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The Great Synagogue

Luke Cabading

BUILT

The Great Synagogue has stood on its present site since 1878, but the congregation itself has a history going back at least 50 years before that date, in the 1820s.

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION/DENOMINATION

Orthodox Judaism

INTERESTING FACTS

  • The Great Synagogue is a major landmark of Sydney. It is the only high Victorian style Synagogue in Australia and represents one of the most elaborately decorated Victorian buildings in Sydney, internally and externally. The building also represents one of the finest works of the leading NSW architect, Thomas Rowe.

  • When New South Wales was founded as a penal colony in 1788, among the 751 First Fleet convicts were at least 16 Jews. One of them, Joseph Levy, who died on 15 April 1788, was the first Jew to be buried on Australian soil; but his burial was without any Jewish rites, and it took many years for Jewish practice to make itself evident on the Australian scene.

  • The late 1850s brought a controversy which split the congregation down the middle. The minister refused to conduct a particular religious ritual on the grounds that it was not permitted in the circumstances. In protest, some of the upper-crust establishment walked out and set up their own congregation in a former Baptist chapel in Macquarie Street, almost adjacent to the present-day site of St Steven’s Church.

  • Great Synagogue was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 September 2004.

Gallery

360˚ Virtual Photo

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Exterior

Interior

Treasures

Credits

All media by Luke Cabading.

Sources

  • En.wikipedia.org. (n.d.). Great Synagogue (Sydney). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Synagogue_(Sydney) [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].

  • Greatsynagogue.org.au. (2019). Our History - The Great Synagogue. [online] Available at: https://www.greatsynagogue.org.au/aboutus.html [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].

  • Apple, R. (2013). OzTorah » Blog Archive » A history of the Great Synagogue, Sydney. [online] Oztorah.com. Available at: https://www.oztorah.com/2007/05/a-history-of-the-great-synagogue-sydney/#.XgJifxdKh24 [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].

  • Freeland, J. (2019). Biography - Thomas Rowe - Australian Dictionary of Biography. [online] Adb.anu.edu.au. Available at: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rowe-thomas-4517 [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].

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