A Jewish Cultural Weekend of joy for Sydney
Over 220 presenters, 17 of them from overseas, will form the backbone of the 2013 Limmud-Oz’s 187 sessions being held over this weekend’s Queen’s Birthday Holiday.
The marathon event starts on Saturday night with a musical and comedic touch featuring among others Kosher Gospel king Joshua Nelson and star of her one-woman comedy show Tami Sussman. Following the opening it’s straight down to business with a session on the topic “Is Two States for two Peoples still a Viable Solution” moderated by Shalom Institute chief Hilton Immerman refereeing comments from Daniel Gordis and Gershon Baskin. Baskin was heavily involved in the negotiations with Hamas leading up to the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for the release of Gilad Shalit, the IDF soldier held captive by Hamas for five years. Gordis is an academic, distinguished author and frequently published journalist. Other sessions deal with money and the Holocaust in history and literature. The latter session will see Avril Alba moderating a conversation between famed author Elliot Perlman and Holocaust expert and author Alan Rosen.
With further flamenco musical interludes planned the opening evening finishes with a panel discussing the threat of Iran with another appearance by Daniel Gordis this time accompanied by Kooshyar Karimi who had to decide between being severely tortured or spying against his own people and Ron Ben Yishai a special investigative journalist with Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharanot.
The entire program is available on the Limmud-Oz web site and there are no bookings for any of the sessions. Seating will be based purely on a first in, first served basis.
Sunday night will feature a performance by popular Jewish songstress Deborah Conway.
Last year, over 1100 people attended Limmud-Oz…a record number then but organisers hope to see that record broken this year.
Michael Misrachi told J-Wire: “Those attending can choose their own Jewish Journey.” With almost 200 sessions to choose from them there will be plenty of routes to take.
See you there.
