Total population | |
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99,956 [1] 0.4% of Australia's population | |
Languages | |
Australian English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, Hungarian, Romanian, French, Persian, Arabic, Spanish, Afrikaans, Bukhori, Polish, German, Chinese. |
Judaism is a minority religion in Australia. 99,956 Australians identified as Jewish in the 2021 census, which accounts for about 0.4% of the population. [3] This is a 9.8% increase in numbers from the 2016 census.
There are many estimates of how many Jews are in Australia, with some estimates going as high as 250,000.
In 1830 the first Jewish wedding in Australia was celebrated, the contracting parties being Moses Joseph and Rosetta Nathan. [4]
Jewish immigration came at a time of antisemitism and the Returned Services League and other groups publicized cartoons to encourage the government and the immigration Minister Arthur Calwell to stem the flow of Jewish immigrants. [5]
Until the 1930s, all synagogues in Australia were affiliated with Orthodox, acknowledging leadership of the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom. To this day, about 70% of synagogues in Australia are Orthodox.
There had been at least two short-lived efforts to establish Reform congregations, the first as early as the 1890s. However, in 1930, under the leadership of Ada Phillips, a Liberal or Progressive congregation, Temple Beth Israel (Melbourne, Australia), was permanently established in Melbourne. In 1938 the long-serving Senior Rabbi, Rabbi Dr Herman Sanger, was instrumental in establishing another synagogue, Temple Emanuel in Sydney. He also played a part in founding a number of other Liberal synagogues in other cities in both Australia and New Zealand. The first Australian-born rabbi, Rabbi Dr John Levi, served the Australian Liberal movement. [6] These congregations are supported by the Sydney-based Union for Progressive Judaism.
About 90 percent of the Australian Jewish community live in Sydney and Melbourne. [7]
The Jewish Community Council of Victoria has estimated that 60,000 Australian Jews live in Victoria. [8] In Frankston, the Jewish community nearly doubled between 2007 and 2012. [9]
In Adelaide Australian Jews have been present throughout the history of the city, with many successful civic leaders and people in the arts. [10]
According to the 2016 census, the Jewish population numbered 91,020 individuals, of whom 46% lived in Greater Melbourne, 39% in Greater Sydney, and 6% in Greater Perth. The states and territories with the highest proportion of Jews are Victoria (0.71%) and New South Wales (0.49%), whereas those with the lowest are the Northern Territory and Tasmania (both 0.05%). [11]
The same social and cultural characteristics of Australia that facilitated the extraordinary economic, political, and social success of the Australian Jewish community have also been attributed to contributing to widespread assimilation. [12]
Community success can also be measured by the vibrancy of Australian Jewish Media. While traditional Jewish print media is in decline, [13] new media forms such as podcasts, [14] online magazines, [15] and blogs [16] have stepped into the breach. [17] [18]
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Jews and Judaism |
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Yeshivah College, officially Yeshivas Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch, is an independent Orthodox Jewish comprehensive single-sex primary and secondary Jewish day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda East, in Victoria, Australia.
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.
The Yeshivah Centre is an Orthodox Jewish umbrella organisation in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, that serves the needs of the Melbourne Jewish community. It is run by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, until recently, under the direct administration of Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner. Rabbi Zvi Telsner has been brought as the new Dayan of the Centre and Lubavitch community.
Raymond Apple was an Australian and Israeli rabbi who worked in England and Australia and retired to Israel. He was the Senior Rabbi of The Great Synagogue of Sydney between 1972 and 2005. In this role, he was one of Australia's highest profile rabbis and the leading spokesman for Judaism in Australia.
Sydney David Einfeld was an Australian politician and Jewish community leader. Einfeld is credited with changing Australia's immigration policy to provide a refuge for Holocaust survivors. As a result, Australia accepted more refugees per capita than any other country in the world, and more Jewish refugees than anywhere except Israel.
The Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, or Toorak Shule, is the oldest Jewish congregation in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Formed in 1841, the congregation was originally located on Bourke Street before moving in 1930 to Toorak Road, South Yarra.
Australian Jews, or Jewish Australians, are Jews who are Australian citizens or permanent residents of Australia. In the 2021 census there were 99,956 people whom identified Judaism as their religious affiliation and 29,113 Australians who identified as Jewish by ancestry, an increase from 97,355 and 25,716, respectively, from the 2016 census,. The actual number is almost certainly higher, because being a Jew is not just about being religious, but the census data is based on religious affiliation, so secular Jews often feel it would be inaccurate to answer with "Judaism". Also, since the question is optional, many practicing Holocaust survivors and Haredi Jews are believed to prefer not to disclose their religion in the census. By comparison, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz estimated a Jewish-Australian population of 120,000-150,000, while other estimates based on the death rate in the community estimate the size of the community as 250,000. Based on the census data, Jewish citizens make up about 0.4% of the Australian population. The Jewish community of Australia is composed mostly of Ashkenazi Jews, though there are Jews in Australia from many other traditions and levels of religious observance and participation in the Jewish community.
Orthodox Jewish feminism is a movement in Orthodox Judaism which seeks to further the cause of a more egalitarian approach to Jewish practice within the bounds of Jewish Law. The major organizations of this movement is the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) in North America, and Women of the Wall (WOW) and its affiliates in Israel and internationally, known as The International Committee for Women of the Wall (ICWOW). In Israel, the leading Orthodox feminist organization is Kolech, founded by Dr. Chana Kehat. In Australia, there is one Orthodox partnership minyan, Shira Hadasha, in Melbourne.
Rabbi Mordechai Zev Gutnick is a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Australia. Gutnick has served as a member of rabbinical courts in Melbourne and Sydney and various Australian rabbinical associations. He is associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement; he is the eldest son of the late Rabbi Chaim Gutnick.
Israeli Australians refers to Australian citizens or permanent residents who are fully or partially of Israeli descent. The population colloquially refer to themselves as Ausraelis.
The Jewish Community Council of Victoria Inc (JCCV) is the main representative body for Victorian Jewry, representing 52 Jewish community organisations and over 60,000 Victorian Jews. The JCCV's mission is to represent the Victorian Jewish community, the largest Jewish community in Australia, and deal with matters that affect its status, welfare and interests. The JCCV was established in 1938 as the Victorian Jewish Advisory Board. It has been known as the Jewish Community Council of Victoria since 1989 and became incorporated in 2000.
The Melbourne Beth Din (MBD) is an Orthodox / Chassidic Jewish court in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Located in Caulfield North, Victoria, it rules mostly on divorces and conversions although it does rule on other matters as well.
Temple Beth Israel (TBI) is a synagogue affiliated with Progressive Judaism in St Kilda, an inner seaside suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The organisation is a member of the Union for Progressive Judaism, an umbrella organisation for Progressive Judaism in Asia and the Pacific.
Black Jews in New York City comprise one of the largest communities of Black Jews in the United States. Black Jews have lived in New York City since colonial times, with organized Black-Jewish and Black Hebrew Israelite communities emerging during the early 20th century. Black Jewish and Black Hebrew Israelite communities have historically been centered in Harlem, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Queens. The Commandment Keepers movement originated in Harlem, while the Black Orthodox Jewish community is centered in Brooklyn. New York City is home to four historically Black synagogues with roots in the Black Hebrew Israelite community. A small Beta Israel (Ethiopian-Jewish) community also exists in New York City, many of whom emigrated from Israel. Black Hebrew Israelites are not considered Jewish by the New York Board of Rabbis, an organization representing mainstream Rabbinic Judaism. However, some Black Hebrew Israelite individuals in New York City are recognized as Jewish due to converting through the Orthodox, Conservative, or other Jewish movements.