Around the world, Jews have made every continent and frontier their home. Into the Northern Wilderness of America's most remote state one can discover the heritage of the native peoples and to experience a thriving and important Jewish presence there. Jewish communities are to be found in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Nome, Ketchikan, and Wasilla. From Alaska's Inside Passage, Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Valdez, Seward, Anchorage, Wasilla, Denali, Fairbanks, and Nome, meeting Jewish residents of Alaska, hearing the tales of the Jewish contribution to the Gold Rush and the harsh but rewarding life of this vast frontier, with stories of Jews who left their lives in the lower 48 states or elsewhere in the world behind them to settle in this magnificent, but isolated countryside and retain their ties to Judaism.

These pages remain on my site as a resource. You'll find the Jewish presence in Alaska so important to the state's heritage. Visit the extensive collection of Alaska Jewish Links and read of Alaska's long Jewish heritage. Below, see the list of coming tours, including Australia/New Zealand in November 2009 and Argentina/Chile in Spring 2010.

Travel Harmony & Joy Katzen-Guthrie Present CHAI AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND SHOMER SHABBAT TOUR An Exhilarating Discovery of Indigenous and Jewish Experience Down Under First-Class Touring of Auckland • Rotorua • Melbourne • Philip Island • Dandenong Ranges • Blue Mountains • Sydney November 4-22, 2009 (18 Days/17 Nights in Australia/New Zealand, plus Guided Round-Trip Air from Los Angeles) A SMALL GROUP TOUR with Maximum 25 Travellers / Minimum of ten travelers to proceed CLICK TO VIEW HIGHLIGHTS of this Magnificent Itinerary

First Dawn, College Fiord, Sapphire Princess, September 2, 2006
Photo ©2006 by Joy Katzen-Guthrie. Alll rights reserved.

Jews were among the Danish expeditions led by explorer Vitus Bering in 1728 to map the coastline and create a permanent Russian presence to this northern tundra. Seward's very purchase of Alaska was the result of strenuous U.S. lobbying and Czarist negotiations sponsored by the Jewish merchants of San Francisco, who had established trading relations with Russian Alaska. Dawson City was site of Alaska's first Jewish services in 1898. Jews were prominent in Alaska's Gold Rush: Lewis Gerstle's Steamboats provided transportation for stampeders on the Yukon River, and J.B. Gottstein's warehouses supplied many of their goods. The Gerstle River in North East Alaska is named after Lewis Gerstle, the San Francisco merchant who, with Lewis Sloss, purchased the Russian Trading Company and renamed it the Alaska Commercial Company — becoming a major provider of groceries and general merchandise for trappers, explorers and gold seekers, steamboat transportation, and financing of Alaskan mining ventures. These village stores became the center of community activities, serving as post office, community hall, courtroom, marriage parlor, funeral home, bank, and safe haven for travelers and settlers. Mt. Ripinsky, which overlooks the Haines townsite, is named for pioneering Jewish settler Solomon Ripinsky, who made an enormous contribution to the communities of Sitka, Unalaska, Chilkat, and Haines. In 1900, Jews of the Gold Rush boom town of Nome formed the state's first Jewish congregation, and in 1901 its first Jewish organization, the Nome Hebrew Benevolent Society. Fairbanks' Jewish community was founded in 1904. Russian Jew Abe Spring was Fairbanks' first mayor. Lithuanian Jew Robert Bloom peddled merchandise and ran a general store until 1941 and was a leader of the Fairbanks Jewish Community for nearly half a century. Anchorage elected its first Jewish mayor, David Leopold, in 1920. Lithuanian Jew Zachary Loussac was a member of the town's first city council and elected mayor in 1948. New York Jew Ernest Gruening, was appointed Alaska's first Governor from 1939 to 1953, was a leader in the drive for statehood, and was elected Alaska's first senator. Reform congregation Beth Sholom of Anchorage seats up to 400 worshippers while Chabad Congregation Shomrei Ohr of Anchorage is home to an active Lubavitch Jewish Center, day school, adult classes, mikvah, and Funeral Society. Juneau is home to the Reform Juneau Jewish Community and Fairbanks home of Reform Congregation Or HaTzafon. Jews hold formal services and activities in some eight other areas of Alaska as well. These Frozen Chosen, as they call themselves, say anti-semitism in Alaska is extremely rare. The state, as well as the Jewish identity in this frozen north, has been through an amazing transformation over three centuries. Read much more on these pages and enjoy.

Australia/New Zealand Heritage Tours ... From Joy Katzen-Guthrie

For centuries, Jewish life has thrived Down Under, in lands that are among the most remote in the world. A small group of Jews was among the first Westerners to arrive in Australia. Maintaining tradition and Jewish identity was essential for those who chose to live in this part of the world. After World War II, Australia would become a refuge for thousands of Holocaust survivors. Today, Australia and New Zealand are home to an unprecendented number of synagogues, Jewish schools, and cultural and religious organizations. I am thrilled to announce my Jewish Heritage Tour of Australia/New Zealand for November 2009.

Sydney's Great Synagogue Photo courtesy of amyisrael

Photo ©Sydney's Great Synagogue

Rimona Kedem Window Photo ©Melbourne Hebrew Congregation

In Auckland, the Auckland Hebrew Congregation and Congregation Beth Shalom serve the Jewish community. The historic former Princes St. Synagogue is fully restored and furnished. Melbourne's first formal synagogue, founded in 1848, the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, completed in 1930, with its Corinthian pillars, copper dome, bimah carved from Tasmanian blackwood (possibly the finest example of timber work in Australia) and its stained glass windows created by the Israeli artist, Rimona Kedem, seats more than 1300. The graceful domed St. Kilda Hebrew Congregation, founded 1872, is Melbourne's traditional Orthodox Congregation. Melbourne's Jewish Museum of Australia displays Jewish culture, history and religious practice. The Museum is a national institution dedicated to the conservation, preservation and exhibition of Jewish heritage, arts, custom and religious practice in all its diversity. In particular it illustrates the Australian Jewish experience. Through its exhibitions it tells of the common experience of migration, displacement and the challenge of adaptation to a new land. The Great Synagogue, is one of Sydney's most opulent and historic heritage buildings. The Synagogue has stood on its present site for well over a hundred and twenty years. The Sydney Jewish Museum, with its exhibits of Holocaust and Australian Jewish History, is dedicated to documenting and teaching the history of the Holocaust. Housed in the historic Maccabean Hall, the museum is a testimony to the fortitude and endurance of the human spirit.

These congregations, which our group will visit in addition to a magnificent itinerary of local historical, indigenous, and nature sites, are only a sprinkling of the many congregations and Jewish organizations that serve the diverse Jewish communities of Australia and New Zealand. Peruse this site to see more examples of the unity, commitment, and strength of the Jews Down Under. Visit the Australia Jewish Links section for a much more detailed listing of the Jewish communities of Australia and New Zealand. And join me in New Zealand and Australia this November for a one-of-a-kind experience Down Under. ~Joy

Travel Harmony & Joy Katzen-Guthrie Present CHAI AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND SHOMER SHABBAT TOUR An Exhilarating Discovery of Indigenous and Jewish Experience Down Under First-Class Touring of Auckland • Rotorua • Melbourne • Philip Island • Dandenong Ranges • Blue Mountains • Sydney November 4-22, 2009 (18 Days/17 Nights in Australia/New Zealand, plus Guided Round-Trip Air from Los Angeles) A SMALL GROUP TOUR with Maximum 25 Travellers / Minimum of ten travelers to proceed CLICK TO VIEW HIGHLIGHTS of this Magnificent Itinerary

This tour is joined by and includes presentations by Tour Scholar-in-Residence Joy Katzen-Guthrie
and Jewish scholars and specialized guides in every city
Our tour is in arrangement with Travel Harmony, specialists in Australia/New Zealand travel

NOTE: Space subject to availability / Initial deposit to hold the space must be received by June 15, 2009
Please click to contact Francine at Travel Harmony today if you are interested!

AND KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ...

SPRING 2010 ... Planning is underway for an Argentina/Chile Jewish Heritage Tour tentatively in April 2010 following Pesach. The itinerary and pricing are now being arranged and the tour will be announced as soon as possible. The travel will tentatively include Buenos Aires, a Jewish Colonies Tour of Entre Rios, Igazu Falls, Calafate, and Santiago. If this tour is of interest to you, please e-mail me immediately at joyfulnoise@earthlink.net to be included in the mailing list for updates regarding the tour. I will serve as Scholar/Artist in Residence on this tour and would love for you to join me!

CHINA ... I continue to assist in the planning of private or group tours to China and am happy to help you create an itinerary for yourself, your family, or your group to travel when it is perfect for you. I do not have any planned visits to China myself at this time, but hope to return to see much more of the country with a small group visiting the northern and southern Silk Roads. Please e-mail me at joyfulnoise@earthlink.net if you have an interest in this kind of visit to China or if I may assist you in creating a personalized tour.

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