Rabbi Mendel Junik prays while overlooking the rugged outback of the Pilbara region in western Australia. (Courtesy of Rabbi Menachem Aron)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Young Rabbis Menachem Manssouri and Mendel Junik from Los Angeles flew to Australia in early June for a month, for example, to conduct a 2,500-mile road trip to find Jews to connect with. The trip began in Darwin \u2014 one of Australia\u2019s most remote capital cities, which has no existing Jewish infrastructure, and according to the 2021 Australian census, a total of 91 Jews.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started in Darwin where we had a list [of Jewish people]. In Darwin, we probably met up with 40 Jews,\u201d Manssouri said.<\/p>\n
From Darwin, Manssouri and Junik flew to Broome in Western Australia and drove thousands of miles up the coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did something very unique compared to other RARA trips. We went to a lot of towns. South Hedland. Roebourne. Monkey Mia. Deham. Exmouth. No one had ever done those areas,\u201d Manssouri said.<\/p>\n
When asked how he located Jews in towns where there are no existing contacts, Manssouri was full of practical advice. \u201cWe go to the police station. The hospital. We walk around town to all the stores trying to get leads. We were pretty successful with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Manssouri is awed by the way he connected with Jews in the most unexpected places \u2014 including at one of Australia\u2019s most remote gas stations, in Karratha, a city in the sparsely-populated Pilbara region. Manssouri talked to Jews who were waiting to fill up their RV with gas and who lived a more than 15-hour drive to the nearest synagogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look back at it, it blows you away,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople think that they get inspired by the rabbis, but really, the rabbis get inspired by the people. It\u2019s a two-way connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around 7 million people, or 28% of the Australian population, live in remote or rural areas, according to the country\u2019s government. According to Aron, there are about 10,000 Jewish people living in regional and remote Australia, and he said personally keeps in contact with approximately 4,000 of them. (There are approximately 120,000 Jews in all of Australia.)<\/p>\n
The Chabad movement is constantly extending its global footprint; in the past years emissaries have established a presence in places from Zambia to Costa Rica to the Canary Islands. Their methods of growing communities in certain countries can be contentious and cause friction with existing communities.<\/p>\n
But their track record of growth is undeniable. Around 100 Jews lived in Cairns, Australia, for example \u2014 a small city in the Queensland state that\u2019s over 1,000 miles from Brisbane, the state\u2019s largest city \u2014 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, the city boasts closer to 500 Jews and what is likely the largest communal Passover seder in all of Australia, drawing over 130 people in 2021. It\u2019s one of the Chabad centers connected to the RARA branch.<\/p>\n
Aron nominated Groote Eylandt, an island in the Gulf of Carpentaria \u2014 which, on the northern coast of Australia is not far from Papua New Guinea \u2014 as the most exotic location he sent a shofar to in 2022. A Jewish woman working there in manganese ore mines had specifically requested one.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia is four-fifths the size of the United States of America. It\u2019s a massive country with not a lot of people in it, just 25 million,\u201d said Aron. \u201cThere are more Jews in Boca Raton than the entire Australia. You can drive for 27 hours and still be in the same state, but we don\u2019t let that be a barrier to connecting with others and sharing a Jewish connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
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