Calendar

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.

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.

Maddy Worthington

Maddy Worthington has been serving in Israel for almost 3 years, alongside her husband, James, and with their children – Isabelle, Lucy & Reuben. As often happens when people go to serve in Israel, they were moved from where they went to serve, to where God wanted them to be. They work now with Aliyah Return Centre, (which is run by Christians, Arabs, and Israelis,) in the Galilee, and also help with a beautification team, who collect rubbish from the shores of Kinneret Lake. Maddy will be speaking on their work, with Q & A, and .showing a short DVD called  “I Am Israel.“

Date and Time:  Tuesday 7th August, at 7pm.

Venue:  Rangiora Baptist Church, 11 East Belt, Waimakariri District 7400

But they became separated.

What would happen to everyone?  Would they be discovered?  Would she ever see her parents again?

You are invited to hear Vivianne’s harrowing story of how she survived the war and built a new life in its aftermath.

Although Vivianne has never written a book, copies of the powerful memoir of Holocaust survivor, Max Eisen, “By Chance Alone” will be available for purchase. Cash or cheque only.  $30 per copy.

“[An] extraordinary memoir.” (Edmonton Journal)

“An astounding narrative . . . a timely examination of the human capacity for cruelty, ignorance, and depravity. It is also a message of hope, a cri de coeur, and a reminder that small acts of kindness can have an immeasurable impact on another person’s life.” (Quill & Quire)

“Max Eisen’s important, timely memoir reminds us that horror does not happen overnight and that no one is immune to it. By Chance Alone is a testimony to the human experience of needless, senseless suffering. May we learn from it.” (Marina Nemat, author of Prisoner of Tehran)

“By Chance Alone is a story of great pathos, and told with directness and simplicity, of the sufferings and grief and fear of one boy in a terrible time and a terrible place.” (Rex Murphy)

Such were the overwhelming odds stacked against him, Max Eisen should not have survived. Chance, some good people, and not a little luck all played their part, but his dogged determination to overcome the lethal physical and mental onslaught is truly remarkable.” (Stephen D. Smith, Executive Director, USC Shoah Foundation)

Max Eisen reveals, with clarity and honesty, his personal resilience and determination to survive against impossible odds, and bear witness to the horrors of Auschwitz. His humanity and generosity shine through in this powerful and page-turning memoir.” (Barbara J. Falk, PhD, MSL Associate Professor, Department of Defence Studies Canadian Forces College/Royal Military College of Canada Barbara Falk, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Defence Studies, Canadian Forces College/Royal Military Colleg)

“A gripping, harrowing read, chock-a-block with pulse-quickening detail.” (Canadian Jewish News)

This event is a collaboration between NZFOI and the Zionist Federation of New Zealand.