New cultural centre site announced
Shtiebel has bought a permanent home in Caulfield South, with plans for a new Jewish cultural centre.
Melbourne Jewish community organisation Shtiebel has bought 281 Hawthorn Road, Caulfield South, which will become its permanent home and the site of the new Shtiebel Cultural Centre.
The property is currently owned by the Jewish Labour Bund and has a long history of hosting Jewish communal and cultural life. Shtiebel will settle in February 2027, before beginning its conversion into the cultural centre. The Bund will make a separate announcement about its new home.
According to Shtiebel, the centre will combine prayer, Torah and lifecycle events with learning, literature, music, art, food, film, performance and festivals. It is planned to operate throughout the week, with Shtiebel’s library at its centre and flexible spaces for learning, performances, exhibitions, hospitality and prayer, as well as for writers, artists, educators, families and community organisations.
Shtiebel said it also wants the centre to offer a different entry point to Jewish life, where people attending a concert, lecture, film or meal might also connect with the community.
During his Rosh Hashanah sermon this year, Shtiebel founder and executive director Rabbi Gersh Lazarow drew on the biblical account of the prophet Jeremiah buying a field while Jerusalem was under siege, describing the purchase as an investment in the Jewish future.
“Jeremiah does not buy the field because everything is fine. He buys it precisely because everything is not fine,” Lazarow said. “Because this terrible moment does not get to become the whole story, and because somebody has to make a decision today that belongs to tomorrow … Our focus on safety and security must be balanced by an equally determined focus on Jewish life. We need to invest in more learning, more culture, more creativity, more community and more opportunities to live Judaism proudly, joyfully and without apology.”
At the end of the service, attendees were given native wildflower seed balls to take home and plant.
“We have bought the property. Now we will build the future,” Lazarow said.
Shtiebel has launched a fundraising campaign, Seeding the Future, to transform the site. Over the coming years, it will seek philanthropic gifts as well as volunteer time and expertise from the community and supporters.