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Exploring our Jewish Heritage ... From Joy Katzen-Guthrie
These have been remarkable years ...
journeying new passages to remote areas of the globe to discover our unique Jewish heritage where we would never expect Jews to have thrived. It has shown us our creativity, our resilience, and our faith. This entirely new facet of my work has allowed me to explore these communities with you, to meet Jews throughout the world, to touch their lives and be touched by them and you. I have taken joy in these discoveries, in sharing the stories, photographs, and history of their lives with you, in creating Shabbat services with you, in expressing music and prayer throughout our journey for you, in seeking the Jewish soul of each place we visit as you have sought it.
Australia/New Zealand Heritage Tours ... From Joy Katzen-Guthrie
For centuries, Jewish life has thrived Down Under, in lands that are among the most remote in the world. A small group of Jews was among the first Westerners to arrive in Australia. Maintaining tradition and Jewish identity was essential for those who chose to live in this part of the world. After World War II, Australia would become a refuge for thousands of Holocaust survivors. Today, Australia and New Zealand are home to an unprecendented number of synagogues, Jewish schools, and cultural and religious organizations. I am thrilled to announce my Jewish Heritage Tour of Australia/New Zealand for November 2009.
Join Joy in Australia This November 2009!
CHAI AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND SHOMER SHABBAT TOUR
An Exhilarating Discovery of Indigenous and Jewish Experience Down Under
First-Class Touring of Auckland • Rotorua • Melbourne • Philip Island • Dandenong Ranges • Blue Mountains • Sydney
November 4-22, 2009 (18 Days/17 Nights in Australia/New Zealand, plus Guided Round-Trip Air from Los Angeles)
A SMALL GROUP TOUR with Maximum 25 Travellers / Minimum of ten travelers to proceed
NOTE: Space subject to availability / Initial deposit to hold the space must be received by June 15, 2009
Special Pricing for early bird registration by May 15, 2009
This tour is joined by and includes presentations by Tour Scholar-in-Residence Joy Katzen-Guthrie
as well as Jewish scholars and specialized guided tours in every city
Our tour is in arrangement with Travel Harmony, specialists in Australia/New Zealand travel
CLICK TO VIEW HIGHLIGHTS of this Magnificent Itinerary
Please click to contact Francine at Travel Harmony today if you are interested!
In Auckland, the Auckland Hebrew Congregation and Congregation Beth Shalom serve the Jewish community. The historic former Princes St. Synagogue is fully restored and furnished. Melbourne's first formal synagogue, founded in 1848, the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, completed in 1930, with its Corinthian pillars, copper dome, bimah carved from Tasmanian blackwood (possibly the finest example of timber work in Australia) and its stained glass windows created by the Israeli artist, Rimona Kedem, seats more than 1300. The graceful domed St. Kilda Hebrew Congregation, founded 1872, is Melbourne's traditional Orthodox Congregation. Melbourne's Jewish Museum of Australia displays Jewish culture, history and religious practice. The Museum is a national institution dedicated to the conservation, preservation and exhibition of Jewish heritage, arts, custom and religious practice in all its diversity. In particular it illustrates the Australian Jewish experience. Through its exhibitions it tells of the common experience of migration, displacement and the challenge of adaptation to a new land. The Great Synagogue, is one of Sydney's most opulent and historic heritage buildings. The Synagogue has stood on its present site for well over a hundred and twenty years. The Sydney Jewish Museum, with its exhibits of Holocaust and Australian Jewish History, is dedicated to documenting and teaching the history of the Holocaust. Housed in the historic Maccabean Hall, the museum is a testimony to the fortitude and endurance of the human spirit.
These congregations, which our group will visit in addition to a magnificent itinerary of local historical, indigenous, and nature sites, are only a sprinkling of the many congregations and Jewish organizations that serve the diverse Jewish communities of Australia and New Zealand. Peruse this site to see more examples of the unity, commitment, and strength of the Jews Down Under. Visit the Australia Jewish Links section for a much more detailed listing of the Jewish communities of Australia and New Zealand. And join me in New Zealand and Australia this November for a one-of-a-kind experience Down Under. ~Joy
NOTE: Space subject to availability / Initial deposit to hold the space must be received by June 15, 2009
Please click to contact Francine at Travel Harmony today if you are interested!
AND KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ...
SPRING 2010 ... Planning is underway for an Argentina/Chile Jewish Heritage Tour tentatively in April 2010 following Pesach. The itinerary and pricing are now being arranged and the tour will be announced as soon as possible. The travel will tentatively include Buenos Aires, a Jewish Colonies Tour of Entre Rios, Igazu Falls, Calafate, and Santiago. If this tour is of interest to you, please e-mail me immediately at joyfulnoise@earthlink.net to be included in the mailing list for updates regarding the tour. I will serve as Scholar/Artist in Residence on this tour and would love for you to join me!
CHINA ... I continue to assist in the planning of private or group tours to China and am happy to help you create an itinerary for yourself, your family, or your group to travel when it is perfect for you. I do not have any planned visits to China myself at this time, but hope to return to see much more of the country with a small group visiting the northern and southern Silk Roads. Please e-mail me at joyfulnoise@earthlink.net if you have an interest in this kind of visit to China or if I may assist you in creating a personalized tour.
Kabbalat Shabbat with Kehillat Beijing
There is nothing else in the world like experiencing the beauty and culture of another culture through a Jewish perspective. These tours are absolutely extraordinary. They give us an opportunity to learn of other lives and experiences, share their world if ever so briefly, and bring their lives into our own hearts ... all while bringing our own unique experience as Jews into their world. There is in my opinion, no more meaningful way to travel as a Jew.
It became a tradition for us to share wine, challah (baked for us by Kehillat Beijing) and a shehechiyanu together on the Great Wall of China. When we began our Jewish Heritage Tours, starting in China with the wonderful support of Regent China Tours and its outstanding guides, we recited shehechiyanu at the Great Wall with our first group in June 2000. Since then we have shared the blessing and privilage of discovering our Jewish Heritage in communities across China.
Standing together in the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Dragon Pavillion of Kaifeng, we've discussed the role of the emperors in sustaining the Jewish communities of China. We have walked the streets of the Hongkou Ghetto of Shanghai, home to some 20,000 Jewish refugees of the Holocaust during the years of Nazi rule. We chanted Sh'ma together in the restored Ohel Rachel Synagogue of Shanghai, a beautiful creation of Victor Sassoon. We have strolled down South Torah Teaching Lane, once bordering Kaifeng's ancient synagogue, stood next to the stelae that once guarded the grounds of the synagogue complex, and talked of the Jewish community centuries past. We have recited Kaddish at the Memorial to the Stateless Refugees and Holocaust Victims in Shanghai, recited blessings in the peaceful gardens of Suzhou, shared Shabbat services with the Reconstructionist Kehillat Beijing and Chabad House of Beijing as well as the Jewish community of Shanghai, have created our own Shabbat services in Guilin and Yichang, have basked in the sacred beauty of havdallah by the Yangtze River, and have shared stories and experiences of Jews who traveled this exotic land, its Silk Road, port cities, mountains, valleys, rivers, deserts, and seas so far removed from the West.
I hope to share many more journeys with you. After six visits to China and increasing time spent in preparing these tours, I found it necessary to return to commitments to my music, teaching, writing, and speaking. The requests to serve as Scholar-In-Residence in tours worldwide increase each year, and I consider new possibiliites for future travels. As these opportunities arise, I will announce them to you. I continue to create private heritage tours to China for individuals, families, and groups of all sizes, and to serve as Tour Scholar-In-Residence as my schedule allows.
During the time I traveled through China, I have taken more than 45,000 photographs. They will appear increasingly in slide shows under the Tour Gallery pages of this site, along with future heritage tour photographs. My tour pages remain on the site for you to peruse and examine as an educational resource and as an adventure. May the coming years bring you many blessed journeys!
I look forward to traveling with you again.
B'Shalom,
Joy
Joy Katzen-Guthrie is Owner/Operator, Creator, and Web Master of this site.
Contact Joy Katzen-Guthrie • Katzen and Guthrie Associates, Inc.
727-785-4568 (Tampa Bay Area) • joyfulnoise@earthlink.net
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