Published: 10 November 2026
Last updated: 10 November 2026
I grew up in Brisbane, where there are only two synagogues, neither of which can get a minyan. They always seemed to be a few people short. You might ask, why don’t the two synagogues just merge?
Well, because then you might have to go to synagogue. And it’s too nice outside in Brisbane for that.
It’s like that classic Jewish joke about a Jew stranded on an island. When a rescue team arrives, they notice he’s built one living space and two synagogues. The Jew explains, “That’s the shule I go to, that’s the shule I don’t.”
Except in Brisbane, they say, “That’s the shule I don’t go to, and that’s the shule I’d never go to.”
Like many Jews from Brisbane, I eventually moved to Melbourne, where there are many synagogues you can not go to. There are more synagogues in Melbourne than there are political parties in Israel.
In Israel, the synagogues are full, but the Knesset is empty.
The Israeli parliament currently has two blocs, neither of which can form a government. It’s harder to form a government in Israel than it is to get a minyan in Brisbane.
Religiously we may be monotheistic, but politically we are pagan. The Knesset is unicameral, but the country is bipolar.
Elections in a Westminster democracy deliver a government and an opposition. Elections in a Jewish democracy deliver two oppositions and another election.
Now that’s value!
The adage goes, two Jews, three opinions, but a single Israeli can produce three all on their own: the party they would sit with, the party they would not sit with, and the party they will never sit with.
