Empowering the Exceptional with our special guest speaker Paul Bassat – online event

On Wednesday night, 4 August, The Moriah Foundation Circle was thrilled to connect with over 130 parents, Foundation Circle Members and Foundation Members, during our online event, Empowering the Exceptional with our special guest speaker Paul Bassat.

A warm welcome
Lauren Placks warmly welcomed our parents and Foundation members to the event, and introduced Foundation Board member, Daniel Sekers as the new co-chair of the Foundation Circle.

Lauren and Daniel thanked everyone for their incredible support in recent months, noting how inspiring it was to see our families so united during this time.

“We came together to not only ensure the future of our school, but we supported one another in the face of great uncertainty, giving hundreds of families stability and confidence that their children’s education was secure.”

Our inspirational educational leaders
College Principal Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler joined in conversation with Head of Primary Lynda Fisher to discuss how Moriah innovates in education. Built on a strong foundation of literacy, numeracy and core understandings, and a sense of wellbeing, Moriah supports students in their computational and innovative thinking.

Rabbi Smukler and Lynda discussed how our children are encouraged to think deeply, to be creative and to work collaboratively to develop the best possible product.

“Our students will exceed our knowledge. We are there as educators who understand innovation for all time – taking our children from ordinary to extra-ordinary.”

A message from our Foundation President
Foundation President Judy Lowy thanked our educational leaders for sharing their insights and for all that they do for our children every day. “The transition to online learning has been incredibly successful and our parents are clearly so grateful that our dedicated staff have been working so hard to ensure our children can continue to engage in their learning at the same high standard as face-to-face learning.”

The pandemic has certainly highlighted what being part of the Moriah family really means. Judy spoke about the focus of The Moriah Foundation in helping as many children as possible to receive a Moriah education and all the offerings that come with a Moriah life, and ensuring that Moriah can continue to provide a world of opportunities to all our children.

This year, as we celebrate the Foundation’s 10-year anniversary, Judy extended her sincerest thanks to all for supporting the Foundation’s important work, and welcomed our new Foundation Director, Ryan Kassel who is already demonstrating his expertise, professional practice and passion for the role.

In introducing our guest of honour Paul Bassat, Judy spoke of his incredible success as an entrepreneur and businessman while also being active in communal life, both in the Jewish and wider Australian community.

Words of inspiration from Paul Bassat
In conversation with our Foundation Director, Ryan Kassel, Paul spoke about the importance of both community and Jewish education and expressed how privileged he felt to speak for The Moriah Foundation. Paul reflected on the extraordinary story of Moriah alumn Nick Molnar as a real time example of innovation and the important impact the tech sector will have for the transformation of our economy, and shared his own remarkable journey in founding Seek and Square Peg.

Paul’s personal stories, commitment to family and community, and work in the not-for-profit space, supporting so many worthy causes were truly inspirational.

When asked by Ryan about what he has learnt from the pandemic, Paul spoke about acceptance, resilience and the importance of mental health.

In closing Paul shared that to set our children up for success, we should help to make them more resilient than we often do, build their self-esteem, encourage them to be bold and take risk, provide them with unconditional love, and help them to build strong values and integrity, knowing that they can and should live their lives in an authentic manner. He stressed that one of the most important factors contributing to the success of Seek and other start-ups is having the right people culture.

We are conscious there are many other online events and other challenges with the pandemic so for those of you who were unable to make it, please view the recorded event to watch at your leisure by clicking on the image below.

Please join us
As parents, we have so much in common. We understand the important role Moriah plays in our children and family’s lives and we all want to help make sure that our children are provided with the best opportunities possible.

To learn more about joining The Moriah Foundation Circle, or to find out how you can become involved, please contact Ryan Kassel on rkassel@moriah.nsw.edu.au or Lauren and Daniel on foundationcircle@moriah.nsw.edu.au. We would love to hear from you.

With warm wishes for a Shabbat Shalom
The Moriah Foundation Team