Early in the discussion with Prep teacher Janine Cohen, she brings out a photo album filled with photographs of Carmel students and teachers dating back to 1997. 鈥淭his is the way we stored photos back then, no P Drive,鈥� she laughs while pointing out a photograph of a then impish five-year-old Dovi Benn, son of our Primary School Head of Jewish Studies and a recent Humans of Carmel interviewee, who now lives in Israel. 鈥淲hen we had a pre-kindy, I taught that for a year鈥�, she says of that era. Next, she gestures to a photo of ex-Carmel Principal Christina Dullard, taken when the old Kindy building was near the current High School campus.

It鈥檚 clear Janine鈥檚 links to Carmel run deep and form a firm backdrop to her time in Australia since migrating here with her family 25 years ago.

鈥淚 migrated to Perth in 1996 from South Africa. I did some relief work for Carmel initially, then applied for a Kindy teaching position, starting in 1997鈥�, Janine says of the teaching area that was to become her home for the best part of the next two decades. In 2017, she moved from Kindy to teach fulltime in Prep alongside Tanya Tairy for three years before being joined by Debra Karro, former Kindy teacher. Janine says teaching at Prep level - where there鈥檚 less focus on play than in Kindy, more structure and where more Hebrew tuition is introduced - has been an important learning journey for her and she is happy where she is. Her Prep class recently poured their all into producing a fabulous which is proudly on display in their classroom as Pesach approaches.

Born and brought up in Johannesburg, Janine attended the Johannesburg College of Education (JCE) after school where she studied a Bachelor of Primary Education with a specialisation in Junior Primary, majoring in History and Physical Education. She taught Year 2 for five years before her first child was born in 1994 and then kept her hand in by doing relief work before Australia beckoned in 1996.

Sporty at school, Janine played netball, swam and was a competitive gymnast, although worldwide sanctions stemming from the apartheid era in South Africa meant there was no vehicle for international competition for most athletes. Exercise remains important to her. 鈥淢y activity now involves going to a gym and doing yoga. Being physically active is core to me and I love it鈥�, she says.

鈥淚 teach yoga to the Prep classes on a Friday afternoon as part of their Health and Physical Educational requirement and I also build fundamental movement skills, mat work and meditation into my Prep teaching鈥�, she explains.

Both of Janine鈥檚 daughters attended Carmel. Aimee, now 26, completed a Bachelor of Science degree and has recently started a nursing degree at Notre Dame and Emma, 23, is currently doing a dermal therapy course. While Janine is grateful to have been able to give her daughters a Carmel Jewish education, she regrets not having had the gift of one herself.

鈥淢orah Hazel used to give me Hebrew lessons, because I wasn鈥檛 taught Hebrew as a child, but I really wanted that for my children. I missed out by not going to a Jewish day school,鈥� Janine explains.

Janine鈥檚 Jewish heritage is firmly rooted in Eastern Europe. She explains that her father was a Holocaust survivor of Israeli Bulgarian extraction and that learning about her origins and what being Jewish means has always been important to her.

鈥淓ven though Bulgarian Jews had to wear a star and the men were sent to a work camp, the 48,000-strong Jewish community there was saved in 1943 because their King stood up to the Nazis ,鈥� Janine adds. 鈥淢ost of the Jews from Greece, Thrace and Thessalonica perished but the Bulgarian Jews were all saved. In 1948, having survived the Holocaust era, they were given safe passage to Israel.

鈥淢y dad passed away eight weeks after Aimee was born and just before I emigrated to Australia, but I remember him telling us stories about the evacuation of the Bulgarian Jews to Israel. There wasn鈥檛 much literature about this then but there is now a whole section , the Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem,鈥� Janine notes. After becoming an Israeli citizen, her father ventured to South Africa on a holiday where he met her South African-born mum, who was of Jewish Russian extraction, and never returned to Israel.

Janine says she feels fortunate to have been able to settle in Australia and raise her daughters here. She and her Israeli partner, Eyal, who she describes as being a huge part of her life and happiness, recently celebrated their fifth anniversary together.

Mazal tov, Morah Janine. We count ourselves lucky to have you teaching here at Carmel!