Community message
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- Community Message, Events
HONOURING STORIES TOO OFTEN UNTOLD
Tonight we shine a light on a chapter of history our community must remember.
Dear friends,
REMEMBERING A SHARED HERITAGE
This evening, for the first time, the Jewish Community Council of Victoria is hosting a commemoration to mark the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from Arab Lands and Iran.
In 2014, the Israeli Knesset declared November 30 as a day to remember the estimated 850,000 Jewish people who were forcibly expelled from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
Our community is dominated by Ashkenazi, or Eastern European, culture and tradition. From bagels to kitniyot-free Pesach food. From klezmer music to our community’s remarkable efforts to educate on the horrors of the Holocaust.
But there are many of us who eat rice on Pesach, who grew up with grandparents who spoke Arabic rather than Yiddish, and whose family were directly impacted by the Farhud, rather than the Holocaust.
Tonight, we will shine a light on this important part of our community. We will hear from Iranian and Egyptian community members, and be treated to a live performance by a Jewish oud player.
Tickets are still available:
Please join us, whether you have Mizrachi, Sephardi or Ashkenazi heritage. There are seats still available.
I would like to thank our counterparts from the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry who encouraged and supported the JCCV in putting on this first event. For more than a decade, the NSW Jewish community has held a commemoration like this.
We look forward to continuing to work with them to ensure we reflect the diversity of our Jewish community and we hope to make this date an important one on our community calendar.
