage, and compassion.
In a world that is becoming further removed from the Holocaust, especially as the survivors are increasingly no longer with us to share their stories, it's important to know and tell more of the Holocaust's history, literature, arts and personal outcomes, especially as anti-Semitism (that is often political anger directed at Israel but is actually anti-Jewish) is increasing.
In addition, we will share how we might lead students "safely in and safely out," as Shulamit Imber of the International School for Holocaust Studies describes. How might we approach teaching the Holocaust honestly and openly, yet not traumatize ourselves, our students and not victimize the victims over again? How do we share individual stories and choices made, in a world without choices?
Sibling Rivalry - two points of view
- A Family Therapist's view - What on earth were our forefathers and foremothers thinking!
- A Rabbi's point of view - What their actions really meant
- Some parenting tips on handling Sibling Rivalry
We all know about the Germany that gave us the Holocaust and persecuted all non-Aryans including Sinti and Roma as well as homosexuals, the disabled, Jehovah’s witnesses, and all political dissidents. Most of us also know that antisemitism and anti-racism are still alive not only in Germany but in many parts of Europe today. But it generally seems to be less well-known that not all Germans either then or today supported Nazism and its descendants. Not only was there a fair amount of passive resistance but also a strong active underground movement in the past. Today all Neo-Nazi activities are accompanied by a much larger protest demonstration.
This session looks at just a small selection of events that illustrate the humanity of the other Germany, both then and today. The presenter speaks both from his own experience of having lived in West Berlin for 20 years and from current news articles in an anti-fascist newspaper.
Lost and Gone Away is Lynn’s second book. It is a four part mix of memoir, poetry and non-fiction about why people become obsessed with searches and how they go about searching for people and objects that are lost. Lynn’s presentation will focus on one story from Lost and Gone Away, about a small wooden urn and a trail that started in 2011 at the Holocaust Gallery of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, continued at the Holocaust Centre in Wellington, and finished, for now, at a dinner table in Auckland in 2014; an example of the way museums work as centres of knowledge and the re-individualising of history.
Lynn’s writing in Lost and Gone Away is mostly prose, but it is prose written with something of a poet’s consciousness. It is interested in white space, the look of the text on the page and the pressure on language that are common in poetry. Lynn’s prose is also performative in the sense that it tries to write itself into or towards knowledge and it is experimental in form.
This session with its provocative title of “Is it time for the Jews to Leave Europe?" was inspired by the Atlantic article of the same name - which in turn was inspired by increased anti-semitic attacks in Europe over the last few years, including the shooting of four Jewish people at a kosher supermarket in Paris in January. This has led to calls from quarters that France, and perhaps Europe, is no longer safe for Jews. In this panel session we explore different reactions and opinions on this issue, from various perspectives including the professional, personal, historic and journalistic. This session will be moderated by Tanya Thomson.
When was the last time you looked, but really you looked at sprayed on the wall painting on the street? Most of us do not bother to take a second look, but beneath the surface, this current art style, which is today around us, in almost every corner in the big cities.
In recent years Tel Aviv has become Israel's capital of urban art, and some street-art critics state that it is the second hottest spot in the world after Berlin, exceeding London and New York.
We will show you the hidden beauty of graffiti and the political and social dialogue that is happening on the walls and in the streets of Israel.
We invite you to join us on an artistic adventure, one that is not in any museum, and to deal with lingering questions about the limits of creativity and freedom of expression. To Learn about contemporary Israeli culture thorough the writing on the wall, graffiti, bumper stickers and even painted garbage bins.
