Sydney Jewish Museum

It’s not all Black and White!

Interview: Philip Feinstein interviewed by Roslyn Sugarman

Interview: Rob Schneider interviewed by Jacqui Wasilewsky

From Lithuania, Latvia and in fact, all of Europe to South Africa to Sydney, Australia – this is the story we will tell in our South African exhibition. The exhibition chronicles Jewish life in 20th century and 21st century South Africa, using artifacts, photographs, documents, film and personal stories. It explains the events which then propelled South African Jews to emigrate to Australia.

How and why did South Africans choose to live in Sydney? Starting with the early waves of migration in the early 1960s, through the continuing decades, until today, the exhibition records the details in an exciting and involving process.

How, why, when and howzit been? The exhibition explains how South African lives have been shaped by their new homeland and what it meant to leave behind the land of their birth, family, friends and their South African way of life.

Magpies and hoarders – they are the best kinds of people for gathering material for exhibitions. The exhibition displays objects that range from the humble to the spectacular, such as the small label from Helene Kilov’s father’s cheese factory, Klipplaatsdrift Farm; Manfred Freinkel’s Rand Daily Mail newspaper from the day after architect-of-apartheid and Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd’s assassination; the black sash worn by Beryl Pinshaw protesting unjust apartheid laws; the Einstein family’s mid 18th century silver Judaica rescued from a synagogue in Augsburg, Germany when the family left for South Africa in 1934.

Also on display are two of the 24 letters written in 1964 by David Block to his wife Naomi during the four months in which they were separated. David had come to Sydney ahead of the family to set up home and find a job. I was entrusted with reading some of this personal correspondence in which David writes to advise Naomi of what she should expect when she arrives in Sydney, how to dress, where to shop and what the people are like. He writes to tell her of a nappy service for their baby, the fridge that he’s bought for the flat he’s moved into and the TV set that he’s ordered. He was having, as he put it, a rough time walking the streets looking for a job, yet his letters are full of encouragement and optimism.

Not surprisingly, given how many Jews lived in rural, Afrikaans-speaking communities, we received for exhibition a Hebrew/Afrikaans Siddur from Tessa and Raymond Green, and Hebrew/Afrikaans Haggadot from Yvonne Berman and Shani Diamond. In the foreword of the Passover prayer books, Rabbi Israel Abrahams writes, “The translation serves the needs of so many Jews who have adopted Afrikaans as their mother-tongue, especially the Plattelanders, something not only appropriate, but necessary - indicating more than any statistic the extent to which the Jewish people have assimilated into the community in South Africa and also how deeply they have planted their roots in this land.”

The exhibits, together with the texts, quotes, stories and images offer the visitor not only a trip down memory lane, but an insight into the social, political and religious life of Jews in South Africa. The backbone of the exhibition is the historical narrative written by Louise Leibowitz, from arrival of the first Jews in South Africa, to economic success, Zionism, antisemitism, daily life, apartheid, then on to waves of migration and the many reasons for leaving. The exhibition unfolds with Destination Down Under – the joy of arriving in a new land, integration and settling in.

It’s not all Black and White is a significant exhibition telling an important story!