november 2011 • volume 6 • issue 7 • cheshvan / kislev 5772

This year’s Nobel Prize win-ners for achievements in Chemistry and Medicine went to Ralph Steinman and Bruce Beutler for Medicine and Israeli professor Daniel Shechtman for Chemistry.

The prize for medicine was given for discoveries on the im-mune system. Half of the award money was awarded to Stein-man, with the other half is to be split between Beutler and biolo-gist Jules Hoffmann. Steinman will receive the prize posthu-mously; he died three days be-fore the Nobel committee made

JEWISH SCIENTISTS AMONGST NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS 2011

IN THIS ISSUE

Regional NewsSino-Israel Exhibition of Joint Urban Design Work Opens in Shanghai 3-7

Business NewsNew organic health store providing kosher benefits 8-9

Art and CultureYoni Rechter plays at the Shanghai Jazz Music Festival 10-11

FeatureThe synagogue in Chennamangalam 12-13

FeatureZaka celebrates 10 years at tribute event 15

FeatureDramatic opera nights at Masada 16

Jewish communities in AsiaCandle-lighting and the months Parshas 19

By staff writer

November 2011 • Volume 6 • Issue 7 • Cheshvan / Kislev 5772 www.jewishtimesasia.org

Shaw Prizes. Amongst the win-ners were, Dr Gerald J Fishman and Bruce Beutler. The Shaw Prize is an international award to honour individuals who are currently active in their respec-tive fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and sig-nificant advances.

The Shaw Prize now in its eighth year, was established under the auspices of Run Run Shaw in 2002, is managed and administered by The Shaw Prize Foundation based in Hong Kong. It consists of three annual awards: the Prize in Astronomy, the Prize in Life Science and Medicine, and the Prize in Math-ematical Sciences.

the announcement. Though he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four years ago, Stein-man was able to prolong his life by using new dendritic cell-based immunotherapy - the same discovery for which he was awarded the prize.

Shechtman’s award in chem-istry was for the discovery of “quasicrystals” – a remarkable mosaic of atoms. The configu-ration found was considered impossible and he had to fight a fierce battle against established

science. Shechtman works at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Saul Perlmut-ter, for the Supernova Cosmol-ogy Project at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, and to Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess.

Some distinguished Jewish scientists were recently in Hong Kong to attend the awards pre-sentations for the Hong Kong Daniel Shechtman

Professor Bruce Beutler, Shaw Laureate in Life Science and Medicine 2011 receiving his award in Hong Kong from Chief Executive Donald Tsang

Established 2006

Gilad Shalit returns homeIsraeli captured soldier, Gi-lad Shalit, who has been in Hamas captivity on the Gaza strip for the last five years, has been released. Shalit re-turned to Israel in October, looking frail and gaunt, but otherwise healthy.

Shali t’s release came with the condition that Israel release 1,027 Palestinian pris-oners. A total of 477 prisoners were released from Israeli prisons after Shalit touched down on Israeli soil.

Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, an Israeli army spokesman, said: “Gilad Sha-lit has returned to his country, his homeland and his family.

For over five years we have been with Gilad Shalit. Today, Gilad Shalit is with us.”

Shalit said in a brief inter-view with an Egyptian news channel: “I thought that I would find myself in this situation many more years… I missed my family. I missed friends.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted Shalit upon his arrival in Israel. “How good that you have returned home. On this day, all of us are united in happiness and pain,” he said.

“Two and a half years ago, I returned to the prime minister’s office. One of the principal and

most complicated missions that I found on my desk, and which I set my heart on, was to bring our abducted soldier Gilad Shalit back home, alive and well. Today, that mission has been completed,” Netan-yahu added.

“I would like to make it clear: We will continue to fight terrorism. Any released terrorist who returns to ter-rorism - his blood is upon his head. Israel is different from its enemies: We do not cele-brate the release of murderers, on the contrary, we believe in the sanctity of life. This is the tradition of the Jewish peo-ple.” Netanyahu concluded.

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Jewish Times Asia November 2011 3

Scholarships offered to foreign students in Asia

Ushpiz starts with West Bengal

www.jewishtimesasia.org

Jewish Times Asia

Publisher & FounderPhilip Jay

Sub EditorTony Henderson

ContributorsCyriac “Cy” ThannikaryDr Elana Maryles SztokmanSamantha Gershon

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Jewish Times Asia is distributed on a controlled circulation, complimentary to resident addresses and business’s in the region. In addition extra copies are available at synagogues, Jewish community centres, kosher restaurants, clubs and associations. The newspaper is also on EL AL flights between Israel & Asia.

Exhibition of Joint Urban Design Work opens in Shanghai

Serious fire damage at a Sydney synagogueA fire severely damaged a synagogue in Sydney on the first night of Rosh Hashanah. Seven fire trucks were re-quired to extinguish the blaze at Kehillat Masada, St Ives, in northern Sydney at around 11pm on 28 September.

Officers from Fire and Rescue New South Wales man-aged to rescue the Torah scrolls and put out the flames in about three hours.

The police forensic unit be-lieves the blaze, which began in the kitchen area, was acciden-tal. No one was hurt or injured

during the incident.

Kehillat Masada, which has a membership of 450 families, is located within the campus of Masada College, a large Jewish school. The high school library was also affected. School prin-cipal Wendy Barel and syna-gogue president Trevor Lorge said in a joint statement that they were devastated by “so much damage and destruction.”

“The most important thing is that no one was hurt or in-jured and that it took place after the premises had been vacated

from very busy first night Rosh Hashanah services,” it read.

Members made alternative arrangements to attend other nearby synagogues for the re-mainder of the festival. Accord-ing to the board the Pelerman Centre is unlikely to be back in use for the remainder of this year.

The areas affected are the synagogue, Board Room, KM offices, Teperson Centre, Beit Midrash, and Lynette Phillips Hall. The High School library will also be closed for assess-ment and a clean-up.

Moshe Margalith (second from left), Jackie Eldan, (third from left), Maurice Ohana (third from the right) & Professor Wangjun (second from the right)

Israel’s new ambassador to India, Alon Ushpiz, started with his diplomatic rela-tions by meeting West Ben-gal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was at the top of his list.

“We think West Bengal is a very interesting state,” said Ushpiz while recalling his meeting with the minister. The ambassador extended an invite to Banerjee to visit Israel.

Among the areas of co-operation that was discussed were irrigation, horticulture, water management and re-newable energy. Ambassador Ushpiz also inaugurated an Israeli business promotion office in Kolkata.

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Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cultural and Scien-tific Relations Division will be offering scholarships for 2012-2013 to students in some Asian countries in-cluding: China, India, Ja-pan and South Korea.

Students can apply for summer language courses (Ulpan), or one academic year, or research scholar-ships.

Basic requirements are that the applicant must hold a BA or BSc degree (or higher) and have a good record of academic achieve-ment and must be a citizen of the country where he/she applies. The applicant must be under the age of 35, and meet the academic require-ments of the Israeli Univer-sity that he/she applies to.

Date for the submis-sion of application forms varies for each country but normally is no later than 30 November.

For further details information con-cerning the process for scholarship e-mail: [email protected]

Tel Aviv University and Tongji University in Shanghai un-veiled the Sino-Israel Sympo-sium and Exhibition of Joint Urban Design Work - “Urban Change” - at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum (the former Ohel Moshe Syn-agogue) on 10 October, 2011.

The opening of the Sym-posium and Exhibition was attended by Consul General of Israel in Shanghai, Jackie Eldan, Deputy Consul General Oren Rozenblat, President of Jewish Community in Shanghai Maurice Ohana.

Professor Moshe Margalith from Tel Aviv University and Professor Wangjun from Tongji University both gave a speech at the opening ceremony. The event was also covered by local Chinese and Israeli media.

“Urban Change – Echoes from Shanghai’s Former Jew-ish Ghetto” consists of an aca-demic forum and architectural

design exhibition contributed by the students from Tel Aviv University and Tongji Univer-sity. The main idea of design is based on the development of Tilanqiao Area, which used to be the Jewish Ghetto when thousands of Jews took refuge in Shanghai during WWII.

These older residential buildings where most of the Jews lived (now at Changyang Road and Zhou Shan Road) are

protected as buildings of his-torical heritage by the Chinese government and are kept in good condition.

The collaborative project between the two universities was launched in October 2010. A year later, the participating students are now presenting their designs at this joint forum and exhibition, and moreover, to the local government of Hongkou District.

Professor Margalith told Xinhua News Agency, “The reason that I am here is first in gratitude, for the generosity and hospitality of Shanghai. We can still feel the hospitality of Shanghai now. All the designs here are done by our students. The idea is to introduce new development to this area while protecting its old heritage, and let the old and new develop side by side.”

All the design projects have been on display to the general public for two weeks during the month.Exhibition at Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum

Jewish Times Asia November 20114

Regional News

Gillon visits Hong Kong Virtual Dead Sea scrolls gets hits from Japan

More than a million people have visited a new website featuring high-resolution pho-tographs of several Dead Sea Scrolls since the site was re-cently launched by the Israel Museum and Google Israel.

The website provides a de-tailed view of five of the most complete scrolls, which were found at Qumran and date from around the Second Temple period, nearly 2,000 years ago. Among the scrolls featured on the website is the Book of Isa-iah. The actual scrolls are part of the Israel Museum’s “Shrine of the Book” collection in Jeru-salem.

An analysis of the visitors to the site reveals broad interest from almost every country in-cluding Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Syria. While the museum had anticipated wide interest in the website, interest has exceeded expectations.

Google logged 1,042,104 visitors to the site, which not only provides an opportunity to see detailed images of the five scrolls, but also features an English translation. The scrolls were photographed in

Hong Kong’s Jewish commu-nity welcomed Carmi Gillon, the former Head of the Israeli Security Service. Gillon held this position from 1972-1996 and many other senior diplo-matic, civil and business ap-pointments. He was also the former Ambassador of Israel to Denmark between 2001-2003.

In a packed itenary, Gil-lon was invited to speak at the Israeli Chamber of Commerce lunch held on the 25 October and gave a lecture at the Hong Kong Jewish Community Cen-tre entitled, “The Importance of Higher Education to National Security”. A fascinating evening was also spent commenting on the release of Israeli captured

soldier Gilad Shalit. Later in the week, Gillon held a Breakfast Seminar with senior business leaders and academics and met with the Police Commissioner and Regina IP Lau, Head of New People’s Party (former Secretary for Security of HK-SAR Government).

One of his last engagements was to give a lecture and semi-nar at the Hong Kong Univer-sity of Science & Technology, and met with the provost, Prof. Shyy Wei.

Gillon was also invited to appear on a local current af-fairs English language TV pro-gramme with. Michael Chugani, host of ATV World Channel’s Newsline.

Michael Chugani with Carmi Gillon

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the museum vault where they are kept using a special camera with a flash that does not cause damage during the photography process.

In the coming months, other scrolls in the possession of the Israel Antiquities Authority will be uploaded to the site. They, too, are being photographed us-ing advanced digital technology.

The country showing the highest interest in the website is the US, with 400,000 visitors. But there has also been major interest from Japan (58,000 visi-tors) and Canada followed by the Netherlands, Croatia, Britain and Brazil.

Visitors from almost all of the world’s Arab and Muslim states have also viewed the site, including several hundred each from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey.

The site has also received hits - albeit fewer hits - from people in Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Visitors to the site can search the scrolls and send ex-cerpts by e-mail or post them on social media sites such as Face-book. In the future, the website will provide a Chinese transla-tion.Further information can be accessed through the following website link: dss.col-lections.imj.org.il

The Great Isaiah Scroll

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Guest speakers at the gathering

Hong Kong International Airport

Rabbi Asher OserReligious leaders posing for photos

Regional News

Inter-faith dialogue held for 9/11 anniversary

Global Jewish news network to broadcast Jewish News One (JN1) will be the world’s first Eng-lish language 24hr video news channel and will be-gin broadcasting to North America, Europe and Israel in Autumn 2011.

Press releases went out a few months ago indicating the station going live in Sep-tember but the airing has been delayed.

Its main goal is to serve as the Jewish version of Al Jazeera, which channel has secured an audience of tens of

millions of Arab viewers over the past 15 years.

The channel is anchored from Brussels and has satellite desks in Tel Aviv, New York and Kiev.

JN1 will also act as an alternative to the world’s lead-ing news networks CNN, Fox News and Sky News.

The broadcasts will initial-ly be in English, but will later add seven more languages, including Hebrew, French, Italian, Russian and German.

Israeli held over airport breach Local English language Hong Kong newspaper, South Chi-na Morning Post reported 19 October that an investigation is under way after an Israeli man was questioned by police after he managed to breach a restricted area at Hong Kong International Airport and in-jured two armed officers from the Airport Security Unit.

The 27-year-old man, who also injured three airport staff, had to be pepper-sprayed by the officers before he could be restrained.

The security breach, in which the man got on the tracks of the airport shuttle train sys-tem, is the first of its kind since the facility opened in 1998.

The incident halted train services between two stations in the east and west halls of Terminal One for around four hours, and service resumed at 8pm, according to the Airport Authority.

A spokeswoman said au-thorities were investigating how the man, whom police identi-fied only as “Ben”, got into the restricted area. Police described him as being “emotional” and said he injured two armed officers and three airport em-ployees. Security officials used pepper spray on the suspect before he was overpowered and arrested, a spokesman said.

All five injured and the Israeli were treated for minor injuries at Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung. The Israeli was arrested on suspi-cion of assaulting police offi-cers, but had not been charged.

Philip Curlewis, an expert from a security and investiga-tion company, said the man was “very lucky” not to be shot dur-ing the incident, as would have been the case if it had happened at an airport in the US or Eu-rope.

Others in attendance includ-ed Sheikh Dr. Saleh Bin Abdul-lah Bin Humaid, Imam and Khateeb of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and Professor S. P. Chow Vice-Chancellor, HKU. The event co-organisers were the Centre of Buddhist Stud-ies and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures and Department of Law, HKU.

Guest speakers and mod-erators delivered their speech-es and after each speech, a dia-logue for about one hour took place. A Q&A session with the audience was also well par-ticipated. The evenings event attracted over 250 people made up from a cross section of the Hong Kong population.

9/11 remembers the nearly 3,000 people that died when four hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Penta-gon and a Pennsylvania field in September 2001.

To commerate the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 trag-edy an inter-faith dialogue took place in Hong Kong on 15 September at the Rayson Huang Theatre, Hong Kong University (HKU). The event entitled: “Religion and vio-lence: seeing it as it is”.

Representatives of three monotheist religions come to-

gether to discuss their religions’ common grounds and differ-ences in relation to violence.

Guest speakers invited were: Imam Muhammad Ar-shad from the Kowloon mosque and Islamic Centre, Reverend Will Newman, St. John’s Ca-thedral and Rabbi Asher Oser, Ohel Leah Synagogue.


Regional News

Praying for peace in Israel - Seoul style

First Progressive High Holidays service held in Shanghai

Community members in Shanghai

Rabbi Joel Oseran

The Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC), ad-dressed thousands of Korean Christians celebrating Israel in front of Seoul City Hall in September.

“The people of Israel ap-preciate your support. It is the reason why I stand here today in fellowship with you,” said CJCUC Executive Director, David Nekrutman.

This was the first event held by Korean Christians to demon-strate their support for Israel at an official governmental site in the nation’s capital.

Coordinated by a coalition of Christian organisations and

churches called the Wind of Yeshua, event participants com-mitted “to consistently pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that Israel’s capital will not be di-vided by others.”

A proclamation for the peace of Israel and nations was read asserting that “God entrusted the stewardship of the land of Israel to the Jewish people...and we stand along with both Jew-ish and Palestinian people to pursue true peace.”

Of the nearly 49 million people living in South Korea, Christians make up 29% of the population. A growing number of these Christians see modern Israel as biblically significant.

Rabbi Joel Oseran Vice Presi-dent of The World Union for Progressive Judaism, lead the first High Holy Day services in Shanghai. The services were held at the Regal Hotel. Around 30 people attended made up of local Jewish resi-dents, students and visitors.

While in Shanghai Rabbi Oseran also met with represen-tative from other communities and had a dialogue with Rabbi Greenberg from Chabad, and with the Israeli Consulate in Shanghai, Jackie Eldan.

“We will be there next year,” Rabbi Oseran said. “It is a positive and fruitful step forward to establishing a more permanent representation in Shanghai,” added Oseran.

The Shanghai initiative

was orchestrated by the World Union for Progressive Judaism office in Sydney, which over-seas developments in the Asia Pacific region.

Rabbi Oseran previously also served as the Rabbi of Hong Kong’s United Jew-

ish Congregation (UJC), in 1997/1998, which is affiliated with the international Progres-sive/ Reform movement. He has also assisted Progressive com-munities in Beijing, Singapore, and Bangkok.

The UJC is eager to help the Shanghai community take the initial steps towards the launch of a permanent congregation due to its proximity to China.

After Shanghai, Rabbi Os-eran visited Hong Kong during the festival of Sukkot and held a few lectures for members of the UJC community. Celebrating Israel in Seoul


Generoso Calonge named his daughter ‘Golda’

Israel’s President Peres meets China’s new ambassador

JWA participates in the Pink Walk against breast cancer

President Peres and Ambassador Gao Yangping

Generoso Calonge, the Phil-ippines’ new ambassador to Israel long ago named his daughter after Israel’s first female prime minister Golda Meir.

Calonge’s daughter Golda is now 26-years-old and studying for her masters in Social Work in New York’s Columbia Uni-versity. “Because of her special name, everyone thought my daughter was Jewish when she first arrived at the university,” Ambassador Calonge said.

“When she said she was Catholic, they were all sur-prised but then she explained that her father named her after Golda Meir. Before she was born we were thinking what to name her. I thought since she was the eldest she should be strong, determined and possess leadership skills,” he added.

The ambassador said that

having read about Golda Meir’s leadership and contribution to Israel he decided her name would be the most suitable for his daughter. “I wanted my daughter to be a good strong woman who will know how to face this world. I can tell you that my daughter is very proud of her name, she loves it,” con-cluded Calonge.

During an official engagement to present her credentials, President Peres met the new Ambassador from China, Ms Gao Yangping.

Ambassador Yangping said that she came to Israel to strengthen and improve stra-tegic relations between China and Israel and that she will continue to do anything she can to strengthen the warm con-nection between the people of China and the people of Israel. President Peres promised to help her accomplish her task and said that relations between China and Israel are extremely important.

The new Chinese Ambas-sador also discussed trade rela-tions between the countries and said: “Israel is an example of a country that has made great achievements in the fields of science, economy, and technol-ogy and we will be happy to

learn from you in these areas and cooperate on broadening the scope of our joint economic activities.”

In response the president emphasized that he hoped that in the coming year trade between Israel and China will double from US$6 billion to US$12 billion a year.

Ambassador Yangping brought a personal invitation from Chinese President Hu Jintao to President Peres, for an official visit to China.

President Peres responded by saying: “It is a great honor to receive a personal invitation to visit China. We will work to find a suitable date for the visit.”

Five new ambassadors from Russia, China, Finland, Philip-pines, and Nigeria presented their credentials to President Peres.

Regional News

JWA participants at the Peak

JWA special T-shirts Generoso Calonge

At this year’s 7th Walkathon Against Breast Cancer at the Peak, the Jewish community of Hong Kong was represent-ed by the Jewish Women’s As-sociation (JWA). Close to 30 women took part and walked in team uniforms, standing out in a crowd of more than 1,500 participants.

The walkathon was held on Sunday, 9 October 2011. There were two routes organised for participants: 3.5km or 7km walk. Categories were classed for individuals, small teams,

organisations, corporates and schools.

The festive atmosphere of the event, presented by pink balloons, costumes, flags and more did not overshadow the cause for which this fund rais-ing event was about.

With a statistic among Jew-ish women of 1 in every 7-8 women have a chance to de-velop breast cancer, most people

know at least one person who has breast cancer and quite a few that lost their lives to this dis-ease.

The JWA team raised close to HK$10,000 which was sent to the Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation to help promoting the awareness for early check-ups among young women in Hong Kong.


Business News

New organic health store providing kosher benefits

RiT Technologies opens office in ChinaRiT Technologies a leading provider of intelligent infra-structure management solu-tions, announced that it has established a new office in Shanghai, as part of its strate-gic focus on the rapidly grow-ing Chinese market.

The new office, will enable RiT to provide enhanced sales and technical support to RiT’s growing roster of customers in southern China and to expand the support it gives to local integra-tors and resellers.

Over the past several years, RiT has emerged as one of China’s leading providers of in-telligent infrastructure manage-ment (IIM) solutions, and is now recognised as a trusted vendor to business partners throughout the country.

“The establishment of our second office in China demon-strates the success of our strategy to build our business in this rap-idly-growing market with high potential for IIM sales,” com-mented Eran Ayzik, RiT’s presi-dent and CEO.

“Our unique approach to the

market, including our partner-ship with superbly qualified, well-connected integrators and the offering of customised solu-tions, has started to pay off, and we believe that China will con-tinue growing in importance as a driver of our future sales,” he added.

John Long, RiT’s China representative, commented, “Demand for IIM is building in China, and RiT’s IIM solution is well accepted here. Now that our Beijing office is well established, we are able to expand our focus into China’s southern region.”

The company’s international headquarters is located in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Kosher products on shelves

Yolanda Che

Welspring is an organic health food store recently opened in Hong Kong. Primarily, the intent is to cater for custom-ers with special dietary needs such as gluten or sugar - free, vegetarian or raw. Nearly 90% of the shelves of food and beverages are 100% kosher.

“We are happy to provide a selection of kosher products with all the clear labeling for the Jewish community,” commented Yolanda Che, Director of Health Gate International the owners of the store. other benefits for customers who

purchase products and join their membership scheme.

They also stock beautifully wrapped hamper gifts for pres-ents – which would make an ex-cellent Chanukah gift this year.

Che also added that she would also be happy to source any prod-ucts for customers if they are not available in Hong Kong or in the Asia Pacific region and can also provide shipping services.

The shop is located on the third floor, Keen Hung Commer-cial Building, 80 Queens Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong.

Che is a 16 year old veteran in the health industry, importing health food, health products and food supplements.

Most of the products in the store are sourced from the US, Canada and Europe. There is an excellent choice of food snacks, biscuits and even kosher organic baby milk formulas.

A special section on personal care includes a variety of prod-ucts for face and lip care, skin treatment, body care and sham-poos.

Welspring offers free de-livery in Hong Kong and many

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Business News

Israeli companies at Nanjing International Software Product Expo

Korea Telecom licenses Israel’s Exent for games-on-demand serviceKorea Telecom, South Ko-rea’s leading telecommu-nications provider, will be launching a games-on-de-mand service and has an-nounced a partnership with Exent, which will see the company launching a service based on Exent’s GameTa-nium platform in the region.

Versions of the as yet un-named service will be avail-able on both PC and mobile platforms, according to the company, and will rely on Ex-ent’s existing library of hun-dreds of titles from its part-ners, including Atari, Konami, THQ and PlayFirst.

The partnership will also

see several Korean-language titles debuting on the service.

Exent recently announced that its GameTanium platform will support mobile Android-to-television capabilities via the Vestel Smart Box, the first commercial product to bring Android titles to the television.

Like all of Exent’s partner-ships, Korea Telecom’s plat-form will offer a subscription plan.

Exent has provided similar subscription services to com-panies that include Comcast, Verizon, Turner Broadcasting (via its GameTap platform) and Phantom.

www.gadco.hk

The 7th China (Nanjing) In-ternational Software Prod-uct Expo was held from 5-8 September, 2011. Ten Israeli companies organised by the Israeli Consulate General and the Israel Export and Interna-tional Corporation Institute attended the exhibition.

The I s rae l i Consu la te manned a booth representing the Israeli software companies: Sysaid, Magic Software En-terprises Ltd, Verint Systems Ltd, Credics Technologies, Enforcive Systems Ltd, Gi-gaSpaces Technologies, Nolio Soft, Zinstall, Checkmarx, and Ceedo Technologies Ltd.

During the exhibition, Is-raeli companies had meetings with their Chinese counterparts including ZTE, China Telecom, and Nanjing University.

The Israeli delegation also participated in a special Interna-tional Summit - “C+3I: China + Israel, India, Ireland”. The sum-mit has been held since 2009 as a part of the software exhibi-tion. The main goal of the sum-mit is promoting co-operation between these countries.

The delegation also visited the R&D centre of Huawei in Nanjing and left for Beijing to attend a business seminar.

Israel booth

The 7th China (Nanjing) International Software Product Expo was attended by more than 700 representatives from

Trade ministry launches special incentives for AsiaIsrael’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor launched a new incentive to encourage and assist Israeli companies interested in trading in China and India.

A company that is selected for the programme can receive up to 700,000 shekels a year for

three years. The funds are to be used to help the company estab-lish and operate an overseas of-fice in India or China, including a local team and a consultant. The company will also receive a single grant of 400,000 shekels to set up a beta-site to prove the product or service’s application

in the local market.

The programme is geared for medium to large companies with sales of between 20 and 200 million shekels and annual exports of at least 10% of sales that are interested in establish-ing themselves in the Indian or Chinese market for the long run.

different countries including: USA, Japan, Canada, India. This years theme was “Model Innovation & Software Inter-nationalization”, embodying openness, professionalism, effectiveness and mass partici-

pation, as well as showing the business functions.

Israel has been an active participant in the exhibition since it was first held seven years ago.


Enter Big & Small

Address Unknown - stage adaptation

Art and Culture

Address Unknown, based on the novel by Kathrine Kress-mann Taylor, is a stunning drama of friendship, betrayal and revenge set against the rise of Nazism in 1930s Ger-many. The play will be per-formed at the McAulay Stu-dio, HK Arts Centre, from 22-27 November.

Passionate about the per-forming arts and a long-time member of the Hong Kong Jew-ish community, Howard Paley is a professional actor, direc-tor and drama coach who has starred in a wide range of plays in the past few years – Oleanna and Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, Art by Yasmina Reza, The Sneeze by Anton Chekov, An Inspector Calls by J.D. Priestley to name a few.

His directing credits include ‘Night, Mother by Marsha Nor-man, Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gilman for the Hong Kong stage. Howard conducts drama workshops, public speaking training, corporate role plays and one-on-one coaching to ac-tors and non-actors.

Together with Giles Burton (director and co-producer) and Neil Runcieman (co-star), and supported by the Chouraqui Foundation for the Arts, How-ard is bringing this month to the Hong Kong Arts Centre Address Unknown.

Howard Paley and Neil Runcieman

Yoni Rechter plays at the Shanghai Jazz Music FestivalIsraeli musician Yoni Rechter was invited to give a perfor-mance as part of the Jazz Mu-sic Festival at Expo Park in Shanghai on 15 October, 2011.

Rechter’s performance at the Festival was based primarily on original, instrumental material, including a few songs with a special jazz touch.

Jazz Shanghai Music Fes-tival is Shanghai’s largest and longest running music and cul-ture festival bringing together all music styles, this year the festival features Jazz, Folk, Electronic, Funk and Rock.

Rechter was also invited to give another public performance for the benefit of the Jewish community in Shanghai, at the Glamour Bar on the Bund on 16 October.

Israeli violinist Hagai Shaham will be appearing with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK) on 19 November 2011 at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall.

Shaham, is internationally recognised as one of Israel’s most astonishing violinists. He is showcased in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3. Under the di-rection of chief conductor, Jean Thorel, the CCOHK will also perform Schoenberg’s expan-sively romantic Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) for string orchestra, while music by Carl Davis for the Academy Award-winning film Anne Frank Re-membered adds further depth to a programme full of poignant masterpieces. A memorable de-piction of the harrowing events of the Holocaust.

Displaying a dazzling com-bination of technical brilliance and a uniquely profound musi-cal personality, Shaham regu-

Violinist Shaham to perform in Hong Kong

Yonatan Levy artist debut in Hong Kong

Yoni Rechter

Rechter is very well known in Israel as a composer, pianist, arranger and singer. At sixteen, he composed the music for the hit song Tears of Angels, in He-brew Dma’ot Shel Mal’achim. A highly acclaimed musician pop-ular among several generations

of Israelis and he is the lyricist behind many well known Israeli tunes.

His performances in Shang-hai were appreciated by the Israelis as well as the Chinese audience .

larly tours throughout Europe, North and Central America as a soloist and recitalist. The Wash-ington Post has pinpointed his “extraordinary timbre ... en-grossing technique and exciting bravura”.

Shaham has performed as soloist with many of the world’s major orchestras, including the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Phil-harmonic Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique Francais, Taipei,

Asia Fine Art Gallery is cur-rently showcasing Carnival of Dialogues, paintings by Yonatan Levy, a young and up and coming Israeli ab-stract artist. This is his first solo event in Hong Kong.

With vibrant colours and ecstatic sensuality, Levy’s canvases offer a world of in-vented characters communi-cating by ambiguous gestures and intriguing body language. Levy’s figures are entwined in each other, as if fulfilling their existence by each other. The feeling is that the characters are having a conversation or are preparing for some kind of narrative.

De Ce Monde

Address Unknown was one of the earliest pieces of work to raise awareness of the evils of Hitler and the Nazi party. It was later published as a novel and in its stage adaptation has been performed to great acclaim around the world.

In 1932, wealthy San Fran-cisco art gallery owner Martin Schulse returns to Germany with his young family, leaving behind in America his Jewish best friend from childhood and business partner, Max Eisen-stein. There, the once liberal Martin gradually falls under the spell of Germany’s resurgent national pride under its charis-matic new ‘gentle leader’.

But, as increasingly horrific stories of persecution reach the USA, Max begs his old friend for one final favour: to save his sister (and Martin’s former lover) Griselle, from the Nazis. The scene is set for a gripping stand-off between old loyalties, friendship and a seductive new ideology - leading to an unfor-gettable climax.

“Throughout my painting process, there is an embedded friction between strictness and unpredictability. This friction serves as a tool for me to ex-plore the boundaries between the concrete and the ambiguous, between the real and the imagi-nary.”

Levy was born 1979 in Jeru-salem, Israel. In 2008 he gradu-ated from The School of Art, Jamidrasha, Beit Berl and was

included in the widely exhib-ited and collected portfolio of emerging artists published by ST-ART. He received his BFA from Midrasha School of Art, Israel.

Asia Fine Art Gallery will be exhibiting his works through to 20 November. The gallery is located in the Wan-chai district.

For futher details visit: www.asia-fineart.com

Singapore and Shanghai Sym-phony Orchestras and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta.

He is a Professor at the Bu-chmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University.

In addition, Hagai Shaham will give a public Violin Master-class to be held on 20 November 2011 from 3-5pm at GR2 8/F, HK Cultural Centre Theatre.


Art and Culture

Brooklyn Rider inspires a new sound of classic music

Best of Baroque in Bangkok

Premier Performances of Hong Kong will present string quartet Brooklyn Rider from the US on 21 November at the Jockey Club Amphitheatre. This event is also part of its Recital Series 2011.

The group was founded by Jewish brothers, Colin Jacobsen, violin, and Eric Jacobsen, cello. Other members are Johnny Gan-delsman, violin and Nicholas Cords, viola. The programmes includes Quartet works from Mozart, Glass, Jacobsen and Beethoven and a special Kol Ni-dre work from J.Zorn.

Brooklyn Rider combines a wildly eclectic repertoire with a gripping performance style that is attracting legions of fans and drawing critical acclaim from classical, world and rock critics. National Public Radio (NPR) credits the group with “recreat-ing the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and cre-ative 21st-century ensemble.

The quartet’s name is in-spired in part by the cross dis-ciplinary vision of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a pre World War I Munich-based ar-

Brooklyn Rider on the Brooklyn Bridge

The Bangkok Symphony Orchestra Foundation in as-sociation with the Embassy of Israel in Thailand, to-gether with the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and B. Grimm, presented Best of Baroque performed by the world’s renowned baroque ensemble Il Gardellino.

The concert was held on 25 September at the auditorium of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

Amongst the ensemble’s international performers mem-bers included two from Israel, Shalev Ad El who played the harpsichord and Ira Givol who played the cello.

tistic collective. In the eclectic spirit of Der Blau Reiter, the group also draws inspiration from the exploding array of cul-tures and artistic energy found in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, a place they call home.

During the 2011-12 season, the group celebrates its Carn-egie Hall debut at Zankel Hall, embarks on two US tours and its first trip to China, with concerts in Beijing and its Hong Kong debut.

This year, the musicians released Brooklyn Rider Plays Philip Glass on the composer’s

Orange Mountain Music label, which was selected as one of NPR Classical’s Best Albums of the Year.

Their eclectic debut record-ing, Passport, was released in 2008, followed by Dominant Curve in 2010. Both albums made NPR’s year end round-ups: Best Classical CDs of 2008 and 50 Favourite Albums of 2010. The recordings have received glowing reviews from Gramophone, Strings, The Strad and Huffington Post, as well as the on-line indie maga-zines Pitchfork, Vice, Nerve and Lucid Culture.

Other musical artists in-cluded two from Japan, one from Australia and two from Belgium.

The evening presented a unique concert and a rare oppor-tunity for music lovers to hear the best known baroque mas-terpieces performed by world class artists playing authentic baroque styles. The programme featured baroque masterpieces.

Il Gardellino have per-formed at many festivals and concert halls in Europe, and also enjoyed success in the USA, Is-rael, South America, and Japan. Many CDs have been released from the group.

Il Gardellino in Bangkok

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The synagogue in Chennamangalam, Kerala, India was built in 1640 by the

early Jewish settlers in that village. Chennamangalam is a pristine village, 42 km north of Ernakulum, the commercial capital on the west coast of the State of Kerala.

The Kerala State Depart-ment of Archeology, in coop-eration with the Department of Tourism, restored this small but beautiful Jewish temple in 2005 and re-opened it to the public in 2006. Now it is a prominent tourist destination.

I visited this ancient Jewish temple along with my nephew, Thomas Thannikary, a busi-nessman, and my good friend and an intellectual, Joseph Vellappally. We arrived at this empty synagogue early in the morning and later were joined by Anil Kumar from the Kerala Department of Archeology. He gave us a guided tour of the site. Later, Davis Francis, a lo-cal resident, joined us and made our visit even more rewarding. Both these gentlemen were well informed of about this historic village and its ancient Jewish heritage.

There is no consensus among the scholars as to when Jews came to Kerala. Some say they came during the time of King Solomon and they traded in teak, ivory, spices and peacocks be-tween the land of Israel and the west coast of Kerala, historically known as the Malabar Coast. An-other theory holds that the Jews arrived in Kerala at the time of the Assyrian exile in 722 BC. Yet another version claims that the Jews came after they were exiled from the land of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar or after the de-struction of the second temple in Jerusalem in 72 AD.

popular account goes that a tol-erant local king invited the four major religious faiths, Hindus, Christians, Muslims and Jews, to build their respective places of worship in Chennamangalam within an area of 1 km in cir-cumference.

Today, visitors can see the co-existence of these four major houses of worship within walk-ing distance from one another.

A winding road leads visi-tors to the Chennamangalam synagogue. It is surrounded by small houses of local residents of different faiths. The build-ing is a typical example of the traditional Kerala design, which uses laterite stones for the walls and timber for the roof structure. The wood pieces are specifically cut to join together to form a wooden roof frame on which the tiles are then laid.

The synagogue is relatively small in size, which might indi-cate the small size of the Jewish community in Chennaman-galam. There is a high stone wall surrounding the building with two entrances. One of the entry ways was specifically des-ignated for women to enter.

The main entry door of the temple looks like the front door of a granary in a traditional Ker-ala home. This door leads the visitor to a narrow room inside, called the Azark in Hebrew - the name attributed to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Here you stand under a gallery supported by two wood columns. From the Azark, you go through a beauti-fully painted doorway and enter into the sanctuary. This room is big enough to accommodate 30-40 people comfortably.

Accordingly Jewish women would gather in the balcony up-stairs behind a wooden screen (Mechitzah), which is situated

However, there is evidence of Jewish settlements in Kerala, given the number of synagogues in the state. These include the well-known synagogue in Co-chin, which was built in 1568 in the port city of Kochi - an ancient trading post still known today as the “Jew Town”.

Other evidence of early Jewish presence in Kerala is the two copper plates engraved in the local language that detail 72 privileges believed to have been given in 379 AD by the Kerala ruler, Cheraman Perumal Sri Parkaran Iravi Varman, to the

Newly restored synagogue

Jewish chieftain, Joseph Rab-ban. These copper plates are be-lieved to be stored at the Jewish synagogue in Kochi.

According to the local nar-rative of the Knanaya commu-nity, a Christian congregation in Kerala that claims to have Jew-ish heritage, these plates were given to their leader, Thomas of Kana, in 345 AD, when their ancestors first arrived on the Malabar Coast.

The Christians in Kerala believe that Jews lived along the Malabar Coast of Kerala as early as the first century and re-mained there for centuries. They also believe that St. Thomas the Apostle came to Kodungal-loor, an ancient harbour on the Malabar Coast, in 52 AD and settled down in the Jewish quar-ter there. According to the local tradition, a flood in 1341 silted up the Kodungalloor harbour and shifted the coastline creat-ing a new opening in Kochi, a few kilometres down the coast. As a result, the Jews in Kodun-galloor moved to Chennaman-galam and other locations.

In Chennamangalam, Jews lived peacefully along with oth-

er religious groups for almost 600 years, until they emigrated to Israel after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

The village of Chennaman-galam is situated at the conflu-ence of two rivers, the Periyar and Chalakudi Rivers. It is a typical Kerala village with a rare natural beauty – quiet, sleepy and clean.

Nearby attractions include the beautiful Chi-rai beach, a busy fishing dock and a ferry that takes visitors to the ancient village of Kodungalloor. A

Synagogue roof Synagogue ceiling

ThesynagogueinChennamangalam -asymbolofKerala’s religiousharmony andtolerance


An old wellThe Tebah

Wooden spiral leading to the womens section

Door to the sanctuary

Ruins of a 16th century printing press building

Islamic mosque

Tombstone of Sarah Bat Israel

above the Azark.

In the centre of the sanctu-ary, there is a round platform with beautifully carved railings around the edge. This is called the Tebah or Biah where the rabbi would unscroll the Torah.

This ark is made of local teak wood, is beautifully deco-rated and contains three cases to hold the Torahs’, these cases are empty now.

The ceiling of the sanctuary is beautifully decorated with carved flower designs on wood panels and hand painted in red, green, blue and gold. There are colourful glass lanterns (Hundi lamps) hanging from the ceil-ing including the Ner Tamid or eternal light that always burns.

On the right side of the entrance to the sanctuary, there is a wood spiral stairway that leads to the balcony where the Jewish women would gather during worship. On this bal-cony, there is a second Tebah or Biah that bows out from the gallery over the sanctuary. This second Tebah is a spe-cial feature unique to Kerala synagogues, used on Shabbat

and High Holydays, while the one in the centre was used on weekend services. Also, on the second level, there is a large hall next to the gallery, which was used as a Jewish school.

Outside the building, three old tombstones are displayed. The writings on these tomb-stones are in Hebrew. One of them has the inscription, “Sarah bat Israel” (the daughter of Is-rael), with a Hebrew date which corresponds to 1269 AD, mak-ing it the oldest Hebrew text in India.

Within walking distance from the synagogue there are the ruins of an old Christian church. This church was re-built by the Jesuit missionaries from Portugal.

There are also the ruins of a 16th century printing press started by the Portuguese. This printing press and the old church were damaged by Tippu Sultan of Mysore during his army’s march (Pada-ottam) in 1790, on his way to invade the former state of Travancore, which is now a part of Kerala.

A lithographic plate recov-ered in 1935 from the printing press area is now displayed in the new church. There is an old well on the church grounds, the location of which is believed to have been the entrance to Tippu’s fort.

Not too far from the church and the synagogue is the Is-lamic mosque. The original mosque was destroyed, and on the same site, the present day mosque was built.

When we visited Chen-namangalam, Friday services were in progress. Therefore, we did not enter the mosque. Facing these three places of worship, there stands a small but beautiful Hindu temple on

top of a small hill. The temple is known as the Sree Krishna Temple. It is surrounded by an iron fence and, we were told, the temple celebrates annual festivals on a regular basis.

Returning from our visit to this ancient village and its unique places of worship, we reflected on how Hindus, Chris-tians, Muslims and Jews lived harmoniously under a Hindu ruler for over 6 centuries. In fact, India is one of the coun-tries in the world where Jews were never persecuted or expe-rienced any discrimination.

What we have seen shows how tolerant the Hindu rulers were in those days and how the people accepted the co-existence of these four religions in a small village.

Speaking with our hosts, Anil Kumar and Davis Francis, we learned that this village still remains a symbol of religious co-existence even today. The Chennamangalam synagogue, of course, is a perfect example of that remarkable tradition in Kerala of religious tolerance.

We believe that such broad mindedness, tolerance and harmony are part of the soul of India. It is up to us, the new generation, to uphold these principles and build new com-munities in our own neighbour-hoods with mutual respect and understanding.

Supplied by Cyriac “Cy” Thannikary, USA

Cy Thannikary is the former Head of Eco-nomic Development and an Advisor to the governor of the State of New Jersey, USA. He is also the Coordinator of the Knanaya Ancestry Project, a privately funded re-search organization, engaged in scientific exploration of Knanaya heritage.

He can be reached by email: [email protected]

Photos credited to: Joseph Vellappally.

Ruins of a church

ThesynagogueinChennamangalam -asymbolofKerala’s religiousharmony andtolerance


rived in Israel for the gap-year programme Nativ, were enjoy-ing every minute. “I love fit-ness and I love Israel,” Tehilla said. “I always try and promote women’s empowerment, health and wellness,” Julia added. “I always do breast cancer walks with my mother. So of course I didn’t want to miss this.”

Athena, is a publicly fund-ed organisation established in 2007 by Minister of Culture and Sport Limor Livnat, has branch-es in thirteen different munici-palities to advance women in sports – and this was their first festival march in Jerusalem. “Our goal is to raise awareness about the importance of women

in sports, and to break the stig-ma that sports is not a serious pursuit for women,” according to Chana Gertler, the Chair of the Public Council for Women’s Sports. “In Israeli society, soc-cer, for example, is still consid-ered a men’s thing,” added Orly Froman, the Executive Director of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

Women from all around the world participated. “We don’t have anything like this in Ko-rea,” Jin Hee Chai said. “In Ko-rea, people would not be danc-ing on the street – only inside. Outside, people are quiet.”

Supplied by Dr Elana Maryles Sztokman

Drumming class

Women of Jerusalem danced in the New Year for health and peace

The ancient walls of the City of David have likely never witnessed such a

scene. Over four thousand women gathered outside Jaffa Gate for the first ever mass festival of women’s a t h l e t i c s i n J e r u s a l e m .

Women wearing scarves and long skirts shook their bod-ies alongside women in tank-tops and Lycra shorts to the overpowering thump-thump of dance music as instructors shouted, “Come on, girls! Move those hips!”

The outdoor festival, called “Jerusalem Women Marching

for the New Year”, managed to bring together women of all ages, religious backgrounds, and body shapes. The event, organised by the Jerusalem mu-nicipality in collaboration with the group ‘Athena’ that pro-motes women and girls in sports in Israel, offered free outdoor classes in spinning, step, drum-dancing, and Zumba.

It highlighted the multifac-eted face of Israeli life, the need for women’s empowerment, and the power of dance and body movement as unifying el-ements amid the complexity of Israeli society.

The festival culminated with a five kilometre march through

Jerusalem, and a mass sports-dance.

“This is such a great expe-rience,” Tal Chen, a child-care worker who came with a del-egation of women from Ash-kelon, said. “It’s about women’s strength, about women support-ing women in every way.”

“This gives women power,” Marselle Alter, a chef from Kiryat Gat, added. Her commu-nity brought an entire bus load of women to march in Jerusa-lem.

Tehilla Solomon, 18, of Teaneck, New Jersey, and Ju-lia Martinez, 18, of Brooklyn, New York, who recently ar-

Women from all religious backgrounds

Nativ girls

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Programme:W.A. MOZART Quartet No. 8 in F Major, K. 168P. GLASS Suite for String Quartet from BentC. JACOBSEN BrooklescaJ. ZORN Kol NidreL.v. BEETHOVEN Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

Brooklyn Rider(USA)

Resident String Quartet of YO-YO MA's Silk Road Project

Colin Jacobsen, violin

Johnny Gandelsman, violin

Nicholas Cords, viola

Eric Jacobsen, cello

I’ve seen the future of chamber

music and it is Brooklyn Rider.

《Strings Magazine》

8pm Monday Jockey Club Amphitheatre, HKAPAHK$380, $260, $180Discounts Apply

21November

www.pphk.orgPresented by:Premiere Performances of Hong Kong

Media Partner: Programme and artist are subject to change without prior notice.

Children under 6 are not admitted. Latecomers will be seated at an appropriate break in the programme.

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Brookiyn Rider_Jewish_115x168.in1 1 11/1/11 2:38:32 PM

Zaka celebrates 10 years at tribute event

A t r i b u t e e v e n i n g celebrating a decade of operations for the ZAKA International

Rescue Unit was held on 10 October in Tel Aviv.

The Governor of the Bank of Israel, Professor Stanley Fischer praised the humanitar-ian volunteer organisation for its contribution to Israeli soci-ety: “ZAKA has answered all those who say that it is impos-sible to engage and involve the ultra-Orthodox community in the workforce. You are an ex-ample of the contribution that the ultra-Orthodox make to ev-eryday Israeli society.”

Fischer also noted that

“ZAKA is able to include seg-ments from across the full and complex spectrum of Israeli so-ciety, from all over the country, Jews and non-Jews. It is highly organised, and its commanders and volunteers conduct them-selves with the most profession-al of standards.”

Over 350 guests from Is-rael and overseas attended the event, which was hosted by the President of the ZAKA Interna-tional Board of Directors Mi-chael Mirilashvili and ZAKA Chairman and Founder Yehuda Meshi-Zahav. Other dignitaries included among others, Deputy

PM and Foreign Minister Avig-dor Lieberman, Deputy PM and Interior Minister Eli Yis-hai, Justice Minister Ya’acov Ne’eman, Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, Dep. Minister of Negev and Galilee Ayoub Kara and Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger.

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro accepted the first ZAKA Shield of Humanity award on behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, in appreciation of his country’s respect for the su-preme value of human life.

Speaking in fluent Hebrew,

the Ambassador spoke of ZA-KA’s contribution to the recov-ery efforts after incidents such as the 9/11 terror attack, the Columbia space shuttle disas-ter and Hurricane Katrina. The Ambassador noted that “ZAKA has an outstanding reputation in the States – we admire your high levels of professionalism and we know we can trust and rely on you in times of crisis”.

ZAKA Shield of Humanity certificates were also presented to senior representatives from the embassies of Britain, Rus-sian Federation and Japan.

At the end of the evening, a number of attendees were wel-comed to the ZAKA Interna-tional Board of Directors.

Founded in 1995 by Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, ZAKA is Israel’s dominant non-governmental lifesaving, rescue and recovery organisation, with over 1500 volunteers deployed around the country, on call 24/7 to respond to any terror attack, disaster or accident.

The UN-recognised ZAKA International Rescue Unit, head-quartered in Jerusalem, now has eleven trained and equipped or-ganic units around the world, ready and able to offer profes-sional assistance in the fastest possible response time. These units are based in the US (two), Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Be-larus, London and Manchester.

ZAKA International Board of Directors members

Michael Mirilashvili, US Ambassador Dan Shapiro with the ZAKA Shield of Humanity award and Yehuda Meshi-Zahav

Stanley Fischer speaking at the ZAKA anniversary tribute


Dramatic opera nights at Masada

Over 55,000 people – I s r a e l i s a n d tourists - enjoyed t h e c r i t i c a l l y -

acclaimed 2011 Israeli Opera Fest ival in Masada and Jerusalem, which featured a spectacular production of Aida, conducted by Maestro Daniel Oren, at the foot of Mount Masada and the Israeli premiere of Verdi’s Jerusalem, performed against the backdrop of the Old City walls in Jerusalem.

The final “curtain” may

have only just fallen - but prepa-rations and ticket sales are well underway for the 2012 Israeli Opera Festival at the lowest point on earth.

Next year will feature a spectacular mega-production of George Bizet’s Carmen, a co-lourful and much-loved opera in which the free spirited gypsy Carmen sings about freedom as she falls in love with the soldier

José and then with the toreador Escamillo.

Once again, a cast of hun-dreds will take to the massive, specially-erected stage on the desert floor near to the Dead Sea, with the majestic backdrop of Mount Masada.

Fiery Spanish dances and seductive arias will give this huge celebration its special fla-vor in a spectacle that will at-

tract opera lovers from around the world.

Oren will also conduct next years event with the Israeli Op-era Orchestra and Chorus, with international opera stars taking the lead roles. The 3½ hour per-formances will take place on 7, 9 June and 10 June, with the opera sung in French with English and Hebrew subtitles.

In addition, there will be a gala opera concert on 11 June, featuring two of today’s great-est opera stars - tenor Roberto Alagna and mezzo soprano Eli-na Garance – accompanied by the Israeli Opera Orchestra con-

ducted by Marcello Montadelli.

The concert will include arias and duets from popular op-eras including; Aida, Carmen, Otello, La Cenerentola, Anna Bolena and others.

On 8 June, renowned pianist Fazil Say will perform together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London, in a gala concert featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Ravel’s Concerto in G.

Packages that include hotel, opera tickets and transfers are available for tourists at www.carmen-at-masada.com. More information about the opera festival: www.opera-masada.com

Israeli opera in Masada

Stunning back drop Music from Aida


Legal Issues

There has been much “chat-ter” recently about reports in Hong Kong newspapers con-cerning “big money” matri-monial cases.

One of the cases reported re-lates to a recent judgment given by the Court of Appeal that has clarified how the courts should award maintenance (the “HK Case”).

The jurisdiction to award maintenance pending suit (“MPS”) in Hong Kong is S.3 of the Matrimonial Proceed-ings and Property Ordinance, Cap192.

This allows the court discre-tion to order either party to the marriage to make to the other party periodical payments for his or her “maintenance” in a

Married for years and now fighting over every dollar!

sum the court thinks “reason-able”. This will normally be subject to the condition that the duration of the order will be limited until the end of the “di-vorce litigation”.

Recent English cases have formed principles which enable judges to be guided in matters of interim maintenance to en-sure that there is fairness. These principles were adopted in the HK Case.

“Maintenance” or the needs of the spouse is a broad con-cept. The amount paid should be reasonable having regard to the particular circumstances of the case and it must be fair. In determining fairness, the court will consider the standard of liv-ing enjoyed by the parties prior to their separation. Each case has to be considered according to its own circumstances.

In order to determine what is reasonable, some analysis is

required of the party requesting the maintenance to determine their spending but the analysis can be conducted on a “broad brush” basis.

The approach of the court is to encourage the paying party (where there will ultimately be a division of assets which will give each party considerable capital sums) to make a capital payment to the party seeking support. The capital payment will then be paid “on account” of any sums the receiving spouse will eventually obtain when the case is finally determined. Once paid the interim maintenance and periodic contributions to the other spouse’s ongoing legal costs will cease.

The Hong Kong court has no jurisdiction to make an order “forcing” a party to pay a capital sum instead of interim mainte-nance. It must be adopted vol-untarily.

In the HK Case it was or-dered that the wife be entitled per month to HK$800,000 for maintenance and HK$500,000 for legal costs. Alternatively, the husband could pay the wife a capital payment of HK$75 million. The court said that this sum was an amount to allow the wife not only to maintain her-self on a day to day basis and to meet her legal costs but would also enable her to begin her life again in a manner she chooses.

Comparisons were made with the two largest reported MPS awards in England and Wales. Even where the husband had a wealth approximately three times the wealth of the husband in the HK Case, the wife was only awarded about HK$600,000 after bringing the figure up to date using the cost of living index.

The court was hesitant to make comparisons between awards made in England and

Supplied by By Samantha Gershon, Partner, Robertsons

Wales and those made in Hong Kong.

The court said it was ap-parent that whilst the husband and wife were living together, they enjoyed the very highest standard of living. The reason-ableness of the wife’s claim for interim maintenance should be judged according to the very high level of daily living that was enjoyed before the couple separated and which the hus-band continued to enjoy. The Court also took into account the funds available to the marital estate.

In contested divorces, the courts need to rule on issues the parties are unable to negotiate. In light of a number of high pro-file divorce cases in the United Kingdom involving divisions of huge amounts of assets, prenup-tial agreements are becoming an attractive pre-emptive measure.

In Hong Kong however, the courts are not bound to enforce prenuptial agreements but de-pending on the circumstances the court may give them eviden-tial weight.

For further enquiries or any other legal issues please email: [email protected]

לקוח: אל על | בריף: 9100-01-6612 9100 |תאריך: 22/8/11 | שם המודעה: גלויה | סוג: סקיצה | תיק: סקיצות שי | מבצע: שי/אביגיל/לירן | גודל:01 | תקציבאי/ת: גוני | חזרות 3

IT'S NOT JUST AN AIRLINE. IT'S ISRAEL

Fly EL AL, Embrace Israel

Full details about the program are available on the EL AL website www.elal.co.ilTo join free the GlobaLY program: www.elal.com/globaly

* Already a Matmid member? Join the GlobaLY program via the Matmid internet home page.

EL AL is proud to present the GlobaLY Program.With this program, Matmid Club members become partners in contributing to organizations that strengthen ties with Israel. The causes are as follows:

Bringing young diaspora Jews to Israel Flying lone IDF soldiers abroad to visit their families Helping fulfill the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses

EL AL will donate the equivalent to 5%* of the flight points you earned and it will be solely at EL AL's expense. Now, every time you fly EL AL, you are strengthening Israel.

9100-01-6642 A4ad.indd 1 15/09/11 09:49


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Ezer Mizion saving lives in Israel and around the world

He w a s t w e l v e years old and the room was filled with well-wishers

celebrating his birthday. Shouts of excitement over meeting a friend or seeing a f a v o u r i t e c a k e b e i n g served filled the air of this happy occasion. And then it stopped. Silence. A young man with his wife stood in the doorway. It was him.

The guests stopped their conversation in mid-sentence while Marc’s parents rushed to the doorway to greet the new guests. All four cried. Marc stood nearby shyly waiting to be noticed. It was not long in com-ing. “This is Marc,” his father introduced him and Menashe embraced the young boy in a hug that only a brother could give. Because he was a brother. A blood brother.

Two years ago, Marc had been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. Celebrat-ing his twelfth birthday seemed highly unlikely indeed. A bone marrow transplant was his only

chance and, to be successful, the donor and recipient must match genetically. All members of Marc’s immediate family were tested but none were a match. The oncology clinic, aware that Marc was Jewish, approached Ezer Mizion, the largest Jew-ish Registry in the world, in the hope that a match would be found among its close to 600,000 potential donors. Me-nashe was that match. And he happily agreed.

Medical staff meetings. Fur-

ther tests. Waiting. Discussions. More waiting… The decision was finalised. The transplant would take place.

Menashe received a phone call from an Ezer Mizion staff member, one of the hundreds of phone calls he had received recently. You see, Menashe had just become engaged. The staff member gulped when she heard the news. “Does this mean that you won’t be…” But Menashe cut her off, “Of course, I’ll still go ahead. Just let me know

when. Any day except my wed-ding day.” Well, it wasn’t on his wedding day, but it was only one week before.

Menashe left the world of excitement and the myriad of preparatory tasks and entered the world of a little boy, a boy whom he had never met, a boy who lived halfway across the world from him, a boy who would soon become his blood brother.

Marc’s mother offered Me-nashe and his wife a slice of cake. “You saved our son’s life.” she said. “There are no words to thank you.”

Since its founding in 1979, Ezer Mizion has grown to be-come one of the largest non-profit organisations in Israel, benefiting over 650,000 people every year. It has branches in over 20 cities throughout Israel, with over 11,000 volunteers and an annual budget of US$66 mil-lion.

Ezer Mizion’s diverse line-up of services includes the world’s largest Jewish Bone

Ezer Mizion’s Blood Brothers: Cancer patients whose only chance of survival had been a bone marrow transplant with their donors who had saved their lives.

Michelle being held by David, the IDF soldier who donated his bone marrow to save her life. David is one of the half a million registrants of Ezer Mizion’s International Jewish Bone Marrow Registry, she is one of the many whose life has been saved by Ezer Mizion.

Marrow Donor Registry and specialised programmes for children with special needs, cancer patients, the elderly, and terror victims.

What if there had been no Ezer Mizion?

For further information: www.ezermizion.org


November Parashas

5 November 2011 / 8 Cheshvan 5772: LECH LECHA Abram is told to leave his land, his birth-place and his family home to a land (Ca-naan) which G-d will show him. Abraham descends to Egypt and hides Sarai in a box – fearing that the Egyptians would kill him and take her. He returns to the Promised and he and Lot go their separate ways. The wars of the kings – Amraphel of Sinar, Arioch of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer of Elam and Tidal of Golim against Bera of Sodom, Birsha of Gomorrah, Shinab of Admah, Shemeber of Zebolim, and of Bela. Abraham saves Lot. G-d makes the Covenant of different parts with Abram. Abram sires a son – Ishmael from Sarai’s handmaid – Hagar. G-d makes another Covenant with Abram and changes his name to Abraham and promises that he will sire a son with Sarai, whose name is also changed – to Sarah. The institution of the Brit Milah.

12 November 2011 / 15 Cheshvan 5772: VAYERA G-d appears to Abraham while Abraham is recovering from his Brit Milah, the first instance of the Mitzvah of Bikur Cholim, visiting the sick. Three men visit Abraham who offers them hospitality, the iunstance of the Mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim, wel-coming guests. G-d repeats the promise that Sarah will bear a son for Abraham and he will be called Isaac. Abraham is told of the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and he tries to intercede, but they are still destroyed. The angels save Lot from the destruction, but his wife turns to look back and is turned into a pillar of salt. Sarah is abducted by Abilmelech, but G-d causes her to be returned unharmed. Isaac is born and is the first to be circumcised on the eighth day.

HOLIDAYS/ FASTS/ ROSH CHODESH/ SPECIAL DAYS

Rosh Chodesh:27 November 2011 (1 Kislev 5772)

Candlelighting times are taken from Chabad.org.Candlelighting times are taken from Chabad.org.

Candle Lighting TimesCountries 4 November 11 November 18 November 25 November

Bangkok 5:32 5:30 5:29 5:29Beijing 4:52 4:45 4:39 4:35Guangzhou 5:30 5:26 5:24 5:23Hong Kong 5:27 5:24 5:22 5:21Katmandu 5:00 4:56 4:53 4:51Kobe 4:46 4:40 4:36 4:33Manila 5:09 5:07 5:06 5:06Mumbai 5:46 5:44 5:42 5:41Perth 6:25 6:31 6:38 6:44Shanghai 4:46 4:41 4:37 4:34Singapore 6:32 6:32 6:33 6:35Seoul 5:14 5:07 5:02 4:58Taipei 4:54 4:50 4:47 4:46Tokyo 4:26 4:20 4:15 4:12

Sarah insists that Ishmael and his mother Hagar are sent away. Abraham offers Isaac as a sacrifice on Mt Moriah. When G-d sees that Abraham un-questionably obeys, He sends a ram to be sacrificed instead. Mt Moriah is where the Temple in Jerusalem stood.

19 November 2011 / 22 Cheshvan 5772: CHAYEI SARAH Sarah dies at the age of 127 years and Abraham buries her in the Cave of Machpelah (in Hebron), having bought the cave and surrounding land from Ephron. Abraham sends his servant Eliezer to find a wife for his son Isaac in Aram Naharaim. Eliezer sets a test of who would be suitable for his master’s son at the well, who would offer also to give water to the camels. Rebecca passes the test. Eliezer asks her mother and brother Laban for permission to take Rebecca. Laban is reluctant, but relents when Rebecca shows her willingness to go. She is blessed with the words that are used today at a Jewish marriage during the bedeking. Isaac brings Rebecca into his late mother’s tent and the loss he felt at the loss of his mother is relieved.

26 November 2011 / 29 Cheshvan 5772: TOLDOT SHABBAT MEVARECHIM

The birth of Esau and Jacob. Esau sells his birthright to Jacob. Like his father Isaac leaves the land because of famine and goes to Abimelech. G-d tells Isaac not to go down to Egypt. Isaac, again like his father tries to hide the true identity of his wife Rebecca. Esau takes two wives Judith and Basemath, about whom Isaac and Rebecca were not happy. Isaac wishes to give the blessing of the firstborn to Esau. With the urging and help of his mother Rebecca, Jacob deceives his father into thinking he is the firstborn Esau. When Esau hears of this he his angry and re-solves to kill his brother. When Isaac realised the deception, he nevertheless confirms the blessing on Jacob.

CHiNaBeijing Chabad House and Community centre: Fang Yuan Xi Lu, next to the south gate of Si De Park, Beijing, PR China Tel: (8610) 8470 8238 ext. 210, (86) 13910740109www.chabadbeijing.com

Chabad of Ya Bao Lu: Jian Guo Men Diplomatic Bldg, Building 3,2/F, 223 Chaoyangmennei Street, Beijing, PR ChinaTeL: (86) 1352 2016 427 Email: [email protected]

Kehillat Beijing (Reform): Capital Club athletic Center, 3/F., Ballroom, Capital Man-sion, 6 Xinyuan Nanlu Chaoyang District, Beijing, PR China Tel: (86) 10 6467 2225 www.sinogogue.org

GuangzhouGuangzhou Chabad: 31 He Ping Lu, Overseas Village, Guangzhou, China Tel: (86) 137 1050 5049 www.chabadgz.org

ShanghaiShanghai Chabad (Shanghai Jewish Center): Shang-Mira Garden Villa #1, 1720 Hong Qiao Road, Shanghai, 200336, PR ChinaTel: (86) 21 6278 0225 www.chinajewish.org

Chabad of Pudong: Vila # 69, 2255 Luoshan Road, Shanghai, 200135, PR China Tel: (86) 21 5878 2008 www.chinajewish.org

Sephardi Shanghai Center: Building B. apt. 3 (Room 103), 1000 Gubei Road, Shanghai, PR China 201103Tel: (86) 21 6208 8327 Mobile: (86) 15900808733Email: [email protected], [email protected]

ShenzhenShenzhen Chabad: No.4, Block a, Guishan Xiaozhu Yanshan Road, industrial area, Shekou Nanshan District, Shenzhen, PR ChinaTel: (86) 755 8207 0712 www.chabadshenzhen.org

HONG KONG Jewish Community Centre: One Robinson Place, 70 Robinson Road, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2801 5440 www.jcc.org.hk

Chabad of Hong Kong: 1/F Hoover Court, 7-9 Macdonell Road, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2523 9770 www.chabadhk.org

Ohel Leah Synagogue: 70 Robinson Road, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2589 2621 www.ohelleah.org

United Jewish Congregation (Reform): Jewish Community Centre, One Robinson Place, 70 Robinson Road, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2523 2985 www.ujc.org.hk

Shuva israel (Orthodox): 2/F Fortune House, 61 Connaught Road, Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2851 6300 www.shuva-israel.com

KowloonKehilat Zion (Orthodox): Unit 105, 1/F, Wing on Plaza, 62 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon Tel: (852) 2368 0061 www.kehilat-zion.org

Chabad of Kowloon: 11 Hart avenue, 2/F, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon Tel: (852) 2366 5770 Email: [email protected]

iNDia (MUMBai) Magen David Synagogue: 340 Sir J.J. Rd, Byculla, Mumbai Tel: (91) 22 23006675

Kenesseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, 43 Dr V.B. Gandhi Marg, Fort, MumbaiTel: (91) 22 22831502 / 22839617

Kurla Bene israel: 275 C.S.T. Rd, Jewish Colony, Kurla (W) Mumbai, indiaTel: (91) 22 511-2132

JaPaN KobeOhel Shelomoh Synagogue and Community Center: 4-12-12, Kitano-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650, Japan Tel: (81) 78 221 7236 www.jcckobe.org

TokyoTokyo Chabad: 1-5-23 Takanawa, Minato-ku, Tokyo Japan 108-0073 Tel: (813) 5789 2846 www.chabad.jp

JCC Japan (Reform): Tokyo Jewish Community Centre, 8-8 Hiroo 3-Chome, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo 150 0012, Japan Tel: (813) 3400 2559 www.jccjapan.or.jp

LaOS Chabad: Ban Pakham, Unit 03, 46 Soulignavongsa Rd, Luangprabang, LaosTel: (856) 20 508 2014

NEPaL Chabad House: GHa-2-516-4 Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: (977) 980 324 1294 [email protected]

PHiLiPPiNES Beth Yaacov Synagogue: 110 H.V. de la Costa cnr, Tordesillas West, Salcedo Village, Makati City, Metro Manila 1227, The Philippines Tel: (632) 815 0265 www.jewishphilippines.org

SiNGaPORE Chesed-El Synagogue: 2 Oxley Rise, Singapore 238693

Jacob Ballas Community Centre & Maghain aboth Synagogue: 24-26 Waterloo Street, Singapore 187950Tel: (65) 6337 2189 www.singaporejews.org

United Hebrew Congregation (Reform): email:[email protected]

SOUTH KOREaChabad: 744-18 Hannam-Dong, Yongsan, Seoul 140-893, South KoreaTel: (82) 107 730 3770 www.jewish.kr

TaiWaN Taipei Jewish Center: 2/F No. 8, Lane 180, Songde Rd, Xinyi District, Taipei City 110, Taiwan Tel: (886) 9 2392 3770

Taipei Jewish Community: 16 Min Tsu East Road, Second Floor, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC Tel: (886) 2 2591 3565 email:[email protected]

THaiLaND Jewish association of Thailand: 121 Soi Sai Nam Thip 2, Sukhumvit Soi 22, Bangkok, Thailand Tel: (662) 663 0244 www.jewishthailand.com

Chabad of Thailand: 96 Rambutttri St. Banglamphu, 102000 Bangkok, Thailand Tel: (662) 629 2770 www.chabadthailand.com

Bet Sefer Chabad: 221 Sukhumvit Soi 20, Bangkok, 10110 ThailandTel: (662) 258 3434

ViETNaM Chabad: 5a (villa) Nguyen Dinh Chieu St., Dakao ward, District 1,Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam Tel: (84) 90 9166770 www.JewishVietnam.com

JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN ASIA


Investing in property for your children’s financial future is a sound investment strategy. Over the medium term, property has consistently outperformed most other asset classes.

As with any investment there are risks that come into the equation. But early planning and seeking the right advice will help alleviate most of the risk involved.

Early planning is essential; property values in the UK have doubled every 7 to 10 years consistently, even with rare blips and downturns like the recent one. If we had planned 10 years ago, then we would stand a very good chance to be in a position to pay fees from our investments. Time rather than timing is the factor

Higher education costs and fees in the UK have risen at approximately 5% per year – that’s double the rate of standard inflation. Arranging flexible finance

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and using a repayment vehicle enables an income from the investment without having to sell by releasing equity.

In many cases, there could be a good argument to invest in property for your children by buying through a company and wrapping it in a trust. This is a bespoke service and is something that we would advise on separately dependent on the client’s situation and aims for the future.

The key is to make a plan and start early. The earlier you start to plan for your children’s future the less risk you will need to take to raise the finances to give your loved ones the finest things in life!

Mark Cowan

november 2011 • volume 6 • issue 7 • cheshvan / kislev 5772

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