Beit Shalom
Synagogue is a small but vibrant progressive congregation located in Adelaide, South Australia. The membership comprises of 150 units.
The Synagogue offers a wide variety of excellent services to its members including a Cheder, Bar and Bat Mitzvah training, Sisterhood, the Friends group for senior members, adult education programs, a Chevra Torah, a lending library, a Judaica shop and Chevra Kaddisha.
Beit Shalom offers the full range of religious services, including Brit Milah, baby naming ceremonies, weddings and funerals. Shabbat services are held on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. All the chaggim are observed and are usually well attended. Two of the most popular chaggim are Pesach and Purim. A Communal Seder is held on the second night of Pesach and is attended by well over a hundred people each year. There is also a very popular Interfaith Seder which attracts about 100 people from the broader community. Equally, the Purim celebration, which features the Beit Shalom Players in an annual Purim ‘speil, is another sell-out. The Sisterhood also hosts bi-monthly Oneg Shabbat dinners on Friday nights following services.
In addition to providing catering for Oneg Shabbats and B’nai Mitzvahs, the Sisterhood organises conferences, seminars and monthly lectures. In 1996 the Sisterhood won an ORAMI award sponsored by the Women of Reform Judaism in America for two conferences held in 1993 and 1994. The Sisterhood won an arts grant from the South Australian department to write and produce a play on the Get. In 19966, Margy Fischer, a well known professional playwright and performer and member of Beit Shalom, developed Getting Your Man and produced it with members of the congregation, some of whom have professional acting experience.
Beit Shalom’s developing arts programme also included a play reading of the award wining Australian play “Hiccup” in June 1995.
The Synagogue was also responsible for initiating a whole Jewish community project called The Tree of Life Exhibition – a history of the Jewish Community in South Australia. This was the largest exhibition that the community had mounted and marked a turning point in its desire to reach and educate the wider community. Housed in the Forum Gallery of the State Migration Museum, the exhibition attracted a large and diverse group of interested visitors.
The adult education program has included courses on the Twenty One questions of Progressive Zionism, introductions for both Jewish and non-Jewish participants to Jewish festivals and laws, and a series on Jewish mysticism led by one of our members, Dr Evan Zuesse, former Senior Lecturer in Comparative Religion at the University of South Australia. There is also a very active group of Friends of the Hebrew University.
Beit Shalom has made an impact beyond the confines of the Synagogue. Mr Norman Schueler, a past President, is currently President of the Jewish Community Council of South Australia, which position has also been held by another past President, Mr Bob Phillips. Former congregation President, Mr Henry Ninio was Adelaide’s Lord Mayor, his wife, Lynette, is the current President of the Shul. Congregation members Mr Matthew Goode and Mr Michael Harrison have held positions of Mayor of the City of St Peters, and Deputy Lord Mayor of Adelaide respectively. Two of our previous youth leaders studied in the United States. Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio is in her second year at Sydney’s Temple Emanuel. Prior to that, she trained in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dr Ric Zuckerman, past President of Beit Shalom and Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of Adelaide, aid, “I’ve lived all over the United States and I’ve found Adelaide to be a place where you don’t have to worry about crime, pollution or urban blight. It’s probably the greenest city on the face of the earth with respect for environment and the individual.”
But more importantly, Dr Zuckerman said, “I belonged to a large Jewish community in New York and I’ve found the Adelaide Jewish community to be much more warm, welcoming and concerned about maintaining their Jewish identity.”
