East Melbourne breaks ground on community centre

The East Melbourne Synagogue held a building commencement ceremony on Sunday, officially launching construction of a major new three-level community centre.

This follows last years arson attack.

The ceremony was attended by Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne Nicholas Reece, and several state and federal members of parliament.

The shule was filled to capacity for the occasion, which came nine months after an arson attack on the synagogue in which someone attempted to set fire to the doors while people were inside.

The new development will feature a contemporary hall and kosher kitchen on the ground floor, a mikveh, and a recreation and learning centre for youth.

Upper floors will include purpose-built residences for guests and the rabbi and his family, and the project will be crowned with a rooftop garden.

The renewal will also see a complete restoration of the heritage interior of the historic shule, significant security upgrades, and the conversion of the existing hall into a state-of-the-art Judaica library, Bet Midrash and meeting space.

The project has received funding support from both the state and federal governments.

Chief Rabbi Mirvis, speaking at the ceremony, addressed the July attack directly and framed the community’s response as a statement of defiance.

“On the Fourth of July last year, this synagogue was attacked, and I personally find it so meaningful that the response of this community is expansion,” he said.

“That is the only response that we as a people can have at a time when antisemitism is rising right around the globe.”

Sir Ephraim drew a distinction between two great building projects in the Torah: the Tower of Babel, built for the glorification of its builders, and the Mishkan, the wilderness sanctuary, built for the sake of the people within it.

“Hashem’s instruction is ‘Ve’asu li mikdash veshachanti betocham’ – make for me a temple so that I will dwell in them – not in it, but in them,” he said.

“The purpose of the building was for the sake of the people, because it’s people who make a community.”

Calling on the congregation to mark the occasion with renewed Jewish commitment, Sir Ephraim issued a challenge.

“Let every single one of us decide we’re going to do a little more in terms of our Judaism. Choose one mitzvah, something you haven’t been doing until now — go for it.”

Lord Mayor Reece, who rushed to the shue on the night of the attack last July, reflected on the synagogue’s nearly 170-year place in Melbourne’s civic life.

“Today is a day of renewal and hope, not only for this extraordinary congregation, but for the wider Melbourne community that has been enriched by the presence of Melbourne Jewry for almost 170 years,” he said.

Reece recalled that the foundation stone for the current Albert Street building was laid almost 149 years ago to the day, quoting from an 1877 report in the Argus in which the founding rabbi, Moses Rintel, urged his congregation to see the synagogue as a bridge between faiths, turning “the cursed fire of discord into the life-giving warmth of friendship.”

“This new building project stands as a bridge between the past and the future,” Reece said.

“It honours the vision of those who built the original synagogue in the 19th century, and carries forward their spirit of courage and optimism.”

Rabbi Dovid Gutnick delivered a sermon drawing on the midrash of the acacia trees, planted by Jacob and nurtured by his descendants through generations of slavery in Egypt, only to become the timber of the Mishkan at the moment of redemption.

“We carry ancient dreams, promise and hope and enduring Torah,” he said.

“There are always going to be voices that say, stop being a fool, let it go, move on. But we keep dreaming.”

Rabbi Gutnick paid tribute to the synagogue’s lay leadership, including president Danny Segall and community patron Morry Schwartz, and to the memory of those who had sustained the congregation over generations, among them Rabbi Honig and Reverend Jacob Lenzer, the two longest-serving rabbis in the shule’s history.

He concluded with a vision for peace, invoking the words of the prophet Isaiah.

“We’ve held this dream for three and a half thousand years. A day will come when swords will be turned into ploughshares, and nations will no longer know war. May it be speedily so in our days.”