A History of the Launceston Synagogue

Judaism was first practised in Van Diemen’s Land by male convicts or free settlers from London’s Jewish East End. Lack of wives had made it diffic­ult to form a trad­it­ion­al Jewish community, but by the 1840s the num­bers had increased sufficiently to require relig­ious facilities in Hobart. The date and style of Hobart synagogue soon led to the Launceston Synagogue being built, as we’ll see.

Samuel Moses  (1807–73) and his family sailed to Hobart in Feb 1841. Samuel became a partner with Louis Nathan in the merchant firm Nat­han and Moses, importing and exporting via Hobart’s wharf. These traders exported Aust­ralian wool to Brit­ain, and shipped whale and fish oils to the Australian colonies and New Zealand. Louis Nathan and Samuel Moses were among the founders of Hobart Synag­ogue in York St, Louis being elected as the congregation’s first President.

The Courier Newspaper of Aug 1843 described Hobart’s synagogue: “This simple but elegant building’s plans are from the classical designs of JA Thoms­on, who has with great propriety adopted Egypt­ian rev­iv­al style for the arch­itecture of the temple. The carving of the pillars on each side of the door way and the windows is in a style of chaste beauty, unusual in this colony. This part of the carving work ill­ustrates the origin of ornamental architecture de­riving from the splendid architecture of nature…. The Synag­og­ue is a miniature Egyptian temple of the Pharaohs’ great, palmy days, such as enhanced the gorgeous architecture of those pal­ace cities of Tyre, Sidon, Babylon, Memph­is and Thebes now laid in the dust.”

Why had they chosen Egyptian Revival architecture in Hobart? Previously in Tas­manian Geographic, Rotem Erlich wrote that the Napoleonic Wars contributed to Judah Solomon’s pre­sence in Hobart. And that Napoleon’s recent conquest of Egypt had made interpretations of Eg­yptian style popular. It symbolised a new world of knowledge and a sense of history, appropriate for a new congregation of an ancient religion. NB Sydney’s York St Synagogue (1844) and Adel­aide’s Rundle St Synagogue (1850) also chose Egyptian Revival styles.

But note that the hard ben­ch­es at the back of the building were for the Jewish convicts who were marched in under armed guard. The con­g­regation wrote to London’s chief rabbi asking whether convicts could receive call-ups. The answer was they could be counted in a minyan/ten men, but they were not respectable enough to be given honours.

The planned restoration projects at the Hobart’s synagogue took place in 2020, as well as at the historic Jewish cemetery at Corn­elian Bay. This included repointing the sand­stone walls around the oldest Jew­ish graves. Another highlight of the anniversary year was making the congreg­ation’s meeting minutes  from 1841-1958 accessible online.

Now to the north of the island. The Mos­es brothers became “Moss” and moved their bus­iness to Launc­es­ton as Moss and Nat­h­an Shipping Agents. In 1844, Louis Nathan’s merchant firm bought fine ves­s­els to be based in the port of Launc­est­on, in­cluding whaling brigs, schooners and barques. And Sam­uel’s brother Moses Moss became a founder of the Launc­es­ton Hebrew Congregation in St John St.

The Launceston synagogue building was designed by Richard Peter Lambeth and constructed in 1844 by builders Barton & Bennell. Once again using Egyptian Revival Arch­itecture, we can still see the trapezoidal stained glass windows and façade similar to Hobart’s. The Launceston synagogue was consecrat­ed in 1846 when the first minister was appointed and prayer services started. David Benjamin was elected its first president.

Why had they chosen Egyptian Revival architecture in Launcest­on? Every style has its special era in history; for Egyptian arch­itect­ure and decoration, it was c1820-45. Thus any important fac­ility being built in that era might have been Egyptian because it was the owner’s preference or, more likely, because it was on trend just then. And perhaps the chaste beauty of Egyptian Revival was popular for Launceston because they were modelling it on their Hob­art cousins. Launceston’s style was imperial but the scale was modest.

Samuel Moses and his sons, Alfred and Hyam Moses, were also com­mitted mem­bers of The Royal Society of Van Diemen’s Land. This was the first Royal Soc­iety outside London, established in 1843 to ad­vance science and to prog­ress the colony under Queen Victoria’s patron­age. The Society’s gar­d­ens, plants, library, art and artefact coll­ect­ions became the core of the: Roy­al Tas­manian Bot­an­ical Gardens, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery and Hobart Library.

In 1847 it was arranged that all Jews in Launceston pris­ons could also attend synagogue, refraining­ from work on Sabbath.

The 1848 census recorded 435 Jews in Tasmania, but the numbers went down as some left for the mainland or New Zealand. The last of the 75,000 convicts shipped to Tasmania arrived in 1853, and the name of the colony, Van Diemen’s Land, was changed to Tas­mania (1856). When the numbers of Jews went down, the Launceston Synagogue clos­ed, in 1871.

In 1923, Sim Crawcour and Harry Joseph of Joseph’s Menswear helped the revital­is­at­ion of Launceston community. European refugees arr­iv­ing in the 1930s boosted the numbers so that the Launceston Syn­agogue could re-open before WW2.

In 1989 the Launceston building became listed with National Trust of Austral­ia who have been caring for renovations and maint­en­ance, although the property is jointly held by the Nat­ional Trust and the Jew­ish community of Launceston. There are only a few dozen Jews in Launceston today, but the synagogue opens up each holy-day, bar mitzvah, wedd­ing and for tourist groups.

 

Photos courtesy Monissa: http://monissa.com/ccphotos/launceston-synagogue/