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The Broken Hill Synagogue

The first recorded Jewish religious service in Broken Hill was held in Taits Masonic Hall 1890. A congregation was organised in 1900 with Mr. Rosanove leading the services for a Jewish community that numbered about fifty families comprising about 150 people. It was not until 1910 that a Synagogue was erected in Broken Hill on land purchased in July 1907 by Abraham Rosenberg, Samuel Dryen Snr, and Albert Edelman.

On 30 November 1910, the foundation stone was set in place on the newly erected Synagogue. A famous photograph taken on the day shows Rev Z. Mandelbaum, the first minister, and Solomon Saunders, president of the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation, together with members of the Synagogue committee at the ceremony. The Synagogue was consecrated in 1911, and Rabbi Francis Lyon Cohen of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, attended.

The Jewish community fluctuated in numbers throughout the first half of the twentieth century in accord with economic opportunities and Depression, waves of migration from overseas and wartime requirements.  But throughout the 1920s and 1930s the Synagogue at 165 Wolfram Street, with its adjoining premises for the Minister and family, was a vibrant hub for residents and visitors. Before and after the Second World War, Broken Hill's Jews began to leave for Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and beyond.

The Synagogue finally closed its doors in 1962, and the Torah scrolls were transferred to the Yeshivah Centre on Hotham Street, East St Kilda, Melbourne. The last Jew of Broken Hill, Alwyn David Edelman, died in August 2005 and is buried in the Jewish section of the cemetery. Following closure of the Synagogue, the Rabbi's residence was rented to help defray the costs to the few remaining members of the community. Then, in a stroke of good fortune, the building was Heritage listed and then purchased by the Broken Hill Historical Society in 1990.