Passover NZ

The Jewish scene in Christchurch is fairly unsubstantial. According to my sources, there are approximately 150 Jews in the entire region of Canterbury (pop. ~ 530,000), which includes only 3 observant families. So, the Canterbury Hebrew Congregation--which is located in a beautiful, new, stone building just north of city centre--can only support traditional Saturday morning services and progressive Friday evening services every other week. Most of the congregants are secular with young families and are recent arrivals to New Zealand. One Friday evening service that I attended drew about 20 people, at least 5 of whom were travelers or non-members.

Friday night services are mostly in English and are led by a British psychologist who has lived most of her recent life in the American Southwest, American Northwest, and France with her husband, a San Francisco Bay area native and sociologist who is currently on Faculty at Lincoln University in Christchurch. At services, I also met Eyal, an Israeli who arrived in New Zealand 7 years ago to go to university in Wellington, and decided to stay. Now, he is a dual citizen of New Zealand and Israel and is working towards a degree in audiology at Canterbury. I also spoke with others: Australians on holiday, Egyptians, Kiwis, Americans, French, secular, converts, chabadniks, and more Israelis. The warmth of this patchwork community is reflected in the absence of a defining movement or denomination, and is strengthened in its lacking of a Rabbi.

The Passover seder that I attended was led by an older British man on holiday with his wife. He encouraged the participation of all the children (who made up at least a third of group), and added his own memories and interpretations of certain songs and rituals. Just as my family does, we went around all of the tables, taking turns reading a paragraph or two of the Hagaddah. Some in English, some in Hebrew. Some read like my mother and grandmother: slow and deliberate, adding punctuation and accents as if telling a bedtime story. Others rushed hastily through with hunger on their lips. It was amusing to listen to the many international voices, traditions, and tunes attempting to blend. Ultimately, in an attempt to unite, our discordant and scattered phrasings, tunes, and harmonies disrupted one another and created a sonic diffraction pattern echoing our motley crew.

We ate a delicious three course meal complete with haroset and maror, all prepared by a restaurateur/chef in the community. I chatted with the psychologist, a couple of Kiwi university students, a French girl studying at yeshiva in Sydney here on holiday. (As I will be in Sydney this coming weekend for a conference, I may spend a meal with her and her friends.) The evening ended rather informally as a young rabbinical student from Australia led the grace after meals in a rich tenor vibrato.

Soon after, I hopped on my bike, rode home, and thought about the differences between this community and the U.S. In contrast to the North Island and New York, the Canterbury community has no divisions and no need for denominations. We were all just Jews of various colors, observances, and nationalities who were happy to have found a small gathering of other Jews with whom to spend the holiday. Abroad, especially in places like New Zealand, certain markers of religiosity--a skirt, a kippah, a black hat, pants, a beard, shomer shabbat, an accent, yiddish, kashrut--are no longer signs of difference, exclusion, or inclusion, they're merely personal tokens of the diversity of our communities, beliefs, and convictions.

Autumn approaches down under. The leaves are changing and the air is crisper. I feel like Thanksgiving should come soon, but in an odd turn of events, Easter and Passover have just past and we're heading straight for the chill of May and June.

Cheers,

D