Blog

by H.L. Kahana

My topic concerns the early Jewish settlement in this area, the era of the Illawarra Jewish Association of the 1930s and the establishment of the Illawarra Hebrew Congregation in April, 1943.

In the 1930s, the Great Depression raged. King George V and Queen Mary were succeeded on the throne by Edward VII, who abdicated after 11 months and was in turn succeeded by George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Franklin D. Roosevelt became President of the United States, Hitler ruled Germany, Mussolini ruled Italy and Stalin ruled Russia, the Spanish Civil War was the prelude to World War II.

The names Scullin, Lang, Lyons and Stevens dominated Australian politics. Rabbi Francis Lyon Cohen, after 29 years as Chief Rabbi of the “Great”, died in 1934, succeeded in office first by Rabbi Ephraim Levi and in 1940 by Rabbi Dr. Israel Porush (I was Rabbi Porush’s first Bar Mitzvah, in Australia.)

A steam train ran from Kogarah to Sans Souci, replaced by trolley buses in 1937. The railway line was electrified to Sutherland in 1926. Sydney had just a million people and there were only 24,000 Jews in Australia in a total population of seven million.

The Jews of the St. George area were, in the main, British or Australian born and their earliest organisation was the Illawarra Jewish Association (1931-5). The names of the pioneers of the 1930s live on with their descendants in our Shule of today; the names Belinfante, Haneman, Kahana, Morley and Stone for instance. The Solomon family (Esther Tooler’s parents) were also among the pioneers.

The Illawarra Jewish Association held many functions, including:

(1) Meetings and socials at the Allawah Hotel (“Mine Host” was association member Jack Shaw);

(2) Communal Seders at the Masonic Hall – well attended. Picnics at Como;

(3) Arranged right-of-entry scripture classes at Hurstville and Brighton-Le-Sands schools. These were taught by the Late Abe Rothfield, M. C., M. A;

(4) The “younger set” organised dances, socials and even fielded a cricket team in the Jewish Sports Association competitions.

The minutes show that a letter of congratulations was sent to Sarah and Joseph Morris on the birth of their daughter Dawn (now Dawn Kahana). Patrons of the Association included Judge Cohen, Sir Daniel Levi, Sir Isaac Isaacs and Mr. Morris Symonds. The names Steenbohni, Shaw, Barr, Israel, Benjamin, and Biermann also appear as office bearers. The Association folded up in 1935.

In the period leading to World War II, Polish and German Jews who were able to get out of Europe before World War II, settled in the area. By 1943, Mr. Haneman was able to bring together the established British and Australian Jews and the newcomers and start a congregation in this area. Because the railway line passing through the area is the Illawarra line, the congregation adopted as its name “Illawarra Hebrew Congregation“.

Mr. Nathan Haneman was born in Memel, Lithuania, where he attended yeshivot. He later went to Mainz, Germany, before moving to Italy where he lived for 19 years. His wife, Malke, was born in Libau, Latvia (known these days as Liepaja). They had three children, Ben, Eugenia (Jean) and Aliza (Joyce). Mr. Haneman wrote to Rabbi F.L. Cohen, the then “Great”. Rabbi Cohen painted such a picture of prospects in Australia that the Haneman family settled here in 1928.

Rabbi Cohen had a “thing” about Jews forming “ghettos” in this very Anglo country and persuaded Mr. Haneman to go to the suburbs. Mr. Haneman established a business and home in the Kogarah – Carlton area. He sought out and found Jews in the area, and at the beginning of 1943 decided the time was ripe to establish a Jewish congregation.

At a meeting held at Mr. Haneman’s home on 21st February, 1943, Messrs. Haneman, Stone, Kahana, Bratt and Liachowski decided to form a Hebrew congregation. The inaugural meeting was held on the 4th of April, 1943 and attended by 18 people. Elected to office were: President, Mr. Nathan Haneman, Hon. Secretary, Mr Phillip Stone, Hon. Treasurer, Mrs. May Solomon. As far as I know, our congregation was the first in Sydney to have a lady on the board (and this was in 1943!) Membership fees were fixed at one pound and one shilling per annum.

Friday evening services were held in a small room adjoining the St. George Technical College and later in a room at the Kogarah School of Arts. A chazan was engaged for the High Holy Days’ services, assisted by Mr. Haneman and Mr. Bratt ( our two Friday night readers). A Sefer Torah was lent to the congregation by the “Great”. Our services were modelled on those of the “Great” which is still our “mother congregation” Alma Mater. At our social functions, we were often entertained by pianists Raymond Fischer and Albert Landa.

During the war years, we had a spirit of togetherness, that we have not known since. We urgently needed the company, companionship and understanding of fellow Jews. The candles, alight on Friday evenings in the shtibl at the School of Arts, had a magic of their own.

I remain ever grateful to my teacher, Mr. Haneman, who took me to the “Great” every Shabbat morning for seven years and taught me Hebrew at his home on Shabbat afternoons. He never took a cent from me. It was his mitzvah.

This article was first published in the January 2000 edition of our magazine.

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by Bettye Ross

The lovely scene in S.R. Bellingham’s painting of Coogee Bay, painted circa 1882, and hanging on the left hand side of the Dining Room fireplace has a story behind it. To begin with Sid R. Bellingham is referred to in a number of Art Encyclopaedias as an artist of unknown background or “very little known about this Artist.” Very disconcerting when one wants to know from where he came, what else he painted and what eventually became of him. One thing is certain, he was neither born, married nor died in New South Wales between 1788 and 1945, just as he left no Probate up to 1982 in New South Wales, however he did write a small book around 1920, held in the Mitchell Library, which he named “Ten Years with Palette, Shotgun and Rifle in the Blue Mountains.”

So let us put Mr. Bellingham aside as we have no alternative and concentrate on the building standing high on the hill above the northern cliffs in this paining. This historic home was built circa 1862, at approximately the same time as Lydham Hall, for Mr. Charles Moore. It was designed by the well-known architect Thomas Rowe. Moore became Mayor of Randwick in 1863, later Mayor of Sydney and was responsible for preserving the Sydney Common, subsequently named Moore Park in his honour. He named his home Ballamac, apparently derived from his birth place Ballymacarne in Ireland.

By 1875 this mansion had become Baden Baden Hotel and one of its proprietors was Louis Franks an artist who painted many local scenes. Baden Street is to its east. In 1912, millionaire and entrepreneur, Sir James John Joynton-Smith purchased the property, now named Hastings House, and lived there until his death in 1943 aged 89 years.

Joynton-Smith as this gentleman was familiarly known, had been born at Hackney in London, the eldest of twelve children of James Smith and Jane Ware. His father was a master brass finisher, gasfitter and ironmonger. Joynton-Smith was baptised as James John but by at least the mid 1890s was known as Joynton-Smith. At the age of twelve years he worked for a pawnbroker and then a stationer before becoming a cabin-boy on a steamer sailing to Italy. He was then engaged as Third Cook making for New Zealand in 1874.

His next employment was as a steward on a coastal vessel. Then in hotels, eventually becoming an Hotel licensee in Wellington. He married in Auckland in 1882 but the marriage did not last. In 1886 he returned to England where he lost his savings gambling. This was a hard lesson by which to learn. A little later he returned to Wellington and was founding secretary of the Cooks’ and Stewards’ Union.

1890 saw Joynton-Smith in Sydney working as a calligraphist on illuminated funeral descriptions. For four years from 1892, he managed the Great Central Coffee Palace Hotel in Clarence Street, and then leased the Imperial Arcade Hotel (dropping the word Imperial and naming it the Arcadia) between Pitt and Castlereagh Streets. This was in 1896 and he conducted it as a residential hotel. By 1924 he owned the entire arcade, and later the Hotel Astra at Bondi and the Carlton in the city.

In 1911, Sir James Joynton-Smith purchased the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba (previously known as the Great Western and originally Crushers). He already owned the Hotel Imperial at Mount Victoria. The Carrington with permission, was named thus by the previous owner in 1886 in honour of Lord Carrington who was then Governor of New South Wales. Today many pieces of the silverware at The Carrington bear engravings of JSMT (Joynton-Smith Management Trust), Hotel Imperial and Hotel Arcadia.

In 1901 Joynton-Smith was made a Justice of the Peace. He established the first electric light plant in the Blue Mountains and purchased two theatres at Katoomba, leased the Hydro Majestic at Medlow Bath, built the Log Cabin at Penrith and a tearoom on the way up to the mountains.

Also in 1901, he leased Brighton Racecourse at Rockdale and owned and drove many trotters. Two years later he leased land at the ‘swamp end of Glebe’, renovated it and renamed it Epping, subletting the course to the New South Wales Trotting Club. Taking up the option to buy the racecourse in 1911, he then sold it to the Trotting Club, and it became Harold Park in 1929. He had in 1908 opened Victoria Park racecourse at Zetland which became the first course to cater for ladies by providing retiring rooms. This very modern showplace closed down in 1944.

Joynton-Smith’s interest in sports resulted in him financing football matches between the Wallaby (Rugby Union) team and the Kangaroos (Rugby League) team in 1909, with the proceeds going to the (Royal) South Sydney Hospital which he founded, and of which he was President in 1910. He was at one time a director of this Hospital and the Queen Victoria Home for Consumptives at Wentworth Falls and the first president of the Picton Lakes T.B. Soldiers and Sailors’ Settlement.

In 1912 he was nominated to the Legislative Council but was never active and retired in 1934. He was an independent alderman of the Sydney Municipal Council for Bligh Ward 1916-18 and supported by Labor was elected Mayor. He was tireless in his efforts to raise war loans and the Red Cross used the basement of Hastings House for the war effort, making camouflage nets, knitting for the forces and other innovative works. The basement contained a large well which he made safe by securing its coverage for the voluntary workers.

His patriotic and charitable works brought him a knighthood and he became K.B.E. in 1920. Two years earlier, he launched a newspaper presenting his views. This was called Smith’s Weekly and in 1923 Smith’s Newspapers Ltd published the Daily Guardian and from 1929 the Sunday Guardian. He was proprietor from 1930-9 of the Referee and Arrow, selling the two Guardians to Sir Hugh Denison in 1930, remaining Chairman of Smith’s Newspapers until the middle of 1939.

He was known as a fluent and logical speaker, generous with time and money for community causes as reflected by his purchase of a rare exhibit for the University of Sydney in 1914. He backed Sydney’s first radio station 2SB (2BL) in 1923. He was a man who enjoyed his wealth and time, not only with what has been so far noted but also as a practical joker, conjurer, singer of Cockney songs and playing the concertina. He was noted for his pince-nez or monocle (having lost an eye in his youth), his moustache and very sleek hair-do.

Joynton-Smith owned another mansion at Warrawee called Mahratta, but it was at Hastings House (portrayed in Bellingham’s Coogee Bay painting) that his death took place on 10th October, 1943. He was survived by his third wife, Gladys Mary (nee Woods), a daughter and a son J. Joynton-Smith. Hastings House today has been divided into apartments but remains unaltered externally.

Sources:
Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1891-1939 Vol. 8
Australians from 1939, Chapter 12 “Press, Radio and Television”
Randwick and District Historical Society
Randwick Ramble, 5th edition (Part 1: Coogee and Clovelly)
Sydney Morning Herald 23.11.1861, 11.10.1943, 12.10.1943
The Carrington Hotel, History Notes.

This article was first published in the January 2000 edition of our magazine.

Browse the magazine archive.

Well, who would have thought 2021 was destined to continue in the same vein as 2020 due to COVID-19 related sickness, death and Lockdown restrictions impacting family, friends, the business and health sectors plus leisure pursuits to name but a few? May Australia and hopefully the rest of the world turn a corner into a more positive 2022…The COVID-19 lightning bolt which struck once, then twice but we hope will not strike thrice?! Let us all hope and pray for a much gentler and kinder 2022.

The St. George Historical Society Inc has joined a great throng of like societies which have been embroiled in learning how to adjust to a new paradigm. Our meetings have necessarily been curtailed by Government and Bayside Council restrictions. This has been challenging, but at least with modern technology, communication updates have still been possible on a timely basis. Nonetheless, in person, face-to-face gatherings are without doubt the most rewarding and popular forms of communication and interaction for social gatherings such as our monthly meetings.

A review of the Society’s activities makes for sobering reading. Of the possible 10 monthly meetings between February 2021 and November 2021, Lockdown restrictions, a clash with ANZAC Day and a freak storm event resulted in the cancellation of 7 and due to being unable to access the Senior Citizen’s Centre due to a Bayside Council error, potentially the aborting of yet another meeting. We must thank the quick-thinking Hortons for use of St. Peter’s Anglican church Cooks River for saving the day. The Lord on this occasion did indeed provide! Sadly, we will not be able to access Lydham Hall for this year’s Christmas party due to ongoing renovations. We shall canvas members’ thoughts for an alternative venue.

2021 coincided with the Golden Anniversary of the opening of the Lydham Hall museum and the Diamond Anniversary of the St. George Historical Society Inc. Alas, due to the pandemic and long-awaited works being undertaken at Lydham Hall, possible celebrations have necessarily been deferred; but significantly not cancelled!

Although monthly meetings have largely been in recess, I can assure members, much indeed is happening ‘behind the scenes’ as it were. Laurice and Tina will each provide updates as to what has been negotiated with Bayside Council and Lydham Hall respectively.

I take this opportunity to thank members of the Society’s Executive and Committee for so freely and unselfishly giving their time and talents. Specifically, I would like to thank Barry Johnson in his capacity as the Society’s Editor in recent years and wish him well in his well-deserved retirement from this role. The reformatting and colourisation of the ‘Our History’ newsletter was revolutionary and has been well-received. Well done good and faithful servant!

Laurice Bondfield has worked tirelessly during especially challenging times and on occasion, had to manage exasperating circumstances. Many telephone calls and e- mails have been had between Laurice and Bayside Council as regards COVID-19 Safety plans and securing meeting rooms. She has in addition spent hours reviewing Government COVID-19 information websites and liaising with members, the Society’s committee, the Leader newspaper and guest speakers, collated meeting agenda, taken monthly and committee meeting minutes, helped with the logistics of the meeting room set-up and brought COVID-19 supplies for all our use. I am sure this list is not exhaustive…but I think this should give some idea of what Laurice has accomplished this year. May she continue to keep on keeping on!

Tina Workman indeed lives up to the first syllable of her surname. Work she has and how! Whilst managing the Society’s finances would ordinarily be her principal duty as Treasurer and presumably has the odd challenging moment; NOTHING could compare with her undertakings at Lydham Hall! Fortunately, because of her profession, Tina has the trained eye for detail and design so critical at this watershed period in the Museum’s history. She has had to negotiate with many stakeholders such as Bayside Councillors, Council tradesmen, specialist heritage architects and consultants plus of course the Lydham Hall Management Committee, as much needed external restoration and some internal renovations to this historic house have been actioned with still more to be undertaken before the overall project is finalised.

Tina has necessarily adopted a ‘roll up the sleeves and get cracking approach’. Over perhaps hundreds of hours including many weekends, Tina has cleaned and catalogued upwards of 500 individual pieces and upgraded the associated displays. There is still at least another 1,500 objects to be given the same treatment. Tina has fortunately been assisted by Councillor Liz Barlow, Laurice, the Rankins and others on occasion. The work has been long-overdue and herculean in scope but ultimately will make the Lydham Hall Museum a viable concern in the years to come. Suffice to say, “Tina, thank you very much and do please take time to breathe, eat and sleep”!

I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Robert McGarn to the Committee. Although Robert is very much a quiet achiever, he regularly provides insightful feedback to ideas and proposals. In addition, he has the handy talent of keeping abreast of local news and happenings, much of which would probably otherwise escape the Committee’s attention.

Finally, I wish all members a happy, healthy and holy Christmas. May 2022 prove to have significant respite from COVID-19 and provide the opportunity for our society to joyously celebrate milestone occasions deferred from this year plus a return to some semblance of normality for all Australians.

Best wishes,
Wesley Fairhall
President