Book launch Sunday 11 March 2012 – see Flyer under 'Learn More'

"In My Mother’s Spice Cupboard, Elana Benjamin has produced a warm and detailed account of her family’s story, as they moved from Baghdad to Bombay (now Mumbai) and finally to Sydney, Australia. With loving strokes, she has created a detailed picture of everyday life for Jews living in Bombay during the British rule, followed by the disintegration of the community post-independence. By the early 1960s, when her family left, the majority of India’s Jewish community had emigrated. Thus, she has managed to recreate a world that no longer exists, whilst there were still family members around to tell her the stories.

"My Mother’s Spice Cupboard is very readable, and makes an important contribution to understanding the everyday life of the Baghdadi community in India."
Professor Suzanne D Rutland, OAM, University of Sydney

Seen through the eyes of an illiterate twelve-year-old boy, Nava Semel’s moving, at times lyrical fiction explores life in the Palestine of the 1930s – a world where a young Jew is prepared to undertake multiple marriages to threatened East European women for patriotic reasons alone; where a boy’s closest friends are a dog named after his hero Johnny Weissmuller (the screen Tarzan of blessed memory), his brother’s first wife, and the girl next door. Semel weaves a rich evocation of love and pain and promises, written with eloquent humanity and verve.

Listen now to Robert's interview with Richard Aedy on Radio National!
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2011/3373313.htm

In 2004 the author found a little diary of 386 pages written by 
a 62-year-old man in a nursing home. This story is inspired by that diary.

As much as it is a comi-tragic tale of Jack and his sister’s life, it is also a story about the triumph of the human spirit. It is an intimate profile the elderly, their plight and lost dignity – yet a testament to their resilience. 

This bibliography includes all traceable self-contained books, monographs, pamphlets and chapters from books which in some way pertain to Jews in Australia and New Zealand between 1788 and 2008.

“This is a Magisterial work of scholarship destined to be the standard reference work on the topic for decades to come.” Professor Richard Freadman

"The coverage in his bibliography is as close to exhaustive as is possible for one person ..." Professor John Arnold 

This book is timely, given the confusion in Australian policy regarding the so-called illegal refugees. Mark Blows, Clinical Psychologist

An educated girl from a prosperous family in Iraq finds her world turned upside down by circumstances arising from the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein. With her young husband she flees first to Iran, then Turkey, experiencing the humiliation, discomfort and powerlessness of being a refugee.