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]
Affiliations
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.
Demographics
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]
^Rubinstein and Freeman, (Editors), "A Time to Keep: The story of Temple Beth Israel: 1930 to 2005" A Special publication of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, 2005.