The Sydney Morning Herald Photos of the week September 9 2021

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Rabbi Paul Lewin blows the shofar at the North Shore Synagogue in Lindfield. Brad Hazzard has given permission for rabbis to blow the shofar â€" a ram's horn â€" outdoors during the Rosh Hashanah celebrations. Rosh Hashanah celebrates the birth of humanity and usually involves synagogue services, prayer and food. A key element is the blowing of the shofar, which is a Jewish call for repentance.Credit:Brook Mitchell

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Bankstown Sports Club has a walk in vaccination centre. Almost one in five jobs across parts of western Sydney has disappeared since lockdowns were put in place, with business leaders urging a rapid re-opening of the economy once 80 per cent of the adult population is vaccinated.Credit:Louise Kennerley

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Anthony Elfalak with his other sons, the father of missing boy Anthony "AJ" Elfalak on their property in Putty after his son was found. AJ went missing on Friday 3rd of September and was found alive and well in bush land 470m from the family home, in Putty, NSW.Credit:Kate Geraghty

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Skate boarders at Bondi Skate Park. Within three days of Australian Keegan Palmer winning Olympic gold in park skateboarding at the Tokyo Games, the City of Sydney opened a skateboarding facility in Annandale. Four days later, Blacktown City Council announced a $353,000 investment in skateboarding.Credit:Edwina Pickles

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Amazing early morning surf conditions at Avalon as perfect swell, wind and light combined. A fairly slow-moving high pressure system and generally clear skies warming up the air will draw hotter temperatures to the state’s coastal parts before a cool change comes through.Credit:Nick Moir

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Bryan Brown, the 74-year-old stalwart of the Australian film industry who has starred in everything from the critically acclaimed Breaker Morant and Newsfront to the iconic 1980s miniseries The Thorn Birds and Hollywood smash hit Cocktail. Credit:Tim Bauer

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Dr Michael Mohammed Ahmad outside the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque in Auburn. As the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks approaches, award-winning author and academic Dr Michael Mohammed Ahmad led a panel at the Sydney Opera House’s Antidote Festival on Sunday on the topic of anti-Arab racism since 9/11.Credit:Kate Geraghty

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What is often called the country’s oldest public swimming pool looked sparkling in the early Wednesday morning sunshine after being closed for two years. With restoration work finally finished, Health Minister Brad Hazzard agreed to Cr Byrne’s request to amend the public health orders so Dawn Fraser could join the city’s beaches and so-called natural pools and be open for swimming during lockdown.Credit:Kate Geraghty

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Sydney Charter Boat Hire hires out watercraft at Wattle Bay in the Inner West. If you’ve tried out kayaking or paddleboarding during this long lockdown, you’re far from alone. Sydneysiders - well, those lucky enough to have water access and the freedom to participate in outdoor recreation - are flocking to the harbour’s edge for a fresh way to exercise and stay sane.Credit:Steven Siewert

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Lucas, Eloise and Leyla at their Rozelle home. Parents and swimming instructors are worried about the loss of kids’ water safety skills during COVID-19 restrictions, while lifesavers prepare for a surge of beach visitors once Sydney’s lockdown eases. Swim Australia estimates more than 250,000 lessons have been missed each week in swim schools and school-based programs during the current COVID-19 lockdown in NSW.Credit:Louise Kennerley

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Lea Simic, who is seeing a psychologist, has struggled with the isolation caused from homeschooling. More than one in three young women and one in six young men experienced psychological distress in 2020, putting them at risk of mental health problems that disrupt their lives into adulthood. The survey of more than 25,000 teenagers in Australia aged 15 to 17 found a significant decline in wellbeing from 2012 when the study was first done. Psychological distress for all young people rose from 18.6 per cent eight years ago to 26.6 per cent in 2020.Credit:Janie Barrett

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University of Sydney student Roisin Browne, 20, said she was looking forward to returning to work as a bartender at Coopers Hotel in Newtown and socialising with colleagues, but was uncertain of the potential impact of restrictions on her hours. “Will we only have two staff on instead of four? Will my hours be reduced? ... I’m just hoping that it’ll be a smooth transition back to the hours I was working before.”Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

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A line of storms along a southerly change lifted dust in Western NSW.Credit:Nick Moir

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HSC students say they are living in ongoing anxiety with performance exams cancelled and the written exam timetable yet to be set by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). Sam Kosack prepared three major works and performances for his final assessment and was crestfallen at the cancellation of these exams. Sam is part of a forum of school leaders on the northern beaches who are advocating for more consultation between NESA and HSC students. They want students to have the option to either sit their final exams or to have their marks determined by an estimation.Credit:James Brickwood

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The wedding of Sydney couple Nina Miranti and Andrew Conduit required more contingency planning than most. “There was the Saturday plan, there was the Wednesday plan, and then the Friday plan,” Mr Conduit said. The Manly residents were among the couples who scrambled to plan weddings after the Berejiklian government decided COVID-19 restrictions would ease to allow marriage ceremonies with up to five guests.Credit:James Brickwood

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Horses taken for a ride at Winnererremy bay in Pittwater, during Sydney's ongoing COVID lockdown.Credit:Nick Moir

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Police officers Cameron Whiteside and Hayley Simshauser deliver food parcels to Wilcannia residents who are isolating. On the empty streets of Wilcannia police walk door to door to check the people inside are staying put. Visiting more than 300 homes every single day, they often come with food hampers for the residents struggling under lockdown.Credit:Rhett Wyman

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On a rainy day in Wilcannia, the only people on the street are men and women in medical scrubs and face masks. These volunteers are dropping off much-needed supplies â€" vegetables, meat, milk, nappies â€" to the community’s most vulnerable. The town’s 700-odd residents are in their fourth week of lockdown, and dealing with a worsening COVID-19 outbreak that’s already infected 13 per cent of the population.Credit:Rhett Wyman

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Henrietta Adomako at her home in Oxley Park, has been searching for work. Job creation in Sydney has been slashed by the lockdown as new online employment postings in parts of the city’s west and south-west plunge more than 60 per cent. Henrietta Adomako’s employment has been repeatedly disrupted by western Sydney’s Delta outbreak. A positive COVID-19 case at a workplace in the Blacktown area forced her into self-isolation in July and her casual shifts there became less frequent. Ms Adomako, 19, is looking for other jobs but says openings are scarce and employers cautious.Credit:Kate Geraghty

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More than 20 years after Rebel Wilson first started learning her craft at the Australian Theatre For Young People she has repaid the faith showed in her with a donation of $1 million to the company. The money will go towards the group’s new home in Walsh Bay, to be named the Rebel Theatre.Credit:Darcy Hemley-Casucci

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Fin Bowden, 7, is taught Maths by his grandfather, John Evans, who lives in Canberra. John, who has cancer, is enjoying this time with his grandson, during Sydney's lockdown. Working parents trying to supervise remote learning say they don’t have the time to help their children with their schoolwork, while younger children in particular won’t work independently. They are recruiting outside help because they are concerned about their children’s academic progress and also want to ensure they have enough human interaction during the day.Credit:Janie Barrett

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A statue of former Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies seen wearing a face mask, along Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra. ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has emphasised the importance of checking into venues such as supermarkets and playgrounds after the ACT records 15 new local cases of COVID-19.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

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PolAir pilot, Senior Constable Jonathan Smith, aviation commander, Special Constable Kevin Drake, and crewman, Senior Constable Rod Rankin after locating three-year-old Anthony Elfalak. The PolAir helicopter was running low on fuel as it came over the tree canopy as the search for three-year-old Anthony “AJ” Elfalak entered its fourth day. The crew of three were slowly combing the landscape and had just finished searching a nearby valley with no sign of the missing boy. But a small movement caught the eye of PolAir pilot, Special Constable Kevin Drake.Credit:Louise Kennerley

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Far from the usual commemorative signs around cities, a community project called “Insignificantly Significant” by artist Sam Holt doesn’t mark big events or big lives. Not even anniversaries. Emma Sputnik is not dead or famous. But very soon, one of the 38-year-old’s memories of being 13 will live on in perpetuity. A bronze plaque will mark the spot in Sydney’s Camperdown cemetery where she found her poetry-reading Goth tribe in 1996.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

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Kim May with her brother, Kenny, holding a photo of their late mother and father. After agreeing to lose her leg to save her life in 2017, Gwendoline May returned home to the state’s central west following a successful operation keen to resume her old life with the aid of a prosthetic leg. But after she began her recovery at Dubbo and Wellington Hospitals her condition began spiralling downwards. Within three months, she was dead.Credit:Louise Kennerley

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Sharon Shrestha with her cousin Saira Gurung and Aunt Kalpana Gurung playing out the front of an apartment block on Evaline street, Campsie. Their Childcare centre, Young Academic, where they attend is closed due to COVID positive cases. The residents of Campsie, a suburb struggling through punitive restrictions in Sydney’s south-west, are set to see more than 6000 new homes and high-rises but only a fragmentary increase in public space in their area under a masterplan that will be put to a planning panel in a week’s time.Credit:Louise Kennerley

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Two people have been treated by paramedics after a fire broke out at a property in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, with firefighters able to prevent its spread to neighbouring homes. Fire and Rescue NSW said on Monday afternoon the roof of the single-level cottage on Broadbent Street, Kingsford, had collapsed.Credit:James Brickwood

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St John Paul II Maronite monastery community member Sam Hassarati watering their garden, in Ryde. According to the “road map to freedom” Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Thursday, NSW will start relaxing the lockdown on the Monday after the double-dose vaccination rate in the population over the age of 16 passes 70 per cent. As a share of the total NSW population that is a rate of 57 per cent.Credit:Louise Kennerley

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Premier Gladys Berejiklian during press conference on COVID-19 update. Sydney’s worst affected COVID areas will have 2000 cases a day by next week as hospitals prepare to implement emergency plans to call back nurses from vaccination hubs and turn operating theatres into intensive care units.Credit:Edwina Pickles

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Venue Manager, Ryan Adams with co-worker Teddy Hepworth, at Kingsley's Restaurant, Woolloomooloo. Restaurants are encouraging their staff to get vaccinated so they can return to work. Pub owners and staff across Sydney are keen to return to work from next month but want more certainty around how any virus outbreaks will be managed.Credit:Louise Kennerley

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Some days in lockdown, a trip to Coles ends in binge-eating a packet of Tim Tams, says Sam Downing, who works in the marketing team at the Commonwealth Bank. Mr Downing hasn’t been into the office for two and half months and spends 22 hours a day in his Sydney apartment to abide by the city’s lockdown rules.Credit:Louie Douvis

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Steph Kelly tests out her new inflatable paddleboard for the first time, in Sydney Harbour, near Waverton. There has been an increase in sales of SUPs and kayaks during Sydney's lockdown due to the spread of COVID-19. The craze is palpable from Middle Harbour to Blackwattle Bay and Cabarita to Cronulla - wherever sun- and fun-starved Sydneysiders can find a patch of water (within five kilometres of home, of course). Credit:Janie Barrett

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