Torah Portion: Terumah Synagogue: Elwood Shule (traditional, orthodox) Walking time from home: 30 minutes Reason for going: Nostalgia / new rabbi Kiddush: Small but plentiful This week was my birthday and as part of that, I decided to go to the shule where I had my Bar Mitzvah many years ago. Though my actual Barmi was delayed by a few weeks and was thus in mid-March, it still felt right to go back to Elwood for some nostalgia. It has been at least a year since I was there last, and in that time, the previous rabbi left and a new, young rabbi has started his tenure. Though Elwood used to be a vibrant congregation in its heyday, that time was several decades ago. Since then, because of gentrification and other factors, most of the Jews have either died or moved away. The shule still functions because there is a committed core and a sizeable membership that turns up on festi...
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Torah Portion: Mishpatim Synagogue: Malvern Chabad Walking time from home: 40 minutes Reason for going: Shabbat Together Kiddush: Sit down lunch with lots of variety Sometimes I go to a synagogue for no particular reason, but sometimes I go for a very specific reason. This week was very much for the latter. A couple of decades ago in America, to coincide with disability inclusion month, a few synagogues launched Shabbat Together. Four years ago, Malvern Chabad brought the concept to Melbourne, and now it is embraced by the Rabbinical Council of Victoria, so much so that more than a dozen synagogues participated this week, each with their own speaker or event. Malvern Chabad however is still considered the originator, so as I have done for the last few years (lockdowns notwithstanding) I went to Malvern Chabad for their annual Shabbat Together lunch, with t...
Torah Portion: Yitro Synagogue: KOD@Mizrachi (Modern Orthodox) Walking time from home: 20 minutes Reason for going: A call up Kiddush: N/a After a wonderful celebratory Friday night communal Shabbat dinner at a very welcoming shule, I decided to go to Mizrachi on Shabbat morning. It is said that there are about 60 shules in Melbourne, but the truth is that there are actually quite a few more because that is the number of synagogue buildings, and doesn’t take into account the various congregations within each one. On the Mizrachi campus alone, on a Shabbat morning there are 4 services. One for early risers and then three more simultaneously. I went to Kehilat Ohr David, named after a young man who died, and mainly attended by young people in their 20s and 30s. On this occasion, one of these young people was being called up ahead of his wedding, and though I don’t really ...
Torah Portion: Beshalach Synagogue: Temple Beth Israel (Reform/progressive) Walking time from home: Just over 15 minutes Reason for going: Something different Kiddush: Big kiddush, lots of variety As I alluded to last week, the summer season as far as synagogue attendance, is well and truly over. All shules are now back and regular services have re-commenced, so much so that on Friday night I went to a communal Shabbat dinner at a synagogue, and in fact I am actually going to a communal Shabbat dinner every Friday night in February. But for Shabbat morning I wanted to try something different. I had been to TBI for Friday night services a few times recently, and mid-last year attended a Bar Mitzvah, but I haven’t been to a regular Shabbat morning service at TBI for a long time. Neither it seemed had many others. For quite a few people, this was their fir...