Melbourne, Australia – With property prices in Caulfield skyrocketing for the average – or larger than average – Jewish family, interest is being sought to establish a new Jewish community in a more affordable part of Melbourne.
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A group of charity-minded individuals have held a couple of meetings to test whether members of Melbourne’s various Orthodox communities would be interested in moving their families elsewhere. Suggestions have ranged from Altona in the west to Frankston and Dandenong in the south.
The purpose-built satellite Jewish community would consist of several houses, a synagogue, sports facilities, recreational areas and shops. It would also likely need an eruv around its perimeter.
The price of building a new Jewish suburb is still being considered, but the group’s spokesperson, Ruvi Herzog, thinks that if enough people express interest, it should be completed by late 2010.
Herzog is realistic about the difficult choice families will have to make to move away from their local shul, from Jewish schools and from their ageing parents.
“As far as a Jewish community is concerned, you would need to have 100 [families] and in terms of the religious community, because part of it would have to be religious, I think you would need 25 or 30 religious families [to make it possible],” he said. [ajn]
As a Canadian Jew who is used to having access to synagogues and kosher foods all over Toronto, it’s very sad that Jews outside of the highly unaffordable CAulfield, East St. Kilda, Balaclava etc enclave must shelp to a synagogue or make special trips to stock up on kosher meat.
We just purchased a home in Noble Park and we would love nothing more than to be part of a Jewish environment that is within a few km radius.