Dear Friends,
On this eighth and final day of Hanukkah, I would like to take this opportunity to announce an exciting new initiative.
One of the core parts of our mission at the Jewish Taiwan Cultural Association (JTCA) is to build bridges of cooperation and friendship with global organizations that share our goal of fostering Jewish culture and education here in Taiwan and globally.
One of these organizations we are proud to partner with is Austrian Service Abroad. Austrian Service Abroad was founded by Dr. Andreas Maislinger. Dr. Maislinger’s visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau 30 years ago as a young Austrian university student forever changed his life.
It forced him to think hard about his country’s active role in the Holocaust, and inspired him to establish an organization that would be dedicated to educating Austria’s youth and sending them on missions abroad as volunteers at Holocaust memorial and education institutions and Jewish community centers like ours.
With the support of the Austrian Government, and the assistance of our dear friend, Roland Rudorfer, Director of the Austrian Office in Taipei, we are pleased to announce the first Austrian Service Abroad volunteer will be joining us at the brand new Jewish Community Center of Taiwan in March 2022.
Adrian Kron, our first volunteer, will be supporting the many cultural events and initiatives that we will be undertaking at the JTCA and the Jewish Community Center. Having grown up in Austria, Adrian also has deep roots in our community, as his mother is from Taiwan. We look forward to welcoming Adrian to our community in March!
I invite you to read more about the inspiring story of how Austrian Service Abroad was launched and built over the past 30 years in this new article published today by the Times of Israel. The article features an interview conducted recently by Glenn Leibowitz of Dr. Maislinger, the Chairman and Founder of Austrian Service Abroad; Michael Procházka, Vice Chairman; and Daniel Schuster, Head of the Office for International Affairs in their Vienna headquarters.
In the remainder of this update, we are pleased to share a sneak peek of the installation of our collection of rare Judaica and Jewish art, forming the first museum of its kind in Asia.
You can also check out a few photos from the past week’s stream of fun Hanukkah events in Taiwan.
Happy Hanukkah, Chag Sameach,
Jeffrey D. Schwartz and NaTang
Co-Founders, Jewish Taiwan Cultural Association (JTCA)
Installing Asia’s first museum of Judaica and Jewish art
Over the past week, and continuing through this week, we have been installing our collection of rare Judaica and Jewish art. Our more then 400 items will serve as the foundation for the first museum of its kind in Asia, and we’re thrilled we can share it with our community here in Taiwan.
Here are a few photos (more to come!):
Lighting up Taiwan
The past week we literally lit up Taiwan! Starting with the kindling of the giant menorah in downtown Taipei last Sunday evening, where more than 200 people joined us for an amazing fire show and performance by our children, all the way through to the several events we held for our women’s group, our young professionals community (featuring the world’s first beer can menorah!), and a gathering we held just last night in Kaohsiung, with our small but vibrant Jewish community in Taiwan’s southern metropolis.
