North Shore Synagogue in Sydney, Australia

Shabbos at North Shore Synagogue, Dover Heights Shule, and South Head Synagogue
This Shabbos, Rabbi Ben was asked to be guest rabbi at North Shore Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.  North Shore Synagogue is a beautiful building and Rabbi Ben has a long history there – he worked there as chazzan for 3 years.  He’s very close to the current rabbi there, Rabbi Lewin, who asked Rabbi Ben to step in while he was on vacation.

On Friday night, Rabbi Ben led the services while the usual chazzan took a break.  The chazzan of the North Shore Synagogue just had a baby girl last week and I’m sure he needed the break – mazal tov!  Rabbi Ben also gave a sermon about how Moses teaches us to have respect for the earth and the water.  On Saturday, Rabbi Ben leined the Torah portion and again gave the drasha.  This time he spoke all about the plague of the frogs and how much we can learn from him. He didn’t tell any jokes, but he still managed to make people laugh!

The usual congregants of the North Shore Synagogue were really happy to have Rabbi Ben back and they were happy to meet me, since they all doubted that the Traveling Rabbi would ever find a woman crazy enough to go along with him!  There were also some very special guests in the crowd, including one of my cousins and some visitors from other area synagogues.  It was a really nice crowd in spite of the summer vacations and everyone was friendly, welcoming, and happy to have us.

Last Shabbos, we went to South Head Synagogue in Dover Heights in Sydney, Australia for Friday night services.  It was also quite a nice shul.  Unfortunately, the rabbi was out of town, as were many of the congregants.  So we didn’t get to meet and get to know as many people as we would have liked.

Then we went to Dover Heights Shule on Shabbos day.  They have a spacious new sanctuary and after services, there was a kiddush.  Rabbi Ben knows quite a few people there (where doesn’t he know people!) and he enjoyed seeing old friends and classmates.  They also got him to lead davening at the evening service later.

As I’ve said before, there are lots of things I like about Australia, and one of them is how welcoming and warm the communities are.