Internationally renowned Adelaide Jewish artist Franz Kempf AM has been awarded the 2013 M.U.A. ‘Blake Prize for Human Justice’ for his oil painting ‘The Outrageous Has Become Commonplace’. Speaking at the annual Blake awards, Kempf observed the modern desensitization to human tragedy: “We are confronted on television every week by the most atrocious acts which flick on and flick off the television while people are sitting, some even eating breakfast and looking at it and I just find that too confronting for words”.

His painting aims to express the horror of the holocaust by depicting the bodies which were found in the camps and showing them on a tilting table, being discarded, to make the image more confronting. He notes “that atrocious act [the holocaust], now we see every day on television, from Pol Pot to Syria to Vietnam, everywhere. I hope to mirror that atrocity in a more confronting way”. Illuminating the tangled bodies is an ethereal glow of light from which the bodies are being cast away.

The painting was originally displayed in Adelaide as part of an extensive collection for Franz Kempf’s ‘Days of Masks and Riddles’ exhibition. Professor Sasha Grishin, Head of Art History at the Australian National University, has described Franz Kempf as one of our major contemporary artists, and observed:

”his work with its preoccupation with humanist themes and the eternal questions of faith and being appear timely and relevant for our times. Beautifully crafted and displaying a superb sense of visual intelligence, Franz Kempf’s paintings and graphics in this exhibition celebrate the human spirit and convey the deep conviction in the sacredness of human life”.

Accompanying his oil painting in each exhibition has been a quotation from Rev. John Bachman (1790-1874) a social activist, which mirrors the insight depicted in Kempf’s work:

‘The war is no longer declared but contrived. The outrageous has become commonplace.  So what has changed? We are now confronted by a disdain for diplomacy, and a reliance on military or paramilitary forces to settle disputes. With little concern for the innocent victims. Collateral damage?’

The Blake Society, named after the visionary artist and poet, William Blake, is a non-profit organization that implements and manages an annual Prize and Exhibition program for contemporary art and poetry exploring the themes of spirituality, religion and human justice.
The Blake Prize categories include the main Blake Prize, the Blake Prize for Human Justice (sponsored by the Maritime Union of Australia) and the Blake Poetry Prize (administered and managed in partnership with The NSW Writers’ Centre).

Further information:

Franz Kempf speaking at the award ceremony:

Blake Prize 2013 Human Justice Award http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnllMEGbxXg

The Blake Society http://www.blakeprize.com/

Franz Kempf paintings and prints are available from BMG Art: http://www.bmgart.com.au/

Those who know me well, would know how I often say, “if I were not a rabbi I’d be a helicopter emergency rescue pilot.”

We are very honoured to have someone in our community in Adelaide who does just that. Dr Dan Ellis, works in South Australia in helicopter rescue. He is currently in the Philippines after having been selected amongst four doctors representing South Australia.

DR DAN, EMERGENCY MAN

Our member Associate Professor Daniel Ellis FACEM, FCEM, FIMC & DipRTM RCSEd, FFICM, FRCS(Eng), MRCP, MRCA, EDIC, DMCC,

Director of MedSTAR Emergency Medical Retrieval Service, Deputy Director of Trauma and Senior Consultant in Emergency Medicine at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Associate Professor at James Cook University, Queensland, is currently spending two weeks serving in the national Australian medical relief team in the Philippines which is treating patients after the typhoon there. Dan is one of only four medical people from SA in the second wave of relief support, which is operating a tent hospital called Camp Kookaburra. You can read about the relief work of the National Trauma and Critical Care Response Centre here: https://www.facebook.com/NatTraumaCentre

And here’s a link to a picture of Dan at work in a tent: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=422787777848240&set=a.415377508589267.1073741843.173911439402543&type=1&theater

And with the 2000th patient treated by the Australian relief effort:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=423357344457950&set=a.415377508589267.1073741843.173911439402543&type=1&theater

We send only our best! So come back safely.

There is a lot of talk and excitement about how Thanksgiving falls out on the first night of Chanukah this year. Or is it the other way round, where the first night of Chanukah falls out on thanksgiving? Either which way, it is a rare occurrence. The last time this happened was in 1888 and the next time some say will be in 70,000 – 80,000 years, which means it will never happen again. I’m confident Jews will be around then, but I doubt that there will be anyone celebrating an American holiday in such a long time in the future. So what does this all mean?

Nothing happens in this world by coincidence. The Bal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, says we must learn from every occurrence that passes through our lives. So what can we learn from the coinciding of Chanukah and Thanksgiving?

I’m in Australia now where we are not celebrating Thanksgiving, though if I were in America I would see an opportunity to invite every last secular Jew I could find to a grand Thanksgiving dinner. And then, at the beginning of dinner, we’d light the chanukiah and sing Chanukah songs. After a dinner of turkey and latkes, I’d make sure everyone goes home with a pledge to light Chanukah candles for the next seven nights. Thanksgiving this year is an opportunity to get more Jewish people involved with Chanukah who would otherwise not be involved.

In my family we only have a party on our Hebrew birthdays and we don’t celebrate our secular birthdays with the exception of my birthday. My Hebrew birthday always falls out after the festival of Sukkot, though my English birthday is in October which often coincides with Sukkot. This means we can invite lots of relatives and friends to my birthday party in the sukkah. For just a sukkah party they may not come.

So use thanksgiving this year as an opportunity to invite people and share the massage of Chanukah…and the massage of thanksgiving for a wonderful harvest of potatoes which made the latkes!

Camping on Shabbat: book will please G-d be available in December via this website.

How to: Build an Eruv, Bake Bread, go to the Toilet, and More…