History of the Jews in Australia
The first Jews known to have come to Australia came as convicts transported to Botany Bay in 1788 aboard the First Fleet that established the first European settlement on the continent, on the site of present-day Sydney.
The majority are Ashkenazi Jews, many of them Jewish refugees, including Holocaust survivor[4] who arrived during and after World War II, and their descendants.
The Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal (started 1939) appears twice a year, published in Sydney and Melbourne respectively.
[5] At first, the Church of England was the established religion in the colony, and during the early years of transportation all convicts were required to attend Anglican services on Sundays.
About this period Mr. P. J. Cohen having offered the use of his house for the purpose, divine worship was performed for the first time in the colony according to the Hebrew form, and was continued regularly every Sabbath and holiday.
From some difference of opinion then existing among the members of this faith, divine service was also performed occasionally in a room hired by Messrs. A. Elias and James Simmons.
A Sefer Torah [scroll of the Law] was purchased by subscription, divine service was more regularly conducted, and from this time may be dated the establishment of the Jewish religion in Sydney.
The condition of the Jewish community improved to such an extent that in 1844 the first synagogue was formed in York Street, Sydney using rented space,[10] which continued in use for more than thirty years.
As a result, the rapidly growing community in Sydney needed larger facilities, and built the Great Synagogue, located on Elizabeth Street, opposite Hyde Park, which was consecrated in 1878.
The Brisbane Synagogue was consecrated on 18 July 1886, its spiritual name being "Kehilla Kedosha Sha'ari Emuna" (The Holy Congregation of the Gates of Faith).
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, as Australia was unifying its colonies into a single independent country, a new wave of Jewish immigration began.
From the outset, Jews were treated as equal citizens with freedom to participate in economic and cultural life, and played an important role in their development.
The Australian government was initially hesitant in permitting entry to the many Jews who wanted to come, but in 1938, it allotted 15,000 visas for "victims of oppression".
Large numbers of European Jews, survivors of the Holocaust, arrived in the country from displaced persons camps, but there was an outbreak of antisemitism.
Over the following years, overtures from Jewish communities led the government to drop its previous stance on entry of Mizrahi Jews.
[37] Jews have also figured prominently in Australian honours[citation needed] and include Nobel Prize winner Bernard Katz.
Besides his diverse business interests in Sydney, Sir Saul Samuel was the first Jew to become a magistrate, to sit in a colonial Parliament and to become a minister of the Crown.
Jacob's portrait hangs in the Art Gallery of South Australia, and his memory is perpetuated by Montefiore Hill, a vantage point which overlooks the city of Adelaide.
The close connection of these two with the colony is further evidenced by the township of Montefiore, New South Wales, which stands at the junction of the Bell and Macquarie Rivers in the Wellington valley.
[citation needed] V. L. Solomon of Adelaide is remembered for the useful work he achieved in exploring the vast northern territory of his colony, the interests of which he represented in Parliament.
In Western Australia, the townships of Karridale and Boyanup owe their existence to the enterprise of M. C. Davies, a large lumber merchant.
Levy was at that time the owner of the original Royal Hotel in George Street; and he fitted up the saloon of that establishment as a theatre, where the first representations of the legitimate drama in the colony were given.
[citation needed] Isaac Nathan, who emigrated to Australia in 1841, wrote the first Australian opera, Don John of Austria to a libretto by Jacob Levi Montefiore.
Printmaker and projection artist Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack graduate and professor of the Bauhaus was deported to Australia as an "enemy alien" on the ship HMT Dunera, spending time in internment camps in Hay, Orange and Tatura, before being sponsored for Australian citizenship by (Sir) James Darling, headmaster of Geelong Church of England Grammar School.
Since the days of European settlement in Australia, Jews have enjoyed formal equality before the law and have not been subject to civil disabilities or other forms of state-sponsored antisemitism excluding them from full participation in public life.
[citation needed] Jews have been active contributors in science, art, and literature, and in the government of the colonial and Commonwealth eras, with a number attaining prominent public offices, including several governors-general.
In 1975, ASIO documents revealed that Palestinian terrorists planned to kill high-profile Jewish figures including the Israeli ambassador Michael Elizur and "Zionist spokesmen" Isi Leibler and Sam Lipski.
[79][80] The Jewish community in Melbourne supports an "anti-defamation commission" (ADC) which makes monthly reports to police of offensive graffiti found in public toilets and elsewhere.
In 1999, Kehilat Nitzan, Melbourne's first Conservative (Masorti) Congregation was established, with foundation president Prof John Rosenberg.
The services are loosely based on the Humanistic Jewish movement in the United States and the musical-prayer group Nava Tehila in Israel.
