Newtown Synagogue celebrates a milestone
NEWTOWN Synagogue's oldest living congregant was a special guest at the shul's 90th anniversary celebrations.
CHANTAL ABITBOL
NEARLY 80 years ago, at the tender age of six, Maurice “Morrie” Stein began attending services at Newtown Synagogue with his family.
Today, the 85-year-old is the shul’s oldest living congregant and arguably one of its most revered. He attends services every Friday night and is always quick to reminisce about the past, or share his opinion on everything from prayer tunes to current shul fashion.
On Sunday November 8 he was a guest speaker at the shul’s 90th anniversary celebrations.
Also speaking was Reverend Benjamin Skolnick, who served as Newtown’s rabbi from 1957 to 1969.
“The occasion is a celebration of the individuals who have built and sustained the synagogue over so many years,” said the shul’s vice-president, Lachlan Menzies.
“In that way, it will also be an opportunity for the new generations to be inspired to continue in their footsteps.”
It all started more than a century ago when Newtown residents Abram and Naomi Solomon invited some friends into their home on Georgina Street to form a minyan.
As Jewish migrants poured into the area in Sydney’s Western Suburbs, the numbers quickly grew. Soon land was purchased to build a shul on the same street where it all began, with the first stones of Newtown Synagogue laid in 1918.
All this time later, one of the city’s oldest shuls, which continues to thrive, will give a nod to its past.
To celebrate the anniversary, a historical display featuring items from a bygone era was held in the hall and included a framed photograph of the foundation stone-laying ceremony, a gold key presented to the president on the day of consecration in 1919, and a burnt Bible rescued from the 1992 arson attack that nearly destroyed the shul building.
“We’ve been blessed to carry through to this day,” said shul president Brian Littler, who still remembers the tough times when the shul struggled to regroup after the arson attack and spent nearly a year displaced while the building was being restored.
These days, he said, the shul is prospering.