Here is a calendar of upcoming events, up and down the country. Some are organized by us, others by like-minded organizations and groups.
Shavuot is a moed (appointed time) mandated as a commandment of God. It is also called the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.
Shavuot has a double significance. It marks the all-important wheat harvest in the Land of Israel (Exodus 34:22); and it commemorates the anniversary of the day God gave the Torah to the entire nation of Israel assembled at Mount Sinai, although the association between the giving of the Torah (Matan Torah) and Shavuot is not explicit in the Biblical text.
The holiday is one of the Shalosh Regalim, the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals. It marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer, and its date is directly linked to that of Passover. The Torah mandates the seven-week Counting of the Omer, beginning on the second day of Passover, to be immediately followed by Shavuot. This counting of days and weeks is understood to express anticipation and desire for the giving of the Torah. On Passover, the people of Israel were freed from their enslavement to Pharaoh; on Shavuot they were given the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God.[2] The word Shavuot means weeks, and the festival of Shavuot marks the completion of the seven-week counting period between Passover and Shavuot. The yahrzeit of King David is traditionally observed on Shavuot. Hasidic Jews also observe the yahrzeit of the Baal Shem Tov.[3]
Shavuot is one of the less familiar Jewish holidays to secular Jews in the Jewish diaspora, while those in Israel as well as the Orthodox community are more aware of it.[4][5] According to Jewish law, Shavuot is celebrated in Israel for one day and in the Diaspora (outside of Israel) for two days. Reform Judaism celebrates only one day, even in the Diaspora.[6]
You are invited to a showing of a documentary about the Jewish refugees that were expelled from North Africa and the Middle East after 1948.
The Forgotten Refugees is a 2005 documentary film directed by Michael Grynszpan and produced by The David Project and IsraTV with Ralph Avi Goldwasser as executive producer.
It is an aspect of the Middle East Conflict that is often overlooked.
Over 850,000 Jews were expelled or pushed out because of persecution after 1948. Today these Jews are often called “Mizrahi Jews” and they and their descendents number nearly 40% of Israel’s population.
Though tinged with much sadness, it is also a heartwarming story of people who have faced much adversity but gone on to accept resettlement and rebuilt their lives.
See also
You’re invited by the Jewish Federation to join members of the Hebrew Community for a dinner with Alex Ryvchin.
Alex Ryvchin was born in Kiev, Ukraine. His family left the Soviet Union as refugees and refuseniks in 1987, when Alex was 3 years old. He attended Sydney Boys High School and went on to study law and politics at the University of New South Wales.
He worked for a member of the state legislature as a researcher and speechwriter before practising law at two of the world’s largest law firms, first at Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Sydney and then at Herbert Smith in London. He served as a spokesman for the Zionist Federation UK, and was awarded a prestigious Israel Research Fellowship to work as a research fellow and staff writer at a Jerusalem-based think-tank.
In 2013 he joined the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Australia’s premier representative and advocacy body for the Australian Jewish community, and was promoted to co-Chief Executive Officer in February 2018, becoming one of the youngest leaders in the Jewish diaspora. He is a member of the Jewish Diplomatic Corps.
A prominent speaker and writer on the Arab-Israeli conflict, foreign and national affairs, and religion and identity, he writes for leading publications throughout the world including the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator, Fox News Opinion, the Guardian, the National Post, the Australian and the Age, and is a regular commentator on TV and radio. His first book is “The Anti-Israel Agenda – Inside the Political War on the Jewish State”, (Gefen Publishing House, 2017).
Amir Tsarfati was born in Israel and has lived there most of his life. Since fulfilling his mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Force, he has continued as a major in the IDF Reserve. Amir has been a tour guide in Israel for the last twenty years, and served as chief tour guide of Sar El Tours and CEO of Sar El Tours and Conferences.
In 2001, he became founder and president of Behold Israel – a non-profit organization which provides worldwide real-time access to reliable sources of news and information about Israel from within the powerful context of Bible history and prophecy.
Amir is married to Miriam, and together they have four children. His home overlooks the valley of Megiddo (Armageddon) which is a constant reminder of the call that the Lord has placed on him to teach from the Bible what God’s plans are for the end times.
| July 24 7pm | Calvary Chapel Christchurch |
| July 25 7pm | Calvary Chapel Wellington |
| July 26 7pm | Shoreline Church Tauranga |
| July 28 1.30pm | Calvary Chapel Hamilton |
| July 29 7pm | Calvary Chapel Auckland |
See http://calvarychapel.org.nz/calvary-chapels-in-new-zealand/ for individual venue locations.
In collaboration with Victoria University of Wellington & AUT – Auckland University of Technology, & supported by New Zealand Human Rights Commission the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand brings you, ‘At the Forefront – Human Rights Speaker Series’, a forum for discussion & debate on Human Rights.
Paul Moon is a New Zealand historian and a professor at the Auckland University of Technology.
He is a prolific writer of New Zealand history and biography, specialising in Māori history, the Treaty of Waitangi and the early period of Crown rule.
Israel supporters should attend this lecture, if only, to ask searching questions of the speaker…
This lecture explores two grass-roots leadership projects that promote non-violent resistance as a means of achieving civil rights in Palestine/Israel: the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign (BDS) and the One State Solution. As alternatives to the politics of exclusion and militant ethnic nationalism, these civil society actions have gained increasing global support, and are shifting meanings and locations of foreign policy and international intervention. Through an analysis of their historic origins, this lecture reflects on how these two movements are challenging power and may shape the future of the region.
Wednesday, 1 August 2018 6.00 pm-7.30 pm
Lecture Theatre: OGHLecTh/102-G36
Old Government House
Princes Street The University of Auckland
Dr Nicholas Rowe
About the speaker: Nicholas Rowe is an Associate Professor in Dance Studies at the University of Auckland and an Associate Investigator in the Arts Equal Project, Academy of Finland. Prior to joining the University of Auckland, Nicholas lived in Ramallah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories from 2000-2008, working with arts education programmes in refugee camps throughout the West Bank, Gaza Strip and South Lebanon. His books include Art, During Siege: Performing Arts Workshops in Traumatised Communities, Raising Dust: A Cultural History of Dance in Palestine, Talking Dance: Contemporary Histories from the Southern Mediterranean, Talking Dance: Contemporary Histories from the South China Sea and the edited volume Moving Oceans: Celebrating Dance in the South Pacific. A graduate of the Australian Ballet School, Nicholas holds a PhD from London Contemporary Dance School, University of Kent at Canterbury.
Operation Entebbe after 40 Years: A personal recollection
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
In 1976, when an Air France place was hijacked and rerouted to Entebbe, Rami was the Operations Officer of the unit, under the command of Yoni Netanyahu.
In his capacity as Operations Officer, he was in involved throughout the week, preparing the unit for the Operation.
Among other things, he coordinated with Dan Shomron, the Commander of the Operation, and the Israeli Air Force.
Within the Operation, Rami was part of the 33 officers and soldiers who freed the hostages at the Entebbe terminal. He arrived with the first Hercules that landed in the airport, and was in the car that was driving behind the famous Mercedes.
After Yoni Netanyahu was injured, he drove him to the Hercules, where a team of medical professionals were waiting, but unfortunately they could not save Yoni’s life.
Later, Rami was the commander who led the rescued hostages to the Hercules.
Upon returning to Israel, Rami continued to serve in the unit, and was a Special Operations Commander until 1980.
After he was released from active duty, he helped establish the reserves unit.
Rami Sherman was born on 4 April 1953. His parents were Holocaust survivors and came to Israel in 1945.
Rami grew up on Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan, which is in the north of the country and was on the Syrian border until the Six Day War in 1967. He was educated in the Kibbutz system.
In 1972, Rami enlisted in the army and was accepted into an elite special forces unit, which today is allowed to be named – Sayeret Matkal (the Chief of Staff’s Special Forces). He successfully completed the combat soldier course and was sent to Officers’ School in order to return and receive command of a squad within the unit.
At age 50, he was released from doing reserve service.
Rami is married, has two daughters and grandfather to five grandchildren.
In 1990, Rami finished his studies in physiotherapy at the University of Tel Aviv, and since that time he has worked as a physiotherapist in various positions, including, among other things, as a physiotherapist for the Israeli Olympic team.
In 1993, Rami and his family moved to Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, where they still live today.
An unsettling vision of military service pervading everyday Israeli life, Samuel Maoz’s (Lebanon) visceral and startlingly unpredictable film centres on a Tel Aviv couple coping with the death of their son, a soldier stationed in the middle of nowhere.
“Maazo’s marvelous, harrowing drama about death and life in Israel marches boldly through the no-man’s-land between realism and surrealism. It’s prize collection of paradoxes, combining an intimate, eviscerating depiction of parental grief ove ra serviceman’s death with an empathic, absurdist rendering of young Israeli Defence Force soldiers manning a remote and otherworldly roadblock…
Foxtrot carries the excitement and punch of a fearless writer-director tackling contemporary material with a bracing cocktail of potent traditional drama, wild black comedy, and serrated style. [It all] comes together as a complex plea for honesty, openness, frankness, and forgiveness. The movie is also, incidentally, a spectacularly effective antiwar film, focusing on the randomness and cruelty of life lived on military roads… Its final image resters like a blow to the chest. It’s a shot that should be seen around the world.” — Michael Sragow, Film Comment
“[Foxtrot] contains some of themost striking, memorable imagery of the year… It’s a film designed tomove you with its depiction of senseless tragedy but also to spark that part of your thinking process that only moviemaking can tap… This multitalented filmmaker has taken that darkness and turned it into something unforgettable for everyone who sees it.” — Brian Tallerico, RobertEbert.com
Awards: Grand Jury Price, Venice Film Festival 2017
Hebrew, Arabic and German, with English subtitles; 113 minutes.