History of the Jews in New Zealand: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
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Line 13: }} [[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> Line 37: 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. 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> Line 71: [[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 [[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 |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== Line 79: ==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}} Line 105: ==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= 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> | |||