History of the Jews in New Zealand
Encyclopedia
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
has its origins in Jewish traders which arrived during the 1830s. Before New Zealand became a British Colony in 1840, the Jewish population consisted of fewer than 30 people, including noted early settler Joel Samuel Polack
Joel Samuel Polack
Joel Samuel Polack was one of the first Jewish settlers in New Zealand, arriving in 1831. He is regarded as an authority on pre-colonial New Zealand and his two books are often cited.-Early life:...
. After 1840, the flood of mostly English and Scottish emigrants, many subsidized by the government and private societies, included Abraham Hort, Jr, and two brothers, Solomon and Benjamin Levy, cabinet makers who were among the first recorded Jewish settlers in the new English colony.
Hort's business and civic leadership were quickly recognised in the new colony and within months of his arrival he was elected one of the two constables for Wellington's fledgling police force. Hort was a promoter of early Wellington civic affairs, Jewish and non-Jewish.
Hort's father, Abraham Hort Senior, saw New Zealand, until recently dumping ground for English criminals, as a possible haven for impoverished English Jews and a potential refuge for oppressed Jews of Eastern Europe and elsewhere. The Jews' Hospital (Neveh zedak) sponsored two Jewish women to emigrate in 1841 on the ship, "the Birman." The women were Elizabeth Levi (or Levy), Benjamin and Solomon's sister, and Esther Solomon, who are also thought to be among the first Jewish emigrants to New Zealand.
Esther Solomon and Benjamin Levy were married on June 1, 1842 in Wellington, New Zealand, according to the document in Hebrew, witnessed by Abraham Hort, Jr. and another early Jewish emigrant, Nathaniel Levin. The Solomon-Levy wedding marriage contract included a promise (Levirate marriage
Levirate marriage
Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obligated to marry his brother's widow, and the widow is obligated to marry her deceased husband's brother....
) that if Benjamin died, his brother Solomon would marry Esther. This wedding, the first Jewish wedding in Wellington, was the second known Jewish wedding in New Zealand (the first took place in Auckland in the fall of 1841)
In 1842, Abraham Hort, Sr. arrived in Wellington with his wife and other children, and set about organizing and promoting the Jewish community, which he documented in a series of letters sent to The Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.-Publication data and readership figures:...
(the premier London Jewish newspaper of the time).
The 1843 birth of Benjamin and Esther's first child, Henry Emanuel Solomon was the occasion for a brit milah (circumcision ceremony) as fine, he said, as any in an established congregation. The death of their second son at the age of about 8 months in 1845 was, he wrote to the Chronicle, "our first Jewish corpse" and the "first Jewish burial" in the new Jewish cemetery.
Throughout the early 1840s, Hort's letters to the London Jewish Chronicle and the Voice of Jacob reveal not only the difficulty of maintaining a Jewish community that could barely conjure a minyan with the demands of making a living, complaining how few Jewish shopkeepers respected the sabbath by closing their doors, let alone by celebrating Jewish holidays properly.
A Maori massacre, the threat of forced militia service for all, and the extreme difficulty of making a living, took their toll on the small community and isolation gave way to intermarriage. Solomon Levy, Benjamin's brother, married Jane Harvey, the 14 year old Birman shipmate of Esther and Elizabeth (12 children were born of this union, only 8 of whom lived to adulthood, and only one of whom, a daughter, remained Jewish, although Solomon helped found the first Wellington Synagogue and taught Hebrew to Jewish children for many years). Elizabeth Levy married George William Watson in a civil ceremony in 1843. "Mrs. Watson" and the Levy family are recorded as leaving Wellington for Sydney in 1845 on the ship, "Sisters." When they returned to Wellington in 1848, she had morphed back into "Miss Levy."
By the late 1840s, New Zealand Jews who had first come and gone to the 1840s gold strikes in Australia were now lured from New Zealand by the California Gold Rush. This 1849-1850 exodus of early New Zealand Jewish settlers included Benjamin Levy, Abraham Hort, Jr. and Joel Samuel Pollack.
In addition to this first wave of Jewish immigration from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the 19th century; the three other main sources of Jewish immigration to New Zealand were European refugees from the 1930s and 1940s; families who emigrated from Britain in the 1950s; and recent immigrants from South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Prominent New Zealand Jews include nineteenth century Premier
Prime Minister of New Zealand
The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...
Julius Vogel
Julius Vogel
Sir Julius Vogel, KCMG was the eighth Premier of New Zealand. His administration is best remembered for the issuing of bonds to fund railway construction and other public works...
and at least five Auckland mayors
Mayor of Auckland
The Mayor of Auckland is the directly elected head of the Auckland Council, the local government authority for the Auckland region in New Zealand...
, including Dove-Myer Robinson
Dove-Myer Robinson
Sir Dove-Myer Robinson was Mayor of Auckland City from 1959 to 1965 and from 1968 to 1980, the longest tenure of any holder of the office....
. The current Prime Minister, John Key
John Key
John Phillip Key is the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand, in office since 2008. He has led the New Zealand National Party since 2006....
of the National Party
New Zealand National Party
The New Zealand National Party is the largest party in the New Zealand House of Representatives and in November 2008 formed a minority government with support from three minor parties.-Policies:...
who succeeded Helen Clark
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
on 19 November 2008 is of part Ashkenazi Jewish descent, although he does not practice Judaism. Francis Bell, who briefly served as Prime Minister between 14 May and 30 May 1925, was a descendant of both Nathaniel Levin and Abraham Hort, although, as noted, most of the family, Bell included, were now practising Christians.
Although the early hope of a strictly Orthodox religious Jewish settlement waned with rapid intermarriage and assimilation, New Zealand's small Jewish population remained free to practice their religion, and interest in Jewish roots is strong among the descendants of the early Jewish emigrants.
In 2004, New Zealand was rocked by several bouts of anti-Jewish vandalism, in which scores of historic Jewish graves were smashed, spray painted with swastikas and other anti-semitic messages.
The Dunedin Synagogue
Dunedin Synagogue
The Dunedin Synagogue is an historic synagogue in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is the world's southernmost synagogue.The name can refer both to the historic building, the old Dunedin synagogue, and to the Dunedin Jewish Congregation, Dunedin....
is believed to be the world's southernmost permanent synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
.
In 2010 the practice of shechita
Shechita
Shechita is the ritual slaughter of mammals and birds according to Jewish dietary laws...
, the ritual slaughter of mammals and birds, attracted controversy when the Minister of Agriculture reversed a decision that had it banned. The issue was about to be heard in the High Court but pressure from the Jewish who wanted to slaughter poultry in the traditional manner promoted the move.
Demographics
Currently, the Jewish population is estimated at around 7,000 out of the total New Zealand population of 4.2 million. The majority of New Zealand Jews reside in Auckland and WellingtonWellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, though there is also a strong Jewish community in Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, many of them descended from Lebanese
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
settlers in the late nineteenth century.
New Zealand's relations with Israel
New Zealand and Israel have had a complex history in their mutual diplomatic relationsIsrael-New Zealand relations
Israel-New Zealand relations are the foreign relations between Israel and New Zealand. - History :New Zealand has a long history of support for Israel, and voted in favour of the 1947 UN partition resolution, which lead to the creation of the State of Israel, despite heavy pressure from the...
. The countries clashed over a 2004 Israel-New Zealand spy scandal
2004 Israel-New Zealand spy scandal
On 15 July 2004, New Zealand imposed diplomatic sanctions against Israel and suspended high-level contacts between the two countries in July 2004 after two Israeli citizens, Uriel Zosha Kelman and Eli Cara, were convicted of passport fraud in Auckland...
but have since reconciled their diplomatic connections.
See also
- Old Synagogue (Auckland)Old Synagogue (Auckland)The Old Synagogue is a 19th century synagogue in Auckland, New Zealand. It is now called University House, and is part of the University of Auckland.A local Jewish community had been present since the founding of Auckland in 1840...
- Dunedin SynagogueDunedin SynagogueThe Dunedin Synagogue is an historic synagogue in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is the world's southernmost synagogue.The name can refer both to the historic building, the old Dunedin synagogue, and to the Dunedin Jewish Congregation, Dunedin....
- List of Oceanian Jews
- History of the Jews in OceaniaHistory of the Jews in OceaniaThe history of the Jews in Oceania starts with early explorers, sealers and whalers. Jewish and other settlers arrived in Oceania from the eighteenth century. They settled in Australia and New Zealand, and then on the smaller islands of Oceania.-New Zealand:...