“It’s not just about a building, we are creating great spaces for our community and beyond” said Tigel. “When we started this project [about five years ago], we had a vision that you don’t need a ticket to something in order to come to visit JAQ. If we do this right, we will have an environment where people will want to come and be there. That’s a vision that takes belief and discipline.”

So far, the Jewish Arts Quarter has enthusiastic support from the local city council for phase one, as well support from the state and federal government. The state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located, has pledged 5 million Australian dollars. JAQ also has backing from one of Australia’s wealthiest philanthropic families, the Gandels, who have committed a generous grant from their foundation to support phase one of the JAQ infrastructure plan. In addition to these funds, the team at JAQ is looking to raise in excess of AU$30 million through a mix of community fundraising and philanthropy.

The hope is that similar to other ambitious projects like the JW3 in London or the Schwartz/Reisman Centre in Toronto, which are similar in scope to JAQ, the precinct will revolutionize the way Jewish people of all ages gather in Melbourne, offering a full array of programming most nights of the week and on weekends.

“JAQ will provide a place for meaningful connection through the facilitation of Jewish life, arts and cultural experiences in all its forms. Now more than ever we need projects like JAQ to bring people together,” said Appel. “The diversity of Melbourne needs a multicultural beacon to help build bridges and create pathways to tolerance, respect, understanding and sense of community belonging. We hope that JAQ will become a contemporary central hub and go-to place—the cool place to hang. When you have a space that’s welcoming, you embrace the broader community through knowledge and engagement experiences. This is the future of outreach that is inclusive to all.”

After the construction of these buildings finishes, and phase two begins, the idea is that JAQ will continue to exist as an entity that oversees the scheduling of activities in the Jewish Arts Quarter, and manages the tenancies of restaurants, cafes, and the coworking spaces to ensure that the area remains a vibrant hub.

“Having the two museums together is an opportunistic element,” said Tigel. “We will have tens of thousands of students come through, where they will learn about Holocaust studies, and then go to the Jewish Museum and learn more about the Jewish communities in Melbourne.”

Appel added: “Consolidating the key assets makes a lot of sense. Organizations are continually evolving, and we see JAQ providing endless possibilities for collaboration and sharing of resources and facilities.”

If the project is successful, it will represent a major shift that almost no other cultural or religious group in Melbourne, a multicultural city of 5 million people, has been able to achieve.

“In Melbourne we have missed some opportunities to create better places,” said Tigel. “In the 1960s Kadimah was the best attended community center in Melbourne. People who came to Melbourne had immigrated out of trauma, and they needed that sense of place that was not that different from Europe albeit shtetls and towns. [In the 21st century] I don’t think anyone wants to do a segregation model. In the diaspora, we face many challenges, including declining engagement, but you need to create an environment where you feel you are part of it. There are too many facilities that don’t serve their purposes anymore.”

Two groundbreaking studies conducted on the Australian Jewish community—Gen08 and Gen17, facilitated by Monash University—provided some of the most comprehensive data on the Australian Jewish community, seeming to support the idea that new ways of engagement are necessary. In Gen17, the data noted that only 35% of respondents in Melbourne said that they feel “very connected” to their Jewish identity. JAQ aims to change this.

“The vast majority of Jews are quite secular, and we feel that JAQ fills a really important role in our community, for people who don’t go to synagogue, for people that don’t go to a Jewish school but they come to JAQ and feel a sense of belonging,” said Gary Samowitz, the strategy and fundraising director at JAQ.

But an infrastructure project of this scope is not without some criticism or controversy. As one Melbourne community leader who declined to be named on the record said to me, “Why are we building another f–king edifice when we cannot afford Jewish school fees in Melbourne? We are all busy empire-building and we should be empire-deconstructing.”

However, Jeremy Leibler, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, which is not part of the JAQ, disagreed with this assessment. “The Jewish Arts Quarter deals with arts and culture. The school’s affordability discussion is not related to this project. The community has capacity to solve the Jewish education crisis and support Jewish arts projects. They are not mutually exclusive.”

While the organizations and businesses that will be participating in phase two are not yet finalized, JAQ is open to speaking with any organization that would like to join the arts precinct. The team at JAQ is keen to get as much community support as possible.

“We meet with all Jewish organizations one on one. We want their buy-in. We want them to feel a sense of ownership. This is a collaborative process. We want over 1,000 people to give feedback in our upcoming survey,” said Samowitz.

Tigel sees the potential for greater inclusion of other faith groups and ethnicities in the JAQ as a bonus. “Non-Jews will be at the JAQ every day, visiting museums, eating at restaurants, coming to festivals,” he said. “We see this project as promoting the Jewish community, stemming the tide of antisemitism, and creating bonds between ethnic communities. It’s a bit simplistic to say build and they will come. But I really believe it. If we build it and have a meaningful cultural vision, the people will come.”