Jewish Online News from Australia and New Zealand
The Jewish Museum of Australia is a community museum, which aims to explore and share the Jewish experience in Australia and benefit Australia’s diverse society.
The Jewish Museum of Australia is committed to being a respected and innovative cultural centre, recognised nationally for its excellence in exhibitions, education programs and collection management.
March 9, 2011 by Community Editor
The Jewish Museum of Australia presents new major exhibition Mameloshn – How Yiddish Made a home in Melbourne – opening Thursday April 3 2011
This April, the Jewish Museum of Australia will tell one of the most significant stories of the Melbourne Jewish Community through its new major temporary exhibition, Mameloshn – How Yiddish Made a Home in Melbourne.
Curated by Anna Epstein in direct consultation with a dynamic Yiddish advisory committee including renowned Melbourne writer Arnold Zable, historian and academic Andrew Markus and Klezmer musician Freydi Mrocki, Mameloshn documents the journey of diverse Eastern European Jews who came to Melbourne, the end of the Earth, to recreate their lives in the years leading up to and immediately following World War Two. A story of migration and integration, it is at once a universal and distinct social history tale exhibited in a new and dynamic way.
With over fifty percent of the exhibition from the Museum’s Collection, most to have never been exhibited before, Mameloshn will showcase the complexities and richness, the controversy, the theatre, music and politics of the Melbourne Yiddish community, who established themselves in Carlton and St. Kilda with a language, a culture and a cuisine to be woven into the fabric of what is now multicultural Melbourne.
Rebecca Forgasz, Museum Director says “Australia has absorbed and integrated immigrant communities from all over the world. We enjoy a rich multicultural life flavoured by the customs and traditions of hundreds of nationalities and religions in Victoria alone. This is one of those stories, but it is our story. It documents the establishment of a huge proportion of the Melbourne Jewish community – How they got here, how they established themselves and how they struggled and thrived as a minority community.”
February 5, 2011 by admin
The current diary for Melbourne’s Jewish Museum…
ST. KILDA FESTIVAL
FREE OPEN DAY – SUNDAY 13 FEBRUARY
To coincide with St. Kilda Festival, we are opening our doors to the public for free. Described by USA Today as one of the ’ten great places in the world to experience Jewish culture’, we are in the heart of St. Kilda and contribute to the suburbs heartbeat. Come and discover the world of Jewish culture, Jewish ritual, belief and the history of Australian Jewry this year.
Time: Sunday 13 February 2011
Date: 10 – 5pm
For more information on St. Kilda Festival and all the other exciting events happening during the Festival visit www.stkildafestival.com.au
EXHIBITIONS
LOTI SMORGON GALLERY
Theresienstadt: Drawn from the Inside – final weeks
Works from the Jewish Museum of Australia Collection
Until Sunday 13 March 2011
Coming to a close, Theresienstadt: Drawn from the Inside will only be on for another five weeks. The exhibition offers a moving tribute to fine artists Paul Schwarz and Leo Lowit, Theresienstadt inmates who were ultimately murdered in Auschwitz.
Stowed away secretly in the wall cavity of Paul’s room, these delicate watercolours give a remarkable insight into the life and activity of the camp. Discovered by Paul’s wife Regina after the two men had been transported from Terezín, the sketches were carried out of the ghetto in an old and battered suitcase. First displayed in 1990, today the works and their creators remain unrepresented in any other museum around the world. The collection is therefore unique and timely, twenty years later, shared with the public once again.
GROSS GALLERY
Heather Ellyard’s Archive of Sighs opens in association with The 59th Blake Prize Touring Exhibition
Sunday 6 February until Tuesday 5 April 2011
Exhibition Opening: 3 – 5 pm Sunday 13 February
The Jewish Museum of Australia is excited to present the 59th Blake Prize Touring Exhibition Finalist and accomplished mixed media artist Heather Ellyard’s Archive of Sighs. Ellyard’s work addresses spirituality in art, looking beyond religious difference and into our common longings, combining image and text in charged layers. One of Ellyard’s pieces is presented in an unfinished grid, specifically dealing with the Holocaust; by way of metaphor.
This is a return showcase for Ellyard who created the inscribed wall of the Museum’s exquisite Jewish History timeline in the Permanent Gallery. Born in Boston, Ellyard migrated to Australia in 1970. She has held 23 solo shows around Australia, and participated in more than 45 group shows.
Now touring nationally, The 59th Blake Prize Touring Exhibition will be exhibited in Kinross House and Toorak Uniting Church from 18 March – 21 April 2011. Due to the complexity of installation, Archive of Sighs can only be viewed at The Jewish Museum of Australia.
For more information on the Melbourne exhibition visit Kinross House website: http://www.toorak.unitingchurch.org.au/uat.htm or the Blake Prize website: http://www.blakeprize.com.au/
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
WALKS
St. Kilda Walk – Sunday 6 February
In conjunction with the St Kilda Festival, come along on one of the Museum’s fantastic walks programs. After Carlton, St Kilda became the home of many Jews in Melbourne. Find out why Jewish families loved this beachside town and infused the area with a European sensibility. Join our knowledgeable guide, Terry Ashton, and visit ‘Linden’; St Kilda Town Hall; Christ’s Church Parish Hall; Luna Park; Palais Theatre and Acland Street with its wonderful cake shops.
Date: Sunday 6 February, 10.15am – 12.15pm
Price: $15 tickets
Venue: St Kilda Town Hall, under Portico
Time: 10.15am for 10.30am start
Bookings are essential 03 8534 3600
TOURING EXHIBITION
THE BABEL PROJECT
The Babel Project
Inspired by the famous biblical story of the unfinished Tower of Babel, the Jewish Museum of Australia and its partner organisations present a multicultural arts program and exhibition, The Babel Project. Photographic artist Georgia Metaxas worked with 36 participants from a rich variety of cultural backgrounds (from the four compass points of Melbourne) who were all invited to explore their commonalities through photography. The result is a powerful multimedia, soundscape installation that audiences can watch, listen to and experience. A beautiful comment about the similarities among people, The Babel Project tours venues across Melbourne and regional Victoria from March 2011.
Touring Dates:
The Substation
6 March – 10 April 2011
1 Market St Newport T 9391 1110
www.thesubstation.org.au
Hume Global Learning Centre
15 May – 26 June 2011
1093 Pascoe Vale Rd Broadmeadows T 9356 6999
www.hume.vic.gov.au
Cardinia Cultural Centre
31 July – 11 Sept 2011
Lakeside Boulevard Pakenham T 1300 887 624
www.cardiniaculturalcentre.com.au
Jewish Museum of Australia
23 Oct 2011 – 15 Jan 2012
26 Alma Rd St Kilda T 8534 3623
www.jewishmuseum.com.au
For more information and to find out about Public and Educational Programs associated with the project, visit www.jewishmuseum.com.au
EDUCATION
ADULT EDUCATION – FIRST TERM STARTS THIS MONTH
Adult Education Summer Series Short Courses start Monday 14 February - Don’t miss out
Enrol now to secure a place in our Summer Series short courses, available to anyone interested in Jewish learning. It is a friendly, social and stimulating environment with no prerequisites.
Bring a friend and enjoy informal learning where you will be engaged and challenged by some of Melbourne’s high profile academics and writers.
Returning this semester due to popular demand is Paul Forgasz’s acclaimed course on Conflict and Coexistence – Jews and Christians. This heavily political and contentious course is delivered in an erudite, humorous and accessible manner.
A book club with a difference! Writer and teacher Yvonne Fein focuses on some of the Great 20th Century Jewish novelists in Not Sweet but Short: Great Jewish Short Stories of the 20th Century. Authors include Saul Bellow, Phillip Roth, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Sholem Aleichem amongst others. Not to be missed.
Jewish Museum members receive a discounted rate.
Check the website for details and enrolment forms or call 85343625, email education@jewishmuseum.com.au
SCHOOL’S BACK
Exciting things are in store for School Excursions this year.
Our experienced guides are working on new ways of engaging students with developments in our Permanent Exhibitions Program covering Australian Jewish History, Jewish Identity and Beliefs as well as Jewish Festivals and Ceremonies. This is always a favourite amongst students as they taste the food and partake in the rituals they are learning about, some for the first time.
In April our new major 2011 temporary exhibition opens, Mameloshn – How Yiddish Made a Home in Melbourne, exploring migration, language, ethnicity, religious difference and intergenerational conflicts. This wonderfully dynamic exhibition will contain interactive elements using ipads, multimedia installations and soundscapes which will no doubt pique the interest of the Y Generation in particular.
More information schools@jewishmuseum.com.au
IN THE COMING MONTHS…
EXHIBITIONS
Mameloshn – How Yiddish Made a Home in Melbourne
Loti Smorgon Gallery: Exhibition opens Sunday 3 April
Curated by Anna Epstein in consultation with a dynamic Yiddish community committee including renowned Melbourne writer Arnold Zable, historian and academic Andrew Markus and Klezmer musician Freydi Mrocki, Mameloshn documents the journey of diverse Eastern European Jews who came to Melbourne, the end of the Earth, to recreate their lives. Bringing with them the complexities and richness, the controversy, the theatre, music and politics, they established themselves in Carlton and St. Kilda with a language, a culture and a cuisine to be woven into the fabric of what is now multicultural Melbourne. A story of migration and integration, Mameloshn is at once a universal and distinct social history tale.
EVENTS
MELBOURNE FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL: EDIBLE GARDEN
Secrets of the Kosher Table
As part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival the Jewish Museum of Australia presents, Secrets of the Kosher Table, showcasing traditional Jewish foods and customs, with a chance for the public to learn valued recipes and test all of the foods on display. A variety of dips will be made and shared, including Charoset, Chopped Liver – Vegetarian style, Egg and Onion Herring Salad, and Israeli Hummus with Tehini. There will also be a Shabbat Calla, and a Passover Matza prepared to explain the significance of food and communal eating in Jewish family life. Recipes will be available to take home and enjoy.
Date: 7 March 2011
Time: 5.30pm (45 mins)
Venue: City Square, Swanston Street, Melbourne
For more information on the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival: http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/
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SPECIAL OFFERS
THEATREWORKS
Arafat in Therapy – Double Pass Giveaway
Written and performed by Jeremy Bracka
Human rights lawyer by day, actor by night, Jeremie Bracka’s hilarious one-man comedy, Arafat in Therapy (St Kilda Festival 2011) parodies the Middle-East peace process through farce, mockumentary and autobiographical monologue threaded together by the absurdist narrative of Yasser Arafat in therapy. It is an autobiographical journey through Jeremie’s experiences as an international human rights lawyer in Israel and at the U.N. Spanning several ethnicities; Arafat in Therapy is an edgy one-man satire on the Middle-east peace process. From U.N. resolutions to CNN, this show is a piss-take on politicians, peacemakers and human rights and uniquely showcases different Arab, Jewish, Palestinian and Israeli voices.
Dates: Wednesday 9 February – Sunday 13 February (excluding Friday 11 February) Venue: Theatre Works, 14 Acland St, St Kilda Tickets: $30.00 Times: Wednesday – Sunday 8pm Bookings: www.theatreworks.org.au or 9534 3388
The Jewish Museum of Australia is giving away two double passes to Arafat in Therapy for Thursday 10 February performance. Simply email your name to marketing@jewishmuseum.com by Thursday 3 February, 2pm. Only ticket winners will be notified.
fortyfivedownstairs
fortyfivedownstairs presents Cafe Scheherazade Early Bird Tickets
A fortyfivedownstairs production, directed by Bagryana Popov
Book online here or call 03 9662 9966
The legendary St Kilda cafe, Cafe Scheherazade, comes to life in a play by Therese Radic, based on the bestselling novel by Arnold Zable. The play tells a spellbinding series of tales of resourcefulness and courage, tales that have been replicated over many years and in many nations. The cast of six is joined by legendary klezmer musician Ernie Gruner and accordionist Justin Marshall to re-create the character of the café so many people remember so well.
Dates: 8 March – 3 April*
Time: Tue – Sat 8pm, Sunday 5pm
Tickets: Full $45, Conc $37.50,+10 Group $40
*No performance on Friday 11 March
Jewish Museum enews subscribers can purchase early bird tickets for Cafe Scheherazade – offer ends Friday 4 February. Early Bird Tickets: Full/ Senior $40, Concession $35.
May 12, 2010 by Agencies
The Victorian Brumby Labor Government has announced it will provide $400,000 to the Jewish Museum of Australia to create a new gallery and an online learning portal.
Rebecca Forgasz, Lady Cowen, Sir Zelman Cowen's sister June Helmer, Tony Lupton and Minister Peter Batchelor
Arts Minister Peter Batchelor joined Member for Prahran Tony Lupton to announce the funding for the St Kilda-based museum.
“These are two exciting and transformative projects for the Jewish Museum of Australia and that’s why we are pleased to contribute $400,000,” Mr Batchelor said.
“The Zelman Cowen Gallery will provide a dynamic new centrepiece for the Museum, telling the Australian Jewish story, from the Jewish convicts who arrived on the First Fleet to the present day.
“It is a fitting tribute to Sir Zelman Cowen, a great Victorian, a pre-eminent figure in Australian Jewish life and a founding Patron of the Museum.
“The new online learning portal will make the Museum’s extensive collection and education resources accessible to a broader audience.”
Mr Batchelor said the Jewish Museum of Australia was one of the country’s leading community museums.
“The Jewish Museum of Australia is widely regarded as a leader in its field – one of the top community museums in the country and a respected and innovative cultural centre,” he said.
“It is recognised for its quality exhibitions, its dynamic education and public programs and its championing of diversity, cultural understanding and harmony.
“The redevelopment comes at an exciting time for the Jewish Museum with the appointment of a new Director, Rebecca Forgasz, who brings a fresh vision to the Museum.”
Mr Lupton, who worked closely with the museum to secure the funding, said the Brumby Labor Government had a long and proud history of support for, and partnership with, the Jewish Museum of Australia.
“This kind of ambitious project requires the commitment and support of a wide range of partners,” Mr Lupton said.
“The Jewish Museum has done a magnificent job raising funds, particularly during a time of global financial uncertainty, and the community has responded generously. It’s only appropriate that the Victorian Government plays its part too.
“We recognise the importance of celebrating and preserving the rich and diverse stories of Victoria’s communities, and promoting understanding between the many cultures and faiths that make up our State – and I commend the Jewish Museum for leading the way.
New Museum director, Rebecca Forgasz said: “The State Government’s significant contribution will enable work to move forward on curating, designing and then building the Zelman Cowen Gallery of Australian Jewish History. The Australian Jewish History Gallery is in many ways the heart of the Jewish Museum of Australia. It is what makes our Museum unique – it is the only Jewish museum in the world dedicated specifically to telling the story of Jewish settlement in Australia.
Despite the fact that Jews have been in Australia since the beginnings of white settlement, and have contributed enormously to Australian society, it is a story that is not well known – even within the Jewish community.
One of our principal aims in building the new Gallery is to create a place that will be a hub for education and discussion around issues of community, identity and civics in a multicultural society. We want to be a magnet for school students by presenting the Jewish story in new ways that are engaging and participatory, as well as relevant to current curricula. To that end we will be working to develop specific design elements and pathways that will enable children to access the exhibits and information in the gallery – something that is new for us but is very much seen as the way for Museums to move forward and develop new audiences.
“We were very sad that Sir Zelman was not well enough to be with us today, but delighted that Lady Cowen was able to represent him, along with his sister, Mrs June Helmer, one of the Founders of the Jewish Museum, and his daughter Kate Cowen.”
May 7, 2010 by Henry Benjamin
The Jewish Museum of Australia’s Australian Jewish History Gallery is to be redeveloped and will be named after former Governor-General Sir Zelman Cowen.
Next week, the Victorian Government will announce its financial contribution to the gallery which is to be known as the Zelman Cowen Gallery of Australian History.
A spokesperson for the museum told J-Wire: “The Australian Jewish History Gallery is at the heart of the museum and is unique in the world as being the only gallery in the world dedicated to capturing the Australian Jewish story from the first convicts who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788 until today.”
Rebecca Forgasz, the museum’s new director, will join members of the Cowen family at a function next week at which Victorian Cabinet Secretary and M.P. for Prahran Tony Upton will make the announcement.
April 12, 2010 by Agencies
The Jewish Museum of Australia has opened a new exhibition featuring the artwork of the inmates of the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Ghetto Theresienstadt: Dachboden Idylle 1943 (Attic Idyll) Paul Schwarz watercolour, crayon and ink on paper Jewish Museum of Australia Collection 0272
The exhibition, Theresienstadt: Drawn from the Insider features works from the Jewish Museum of Australia Collection.
Opened by Julian Burnside, the exhibition will run for eleven months at the St Kilda museum in Melbourne .
untitled (Cobbler) 1 May, 1943 Leo Lowit Watercolour and pencil on paper
The concentration camp at Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia was a macabre mock-up of a real society, a triumph of duplicity, designed to lull its inmates and the world at large into believing that it was a benign resettlement program, where Jews would be the beneficiaries of the Nazis’ humane treatment. In fact it was a way station to the death camps.
The exhibition, Theresienstadt: Drawn from the Inside: Works from the Jewish Museum of Australia Collection, showcases the watercolours and drawings of Paul Schwarz and Leo Lowit, Theresienstadt interns who were ultimately murdered in Auschwitz. Their impressions were carried out of Theresienstadt in a battered suitcase by Paul’s wife Regina, who entrusted them to the Museum. First exhibited in 1990, today the sketches and their creators remain unrepresented in any major Holocaust museum. The body of works is therefore unique, and it is timely twenty years later, to share it with the public once again.
A community of creativity was formed in the mire of suffering that was Theresienstadt by the remarkable concentration of artists, intellectuals, and musicians. Some were forced by the Nazis to produce material for the Nazi propaganda machine or for the Germans’ personal consumption. Some depicted the awful reality; some coped by idealising their environment. Neither defiance nor compliance prevented deportation to Auschwitz.
Paul Schwarz captured the intimate world of the housing barracks, secluded nooks, and little courtyards of the ghetto in almost idyllic watercolours. Leo Lowit’s unflinching material is stark and unforgiving, and sometimes ironic, in its depiction of the horror, fear and desolation in Theresienstadt.
Of the approximately 144,000 Jews sent to Theresienstadt, 17,247 survived. Only ninety-three of the15,000 children survived. This place of short stay, of death, had a prodigious output. Whether the inmates’ art and music was about survival, or about spiritual resistance, art did not finally save lives.
