A year ago this March, a historic synagogue in the southeastern Australian city of Ballarat celebrated the completion of major renovations. Nomi Kaltmann explains how its history is intertwined with the mad rush for gold there nearly 200 years ago:
The synagogue proudly displays two sizable wooden plaques featuring the prayer for the queen’s well-being, one inscribed in Hebrew and the other in English, commemorating Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887.
Ballarat, located in the Australian state of Victoria, rose to prominence during the mid-19th century after gold was found there in 1851, igniting a gold rush; over the next year, the city drew approximately 90,000 people from around the world. At the peak of the gold rush, between 1852 and 1853, Ballarat stood as the world’s wealthiest alluvial goldfield.
The city attracted Jews from England who were seeking their fortunes as well as other European Jews who were escaping anti-Semitism. In 1853, a minyan was established on the Ballarat goldfields for the High Holy Days and by 1859, the town boasted a Jewish community with more than 300 men. In 1861 it consecrated its synagogue. . . . During the initial decade of the gold rush, a quarter of Ballarat’s shopkeepers were Jewish, among them, members of the Ballarat Synagogue.
Read more on Tablet: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/gold-rush-shul-ballarat-synagogue-australia