The Kosher Kiwis: Jewish Life in New Zealand, 1982

 The Kosher Kiwis: Jewish Life in New Zealand, 1982

Coming from Toronto I consider Cincinnati to be in the “South,” my bi-weekly in New Iberia, Louisiana to be in the “Deep South,” but where I served at Temple Shalom for three months this past summer- -their winter--is 13, 003 miles further South, in Auckland, New Zealand. It is an unspoiled Commonwealth nation of three million people, 80 million sheep, and only 4, 000 Jews.

Despite the community’s small numbers and isolation, I was very impressed by the dedication of the two hundred individuals who comprise the Temple. Without a full time rabbi, they compensate by increased member involvement. Services are conducted by lay readers who not only lead the congregation in prayer but deliver sermons as well. The Religious School is taught by half a dozen post-Bar Mitzvah teens. A Conversion Committee both interviews prospective converts and offers an “Introduction to Judaism” course.

The latter is extremely important as almost ninety percent of Jewish males are married to converts--what else to expect in a community of only 2, 300 Jews in far away Auckland? The proselytes take a leading role in congregational life, making up practically the entire sisterhood, choir, and adult education participants.

It is this high incidence of proselyte membership which distinguishes the Liberal temple from its Orthodox counterpart. The latter is served by an Orthodox rabbi, leading Conservative Jews, who subscribe to a Reform theology and practice. Typical is one “Orthodox” congregant who, first lambasting me for being a Reform proponent, put down Time magazine which he was perusing during the sermon and remarked, “If truth be known, we are all liberals. I live 20 miles away and wouldn’t be able to come to shul if I didn’t drive.”

Equally strange to the North American experience is the communal structure here. The Hebrew day school, Kadima College, has a Jewish enrollment of only thirty in a total school population of 130. To top it off, the headmaster and the majority of the teachers are not Jewish. But then again, neither is the chairman of the local JNF chapter. And the vigorous FRIENDS OF ISRAEL organization is completely non-Jewish!

Such an organization is vital- - especially during hard economic times as these when rising anti-Semitism has not left this corner of the globe untouched. Despite the fact for one hundred and forty years of Jewish life in New Zealand, Jews have always excelled in all areas of society, includ­ing the political realm where six Auckland mayors and a twice elected Prime Minister have been Jewish, racism grows.

During the height of “Operation Peace for Galilee,” New Zealand witnessed its very first pro PLO demonstration down Auckland’s main thoroughfare, Queen Street. And when an Israeli Cabinet Minister visited the Jewish Community Centre in Wellington, the capital city, the PLO turned up with a group of protesters. The small, but vigorous Jewish Student Union drowned out the hecklers by singing and dancing. The louder the protests, the louder they sang. Am Yisrael cbai in New Zealand!

The youth of New Zealand’s two youth groups are not only first in spirit, but where else is it possible for a Habonimnik to date a B’nai Akivanik? Around the High Holidays I discovered another first: New Zealand Jews hearkened to the blast of the shofar while the rest of the world slept-- seventeen hours ahead of Cincinnati!

I enjoyed a week’s vacation from retreat weekends, speaking engage­ments, Bar Mitzvah tutoring, exploring the rugged, sparsely populated South Island. In Christchurch I stayed with a board member of the Canterbury Hebrew Congregation which last year celebrated the centennial of its beautiful synagogue building. In a community of 71 individuals, arrange­ments for a rninyan can be a problem. Funeral services, including inter­ment, must be kept under an hour to ensure the required quorum.

I am often confronted by the all too familiar complaint about maintaining Jewish identity in a small community. By contrast, I have just ended my holiday in Wanaka, the Banff of New Zealand at the southern tip of the inhabited world, in the home of the only Jewish family there. They not only have a mezzuzah on every doorpost, an extensive Jewish library, and a strictly kosher kitchen, but recently drove more than ten hours in blizzard conditions and fog in order to have their baby boy circumcised by a mohel in Christchurch. Even in this remote corner of the world, it’s still possible to be as Jewish as one wishes to be.