Hobart Synagogue | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Judaism |
Rite | Orthodox and Progressive |
Ecclesiastical or organisational status | Synagogue |
Ownership | Hobart Hebrew Congregation |
Year consecrated | 1845 |
Status | Active |
Location | |
Location | 59 Argyle Street, Hobart, Tasmania |
Country | Australia |
Location in Hobart | |
Geographic coordinates | 42°52′47″S147°19′41″E / 42.879628°S 147.327939°E |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | James Thomson |
Type | Synagogue |
Style | Egyptian Revival |
Founder |
|
Completed | 1845 |
Reference no. | 2,150 |
Website | |
www |
The Hobart Synagogue is a heritage-listed synagogue located in 59 Argyle Street, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. The synagogue is the oldest synagogue building in Australia and is a rare example of the Egyptian Revival style of synagogue architecture. [2] The Egyptian Revival building was constructed in 1845. [3] [4] The trapezoidal shape of the windows and the columns with lotus capitals are characteristic of the Egyptian Revival style. [5] [6] Currently the Hobart Synagogue has regular Orthodox and Progressive services. [7]
The land on which the synagogue stands was originally part of the garden of former convict Judah Solomon. [8] It has a seating capacity of 150 and features hard benches at the back of the building for the Jewish convicts who in the early days were marched in under armed guard. [9] The synagogue is listed on the Tasmanian Heritage Register.
The building of a synagogue was raised as the Hobart Jewish community began to emerge in the 1830s. The Hobart Hebrew Congregation Synagogue was consecrated on 4 July 1845. [10] The building was designed by Hobart Town architect James Thomson, who was a Scottish convict who was pardoned in 1829. [11]
Although several synagogues and churches were built in the Egyptian Revival style in the early nineteenth century, only a few are known to survive, they include the Downtown Presbyterian Church, Nashville, the First Presbyterian Church, New York, the Old Synagogue at Canterbury, England and the Launceston Synagogue.
The synagogue is the focal point of Jewish culture in Hobart, and is the only structure owned by the community.
The community is welcome to all Jews, and currently runs Orthodox and Progressive services.
The Tasmanian community reached a low point in the early 1970s when the census recorded fewer than 100 Jews in Hobart. The 2021 census recorded 376 Jews in Tasmania. [12]
HobartHOH-bart; is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly half of Tasmania's population, Hobart is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-smallest by population and area after Darwin if territories are taken into account. Its skyline is dominated by the 1,271-metre (4,170 ft) kunanyi / Mount Wellington, and its harbour forms the second-deepest natural port in the world, with much of the city's waterfront consisting of reclaimed land. The metropolitan area is often referred to as Greater Hobart, to differentiate it from the City of Hobart, one of the seven local government areas that cover the city. It has a mild maritime climate.
A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It has a place for prayer where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, choir performances, and children's plays. They also have rooms for study, social halls, administrative and charitable offices, classrooms for religious and Hebrew studies, and many places to sit and congregate. They often display commemorative, historic, or modern artwork alongside items of Jewish historical significance or history about the synagogue itself.
The history of Tasmania begins at the end of the Last Glacial Period when it is believed that the island was joined to the Australian mainland. Little is known of the human history of the island until the British colonisation of Tasmania in the 19th century.
Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798, and Admiral Nelson's defeat of the French Navy at the Battle of the Nile later that year. Napoleon took a scientific expedition with him to Egypt. Publication of the expedition's work, the Description de l'Égypte, began in 1809 and was published as a series through 1826. The size and monumentality of the façades discovered during his adventure cemented the hold of Egyptian aesthetics on the Parisian elite. However, works of art and architecture in the Egyptian style had been made or built occasionally on the European continent since the time of the Renaissance.
The West Coast of Tasmania has a significant convict heritage. The use of the west coast as an outpost to house convicts in isolated penal settlements occurred in the eras 1822–33, and 1846–47.
Isaac "Ikey" Solomon was a British criminal who acted as a receiver of stolen property. His well-publicised crimes, escape from arrest, recapture and trial led to his transportation to the Australian penal colony of Van Diemen's Land.
The history of Jews in Australia traces the history of Australian Jews from the British settlement of Australia commencing in 1788. Though Europeans had visited Australia before 1788, there is no evidence of any Jewish sailors among the crew. 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.
Parliament House, Hobart, located on Salamanca Place in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, is the meeting place of the Parliament of Tasmania. The building was originally designed as a customs house but changed use in 1841 when Tasmania achieved self-government. The building served both purposes from 1841 to 1904, when the customs offices were relocated.
The modern history of the Australian city of Hobart in Tasmania dates to its foundation as a British colony in 1804. Prior to British settlement, the area had been occupied definitively for at least 8,000 years, and possibly for as long as 35,000 years, by the semi-nomadic Mouheneener tribe, a sub-group of the Nuenonne, or South-East tribe. The descendants of theses indigenous Tasmanians now refer to themselves as 'Palawa'. Little is known about the region from prehistoric times. As with many other Australia cities, urbanisation has destroyed much of the archaeological evidence of indigenous occupation, although aboriginal middens are often still present in coastal areas.
The gold dust robbery took place 25 March 1839 in London at the Dublin Steam Packet Company. According to the New Newgate Calendar, pp. 480ff, "The extraordinary robbery to which these persons were parties involved circumstances probably more singular than any other which ever came before a court of justice".
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) is a museum located in Hobart, Tasmania. The museum was established in 1846, by the Royal Society of Tasmania, the oldest Royal Society outside England. The TMAG receives 400,000 visitors annually.
John Lee Archer was the Civil Engineer and Colonial Architect in Van Diemen's Land, serving from 1827 to 1838. During his tenure, Archer was responsible for all Tasmanian government buildings including those for penal and military purposes.
TheGreat Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish congregation located in a large heritage-listed synagogue at 187a Elizabeth Street in the Sydney central business district in the City of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia.
Tasmanian Gothic is a genre of Tasmanian literature that merges traditions of Gothic fiction with the history and natural features of Tasmania, an island state south of the main Australian continent. Tasmanian Gothic has inspired works in other artistic media, including theatre and film.
The Old Synagogue is a former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 944 King Street in Canterbury, Kent, England, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1720, the congregation worshiped in the Ashkenazi rite until it was dissolved in c. 1911. Between 2008 and 2004, a non-denominational Jewish community occasionally worshiped in the former synagogue.
The Launceston Synagogue is a heritage-listed building located in St. John's Street, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, that served as a synagogue from 1846 until 1871, and again during the c. 1930s until its closure in 1961 and reopened in 1984.
The Colony of Tasmania was a British colony that existed on the island of Tasmania from 1856 until 1901, when it federated together with the five other Australian colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia. The possibility of the colony was established when the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Australian Constitutions Act in 1850, granting the right of legislative power to each of the six Australian colonies. The Legislative Council of Van Diemen's Land drafted a new constitution which they passed in 1854, and it was given royal assent by Queen Victoria in 1855. Later in that year the Privy Council approved the colony changing its name from "Van Diemen's Land" to "Tasmania", and in 1856, the newly elected bicameral parliament of Tasmania sat for the first time, establishing Tasmania as a self-governing colony of the British Empire. Tasmania was often referred to as one of the "most British" colonies of the Empire.
Joseph Asher (1921–1990) was an American rabbi born in Germany, known for his advocacy of reconciliation between the Jews and the Germans in the post-Holocaust era, and for his support for the civil rights movement in the United States. He was senior rabbi at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco for 19 years.
The history of the Jews in Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, in India, began in the late eighteenth century when adventurous Baghdadi Jewish merchants originally from Aleppo and Baghdad chose to establish themselves permanently in the emerging capital of the British Raj. The community they founded became the hub of the Judeo-Arabic-speaking Baghdadi Jewish trading diaspora in Asia.
Jewish populations have existed in most of the history of settled Tasmania, Australia. 376 people in Tasmania listed Judaism as their religion in the 2021 Australian census. Most live in the capital city of Hobart.