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Born: 25 November 1842 [Amsterdam, Netherlands]
Died: 20 February 1923 [Adelaide, South Australia]
Trained at the Amsterdam Theological Seminary and in England, Boas was minister at the Southampton Synagogue when he was recommended by the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, Nathan Adler, to the South Australian congregation. Boas arrived in South Australia on 13 February 1870.
For the next 48 years Boas led the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation. One of his first tasks was to consecrate the new synagogue in Rundle Street, Adelaide. Boas also travelled as far afield as Perth and Coolgardie, Western Australia, to open new schools and synagogues.
Boas was a scholar in literature, particularly Shakespeare on whom he gave talks. He was vice-president of the (Adelaide) University Shakespeare Society from 1888. Boas was chairman of the board of trustees of Estcourt House (a home for the aged and crippled), member of the council of the District Trained Nurses' Association, a foundation member of the District Trained Nursing Society and involved with a number of other philanthropic and cultural organisations.
1888: Made vice-president of the University Shakespeare Society
1914: Became longest-serving Jewish minister in the British Empire
1921: Made Rabbi
Boas, Abraham T. Personal papers, 1869-1975, PRG 362
Hyams, Bernard. 'Establishing a congregation: the Jewish community of South Australia 1836-1870', Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, no. 22, (1994), pp. 32-48
Munz, Hirsch. Jews in South Australia, 1836-1936 : an historical outline, [Adelaide : Thornquest Press, 1936]
Rosenberg, Louise. Reverend Abraham Tobias Boas, a pioneer Jewish minister 1842-1923, spiritual leader of the Adelaide Hebrew congregation 1870-1923, [Sydney : Australian Jewish Historical Society, 1972]