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Jewish Community of Melbourne, Australia

Early History / The Twentieth Century / New Melbourne Synagogue / Community Institutions / Links / Bibliography

Early History

The Melbourne Jewish community was established in 1841. The first Jews arrived to Australia from England. Among them were expelled convicts as well as free settlers looking for improvement of their living conditions. They were later joined by fortune hunters - mainly from continental Europe - following the discovery of gold in 1851. In 1877 the first synagogue was opened. The Melbourne Hebrew school was established as a day school in 1874 and continued till 1886, when it was closed because of financial difficulties.

The Twentieth Century

During the first decades of the 20^th century, a struggle for communal supremacy developed gradually between the earlier immigrants who lived south of the Yarra river - and who were more prosperous and assimilated - and the more recent immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe. The latter were concentrated north of the river, had an orthodox background, Yiddish culture, and strong Zionist leanings.

At the same time a change took place in the centers of Jewish activity. Whereas until the first decades of the 20^th century, life centered round the synagogues, in the following decades a shift took place whereby non-synagogal bodies were organized and gradually took a more prominent place in communal leadership.

In 1911, new immigrants from Eastern Europe had helped to form a center of Yiddish culture, the Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library "Kadimah", which apart from its book collection held regular cultural meetings including Yiddish lectures and plays. The Judean League of Victoria was founded in 1921 as a roof-organization for non-synagogal activity, sports, literary, cultural, social, and Zionist activity.

Early efforts to spread Zionism were not successful. The Victorian Zionist League, founded in 1902, was short-lived. In 1913 the Victorian Zionist Society, Hatechiah, was formed. In the 1920s, following the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate in Palestine, there was some influential support from the well-established families. In 1921 the community, then numbering only 7,700, contributed ₤26,000 to the Palestine Reformation Fund. In 1923 the Palestine Welfare League was formed and in 1927 the Zionist Federation of Australia was launched.

However, as soon as there appeared to be an apparent clash of interests between Britain and the Zionists, the Melbourne Jewish Advisory Board disassociated itself from the declarations and appeals of the Zionist movement.

One of the key personalities who had a lasting influence on the development of Melbourne Jewry was Rabbi Jacob Danglow, whose ministry at St. Kilda Hebrew congregation extended over 50 years. Another important figure was Rabbi Israel Brodie (later chief rabbi of the British Commonwealth), Chief Minister of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation and Av Beth Din from 1923 to 1937, where he wielded great influence, and his regular practice of visiting every community in Australia fostered a federal consciousness.

Immigration to Australia as a whole continued steadily in the 1920's-30's with an influx of migrants from Palestine and from countries in Europe like Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, where due to the upcoming anti-Semitism Jews feared for their lives.
In the years following World War II Jews arrived to Australia from Europe, seeking to build a new life, and from Shanghai, where Jews had found shelter during the war. In the years between 1950 and 1970, Sephardi Jews from, among others, Cairo, Baghdad, and Damascus, as well as Jews from Hungary (who were allowed to leave Hungary after the 1956 Revolution) made their way to Australia. Jews coming from Israel, South Africa, and Russia to Australia have followed them in more recent years.

In Australia as a whole about 80% of the Jews belong to orthodox congregations and about 20% to liberal. The Melbourne Jewish community consists of three congregations: Melbourne, East Melbourne and St. Kilda.

In 1970 there were 34,500 Jews living in Melbourne, the general population of the city was 2,400,000. In 1997 there were 45,000 Jews living in Melbourne. Compared to any other city in Australia, Melbourne contains the highest proportion of Jewish inhabitants.

Communal Institutions

Education

The United Jewish Education Board was established in Melbourne (and in Sydney and other cities) in 1895. Its main purpose was to provide children with a Jewish education. Today, Melbourne has a variety of Jewish schools, including the following:

Mount Scopus Memorial College, opened in 1948, is Australia's largest and oldest orthodox school.

Bialik College, founded as a Kindergarten and Sunday school in 1940, today rates among the top academic schools of Victoria. It offers a secular Jewish education with a strongly Zionist emphasis.

In 1977 the King David School was founded in Melbourne, serving the needs of the Progressive Jewish community.

In the 1950s two schools were founded by the Lubavitch movement: Yeshiva College and Beth Rivkah Ladies College.

Adass-Israel School, founded in 1952, is a secondary school offering education to the ultra-orthodox Adass-Israel community in Melbourne.

Both the Adass-Israel and Lubavitch movements organize rabbinical education through Kollels and in yeshivot in America and Israel.

Museums

In 1982, the Jewish Museum of Australia opened its doors at the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation in South Yarra. Since 1995 it has been located in St. Kilda. The museum houses Judaica, historical material and contemporary art.

The Jewish Holocaust Museum & Research Centre was established by Holocaust survivors in 1984.

Kashrut

Whereas in the 19th century the strict observance of Jewish dietary laws was often difficult due to the small number of Jews, today there is a number of kosher butchers, bakers, restaurants and delicatessen-shops in Melbourne. Food is often imported from Israel.

Culture

The Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library "Kadimah", founded in 1911, is the main focus for Yiddish social and cultural life.

In 1997-1998 Beth Hatefutsoth produced the CD The Musical Tradition of the Jewish Reform Congregation in Berlin thanks to and in cooperation with Rabbi John Levi of Temple Beth Israel. The production of this record, realized in cooperation between an Australian rabbi, the son of the original producer - Hans Lachmann-Mosse - and Beth Hatefutsoth is the consequence of historical circumstances that may not be untypical for the Melbourne community.

Berlin choir director Dr. Herman Schildberger fled Berlin in 1939 for Melbourne where he found refuge in the then small reform community. Fifty years later, Rabbi John Levi of that community initiated and partly produced the Berlin disk.

Dr. Schildberger set and arranged the music.

Synagogues

Melbourne has more than 30 synagogues.

Sports

Australian Maccabi, a branch of the Maccabi World Union Jewish sporting movement established in 1921, is the driving force behind many sports activities. Maccabi Victoria has about 25 sporting clubs.

Elitzur is a Jewish sports organization serving the orthodox community.

Burial

In 1909 a Chevra Kadisha was established in Melbourne, mainly by pressure from newly immigrated Jews. There are three burial societies: one for the ultra-orthodox Adass community, Beth-Olam for members of the Progressive community and one for the orthodox.

Links

Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (Victoria) - Inc.

Chabad Melbourne

Hamerkaz

Jewish Australia

Jewish Community Council of Victoria

Jewish Ozzies Inter.net

Makor Jewish Community Library, Melbourne

Melbourne Hebrew Congregation

St Kilda Shule Internet Site

Bibliography

William David Rubinstein, Melbourne Jewry, a Diaspora Community with a Vigorous Jewish Identity, in Jewish Journal of Sociology, 37,2, (1995), pp. 81-99

William David Rubinstein, Jews in the 1991 Federal Census: the Welfare's Society's Survey, the Jews of Melbourne - a Community Profile, in Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 12,1 (1993) pp. 235-238

Chayim Lubin, Jewish Schooling and Jewish Identification in Melbourne, in Jewish Education, 51,2 (1983) 37-42

T. Rapke, The Pre-War Jewish Community of Melbourne, in Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 7 (1973) pp. 291-301

J. S. Levi, Rabbi Jacob Danglow: "The Uncrowned Monarch of Australian Jews”, Melbourne University Press, 1995

J.S. Levi, The Forefathers: a Dictionary of Biography of the Jews of Australia, 1788-1830, Australian Jewish Historical Society, 1976

J.S. Levi and G.F.J. Bergman, Australian Genesis: Jewish Convicts and Settlers, 1788-1850, Rigby, 1974

A Portion of Praise - A Festschrift to Honour John S. Levi, The Progressive Jewish Cultural Fund - Melbourne, 1997