About Us

Encounters@Shalom  provides quality programs of Jewish education for the post-school-age sector of the Sydney Jewish community.

Our programs include: 

• Mosaic - Short courses with great educators, from overseas and around Australia
• Jew & A - Lively panel discussions in which we tackle issues facing our community
• Limmud-Oz - Festival of Jewish Learning and Creativity
• SJWF - The Sydney Jewish Writers' Festival

Education has always been a cornerstone of Jewish life and The Shalom Institute, the organisation behind Encounters, has honoured that tradition since its inception. Our adult education programs engage with the diverse texts and traditions that comprise our heritage and tackle the issues that confront Australian Jews today.  

Participants in our programs come from all Jewish backgrounds and affiliations, including religious, traditional and secular. Encounters isn't interested in labels. Pluralistic and inclusive, it emphasises cooperative learning and the sharing of a wide range of attitudes and opinions.

Most Encounters activities take place in the Eric Caspary Learning Centre at Shalom College, UNSW. This purpose-built centre contains state-of-the-art facilities and was established through the generosity of our supporters and participants in our programs.

The Eric Caspary Learning Centre also houses the John Saunders Library, which is packed with Jewish sources and incorporates both the Israel collection of the NSW State Zionist Council and the Holocaust collection of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Some Encounters activities are conducted at other venues and often as joint ventures. Shalom is grateful for the support of our objectives and ideals shown by other communal organisations, including Jewish schools and synagogues of all denominations. The Melton Program is supported by NSW Friends of the Hebrew University and we are grateful to jewishaustralia.com for its ongoing support of all our programs. Of course, our most important supporters are our current and former students, who are members of FRESH  - Friends of Education at Shalom.