Abraham Tobias Boas

Abraham Tobias Boas (25 November 1842 – 20 February 1923) was a Dutch-born Australian rabbi who led the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation in Adelaide, South Australia. He is commemorated on Adelaide's Jubilee 150 Walkway as South Australia's first rabbi.

Biography Early life Abraham Tobias Boas was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, son of Tobias Eliesar Boas, rabbi, and his wife Eva Salomon Levi, née Linse. Boas was educated at Amsterdam Theological Seminary.

Ministry in Adelaide In late 1869 a committee acting under the authority of Nathan Marcus Adler, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, chose Boas for the vacant ministry of the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation. The voyage out to South Australia, aboard the sailing ship Tamesa under Captain Phillips, took 83 days. He preached his first Adelaide sermon six days later. Adelaide Hebrew Congregation off Rundle Street, north side in Synagogue Place, 1871. The Adelaide Hebrew Congregation was then building a new synagogue in Rundle Street, its foundation stone laid in 1870 by the president, Gabriel Bennett, with whose family Boas boarded until his marriage. Boas consecrated the completed building, which seated 350 worshippers, on 20 March 1871. When Chief Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz visited Adelaide in March 1921 during his tour of the dominions, he paid tribute to Boas's fifty years of influence on the congregation and conferred on Boas the formal title of rabbi.

Personal life On 15 May 1873 he married Elizabeth Solomon (c. 1851 – 26 September 1916), a daughter of Isaac Solomon (1818–1901) of Adelaide's influential family, and was survived by four sons, including Lionel (1875–1949) and Harold (1883–1980), and five daughters.

Death Boas died at his home on Gover Street, on 20 February 1923. He was buried in West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide.

In 1986 a bronze plaque commemorating Boas as South Australia's first rabbi, sponsored by the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation, was installed on the Jubilee 150 Walkway on North Terrace.