Chapter XIII
The Most Southern Congregation in the World

The Dunedin Congregation kept its word. For its minister and Shohet it engaged none other than David M. Isaacs, whom Hort, over twenty years previously, had brought over with him to Wellington from England. Isaacs was still a bachelor. That was partly his trouble. His congregants in Ballarat, where he served, believed a minister should be a married man. Part of the Ballarat Congregation emanated from Germany and Poland, and thought that those born in England, including their minister, did not attain to the standards of piety and learning to which Jews should aspire. Quarrels broke out between the two sections. "Because Isaacs is an Englishman," wrote the secretary of the congregation, "some of the foreign Jews think he can do nothing right." Isaacs resigned, and sued the Ballarat community for £156 owing to him. At the last moment, Isaacs settled out of court for £36. At that juncture, Dunedin advertised for a minister, and Isaacs went back to the country which he knew so well. He made, however, one stipulation before he returned. He told his sponsors that he suffered severely from rheumatism, and that if the climate proved unsuitable for him, he would have to leave. He stayed only nine months. Nelson's climate proved to be far more suitable for him, and there he settled down, earning his livelihood as a photographer, a profession then newly introduced into New Zealand. Not having Saphir's inspiration, the congregation decided not to engage another minister.

Once again, for the High Holydays of 1863, the George Street synagogue could not be used. Being too small, it could not accommodate all the worshippers. They crowded into the Masonic Hall. Soon afterwards, the committee decided to build a new synagogue at the corner of Moray Place and View Street at a cost of £2450, including the land. For some reason or other they did not consider it desirable or necessary to lay the foundation-stone of the new synagogue. They did conduct a consecration service before the New Year of 1864, at which Henry Nathan and John Lazar took part with the assistance of a choir. Lazar, the Honorary Secretary, also delivered an address. His experience and ability allowed him to deliver it with confidence. He had had a picturesque career. From Edinburgh, his father, Abraham Lazar, a clothier, had taken him at the age of eighteen months to page break

Wellington, c. 1890. The wooden Synagogue (built in 1870 and in continuous use for sixty years) can be seen on the Terrace. The warehouse of P. Hayman & Co., in Panama Street, is clearly signposted, while the top of Hallenstein Bros.' clothing factory on Lambton Quay is directly below the second house uphill from the Synagogue.

The Nelson Synagogue (centre foreground). This photo, dated 1911, shows the Synagogue still in a good state of preservation, though it had not been opened for Jewish worship since 1895.

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The ship Lady Jocelyn, which in 1883 took overseas the first cargo of frozen mutton shipped from the North Island. The Dry River Estate in the Wairarapa, farmed by Coleman Phillips, a leading agriculturist of his day, provided this historic shipment.

The ferry steamer Duco, which foundered in Wellington Harbour when carrying three hundred members and friends of the Wellington Jewish Social Club to a picnic at Lowry Bay.

page 97 London. When John grew up, he became a commercial traveller and later opened his own business as a silversmith and jeweller. His father then dealt on the Stock Exchange. In 1836, when twenty-three years of age, John sailed with his wife and family for Sydney. On the long voyage, all the passengers became seriously ill, and many died, including three of Lazar's children. He had already lost three children in England. John took to the stage and managed and played at Levy's Theatre Royal, for which he received £8 a week, a large salary in that period, and an indication of his ability. He was very popular. After four years in Sydney, he transferred to Adelaide where he leased Solomon's Theatre, and where he made sufficient money to be considered a man in comfortable circumstances. He travelled extensively in New South Wales, Victoria and Van Diemen's Land, and in 1849 returned to Adelaide where he leased a theatre in partnership with George Coppin, the famous Australian actor and parliamentarian. This led later to Lazar's son, Samuel, forming his own Lazar's Italian Opera Company which toured and became renowned all over Australia.

Two years after his partnership with Coppin, John Lazar entered business as a silversmith. He also entered local politics, and from 1851 to 1859 sat as a member of the Adelaide City Council and then as an alderman. For three consecutive years, from 1855 to 1857, he was mayor. Under the new constitution of the Colony of South Australia, the Government appointed him as its first Returning Officer. Extensive mining speculations in the colony led to Lazar losing every penny he possessed. When he arrived in Dunedin, in 1863, his friends did not forsake him. In Adelaide he had held office as Deputy Provisional Grand Master in the Grand Lodge of Freemasons. He received an appointment as Clerk of the Dunedin Town Board, later rising to Town Clerk. Lazar could not only preach. He could also conduct a Jewish service. On the High Holydays of 1865, he and Solomon Joseph assisted Henry Nathan, the Honorary Reader, in leading the worshippers. Soon after, he accepted an offer to become Town Clerk of Hokitika on the West Coast, where gold had then been discovered. Dunedin appreciated his services. The town gave him £-200 as a gratuity.

About the time Lazar left for Hokitika, Hyam E. Nathan and Henry Nathan departed permanently for England. The former left as a disgruntled man. His relationship with the congregation he had helped to found was not a happy one. As a founder he may have presumed proprietary rights over it. The other members certainly resented it. In his own office, his colleagues on the committee passed a resolution against the negligent manner in which he conducted the affairs of the congregation. He held on to the books. He also held on to his autocratic power. Although seemingly at fault when he scuffled on the floor of the synagogue in which he tore Abraham Solomon's coat, it was his opponent who had to apologize, and not he. He received only a page 98 pro forma reprimand. The quarrels were not altogether unexpected. When composing the laws of the congregation, the committee had made provision for a Protest Book to be kept. The protests had to be made in writing, and had to be countersigned by the President as to their correctness. There was no lack of entries. One member laid a charge against another for breaking open the doors of the synagogue. Another earned the penalty of expulsion on a charge of misbehaviour. The congregation, like many other Anglo-Jewish colonial religious institutions, persisted in their petty disputes although they consistently prayed for peace. A passion for individual liberty and communal democracy conflicted with the passion of the autocratic honorary official for petty power.

When David M. Isaacs went to live in Nelson, the Dunedin community reverted to its former practices in regard to its consumption of meat. It recognized, however, the principle laid down by Rabbi Saphir that a Shohet had preference of appointment over a preacher. After accepting the offer of the Rev. Jacob Levy to kill Kosher meat for the New Year festivals of 1867, the congregation appointed him as Shohet, Reader and Mohel. The practice of purchasing non-Kosher meat, however, had become so ingrained amongst the congregants, that the butcher threatened to refuse Levy permission to kill any beasts owing to the lack of demand. Levy battled along in spite of difficulties. As he was unable to preach, the President, Simeon Isaacs, obtained for him printed sermons from England which competent members of the congregation read from the pulpit. Isaacs also set about curing the chronic lack of a Minyan at the Sabbath service. Any committeeman who did not attend had, automatically, to send in his resignation. The congregation claimed to be so poor and so much in debt that it denied Levy a supply of Matzah which he usually received annually on the Passover Festival. It did not deny Matzah to the needy. As Levy received a pittance, it did not count him amongst the poor. The relationship between Levy and his congregants became so involved, that they asked him to resign. He saw no reason for doing so. The committee then asserted its power and dismissed him. To prevent his establishing a congregation of his own, it issued an edict to the effect that any honorary or paid officer attending a private Minyan with a Sefer Torah, would have his position declared vacant immediately. This embittered the dispute and led to open letters in the daily Press which did no one any good.

Amidst constant conflict between the President and the committee, the congregation, immediately after Levy's dismissal, appointed Rev. Bernard Lichtenstein as minister and Shohet in order not to entertain any proposal of Levy's return. Although a native of Russia, Lichtenstein spoke English fluently. He had served as minister at Nottingham. A quiet man with a retiring disposition, he managed to soften the tempers of the bellicose amongst page 99 the committee, and the congregation settled down to a period of comparative peace during the seventeen years in which he held office. They had to show him, however, that they ruled. They informed him that all donations offered to him as personal gifts had to be handed over to the synagogue funds. Though mild by nature, Lichtenstein at first insisted strongly upon religious standards. He would not allow any man who desecrated the Sabbath to assist him at the High Holyday services. No one who could read the service observed the Sabbath. In a quandary all the committee resigned, for Lichtenstein could not read all the Holyday services himself. He had to give way. The same problem arose on the following Passover Festival, and all the committee resigned again with a similar result to that of the High Holydays' dispute. Dunedin did not lack laymen able to conduct a service. C. J. Levien, H. Friedich, and H. Naphtali often assisted as Reader. Later, L. Mendelsohn, S. Goldston and Dr W. Heinemann frequently helped when ministers were absent or needed assistance.

With the passing of the years, Lichtenstein's mildness allowed him to make concessions to the environment and to his committee. His first departure from the regular custom which he had practised in Russia and England concerned the choir. He allowed Joel Moss, the choirmaster, the son of the choirmaster of London's Duke's Place Synagogue, to introduce ladies into the choir. The twenty-three members of the mixed choir sang in good voice at Lichtenstein's next innovation—a consecration service for girls between twelve and seventeen years of age. Conducted on the Pentecost Festival, this service was considered by the Dunedin Jews a great event in their lives. Apparently, the choir did not please Moss at all at the next Holy-day services. He took a drastic step. He walked out of the synagogue in the middle of the service, and resigned. The committee took a more serious step when it blandly decided to commence the Sabbath service with the Reading of the Law, totally omitting all the Morning Service except for the Shema, before which they inserted a new custom—the reading of the Ten Commandments. They also decided to omit the prayer, Yekum Purkan, and to read the Haphtorah and the Prayer for the Royal Family and the Governor of the Colony in English instead of in Hebrew. Pure pride urged them to insert the phrase "the officers of the congregation" in the prayer for the welfare of the Governor. They stifled the fervour of worshippers who wished to join in the prayers, for they fixed a notice on the door of the synagogue stating that: "Members attending Divine service are not to read or sing aloud with the minister". When the Chief Rabbi in England heard of the committee's strange decisions, he wrote in strong terms to the effect that any alteration in the order of the Divine services needed his consent, and that he could not agree to the shortening of the prayers. In spite of the first law of the congregation clearly stating that it would conduct its affairs page 100 under the guidance of the Chief Rabbi, the committee insisted that it possessed the power to curtail prayers. It regarded the length of the service as its own prerogative, and, indeed, it introduced a regulation that the Sabbath service, including the Reading of the Law, should not take longer than one hour, a tradition in the Dunedin Synagogue which persists to this day.

In a community which openly defied the Chief Rabbi, it is not at all astonishing that the members did not zealously carry out the tenets of their faith. The congregation dismissed its porger, and the butcher again threatened to stop supplies because of insufficient customers buying Kosher meat. It also undertook to bake Matzah for the Passover under the supervision of the minister. Usually, in English countries, Matzah would not be considered properly prepared unless supervised by an authorized Beth Din. They allowed I. Benjamin to bake Matzah, although they had previously refused permission to T. Taylor to do so at Port Chalmers. When Aulsebrook and Company, of Christchurch, prepared Matzah, the minister who followed Lichtenstein, the Rev. L. J. Harrison, would not accept it. He sent to Sydney for his supplies. Unfortunately they were damaged by water, and the Matzah that year had the flavour of the sea. Later, the community accepted the Matzah of Aulsebrook and Company, as well as the Matzah of Wright and Company, of Dunedin, without question. Nor did the community pay much attention to Sabbath observance, in spite of the exhortations of Lichtenstein and the encouragement of D. E. Theomin, a prominent leader of the community. When the London Emigration Committee wrote to Dunedin asking if it could accept immigrants, the congregation replied, "ultra orthodox is objectionable as the Sabbath is not kept".

General apathy in the essential field of education naturally followed the abandonment of religious practices. Not until four years after the foundation of the congregation did it open religious educational classes under Joseph Myers, who also lectured occasionally in the synagogue and officiated at services. The ministers tried their utmost to strengthen the school, but the members gave it no support, and eventually no one took any interest in it at all. The synagogue committee had to take the school under its own wing. An attempt to organize the adolescents into a Social Union of Youth did not meet with much success, and after Rev. Bernard Lichtenstein passed away on 19 June, 1892, the school closed down altogether. It reopened again on the appointment of Rev. Julius Louis Harrison nine months later, but it only assumed its proper place amongst the communal institutions on the appointment of Dr Wolf Heinemann in July, 1896, as Superintendent of the Dunedin Hebrew School. A professional pedagogue and philologist, he associated himself with the Otago University, where he examined in German and Hebrew. He founded the Selwyn College School. On many occasions he page 101 lectured in the synagogue, and his scholarship and ability raised the Hebrew school to a standard it had never attained before. For reasons of his own he resigned after three years, and the loss of his services was felt afterwards for a very considerable period.

About the same time as the community established a school, Julius Hay-man with the help of Godfrey Jacobs and Maurice Joel, an indefatigable worker for communal affairs, formed the Jewish Philanthropic Society of Otago. Strangely enough for a Jewish community, it did not greatly interest itself in this charitable institution. Probably it had saved too much money. One of the Society's main sources of revenue was a loan to the synagogue which the major organization renewed from year to year at an annual rate of interest ranging between 6 per cent and 7 per cent. Ezekiel Nathan, a pious and saintly President, tried his best to revive an interest in the movement, but finally it disbanded because of insufficient support. The incongruity of a Jewish community without a philanthropic endeavour urged Samuel Jacobs to organize the ladies of the community, who formed a Hand-in-Hand Society "for the relief and assistance of distressed women who may be either in the Province or strangers".

The apathy of the Dunedin Jews towards their religious exercises did not indicate that they abjured their religion or Jewishness. They had no inhibitions concerning the fact that they were Jews. Formal religion and its symbols had to be supported. Although they did not attend the services regularly on Sabbaths, absence on the High Holydays would almost have been considered a betrayal. When the synagogue at the corner of Moray Place and View Street became uncomfortable for the crowds who attended on the High Festivals, the congregation sold the building to the Freemasons, and bought land opposite in Moray Place, where it built an imposing edifice, ornamented with Doric columns in front and with over six hundred comfortable seats in the interior. Built on lofty, traditional lines, it compared favourably with the orthodox synagogues of London and the Continent. Lichtenstein consecrated the edifice on 1 August, 1881, happy that a contract had been effected in which the workmen had agreed not to labour on the Sabbath day. These, when they had completed their task, as a compliment to the congregation, sent a congratulatory message to the Jewish assembly. The solidity of the building and its impressive interior stands today as a monument to their craftsmanship. Though the old synagogue had been sold at a good price, the new building, which had been erected at a cost of about £4500, placed the congregation in debt. It had some good businessmen amongst its members who arranged a Yom Kippur appeal for funds and an Oriental Bazaar with Bendix Hallenstein as its treasurer. The bazaar raised over £1650. An unfounded reputation that the community was rich probably attracted burglars to the synagogue, which was broken into on a page 102 number of occasions. The congregation also had its "shool ganav". Whilst Leonard Isaacs recited his prayers, a light-fingered gentleman stole a number of articles from his pocket.

Before Lichtenstein passed away, he had also been pleased to see the formation of a Hevra Kadishah under the jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbi. The inaugural meeting, held at the home of Godfrey Jacobs, decided to charge a small sum to each member of the congregation in order to defray expenses. Abraham Myers, J. Hyman and E. Jacobs actively interested themselves in the Society which claimed to be the first Hevra Kadishah in Australasia.

The highlight of Lichtenstein's successor's career in Dunedin was his formation of the Dunedin Jewish Choral Society in September, 1896. With the synagogue choir as its basis and Samuel Jacobs as its conductor, it gave many concerts which added to the pleasure of the social life of the community. The minister, the Rev. L. J. Harrison, had been recommended by the Chief Rabbi and a London Committee of three old Dunedin residents-Henry Hayman, Lachman Hayman and Henry Hart. Harrison had served previously in Norwich. He remained over five years in Dunedin, resigning while in England on what was intended to be only a temporary visit. M. Saxton and D. Lichtenstein performed the Shehitah for the community during his absence. Saxton's resignation probably came about because the Treasurer, without ceremony, deducted back seat rent dues from his weekly honorarium of one pound.

Harrison's successor, the Rev. A. T. Chodowski, gave good service, having already been accustomed to a New Zealand congregation. Before he left Brisbane for Dunedin, he had served at Christchurch. He had also had other experience and an excellent education. Born in Posen, he had migrated to Berlin, where he studied in a theological college. Through the influence of Dr Herman Adler and Dr M. Friedlander, the Principal of Jews' College, London, he had been admitted as the first foreign student to Jews' College, where he studied for two and a half years. He first ministered at Belfast, then at Leicester, before accepting the post at Christchurch. He, like other ministers who served in Dunedin, could boast of his unique position. He could claim he served in the most southern Jewish congregation in the world.