Photo: Rabbi Mendel Junik
Ruth Hannah, 72 and daughter of Holocaust survivors, has lived in Mallacoota for more than 30 years and knows of only one other Jewish person in her Australian town of 1,183. Mallacoota is located on the 650-mile coastal route from Melbourne to Sydney and preparing for Jewish festivals can be challenging. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement has filled the void for Hannah and other Jews who live in the outback, with groups of young Chabad students. Rabbi Menachem Aron and his wife, Rebbetzin Shevi Aron, based in Melbourne, coordinate the Chabad of RARA — Regional and Rural Australia. As well as care packages with food and materials to use in celebrating holidays, Chabad of RARA also sends out the roving rabbis to visit Jews and deliver supplies in person. Aron keeps in touch with 4,000 of the 10,000 Jewish people who live in regional and remote Australia. There are approximately 120,000 Jews in Australia as a whole.
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