Australian Jewish scouts attend celebrations in South Korea

A Jewish teenager from Sydney has been caught in a typhoon in South Korea while attending an international Scouts gathering.

Ruby Sarak, 16, a Jewish Venturer Scout from the 1st Woollahra-Paddington Scout group in Sydney, had joined tens of thousands of Scouts and leaders from 150 countries at the 25th World Scout Jamboree.

The world’s largest youth camp held every four years took place at a newly built camp ground in Saemangeum, Jeollabuk-do.

A heatwave and high humidity hit the campsite four days into the Jamboree. Then Typhoon Khanun descended during the last week of the gathering.

With winds up to 154 kilometres per hour, the South Korean government announced an emergency evacuation of all remaining people at the camp.

Ruby’s mother Jess Sarak told The AJN, “All 920 Australians have been moved to various parts of Seoul.”

Ruby is now in a hotel near the airport. “The Australian contingency are hoping to continue Scout-like activities for the rest of the event which ends on the 12th,” Sarak said.

She questioned holding the Jamboree in Korea as this time of the year is known for high temperatures and possible typhoons. Both the UK and Australian Scouts delayed entering the camp grounds by 24 hours as there was a monsoon rainstorm on July 30.

“So already there was the wet land and then accompanied with a heatwave there was a lot of Scouts coming down with heatstroke,” Sarak said.

Complaints have been made about not enough bathrooms on the site and inadequate access to drinking water.

“The campsite is 12 and a half square kilometres and sometimes Scouts had to walk 3km to get a drink of water,” Sarak said.

“They are still teenagers, and they’re having to adapt quite quickly … and it’s a lesson in resilience.

“I am so proud of [Ruby] and her patrol. They have done so amazingly well, and have really shown their true colours.”

Meanwhile, French-Australian Melburnian Natanael Bloch made the trip to France in July to join 8000 others at the centenary Israelite Scouts and Scouts of France (EEIF), the largest youth movement of the Jewish community in France, at Cussac-Fort-Médoc.

Bloch joined the EEIF when he was 10 years old.

“There’s a gathering every 10 years of the movement, but this was the biggest one,”Bloch said.

“EEIF was created in 1923; my grandfather was already in this movement during the Second World War.”