Multicultural Rosh Hashanah seder offers a gateway to understanding

The Jewish community’s traditionally strong multicultural links have struggled since October 7, increasingly so as the Gaza war progressed, so it was no small achievement to bring together almost 100 multicultural and interfaith leaders for a Rosh Hashanah celebration.

The Rosh Hashanah Seder – an affirmation of hope for a better new year – is a Sephardi tradition increasingly embraced by the wider Jewish community.

Perhaps our Australian Jewish community’s greatest hope as we wade forward into 5786 is that we’re not alone in our communal pain – that through the dustclouds of conflict and antisemitism shines a ray of understanding.

Nursing that hope, it was uplifting to find myself among a contingent of almost 100 participants from a multitude of Victorian ethnic and faith communities breaking bread at a pre-Rosh Hashanah seder organised by Kehilat Nitzan, Melbourne’s Masorti (Conservative Judaism) congregation.

The September 7 event, co-sponsored by the Council of Christians and Jews (Victoria) and the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, brought together representatives from an array of Australian communties.

Leaders from the Uniting Church community, the Melbourne Catholic Saint Augustine’s Parish, the Chinese Australian Multicultural Association, the Sikh community, the Serbian Orthodox community, Melbourne’s Baha’i, Hindu, Sri Lankan and Lebanese communities were among the guests.