The Jewish Community of Australia

Follow this link to an article on The Jewish Community of Australia from the JCPA series on Changing Jewish Communities, No 13, 15 October 2006, 23 Tishrei 5767, by Jeremy Jones.

Summary....

• The Australian Jewish community numbers between 100,000 and 120,000. The majority of Australian Jews were born in other countries, with the United Kingdom, Poland, the Former Soviet Union, and South Africa being the most significant of many and diverse sources of immigration. Estimates of the number of Australian Jews who have emigrated to Israel, despite the absence of serious "push" factors, are high, as are percentages of Jewish children attending Jewish day schools.
• The internal challenges for the community include preserving Jewish identity in a society that offers numerous choices for an individual's self-identification, understanding and addressing the particular needs of newer arrivals and their place in the broader Jewish community, and providing for the financial and other requirements of an aging population and of Australian Jews who suffer from social disadvantage.
• The external challenges the community faces include confronting anti-Semitism, protection from terrorism, and maintaining a satisfactory relationship with government.

Follow this link to the full article.