SEEDING THE FUTURE

This Rosh Hashanah, we are proud to share the next chapter of Shtiebel. We have purchased 281 Hawthorn Road, Caulfield South, which will become our permanent home and the future Shtiebel Cultural Centre.

This is much more than the purchase of a building. It is an investment in the kind of Jewish life we believe can flourish here and an opportunity to create something genuinely different for Melbourne.

We are not simply buying ourselves a bigger Shtiebel, and we are certainly not setting out to build just another synagogue. We want to create more than just a synagogue: a Jewish cultural centre bringing together learning and literature, music and art, food and film, performance and conversation, festivals and celebrations, alongside prayer, Torah and the lifecycle experiences at the heart of our community.

WHY NOW?

The past few years have asked difficult questions of Jewish Australians. Much of our communal conversation has understandably focused on antisemitism, safety, security and belonging. These concerns are real, and our investment in keeping Jewish communities safe is both necessary and important. But it cannot be the only investment we make in our Jewish future.

Our focus on safety and security must be balanced by an equally determined focus on Jewish life. We need to invest in more learning, more culture, more creativity, more community and more opportunities to live Judaism proudly, joyfully and without apology. 

At a moment when we must invest in protecting Jewish life, we must also invest in living it. The Shtiebel Cultural Centre is our investment in that future: in the possibility of a confident, creative and flourishing Jewish life here in Melbourne, and in creating the space for generations to come to learn, gather, celebrate, create and belong.

WE BOUGHT THE FIELD

More than 2,500 years ago, as Jerusalem was under siege and its future looked desperately uncertain, the prophet Jeremiah did something seemingly irrational. He bought a field.

Jeremiah did not buy the field because everything was fine. He bought it precisely because everything was not fine. He refused to allow the terrible moment through which he was living to become the whole story. His purchase was a decision made today that belonged to tomorrow.

That story speaks powerfully to this moment. We could wait for the world to become calmer and the future more certain, or we could invest now in the Jewish future we want to create.

So we bought the field!

MORE THAN JUST A SYNAGOGUE

Jewish life has never existed only inside a sanctuary. It happens around tables and in kitchens, through books and ideas, music and art, stories and conversations. Sometimes over Torah, and sometimes over coffee.

The Shtiebel Cultural Centre will make room for all of it: a place alive throughout the week, with our library at its heart and flexible spaces for learning, performance, exhibitions, hospitality, prayer and community.

Most importantly, we want to create a different kind of entry point to Jewish life. A place where someone might come for an exhibition, concert, lecture, film, meal or coffee, and discover along the way that Jewish community might belong to them too.

SEEDING THE FUTURE

On Rosh Hashanah, we gave everyone native wildflower seed balls and invited them to take them home and plant them.

It is a small expression of a much bigger idea. Buying the property is only the beginning. What grows there will depend on what all of us are prepared to plant.

Seeding the Future is our campaign to transform 281 Hawthorn Road into the Shtiebel Cultural Centre. Over the coming years, we will invite our community and those who share this vision to help us create a permanent home for a Jewish life that is confident, creative, welcoming and alive.

Some will plant ideas, time and expertise. Others will make the philanthropic gifts that allow us to build. Every contribution will help shape what grows here.