Women’s Gathering in Canberra

The much anticipated function for the newly established “Woman of Valour” group was a huge success. A large crowd of local woman attended the fun and inspiring evening.

The evening began with Rabbi Shmueli Feldman – Head of Chabad ACT and Rabbi of our nation’s Capital – performing some moving, traditional Jewish songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and English and bestowing a birkat kohanim – Priestly Blessing – on those gathered.

This was followed by an inspiring keynote speech by Rebbetzin Chasia Feldman who spoke about the power of the woman and the importance of bringing Torah into our lives.

Mrs. Hila Zadka from the Embassy of Israel spoke about the importance of women finding time for themselves and introduced Elena Amani, a professional yoga instructor who outlined the virtues of yoga exercise. ‘Yoga and Yahadut’ (Yiddishkeit) was launched and will take place each Sunday for ladies from 10am. The physical exercise and techniques will be instructed by Ms Amani and the spiritual element will be implemented with Jewish mystical philosophy taught by Rebbetzin Chasia.

Tamar Cordova-Pritchard inspired the ladies with her story of courage and strength in overcoming recent difficulties in her life. Tamar then encouraged all the ladies to fill in a volunteer form as to what each lady can specifically offer others in the realm of chesed.

Then, following a delicious catered supper all the ladies engaged in a special arts and crafts activity to create their own communal tree of life and growth. The theme was Tu B”Shvat and how the woman is the tree of life for her family. Each lady cut a template of her hand from material and drew a list of the areas of growth on the cutout which she will focus on this year. The hands will be placed on the community tree in the function room.

The raffle was drawn and the winners of the various prizes were Anita Shroot, Pam Bramley, Michal Miller-Mitrani and Sylvia Deutsch.

Rebbetzin Chasia then read out an amazing letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe OBM encouraging people to participate in community activities in whichever way a person can, for the purpose of Jewish continuity.

Rebbetzin Chasia concluded the event by thanking and blessing all those who helped make it possible including the sponsor and principal driver of the event, Ms Rebecca Langworthy. The others she thanked included (in alphabetical order) Pam and Patrick Bramley, Tamar Cordova-Pritchard, Ceilidh Dalton, Audra Hooge, Hannah Hooge , Ahuva Karny, Shmuel Kiel, Veronica Leydman and Hila Zadka.

Ms Langworthy commented “it is so very important to have this group come together and it will really fill an important void for our community. I proudly support Chabad ACT for their essential work in creating women’s programs for the community.”

Rebbetzin Chasia Feldman stated “This is another vital initiative in bringing our vision of a thriving Jewish community in Canberra to fruition.”

All in all the ladies had a terrific evening and some have signed up to help organise monthly Woman Of Valour (Eshet Chayil) functions. They each took home a package of Shabbat Candles, Canberra candle lighting time brochure and Chocolates.

The organising committee looks forward to monthly ladies events, the next one planned with a theme for Purim.

In another program for the new year for trees, during the Summer holidays some children from the community planted a tree outside the Rabbi’s residence in honor of the special day. The children, many of whom were experiencing digging, planting and watering a new tree for the first time, had great fun and braved the 40 degree Celsius heatwave. Rabbi Feldman addressed the children about the meaning of the day and was heartened to see them develop a stronger appreciation for the environment around us as miraculous creations of G-d.