Canberra, Australia – Last year, at the behest of Rabbi Aharon Serebryanski, a leading Chabad rabbi in Melbourne, as is the way for the families of young Chabad Rabbis committed to the Chabad mission, young Rabbi Dan and his wife Naomi Avital were sent to Canberra, Australia. Landing in a city unknown to them, belongings packed into their car, they embarked on establishing a life for themselves, and to build the foundations of the first permanent Chabad community in Australia’s Capital. “Many of my counterparts are sent to farflung countries where they don’t speak the local language, or the climate is extreme and infrastructure poor”, said Rabbi Avital. “We count ourselves lucky to stay within Australia, only a short flight from family, and to speak the local language. We’re also lucky that a Jewish community already existed in Canberra, which allowed us to tap into some infrastructure, such as kosher food suppliers, Jewish media, and an Jewish student community”.
Now, fifteen months since their arrival, festival by festival, occasion by occasion, a community is starting to congregate around the Rabbi and his young family (which happily now includes one year old Chaya). They have hosted many successful events and functions, reaching out to the local congregants as well as political and diplomatic communities.