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Anti-Semitism in Australia 1860–1950?

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Anti-Semitism in Australia 1860–1950? WAS IT EVER SO? ANTI-SEMITISM IN AUSTRALIA 1860±1950? RODNEY GOUTTMAN n her award-winning book, Reading the eralism and the struggle by the IHolocaust, Inga Clendinnen insists that emergent working classes to ad- `Australian anti-Semitism is a pathology vance that liberalism in a democrat- of the periphery'. 1 Though this remains ic direction ¼ 3 a popular view, this article will discuss He points out that Australia is one of the validity of this assertion for the years the few nations in the world whose path 1860±1950. It will be argued that while in along the way to liberal democracy has this epoch the problem of anti-Semitism generally been linear and relatively non- in Australia never approached the vir- violent. 4 However, in the period of 1860 ulence experienced elsewhere, the fear to 1950 the impact of the Protestant/Cath- that this odious prejudice could break out olic divide was profoundly socially signi- at any time also had a profound and defin- ficant, the impact of the White Australia ing effect on the behaviour of Australia's Policy culturally indelible, and the clash Jews. Though commentators have men- between Labor and Capital of immense tioned this phenomenon in passing, they political consequence. 5 Then there was rarely explain it and merely compare it to also the vexed `Aboriginal Question'. From scenarios overseas, leaving one to conclude a discrete Jewish perspective, the issue that Australia has always been a safe was whether along her liberalist journey haven for Jews. 2 To leave the observation Australia had shed any `old world' there is to provide few insights into the Judeophobia introduced in the process of history of anti-Semitism in Australia and Europeanisation of the land. 6 its impact on the public persona of Aus- If one is looking for historical tralian Jewry both on the individual and bookends of the periods 1860's and 1950's, the communal levels. at least from the point of view of the east- AN ANTIPODEAN LIBERAL ern Australian, possibly at one extremity POLITY? there is the exhaustion of the Gold Rush and the commencement of a hardening of Australian Anglo monoculturalism, and at Australian historian Tim Rowse has the other, the beginning of the end of that written that: hegemony under the effects of post-war Australian history falls within that reconstruction into a more pluralist vision period of the rise of European lib- of the nation. 7 55 Humanities Research Vol. XII No 1, 2005 The Jewish presence in Australia change of mindÐthe formation of the Ex- began with the initial convict migrations, ecutive Council of Australian Jewry which and free settlement subsequently estab- gave Jews a national voice, 10 the Holo- lished Jewish communal life. 8 Colonial caust, and the establishment of the State Jewry tended to take its religious cues of Israel in 1948. In combination, they from the `mother country', England, a helped to forge a more assertive attitude practice which had greatly declined by in dealing with political authorities in the early 1950s. That said, religious observ- matters of self interest. This was dramatic- ance before World War Two had become ally displayed in the years 1949±52, when increasingly attenuated. Geographical the Jewish community emerged from the dispersion, the tyranny of distance, closet to publicly oppose the policy of the apathy, and the forces of assimilation all Robert Menzies led Liberal-Country Party played their role. Coalition Government to permit mass Australian Jews not only prided German migration to Australia. 11 themselves on their loyalty to Empire, King and Country, but were ever prepared MODELLING ANTI-SEMITISM to express it, and no less in wartime. 9 On one hand, their social views were little Though anti-Jewish hatred dates back different from those of their Gentile fellow to Biblical times, the actual term `anti- citizens. On the other hand, from a com- Semitism' was devised by the German anti- munal perspective, their public loyalty Jewish provocateur, Wilhem Marr in 1879 was more intense, the motivation for to describe the violent anti-Jewish hostil- which stemmed from three basic but ities in his country. It very soon became linked causes. The first derived from the the singular term to cover all aspects of fact of being a miniscule minority in an anti-Jewish hatred. ocean of others. Jewish history had taught Herbert A. Strauss has said that three them not to take the pacific nature of their models of enquiry used in the social sci- Australian environment for granted. ences can be applied to researching the Second, was from gratitude for being able problem of anti-Semitism. The first is the to live in a state of freedom denied many cultural-anthropological approach, which of their brethren elsewhere. Finally, as a can be used to probe the degree to which prophylaxis against any current underly- cultural stereotypes persist among various ing anti-Semitism. strata of a particular social structure. Then Until World War Two Australian Jew- there is psychologically oriented research, ry was predominantly Anglo in custom to help discover what motivates hatred of and motivation. Non-Anglo, or `foreign' Jewish people. Finally, building on the Jews who arrived in Australia were re- previous two, is an exploration of the his- quired to assimilate immediately. During torical circumstances which have led to World War Two and certainly after, these wider social and political expressions of `foreign' Jews commenced a successful this prejudice. 12 Simon N. Herman re- challenge to the Anglo dominance in minds us that often a missing element in communal affairs. Indeed, three seminal the study of anti-Semitism is its effect events contributed to this communal upon Jewish attitudes and behaviour both 56 Was It Ever So? towards the Gentiles among whom they tion©. 17 By that he means it is not manifest live and within their own community. 13 at every moment, but Jews have remained Further, Todd M. Endelman also notes that the ever present `outsider', to be used as when examining the problem of anti- a scapegoat for any perceived fundamental Semitism in a particular place, frequently social, cultural, and even political wrong absent is a discussion of its influence on or difficulty. These observations are per- `the Jews themselves ± their occupations, tinent if only because `Western Civiliza- religious practices, social habits, and intel- tion' is the very construct to which Aus- lectual and cultural predilections'. 14 tralia has always claimed cultural allegi- The denigration of Judaism and the ance. persecution of Jews over centuries of Western Christendom has been well docu- THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE mented. 15 Even after the European En- lightenment took hold, and when the John Levi has shown that anti-Jewish political and social hegemony of Christian- stereotypes arrived in Australia with the ity was replaced by secularism, much anti- convicts, and were often garnished by the Semitism was decanted into Left and Right mainstream colonial press, 18 thereby political and cultural versions. The emin- setting a media precedent which persisted ent historian J. L. Talmon recalls that throughout the period in question, 19 and when Jews were emancipated into Gentile even to the present day. Negative cultural society allegedly on an equal basis, the connotations of the word `Jew' encouraged `Jewish Problem' became even more diffi- many Jews to avoid it as a descriptive term cult and complex, since Jews were then for themselves, and `Hebrew Congrega- excoriated by both the Left and the Right: tions' became the preferred name for their faith collectives. 20 Even in the liberally ¼ We are thus faced with a strik- founded Province of South Australia ing paradox: to the Conservatives which was characterised by inter-faith co- the Jews are the symbol, benefi- operation, 21 Israel Getzler has stressed ciary, finally the maker of the that Jews still had to campaign assiduously capitalist revolution, which was to win approval for the social and political in their eyes a kind of preparation rights accorded them. 22 for the Socialist revolution; to the When free settlement sparked Jewish Socialists - the embodiment and communal life, later to be strengthened by pillar of that capitalism, which the the immigrations of the Gold Rush, it came revolution was rising to des- with a level of wariness towards the Gen- troy. 16 tile. In part this was undoubtedly affected In various ways Jews were stereotyped as by its `Exilic' condition as verified by uncouth, immoral, insufferable, incapable historical experience, and in part by the of ethical behavior, and as a group, a fact of being a small and nervous minority. danger to civil society. Ronald B. Sobel From the beginning of Jewish communal has argued that anti-Semitism is resilient life there was an anxious looking over the because it is a ©disease and a virus embed- shoulder to assure that nothing be done ded in the bloodstream of Western civilisa- 57 Humanities Research Vol. XII No 1, 2005 which might upset their fellow citizens citizenship that would protect against lest the fires of anti-Semitism be ignited. current and future anti-Jewish stereotyp- Some Jewish scribes have argued that ing. the esteem in which men such as General As previously mentioned, there was Sir John Monash and Sir Isaac Isaacs were always present a concern that Jews should generally held was a great social prophy- say or do nothing in their business deal- lactic against anti-Semitism in Australia. ings, public life, or congregationally that Indeed, another person of similar standing, might offend non-Jews, thus putting their Sir Zelman Cowen, tells the storyÐthe social standing in jeopardy. Such concern truth of which he cannot verifyÐthat in was evident when, in 1921, the Adelaide 1931 John Scullin, the Labor Prime Minis- Hebrew Congregation refused to bury a ter, presented the British authorities with baptised Jew in the hallowed local Jewish only the above two names as candidates cemetery, 26 and in Melbourne during for the post of Governor General of Aus- World War Two when there was a com- tralia.
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