Jewry of South-West England and Some of Its Australian Connections

some Jewry of South-West England and of its Australian Connections* Dr. ANTHONY P.JOSEPH The programme of the current session of the ports for reasons that will be given in due course Jewish Historical Society of England is largely and have in fact been discussed before this commemorative of the centenary of the Society previously. (See footnotes 6 and 7.) a foundation of the United Synagogue. In my After period of flourishing in Devon and talk this evening, however, I would like to Cornwall the communities in this part of an our start by reminding you of event that took England declined and family dispersed am the but place a century earlier. I referring to widely to many parts of world pre? at the Captain Cook's landing in 1770 Botany dominantly to the nation's capital, rapidly Bay on the coast of New South Wales and his developing and expanding industrial Midlands, claim thereupon of the whole of the eastern and to the equally rapidly developing and as seaboard of Australia as a Colony of the expanding countries of the British Empire British Crown. This bicentenary has been it then was. It is of course with the Australian commemorated in a number of ways and share in this family movement that we are a among them the Australian Jewish Historical mostly concerned this evening but similar a Society has organised very successful exhibi? story could be told and indeed will be briefly or tion in Sydney depicting the history of Aus? mentioned for Canada, New Zealand, a this tralian Jewry and the contribution that Jews South Africa. In lecture before Society have made to the general growth and develop? given by the late B. B. Benas in 19371 the ment of Australia. cause of genealogy and Anglo-Jewish genealogy was in particular ably pleaded. He felt that a to our Society had particular duty uphold Widespread Ramifications this field of study and it ismy pleasure this am to his This evening I going to illustrate that evening to respond with enthusiasm a was to in the theme by sketching the story of large Jewish appeal, which in fact given you own family, predominantly Anglo-Jewish and to year of my birth. some extent typical, with particular reference to its members who have settled in the anti? Jews Among Convicts podes. I have traced the ramifications of about num? back 3,000 persons of this family in a very large The history of Australian Jewry dates ber of its branches over some ten generations. to 1788, when the first fleet of English convicts, to to Its genealogical complexity is considerable. sentenced for their crimes transportation new at There Within the embrace of this family are rep? the Colony, arrived Botany Bay. were resentatives of all walks of Anglo-Jewry, at least twelve Jewish convicts among as has all shades of belief and opinion; and the various the wretched transportees, though not, to shifts of settlement of the members of the been jocularly suggested, in order guarantee at a their number family, both within and outside the British least minyan, since four of no Isles, accurately reflect the way inwhich Anglo were female.2 It must have been laughing as a whole has moved over the 1 Jewry past *A plea for a genealogical and historiographical two centuries. Thus the founders of the family section of the Jewish Historical Society of England', hailed from the Continent and settled at first Transactions of theJewish Historical Society of England [hereafter referred to as Trans.JHSE], Vol. XIV, in London but soon moved to theWest Country p. 81. * 2 Historical Paper delivered to the Jewish Historical Society See the Journal of theAustralian Jewish of England on 18 November 1970. Society [hereafter referred to as JAJHS]y Vol. VI, 24 Jewish Historical Society of England is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Transactions & Miscellanies Jewish Historical Society of England ® www.jstor.org Jewry of South-West England and its Australian Connections 25 matter to have been a convict on transported identify themselves as Jews and desired that this or fleets of many subsequent prisoners. their children should be recognised as such too. from the whole of the Apart question justice This issue created many problems and was the of the sentences meted out for in many cases source of much bitterness between the eman? the most the trivial of offences, conditions of cipist settlers and the later free settlers. The the for the convicts were in the latter voyage grim group brought with them the authority extreme and life on arrival in Australia harsh of the London religious leadership, whose and cheerless. Of sickness and there was misery attitude towards marriages outside the faith an convicts on their abundance, many perished and proselytisation was rigid and uncom? across the journey world, and those who arrived promising. Furthermore, the free settlers had at had a for in Botany Bay desperate struggle difficulty understanding the hardships their sheer survival. There was a physical high sentenced brethren had endured over so many rate in these and we have The were mortality early days years. free settlers economically a a record of the death of Jewish convict better endowed, more flexible in mental in when one was 1790 Solomon Bocharach ability, more relaxed and less defensive about buried in the communal their in Colony's graveyard. position society, and they easily The Protestant minister who conducted the the assumed authority of leadership and funeral noted that Bocharach was 'a dissenting arrogated unto themselves the right to dis? nonetheless him to be Jew' but required buried pense judgment and dictate conditions. Al? to his fellow-convicts who a was identically expired though Jewish burial society founded by on new the shores of the Colony.3 convicts in 1820, it was soon disbanded and all subsequent communal organisation and leader? was initiated the free settlers. Emancipist and Free Settlers ship by Between 1788 and 1821 the entire Jewish Authority of London Rabbinate population of Australia consisted of transported convicts either their sentences or serving The first regular Jewish services were organ? and as pardoned freed, living emancipist ised by P. J. Cohen in 1828. The free settlers settlers in the At one time there were Colony. any remarkably insensitive to the feelings of were never more than a few score 'ill Jews, the emancipists and failed to credit the latter versed in the faith of their fathers moved with yet their obvious desire to be acknowledged inherited communal as by piety',4 organisation Jews notwithstanding the question of their was and identification wives non-existent, Jewish and children. Bitter acrimonious dispute tenuous at best. Male Jewish transportees occurred between the two groups, which was outnumbered females about ten to one and by only partly soothed by the arrival in 1830 of it is therefore that hardly surprising nearly Dayan Aaron Levy, a member of the London every Australian Jew of this period married Beth Din. It was his aim to reconcile the two out of the faith. What is is that much as as surprising groups far possible and his suggestion, later as numbers increased and com? Jewish which was adopted, was to found an Australian munal became established so organisation congregation based upon the London tradition. of these arrivals still wished to many early Most of the Jews in Australia at that time, Pt. 1, p. 51; Dr. Bergman writes: 'at least a dozen whether convicted or free settlers, had had and more. Their names: maybe Henry Abrahams, experience at some time of belonging to a Esther Aaron Samuel Abrahams, Davis, Davis, British congregation, and the authority of the James Davis, Sarah Davis, John Harris, Frances London rabbinate was thus Hart, David Jacobs, Joseph Levy, Amelia Levy, adopted. Indeed, Jacob Messiah.' for many years all the Australian congregations 3 earliest burial the 'Sydney's grounds', Journal of that became founded in many parts of the Society of Australian Genealogists, 'Descent', Vol. 4, continent based themselves upon the traditions Pt. 3, p. 108. 4 of the London Ashkenazi Chief Rabbinate. A Jubilee History of Sydney's Great Synagogue, 1928, p. 3. In the 1890s the Sephardim established their 26 Dr. Anthony P. Joseph were first congregation and later Reform and Liberal for the Jews there the additional burdens congregations appeared. of non-emancipation. It is true that the climate Among the Jewish convicts, in 1815, arrived of religious toleration in England was in Solomon Levey, who had been sentenced to advance of that in many parts of Europe at the seven a years' transportation for minor offence time and it is also true that the civil disabilities which it is more than likely he did not even of being Jewish in England were not too a commit. He was soon pardoned and became irksome. Yet they existed, only later to be very important influence in the commercial removed by Parliament granting full civil and banking life of the expanding Colony. rights (after a number of struggles), and the In his letters home he wrote enthusiastically glowing prospects that Levey and men like about the prospects for settlers in Australia him depicted of a life in Australia developing and, influenced by these letters, his brother virgin territory must have had a great appeal Barnett Levey arrived in 1821. Barnett Levey to many people. In the Colony of New South was the first Jewish free settler to arrive in Wales, furthermore, all free settlers enjoyed Australia but others soon followed him. During equal civil status and the rights of citizenship the following twenty years the number of without reservation.

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