MELBOURNE—Australia’s vast northern state, Queensland, juts defiantly towards the equator, as if daring people to make a home on its sunburnt plains.
Its upper coast is dotted with places like Cairns and Cook and Mackay—towns that look and feel like they were frozen in the 1970s. They form a region known as Northern Queensland—one of the most remote areas in one of the most remote continents on Earth. And after Rabbi Ari and Mushkie Rubin set up shop last month, establishing Chabad-Lubavitch of North Queensland, it became the latest opening on Chabad’s global frontier.
George Koulakis, a former engineer in the Royal Australian Air Force, lives in Townsville, the unofficial capital of the region and home to some 200 Jews. It’s “an extraordinary community,” he booms over the phone from 1,500 miles away, made up of “Aussies, Israelis, Jewish university students, backpackers.”
Koulakis was Chabad’s point man in the area for nearly a decade, running Jewish life on the ground in liaison with Chabad of Rural and Regional Australia (RARA) headquarters in Melbourne. As each Jewish season rolled in, he would marshal the plucky community for a Passover seder, a Purim party or a Yom Kippur service.
Hundreds of miles away from the closest synagogue, the Jews of Townsville and nearby Cairns (which has around 300 Jews) created for themselves a warm outpost of Judaism in which a historical romanticist might hear echoes of the tough little Jewish communities that once dotted Russia’s agricultural regions. “Mate, no one’s heard of Townsville,” laughs Koulakis, “but there are guys in Israel who will forever remember their Pesachs in Townsville or Cairns when they were here backpacking.”
‘Build on Local Knowledge’
As more couples with young children began to filter into the area, the Jewish community could no longer exist as an email list, their communal life a series of RSVPs and potlucks and heartfelt promises of “that was great, we must do it again.”
Saul Spigler, a lawyer and forensic geologist who is Chabad of RARA’s founder and president, had long toyed with the idea of a permanent Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Northern Queensland. RARA has nurtured Jewish life in North Queensland for almost two decades, hosting services and events throughout the year, and ensuring a steady supply of home visits, classes and Jewish paraphernalia.
They would fly in yeshivah students for days and weeks at a time, “but that wasn’t enough,” according to Spigler. “With Ari and Mushkie there full time, we can build on our local knowledge, develop proper relationships with the community and offer classes at the local level.”
The Rubins made their big move (Ari is from Melbourne; Mushkie is from New York) just before Purim with their 2-year-old daughter Devorah Leah in tow. By the time the fierce Queensland sun slipped below the horizon on Purim night, the Rubins had a party in full swing.
“It was great,” says the rabbi. “We had five or six stations for the kids to do activities.” He read the Megillah, told the Purim story and sat around for hours for laughs over drinks. “The next morning, we drove to Townsville, and did it all again.”
The coastal lifestyle seems to agree with the Rubins. The towns are still small enough that the rabbi gets stopped by curious locals whenever he is out and about, his yarmulke and beard a magnet for conversations. Life is slow, and people have time to think about things like their religion. The young couple has big plans for their new home and new community. They want to open a “Mommy & Me” group, offer Hebrew school, and focus on child and adult Jewish education.
In the meantime, says Rubin, he’ll drive around the parched back roads of Queensland, looking for Jews in the tiny, one-pub hamlets that sprinkle the Australian continent.
He’ll ask them to come for a Shabbat meal in Cairns, just 200 miles or so up the road or so, or invite them to the next big event.
For Jews searching for their roots, home is never too far.
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