History

A study of the administration of the criminal law in the Port Phillip District from the arrival of the white settlers until the onset of the Gold Rush and Separation. This study will help the present community understand many aspects of our present culture and give many citizens an insight into the community in which their ancestors lived.

Memoir of a grassroots activist

Cups with No Handles explores the battle women face between a public life and the demands of family. Bette had a vision of a better world and her activism was a model for women in following generations.

In his moving account of how a young boy managed to survive the horrors of the Holocaust, Joseph Spring takes us through his turbulent life as he fled Germany to Belgium, hid in France on false papers, tried to cross the border into Spain and was then betrayed crossing the Swiss border and handed over to the Germans.

A compelling and detailed historical study of the Jews, the Arabs and the Holocaust. Unlike Germany, France and other European countries, whose role during the Holocaust has been exhaustively investigated, little attention has been devoted to the attitude of the Arab world towards the Jews during the Second World War.

This is the lovingly prepared account of the history of the Broken Hill Synagogue, from the laying of the foundation stone in November 1910 to its centenary in November 2010. As the spiritual home of the Hebrew Congregation on Wolfram Street, it passed through four epochs, documented in stories, documents, photographs and sketches.

Now available as an ebook!

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

How do you live through traumatic experiences and survive them? What sort of courage does it take to confront a past of loss and suffering, and still find the strength and resilience to make a new start?

Now available as an e-book!
“I was trying to keep track of the days and events and kept a small notebook made up of roughly torn pieces of toilet paper, although this was a great sacrifice as we were rationed to only two pieces each per day.”

Growing up in a country between nations, at a time between wars, in a society both ancient and modern, Joseph Berenyi seeks to be free. Beginning in the cobblestone streets of Brassó the reader is drawn into a world where a wolf-dog can be harnessed to a sled, naked Hussars plunge with horses into summer streams, and the hilarious schemes of boys cause uproar.