Australia Capital Gets First Rabbi
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth officiated at the inauguration of the first rabbi officially appointed to lead the Jewish community in Australia’s capital.
Rabbi Efraim Mirvis was present last week as Rabbi Alon Meltzer became the first rabbi to lead the Australian Capital Territory’s National Jewish Memorial Center.
Meltzer, a 26-year-old from New Zealand, is the first rabbi in the community’s 63-year history.
Rabbi Shmuel Feldman runs the Chabad community in Canberra, but the capital’s Jewish community center – which houses Orthodox and Reform services – has never had its own full-time rabbi.
About 1,000 Jews live in Canberra, with some 300 members affiliated with the National Jewish Center.
“I realize that this is an appointment of national significance,” Meltzer said.
Peter Wertheim of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said: “The inauguration of Rabbi Meltzer as full-time rabbi of the ACT Jewish community is a watershed for the community and also a wonderful positive development for the whole of Australian Jewry.”
Mirvis, on his first official visit to Australia as chief rabbi, also turned the first sod on ground earmarked for an extension to the Jewish center.
The center also serves as a memorial to Jews who lost their lives fighting for Australia.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
