Australian Jewish Historical Society

Splash Screen for the website of the Australian Jewish Historical Society

Remember the Days of Yore,

Deuteronomy Chapter 32 Verse 7

understand the years of generation after generation.

The very first AJHS CD has been published by AJHS (Vic), making available at very low cost a treasure trove of Australian Jewish history: the entire first 15 years of the Journal, together with a cumulative index to these three Journal volumes.
Click for details.

The home page for the Australian Jewish Historical Society, (AJHS), which has principal chapters AJHS Inc [NSW] based in Sydney and AJHS Victoria Inc based in Melbourne, with members in all states and overseas. The AJHS publishes the Journal of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, and maintains libraries and archives in Sydney and Melbourne. This site documents the Jewish experience in Australia, which began with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1778, and continued with Jewish involvement in all facets of the subsequent development and evolution of Australia. Follow the links to notices of meetings and historical tours, and to a timeline, references and sources, photos.

Quick Links to Navigate this Website

   www.ajhs.info AJHS Home page for the Australian Jewish Historical Society = AJHS.
Click on this Logo on the top left of all pages on this site to return to this Home Page.

   www.nsw.ajhs.info NSW Home Page of the AJHS Inc [NSW]
Archives, library, meetings, contact, membership

   www.vic.ajhs.info VICtoria Home Page of AJHS (Vic) = the Australian Jewish Historical Society Victoria Inc [Vic]
Next meeting, tours, contact, membership

  www.journal.ajhs.info JOURNAL Home Page of the Journal of the Australian Jewish Historical Society = AJHSJ
Gives flavour of our journal, free to members.
What's in the latest issue of the AJHSJ. Editors. Advice to authors.

   www.jha.ajhs.info Jewish History Australia A tour of Australian Jewish History.
A timeline of Australian Jewish History from 1788.
Historic sites, portraits. Stories and folklore. Jewish firsts. Links to other resources.

www.arc.ajhs.info ARChives and Libraries The archives and libraries of the AJHS Inc [NSW] and of AJHS (Vic).
Listings of holdings of original records, microfilms, microfiche, record copies, portraits, illuminated addresses.
Access and Contact details. Fees.

www.bd-bd.info The BD-BD The Beverley Davis Burial Data Collection - the BD-BD - holds the details from the headstones of over 40,000 Jewish graves in Australia and New Zealand, plus Australian War graves overseas and a few others. This database is fully searchable. A noteable feature is that Hebrew on headstones is converted to roman text. All genealogical information on each headstone is recorded, including the names of family members who perished in the Holocaust. Alternate URL is http://ajhs.info/cemetery.

Popular features on this website      Cumulative index now up to Vol 17 (July 2005).

Australian Jewish Artists

Australian
Jewish Artists Australian Jewish Artists: Biographies and online viewing of some of the works of our leading artists.

Ozzie
Jewish History Trivia For those willing to accept the challenge, a series of questions testing your detailed knowledge of the most quirky facts of Australian Jewish history.

www.ajhs.info/journal/index/

Cumulative index for the AJHS Journal The Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal (AJHSJ) has been published since 1939, and contains a multitude of articles on the Jewish experience in Australia. For each completed volume, a comprehensive index was published, listing articles not only by author(s) and title, but by category of paper, and also by keyword and reference. Col Choat has optically scanned the indices from Volume 1, 1939, to Volume 17 (last issue was in 2005), to produce a comprehensive cumulative index to the AJHSJ. The large files thereby produced are now online, while Harvey Cohen has developed a programming scheme of searching and accessing this large amount of data most conveniently.

New feature Stories on this website

The
My Jewish Carlton

Esther Rafaeli Here are the lifelong memories of Esther (Shapiro) Rafaeli, whose family came from Palestine to Melbourne in 1927. After a brief stint in Shepparton,her family settled in Carlton. Esther succeeds in this brief memoir in evoking the spirit of the suburb. She tells of the "sight of Rev. Adler marching along with his Lulav and Four Species held high, and a train of small street urchins following behind." Esther and her brother made Aliyah after the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

The
Nulla Nullas
of
Wallaga Lake A background account of how it was that ANUJSS - the Australian National University Jewish Students Union - established a children's club at the Wallaga Lake Aboriginal Reserve, on the far south coast of NSW at about the time of the NSW "Freedom Bus". The Club - the Nulla Nullas - run during 1964-66 - had undoubted success, but ended as key ANUJSS members left Canberra in early 1966.
Its noteable that the Nulla Nullas gave charity in (in the form of gifts) to white children (in hospital). Others both within and outside the Koori community have since contributed to the revitalization and empowerment of the Koori village at Wallaga Lake, but traces of ANUJSS's interaction are there still.

Work in Progress: New features for this website

www.arc.ajhs.info/

Index for the AJHS (Vic) Research Library The books in the AJHS (Vic) Research Library comprise 1035 titles ranging from the classic well-known books on Australian Jewish History to several rare items. All are listed on an Excel file, which is readily searched or browsed. The books themselves are held on our shelves at the Jewish Museum of Australia, 26 Alma Road, St Kilda. Contact the library at 03 9534 0083 to arrange a visit.
The index can be accessed by browisng to the Archives Page of this website, at www.arc.ajhs.info, then clicking on the tag to the left entitled Contents & Holdings Victorian Archives

www.ajhs.info/shanghai

The Shangai Story There has been a very small number of Jews as an ethnic minority in China for millenia. From the early eighteen hundreds small Jewish communities became established in the major trading centres of Shanghai and Hong Kong. As the Nazi menace grew from the late nineteen thiries, these centres, especially Shanghai, were seen as places of refuge to which many Jews from Eastern Europe fled. In Shanghai,the Japanese occupation authorities regarded them as "stateless refugees" and set up a designated area -- essentially a ghetto -- to restrict their residence and business.
At the end of World War II, many of these Jews emigrated to Australia.

AJHS Furthers New Zealand Jewish History

New Zealand Jewish Archives From the earlist days of European contact with New Zealand, Jews were involved in all facets of New Zealand history. As a percentage of the population Jews have always numbered less than 0.2 % -- yet -- in a number of ways have made a notable difference to the development and history of New Zealand.
Over the past sixty years the Australian Jewish Historical Society has published many papers on aspects of this history. In 1957, the first, and for 38 years, the only monograph, The History of the Jews of New Zealand by Melbourne Rabbi, Morris Goldman, was published.
Local participation in the recording of New Zealand history really commenced in 1980 when the New Zealand Jewish Archives were established with the aims of collecting and preserving communal newspapers, records reports and minute books, as well as portraits and other items. Finally the first history from a New Zealand perspective (albeit a Wellington bias) A Standard for the People was published in 1995. A notable sociological study, The New Zealand Jewish Community by Prof Stephen Levine was published in 1999. In recent years, the New Zealand Jewish Archives, has been increasingly active under the leadership of Mr Michael Clements, and has staged several public exhibits in Wellington.
To further promote this important study, the AJHS Webmaster, Dr Harvey Cohen, travelled to Wellington in July 2006, collected material, programmed, arranged domain and hosting for the first domain and website devoted to New Zealand Jewish History at www.nzjewisharchives.org

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Home Page of the Australian Jewish Historical Society

Please note that the Guest book attached to this site has had to be closed due to abuse by site score spammers. Our apologies to the authors of genuine messages. Visitors to this website are most welcome to communicate with the webmaster Dr Harvey Cohen by Email.

	www.ajhs.info	AJHS	Home page for the Australian Jewish Historical Society = AJHS. Click on this Logo on the top left of all pages on this site to return to this Home Page.
	www.nsw.ajhs.info	NSW	Home Page of the AJHS Inc [NSW] Archives, library, meetings, contact, membership
	www.vic.ajhs.info	VICtoria	Home Page of AJHS (Vic) = the Australian Jewish Historical Society Victoria Inc [Vic] Next meeting, tours, contact, membership
	www.journal.ajhs.info	JOURNAL	Home Page of the Journal of the Australian Jewish Historical Society = AJHSJ Gives flavour of our journal, free to members. What's in the latest issue of the AJHSJ. Editors. Advice to authors.
	www.jha.ajhs.info	Jewish History Australia	A tour of Australian Jewish History. A timeline of Australian Jewish History from 1788. Historic sites, portraits. Stories and folklore. Jewish firsts. Links to other resources.
	www.arc.ajhs.info	ARChives and Libraries	The archives and libraries of the AJHS Inc [NSW] and of AJHS (Vic). Listings of holdings of original records, microfilms, microfiche, record copies, portraits, illuminated addresses. Access and Contact details. Fees.
	www.bd-bd.info	The BD-BD	The Beverley Davis Burial Data Collection - the BD-BD - holds the details from the headstones of over 40,000 Jewish graves in Australia and New Zealand, plus Australian War graves overseas and a few others. This database is fully searchable. A noteable feature is that Hebrew on headstones is converted to roman text. All genealogical information on each headstone is recorded, including the names of family members who perished in the Holocaust. Alternate URL is http://ajhs.info/cemetery.
Popular features on this website Cumulative index now up to Vol 17 (July 2005).
	Australian Jewish Artists	Australian Jewish Artists	Australian Jewish Artists: Biographies and online viewing of some of the works of our leading artists.
		Ozzie Jewish History Trivia	For those willing to accept the challenge, a series of questions testing your detailed knowledge of the most quirky facts of Australian Jewish history.
	www.ajhs.info/journal/index/	Cumulative index for the AJHS Journal	The Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal (AJHSJ) has been published since 1939, and contains a multitude of articles on the Jewish experience in Australia. For each completed volume, a comprehensive index was published, listing articles not only by author(s) and title, but by category of paper, and also by keyword and reference. Col Choat has optically scanned the indices from Volume 1, 1939, to Volume 17 (last issue was in 2005), to produce a comprehensive cumulative index to the AJHSJ. The large files thereby produced are now online, while Harvey Cohen has developed a programming scheme of searching and accessing this large amount of data most conveniently.
New feature Stories on this website
		The My Jewish Carlton Esther Rafaeli	Here are the lifelong memories of Esther (Shapiro) Rafaeli, whose family came from Palestine to Melbourne in 1927. After a brief stint in Shepparton,her family settled in Carlton. Esther succeeds in this brief memoir in evoking the spirit of the suburb. She tells of the "sight of Rev. Adler marching along with his Lulav and Four Species held high, and a train of small street urchins following behind." Esther and her brother made Aliyah after the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
		The Nulla Nullas of Wallaga Lake	A background account of how it was that ANUJSS - the Australian National University Jewish Students Union - established a children's club at the Wallaga Lake Aboriginal Reserve, on the far south coast of NSW at about the time of the NSW "Freedom Bus". The Club - the Nulla Nullas - run during 1964-66 - had undoubted success, but ended as key ANUJSS members left Canberra in early 1966. Its noteable that the Nulla Nullas gave charity in (in the form of gifts) to white children (in hospital). Others both within and outside the Koori community have since contributed to the revitalization and empowerment of the Koori village at Wallaga Lake, but traces of ANUJSS's interaction are there still.
Work in Progress: New features for this website
	www.arc.ajhs.info/	Index for the AJHS (Vic) Research Library	The books in the AJHS (Vic) Research Library comprise 1035 titles ranging from the classic well-known books on Australian Jewish History to several rare items. All are listed on an Excel file, which is readily searched or browsed. The books themselves are held on our shelves at the Jewish Museum of Australia, 26 Alma Road, St Kilda. Contact the library at 03 9534 0083 to arrange a visit. The index can be accessed by browisng to the Archives Page of this website, at www.arc.ajhs.info, then clicking on the tag to the left entitled Contents & Holdings Victorian Archives
	www.ajhs.info/shanghai	The Shangai Story	There has been a very small number of Jews as an ethnic minority in China for millenia. From the early eighteen hundreds small Jewish communities became established in the major trading centres of Shanghai and Hong Kong. As the Nazi menace grew from the late nineteen thiries, these centres, especially Shanghai, were seen as places of refuge to which many Jews from Eastern Europe fled. In Shanghai,the Japanese occupation authorities regarded them as "stateless refugees" and set up a designated area -- essentially a ghetto -- to restrict their residence and business. At the end of World War II, many of these Jews emigrated to Australia.
AJHS Furthers New Zealand Jewish History
		New Zealand Jewish Archives	From the earlist days of European contact with New Zealand, Jews were involved in all facets of New Zealand history. As a percentage of the population Jews have always numbered less than 0.2 % -- yet -- in a number of ways have made a notable difference to the development and history of New Zealand. Over the past sixty years the Australian Jewish Historical Society has published many papers on aspects of this history. In 1957, the first, and for 38 years, the only monograph, The History of the Jews of New Zealand by Melbourne Rabbi, Morris Goldman, was published. Local participation in the recording of New Zealand history really commenced in 1980 when the New Zealand Jewish Archives were established with the aims of collecting and preserving communal newspapers, records reports and minute books, as well as portraits and other items. Finally the first history from a New Zealand perspective (albeit a Wellington bias) A Standard for the People was published in 1995. A notable sociological study, The New Zealand Jewish Community by Prof Stephen Levine was published in 1999. In recent years, the New Zealand Jewish Archives, has been increasingly active under the leadership of Mr Michael Clements, and has staged several public exhibits in Wellington. To further promote this important study, the AJHS Webmaster, Dr Harvey Cohen, travelled to Wellington in July 2006, collected material, programmed, arranged domain and hosting for the first domain and website devoted to New Zealand Jewish History at www.nzjewisharchives.org