History of the Jews in New Zealand: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{Short description|none}}

~~{{Short description|History of the Jews in New Zealand}}~~

{{Infobox ethnic group

| group = Jews of New Zealand <br>{{Script/Hebrew|יהודיי ניו זילנד}}

| image = Star of David hot cross buns 20240228 125836.jpg

| caption = [[Star of David]] [[hot cross bun]]s for sale at the Kosher Deli, [[Auckland Hebrew Congregation]], Remuera, Auckland

| pop = 7,500 – 10,000

| langs = [[New Zealand English|English]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]]

| regions = [[Auckland]], [[Wellington]]

| rels = [[Judaism]]

| related = [[Israeli New Zealanders]]<br/>[[South African New Zealanders]]

}}

[[New Zealand]] Jews, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion, form with [[Hawaii]] (8,000–10,000), the joint-second largest (7,500–10,000) [[Jewish community]] in [[Oceania]], behind [[Australia]] (118,000).

The Jewish community in New Zealand is composed predominantly of [[Ashkenazi Jews]]. Other Jewish ethnic divisions are also represented and include [[Sephardi Jews]], [[Mizrahi Jews]], and [[Bene Israel]]. A number of converts to [[Judaism]] make up the New Zealand Jewish community, which manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions and the [[Jewish religious movements#Ashkenazic movements|full spectrum of Jewish religious observance]]. Though they are a small minority, they have had an open presence in the country since the first Jewish immigrants began arriving in 1829. New Zealand has had three Jewish Prime Ministers or premiers, [[Julius Vogel]] (1873–1875), [[Francis Bell (New Zealand politician)|Francis Bell]] and [[John Key]] (2008–2016).<ref>[https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new-zealands-jewish-achievers/4WUEOBXPXWDBNEI2E5DP57K2YA/ New Zealand's Jewish achievers] ''New Zealand Herald''. 2 March 2012</ref>

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Following news of gold rushes, Jewish immigrants poured in from new lands such as Germany, and then moved on when the boom was over. These immigrants, and others from Eastern Europe faced an increasingly stringent immigration policy throughout the end of the 19th and mid 20th century, but Jewish New Zealanders and their descendants have continued to contribute in business, medicine, politics, and other areas of New Zealand life, at the highest levels, and the spectrum of Jewish religious observance continues in communities throughout the country.

The [[New Zealand Jewish Council]], established in 1981, acts as the representative body of Jewish communities in New Zealand. It responds to [[antisemitism in New Zealand]] and the New Zealand government's foreign policy and attitudes towards the [[State of Israel]] and the [[Middle East]].<ref name=teara>[https://teara.govt.nz/en/jews/page-4 Page 4. Zionism in New Zealand] Te Ara. 8 February 2005</ref> A 2022 survey of antisemitism in New Zealand ~~focussed~~focused attention on several areas of concern such as [[Holocaust denial]] and left-wing antisemitism.<ref>[https://www.jewishlives.nz/community/anti-semitism-survey-of-new-zealand-2021 Anti-Semitism Survey of New Zealand 2021] Jewish Lives. Retrieved on 17 December 2023</ref>

==Settlement (1829–1849)==

[[File:Joel Samuel Pollack's trade advertisement.jpg|thumb|Joel Samuel Polack's trade advertisement]]▼

[[File:Early New Zealand Jewish Settler, Solomon Levy.jpg|thumb|right|Solomon Levy, 1817–1883, Wellington New Zealand. Levy arrived from London with his brother Benjamin in 1840. He helped to found the Jewish synagogue in Wellington, taught Hebrew to Wellington's Jewish children for many years, but was himself married to his sister's Christian shipmate, and their children were raised Christian.]]▼

Anglo-Jewish traders were among the early immigrants from the 1830s onwards.<ref name="TeAra 19th century"/>

[[Joel Samuel Polack]], the best known and most influential of them, arrived in New Zealand in 1831.<ref name="Chisholm TeAra"/> Polack, an [[History of the Jews in England|English-born Jew]], opened a general store at [[Kororāreka]] in the [[Bay of Islands]], where, following the tradition of centuries of European "[[Port Jew]]s", his respect for the [[Māori people]]'s culture earned him unique access and insights as a trader.

▲[[File:Joel Samuel Pollack's trade advertisement.jpg|thumb|Joel Samuel Polack's trade advertisement]]

[[John Israel Montefiore]], also an English-born Jew, left Sydney, Australia for New Zealand in October 1831. He became a merchant in [[Tauranga]] and Kororareka, and later, [[Auckland]], where he featured prominently in civic affairs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1m50/montefiore-john-israel|title=Montefiore, John Israel – Biography – Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand|access-date=1 March 2016}}</ref>

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In 1838, in testimony to a [[House of Lords]] inquiry into the state of the islands of New Zealand, Polack warned that unorganised European settlement would destroy Māori culture, and advocated planned colonisation.<ref name="Chisholm TeAra"/> With the signing of the [[Treaty of Waitangi]] on 6 February 1840, the way was cleared for colonisation and the first legitimate immigrants. The British government and the speculative [[New Zealand Company#The New Zealand Land Company|New Zealand Company]],<ref>{{cite web | url=http://history-nz.org/colonisation1.html | title=The colonisation of New Zealand – First European arrivals | access-date=22 December 2012 | author=Whitmore, Robbie}}</ref> among whose financial backers was the wealthy Anglo-Jewish [[Goldsmid family]]<ref name=Goldsmid >{{cite encyclopedia | title=Goldsmid | encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] | publisher=[[The Kopelman Foundation]] | access-date=22 December 2012 | url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6765-goldsmid}}</ref> anticipated (wrongly, as it turned out, at least in the next few decades) that land would increase in value, and encouraged a flood of subsidised [[Immigration to New Zealand#Migration from 1840|mostly English and Scottish emigrants]].

Abraham Hort, Jr, related by family and business ties<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dutchjewry.org/genealogy/ashkenazi/1221.htm|title=Barend Ber Elieser Salomons Cohen-Kampen|publisher=dutchjewry.org|access-date=25 January 2017|archive-date=16 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161016221601/http://www.dutchjewry.org/genealogy/ashkenazi/1221.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> to the [[Mocatta & Goldsmid]] bank, arrived in [[Wellington]] on the [[barque]] ''Oriental'' on 31 January 1840<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shadowsoftime.co.nz/oriental.html|title=Passenger list: The Oriental|publisher=shadowsoftime.co.nz|access-date=25 January 2017}}</ref> accompanied by two brothers he employed as cabinet makers, Solomon and Benjamin Levy. These were the first recognisably Jewish names in this early wave of post-Treaty settlement.

▲[[File:Early New Zealand Jewish Settler, Solomon Levy.jpg|thumb|right|Solomon Levy, 1817–1883, Wellington New Zealand. Levy arrived from London with his brother Benjamin in 1840. He helped to found the Jewish synagogue in Wellington, taught Hebrew to Wellington's Jewish children for many years, but was himself married to his sister's Christian shipmate, and their children were raised Christian.]]

Hort's business<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZGWS18401031.2.7.1|title=Advertisements Column 1|journal=New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator|date=31 October 1840|volume=I|issue=29|page=2|publisher=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> and civic leadership<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZGWS18410213.2.8|title=To His Excellency Sir Geo|journal=New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator|date=13 February 1841|volume=13|issue=44|page=3|publisher=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> was quickly recognised in the new colony. Within months of his arrival he was elected one of the two constables for [[Wellington]]'s fledgling police force.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZGWS18400418.2.9?query=captain|title=Committee of Colonists|journal=New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator|volume=18|issue=2|date=18 April 1840|page=3|publisher=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> Hort was a promoter of early Wellington civic affairs, Jewish and non-Jewish.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZGWS18401205.2.8|title=Commemoration of St. Andrew|journal=New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator|date=5 December 1840|volume=I|issue=4|page=3|publisher=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref>

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===Economic and religious factors in early Anglo-Jewish emigration===

Hort's father, Abraham Hort Senior<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Bernard John|last=Foster|editor-first=A. H. | editor-last=McLintock | editor-link=Alexander Hare McLintock|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/hort-abraham|title=HORT, Abraham|encyclopedia=An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand|publisher=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand|date=1966|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> saw New Zealand as a possible haven for impoverished [[History of the Jews in England#Resettlement, 1655|English Jews]] and a potential refuge for oppressed Jews of eastern Europe and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewish-history.com/occident/volume2/dec1844/prague.html|title=Ill Treatment of the Jews in Prague|access-date=29 February 2016}}</ref> The [[Norwood (charity)|Jews' Hospital]] (Neveh zedak), which was largely funded by the Goldsmid family,<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6765-goldsmid|title=GOLDSMID – JewishEncyclopedia.com|access-date=29 February 2016}}</ref> sponsored two Jewish women to emigrate in 1841 on the [[barque]] ''Birman'': Elizabeth Levy, (sister of the Levy brothers), and Esther Solomon, who was being sent to marry one of the brothers. ▼

[[File:Annotated Birman map.jpg|thumb|left|Annotated Birman map]]

[[File:Esther Solomon Levy 1824-1911.jpg|thumb|left|Esther Solomon Levy 1824–1911]]

[[File:Benjamin Levy 1818-1853.jpg|thumb|Benjamin Levy 1818–1853]]▼

▲Hort's father, Abraham Hort Senior<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Bernard John|last=Foster|editor-first=A. H. | editor-last=McLintock | editor-link=Alexander Hare McLintock|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/hort-abraham|title=HORT, Abraham|encyclopedia=An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand|publisher=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand|date=1966|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> saw New Zealand as a possible haven for impoverished [[History of the Jews in England#Resettlement, 1655|English Jews]] and a potential refuge for oppressed Jews of eastern Europe and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewish-history.com/occident/volume2/dec1844/prague.html|title=Ill Treatment of the Jews in Prague|access-date=29 February 2016}}</ref> The [[Norwood (charity)|Jews' Hospital]] (Neveh zedak), which was largely funded by the Goldsmid family,<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6765-goldsmid|title=GOLDSMID – JewishEncyclopedia.com|access-date=29 February 2016}}</ref> sponsored two Jewish women to emigrate in 1841 on the [[barque]] ''Birman'': Elizabeth Levy, (sister of the Levy brothers), and Esther Solomon, who was being sent to marry one of the brothers.

Bills allowing Jews more civil rights in England had been introduced and repeatedly voted down, and Jews in the 19th century continued to be portrayed with racist stereotypes.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oR0xXiiFc5MC|title=Anti-Semitic Stereotypes|access-date=29 February 2016|isbn=9780801861796|last1=Felsenstein|first1=Frank|date=19 March 1999}}</ref> Among the promises of emigration for Jews was that the lack of manpower would level the ethnic playing field<ref name="TeAra 19th century">{{cite encyclopedia|first=Stephen|last=Levine|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/jews/page-1|title=Jews – 19th-century immigration|encyclopedia=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand|date=8 February 2005|access-date=25 January 2017}}</ref>

===Early Jewish ceremonies===

▲[[File:Benjamin Levy 1818-1853.jpg|thumb|Benjamin Levy 1818–1853]]

[[File:Earliest Known New Zealand Ketubah or Yibbum (wedding contract).jpg|thumb|left|Marriage Contract of Esther Solomon and Benjamin Levy, [[Wellington]], 1 June 1842.]]

[[File:Bris june 13 1843.jpg|thumb|left|Bris 13 June 1843]]▼

The first Jewish ceremony in New Zealand was the marriage of businessman [[David Nathan (merchant)|David Nathan]] to Rosetta Aarons, the widow of Captain Michael Aarons, on 31 October 1841.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1n1/nathan-david|title=Nathan, David – Biography – Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand|access-date=29 February 2016}}</ref> Their daughter, Sarah Nathan, born 10 January 1843, was the first known Jewish birth in New Zealand. The second ceremony, the marriage of Esther Solomon and Benjamin Levy was on 1 June 1842 in [[Wellington]], according to the ketubah contract in Hebrew, witnessed by Alfred Hort (another of Abraham Hort Senior's sons)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://synagoguescribes.com/blog/person-details/?value=20079|title=Person Details|work=Synagogue Scribes Jewish genealogy|access-date=29 February 2016}}</ref> and another early Jewish emigrant [[Nathaniel William Levin]]. Levin, for whom the town of [[Levin, New Zealand|Levin]] was later named, soon married Hort Senior's daughter, Jessy, further connecting the small group of early Wellington Jews.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://taupiri.tripod.com/NWLevin/nwlevin1.html|title=Nathaniel William Levin|access-date=29 February 2016}}</ref>

▲[[File:Bris june 13 1843.jpg|thumb|left|Bris 13 June 1843]]

In early 1843, Abraham Hort, Sr. arrived in Wellington, where he organised and promoted the Jewish community, with the approval of London's Chief Rabbi. Hort brought with him David Isaacs, also an alumnus of the [[Norwood (charity)|Jews' Hospital]]. Isaacs served as [[Mohel]] (to perform [[circumcisions]]), shochet (kosher butcher) and [[Hazzan|chazan]] (Cantor/lay leader for services). The first religious service was performed soon after, on 7 January 1843. A few months later, the new community celebrated the birth of Benjamin's and Esther's first child, Henry Emanuel Levy,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_180/i_79115.gif |title=Archived copy |access-date=2012-09-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923182837/http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_180/i_79115.gif |archive-date=23 September 2015 }}</ref> which Hort documented in a series of letters sent to ''[[The Jewish Chronicle]]'' (the premier London Jewish newspaper of the time).

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==Mid-1800s gold rushes==

In 1849–1850 the [[California Gold Rush]] led to an exodus of early New Zealand Jewish settlers, including [[Joel Samuel Polack]], Benjamin Levy, and Abraham Hort.<ref name=Starr1849>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 53–56.</ref> For those who remained, gold rushes in New Zealand in the 1860s, the [[Central Otago Gold Rush]] from 1861 and the [[West Coast Gold Rush]] from 1864 shifted their businesses from centres like Auckland and Wellington to new towns and (like Sir [[Julius Vogel]]) to [[Dunedin]] in the South Island. In 1862, the congregation in Dunedin had 43 members.<ref name="bh.org.il">{{cite web |title=The Jewish Community of Dunedin |url=https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/dunedin |publisher=[[The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot]] |access-date=25 June 2018}}</ref> Those drawn to gold strikes in the 1860s and after, were instrumental in founding businesses and helping to erect the many synagogues that were established at this time.<ref name="TeAra 19th century"/>▼

[[Image:Aucklandjewishcemetary.JPG|thumb|left|A [[Symonds Street Cemetery|Jewish cemetery in Auckland]], founded in the mid-nineteenth century.]]

▲In 1849–1850 the [[California Gold Rush]] led to an exodus of early New Zealand Jewish settlers, including [[Joel Samuel Polack]], Benjamin Levy, and Abraham Hort.<ref name=Starr1849>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 53–56.</ref> For those who remained, gold rushes in New Zealand in the 1860s, the [[~~Central~~ Otago ~~Gold~~gold ~~Rush~~rush]] from 1861 and the [[West Coast ~~Gold~~gold ~~Rush~~rush]] from 1864 shifted their businesses from centres like Auckland and Wellington to new towns and (like Sir [[Julius Vogel]]) to [[Dunedin]] in the South Island. In 1862, the congregation in Dunedin had 43 members.<ref name="bh.org.il">{{cite web |title=The Jewish Community of Dunedin |url=https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/dunedin |publisher=[[The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot]] |access-date=25 June 2018 |archive-date=25 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625132503/https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/dunedin |url-status=dead }}</ref> Those drawn to gold strikes in the 1860s and after, were instrumental in founding businesses and helping to erect the many synagogues that were established at this time.<ref name="TeAra 19th century"/>

==Late 19th century==

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==20th century==

As a result of the restrictions put into place earlier, few Jews were granted [[Refugee migration into New Zealand|refuge in New Zealand]] before, during or after the Holocaust.<ref name=holo/> First called "enemy aliens" because of their German nationality, popular sentiment suggested that they leave as soon as the war was over, as they were competing with New Zealanders for work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.holocaustcentre.org.nz/index.php/research/research-articles/85-jewish-refugees-interned-during-world-war-ii#_ftn1|title=David Zwartz|author=Olga|access-date=29 February 2016|archive-date=13 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113024956/http://holocaustcentre.org.nz/index.php/research/research-articles/85-jewish-refugees-interned-during-world-war-ii#_ftn1|url-status=dead}}</ref> The major veterans group, the [[Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association|Returned Services' Association]], in 1945 suggested that not only should the "enemy aliens" go back where they came from, but that any money they had made during their stay should be turned over to the wives and children of the soldiers, who had risked their lives while the Jews had allegedly stayed safely in New Zealand.<ref name=holo>{{cite web |title=THE RESPONSE OF THE NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT TO JEWISH REFUGEES AND HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS, 1933–1947 |url=http://www.holocaustcentre.org.nz/uploads/1/1/5/2/115245341/ann-beaglehole-jewish-refugees-in-nz.pdf |website=Holocaust Centre of New Zealand |access-date=22 June 2018}}</ref>

In reality, dozens of Jewish men and women from New Zealand had joined [[British Commonwealth]] forces during [[World War II]], mainly serving in the [[RAF]]. {{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

More recently, Jewish immigrants have come from South Africa, [[Israel]], and the former [[Soviet Union]].

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In recent years a small but growing [[Chabad]] movement has been established in several cities, including Otago and Auckland. The [[Chabad house]] in Christchurch was destroyed in the [[2011 Christchurch earthquake|2011 earthquake]] that hit New Zealand. International Jewish fundraising efforts helped the Chabad community to rebuild.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chabadnz.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/1186814/jewish/EARTHQUAKE.htm|title=Chabad of Canterbury: Earthquake|publisher=Chabad.org|date=2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823014520/http://www.chabadnz.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/1186814/jewish/EARTHQUAKE.htm|archive-date=23 August 2011}}</ref>

In 2019, with the assistance of the [[Woolf Fisher|Woolf Fisher Trust]], the [[Auckland Hebrew Congregation]] purchased the campus of [[Saint Kentigern College|Saint Kentigern Girls' School]] in [[Remuera]].<ref>[https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/111878939/auckland-private-school-saint-kentigern-sells-campus-to-hebrew-congregation Auckland private school Saint Kentigern sells $23m campus to Hebrew Congregation] ''Stuff''. 8 April 2021</ref> Kadimah relocated from Grey's Avenue to the Remuera campus in 2023.<ref>[https://www.kadimah.school.nz/news-1 News] Kadimah School. Retrieved on 5 December 2023</ref> Other Jewish organisations and the Kosher café/deli are also in the process of relocating to the site, creating the main hub for Jewish life in Auckland.<ref name="A new Jewish Centre for Auckland">[https://www.jewishlives.nz/community/a-new-jewish-centre-for-auckland A new Jewish Centre for Auckland] ''Jewish Lives''. 18 April 2021</ref> The city's [[Reform Judaism|Reform]] congregation, [[Beth Shalom (Auckland)|Beth Shalom]] has also been invited to relocate to the campus.<ref>[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f14b7e6fe5be07ce0c44832/t/620adb0550a02642680a7bd8/1644878611752/Move+Vision+-+Website.pdf 2. Current Status of Beth Shalom moving to Remuera Road] Jewish Auckland. 2021</ref>

In October 2023, a [[Moishe House]] home opened in Auckland, joining the international network of homes that serve as a Jewish communal hub for young adults.<ref>[https://www.moishehouse.org/blog/moishe-house-welcomes-new-communities-in-new-zealand-and-south-carolina/ Moishe House Welcomes New Communities in New Zealand and South Carolina] Moishe House. 3 October 2023</ref>

===Antisemitism===▼

▲===Antisemitism===

==Founding of synagogues==

Three early synagogues, at [[Nelson New Zealand|Nelson]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/GolHist-fig-GolHistP007b.html|title=The Nelson Synagogue|publisher=Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand|access-date=26 January 2017|quote=This photo, dated 1911, shows the Synagogue still in a good state of preservation, though it had not been opened for Jewish worship since 1895.}}</ref> [[Hokitika]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/GolHist-fig-GolHistP005a.html|title=The Ghost Synagogue |publisher=Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand|access-date=26 January 2017|quote=Tait Bros, Hokitika photographers during the gold boom, took this photograph of the Synagogue in 1867.}}</ref> and [[Timaru]]<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD18750623.2.7|title=Jewish Synagogue|journal=The Timaru Herald|date=23 June 1875|publisher=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |volume=XXIII |issue=1220 |page=3|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> are no longer in existence.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=James Oakley|last=Wilson|editor-first=A. H. | editor-last=McLintock | editor-link=Alexander Hare McLintock|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/jews|title=Jews|encyclopedia=An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand|publisher=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand|date=1966|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> Hokitika's synagogue, which served the boom and bust Gold Rush Jewish population, was virtually abandoned for the last decades of the 19th century and was known as "the Ghost Synagogue."<ref>{{cite book |last=Goldman |first=Lazarus Morris |title=The History of the Jews in New Zealand |chapter-url= http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-GolHist-t1-body1-d15.html |publisher=[[Reed Publishing|A.H. & A.W. Reed]] |year=1958 |page=108 |chapter=XV – A Ghost Synagogue |access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref>

The [[Dunedin Synagogue]] was established at [[Dunedin]] in September 1863 and lay claims to be the southernmost permanent synagogue in the world.<ref name="Croot115">Croot, Charles (1999). ''Dunedin churches: Past and present.'' Dunedin: Otago Settlers Association. p. 115. {{ISBN|0-473-03979-6}}</ref>

The Canterbury Hebrew Congregation obtained funds in 1863 to build a small wooden synagogue<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url= https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_04285.html |title=Christchurch |publisher=Jewish Virtual Library |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Judaica |date=2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110717064624/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_04285.html |archive-date=17 July 2011}}</ref> on a block of land in Gloucester Street (between Cambridge Terrace and Montreal Street) in [[Christchurch]].<ref name="nzjewisharchives.org">{{cite web |last=Clements |first=Michael |url= http://www.sinai.org.nz/nz-jewish-archives/ |title=NZ Jewish Archives: Notes on Jewish Participation in New Zealand History |publisher=Temple Sinai |access-date=25 January 2017 |archive-date=13 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013014134/http://www.sinai.org.nz/nz-jewish-archives/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The next synagogue, called [[Beth El Synagogue, Christchurch|Beth El Synagogue]], was built on the same site and opened in 1881.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/GolHist-fig-GolHistP014a.html |title=The Christchurch Synagogue |publisher=Victoria University of Wellington |access-date=26 January 2017 |quote=The Christchurch Synagogue. The foundation-stone for tin's building was laid on February 8th, 1881 by Mr L. E. Nathan, then President of the Christchurch Hebrew Congregation. It was completed the same year and has been in continuous use for Jewish worship ever since.}}</ref>

The first synagogue in [[Wellington]] was Beth El, established in 1870 at 222 The Terrace. By the 1920s, this wooden building with a capacity of 200 was too small for the city's 1400 participants and a new brick building was built on the same site and opened in 1929. The site was required to be vacated for motorway construction in 1963, and a new Wellington Jewish Community Centre was opened at 74–80 Webb Street in 1977.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wjcc.org.nz/community/about-us|title=Wellington Jewish Community Centre|work=Wellington Jewish Community Centre: History|access-date=29 February 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809130243/http://www.wjcc.org.nz/community/about-us|archive-date=9 August 2011}}</ref>

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As of 2023, the AHC ([[Auckland Hebrew Congregation]]) which has the largest Jewish community in New Zealand, has moved to a new location in Remuera. After 50 years in the iconic custom built synagogue in Greys Avenue, the community made the decision to move to the suburbs which has a higher density of Jews, compared to the previous city location.

===Gallery of synagogues===

בית הכנסת הישן בדנידין.jpg|The former [[Dunedin Synagogue]] in [[Moray Place, Dunedin|Moray Place]], built in 1863

MA I343790 TePapa Synagogue-Christchurch full (cropped).jpg|The old [[Beth El Synagogue, Christchurch|Beth El Synagogue]] on Gloucester Street, Christchurch, established in 1864

University House, University of Auckland - an old synagogue.jpg|[[University House, Auckland|University House]], the former Princes Street synagogue of the [[Auckland Hebrew Congregation]], built in 1885

Wellington Synagogue (cropped).jpg|The former brick Beth El Synagogue in Wellington, built in 1929

20230225 112416 Former Kadimah School and Auckland Hebrew Congregation.jpg|Former Greys Avenue synagogue of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation, built in 1968

Beth El Synagogue, Durham Street 269.jpg|The new Beth El Synagogue on Durham Street, Christchurch, built in 1988

Kadimah School 20240221 130344.jpg|The Auckland Hebrew Congregation moved to the former site of [[Corran School]] in [[Remuera]] in 2022

</gallery>

==Demographics==