Australia's Jewish community, today exceeding the 110,000
mark, can attribute much of its growth over the past two
decades to immigration from South Africa. In June-July this
year, South African Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris was given an
opportunity to observe how South African expatriates were
coping, both in Australia and neighboring New Zealand during
a busy speaking tour on behalf of the Anti-Defamation
Commission.
Rabbi Harris, who enjoys an international reputation as an
advocate of human rights issues, was brought out by the ADC
to deliver its annual Gandel Oration, the organization's
premier fundraising event.
Australian Jewry is concentrated in Melbourne and Sydney, but
there is a substantial Jewish presence (75 percent ex-South
African) in Perth and smaller communities -- ranging from
between a few hundred and a few thousand -- in Adelaide,
Brisbane, Canberra and Hobart. The New Zealand Jewish
community remains small, something generally attributed to
the isolation of the country and the belief that many
immigrants were using it only as a steppingstone to get into
Australia. The Jewish primary school in Auckland still
functions, but the high school recently had to close because
of lack of students. Over the past three years, Jewish
communal leaders in both countries have noted a sharp decline
in South African immigration. (Editor's Note: New Zealand
also has a serious halachic issue because its Saturday, which
is the same as Australia's, is not the same day as Shabbos
which is a day later.)
Rabbi Harris took the opportunity during his visit to correct
numerous misconceptions regarding the situation in South
Africa and the Jewish community there. While crime remains at
an unacceptably high level he said, it is untrue that South
African society is in crisis and that the Jewish community is
in the throes of disintegration. South African Jewry might be
smaller, but it has never been more vibrant.
It is also incorrect to depict South African expatriates as
refugees who had been forced to leave their country of birth.
Rabbi Harris deplored the way some people denigrate South
Africa from afar.
Rabbi Harris found that expatriates generally settled in very
well, in part because the lifestyle was very similar to that
in South Africa. He did, however, come across several people
who indicated that they were struggling financially and would
return to South Africa if they could. While ex-South Africans
tended to be disproportionately represented amongst
Australia's Jewish communal leaders and educationalists, it
is also true that some had, so to speak, "dumped their
Yiddishkeit into the Indian ocean" en route, and are
today far less involved than they had been in Jewish life in
"the old country."
Rabbi Harris described the Melbourne Jewish community as the
strongest and most active in Australia.
Two noteworthy disadvantages of Australia from a Jewish point
of view involve assimilation and antisemitism. The current
intermarriage rate in Australia is thought to be about 30
percent, as opposed to less than 10 percent in South Africa.
Recorded antisemitic incidents in Australia have topped the
500 mark two years running, compared with an annual average
in South Africa over the past decade of less than thirty.
