Children from St Paul’s Parish in Mount Lawley visited Perth’s Jewish synagogue on May 13 in preparation for their First Holy Communion next month.
Sixteen children, most of whom were from St Paul’s Catholic Primary School, joined parish priest Fr Tim Deeter for an informative tour of the home of the Perth Hebrew Congregation.
The tour was led by Rabbi Nathanael, who explained the meaning of numerous Jewish symbols, such as the menorah, the mezuzah, the yarmulke and the siddu.
“One of the reasons this suburb is called Menora is because the structure of the neighbourhood looks like a menorah,” he said.
The Rabbi also explained the importance of the Sabbath to the Jews, and even gave the group a demonstration of how the Jews chant from the Torah scrolls.
It was the second time Fr Tim has taken children preparing for First Holy Communion to visit the synagogue, and he told The Record there were several reasons why he believed it was useful for them.
“The First Holy Communion catechism which I wrote, and which we use in instructing the children for the Sacrament, includes several questions and answers about the influence of Judaism upon our Catholic liturgy,” he said.
“A lot of Catholic adults don’t realise how much Judaism has been the source of our liturgical practices.”
He also said it was good for the children and the parish to be aware of the synagogue’s presence in the local community.
“When St Paul’s was founded in 1956, it was given the name St Paul in recognition of the fact that we are a Catholic community in a neighbourhood which has many Jewish residents,” Fr Tim explained.
“As St Paul was himself a Jew and always went first to the local synagogue whenever he went to a new town to preach the Gospel, so the parish is called to witness Christ’s message of love and reconciliation in our broader community.”
In recent years, St Paul’s parishioners have attended the annual Kristallnacht ceremony and the lighting of the Hannukah menorah, Fr Tim said.
“The First Holy Communion visit helps the children become more aware of the ‘Jewishness’ of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and reminds them that the Jewish people, the children of the covenant, still live in our midst and pray the way the holy family and the first Christians would have prayed,” he said.