Jill Woodward devoted her life to violins, but only one violin devoted its life to her, a famous instrument dating from 1765 that enjoyed pride of place with the St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra that regularly performs in downtown Auckland.

The story of the Nathan family who arrived from London and Sydney in 1840 to build a new life and businesses in the newly founded city of Auckland. Read the fascinating history of two generations of this enterprising Jewish family as they negotiate their new life in Aotearoa.

A generally accepted definition of Zionism is ‘the nationalist movement calling for the establishment and support of an independent state for the Jewish people in its ancient homeland’. But what did Zionism mean for a small Jewish community at the ‘uttermost ends of the earth’, in the early twentieth century?

The capture of Jerusalem in December 1917 held great symbolic meaning for Jewish people. The eventual overthrow of Ottoman rule of Palestine was a monumental step towards the attainment of the Zionist dream.

Yitzhak Treister tells the story of his great uncle, Isaac Gotlieb’s connection to New Zealand’s decision to support the Partition Plan. Gotlieb was a passionate Zionist. In 1943, he became the first head of the New Zealand Zionist Federation.

While the Jewish community shared the general concern to fight the threat a Nazi-led Germany posed for the free world, they carried the added burden of worry for fellow Jews targeted by Hitler’s antisemitic regime.

Cheryl Sucher introduces us to a number of significant Jewish pioneers and personalities that have helped to create this southernmost island community of Jews in the world.

Conserving and restoring these sites preserves a physical trace of the central Auckland Jewish community in the nineteenth century, an important part of Auckland’s history.

David Nathan had decided that if the powers-to-be determined that the new capital was to be on the shores of the Waitemata Harbour then he would follow.

In this, the second of a series of four essays, Auckland University history scholar Sarah Oliver looks at how the Jewish people flourished in early Auckland.

When two Israelis, Yossi and Michal Essed unexpectedly turned up on Warren Dawson’s doorstep, he had no idea it would lead to a journey to Israel to trace the footsteps of his grandfather who fought in WW1’s Palestine Campaign.

This work is an anthology, a collection of essays, both textual and photographic, augmented by further information panels and images.

Home to the Hebrew Congregation, and bridge to the wider city, the Wellington Jewish Community Centre is home to the capital’s Orthodox Hebrew Congregation and synagogue.

Beth Shalom houses the Auckland Congregation for Progressive Judaism. The story of Beth Shalom begins with an inaugural meeting at the home of the Pezaro's, one of the Congregation's founding families, on March 6, 1952. 

Wellington based writer, David Cohen explores, through image and text, the long standing relationship between Maori and Jewish peoples living in New Zealand.