New Zealand Jews, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion, form with Hawaii (8,000–10,000), the joint-second largest (7,500–10,000) Jewish community in Oceania, behind Australia (118,000).

Small numbers of Anglo-Jewish immigrants followed, some subsidized by a Jewish charity in London which had a mission of caring for the poor and orphaned young people in the community.

The difficulties of life in early colonial New Zealand, together with historically high rates of intermarriage, made it hard to maintain strict religious observation in any of the new congregations.

These immigrants, and others from Eastern Europe faced an increasingly stringent immigration policy throughout the end of the 19th and mid 20th century, but Jewish New Zealanders and their descendants have continued to contribute in business, medicine, politics, and other areas of New Zealand life, at the highest levels, and the spectrum of Jewish religious observance continues in communities throughout the country.

In addition to being entertaining travel guides to new tastes (hearts of palm, for example), sights and sounds (Māori tattoos, exotic birds), etc., his books were a rallying cry for commercial development, specifically for flax production which he believed was possible on a lucrative scale.

[5] In 1838, in testimony to a House of Lords inquiry into the state of the islands of New Zealand, Polack warned that unorganised European settlement would destroy Māori culture, and advocated planned colonisation.

The British government and the speculative New Zealand Company,[7] among whose financial backers was the wealthy Anglo-Jewish Goldsmid family[8] anticipated (wrongly, as it turned out, at least in the next few decades) that land would increase in value, and encouraged a flood of subsidised mostly English and Scottish emigrants.

Abraham Hort, Jr, related by family and business ties[9] to the Mocatta & Goldsmid bank, arrived in Wellington on the barque Oriental on 31 January 1840[10] accompanied by two brothers he employed as cabinet makers, Solomon and Benjamin Levy.

[23] In early 1843, Abraham Hort, Sr. arrived in Wellington, where he organised and promoted the Jewish community, with the approval of London's Chief Rabbi.

A Māori massacre,[27] the threat of forced militia service for all, and the extreme difficulty of making a living, took their toll on the small community.

[28] In 1849–1850 the California Gold Rush led to an exodus of early New Zealand Jewish settlers, including Joel Samuel Polack, Benjamin Levy, and Abraham Hort.

[31] Some have attributed this attitude to New Zealand's geographic isolation at the time, to fear of economic competition, to the dilution of a perceived "white" culture.

[35] First called "enemy aliens" because of their German nationality, popular sentiment suggested that they leave as soon as the war was over, as they were competing with New Zealanders for work.

[35] In reality, dozens of Jewish men and women from New Zealand had joined British Commonwealth forces during World War II, mainly serving in the RAF.

[39] In 2010 the practice of shechita, the ritual slaughter of kosher animals such as cows, sheep and chickens attracted controversy when the Minister of Agriculture reversed a decision that had banned it.

The issue was about to be heard in the High Court but pressure from Jewish community members who wanted to slaughter poultry in the traditional manner promoted the move.

[41] In 2019, with the assistance of the Woolf Fisher Trust, the Auckland Hebrew Congregation purchased the campus of Saint Kentigern Girls' School in Remuera.

The site was required to be vacated for motorway construction in 1963, and a new Wellington Jewish Community Centre was opened at 74–80 Webb Street in 1977.

[59] As of 2023, the AHC (Auckland Hebrew Congregation) which has the largest Jewish community in New Zealand, has moved to a new location in Remuera.

After 50 years in the iconic custom built synagogue in Greys Avenue, the community made the decision to move to the suburbs which has a higher density of Jews, compared to the previous city location.