Our History
Kehilat Nitzan was formed in March 1999 by Professor John Rosenberg together with a small group of people interested in establishing a Masorti community in Melbourne. John had been an active participant in the Masorti minyan at the Emanuel Synagogue in Sydney and was interested in developing a Masorti chavurah when he moved to Melbourne.
From an initial meeting 11 years ago with 41 participants, we have grown to a self-sustaining kehillah of approximately 250 families. Nitzan means "a bud," and indeed, we are a congregation who planted the first seeds of Masorti Judaism in Melbourne and we are continuing to blossom.
For the first six years, we operated on a lay-leadership model, and were blessed to have help and guidance from a number of Masorti rabbis from North America and Israel who visited us for short periods. Starting in January 2006, Rabbi Ehud Bandel from Jerusalem, a recognized leader in the world Masorti movement, served as our Rabbi and emissary to the community during the formative years of our congregation. It was a pleasure to have him, his wife Avital, and their children Hadas and Ro'i as part of our close-knit community. Rabbi Bandel and his family returned to Israel in September 2010.
After the arrival of Rabbi Bandel, we saw a steady rise in membership with nearly 600 people attending services on the high holidays. 70% of our members are drawn from mainstream Orthodoxy, 20% from the Progressive movement and the rest were previously unaffiliated.
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