From Australia’s Jewish past: Caroline (Lynka) Isaacson
Caroline (Lynka) Isaacson – a woman of gracious charm, warmth, and unfailing human generosity and a most talented journalist
Caroline Isaacson
Caroline was born on 14 September 1900 in Vienna. She was the elder daughter of Emile Jacobson, a director of the Royal Holland Shipping Line, and his French wife Bettina and granddaughter of Sir Ralphael Tuck who was the founder of the British picture postcard industry. Caroline was privately educated by a governess, who gave her the pet name ‘Lynka’. She completed her secondary schooling at Highbury Park, London. At the age of eighteen, highly intelligent, speaking seven languages, she enrolled at King’s College London to begin a medical course. She had begun writing freelance articles before she met Arnold Isaacson, a thirty-seven-year-old lieutenant in the Australian Imperial Force who had participated in the landing at Gallipoli. They were married on 30 March 1919 at the Dalston Synagogue in Islington. In 1926 they sailed with their two children – Peter and Joan – to Australia and settled in Melbourne, where Arnold began a long career as a printing manufacturer’s agent with Lamson Paragon Ltd. A medical degree could not have been further from Caroline’s mind.
After her husband’s business failed in 1928, she approached the managing editor of The Age – Sir Geoffrey Syme – seeking a reporting job. From this introduction into the world of journalism, Caroline never looked back. She adapted to writing social notes and was soon appointed editor of the women’s pages. She then moved to women’s editor of The Age’s rural weekly magazine, The Leader, where she adopted the nom de plume ‘Viola’ and began a section called ‘The Spare Corner’. Although she employed nannies and housekeepers and spent little time on domestic chores other than cooking, she held ‘womanly pursuits’ in high regard. ‘The Spare Corner’ was conceived as a correspondence and service section for country women who used it to exchange household hints and tales of their lives. Caroline promoted the exchange with characteristic purpose, travelling throughout Victoria, addressing meetings of the Country Women’s Association, speaking with her readers, and editing several editions of For Australian Women: The Leader Spare Corner Book.
At the same time, Caroline became the executive officer of the British Memorial Fund and was an active supporter of the Young Women’s Christian Association, and Melbourne’s theatrical communities. She worked tirelessly and actively in resettling Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and teaching them English, as well as becoming a prominent supporter of the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonisation which lobbied for a Jewish homeland in the Kimberley and later in south-west Tasmania. Caroline became intimately involved with Critchley Parker, an enthusiast for a Tasmanian site. In 1942, thirty-one-year-old Critchley died of starvation and exposure while searching in the rugged southwest on a lone expedition from Port Davey.
Dr Hilary Rubinstein, a well-known Australian historian and author, wrote, “There is no doubt that Caroline influenced his search for a refuge, but I don’t believe she had anything to do with the venue — that was Critchley himself. He had all sorts of things in mind – Gold, iron, tin, coal as well, and after those minerals had been exploited and revenue built up, the Jewish settlement could then go on to other industries’’.
His fate was unknown and his body was not found for several months. Letters and a notebook addressed to Caroline were found with his body. Caroline was deeply depressed by this tragedy, she resigned as foreign news editor of The Age and joined the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) on 18 August 1942, enlisting as a private, reaching the rank of lieutenant in October of that year, and captain by the beginning of 1943. She was transferred to the Directorate of Public Relations and assigned to take journalists on visits to army installations. She also became a press relations officer to two distinguished generals. Once discharged from the Army in October 1943.
Caroline then spent some time working with Vogue Magazine on its fashion pages and in 1945 she started writing feature articles for The Argus, moving on to be its editor of women’s pages. Three years later she became owner, editor, and reporter for a country newspaper – Dandenong Ranges News. She remained active in Jewish affairs, becoming the honorary editor from 1948 of the Australian Jewish Outlook and director of public relations from 1952 of the Victorian Jewish Board of Deputies. In 1953 she joined her son’s company – Peter Isaacson Publications – as editorial director of three suburban newspapers, the Southern Cross (Brighton), the Elsternwick Advertiser, and the Prahran News, bringing a professional touch to the papers and establishing valuable connections with local government councillors and members of Parliament.
Following her husband’s death in 1960, she retired and visited Europe and England. She was invited by The Melbourne Herald to write a series of articles on Israel. She reported in 1961 the trial of Adolph Eichmann, as well as interviewing several well-known government leaders, including Golda Meir, who was at the time Foreign Minister in the Israeli Government.
Caroline died suddenly in Genoa on 23 February 1962. Her son wrote in The Southern Cross that she would be ‘’long remembered not only as a journalist but as a woman of gracious charm, warmth, and unfailing human generosity’’. As a journalist ‘’she wove words into skeins of reportage and description which delighted many thousands of readers who remember her articles in The Age, The Argus and The Southern Cross’’. Caroline was posthumously inducted into the Australian Medial Hall of Fame.
The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:
Australian Dictionary of Biography (Sally A White); Wikipedia; Melbourne Press Club – The Australian Media Hall of Fame; Biography by Patricia Clarke; Hilary Rubinstein; Tony Isaacson
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