TELL Magazine: October - November 2019

{CEO UPDATE}
Suzanna Helia
“The Jews started it all – and by “it”
I mean so many of the things we care
about, the underlying values that make
all of us, Jew and gentile, believer and
atheist, tick. Without the Jews, we
would see the world through different
eyes, hear with different ears, even
feel with different feelings. And we
would set a different course for our
lives… Their worldview has become
so much a part of us that at this point
it might as well have been written
into our cells as a genetic code.”
- Thomas Cahill,
The Gifts of the Jews
Our synagogue has taken a
path not only to be a centre for
learning, prayer and spirituality,
but also a place for Jewish arts
and culture, as these are a strong
part of our Jewish identity.
As I sit in my living room with a
cup of tea, listening to Gershwin
and thinking about writing this
article, I scan the room and gaze at
a beautiful Slim Aarons photograph,
and reflect - Slim Aarons was
Jewish; Anne Liebowitz is Jewish;
and the music I am listening to
was composed by a Jew. This
relatively small group of people
created so much of the beauty that
we enjoy today. Jews are known to
be smart, cultured and generous.
They have an ingrained sense of
social justice and worldliness.
A basic search on the Internet
highlighted that Jews have won
twenty-two percent of all Nobel
prizes awarded; twenty nine
percent since 1950, after the
Holocaust destroyed a third of
the population. Given the small
population, proportionately, they
could have been recipients of
one in five hundred, or possibly
two Nobel prizes for medicine,
chemistry or physics. However,
Jewish people have been awarded
one hundred and twenty-three.
{INSIDE THIS EDITION}
TRANSFORMATIVE
LEARNING
20
WANT TO WRITE YOUR
OWN OBITUARY?
Barbara Karet
14
THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN
Cantor George Mordecai
26
ELUL JEWELS
30
JUDAISM - A PATH OF WELLBEING
INSPIRING PRAYER
8
OPEN THE GATES
TO FORGIVENESS
Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio
14
NEW PROGRESSIVE MACHZOR
Rabbis Dr John Levi AM. Ph D.
and Jonathan Keren-Black
16
GESTATION OF A NEW MACHZOR
22
CHANGES AND CHALLENGES
Rabbi Rafi Kaiserblueth
31
HIGH HOLY DAYS AT EMANUEL