788
Remuera Road · Auckland · New Zealand
The biography of an address
Some addresses become more than addresses.
Before the library
This is not
a monument.
It is a building
that was given
a purpose.
Current research suggests the existing structure dates from approximately the 1980s and had a commercial life before it became the Raye Freedman Library. The original architect, the original commission, the full title chronology and the complete record of alterations have not yet been established. Nothing more is claimed here than the record supports.
Property record
Year built
Circa mid-1980s
Address
788 Remuera Road, Auckland
Community record
- Shabbat
- Children
- Books
- Prayer
- Hebrew
- Visitors
- Holidays
- Friendships
- Memory
This is what
a property record
can tell you.
This is what
it cannot.
Both are real. Only one appears on a valuation.
Raye arrives
By the early 2000s, Raye Freedman's philanthropy had already touched education, Jewish life, social welfare and the arts. Then she created something unusually intimate.
A library.
Land titleRequired
Trust recordRequired
Library establishment dateRequired
Research suggests a significant property transaction around 2004. The details will not be stated here until title records confirm them.
The Raye
Freedman
Library
A library sounds quiet. This one became something else.
Research indicates the collection eventually contained thousands of Jewish books and served both educational and communal purposes. A digital catalogue — The Books of 788 — is being built against whatever catalogue survives.
The books of 788 — catalogue fields
Title
Author
Language
Subject
Date
Donor
Catalogue number
Current status
Sunday
She did not
only put her name
on the building.
She came.
Accounts describe Raye spending Sunday mornings at the Library, meeting and speaking with visitors. The accounts are being traced to their sources before any of it is quoted.
The community grows around it
- 01The libraryA collection, a room, a reason to come.
- 02Jewish learningClasses, shiurim, one-to-one study.
- 03Communal meetingsOrganisations needing a room in Remuera.
- 04PrayerServices held in the building.
- 05EventsLectures, holidays, gatherings.
- 06ChabadA permanent presence and programme.
- 07TodayHebrew School, Shabbat, kosher, visitors.
Before it was
Chabad's home,
it was already
a Jewish home.
The building was used by people and organisations across Auckland Jewish life. The history of 788 is bigger than any single organisation. Each connection below is listed as a research line, and will be published only once it is sourced.
Auckland Hebrew Congregation / stiebel-related activitySource required
Auckland Jewish CouncilSource required
HadassahSource required
Educational talksSource required
Community meetingsSource required
Other Jewish organisationsSource required
The stiebel
Who initiated services, when, the relationship to the Auckland Hebrew Congregation, the rabbis involved, and the memories of those who davened there. Chronology will not be invented.
Event record — fields
Date
Event
Organisation
Speaker
Photograph
Programme
Source
Chabad New Zealand at 788
One address. A lot of Jewish life.
Hebrew School, most weeks of the year.
Friday evening.
Torah study, midweek.
Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation.
The High Holidays, and the rest of the calendar.
Children.
Kosher New Zealand.
Visitors, often on their first night in the country.
Kosher New Zealand
Shelves. Challah. Israeli food. Judaica. Boxes. Deliveries.
From one small building in Remuera, Jewish necessities travel outward across New Zealand. 788 is not only a destination. It is also a point of distribution.
The people who pass through
Some people at 788 live around the corner. Others travelled thousands of kilometres to get there.
The people who return
A community
is made
by returning.
Nobody in a hurry to leave.
The same children, a few years on.
Today
The building
is being sold.
For the first time in a generation, the future ownership of this place is changing. Chabad New Zealand has an opportunity to acquire it and preserve it as a permanent Jewish home.
What is
788 worth?
A property valuation can answer one version of that question. Twenty years of Jewish life answers another.
The story
does not need
to end here.
2050. Children. Books. Shabbat. Visitors. Learning. Another generation.
Gifts are completed on Charidy.