Israeli culture on display in China
A MELBOURNE-BORN Israeli student has led a delegation to China for the launch of an Israeli photo exhibition.
PETER KOHN
A MELBOURNE-BORN Israeli student has led a delegation to China for the launch of a photo exhibition highlighting aspects of Israeli society, culture and landscapes.
The exhibition, titled Inside Israel, featured photos by 50 of Israel’s leading photographers.
It was well-received at the International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, an annual event in Harbin, a city in central China with a strong Jewish history.
Jonnie Schnytzer, grandson of Monash University lecturer Professor Rufus Solomon Davis, made aliyah with his parents in 1985, “the year of the Bombers’ premiership”, he said.
He lives in Ra’anana, specialises in diplomacy and advocacy, and studied a fellowship with StandWithUs -— a Los Angeles-based not-for-profit organisation that fosters mutual understanding between Israel and other countries. He is now the Israeli regional coordinator for the organisation.
“It was very heartwarming to hear how genuinely interested and how much the students at the [Jewish studies] centre knew about Judaism,” Schnytzer told The AJN.
He and his colleagues conceived the idea of the China exhibit as part of their year-long fellowship program with StandWithUs, which annually trains 150 student leaders from six Israeli universities to be global representatives for Israel.
In the 1920s, Harbin offered a haven to Jews fleeing persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe, forming the largest Jewish community in China. The grandparents of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert lived in Harbin.