Auckland Hebrew Congregation
The Auckland Hebrew Congregation is a Modern Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 514 Remuera Road, in Remuera, a suburb of Auckland, on the north island of New Zealand. The congregation previously occupied University House as the Princes Street Synagogue from 1885, before relocating to a larger building on Greys Avenue in 1968. The congregation moved to its current location in 2022, having purchased the former campus of the Saint Kentigern Girls' School on Remuera Road.[1] The synagogue serves around 500 local families.[2] HistoryPrinces StreetThe original synagogue building on Princes Street was designed and built by Edward Bartley in 1884–1885 in a Romanesque Revival style, incorporating Gothic Revival and Moorish Revival design elements.[3][4] The foundation stone was laid by David Nathan (1816–1886), an early Jewish settler and founder of the L. D. Nathan chain of stores,[5] and the synagogue opened on 9 November 1885.[6] The building could seat 375 people.[7] It was built on the site of an earlier military guardhouse[8] associated with Albert Barracks. The construction of the synagogue was a statement by the Jewish community in Auckland of their status and their acceptance in the local community.[4] The building has a Category I listing with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.[8] In 1968, the congregation moved to a new synagogue on Greys Avenue.[4] Following the deconsecration, ownership of the Princes Street property reverted to Auckland City Council as part of the Albert Park Reserve.[9] It subsequently served as a branch of the National Bank of New Zealand, restored by the bank in 1989, preserving the stained glass windows as well as the Romanesque and Eastern decorative motifs.[10] The building currently serves as the office for the University of Auckland's alumni relations and development department.[10] Greys AvenueAs the congregation grew in size, a larger building was needed to meet it needs and a plot was purchased on Greys Avenue, overlooking Myers Park.[11] The former Princes Street synagogue was deconsecrated in 1969.[7] The new inner-city synagogue was consecrated on 8 September 1968.[12] The Greys Avenue building was designed by John Goldwater, a New Zealand Jewish architect, in a Modernist style; and was the recipient of an architectural award in 1970.[13] The synagogue and complex underwent a US$$6.63 million refurbishment in 2008 and John Key, a Jew who later became Prime Minister of New Zealand, attended the reopening.[14] After an earlier ban had been put in place, in 2010 the congregation led a successful challenge against the New Zealand government, to allow shechita.[15] In 2011, Israel's Speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin addressed the congregation. It marked the first official Israeli state visit to the country in a quarter of a century, since President Chaim Herzog's visit in 1986.[16] The buildings and sanctuary were used for filming by Simone Nathan in her 2022 TV series, Kid Sister.[17] The Greys Avenue complex was also home to Kadimah, the Jewish primary school, Auckland Jewish Immigration and the city's only kosher café.[18] Remuera RoadIn 2019, with the assistance of the Woolf Fisher Trust, the congregation purchased the campus of Saint Kentigern Girls' School in Remuera.[19] Kadimah relocated from Grey's Avenue to the Remuera campus in 2023.[20] Other Jewish organisations and the Kosher café/deli are also in the process of relocating to the site, creating the main hub for Jewish life in Auckland.[1] The city's Reform congregation, Beth Shalom has also been invited to relocate to the campus.[21] The Auckland Hebrew Congregation plans to build a new sanctuary and synagogue in the future on the grounds of the campus.[22] It currently holds services in the original homestead on the property. The house had been built in 1918 for the Louisson family who, later downsized to a smaller property and sold the home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[23] The property and campus later formed part of Corran School, a private girls school, before becoming Saint Kentigern's Girls' School following a 2009 merger.[23] There are also plans for a mikvah on the site, a cultural centre and provision for Jewish youth groups.[22] In recent decades, the congregation has stepped up efforts to encourage Jewish immigration to New Zealand, mostly focusing on Jewry in South Africa, Argentina and Israel.[24] Gallery
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