Only Day School in New Zealand Capital Closes

By JTA December 9, 2012

The only Jewish day school in New Zealand’s capital city closed after 25 years in operation.

Moriah School in Wellington held its last graduation on Dec. 7, citing a lack of resources.

In August, the board said it had “no option” but to close the school, which had less than 20 pupils aged between five and 13.

But a Hebrew school will still operate, as well as the kindergarten, the board said.

Moriah was founded in 1985, with almost 60 students at its peak.

Its much-publicized 2008 project to amass 1.5 million buttons – each one representing a child murdered during the Holocaust – took over two years to complete and attracted the attention of Prime Minister John Key, the son of a Jewish refugee who escaped Austria on the eve of the Holocaust. The collection has been given to the Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Center.

Wellington is the second largest Jewish community after Auckland, which is home to the majority of the country’s estimated 7,000 Jews as well as its last Jewish school, Kadimah College.

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