communities across America. Their love of Judaism and passion for
Progressive Judaism in particular were infectious and inspirational.
My journey to HUC-JIR and the rabbinate took a detour
via medical school. Here in Australia where medical studies begin
straight out of high school and take six years, I was a doctor on the
wards at the age of 23. But my interest in the rabbinate kept nagging
at me and after three years as a resident in a large Melbourne public
hospital, I took a year off and studied at the Liberal Yeshiva then op-
erating at HUC-JIR’s Jerusalem campus under the leadership of
Rabbi Naamah Kelman. Learning with HUC-JIR faculty and meet-
ing rabbinical students from the US and around the world
re-inspired me to consider a career change. On my return to Aus-
tralia, I discussed rabbinical school with then rising fourth-year
student, now Rabbi, Rayna Gevurtz, C ‘01. Rayna, a native of Port-
land, Oregon, was doing a summer rabbinical internship at Temple
Beth Israel, Melbourne, the first in a long line of rabbinical and can-
torial students to do so (summertime in the Northern Hemisphere
coincides with winter in the Southern Hemisphere, so our program
year is in full swing and there is lots to do). Rayna helped me decide
to apply to HUC-JIR and the following northern summer, in 2000,
Rayna and I were married. We moved to Jerusalem where she was
completing her final year and I was entering my first year of rab-
binical training with the support of my home congregation, the
Union for Progressive Judaism (Australia, New Zealand and Asia)
and the WUPJ.
My final four years at HUC-JIR were my first four as a
“
rebbetzin” or, as our teacher Professor Michael Meyer would insist,
“
rebbetz.” I had the opportunity to study at the Cincinnati campus
while Rayna served at I.M. Wise Temple before we moved out west
(
closer to Oregon and Australia), where Rayna served as a rabbi at
Temple Bat Yahm, Newport Beach, California. I served there and in
El Centro, CA, as a student rabbi while commuting to HUC-JIR’s
Los Angeles campus.Upon my ordination in May 2005, we moved
back to Australia where we now both serve as rabbis at Temple Beth
Israel under the leadership of Leo Baeck College, London-trained
Senior Rabbi Fred Morgan.
The Progressive Movement in Australia is growing despite cer-
tain unique challenges. Progressive Judaism is less dominant in the
general Jewish community than Reform Judaism is in America.
Compared with Americans, Australians generally are more secular,
less “church-going.” Families move around less (for career or study)
than is the case in many American communities and it’s still the
common thing for families to gather for
Shabbat
dinner every Friday
night (regardless of religious affiliation or lack of formal communal
affiliation). Consequently, there is less of a draw to synagogues in
the formation of community and friendships. The Jewish commu-
nity is closer to its European immigrant roots and to the types of re-
ligious and philosophical frameworks seen in Israel today, which can
make it more challenging to be a Progressive rabbi in the context of
the wider Orthodox-acquainted Jewish community. Yet the oppor-
tunities here are enormous.
More and more individuals who have grown up secular or even
nominally Orthodox are coming into contact with Progressive Ju-
daism and finding it a better match for their worldviews. As in
America, here in Australia there is a rise in interfaith dating and mar-
riage. In Australia non-Jewish partners will often choose Judaism
and our Introduction to Judaism and conversion programs are thriv-
ing. We as a community are reinvigorated by young families that
choose to make Judaism an important part of their lives and would
otherwise not have had the opportunity to do so.
One of the most exciting projects currently under way in our re-
gion is in the area of liturgical transformation. For years the
dominant prayer book in our region has been Gates of Prayer
and now we are working with the CCAR Press to publish a World
Union edition of
Mishkan Tefillah
.
Changes are expected to include
some accommodation to the slightly more traditional orientation of
Progressive Jews in our part of the world, the inclusion of national
anthems in addition to those of Canada, America, and Israel, as well
as seasonal references that address the needs of those of us living in
the Southern Hemisphere.
Our regional rabbinical organization, the UPJ Moetzah, with its
dozen or so members, meets twice a year to collaborate and discuss
issues of mutual concern including conversion standards and proce-
dures; officiation at same-gender commitment ceremonies (which
is now permitted to those rabbis who wish to do so); and the provi-
sion of rabbinical support to mostly outlying Progressive
communities without their own rabbis. In addition, rabbis in our
region are linked to international rabbinical organizations, particu-
larly the CCAR, with a growing number of us, living by the Pacific
Ocean, seeing ourselves legitimately as the westernmost members of
PARR (the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis).
Many of those Jews who chose to call Australia home in the
mid-twentieth century did so because it was so far away from the
destruction they had experienced in Europe. Australia is still far away
–
it’s 15 hours flying time from Los Angeles to Melbourne. But the
world is shrinking and telecommunications technology and air travel
have made Australia’s isolation far less apparent. Here in Australia
we are proud to live in such a diverse, multicultural, and democratic
country that is home to a unique and flourishing part of the Jewish
Diaspora. If you are ever in the area, let us know and we’ll be happy
to show you around!
ALUMNI CHANGING THE WORLD
2009
ISSUE 72 |
59
Here in Australia we are proud to live in such a diverse, multicultural, and democratic
country that is home to a unique and flourishing part of the Jewish Diaspora.
