Yesterday, Rabbi Zachary Schwartz, a beloved Judaics teacher, was deported by the U.S. government back to his homeland, Australia. Our second-favorite Aussie (our first favorite is 100% Darla from Finding Nemo) has been shipped back to the Land Down Under, where the sheep outnumber the people, kangaroos box, and the koalas turn out to be vicious little buggers. 

From his DeBeit Din club and Talmud classes, to the unforgettable sound of him snapping at you to stop talking in Davening, Rabbi Schwartz has made an indelible impact on our Ramaz family in the short time he was with us, and will be sorely missed. We shall all look back fondly at the times where Rabbi Schwartz used an Aussie slang phrase that no one understood and all the times he made us make a bracha before snatching a muffin from the SAC.

We hope that even in this difficult time, Rabbi Schwartz is making the best of his situation. He can visit his family, have a band reunion (for those of you who don’t know, Rabbi Schwartz was the lead guitarist in his high school rock band called “Li Tov”), take up rugby again, and maybe even take the time to learn how to play the Digeridoo. He can surf the Gold Coast, which, disappointingly, is not actually gold, to his heart’s content. I hope he likes Vegemite because he’s going to be seeing a lot more of it now. We shall miss Rabbi Schwartz terribly, but we hope he is living his best life in the home of the deadliest creatures on earth.