You come to sing: Kehilat Kolenu, the Melbourne congregation with a difference

BENJAMIN PREISS: Kolenu has struck a chord with young Jews craving something different. Its co-founder talks about the secret of its success and post-Covid future

IN 2019 CROWD NUMBERS were soaring at Kehilat Kolenu’s Melbourne gatherings, culminating in a Yom Kippur service that attracted 750 people.  

Demand was so high that organisers introduced a ticketing system to make sure the venue, Habonim Dror’s hall in Elsternwick, was not completely swamped.  

Around this time the Shabbat services were regularly attracting about 110 people who were drawn to the secular congregation’s style of Judaism, which emphasised music and group singing rather than traditional prayers.  

Co-founder and community director Ash Densham says Kolenu, Hebrew for “our voice”, had evolved rapidly from the first service in 2012 held in the living room of his brother’s St Kilda share house. 

In those early days about 30 people (mostly former and current Habonim leaders) would gather on the wooden floor, the scent of incense wafting through the house as djembe drums, guitars and singing bounced off the walls on Friday evenings.  

Densham says they came together for Kabbalat Shabbat services that celebrated a Judaism that was free of religious rigmarole but fitted neatly with their contemporary moral values.  

“We were tapping into that philosophy and bringing that to life in Melbourne,” he says. “The group of us who started it off were really just looking for more musicality.”  

The format was modelled on a religious Kabbalat Shabbat service and they made a siddur but it omitted almost all references to God.