800 Celebrants Affirm that Jewish Education Matters

What can only be described as a throng of people making their way to celebrate their commitment to Judaism and the achievements their children have made in Hebrew and Jewish studies – was seen at the grand end-of-year banquet of JEMs – Jewish Education Matters – in Sydney, Australia.

Held at the Science Theater at UNSW, a crowd of 800 people came to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of the 250 children enrolled at JEMs.

“This is simply amazing!!!” said Tali Fisher, a JEMs parent.

In the words of another JEMs parent: “You should be so proud of the strong community of JEMs; my boys LOVE JEMs and love attending the classes” said Lilach Weininger.

The children come each week to learn Tefillah, Jewish Studies and Hebrew reading and are assisted by a dedicated team of 100 teen volunteers from the local Jewish day schools who mentor them and motivate them with their Hebrew reading. The volunteers and children are led by a dedicated team of teachers.

The event began with a buffet dinner and the men putting on Tefillin.

Each group performed on stage a section of their Tefillah, Jewish studies and Hebrew they learned throughout the year, and at the culmination of their performance were presented with a certificate and a Jewish gift.

The teen volunteers were honored with presenting the gifts and certificates to the children, thereby recognizing the tremendous difference the volunteers make.

One highlight of the evening was when all the volunteers were called onto stage to be presented with a certificate and Gift by the Honorable Gabrielle Upton, a member of the Australian Parliament for Vaucluse; and by Minister for sport & Recreation, Councillor Leon Goltsman, representing Waverley mayor Sally Bets,

The full dinner buffet was catered by ‘Our Big Kitchen,’ and a big thanks goes out to Greg Fisher and Rabbi Dovid and Laya Slavin for their year-round support for many JEMs activities.

A special thank you video to Kesser Torah College was shown, thanking them for their year-round support and broad vision in enabling JEMs to operate out of their beautiful campus. “The support from KTC is truly incredible,” said Rabbi Yossi Shuchat, director of JEMs.