Reaching out for tolerance
HATZOLAH, mezuzahs and bagels were among the topics that fascinated 11 Tasmanian students, who visited the Melbourne Jewish community this month. The group, from The Friends' School, a Quaker college in Hobart, spent a morning in St Kilda East before visiting Mount Scopus Memorial College for an educational session and tour.
HATZOLAH, mezuzahs and bagels were among the topics that fascinated 11 Tasmanian students, who visited the Melbourne Jewish community this month.
The group, from The Friends’ School, a Quaker college in Hobart, spent a morning in St Kilda East before visiting Mount Scopus Memorial College for an educational session and tour.
“Coming from Friends’ School in Hobart, we were slightly overwhelmed by the size of the school, and found the barbed-wire fence and security somewhat intimidating after our own open campus,” teacher Peter Jones told The AJN.
“The standard of education left the Friends’ students reeling,” he added.
Beginning with breakfast at Glick’s on Carlisle Street, the students enjoyed hearing customers talking in Hebrew. Other novelties included seeing kashrut in action, laying tefillin, and the mechitzah in the shul.
Reflecting on his students’ reactions, Jones said: “Anita Corrigan was puzzled by the curtain separating men and women to stop the boys being distracted, as she said she could see through it.
“Ben Ogada-Osir was impressed with the learning of Hebrew and the students passion for Israel, but Hannah Salisbury was puzzled by the idea of loyalty to Israel as well as Australia.”
Mount Scopus students from the Roslyn Smorgon Outreach Program led a crash course in Jewish belief and culture. The Friends’ students also spent a night at the homes of their year 11 Scopus counterparts.
An element of the Tasmania  course in religion and philosophy, the group were visiting Melbourne as part of their unit on Judaism. While they had previously visited the Hobart synagogue and joined the local community for a Passover seder, Jones said:
“There is nothing comparable to the Melbourne Jewish community in Hobart.”
With the second course unit examining Islam, the group also visited the Australian International Academy and the Coburg Mosque while in Melbourne.
In a similar initiative with non-Jewish schools in the area, earlier this month, year 10 students at The King David School hosted non-Jewish peers, discussing Judaism with their visitors and giving them a tour of the school.
DALIA SABLE
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