"ISRAEL UPDATE" - The Embassy Newsletter

Following you will find the latest edition of "ISRAEL UPDATE", the Embassy of Israel newsletter, published every second month.

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ISRAEL UPDATE - March 1997, Issue No. 7

Aotea Centre - Auckland, Thursday 16th January

Southland Museum and Art Gallery - Invercargill, Monday 3rd February.

The Spirit of Jerusalem photography exhibition has enjoyed wide audiences at openings around the South Island. Still to be displayed at the Elma Turner Library in Nelson and at the Christchurch Festival in July, and with potential exhibits in Greymouth and Wellington, the Spirit of Jerusalem has certainly hit New Zealand hard!

In Auckland the opening was held in conjunction with the Auckland Zionist Society, and featured addresses by both the Ambasssador, H.E. Nissan Koren Krupsky, and the President of the Auckland Zionist Society, Frances Levy-Leigh. Over 100 people attended the event.

Invercargill saw greater numbers of people at its opening, and was addressed by both the Ambassador and the Chairman of the Southland Museum and Art Gallery Trust Board, Neil Farrell. This was the second exhibition housed by the museum in recent months, (the former being an exhibition presently touring the country entitled Children of the Holocaust), and the warmth of the Southland community was once again apparent.

The Spirit of Jerusalem is an exhibition by Israeli Shai Ginott, and has been displayed internationally in such places as London and Tokyo.

March this year sees the arrival of the second Israeli Youth Delegation to New Zealand. Last year the delegation spent their visit in the North Island, and this year will see the two spend their time in the South, visiting Nelson, Christchurch, and possibly Dunedin.

The majority of their time will be spent at local schools, addressing 6th and 7th formers on the Peace Process in the Middle East, talking of their lives as Israeli teenagers, and discussing the dilemmas that they face in their daily lives.

The delegation, one of a large number of delegations sent to 50 destinations worldwide, will be comprised of two teenagers, Zef Segal (male) and Hadar Gonen (female), who have been chosen amongst hundreds to represent their country abroad. Though here in New Zealand they will mainly be preoccupied with their visits to local schools, they will also be meeting with Friends of Israel branches and members of the Jewish community, and speaking to local media. The couple will then be flying on to Australia.

The couple's interests vary immensely. Zef, in true Kiwi style, played rugby for his age group in Ra'anana, and in April 1996 was part of a high school delegation sent to a community in New Jersey. He has been a leader in the political Peace Now movement, and is presently engaged in studies towards an Open University degree in the Humanities.

Hadar, on the other hand, is majoring in Visual Art and Physics at High School, and as a child studied in a special department of the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art for gifted children. She is active in the Israel Scouts movement, where she presently acts as Chairperson of one of its committees.

Twice a year, at the National Israeli Dance Camps, a hundred Kiwis meet in order to share a love of the music, dance and atmosphere that is Israeli Folk Dancing.

Most are neither Israeli nor Jewish, but all dance regularly to a distinctively Israeli beat. Each year a dance teacher is brought out to one of these camps, either from the USA or Israel. 1997 for instance, will be hosted by the Wellington Israeli Dance Group with guest teacher/choreographer Moshe Telem from Israel.

Israeli dancers meet throughout New Zealand, dancing in Church halls, community centres, and Jewish Community centres. To locate YOUR local Israeli Folk Dance group, contact the Embassy.

The NZ/Israel Scientific and Cultural Exchange, established two years ago in order to promote scientific and cultural ties between the two countries, has awarded its first scholarship, to a talented artist, Rachel Harre, of Christchurch.

Rachel will be presented with her award at a special ceremony to be held on Monday 24th February, in Wellington, after which she will travel to Israel to observe the country and its people. On her return, she hopes to put together an art exhibition which will reflect her trip.

1997 marks the 100th year since the establishment of the Zionist movement, a movement which had its formal beginnings at the First Zionist Congress held in Basle, Switzerland on 29th August 1897.

The goals of the Zionist movement were to establish a national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, its ancestral homeland. Yearning for Zion and Jewish immigration had continued throughout the long period that the Jewish people had been in exile, since the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70C.E. Yet in the 19th century this yearning took on a new form, as modern nationalism, liberalism and emancipation forced the Jews to deal with new, and challenging questions of identity.

The main figure on the Zionist scene was a man named Theodore Herzl, who consolidated Zionism into a political movement and convened the First Zionist Congress, thus bringing the Jewish "problem" to world attention, and making the Jewish people a player in the world political arena.

The Zionist movement which developed from his initiative also created organizational, political and economic tools to implement its vision and ideology. Zionism, which led to the establishment of the modern State of Israel in May 1948, took on various forms, religious, socialist, and cultural, but all had one principal aim - the return of the Jewish people to Zion after 2000 years of longing and desire.

To celebrate the Centenary year, special events will be taking place throughout Israel and the Jewish world. An international Jewish Identity Quiz for children will hold its final in Basle, Switzerland, and numerous other eventas are planned for all of 1997. A special series of leaflets have been produced in order to mark the occasion, and a number of documentary videos are available from the Embassy.

Israel's Trade Awards, offered in acknowledgement of contributions to trade between New Zealand and Israel, were presented in November by Israel's Ambassador to New Zealand, Nissan Koren Krupsky, and Israel's Trade Commissioner Amiram Halevy-Laher. Guest speaker at the event was Auckland Mayor Les Mills, who talked of the Britomart Project and its ramifications for the business sector.

Israel, recognized internationally as housing one of the most productive and qualitative plastics industries in the world, will be hosting "Plasto Ispack '97", an event featuring exhibits and a professional conference focusing on the aims and achievements of the plastics, rubber and packaging industries.

Although the event itself will not take place until September 1997, an introductory seminar for interested participants will take place in Auckland on April 2nd. For more information please contact: Dimitri Geidelberg at the Embassy ( ph: 04 472 2368; fax: 04 499 0632 ).