ml Member of the JCA Family of communal Organisations Page I No 30 (May I 994) ISSN-0816-7141 The Executive and Committee of the Society extend to Louise Rosenberg mazal tov on her eightieth birthday. In a private letter, Louise has said that "since I don't feel anything like an 80 year old could feel like, I feel a bit of a fraud accepting congratulations at having attained 8 whole decades already". The Society is most grateful for a very generous donation made to our library fund by our joint patron, Sir Asher Joel. He will be listed in our Journal as a Benefactor of the Society. The committee accepts with regret the resignation of Dinah Danon owing to other commitments. A. FROM THE ARCHIVES Received with thanks from: Mrs Julie Morris - newsclippings and programmes from Sydney Musical Society. Prof. Emeritus H.J. Cowan - "A Contradiction in Terms" (his autobiography). Martin Blumenfeld, Israel - Catalogue of Israeli banknotes, stamps, blocks, Judaica documents, silver miniatures. Ron Mills - Handrawn scroll in memory of Alfred Harris and Solomon Goldberg. Mrs L.M. Hadden, N.Z. - Newspaper report ofTahara House in Oratia Cemetery. Mrs Miriam Solomon - "Life is a Corridor", the autobiography of Rabbi Shalom Coleman. Purchased for library: 1. Early Australian Zionism, Records in the Central Zionist archives, Jerusalem. Compiled by Marianne Dacey. 2. No Time to Grow. The story of the Gross-Bressners in Australia by W. S. Matsdorf. 3. Australia and the Holocaust 1933-45 by Paul Bartrop. 2. The archives has also received from Pascoes 15 microfilm reels of the Australian Jewish Times October 6, 1953 to June 29, 1978. The purchase of these will allow us to dispose of the original newspapers and make space for further archival material. We will shortly be purchasing 13 reels covering 1979 to 1989. Information 1. Further to our article on the Jews' Free School medal Q:!.ewsletter no. 29), we have received a letter via the Jewish Historical Society of England. It is from Dr G.D. Black of Maida Vale who is researching the history of the school, which was in Bell Lane, Spitalfields (1817-1939). The first medal was awarded in 1859 and presented annually until 1939. It was considered the most prized award offered by the school. 2. We hold in our archives a list of cemeteries in country NSW which had Jewish sections where trustees were appointed. Also indicated in these records are cemetery names which no longer have any Jewish section. Beverley Davis in Melbourne (PO Box 255, Camberwell, Vic 3124) has full lists of Jewish graves and inscriptions for Australia and New Zealand. 3. Dr S Merrillees, now Australian ambassador to Sweden (formerly to Israel), presented a paper at the Louvre in Paris on April 8th to 9th as part of the "Egyptomania" presentation. His paper "Israel in Eygpt Down Under: the first Synagogues in Australia" points out the significant connection between Freemasonary and the Eyptianate designs of the synagogues in Sydney, Hobart, Launceston and Adelaide in the 1840's. His research was assisted by our joint patron, Harry Kellerman, our past secretary and present historian, Louise Rosenberg and our archivist, Helen Bersten. 4. An old Tahara House has been discovered in New Zealand. It is I 08 years old built of solid Kauri wood and used to stand in the Waikumete cemetery. When the Jewish community found it was being vandalised, it offered the building for sale. However, the purchaser on learning its history, contacted a local councillor to arrange for its restoration and it now stands in the Oratia Community Cemetery. 5. On Australia Day, two of our committee members, Dinah Danon and Helen Bersten, took part in the Sydney City Council's "March on Macquarie Street" and handed out information about the Macquarie Street Synagogue ( 1859-1877). A copy of the information sheet is attached. 6. Bell's Life in Sydney of August 1853 reported the following names as members of the NSW Constitution Committee: G. Cohen, J. Lazarus, Julius Lippman, J.L. Montefiore (Chairman), Abraham Moses, J.G. Raphael, Charles Simmons. Publications We have been notified of the following publications in the UK: • Marion Berghahan, "Continental Britons: German-Jewish Refugees from Nazi Germany". Price £11.20. • David Englander, "A Documentary Hi story of Jewish Immigrants in Britain I 840-1920" (Pinter Publishers) £ 11 .25. 3. Details available from Mrs J. Cannon, The Jewish Historical Society of England, 33 Seymour Place, London, WH SAP (prices exclude postage and handling). Brisbane Synagogue Mr Ochert advises that he is supervising structural repairs to the Brisbane Synagogue. This will entail some excavation work at the front of the building which may result in its foundation stone being uncovered and possibly the recovery of a time capsule. B. PHOTOGRAPHY (i) Jews in Photography Members will recall that in the Society's Newsletter No. 28 (September 1993) reference was made to a book being compiled on "Jews in Photography". An invitation was issued to those with information relevant to the subject to contact the Project Co-ordinator, Mr George Gilbert of Riverdale, New York. The work is to be published this year. Several of our members responded: Mark Hertzberg and Len Fox; and each received back a letter of appreciation from Mr Gilbert, advising that the material they had provided would be incorporated in the book. It is generally known that photography, as we know it, was invented in England and France in 1839. It reached Australia in 1842 when George Goodman brought it to Sydney as the first professional photographer in this country. Mr Gilbert, in his letters to Mark Hertzberg and Len Fox, both dated December 7, 1993, writes, "Our earliest entry now is 1841 : Herman Blow in Germany. At the start we had thought that George Goodman, active in Sydney in 1842 would "open" the pages. The first US entry is 1848: Solomon Carvalho". It is gratifying, one must admit, to realise how early Jews were to realise the potential of photography, and to be the ones to introduce it into Germany, Australia and America within a decade of its advent. Dr Hertzberg's information, which will be incorporated into "Jews in Photography", refers to his grandfather's uncle, Raphael Behr Lewin who - although he lived most of his life in Queensland - landed in Melbourne from Prussia in 1848 "and after acquiring a little colonial experience in that city started in his profession as a photographer and toured the country" (Brisbane 'Telegraph' 3 April 1897). He spent about 11 years in Victoria before going to Queensland in 1859, shortly after that colony was separated from New South Wales. He witnessed the first parliamentary election in Toowoomba. Len Fox's information to George Gilbert dealt with the material contained in his 1985 book, "E. Phillips Fox and His Family"; more particularly in Chapter 14 of that book, 'Photographer and Would-Be-Artist', which relates to E. Phillips Fox's father, Alexander Fox, who had been a photographer in Collins Street, Melbourne during the 1860s. This family was closely involved with the profession of photography almost from the time of its arrival in Australia. A photograph of the Reverend Solomon Phillips, (see a reproduction of this in our Journal, Volume 1 Part 3, on page 74) is believed to be one of the earliest extant of it s kind taken in Australia. It is owned by a descendant of Rev. Phillips. When "Jews in Photography" is published in thE: near future, there should be much in it to interest our members. We eagerly await its appearance. Louise Rosenberg. 4. (ii) George Goodman On 24_February 1994, the Australian Financial Review reported that the The Mitchell Library in Sydney has been given what appears to be the earliest surviving Australian photograph. The small daguerreotype portrait of the colonial physician Dr William Bland can be dated to before January 14, 1845, from a report in The Sydney Morning Herald advising readers to look at this and other photographs at Goodman's Studios. Previously, the oldest known surviving Australian photograph was one of the Lawson family taken on May 3, 1845. This photograph is also in the Mitchell Library. According to the report, the photograph can be identified as Goodman's by the date and style and its appearance in a fancy Wharton case. Goodman appears to be have been the only early Australian photographer to have used these handsome brass cases. (iii) A Donation of Early Family Photos Irene Rothenberg (our genealogist) is pleased to report that the Society has received a collection of photographs from Judith M. Denham ofWestmead who states that many years ago an elderly relative was throwing away "some old pictures" which had been bought at a junk shop. Judith rescued them as being part of someone's history though not hers. The collection consists of fifty five small photos and fourteen larger photos of the period 1877-1886. Regretfully, only a few are identifiable with the family names: Solomon Henry Cohen, Abraham Isaac Lewis, Rosenwax, Waxman and the Pool family, Tobacconists of Hay, NSW. Several photographic studios are indicated on the backs of the photographs, and they appear to have been sent from the USA and England to "dear aunts and uncles in Australia". Members are invited to view the collection at the Society by ringing 261 8407 or 81 4971 . [· I rI . , • . - · • MELB OUI\NE .... ' \ ll<C! . -- ·, \ J;,':'.- .,,-.... 1..:......4-, ~,-.,. • \ _ :~[~~~~ -- --- _____,.J,._. ... 4 , ' - 5. C. Re PHILIP MYERSON AND MAURICE ISAAC GREEN Several members have pointed out to me that Maurice Green was the son of Israel Green, a former President of the Great Synagogue and active leader of and participant in many communal organisations.