Security, Zionism and the South Australian Jewish Co 1111111Mity 143

Security, Zionism and the South Australian Jewish Co 1111111mity 143 A SPY WITHIN: SECURITY, ZIONISM AND THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY Rodney Gouttman he world of spooks, moles, and national paranoia is never more in evidence than in wartime. Protecting the body politic from national internal corrupting Tinfluences is concomitant with protecting it from without. Both aspects are engaged in with a passion. Hence, soon after Australia's Prime Minister, Robert Gordon Menzies, declared his nation at one with Great Britain's entrance into World War Two, the Australian War Cabinet tightened security surveillance throughout the continent. The ultimate responsibility for this was centralised in the Department of the Attorney General. Among its numerous contributing agencies were such bodies as Military Intelligence, state police forces, and pertinent civil authorities.1 The categories of individuals or groups targeted were those deemed sympathetic to Australia's wartime enemies, those with pro-Communist leanings, and those whose views could in any way be construed as anti-British. When Great Britain declared war against Germany in September 1939, Australia was also technically at war because of her failure to sign the Statute of Westminster of 1931. In this context, even a hint of an anti-British feeling was swept automati cally into the un-Australian basket. Thus anyone who supported the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, which was something opposed by Great Britain, if only because it put the maintenance of her League of Nations Mandate there at great risk, was deemed to be potentially seditious. 2 For this reason alone, Australia's small but scattered Jewish community attracted the concerned scrutiny of the Security Services. This position was exemplified in the surveillance of the minuscule and profoundly assimilated Adelaide Jewry. Here, as elsewhere, the principal focus was on anyone who supported either 'New Zionism' or Communism. What is astounding is that much of the data on the Adelaide Jewish community came from a spy from within its own ranks (whose identity remains a mystery.) Much effort was exerted to ascertain the degree to which 'New Zionism' may have penetrated Jewish communities throughout Australia. Such knowledge about its presence was sought in South Australia in March 1942.3 The Australian Security Services' information about 'New Zionism', not unexpectedly, had come from Brit ish sources, and was specifically based on an article in the highly secret 'Overseas Security Bulletin'.4 According to this, 'New Zionists' or Revisionists, as the fol lowers of the thoughts of Ze'ev Jabotinsky were called, were painted as the latest extreme element in Zionism and Jewish politics. These people sought a sovereign Jewish state in territory originally touted as Palestine, an area that included the current British Mandate plus the land appropriated by Great Britain to form Trans jordan. Inimical to the British White Paper of 1939, Revisionists were reputed to have a ten year plan to establish in Palestine a political, economic, and social infra structure that would accommodate one and a half million Jews, mainly from Europe, thereby rescuing them from a life that had become utterly unbearable under Nazism. This new breed of Zionists, unlike their older counterpart, had refused to accept the notion embodied in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 of merely 144 Security, Zionism and the South Australian Jewish Community a Jewish homeland in Palestine, did not wish to conciliate the Arabs, and had vowed to meet Arab violence with violence. Indeed, the 'New Zionists' accused the old-guard Zionists under Chaim Weizmann of being too 'subservient to the wishes of the British Government, and indifferent to the fate of European Jewry.' The 'new' contended that a national home without the security ofJewish political sovereignty held no attraction. Against the wishes stated in the White Paper, the Revisionists were intent on encouraging and organising the illegal immigration to Palestine of desperate European Jews. Perhaps the most unsubstantiated charge made against the 'New Zionists' which sealed their anti-Britishness, and established them as a possible fifth column, was one that declared that before and after the outbreak of the War, Revisionists' efforts to save Jews by sending them to Palestine were helped by the Gestapo.5 The impli cation was that some Jews who had managed to reach Australia prior to the war may have been similarly helped by Nazis, and thereby some positive payback was undoubtedly pending. Thus such Jews and their co-religionists had to be closely watched for any connection with terrorism both in Australia and Palestine. While it was pointed out that the strength of 'New Zionism' was always difficult to assess, and its followers probably never large in numbers, there were branches of the Movement in London, New York Buenos Aires, and Tel Aviv. However, their political potency was restrained by internal dissension, each branch refusing the other the authority to control the Movement. Despite this, 'New Zionists' were said to be vocal in their campaign for a discreet Jewish army and for a Jewish National Committee formed from all factions of international Jewry. Their purpose was to mobilise finance and manpower worldwide for the Zionist cause, and to be a vociferous voice at any future Peace Conference.6 The reluctance of the British government to comment on the establishment of a Jewish army was the butt of 'New Zionist' criticism. Such angst was interpreted as a deliberate frustration of the Allied war effort, since the formation of such an army had the potential to antag onise the Arabs whom Great Britain had long favoured over their Zionist foes. 7 While the 'New Zionism' was not currently a strong political force even in the Jewish world, it was said to have its hotheads in all countries. The article suggested that though Revisionists had temporarily suspended all their aggression against Great Britain, and had joined with her and her Allies against the common enemy, Nazi Germany, when this emergency was over they would most likely revert to their anti-British stand over Palestine. 8 On 10 April 1942, Army Intelligence of Southern Command stationed in Adel aide notified its superiors that no branch of 'New Zionism' existed in South Australia.9 The Inspector of Police in Broken Hill indicated the same, though he added that several Jewish residents of the town had financially supported the 'Old Zionists' on some occasions.10 Nevertheless, the search for these possible subver sives would continue via postal and telephonic monitoring. An example of this was the interception of a missive from David Tabor, Chairman of the Youth Department of the Zionist Federation of Australia and New Zealand situated in Melbourne, to the Keren Kayemeth Le'Israel in Jerusalem, concerning the training of Zionist youth leaders in Australia. This letter noted that Zionism had been mainly promoted in the youth through HaBonim, a body foremostly situated in the 'foreign section of the community' recently arrived in Australia from Ger many and Austria. 11 The Intelligence unit involved reported that the organisation to which Tabor v, as attached was a 'religious body of the Jewish persuasion' that had long been established in Australia, whose interest was in all forms of Jewish Security, Zionism and the South Australian Jewish Co111mu11ity 145 welfare. And the details of David Tabor's immigration to Australia were also pro vided.12 A branch of the Revisionists was also discovered in Melbourne. It had been formed by Simon Roth, formerly Szaja Rotkopf, a Polish immigrant who while in London in 1923 had joined the 'New Zionists'. On his arrival in Melbourne in 1933, he had contacted 'Old Zionists', and had liaised with them until 1937 when he formed his group with six members. In 1942, this group had expanded to forty-five, with its youth wing, Betar, with a membership of twenty-four. They met at Herzl Hall in Carlton.13 However, another branch was founded in Sydney by Rabbi Leib Falk of the Great Synagogue.14 The happenings in the South Australian Jewish community were observed from without, but primarily from within. An example of the former concerned Dr. Michael Traub, an emissary from Palestine seeking funds from Australian Jewry for brethren there, and said to be a member of the New Zionist movement. En route by train from Perth to Adelaide, Michael Traub's constant concentration on typing something caught the attention of two servicemen on board, who reported their observations to Military Intelligence. The latter questioned Dr. Edmund Traub, a registered 'enemy alien', a Jewish refugee from Germany and an analytical chemist. Ironically, Edmund Traub and his wife were to become lifelong supporters of the Zionist movement. From Rabbi Dr. Fabian of the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation they found out what was common knowledge in Jewish communities across Aus tralia, that the mysterious gentleman was Dr. Michael Traub, who had actually already been in Australia for twelve months, and who previous to his detection had been on assignment in Perth. His intended speaking engagement in Adelaide was cancelled simply because the train from Perth to Adelaide was thirty hours late. What Michael Traub had been typing was his diary, something he did to occupy himself on the long train trip. 15 The name of the informant inside the Adelaide Jewish community will never be released. Number 453, as he was officially known, was as well-credentialed locally as he was with Jewry Australia-wide. This person reported that there was no trace of 'New Zionism' in South Australia but agreed to make enquiries interstate about a rabbi in Sydney who was alleged to be connected with it. However, he did assure his Intelligence masters that this rabbi would never be involved with any pro Fascist organisation.

Load more