Celebrating 56 Years of Publishing

1964-2020 Celebrating 56 years of publishing MARCH 2020 GEORGE FREY OAM - FOUNDING EDITOR, 1964 ADAR – NISSAN 5780 NEWS JNF Educators Tour by J-Wire Newsdesk 75 EDUCATORS FROM SYDNEY, MELBOURNE, PERTH AND NZ RECENTLY RETURNED FROM THE JNF AUSTRALIA EDUCATORS STUDY TOUR IN ISRAEL. students from around the world come to the Arava to learn about agriculture. After a couple hours of learning about the vegetables, we had the opportunity to see, pick and eat the vegetables. The lush green cabbages were enough to get our mouths watering. We then had the privilege of preparing the food in true kibbutz fashion, where each of us had a role. We sat around the tables amongst the greenery and enjoyed. ” Jacqueline Galler, a teacher of English Literacy at Sydney’s Bellevue Hill Primary School spoke on the groups visit to Sha’ar HaNegev School. “My take away from today is that students in BOTH JEWISH AND NON-JEWISH EDUCATORS, Sha’ar HaNegev are not unlike their peers around FROM 27 INDEPENDENT JEWISH DAY SCHOOLS/ the world. They have amazing educators and ORGANISATIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAVE communities that work tirelessly in order to BEEN IMMERSED IN A VARIETY OF ENVIRONMENTAL provide them with some semblance of a normal AND ZIONIST PROJECTS, PROVIDING THEM WITH childhood and educational experiences through NEW KNOWLEDGE, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES dedication and effective well-being programs. AND FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCES TO BRING BACK TO THE CLASSROOM. I only hope that upon my return, I can instil resilience and perseverance as was showcased at For ten days, the delegation toured the length Sha’ar HaNegev in my own students”. and breadth of the country – from the Golan to The tour was designed to enrich the resources the Arava, from the Dead Sea to Tel Aviv – soaking and skills of the educators and to spark their up Israel’s rich and fascinating history and culture. students’ interest in Israel’s history, environmental The real value of the trip, however, was the stewardship and Zionism. These outcomes opportunity to visit local schools, network with will be incorporated into school curriculums Israeli teachers, learn from experts in the fields and classroom learning upon their return. JNF of agriculture, R&D and ecology, and visit the Education Shaliach Yigal Nisell said: “The tour communities and projects directly supported by is not only about the teachers who attend the JNF Australia. trip, but more importantly it is about the 20,000 students they represent– those they will teach now After an educational seminar in Misgav, Cara and in the future.” — J-WIRE Norman, a Science Teacher at Sydney’s Emanuel School reflected on her learnings. “We completed some group work looking at different activities that can be used to include Israeli art, Hebrew language and Jewish tradition into each of our pedagogical teachings”. Melanie Fleming, Head of Year 9 and English Teacher at Melbourne’s Bialik College was also at the seminar. She said: “JNF are involved in nearly every aspect of life in the Arava. Further, 50% of all Israel’s vegetables are grown there and transported across [the country]. Hence, many Principals of Reddam in the vegetable garden 2 SHALOM MAGAZINE | MARCH 2020 LITERATURE The inspiration behind Jojo Rabbit: why author needed to laugh at Hitler by The Age When Christine Leunens was in her 20s, working as model in Paris, she befriended an elderly Frenchwoman who told her an extraordinary story. As a girl, the woman’s family hid a Jewish refugee in their Parisian home. The refugee was a young man who had fled Poland, and while he was hiding, this young woman fell in love with him. After the war – and, sadly, in the face of resistance from her parents – the couple married. This nugget lodged in Leunens’ imagination, and get every fact and detail right,’’ she says. She three decades or so later, in 2008, had issue in immersed herself in sources from the period. her acclaimed second novel, Caging Skies. The story’s transformation was a pretty thorough one. Now the story has itself been further transformed – In Leunens’ story the hider is a young woman – with the release of Jojo Rabbit, a free adaptation of Elsa – and the lovestruck child an adolescent boy the book by the New Zealand-born director Taika – Johannes – chillingly indoctrinated with Hitler Waititi. Readers of Leunens’ fine book may initially Youth propaganda. The setting was now wartime be disconcerted. The realism and sly comedy Vienna. of her novel seem to have been replaced by something akin to high camp slapstick, complete And yet Leunens was determined to do right with a supersaturated colour scheme and an by historical truth. ‘‘It was important for me to imaginary Adolf Hitler. 3 SHALOM MAGAZINE | MARCH 2020 LITERATURE The inspiration behind Jojo Rabbit: why author needed to laugh at Hitler by The Age THE FILM HAS ALSO DISPENSED WITH THE seems especially DISTURBING POSTWAR SECTION OF LEUNENS’ live now that a BOOK – JOHANNES (NICKNAMED ‘‘JOJO’’ IN THE new generation of FILM) ALLOWS ELSA TO BELIEVE GERMANY WON writers is breaking THE WAR, SO SHE STAYS IN HIDING UNDER HIS old taboos, such as EFFECTIVE CONTROL – AND THERE’S NO SIGN OF Shalom Auslander THE PROTAGONIST’S INJURY (HE LOSES HALF OF in Hope: A Tragedy Christine Leunens made use of a story told her by an elderly Frenchwoman ONE OF HIS ARMS EARLY IN THE NOVEL). WHAT’S (about a man who many years ago MORE, THE STRONG SEXUAL ASPECT IS ABSENT. finds an elderly and foul-mouthed Anne Frank in his attic) and But Leunens is phlegmatic about the changes. The Timur Vermes in his best-selling comedy Look film and book, she says, ‘‘share similar themes, Who’s Back, about Hitler reappearing in modern characters, and plot’’, though the movie focuses Berlin. Those scabrous treatments have inflamed in on Johannes as a ‘‘desperate to fit in’’ 10-year- sensitivities, especially in Germany, and Leunens old rather than following the book’s postwar plot says Caging Skies ‘‘has been translated into about trajectory. 20 languages, but a German publisher has yet to take it’’. ‘‘The themes that I explore, Taika Waititi also explores: how teaching children a sense of ‘us I wonder if – in an age where ‘‘cultural and them’ breeds a sense of superiority and appropriation’’ is a hot topic of debate – Leunens dehumanises what one perceives as ‘otherness’; has worried, as a Belgian/New Zealand writer, that and why this theme is relevant to today’s rise in telling this story she might be trespassing on in the far right, how children and youth are territory that isn’t hers to write about. Leunens has indoctrinated into extremism and terrorism.’’ no hesitation there. She describes how her Belgian grandfather (the Flemish painter Gillaume Leunens) She adds: ‘‘Part of what I wanted to do in this novel was detained in a German labour camp. Leunens’ was explore how children could be lied to and Italian mother, too, witnessed atrocities in wartime used as tools for political aims. However, for my southern Italy. characters to have depth, they have to be human and complex, have both qualities and flaws, do the She had family members in Buchenwald; a great- right things at times, and at others, things they’ll uncle sent to Mauthausen for harbouring refugees. regret having done and not necessarily know how ‘‘He witnessed a teenage Jewish-Italian boy to undo.’’ hanged in Mauthausen and a Nazi guard letting his German shepherd eat both his feet as he was CREDIT: hanging. He fell to his knees and began to pray, And she applauds what’s arguably Waititi’s boldest even though he could have been killed on the decision. ‘‘Taika brings Hitler out of Johannes’ head spot. The Nazis later injected petrol into his veins.’’ and lets the audience see him,’’ she says, ‘‘because he believes it’s important to laugh at tyrants and Trespass, then? ‘‘I feel the Nazis were psychopaths, to break down the mythologies and barriers that protect them.’’ the ones to trespass on the memories of family, friends, and countless That question of how laughter can be used in the others,’’ she says. — THE AGE treatment of such serious subjects is one that 4 SHALOM MAGAZINE | MARCH 2020 COMMUNITY Local Identity Honoured In the recently announced Australia Day Honours well known and respected community member David Paratz was honoured by being appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM ) for significant service to the Jewish Community of Queensland, and to the Law. DAVID’S CONTRIBUTION AND SERVICE TO Community other THE COMMUNITY WERE LISTED AS PART OF • President, Brisbane Grammar School Parents and HIS APPOINTMENT AND ARE REPRODUCED Friends Association, 2011-2012, Vice President, HERE IN RECOGNITION OF THE DIFFERENCE 2009-2010. HE HAS MADE TO OUR COMMUNITY IN • President, Indooroopilly State School, Parents PARTICULAR. and Citizens Association, 2001-2002. • Justice of the Peace, since 1980. Executive Council of Australian Jewry Professional • Vice-President, 1998-2009. • Member, Queensland Civil and Administrative Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies Tribunal, since 2012. • Life Governor, since 2017. • Barrister, private practice, 2010-2012, • Immediate Past President, 2013-2017. and 1981-1988. • President, 1998-2009. • Mediator, 1994-2003. • Vice President, 2009-2013. • Manager, Australian Commercial Disputes Centre • Board Member, 1980-2017. (Qld) Ltd. 1988-1994. • Member, Interfaith Committee, since 2008. Publications Brisbane Hebrew Congregation • Mediation – A User’s Guide, Paratz, Brisbane, ISBN 0646114808, 1992. • Vice President, since 2016. • Representative Actions, Cashman, Baston, Paratz, • Honorary Legal Advisor, current. LAAMS, ISBN 9781875263202, 1992. • Past Sunday school teacher. • Courts Introduce ADR, Paratz & Spegel, The Other Jewish Organisations Queensland Lawyer, Vol.16, 1995.

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