The earth opened its mouth and revealed its secrets, and the treasures of gold hidden deep within it near the town of Bathurst were uncovered in 1850.As then,...
Chaim Tzvi's next stop was the colony of tasmania, an island south of Melbourne, where he arrived at the Launceston port on november 16.The local The Cornwall Chronicle...
the Rabbi Hyam Zivee from Jerusalem, on a mission to collect subscriptions in aid of the famishing Jews in the Holy Land; a subscription list lies for Signature...
On Monday, Australians will celebrate Australia Day, marking the anniversary of the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, a small bay on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour. As the day commemorating the first European settlement of Australia, Australia Day has become controversial in recent years, with many of the indigenous people of Australia seeing it as an erasure of their thousands of years of history in the land.
From a Jewish viewpoint, australia Day is indeed the beginning of Jewish history in Australia, as a number of the convicts arriving on the First Fleet were Jewish. But what about the Chabad perspective? When did Chabad history in Australia begin?
Chabad history in Australia is usually traced back to the arrival of R. Moshe Zalman Feiglin (1875-1957), who settled in Australia in 1912 (5672). this is correct, as R. Moshe and his family laid the foundations for Chabad in Australia, helping bring the six chasidim sent by the Frierdiker Rebbe and establishing the local mosdos. The Fegilin story is related in detail in the book Avraham Avinu of Australia, written by his grandson R. Uri Kaploun.
R. Moshe Zalman Feiglin, seated on the left, with the hanahalah of Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim Hamerkazis during his 1956 (5716) visit to New York. Rashag
England before traveling to Australia.Victoria was the main destination of these fortune seekers, with a notable community forming in the mining town of Ballarat.
The legendary shadar and adventurer R. Yaakov Sapir visited Australia in 1861 and wrote a fascinating, detailed account of his journey (Even Sapir, ch. 47-51). He describes the Australian gold rush and the Jews who joined it (p. 131):
R. Yaakov Sapir (1822-1885; 5582-5645)
The earth opened its mouth and revealed its secrets, and the treasures of gold hidden deep within it near the town of Bathurst were uncovered in 1850.As then, people from all corners of the earth have flocked there, filling their sacks with gold. Our Jewish brethren were also drawn by the allure of gold and treasure
Hebron, 18th March 1839, from volume II of The Holy Land; engraved by Louis Haghe, published in London, 1842.
The Jewish yishuv in Eretz Yisrael during this period had no economy. They hadn’t come to the Holy Land to work and make a parnasah, but to spend their entire time in holy pursuits, learning and davening. This lifestyle was supported for hundreds of years by the “kollel” system. every country had a kollel fund that raised money from its region to support the residents of their country who moved to Eretz Yisrael to devote themselves full-time to avodas Hashem.
There was Kollel HoD for the Jews of Holland and Germany (Duetschland), kollel Vohlin for the Jews of the Vohlin region (now western Ukraine and Eastern Poland), Kollel Ungaren for the Jews of Hungary, Kollel Prushim for the Jews of Lithuania, and so on. The Sefardi kehillos also operated similar funds.
The Chasidim of Reisin (White Russia), where Chabad was based, originally shared a kollel. After the split between Harav Avraham Kalisker and the Alter Rebbe,the kollel was divided into Kollel Reisin for the chasidim of Karlin,Slonim,and other associated groups and Kollel Chabad for Chabad chasidim.
Jews in these communities would set aside money for tzedakah for Eretz Yisrael, and local gabbaim would collect the money periodically and send it to their brethren in Eretz Yisrael. The gabbaim of the kollel in Eretz yisrael would then distribute the money among the members of their kollel based on their agreed-upon criteria. Special messengers, known as shadarim, would be sent from Eretz Yisrael periodically to bolster the local fundraising efforts.
