Over 50 members of Cairns’s tiny Jewish population have celebrated Purim, listening to the Megillah being read by their new permanent rabbi.
27-yr-old Rabbi Ari Rubin has travelled the 2800 kms from his Melbourne home with his wife Mushkie and daughter Deborah to become the first resident rabbi in the bustling centre of the tourist area of North Queensland.
Over 15 children joined in the celebrations and to listen to the Megillah being read by the city’s new rabbi.
Rabbi Rubin told J-Wire: “Purim in Cairns was special and now we are off to Townsville to do it all again.”
But Chabad have bigger ideas in store for Rabbi Rubin. His congregation will span more than 1000km of Queensland coastline extending from Cooktown in the north to Mackay in the south.
Chabad of Regional and Rural Australia told J-Wire that Rabbi Rubin does not yet have a Torah to use during services but “we are working on one”.
RARA’s Saul Spigler told J-Wire: “Rabbi Rubin will conduct two Shabbat service out of three in Cairns and travel to Townsville for the third one.”
Cairns was not the only regional part of Australia to celebrate Purim through RARA’s work.
Purim events were held in Queensland in Townsville, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast; in New South Wales in Coffs Harbour, Newcastle and Wollongong and In Victoria in Ferntree Gully and Geelong.
