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November 05, 2006 - Image 63

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2006-11-05

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

son to the Russians and the Poles,
they were still far more religious
than the Australians. Thus, even
those Australians who remained
non-Orthodox gradually became
more involved in communal affairs.
The previously synagogue-oriented
kehillahs began to focus their ener-
gies more on education, Zionism and
combating anti-Semitism, allowing
even the non-religious to become
involved.

The Community Grows

other than Israel, whose founding members included Jews. As
a Jesuit, Jews were treated as equal citizens from the outset: In
contrast to contemporary Europe, incidents of anti-Semitism were
very rare in Australia. Jews were free to "participate in economic
and cultural life and played an important role in their develop-
ment. The first Australian theater, for example, was built by
a Jew; and an early Jewish composer, Isaac Nathan, has been
described as the "father of Australian music."
Jews also served as elected officials. In the 19th century, promi-
nent Jews included the mayor of Melbourne, premier of the state
of South Australia, speaker of the House of Representatives and
speaker of Pailiament. Interestingly, these political leaders were
frequently the heads of their respective kehillahs as well; unlike
the politically autonomous kehillahs of Europe, Australia's com-
munities were cultural and religious institutions only.
In addition to the Ashkenazim who comprised the vast major-
ity of Australian Jewry, a small Sephardic community thrived
during the mid-to-late 19th century. Gradually, however, the
Sephardic population decreased, and the congregation was dis-
banded by 1873.

At the end of the 19th century
and the beginning of the 20th, as
Australia was unifying its colonies
into one independent nation, refu-
gees from the pogroms in Russia
and Poland immigrated in the 1890s,
bringing with them an infusion of tra-
dition to the communities. Following
World War I, another stream of Jews
arrived in the country; when Hitler
came to power in Germany in 1933,
that stream became a flood. The
Australian government was initially
hesitant about opening its gates to so
many immigrants, but in 1938 decid-
ed to allot 15,000 visas for "victims of
oppression." Some 7,000 Jews took
advantage of the visas before the out-
break of war in 1939.
The influx of immigrants led
to a split among the urban Jewish
centers. Most of the Jews who lived
in Sydney were from Western and
Central Europe, and they tended to
be more secular than their Eastern
European counterparts, who, by
and large, settled in Melbourne. As
a result, Sydney became known for
its secular Jewish population, and
Melbourne for its highly Orthodox
community. At the same time, Perth
also became primarily Orthodox
as thousands of observant South
Africans arrived.
But if the German and Hungarian
immigrants were secular in compari-

Post-War Developments

After the war, even more European
Jews arrived in Australia, mostly from
displaced persons camps. The trend
toward observance continued to
grow, especially once the Lubav-itch
movement gained a foothold.
Today, more than 100,000 Jews
live in Australia, 80 percent of
them in Melbourne and Sydney.
Melbourne is still considered the
more religious of the two cities, with
about 80 percent of its Jews declaring
themselves traditional, while Sydney
boasts numerous synagogues and
Jewish organizations as well, and a
very high rate of aliyah. Overall, there
are 81 synagogues and 18 day schools
in Australia and several Jewish news-
papers and periodicals. More than
50 percent of Jewish students are
enrolled in Jewish schools, which
is the highest rate anywhere in the
world except Israel.

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Left: Australia's magnificent Great Barrier Reef is the only living organic collective that is visible from
the Earth's orbit. Top: A circa-1900 photograph shows the bimah of the original Melbourne Hebrew
Congregation on Bourke Street, before it moved to Toorak Road in 1930. Above: The needle of the
Sydney Tower observation deck stands tall in the skyline of the Sydney Harbour.

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