History of the Jews in New Zealand
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 6,867 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Auckland, Wellington | |
| Languages | |
| English, Hebrew, Yiddish | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism |
Little is known of Jews in New Zealand before 1831, when Anglo-Jewish traders are known to have arrived. Their traditional roles as multi-lingual travellers between European ports gave them a flexibility in negotiating with the native Māori people. Spreading the news of economic possibilities to their economically depressed countrymen, they helped to urge development and emigration for people from the British Isles.
Small numbers of Anglo-Jewish immigrants followed, some subsidized by a Jewish charity in London which had a mission of caring for the poor and orphaned young people in the community. These "subsidized" Jewish immigrants were also intended by their benefactors to be devout members of the fledgling Jewish community in Wellington, to which the respected English business leader Abraham Hort, Senior, was sent from London to organize along London religious lines. The difficulties of life in early colonial New Zealand, together with historically high rates of intermarriage, made it hard to maintain strict religious observation in any of the new congregations.
Following news of gold rushes, Jewish immigrants poured in from new lands such as Germany, and then moved on when the boom was over. These immigrants, and others from Eastern Europe faced an increasingly stringent immigration policy throughout the end of the 19th and mid 20th century, but Jewish New Zealanders and their descendants have continued to contribute in business, medicine, politics, and other areas of New Zealand life, at the highest levels, and the spectrum of Jewish religious observance continues in communities throughout the country. While New Zealand has experienced several anti-Semitic incidents in recent decades, the government and public response has been swift and unequivocal.
Anglo-Jewish traders were among the whalers, missionaries and other Europeans who explored New Zealand in the early decades of the 1800s.
Joel Samuel Polack, the best known and most influential of them, arrived in New Zealand in 1831. Polack, an English-born Jew, opened a general store at Kororareka in the Bay of Islands, where, following the tradition of centuries of European "Port Jews", his respect for the Māori people's culture earned him unique access and insights as a trader.
John Israel Montefiore, also an English-born Jew, left Sydney, Australia for New Zealand in October 1831. He became a merchant in Tauranga and Kororareka, and later, Auckland, where he featured prominently in civic affairs.
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