The (huge) majority of Australia’s Jewish population ( about 100,000 ) lives in Melbourne and Sydney with only Western Australia of the other states having as many as about 8000 Jews.However, there are Jewish communities in all major cities in Australia. Jews live mainly in the state capital cities, with only small numbers in the smaller country towns. The only exceptions to this are in Queensland, where there is a growing Jewish population in the Gold Coast resort area, and in Tasmania. It is often said that the atmosphere of the two communities is different, with the Melbourne community mostly of Polish background, being more conservative, and the Sydney community, with relatively more Hungarian and German Jews, being more liberal. In both cities there are Jewish areas where many Jews live and where most Jewish shuls may be found.

Much of the Caulfield-St. Kilda area is heavily and recognisably part of a ‘Jewish neighbourhood’, with many kosher restaurants, cafes and butcher shops,. About 20 percent of the community lives in a second belt of Jewish settlement in north- eastern Melbourne, with shuls and community centres in Doncaster and Kew. Before the Second World War many Jewish people lived in Carlton, north of the city centre, but Jewish settlement there has declined in recent decades. Another feature of Melbourne is the amount of Yiddish still spoken by the Jewish community. Many older Jews still prefer to speak Yiddish. There is also a Yiddish school and Yiddish theatre in Melbourne. There are no big Jewish areas in other Australian cities. However, many Jews in Perth live in Yokine, Dianella West and Noranda which, like Sydney’s North Shore and Melbourne’s Doncaster, is home to large numbers of South African and Zimbabwean Jewish migrants.

Most shuls are located in the major areas of Jewish settlement, but in both Sydney and Melbourne there are architecturally historically important shuls near the centre of each city and away from these areas. the Great Synagogue in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation in Albert Street, East Melbourne, and the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation in Toorak Road, South Yarra. Hobart, Launceston, Newcastle and Ballarat each has a single Orthodox synagogue, although the Hobart synagogue is today shared by the Orthodox and Reform communities of that city.

Melbourne’s Mount Scopus Memorial College, the first such school to make a real impact on the Jewish community, was founded in In the years since, 19 other Jewish day schools have been established in Australia In Sydney there are six Jewish day schools. Moriah War Memorial College, the largest school, has over 1,500 students and is a traditional community school, located in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

There is a national English-language weekly newspaper, The Australian Jewish News, serving the Australian Jewish community. Most shuls and Jewish societies publish regular journals. There are several hours of weekly Jewish broadcasting on the ‘ethnic’ radio stations in Sydney and Melbourne which carry Jewish-interest broadcasts in English, Hebrew and Yiddish. A number of excellent Jewish museums exist in Australia, together with Holocaust Museums and resource centers Communal Yom Yerushalayim, Yom Ha’atzmaut, and other celebrations, and Yom Hazikaron and Yom Hashoah commemorations, are attended by thousands of community members. 100,000 jewish people live in Australia

This slide was done by Jenna Kaufman. Class teacher: Miss Tollman Jewish Studies teacher: Morah Kareen King David Victory Park Primary South Africa