About Rick Sahar

I was born in 1954 in Detroit, Michigan, USA to Holocaust survivor parents. Not able to cope with the country’s politics and the family’s pain, I left home at 16 to live in Israel on kibbutz and stayed there for 11 years conscripted to serve in the IDF (IOF) for 3 of those years.  I had a life-changing experience in the West Bank in 1981 during milu’im duty, realizing my time in Israel needs to come to an end… I arrived in New Zealand later that year.

Alongside my 40 years as a professional entertainer, I have been active in voluntary work. I chaired the Wellington branch of the Friends of Tibet, 1992–97, and during that time was Regional Coordinator for the Dalai Lama’s Visit to NZ in 1996 and in 1993 I ran for Parliament in Heretaunga as candidate for the McGillicuddy Serious Party (McGSP) (unsuccessfully, but did place 5th out of 7 candidates with 137 votes). A rally organized against the visit of the President of China in 1999 was unlawfully broken-up. I helped form a class-action lawsuit against NZ Police for stopping our protest. There was a Parliamentary Inquiry that found in favour of us, the protestors. In 2000 the Commissioner issued an apology for stopping our protest. I felt that the right for peaceful protest has been secured once again in NZ.

I became more active in Jewish life, attending services at Temple Sinai and trained with Fred to be a chazzan. I was a Holocaust Centre of New Zealand (HCNZ) board member from 2011-18 and during part of that time responsible for coordinating external Partnership and Relationship activities and also involved in outreach programmes that included presentations of my parents’ Holocaust survival to high school students and other interest groups at HCNZ and throughout New Zealand. In 2015, 2017 and 2019 I co-led New Zealand high school teacher groups to Yad vaShem for 17-day intensive seminars. I ended my involvement on the HCNZ board due to “differences of opinion”. I’m also an in-active member of Temple Sinai. 

I’ve also been a board member on the Newtown Community Centre as well as on two Jewish boards, the WJCAS (past) and the WHPS (present). I joined Justice for Palestine about 1.5 years ago to be more involved in advocating for Palestinian rights – and I look forward to being active in Dayeinu/Sh’ma Koleinu.