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The Convict Synagogue at the End of the World
Overview of the Jewish faith in Tasmania
The Jewish faith was first practised in Tasmania by male convicts predominantly from the East End of London, where their families had settled in the eighteenth century after fleeing persecutions in Europe. Lack of Jewish women precluded for many years their forming a traditional Jewish community. However, by the 1840s they had increased and prospered sufficiently to enable the building of synagogues in Hobart Town (1845) and Launceston (1846). The first Jewish minister was appointed in 1846, and religious practices were established.
The 1848 census recorded 435 Jews, a figure never exceeded. Numbers declined as some settlers returned to England, and others left for mainland colonies and New Zealand. The Launceston Synagogue closed in 1871. Only a handful fleeing Russian pogroms of the late nineteenth century reached Tasmania. Nevertheless, the Hobart Hebrew Congregation continued its communal life. Though there was no minister in the periods 1873–1911 and 1922–1942, Sabbath services were conducted by dedicated members.
(Credit Peter Elias)
Tasmania began early in the 19th century as a British convict settlement. One of the Jews transported to Van Diemen’s Land, as Tasmania was then known, was Judah Solomon, a Londoner who, with his brother Isaac, founded the Hobart synagogue. Opened in 1845, the building is still in use and is a gem of Victorian architecture.
The congregation wrote to the chief rabbi in London asking whether convicts could receive aliyot (honours). The answer, which took months to arrive, was that they had to be recognised as Jews and could be counted to a minyan (10 persons), but they were not respectable enough to be given honours.
A statistical analysis of the 2011 Australian census estimated that 285 Jews lived in Tasmania (about 0.06% of the wider population) of whom 45% were aged under 45. This total had grown by 3.5% since the previous census in 2006. The largest concentrations of Jews were 163 in Hobart and 51 in Launceston. Unusually, there are no suburbs with particular Jewish clusters.
Compared to other Australian Jews, there are fewer families in Tasmania where both parents are Jewish, many more Jews born in the UK and US, and far fewer in Eastern Europe. Families are also relatively poorer than average, although better-off than Tasmanians as a whole.
Hobart
Picturesque Hobart, with its multicolored doorways and sandstone buildings was founded as a penal colony in 1804. The city has an unusual Jewish past and lies at the crossroads of Dutch, French and British history. (It is also the birthplace of actor Errol Flynn.) This capital city is the second oldest in Australia, found on the southern rim of Tasmania, an island separated by the rolling waters of the Bass Strait, 155 miles from mainland Australia.
The oldest synagogue still in use in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, is home to the Hobart Hebrew Congregation. It has served the Jewish community of Tasmania since 1845.
Launceston
The Launceston Synagogue at 126 St. John Street is part of the National Trust of Australia and another rare example of Egyptian revival-style architecture. It is in walking distance of the city proper, where the gardens are laden with bougainvillea separated by neat hedgerows and tidy stonewalls. There are small shops to purchase the famous Tasmanian honey, and many department stores once owned by Jewish merchants.
The small graveyard is nearby at the northwest corner of York and High Streets.
Funerals
The only functioning consecrated Jewish graveyard in Tasmania is a section of Hobart’s inner-suburban Cornelian Bay cemetery. There is no Jewish burial society. However, the congregation is able to oversee the funeral process, in particular by ensuring halachic requirements are met, and by liaising with private funeral parlours so that Jewish funeral customs are respected. Lay leadership also conducts funeral services at no cost to members. As well, a Receiving House is located next to the Jewish cemetery and is available for use in funerals.
Notes for adding profiles:
- Profiles of Jewish people born, lived or deceased in Tasmania should be added to this project.
- If the state in which people resided is unknown, please add the profiles to - Jews of Australia
- Resided in Australia prior to 1901 should also be added to - The Jewish Faith in Colonial Australia 1788 to 1901
About location:
Please add people who also lived in states other than Tasmania to the relevant project :
- Jews of Australia - Victoria
- Jews of Australia - Queensland
- Jews of Australia - South Australia
- Jews of Australia - Northern Territory
- Jews of Australia - Western Australia
- Jews of Australia - Tasmania
Profile bio's:
Add a link to the profile of prominent persons in the Jewish Community and a short bio on them. Examples (not meant to limit profiles)
- First Jewish settlers
- Significant member of Jewish society