Ronald Lubofsky

Rabbi Lubofsky was born and educated in London where he received his Rabbinical qualifications, his smicha, from Jews' College. He came to Australia in 1957 to serve at the Great Synagogue in Sydney. In 1963 Rabbi Lubofsky moved to Melbourne where he became Rabbi of the St Kilda Hebrew Congregation, a position he held until his retirement in 1988.

Rabbi Lubofsky was a superb orator and teacher, who devoted much of his energies to sharing the richness of Judaism within the rabbinate, academe and to a diverse audience through Mount Scopus Memorial College, Victoria College, Ormond College, and the Council of Adult Education. He worked actively to build bridges between the Jewish and wider community being a Founder and President of the Council of Christians and Jews. As a trained chazan and a lover of Cantorial Music, Rabbi Lubofsky founded the Melbourne Jewish Men's Choir.


Rabbi Ronald Lubofsky AM 1928 - 2000
Rabbi Lubofsky was born and educated in London where he received his Rabbinical qualifications, his smicha, from Jews' College. He came to Australia in 1957 to serve at the Great Synagogue in Sydney. In 1963 Rabbi Lubofsky moved to Melbourne where he became Rabbi of the St Kilda Hebrew Congregation, a position he held until his retirement in 1988. Rabbi Lubofsky was a superb orator and teacher, who devoted much of his energies to sharing the richness of Judaism within the rabbinate, academe and to a diverse audience through Mount Scopus Memorial College, Victoria College, Ormond College, and the Council of Adult Education. He worked actively to build bridges between the Jewish and wider community being a Founder and President of the Council of Christians and Jews. As a trained chazan and a lover of Cantorial Music, Rabbi Lubofsky founded the Melbourne Jewish Men's Choir.
In 1978 Rabbi Lubofsky called together a group of men and women, then under the auspices of B'nai B'rith, in order to establish a Jewish Museum in Melbourne. Twenty two years later, the Jewish Museum of Australia has grown from Rabbi's seed of an idea into an important institution within the Jewish community and a major cultural venue within our country. The Museum is imbued with his love of Judaism and its physical manifestations. He knew and understood Judaica like no-one else in this country, had an important Judaica library and had trained as a bookbinder. He, with his wife Shirley, was an inveterate collector of Judaica. The Jewish Museum of Australia acknowledges Rabbi Lubofsky's vision, which not only gave birth to this institution but encouraged to keep charting new waters in the search for new and arresting ways of preserving, presenting, celebrating and sharing our uniquely enduring and richly diverse Jewish heritage. Rabbi Ronald Lubofsky died unexpected on Friday 21 April 2000, on the second day of Passover after energetically and lustily leading a second Seder. He is deeply missed by his Jewish Museum family and the whole community. He was our mentor and teacher and we will be forever indebted to him. The Jewish Museum of Australia will stand always as a reflection of all that Rabbi Lubofsky held dear. Dr Helen Light AM Director