From Australia’s Jewish past

Miriam (Mina) Fink MBE – Australian social activist and community stalwart

Miriam (Mina) Fink was born on 5 December 1913 at Bialystok, Poland.  She was the second of three children of Nathan Waks, a merchant, and his wife, Freda.  Mina, aged eight, and her brothers, Leo and Jack, were orphaned when their father died in a typhus epidemic and their mother committed suicide. Raised by her maternal grandparents in difficult financial circumstances, she attended the Druskin Gymnazium and completed her matriculation.   In 1932, she met Leo, whose story was told last week.  By the age of twenty-two, Mina had experienced a great deal in her life.  She had been orphaned, married, and immigrated to Australia.   Once in Melbourne, she gradually acquired English and assisted her brothers and other relatives with their immigration.  Within a year of their arrival, their daughter, Freda, was born, and in 1935 their son, Nathan.  The family settled in 1933 in a house rented from the Lord Mayor of Kew.  It also became the home of Leo’s youngest brother and Mina’s two brothers, whom the couple had assisted with their immigration from Europe in 1937.   In 1938, Leo and Mina visited Poland and were shocked by the deterioration in the fortunes of the Jewish community.  The Holocaust fundamentally changed Mina’s life, and she continued to be haunted by what had happened to her Polish family and friends.

In 1943, she became involved with the United Jewish Overseas Relief Fund, formerly the Australian Jewish Welfare and Relief Society.  By 1945, she was president of the ladies’ group, which coordinated fundraising and the despatch of money, clothing, medicines, and foodstuffs overseas. The fund successfully established seven hostels in Melbourne to provide initial settlement for postwar immigrants. Mina’s responsibilities included meeting ships at Port Melbourne, the day-to-day running of the hostels, and regular visits to the Bialystoker Centre in St Kilda.  In 1947, she became a board member of UJORF’s a position she held for almost thirty years.  As professional social workers came to fill the roles she had performed so ably, she devoted herself to the National Council of Jewish Women. She was the first European-born woman to head the Victorian section, a position she held from 1957 to 1960.  Increasingly, she saw the work of women’s groups as a demonstration of women’s independence, and, in an interview with the Courier Mail of 16 June 1970 she stated: ‘Men were inclined to think that women were there to “make the tea”, and really I don’t see why they shouldn’t make the tea for us, sometimes… We are almost there in this equality battle. What we need now, to bridge the gap, is the help of the men, and the women must seek this help.’

As NCJW’s National President from 1967 to 1973, she undertook projects in Israel and developed ambitious fundraising programs to assist both the Jewish and wider community.  She attended many International Council of Jewish Women Conventions and chaired the one held in Melbourne in 1975.   She was elected an honorary member of the ICJW executive. Both Mina and Leo were lifelong supporters of Israel, travelling there frequently, including extended stays between 1960 and 1964.

Mina and Leo had a very personal concern for the refugees, reflecting their direct Polish links and she `adopted’ a group of young war-orphans – many of them concentration camp survivors – who came to be known as the `Buchenwald boys’, meeting them on arrival (`with a big smile on her face’, as one of them, Max Zilberman, recalled); finding them accommodation, employment, and opportunities for further training as well as visits to her family’s Frankston holiday home. An enduring friendship developed with many of them.

Mina never tired of her exceptional community and organisational work and commitments, such as assisting in the establishment of the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre, which was opened in Melbourne in 1984, and – at her request, and in recognition of her financial support – the museum building was named in honour of her late husband Leo.  She insisted that the museum function as an educational institution and worked to provide training for survivors who served as guides to visiting school groups; she also advocated seminars for teachers and encouraged the involvement of academics.  The Centre, at the time of Mina’s death said she was ‘indefatigable involved in setting up the Holocaust Centre’s administrative structure and serving on the Board’

It was said of Mina that she read the current of the times before most others.  Through force of personality, she was able to recruit and inspire volunteers, persuade people to work together, foster talent, and place protégés in positions of leadership.  Always forthright – overbearing in the view of some – she did not seek popularity but recognition and respect.  It pleased her to be invited to grand occasions of state and to meet people of power and influence.  Meticulous in grooming, dress, house-keeping, and record-keeping, she was not too proud to scrub floors in hostels.  Friends recalled her boundless energy, her passion for order, her zest for life and her warmth.  Mina died on 2 May 1990 at Prahran and was survived by her children.   An NCJW leadership development fund was established in her memory.  Mina was recognised for her tireless community involvement by being awarded an MBE in 1974.

Author Dr Margaret Taft, a research associate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University, recently published a book on Leo and Mina Fink titled – From the Greater Good.  She revealed Leo and Mina as a model of the courage and energetic chutzpah that characterised post-World War II Jewish communal pioneers and referred to them as a ’power couple’

Part of their leadership skills was their ability to bring people along with them.

Mina was loved and respected by many, especially her grandchildren. Her granddaughter Lillian Tell said her grandmother ‘believed in the ability of the individual to change things’.  Her Grandson, Alex Freiberg, stated that ‘Volunteering time and funds is a way to balance the moral compass.’  Another granddaughter, Deborah Golvan, said: ‘We feel it is our duty to carry on our grandparents’ project…they taught us the value of volunteering and philanthropy…giving time and money to organisations that are doing important work has provided us with a sense of purpose and community involvement. Hopefully, these things are making the world a better place.’

Extract taken from a speech at a Commemorative Evening on 17 June 1990 in honour of Mina

‘Mina Fink was a feminist in the best sense of the word. It is a reflection of her concern for women to assume active and leadership roles in the life of the community that I and many others were inspired by her to become involved and assume positions in NCJW and other organisations.’ – Sylvia Gelman, AM MBE Honorary Life member of ICJW and  NCJWA Victoria; National President of NCJWA from 1973 to 1979 and has been a Life Governor

The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:

Australian Dictionary of Biography – Andrew Markus; Monash University; Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre; National Foundation for Australian Women and The University; The Australian Women’s Registry; Kew Hebrew Congregation Newsletter, September 1990; Leo and Mina Fink papers, University of Melbourne Archives. Reports from Australian Jewish News by Mina Fink, 1 October 1976, 4 and 11 September 1987; Benjamin, Rodney. ‘A Serious Influx of Jews’: A History of Jewish Welfare in Victoria. Melbourne: Allen & Unwin, 1998; Australian Jewish News interview with author Dr Margaret Taft

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