The Syna-blogue

  Torah Portion: Beshalach Synagogue: Central Synagogue (Orthodox, traditional) Walking time from home: 25 minutes (from my accommodation) Reason for going: Close to lunch plans Kiddush: Catered, large kiddush SYDNEY: I am in town for a Bat Mitzvah staying at my friends' place in North Bondi. Though there was a service as part of the celebrations on Shabbat, it was a Mincha (afternoon) service, so I therefore had the morning to myself to go to any shule. I chose Central partly because it was on the way to where we were going later, partly because I was invited to a lunch not too far away, and partly for nostalgic reasons. Twenty years ago I lived in Sydney, and for the entirety of those three and a bit years, although I moved a couple of times, Central was always my closest shule. I didn't go there every week, but certainly quite often.  Central in many ways is like Caulfield shule

  Torah Portion: Bo Synagogue: Chabad St Kilda Walking time from home: 35 mins Reason for going: An invitation / close to the beach Kiddush: Sit down meat lunch Melbourne has an uncanny ability to support and sustain a surprisingly vast number of shules. I’ve said it before but it never ceases to amaze me, especially since every now and then I hear of new shules popping up, especially Chabad ones. About three years ago this happened in St Kilda, a suburb that is already teeming with shules and Jews. The task of setting up such a shule was given to a young, dynamic local rabbi, and the initial shule was moderately successful but in an area in the middle of the suburb that was hard to get to. Since then, the rabbi and his family have moved into a much larger house, about as close the beach as I can imagine anyone can live. Within a minute of leaving the house, after nego

  Torah Portion: Vaeira Synagogue: Kollel Beth HaTalmud (Chareidi) Walking time from home: 10 mins Reason for going: Something different Kiddush: N/A There are some shules in Melbourne that are essentially hidden in plain sight. Kollel Beth HaTalmud is one of those. It is on a prominent corner but most people who see it likely don’t venture inside. In a way, it is for insiders, though they do welcome visitors. In truth though, Kollel Beth HaTalmud is not actually a shule. It was found in 1981 as the Yehudah Fishman Institute and is actually a seminary and adult education centre. It offers Bachelor degrees and tertiary education in Torah law, and was the fist overseas outpost of the well-known, New Jersey based Lakewood Yeshiva. It is housed in a converted and renovated old house, and though the study hall and main sanctuary look like a shule, with a Torah ark at the fron

  Torah Portion: Shemot Synagogue: Daminyan, Chabad lite Walking time from home: 10 mins Reason for going: Air conditioning and close to home Kiddush: Sit down and with two cholents! This Shabbat I genuinely didn’t know which shule I would go to when I woke up on Saturday morning. There are a few that I wanted to go to, but given that it is the middle of summer with many people, including a number of rabbis away, some shules are closed for a few weeks. So much so that some of the emails that I usually get from various shules on a Thursday or Friday haven’t been coming the last few weeks. But one email that did come, and one shule that I knew was going to be open, was Daminyan. So with few other options on this hot morning, that is where I decided to go, and apart from anything else, I knew for sure that they would have air conditioning and that it was close to home.