New Zealand’s largest progressive Judaism congregation.
Beth Shalom synagogue is the home to the Auckland Congregation for Progressive Judaism. It is also known as the Beth Shalom Progressive Congregation. The Congregation was formed at a March 6, 1952 meeting of forty people. For the next two years religious services were held in the Royal Commonwealth Society rooms in Auckland. In 1953 land was purchased at the synagogue’s current location and the new building, designed by Auckland architect Albert Goldwater, was opened and dedicated in 1960.
At first the Congregation was served by student rabbis. In 1983 the congregation engaged Rabbi Paula Winnig, the first woman to serve in a rabbinical position in New Zealand. The congregation is rightly proud of its Hebrew school which has grown from about 14 pupils in the late 1970s to over 50 at present day. The congregation has over 220 member units.
