Jewish Lives Gathering

By Miriam Bell

The long history of the Jewish community in Auckland is now celebrated in a Jewish Heritage Walk through the inner city.

Starting at the Symonds Street cemetery, one of the country’s oldest urban cemeteries, the walk heads down K’Rd, and then winds its way through the CBD to end up in Customs Street.

There are 21 sites of historical significance on the three hour walk, and it is navigated using an app, which features written commentary.

The walk, and its app, were launched at a special Jewish Lives event at the Jewish Community Centre on Sunday April 14.

Retired judge David Robinson, who is one of the trustees of the Jewish Museum of New Zealand Charitable Trust, said the walk is important to help counter rising antisemitism.

“It provides a way to move forward and counter the terrible things that people are saying about Jewish people.”

The idea of the walk came about after he did an art trail around Auckland some years ago, he said.

As he did it, he realised there are a large number of buildings with Jewish significance, and which showed the Jewish contribution to the city.

“It prompted me to think about what could be done to acknowledge that, and to look to the Jewish walks in Sydney and Melbourne to learn from,” he said.

“Then, with the assistance of a team, including Spencer Noonan and Dr Leonard Bell, we put together an educational walk that presents the Jewish background of a lot of sites in the CBD.”

The walk has been incorporated into the app, and its accompanying QR codes. At each stop on the walk, the app offers links with more information, and it also has a link to the Jewish Lives website.

Robinson said that eventually they hoped to offer oral commentary on the app, and to get plaques put on the sites on the walk.

“That would ensure the heritage is preserved and that people are aware of it more widely.

“We’re also not charging for the app at this stage because we feel it is better to get it out and get Jewish history in this city acknowledged.”

The event also featured an update on the Jewish Lives project, including the website and some of its other initiatives and plans, from another of the trustees David Shieff.

He said Jewish Lives was in the storytelling business, and that, ultimately, its aim was to preserve the identity of the Jewish community in New Zealand, and to strengthen community engagement and cohesion.

Dr Sheree Trotter, who is a trustee and also oversees work on the website and the community archives, gave a progress report on the new archive room at the community centre.

Her report included some examples of the stories uncovered among the archive’s documents.

One featured Louis Phillips, who worked and advocated for refugees and Zionism, for many years from the 1920s. Another involved Simone Nathan who established Plunket, a New Zealand initiative, in Israel in the 1920s.

Auckland Chevra Kadisha president Brian Bookman supported Trotter’s presentation with a speech on the importance and value of archives in preserving heritage.

Rounding out the event’s programme, Reuven Gooding talked about being a young Jewish person in the present environment, while musician, writer, comic and actor Deb Filler gave a special performance.

Filler’s performance included a rendition of “Hallelujah” in Yiddish, which can be seen here.

Shieff and Trotter urged people to get involved with the Jewish Lives project, as did the event’s MC Dame Lesley Max.