"Synagogue of the Out­back Museum" in Broken Hill

From the 1880s on, a vibrant Jewish community existed in Broken Hill most of whom originated in Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and Rus­sia. Broken Hill boasts one of the most remote Jew­ish museums in the world and the building which stands as the Synagogue is a reminder of the evolution of the Jewish community in re­gional Aus­t­­ralia. Following the slow decline of Broken Hill’s Jewish community in the 1950s, in 1962 the Synagogue closed its doors and had its scrolls and silverware sent to Melbourne’s Yeshiva. The ark, pews and prayer plat­form remained in place and Stars of David were painted on the  ceiling.

Synagogue of the Out­back Museum

in Broken Hill

opened in 1991

The building was used as a residence until, in 1989, a permanent cons­er­v­at­ion order was placed on the building. The structure had declined but was saved through the efforts of descendants of Jewish families in Broken Hill, and through local historian Richard Kearns. Pur­ch­ased by the Broken Hill Historical Society in 1990 and fully restored, the Synagogue of the Out­back Museum opened in 1991. At the back of the Synagogue complex, the Society built the Ralph Wallace Research Centre which then became the Society meeting room. Building the Museum coll­ect­ion could now go ahead in the Synagogue of the Outback Museum.

Broken Hill’s Synagogue is one of only 3 NSW synagogues outside Sydney to have been preserved, restored and heritage-listed. The Museum is one of the most rem­ote Jewish museums in the world, with its Sy­nagogue rem­ind­ing historians of the Jewish community’s growth in the Outback.

To celebrate the synagogue’s centenary in Nov 2010, there was a prog­ramme of historical talks and personal memories about Broken Hill Jews and their contrib­ut­ion to the town. They also arr­anged a bus tour of plac­es where Jews had lived and worked, a walking tour of the Jewish sect­ion of the cemetery, and a tour to the Miners’ Memorial Arch. 200 ex-residents, or their children, gathered in the restored shule.

Then the visitors viewed the exhibition prepared for the local Art Gal­lery. This was where the book, Jews of the Outback: The Centenary of the Broken Hill Synagogue 1910-2010, (edited by Suz­an­ne Rutland, Leon Mann and Margaret Price, published by Hybrid, 2010) was launched by Prof Colin Tatz. He spoke about rural city issues: migration, family life, isolation, hard labour and assimilation – key elements that had been so well illustrated in Broken Hill.

The old synagogue interior

with all its furniture and ritual objects

Some of the Museum's collections

The Zmood (L) and Benzion (R) families 

added to the Museum collection

Today the museum coordinator is Margaret Price, an older Australian wo­m­an from the Broken Hill’s Historical Society. For the past 16 years, she has curated exhibitions on every­thing from the immigrants in the Broken Hill community to trad­itional Jewish clot­h­ing owned by ear­l­ier community members. Additionally she is the tour guide. She had al­ways been fascinated by Judaism; both her paternal grandparents had Jewish ancestry. But they changed their names getting off the ships and lost the original information.

A Torah scroll was given to the Historical Society in 2017 by Ronald & Dev­orah Zmood, and Benzion & Barbara Eras. Dr Zmood const­ructed the Tor­ah replica and Mr Benzion const­ructed the display case. The Zmood and Benzion families drove from Melbourne to deliver the objects personally

Price particularly loved March 2018 when the first group of Jewish vis­itors came to hold Sabbath services in Broken Hill. The mission was led by Melbourne Rabbi Shneur Reti-Waks who brought a group of 60 Jews from across Austral­ia for 5 days; many of them had personal connections to the Broken Hill Jewish community. The group also walked to the Broken Hill cemetery, where they saw many of the Jewish grave stones and rec­it­ed Kaddish/prayer for the dead. The group’s tours made the front page of the Broken Hill newspaper!

After a long pause in Museum visits due to Covid, Price and Mann plan to host another Sabbath ser­vice in April 2023, only the second formal service since the 1960s. Add­it­ion­ally the two have plans to hold a naming ceremony for two outside benches, to honour imp­ort­ant former members of the Broken Hill Synagogue. One bench will hon­our Rev Abraham & Fran­ziska Berman, the synagogue’s last full-time rabbi who left Broken Hill in 1944; the second bench will honour Alwyn Edelman and Harold Griff, an ex-trustee of the synagogue and ex-president of Broken Hill Hist­orical Society. 

Oldest mosque in NSW, built in 1891

alongside the Mosque Museum, rededicated in 1968 

Broken Hill City Council

Broken Hill has a rich history spread across a number of Outback Museums, together telling an intertwining story of disc­ov­ery, diversity and survival in the harsh Australian outback. Examine, for example the Broken Hill Mosque Museum, the Family History Group, Bell’s Milk Bar Museum or Albert Kersten Mining and Minerals Museum.

Many thanks to J-Wire and Tablet.