‘Modest but beautiful’ Synagogue
Labor MP Walt Secord paid a visit to the 111-year-old Broken Hill Synagogue in far western NSW.
NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel deputy chair and Labor MP Walt Secord last week paid a visit to the historic Broken Hill Synagogue and its museum in far western NSW.
The 111-year-old Broken Hill Synagogue, now run as the Synagogue of the Outback Museum, is managed by the Broken Hill Historical Society. It was purchased by the society in 1990 and was restored.
Secord was accompanied by his wife Julia and they were hosted by synagogue museum coordinator Margaret Price, who is one of the three editors of the book, The Jews of the Outback.
The synagogue’s foundation stone was laid on November 30, 1910 and the building was first consecrated for worship on February 26, 1911.
Originally, the Jewish community came to the region as merchants in the silver mining industry from the 1880s and stayed until the 1960s. Most had origins in Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and Russia. Today, their descendants live in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. During the 1920s it grew to around 250 members and had a rabbi. The Jewish community declined in the late 1940s and 1950s and the synagogue finally closed its doors as a place of worship in 1962.
Secord said, “It is a modest but beautiful synagogue – and the museum has the honour of being one of the most remote Jewish museums in the world.
“It was a real stepping into the past and reminds us that there was once a vibrant Jewish community in the outback. Many of the community members became merchants and civic leaders in Broken Hill. Life at the time would have been very tough, as Broken Hill had little water and mining was an incredibly dangerous occupation.”
Secord was in far western NSW to talk to local hoteliers, local government leaders and miners in Broken Hill and White Cliffs.
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