Australia

Australia, there’s nothing like a trip to the land down under, especially a Jewish heritage tour of Australia.

Australia is remote but developed. Filled with wildlife and nature, the country is an unbelievable way to travel.

Learn about the aboriginal people who have been in Australia for over 50,000 years.

Head to the beautiful beaches. Australia has a 23,000-mile-long coastline, with big wave surfer spots, white sand beaches, family-friendly areas, and more. Scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef, the largest barrier reef in the world, or interact with koalas and kangaroos in the outback.

On Jewish heritage trips to Australia, learn about this relatively young community.

The first Jews to come to Australia came on the boat in 1788, petty criminals arriving on the First Fleet. They’ve been in Australia since its founding. Many of the early settlers were Anglo-Jewish so synagogues were modeled on the Anglican church.

There was very little discrimination and the Jewish story in Australia has largely been written in safety and tolerance. Most of the community is in Melbourne and Sydney, but there are some Jews in Brisbane, Perth, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Hobart, Canberra, and Launceston.

A Jewish tour of Australia includes wilderness in the outback, beautiful beaches on the coasts, and exciting cities like Melbourne and Sydney.

Go to the Sydney Jewish Museum and learn about Our Big Kitchen, a community project that helps disadvantaged Australians, started in a Rabbi’s home. Tour the Central Synagogue, the largest shul in the Southern Hemisphere.

Australia’s Jewish community is almost 100,000 people, and the members speak English, Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish, Romanian, Hungarian, Farsi, Arabic, Afrikaans, Bukhari, and more.

It’s diverse and modern, and one of the best parts of Jewish tours in Australia is getting to really engage with current community members.

Jewish tours of Australia are an opportunity to see a different kind of Jewish history–one marked by tolerance, safety, and a community growing along with the country it resides in.