From Rabbi Astor to Instagram

It’s been a very busy month since our last newsletter. We have gathered stories, developed our various platforms for engagement and continued the archiving of valuable community history.

We’re excited to let you know that we’re now on Instagram with the handle jewishlivesnz. We understand the importance of connecting with our younger generations – that’s where they like to ‘hang out’. So please tell your children and grandchildren to follow us on Instagram, where they’ll find past and present stories of Jewish life in Aotearoa New Zealand and elsewhere.

On that note, we congratulate Habonim Dror Aotearoa New Zealand, which is celebrating its 75th birthday! Habonim Dror Aotearoa New Zealand is one of two Jewish youth movements in NZ and the only socialist Zionist youth movement in NZ.

PortraitRabbiAstor - Jewish Lives Update: Late May 2023

Rabbi Astor’s Zionism

To mark 75 years since the establishment of the state of Israel, we have published new research on Rabbi Alexander Astor’s role in the building of a Jewish homeland. Based on Sheree Trotter’s PhD research, the article is supplemented by photographs found in our archives. Trotter concludes:

Zionism in New Zealand during this period, not only supported the establishment of a Jewish state, but also played a role in meeting the needs of the Jewish community. Rabbi Astor displayed great leadership in guiding and advocating for his people throughout this tumultuous period.  For this small, distant, diasporic community, Zionism was seen to galvanize the people and strengthen Jewish consciousness and identity against the threat of assimilation. Beginning in the nineteenth century, humanitarianism was a key driver for supporting the establishment of a homeland for the persecuted Jewish people in Russia, East Europe and Nazi Germany.  Zionism also provided a ‘feeling of belonging’, which Astor believed needed to be passed onto the new generation, for to not do so, would deny them “that for which our fathers for thousands of years suffered all things to keep intact ‘Achdut Yisrael’ – the unity, oneness of Israel”.

Mixed Blessings - Jewish Lives Update: Late May 2023

Community engagement

Sheree Trotter had a stimulating evening with the Second Generation Group, with whom we are pleased to be working to revive the ‘Mixed Blessings’ stories on the Jewish Lives NZ website. These were written by New Zealand children of Holocaust survivors and intersperse family stories with recipes and a love of food.

Ann Gluckman - Jewish Lives Update: Late May 2023

Our people: Ann Gluckman

We’re thrilled to feature much loved and respected community member Ann Gluckman’s ‘My Road to Belief’. This is a chapter from Identity and Involvement Volume 3: Auckland Jewry into the 21st Century, edited by Ann Gluckman, Deb Levy Friedler and Lindy Davis, and supplemented with photos supplied by Ann.

Do enjoy!

Theodor Hilsdorf Karl Wolfskehl - Jewish Lives Update: Late May 2023

A Sketch of Karl Wolfskehl

We’re honored to share an article on the life and work of Karl Wolfskehl, written by (now retired) Associate Professor Friedrich Voit, honorary academic at the University of Auckland, in European Languages and Literature. This essay is a slightly abbreviated introduction to the anthology: ‘Karl Wolfskehl, Three Worlds’. Interestingly, the title references the three worlds that formed Wolfskehl’s identity – Jewish, German and Mediterranean heritage.

Visiting Ben Shemen - Jewish Lives Update: Late May 2023

Film: ‘Visiting Ben Shemen’

Don’t miss the opportunity to view Miriam Harris’s latest film ‘Visiting Ben Shemen’, which is screening at the Doc Edge festival. The film screens 4pm, Friday May 26th at the Capitol Cinema, as part of the NZ Shorts I compilation, and will also be available for online viewing from June 19th – July 9th.

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Our words

In our last newsletter we invited your contributions to this work. We’re very pleased by the quality and variety of stories, poems and book reviews that you have sent. We’ve developed a new section on the website and invite you to browse.

Ann Beaglehole has reviewed Navina Michal Clemerson’s book, ‘There was a garden in Nuremberg’. Clemerson was born in London to refugee parents and grew up in France. After some years in Israel and Europe, she settled with her family in Wellington.

Beaglehole writes: Clemerson’s novel benefits from her extensive research, contributing to its immediacy through telling details, bringing to life the Jewish calamity, the intergenerational effects and the refugee experience.

Do check out Prof Leonard Bell’s incisive review of Inge Woolf’s book ‘Resilience: A Story of Persecution, Escape, Survival and Triumph’.

Peter Aldhamland tells the moving account of being entrusted with Emma’s story about Kristallnacht. He writes, “Emma made me promise never to allow anyone to know her identity, her fear of retribution lived with her for the whole of her life”. Now is the time for her story to be shared.

Penelope Bieder’s poem ‘The stars in the sky are brighter here’ won the annual NZ Listener Montana Poetry Prize in 2000.

Penelope Bieder writes: In 1999, with refugees arriving in New Zealand from other European wars, I thought about dad’s arrival 60 years before. He always found New Zealand an empty, lonely place, and of course he also had the ghosts of his family members who did not survive the war… But he loved his new country with a passion. He was young enough to start over and he had a long, successful life and a long and happy marriage. 

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Leonard Cohen: Wither Thou Goest

Finally, we wish everyone Chag Shavuot Sameach and will finish with this very moving clip of Leonard Cohen, who often ended his concerts with the words from the book of Ruth, ‘Whither Thou Goest’.

Leonard Cohen: Whither Thou Goest (Live in London)