Here is a calendar of upcoming events, up and down the country. Some are organized by us, others by like-minded organizations and groups.
JIFF is the home of the most comprehensive range of Israeli and Jewish-themed films in Australia and New Zealand. The films premiere in our annual three-week film festival in November or our newly established Holocaust Film Series in March. JIFF is building on the long and proud 24-year history of Jewish film festivals in Australia.
Sabena Hijacking (2015)
Sabena Hijacking My Version is a powerful, suspenseful docu-drama based on previously undiscovered audio recordings of the former pilot, Captain Reginald Levy. Captain Levy (now deceased) was in command of the Sabena Flight 571 from Brussels, Belgium to Tel Aviv, Israel on 8 May 1972, when it was hijacked by four members from the “Black September”, the armed wing of Fatah or Palestine Liberalization Organisation.
The film finally shares the untold story of what exactly took place on the flight throughout 30 hours of nerve-wrecking captivity. It channels the English pilots impartial view of the events and elaborates on them with exclusive access to three revered Israeli political leaders who were in charge of the rescue effort, as well as the only surviving hijacker, who tell their own story.
Current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu featured, alongside the other key political decision makers at the time, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former Prime Minister, President and Nobel Prize winner Shimon Peres.
Therese Halsa, one of the four hijackers who was a girl of just 18 at the time, gives her version of events, following release from a 220 year prison sentence of which she served 13 years. Sabena Hijacking My Version fuses candid interviews with archive material and dramatic reenactments of the tense scenes inside the aircraft and the control tower as Captain Levy was held at gunpoint.
It takes viewers into the aircraft to witness the events first-hand as the hijackers threatened to explode hand grenades unless 300 prisoners were released. It also gives insight to the tense negotiations which eventually led to a heroic rescue operation during which a special unit of soldiers (disguised as technicians) stormed the plane.
The result is a captivating, fast-paced film full of suspense, which poses significant political and historical questions that are not only still important, but have shaped the Israel of today.
104 minutes.
2015 marks the first year that Jews from the Western World dominated Israeli Immigration statistics. Is this the beginning of a major change?
What drives a person to uproot themselves from a comfortable existence in Britain and make a new life in the unknown in Israel? What do they find? How well do they get on in Israel?
Come & Meet Stuart and Hasja Palmer
Thursday 14 JAN 2016 @7.30PM
LIFEPOINT CHURCH WELLINGTON
Stuart Palmer is a retired Engineer who made aliya from the UK in 1981. He worked for some years as an International Marketing Manager in the North of Israel.
Since retiring, he has become the Director of ICAN (International Citizens Action Network) and is Chairman of CoHaV (Coalition of Hasbara Volunteers) www.cohav.org an umbrella organization of over 100 various advocacy groups around the world.
He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Communications at Bar Ilan University and a member of the advisory committee for the Haifa University program, “Ambassadors Online”. Stuart has appeared as a commentator on TV and lectures to visiting groups of tourists, army volunteer, officials and others in Israel and offshore.
He is with his wife on holiday in NZ and is the guest of NZ Friends of Israel (NZFOI).
Lifepoint Church
61 Hopper St
Mt Cook
Wellington
Koha Admission
RSVP Joanna Moss (NZFOI) by 12 Jan
E: joannamoss12@clear.net.nz
T: (04) 802-5956
M: (022) 154-7865
Stuart Palmer
Northwood Villa clubrooms
O’Neill Ave
Northwood
Christchurch
2015 marks the first year that Jews from the Western World dominated Israeli Immigration statistics. Is this the beginning of a major change?
What drives a person to uproot themselves from a comfortable existence in Britain and make a new life in the unknown in Israel? What do they find? How well do they get on in Israel?
About the Speaker
Stuart Palmer is a retired Engineer who made aliya from the UK in 1981. He worked for some years as an International Marketing Manager in the North of Israel.
Since retiring, he has become the Director of ICAN (International Citizens Action Network) and is Chairman of CoHaV (Coalition of Hasbara Volunteers) www.cohav.org an umbrella organization of over 100 various advocacy groups around the world.
He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Communications at Bar Ilan University and a member of the advisory committee for the Haifa University program, “Ambassadors Online”. Stuart has appeared as a commentator on TV and lectures to visiting groups of tourists, army volunteer, officials and others in Israel and offshore.
He is with his wife on holiday in NZ and is the guest of NZ Friends of Israel (NZFOI).
International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 27 January, is an international memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust, the genocide that resulted in the annihilation of 6 million Jews, 2 million Gypsies (Roma and Sinti), 15,000 homosexual people and millions of others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005 during the 42nd plenary session.
We are having another sausage sizzle at Shirley Bunnings on Marshland Road.
Each sausage sizzle has been a wonderful opportunity to meet the public, raise awareness of Israel, the Middle East and Jewish culture.
The funds will go toward furthering Holocaust Education and fighting racial intolerance.
If you can help out for a morning or afternoon, then feel free to email us on contact@nzfoi.org or call (027) 433 9745
BEHOLD THE MAN
Dwight Pryor
Sunday 2 pm, 14 February 2016
Northwood Villa Clubrooms, O’Neill Avenue, Northwood, Christchurch.
Reconnecting Christianity with its Hebrew roots has become a significant activity for NZFOI as it fights Christian Anti-Semitism.
As part of that activity, NZFOI has purchased several sets of the highly regarded introductory bible study course, Behold the Man.
There has been significant interest in the study with many requests for us to screen the first session so that members can gauge its quality for themselves.
You need wait no longer, as we will be screening it at our February meeting in Christchurch.
Please bring a plate of finger food
A TIMELESS STORY FOR ALL HUMANITY
Sunday 2 pm, 20 March 2016
Northwood Villa Clubrooms, O’Neill Avenue, Northwood, Christchurch.
The story of Queen Esther and how she thwarted Haman’s plan to suppress the Jewish people because they would not acknowledge the supremacy of Babylonian thought and practice is well known, yet the impact it has had on modern history and its lessons for a current generation are often overlooked. This year, the Festival of Purim begins at nightfall on March 23.
Please bring a plate of finger food
For location details see also: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/the-university/how-university-works/campuses-locations-transport/maps/arts-1-building.html.