Judaism in Australia

Part One

The first Jews reached Australia on the 26th of January 1788. There were between 8 and 14 of them on the first transport that reached Sydney. The first free Jewish migrants arrived in Australia in 1816, and the first Jewish religious organization was set up in 1817.

An increase by 10000 Jewish migrants started in 1861 and ended in 1901. This means that 200 new Jewish people migrated to Australia every year.

The Australian Jewish community received 8000 more Jews in the 1930's and 1940's, due to the war in Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Another 35000 East European Survivors of the holocaust arrived in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Most of these spoke Yiddish, Polish, German or Hungarian.

The great majority of Australia's Jewish population live in either Melbourne or Sydney. In Melbourne most Jews come from a polish background, whereas in Sydney most Jews come from a German or Hungarian one.

Jews praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur. (1878...

Jews pray in the Wailing Wall

Congress of the Jewish Religious Organizations and...

In both cities there are Jewish areas where many Jews choose to live in, close to Jewish synagogues.

There are many day schools in both Melbourne and Sydney, with approximately 13 out of 20 of the Jewish schools in Australia situated in those two cities. The other 7 Jewish schools are situated in or around other major cities in Australia, such as Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. These schools help teach the

Jewish religion to younger children and to other Jews that need help and want to

be in a Jewish community.

You can clearly tell that the majority of the Australian population does not know a person of Jewish faith. From here we can then suggest that Australia does not know enough about the Jewish faith, since Australians do not come in contact with Jewish people.

The two stand out percentages are One god...