Latest RARA News

Our young rabbis are off today! Heading to Darwin, Toowoomba and Katoomba to facilitate community Seders for people all over regional Australia. 

What an effort!!

Will you be joining a Seder with them?

Will you be joining with Chabad for the community Passover Seder next Wednesday evening, 1 April 2026? 

(Yes, Passover is really next week!!)

We'd love to celebrate with you.

Community Seders will be taking place in all off the following locations:

There's no secret that recent times have been tough. Very tough.

We've identified a need for mental health support for Jewish people living in regional areas.

A quick 3-minute survey is now available, helping shape future programs and support across the community.

Our volunteers have arrived in Griffith NSW, this evening.

They were hoping to visit Professor Max Hopp, a long time paediatrician who was, from South Africa, and had served the region for more than 25 years. However, we've just learned that he tragically passed last September in a bike accident.

Do we know anyone in Griffith NSW, that would appreciate a visit?

Are you a pickles type of person or more of the Matza type?

Looking for a Seder around regional Australia, need some Matza, or want to learn more about Pesach?

We've got everything you need on one convenient page!

Please visit https://www.chabadofrara.org/7283850 for all your 2026 Pesach needs! 

It has been a busy week as we assist with coordinating supplies that will enable hundreds of people around the country to celebrate Pesach this year.

We've been moving Matza, wine, and lots of catering supplies many other supplies all over the country to ensure that everyone is well cared for over Pesach.

Thank you to our helpers and partners that enable this to all happen!

Our rabbis had a lovely visit with Harry, in the Goldfields region of Victoria.

It's always incredible how we have so much in common, yet come from such diverse backgrounds.

We had a fabulous day at the In One Voice festival in Elsternwick, Melbourne at the Chabad of RARA stand.

So nice to meet up with so many old friends, and make some new connections as well.

A beautiful display of Jewish unity today!

Well done to the organisers!

The best part about this post is that you can have these items in your house, before Pesach this year. Better not wait around - the Seder night is Wednesday evening, 1 April!

Yiddishkeit on the Western Australian Goldfields in the 1890's:

Coolgardie was a tough place. The city’s population was young, transient, and disproportionately male, with many people competing over very little money. Camels were the primary method of transportation in the vast arid desert. Sanitary conditions were terrible, and disease was rife. In 1898, Joseph Hyam Myslis lost his own newborn daughter, Freidl (Phoebe), to typhus.

The 55 Jews living in Coolgardie (40 of them males) organized themselves into a community, and the High Holoday prayers conducted by Joseph Myslis attracted a crowd of 100 people, including Jews working on remote goldfields in the area!

Read more about the fascinating life and times of this unusual outback travelling Jew in the comments below.

Jim is a long time Warrnambool local, and a big supporter of the Jewish people. Our rabbis visited Jim this afternoon, and it was a breath of fresh air to meet such a wonderful friend!